The Magic of Believing

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads church. I'm Sean.

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- And I'm Hannah.

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- And we're so glad you're watching with us online today

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or gathering in a community watch party

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sitting with other people all around the globe.

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And a special shout out to my friends

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in Batesville, Indiana.

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You know, Crossroads is a church

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you can fully belong to no matter where you live.

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There's thousands of you who join us online every week,

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and we'd love to know who you are.

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You can text the word "Anywhere" to 301301,

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so that someone from our team

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can get a chance to chat with you

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and help you get connected here at Crossroads.

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- That's right. So wherever you are,

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we're glad you're part of our community

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and we actually get to experience church all together.

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Today we're going to be starting our service

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with singing together in what we call worship.

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And you can do that no matter where you are.

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So if you're watching at home with your family,

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listening to this on your drive to work,

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or even lying in bed, I invite you to perk up

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and take and lean into the truth that's in these songs.

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Let's worship together.

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- Hey, merry Christmas everyone.

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Hey, if we haven't met, my name is Justin.

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And all this whole month, we've been singing

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some of our favorite Christmas songs about Jesus

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to remind us of His story, to remind us that He's King,

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and to sing them as worship songs to Him.

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But as we sing our favorite Christmas songs,

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we're singing songs that are like 200 years old

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and some words in Latin, like this next song,

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which is one of my favorite.

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Anybody love Angels We Have Heard on High?

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Yeah, see, it's one of my favorites.

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But then we get to the chorus and we say,

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Gloria in excelsis Deo,

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not Gloria in egg shells Deo. Okay?

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Gloria in excelsis Deo.

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And I want you to know what it means

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before you sing it.

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So, Gloria, you can probably figure it out.

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Gloria means glory.

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In excelsis, excellent or the highest.

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And Deo means God. So glory in the highest to God.

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It's exactly what the angels sang

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on the night of Jesus's birth.

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And it's a chance for me and you to remember

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He gets all the glory and I get none.

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He's the one that's that supreme and above all things.

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So we're going to join with the angels

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and sing together. Let's go.

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- Let's pray together.

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Jesus, thank you for coming.

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Thank you for rescuing us.

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Thank you for leaving Your throne and coming humbly.

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Thank you for bringing life.

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Thank you for your joy, your peace, and your hope.

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No one else can carry it like You do

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and no one else can bring it to us like You do.

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You're the source of it. You're everything.

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We sing, we pray these words all because of you, Jesus.

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Amen. Amen.

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Yeah. That's right.

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Y'all sound beautiful today.

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Why don't you turn to somebody next to you

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and say, "Hey, Merry Christmas.

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Glad to be here with you."

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If you're online, glad you're here with us, too.

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Merry Christmas to you.

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- Experience the story of Christmas,

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a simple baby coming to earth

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bringing a beautiful light

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and living a powerful life.

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- Hey, the word Christmas can come with

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the expectation of hope, of peace and of joy.

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But that's not always the experience.

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And just because it's Christmas, it doesn't mean

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we automatically feel peaceful

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or even hopeful, unfortunately.

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Well, hey, we know that.

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And so this year for Christmas Eve services,

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we are focusing on the truth that

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Jesus is the light of the world

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and He comes and He came so that

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we could have actual hope, actual peace

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and experience real intangible joy.

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- Yeah, we would love for you to join us

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for a service online or in person,

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starting on December 23rd at 7:00 pm.

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You can find all of our service times

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and locations at crossroads.net.

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And if you're really struggling with anxiety,

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depression, or grief this season,

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we really would love to help.

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You know, Crossroads is not just

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a church service to watch.

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We're real, actual people who really care about you.

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And the simplest way to connect is to email us

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at anywhere@crossroads.net

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or just chat in at crossroads.net.

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But just know that you don't have

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to make it through the holidays alone.

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- Hey, there's a team of generous givers here

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at Crossroads that have been making a huge impact.

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And one of the ways that you're experiencing

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that impact right now is watching us.

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Every person who comes into our building,

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who clicks online to watch, that's a person

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with a real story, who gets the opportunity

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to experience more of God because of generosity.

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If you want to join that team of generous givers,

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if you want to make a year end gift,

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or if you would just like to learn more

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about how we spend money at Crossroads,

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you can do all of that at Crossroads.net/give.

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- All right. We've been in this series,

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Christmas at the Movies, taking a look at

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how the story of Jesus shows up

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in some of the most iconic Christmas movies.

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Time for our last one.

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Ho ho ho, and Merry Christmas.

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- Christmas at the Movies

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is perfect with some coffee.

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Don't need that ring-a-ling, ding-a-dong,

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ding-a-ding, talkin.

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So if we see the glow

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of a cellular telephone

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

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and we won't say we were mistaken.

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You've been warned.

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Merry Christmas. [glass breaks]

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- Good morning and good afternoon at the same time.

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My name is Brian, if we haven't met.

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Today, I'm going to try to actually draw

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the parallels between Santa Claus and Jesus,

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believe it or not.

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One's fake, one is real.

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And the reason why I think we are

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so for Santa and Christmas is we have

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this thirsting for the transcendent,

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this thirsting for the mysterious.

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So let's pray before we get any further into it.

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God, You are so kind to be as generous as You are to us,

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and we ask that you give us a little generosity today,

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generosity by giving us maybe a belief,

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an idea that we hadn't had,

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giving us a feeling we may not have had,

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a realization that we may not have had,

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a sense of wonder that we may not have had.

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Help me to fulfill this purpose

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and to honor You in all that said.

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And I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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Our movie today is The Santa Clause with Tim Allen,

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who plays a character by the name of Scott Calvin,

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who undergoes a metamorphosis

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when he actually becomes Santa himself.

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Santa movies tend to be pretty inspiring for us.

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Santa endures because there's something about Santa

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that we find heartwarming.

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This is the thing, whenever there's something

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about the heart of God in the heart of a story, it warms us.

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And many times, just like I talked

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about Die Hard a couple weeks ago.

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Oh, by the way, before I go to this,

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you might have noticed if you're looking closely,

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I have a little bruise-age going on here on my face here.

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You see it? Not here, not here. Right here.

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You see that? Yeah. Okay.

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In case you're staring at it, just let me say

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what it is and I'll be over with it.

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This is not leftover makeup

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from when I did Die Hard two weeks ago.

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That was makeup; that wasn't legitimate bruise.

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This legitimate bruise. I was in a barn

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where I was trying to get some corn because

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I was going to go deer hunting that day,

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trying to get out in the field before the sun comes up.

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So it's dark, and I got some corn in the barn.

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And I go to leave the barn.

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I was using my watch as a little flashlight

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to get the corn, and I go to leave the barn,

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and I don't want to burn out my battery

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on my watch, so I'm looking.

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Oh, what do you know? The door to the barn is open

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and and I could see the house over there.

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There's light coming through the window.

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I could see, like, hey, just walk to the light.

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Isn't that the Bible says? [laughter]

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It doesn't say that, actually, but we believe that.

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Walk to the light. It's fine. Just walk the light.

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You know, I'm walking along.

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Wham! I go right into a post that's coming up.

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Bam! Just face plant right into it.

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Nose and forehead hit simultaneously.

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I go hunt that morning, I come back, I get nothing.

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And Lib looks at me and goes, "What is wrong with you?"

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I said, "What are you talking about?"

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"You have blood all over your face."

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So it's pretty much healed up. That's the story.

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Die hard, that's what I was talking about, Die Hard.

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I said this in Die Hard,

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and I'll say it again right now,

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the writers, the directors, the authors

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of so many stories have no belief in God

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and are not trying to put forward a belief in God.

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But we can't help it as being created in the image of God,

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when there's art that moves us,

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it's tied to the identity of God.

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Santa Claus moves us, moves little children

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because the process of a person who's mysterious,

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who's mystical, who's powerful, who's generous,

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that ties to the story of God.

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That is Jesus Himself.

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We're going to look at the story of Santa

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and the story of Jesus's relatives

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that also happens at Christmas.

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Jesus has a cousin by the name of John the Baptist.

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John the Baptist has got obviously a mom and a dad

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and Jesus, therefore his uncle is Zechariah

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and his aunt or auntie is Elizabeth.

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And they haven't had any kids.

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Here's what Luke 1:7 says:

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And they had no children,

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because Elizabeth was barren,

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and both were advanced in years.

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They were advanced in years,

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their past child rearing years.

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I'll get into what this means in a little bit,

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but this means that they've had

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a level of shame in their lives.

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They feel God has abandoned them.

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In the ancient world, you needed to have kids.

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You needed to have kids to be free laborers

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for your business or for your fields.

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And you also needed the kids to show everybody

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in culture that you were trying to build a family

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and contribute to society.

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And when you didn't have a kid, it was really weird.

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And so people thought, even today this is

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a little bit in some church circles today,

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but people thought there was something really weird

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if you didn't have a kid.

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And maybe God's curse is on you.

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Maybe you've sinned and God isn't pleased with you,

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and that's why you don't have a kid.

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Today many people who are, or some people I know

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who are in infertility treatments

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are struggling with it, feel the same way.

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They wonder, "Is God punishing me?

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Is God trying to get my attention?"

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And in all likelihood, no. More likelihood, no.

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But you don't know what God's going to do or not do.

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But that's why I say no.

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No, He probably hasn't done that.

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But we feel that way, right, for whatever reason.

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And this is probably the way

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Elizabeth and Zechariah are feeling,

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there's a level of shame there.

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There's a level of embarrassment that is there.

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Maybe they've wanted someone like a Santa

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to bring them a gift.

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You know, Santa is an historical person.

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We can debate and you can decide on your own

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where the history and where the legend meet.

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But no question, he actually existed.

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Nicholas was born in 270 A.D.

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in a coastal town of modern day Turkey.

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And as a young man, around 18, his parents died.

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Both of them died.

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They left him some wealth, apparently.

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They were, his dad was a business owner.

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And maybe, maybe Nicholas felt a little sad

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for children because now he was parentless.

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We don't know what the reason for that was,

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but as the story goes, there was a person in town

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who had three daughters.

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To have three daughters was an expensive proposition,

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because if they were to get married,

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you had to pay a dowry.

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You had to basically pay the family

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to take your daughter on.

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And this was a very poor family.

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And so the guy went outside the --

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Or went inside and prayed for God

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to somehow provide money for the dowry.

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And then he went to bed and did his thing.

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And the next day, in that same window

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where he'd been praying before,

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there was a bag of gold, just enough to pay for the dowry.

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Second daughter comes along, same situation.

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He doesn't have the money.

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He's praying his normal prayer spot outside the window.

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Goes to bed, comes back. What do you know?

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There it is. There's the gold there.

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At this point, he starts to figure it out.

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He goes, "Hold on, I know what's going on here.

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Somebody knows my repeatable,

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predictable patterns of prayer.

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They're listening in on me, which I guess is fine.

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I'm getting this gold, but I want to know

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who this is, I want to know what's going on."

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So his third daughter and final daughter comes along,

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he does the same thing,

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except this time he doesn't go to bed.

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This time he sits there and looks out the window,

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wanting to figure out who this person is

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who keeps blessing him.

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And then he hears footsteps on the roof,

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because the person didn't want to get found out.

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Footsteps on the roof and gold drops down the chimney.

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And he's got some socks that are drying

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there by the fire and the gold

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falls into some of the socks.

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And then a Christmas tradition is born.

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Now, whatever of that is true or not true,

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you can choose to decide.

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But what is absolutely true is

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Nicholas became bishop of Myra,

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about 50 miles from where he was born,

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and he's a figure in church history.

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Old Saint Nick, he's known as.

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I had in on my podcast this last week,

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an amazing Santa.

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He's actually part of Crossroads.

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I didn't know that when I booked him.

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His name is Gabby Claus.

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That's what he goes by, Gabby Claus.

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And he looks the part he takes on. It's amazing.

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And he says that he gets to meet people

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in their most intimate moments as Santa.

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Recently said he was in a preemie ward

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and he was walking out a preemie ward,

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got into the elevator going down.

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And a woman gets on and she says,

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"I know what I wish Santa would bring me this year."

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And he realizes it's game time because

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he understands now that he basically

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is taking on the role of a priest.

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People confess things to him.

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People ask him things, they say things.

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He says, "It's a really, it's a really interesting,

00:29:41

basically role that I fill."

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So he realizes it's going to be one of those conversations.

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He says, "Well, what do you mean?

00:29:47

What's wrong with your husband?"

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"Well, he's in hospice,

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and I just wish he would know that he would die,

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he could die. It's okay for him to go home."

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He said, "I have these conversations

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with people all the time."

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So he has younger Santas that come to him

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for advice, wanting him to mentor them.

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And he basically says, "Hey, look,

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you're like a priest to somebody.

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This is a very heavy task that you have.

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You have to make sure that

00:30:08

you're on your emotional and spiritual game."

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Fascinating. You want to listen to that podcast,

00:30:12

you can do that. It's called The Aggressive Life.

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But every every Santa movie you've seen

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has three main characters.

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There's four things that happen in every Santa movie.

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I'll share one with you at the end,

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but here's the first three that happen every single time.

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One, there is a child who believes in Santa.

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A child who believes. Interesting.

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Jesus says we need to come to Him

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with childlike faith, to believe like a child.

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Two, there is a parent that humors the child,

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that allows the child to feel and believe these things.

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And then three, there's a parent figure

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who thinks this is horrible and atrocious.

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Don't allow this child to be deluded.

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And that's the tension of the whole show.

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In the movie called The Santa Clause,

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I'm late on showing my first clip.

00:30:59

Here's the first clip where Scott Calvin is kind of,

00:31:02

Tim Allen is kind of a kind of a jerk. Here it is.

00:31:08

- Thank you very much.

00:31:10

This was really a team effort, and we just

00:31:12

want to thank every one of you individually.

00:31:14

- But we don't have time for that, do we? [laughter]

00:31:17

In all seriousness, here at B&R Toys,

00:31:19

we're not just about making a profit in quality toys,

00:31:22

we're also about families.

00:31:25

But our families aren't here with us right now,

00:31:28

which is probably why Johnson's secretary

00:31:29

is sitting in his lap. [chuckles]

00:31:32

You guys have a great party. Have a great year.

00:31:34

Drive safe. Thanks very much.

00:31:36

[applause]

00:31:39

Laura, I was hoping to catch you

00:31:41

before you left your house.

00:31:42

I ran real late today.

00:31:44

You wouldn't believe the traffic out here.

00:31:47

[honks] Yeah, same to you!

00:31:49

And that's not very ladylike.

00:31:51

Heh. Anyway, I'll try to get to my house

00:31:53

as soon as I can.

00:31:55

Oh, there's the problem right there, 3 car pileup.

00:31:57

I'm really going to be late.

00:32:01

- So this is how it starts.

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It's a guy who is not a high character guy.

00:32:06

This is a guy who's hurried, who's harried,

00:32:09

who's lying to his ex-wife on the phone.

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He's just all over the place.

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There's not a lot that's admirable

00:32:16

about Scott Calvin, or Tim Allen.

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And then one night, his son is over.

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He's watching his son, and something happens

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that's about to change his destiny. Here it is.

00:32:31

- I heard a clatter. - All right, Charlie.

00:32:34

- There, a clatter.

00:32:35

- Charlie, what are you talking about?

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You know, "It came a big noise."

00:32:39

It's coming from outside.

00:32:42

- Charlie, it's just the wind or something.

00:32:44

Come on, let's go back to bed.

00:32:46

[thumping]

00:32:57

- Hey, you. - What's that? Oh!

00:33:00

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:33:12

- He's got some ID on him, I bet.

00:33:13

Fella, if you can hear me,

00:33:14

I'm just looking for your identification.

00:33:18

If something should happen to me, put on my suit.

00:33:20

The reindeer will know what to do.

00:33:22

Yeah, right.

00:33:32

- Whoa!

00:33:41

Dad! He disappeared. Whoa!

00:33:49

- He's naked somewhere.

00:33:52

This thing, you never know where it's been,

00:33:56

a thousand malls.

00:33:59

Well, I hope you're happy, Comet. Hope you're happy.

00:34:02

But most of all, I hope the guy that lives here

00:34:05

is a tailor. Nice coat.

00:34:10

Well, how do I look? Nice?

00:34:15

- You forgot the sash. - You're right.

00:34:17

This completes the ensemble.

00:34:21

All right. Got my boots.

00:34:27

- There's a transformation, a metamorphosis

00:34:30

that happens to Scott Calvin

00:34:33

when he puts on the Santa suit.

00:34:37

When he puts on the Santa suit, his identity,

00:34:41

even though he doesn't know it, changes.

00:34:45

Have you ever gone to a masquerade party

00:34:49

or something over Halloween,

00:34:50

and you have your costume on and you put it on,

00:34:53

and you take on the being that you're representing.

00:34:57

Like, you put on a great Hulk suit

00:35:00

and you just think immediately

00:35:01

you could bench press 500 pounds, you know.

00:35:04

Or you take on a damsel in distress uniform,

00:35:07

you think every single guy wants to hang out with you?

00:35:09

It's just like you feel like the thing

00:35:11

because the clothing did this to you.

00:35:14

This is a very significant thing

00:35:16

that's in the Santa Claus movie.

00:35:18

It's a very significant thing

00:35:19

that's actually in the Bible.

00:35:21

For you to have peace,

00:35:23

for you to have something that you want to have.

00:35:25

And I tell you what all of us want.

00:35:27

We all want peace.

00:35:28

We all want some sense of the transcendent.

00:35:31

We all want some mystery.

00:35:33

We all want to actually feel

00:35:35

like there's a backstop for us,

00:35:37

like somebody has our back.

00:35:39

That's why we're drawn to Santa.

00:35:41

He's mysterious. He's for us. He's generous.

00:35:44

It's why everyone's pro Santa.

00:35:46

And but to have those feelings

00:35:50

or to have that reality throughout the whole year,

00:35:52

a few things have to happen. One is this.

00:35:54

One is you have to put on a different identity.

00:35:56

You have to put one on.

00:35:58

You have to become a different person

00:36:02

than then you naturally are.

00:36:04

How do you become a different person

00:36:06

than you naturally are?

00:36:07

It's not some self-help self-improvement plan.

00:36:09

Those are fine. Go ahead and do that.

00:36:10

But maybe some of that stuff's good

00:36:12

for your New Year's resolution.

00:36:13

But that's really ultimately not how you

00:36:15

get in touch with the divine,

00:36:16

in touch with the mystical,

00:36:17

in touch with the transcendent.

00:36:20

The Bible says that when we come to Jesus,

00:36:23

we give our lives to Him,

00:36:25

and He gives us a new identity.

00:36:28

Let me give you some verses on this.

00:36:30

Galatians 3:27:

00:36:32

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ

00:36:36

have put on Christ.

00:36:39

Put on Christ Jesus.

00:36:42

When He dies, He goes into the grave

00:36:45

and He comes out from the grave,

00:36:47

He comes back in resurrection power.

00:36:49

So when we get baptized, we are mimicking Him.

00:36:52

We go into the watery grave where,

00:36:55

just like He died, we're dying to ourself.

00:36:58

We're dying to all of our selfishness.

00:37:00

I'm from dying to my sinfulness.

00:37:02

And we come out of the watery grave

00:37:04

coming back in resurrection power.

00:37:07

And so when you get baptized,

00:37:09

it's a symbolism of putting on Christ.

00:37:13

I put on the identity of Christ.

00:37:16

The book of Isaiah 61 had a prophecy about this. It says,

00:37:20

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;

00:37:22

my soul shall exalt in my God,

00:37:25

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;

00:37:29

He has covered me with a robe of righteousness.

00:37:34

This is really big.

00:37:35

Very few people get this,

00:37:37

including people who have been Christians

00:37:40

and go to church their whole lives.

00:37:41

When you come to Christ,

00:37:43

God does not call you to a new morality.

00:37:48

He does not give you a new set of doctrines to learn.

00:37:52

You may get more moral. Hopefully you do.

00:37:54

You may learn some things. Hopefully you do.

00:37:57

But no, what happens when you come to Christ,

00:37:59

you get a new identity.

00:38:01

He wraps His identity around you.

00:38:05

That's why it's so freeing

00:38:07

to have a relationship with Christ

00:38:09

because you never have to worry about

00:38:11

being judged by God or God smacking you down.

00:38:14

Because when He looks at you, He sees Jesus.

00:38:18

Come on now. Someone's getting this.

00:38:20

When He looks at you, He doesn't see

00:38:23

all of your problems, though He knows them.

00:38:24

He looks at you, He's not fixated on the sin,

00:38:27

so He's aware of that sin.

00:38:28

But He doesn't see that.

00:38:30

What he sees is Jesus

00:38:33

because His identity is wrapped around you.

00:38:36

If you ever get this and you actually believe this,

00:38:39

the things, so many things you struggle with

00:38:41

will just be gone. Gone.

00:38:44

They'll just -- They'll just go away.

00:38:46

This is not the version of Christianity

00:38:48

and religion that many of us are going after.

00:38:51

Jesus is not asking us to enter into a political movement.

00:38:56

He's not asking us to enter into a religious club.

00:38:59

He's asking us to enter into a new identity

00:39:03

where we get His clothes, get His cloaks.

00:39:08

And the reason why many of us have

00:39:09

some of the problems we have is because

00:39:11

that identity, we don't understand it.

00:39:12

We're not operating in it.

00:39:14

I am pro -- I am pro drugs that are appropriately prescribed.

00:39:20

I'm not against the pharmaceutical industry at all.

00:39:22

I also believe that there's some of us

00:39:25

who first should try dealing with

00:39:27

our identity issues before we immediately go to medication.

00:39:31

You know? We should first look into that.

00:39:35

The Mental Health America periodical 2022 says:

00:39:38

19.86% of adults are experiencing mental illness.

00:39:42

That's 50 million Americans, 50 million.

00:39:45

The national rate of adults experiencing

00:39:47

suicidal ideation, that is thinking about it,

00:39:50

processing what it would look like,

00:39:52

has increased every year since 2011-2012.

00:39:56

So what else has increased every year since 2011-12?

00:40:00

What do you think?

00:40:01

The number of people who don't believe in God?

00:40:03

The number of people who are atheists.

00:40:05

The number of people who are agnostics.

00:40:06

The number of people, we just can't believe.

00:40:08

Now, let me tell you, those are linked.

00:40:10

When you don't believe that there is

00:40:12

an entity that's mysterious, that loves you

00:40:15

and are for you, you darn well better be afraid.

00:40:19

You darn well better be anxious

00:40:21

because it's all on you.

00:40:23

There's no X factor of the presence of God.

00:40:26

And much of our anxiety, much of the fear

00:40:29

that many of us have comes down to

00:40:31

a spiritual problem where we're not wrapped

00:40:34

in the identity of Christ, and we don't believe

00:40:36

that God actually thinks that highly of us.

00:40:39

We don't believe that.

00:40:41

And so we're left to our own selves

00:40:43

and whatever we can figure out on our own.

00:40:47

This is, I'm not -- I'm not trying to crack on you

00:40:50

if you're not getting this.

00:40:52

I'm saying this is good news.

00:40:53

Friends, there's a whole new level.

00:40:55

There's a whole new realm of being

00:40:56

if you want to come into it.

00:40:57

It's wonderful and it's beautiful.

00:41:00

Now Scott takes on this new identity.

00:41:05

Tim Allen takes on this new identity.

00:41:07

But he really doesn't understand it

00:41:10

and he doesn't believe it.

00:41:12

Let's see what happens when he gets to the North Pole.

00:41:16

- Who are you?

00:41:17

- I'm Bernard. Nice to meet you, Santa.

00:41:20

- I'm not Santa.

00:41:21

I've had a rough night.

00:41:23

There's been dogs barking, guns going off.

00:41:25

Look, my back's kill me.

00:41:26

Have you ever tried to shove a sea kayak down a chimney?

00:41:29

I'm tired of this small talk.

00:41:31

- Who's this?

00:41:32

- What? This ihis is my son, Charlie.

00:41:36

I'm sorry. Charlie, this is B--

00:41:38

- Bernard. - Bernard.

00:41:40

- Hi, Bernard. - Hiya, Sport.

00:41:43

- Hey, dad. He called me Sport, just like you.

00:41:45

- Wonderful. Hey, Barabbas.

00:41:48

- Bernard. - Bernard.

00:41:49

Can we take a direct flight back to reality,

00:41:52

or do we have to change planes in Denver?

00:41:53

- Larry, take Charlie here and get him some chow.

00:41:55

- No, Larry, don't do that. Charlie!

00:41:57

- He'll be okay. Follow me.

00:41:59

You'll want to get out of those clothes.

00:42:01

- Look, Barnaby, I just want to go home.

00:42:03

Look, I am not Santa Claus.

00:42:07

Ah.

00:42:08

- Did you or did you not read the card?

00:42:10

- Yeah, I read the card.

00:42:11

- Then you're the new Santa.

00:42:13

In putting on the hat and jacket,

00:42:14

you accepted the contract.

00:42:16

- What contract?

00:42:17

- The card in the Santa suit.

00:42:19

You said you read it, right?

00:42:20

So when you put on the suit,

00:42:21

you fell subject to the Santa Clause. Here.

00:42:23

- The Santa Clause?

00:42:26

- You got the card? Okay, look.

00:42:31

The Santa Clause: In putting on this suit

00:42:34

and entering the sleigh, the wearer waives

00:42:35

any and all rights to any previous identity,

00:42:37

real or implied, and fully accepts the duties

00:42:40

and responsibilities of Santa Clause in perpetuity

00:42:43

until such time that wearer becomes unable to do so

00:42:46

by either accident or design.

00:42:48

- What does that mean?

00:42:50

- It means you put on the suit, you're the big guy.

00:42:54

- I love that. I love that.

00:42:56

Now he doesn't believe, and this is going to be

00:43:00

a problem for for Tim Allen.

00:43:02

The main people we're looking at today,

00:43:04

Zechariah and Elizabeth and John.

00:43:08

Zechariah and Elizabeth, or specifically Zechariah,

00:43:10

he doesn't believe. Let's get into his story.

00:43:12

Here's a little bit of background.

00:43:14

Zechariah is a priest,

00:43:15

so he does things that the high holy people do.

00:43:18

They have a number of people who are priests

00:43:21

in ancient Israel, and they have a basically

00:43:24

a lottery or rotation system to where one guy

00:43:27

has to go into the inner sanctum,

00:43:29

into the Holy of Holies and make an offering.

00:43:32

And people don't really want this job because

00:43:35

they believe that if you've got sin in your life,

00:43:39

then God is going to be really upset

00:43:40

and He's going to strike you dead.

00:43:41

So no one's really excited about this job.

00:43:43

And if you get this job, you get in and you get out.

00:43:47

This day this is Zechariah's job.

00:43:49

And let's see what happens

00:43:51

when he gets in there and encounters something.

00:43:53

And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord

00:43:56

standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

00:43:59

And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him,

00:44:02

and fear fell upon him.

00:44:04

But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid,

00:44:07

Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard,

00:44:10

and your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son,

00:44:14

and you shall call his name John.

00:44:18

And you will have joy and gladness,

00:44:21

and many will rejoice at his birth,

00:44:23

for he will be great before the Lord."

00:44:26

Jesus actually calls John the Baptist

00:44:28

the greatest person who ever lived.

00:44:29

This is a little prophecy about him.

00:44:31

The angel says, 'Hey, you're gonna have this guy.

00:44:33

He's gonna he's going to be great.

00:44:34

And your name? His name is going to be John.

00:44:37

You're supposed to call him John.

00:44:39

And, and by the way, by the way,

00:44:41

God has heard your prayer."

00:44:43

Now, this is a really interesting thing.

00:44:44

God has heard your prayer.

00:44:47

They are advanced in years.

00:44:49

We talked about this before, advanced in years.

00:44:51

This is the Bible's nice way of saying,

00:44:52

and everybody in the first century

00:44:54

would have understood this.

00:44:55

But you may not understand this,

00:44:56

so I'm going to tease this out a little bit for you.

00:44:58

This is not shock factor.

00:44:59

This is just to understand the miracle

00:45:01

that's about to happen here.

00:45:03

Saying old in years means

00:45:06

they have lost the ability to have sex.

00:45:09

It means she's gone through menopause and she's dry.

00:45:14

It means he can't get an erection.

00:45:17

So when they say, "Your prayer has been heard,"

00:45:21

they're not talking about the prayer like that morning.

00:45:24

When you're in that situation,

00:45:26

you've given up asking for a child

00:45:28

because you know I can't have kids

00:45:29

or can't do the thing where --

00:45:30

This was a prayer from years earlier, years earlier.

00:45:35

And the angel says, "Your prayer has been heard."

00:45:38

This is really good news, friends.

00:45:40

There's things that you prayed for years ago

00:45:42

you think God's forgotten about

00:45:44

that He hasn't forgotten about. [applause]

00:45:49

There's things that you think God just said no on

00:45:53

where God hasn't said no, He said, wait.

00:45:56

You know, there's things that you think God

00:45:59

has forgotten because he forgotten you

00:46:01

and He hasn't forgotten about you.

00:46:02

It's just He's got a much bigger agenda than you.

00:46:05

He's got this Kingdom of God He's doing,

00:46:08

and He wants us to ask. We can ask.

00:46:09

And sometimes the thing we're asking,

00:46:11

for whatever reason, doesn't fit into

00:46:12

the macro thing that He's doing, and sometimes it does.

00:46:15

There's just a bit of a delay.

00:46:17

And this apparently is the way it is with Zechariah.

00:46:21

There's going to be two miraculous births at Christmas.

00:46:24

One is going to be a woman who gives birth

00:46:28

who's never had sex. That's Mary.

00:46:30

And the other miraculous birth is going to be

00:46:33

a couple who is older, who can't have sex,

00:46:37

but God's going to enable to have sex to have a child.

00:46:41

And this is the situation with Zechariah.

00:46:44

Let's keep going on the story here, verse 18:

00:46:47

And Zechariah said to the angel,

00:46:49

"How shall I know this? From I am an old man,

00:46:52

and my wife is advanced in years."

00:46:55

Again, that's another way, that's kind of,

00:46:56

we're past our sexual ability talk here.

00:46:59

And the angel answered him, "I am Gabriel.

00:47:02

I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent

00:47:05

to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

00:47:08

And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak

00:47:11

until the day that these things take place,

00:47:13

because you did not believe my words,

00:47:15

which will be fulfilled in their time."

00:47:20

For us to feel like there's a transcendent peace,

00:47:23

there's an X factor, the presence of God,

00:47:24

a couple of things have to take place, a few things.

00:47:26

One, I already talked about.

00:47:28

You've got to take on the identity of Jesus.

00:47:29

You got to take on a new identity.

00:47:31

The second thing that has to happen

00:47:33

is you have to choose to believe.

00:47:37

Choose to believe.

00:47:38

Zechariah chooses not to believe.

00:47:43

I know a lot of us, "Well, I would believe

00:47:45

if only I had a visitation, if I only had a sign,

00:47:48

if I only had a vision, if I only saw a miracle,

00:47:50

I would, I would believe."

00:47:53

Um, no you wouldn't, you wouldn't.

00:47:57

We like to think that, but you wouldn't.

00:47:59

It would be great and wonderful, would probably be,

00:48:01

it would help all of us if we saw more of that.

00:48:03

But you wouldn't.

00:48:05

Here we have another example in the Bible.

00:48:06

This happens all the time in the Bible.

00:48:08

People have all these classic spiritual experiences

00:48:10

and they don't believe.

00:48:12

So here's a guy who has an angel visit him

00:48:16

and he says, "How do I know? How do I know?

00:48:18

What? How do I know?"

00:48:20

Because an angel is talking to you, that's how you know.

00:48:23

And the angel is kind of pissed.

00:48:27

That's word only for 11:45. No one else got that one.

00:48:30

Only 11:45.

00:48:31

The angel is like, "How will you know? How do you know?

00:48:34

Well, aside from an angel, here's how you know,

00:48:36

I'm going to make you mute, like now. Boom. Done."

00:48:41

This is really important.

00:48:42

We have different beliefs about belief

00:48:45

than God has about beliefs.

00:48:47

We believe that I believe

00:48:49

when incontrovertible amounts of evidence come on

00:48:53

and just drop in my lap.

00:48:54

"Oh, I have to believe because it's it's obvious."

00:48:58

No, it's never obvious.

00:48:59

That's why there's hung juries.

00:49:02

That's why PhDs at Stanford,

00:49:05

one will be a Christian and one will be an atheist

00:49:08

because they see different things

00:49:09

and believe different things.

00:49:10

Belief is a choice, you choose to believe.

00:49:14

At some point, there's enough data you make your choice.

00:49:18

This is very similar to marriage.

00:49:19

I speak to those of us who are younger in here.

00:49:21

You know all of us who want to be married

00:49:23

are frustrated we're not married, some of us.

00:49:25

One of the reasons why I meet

00:49:26

a lot of younger folks and they're not married,

00:49:29

is because they thought there would be

00:49:32

an obvious choice of who you should get married to,

00:49:35

there would be a sign. And that's the person.

00:49:38

No, that's not the way it works.

00:49:40

Those of us who've been married for a while

00:49:42

know here's the way it works.

00:49:43

"Oh, I like her. She'll work."

00:49:53

Like, no one's been married for any length of time

00:49:55

finds that offensive at all.

00:49:57

It's always -- It's always a single people

00:49:59

who find that utterly offensive and unrealistic.

00:50:01

That's the story of Lib and I.

00:50:03

I'm not saying you shouldn't have love.

00:50:04

I'm not saying you shouldn't have attraction.

00:50:06

I'm saying, though you choose, you choose

00:50:10

to believe that this is the one I'm going to marry.

00:50:13

That's different than, "Oh, I saw a vision.

00:50:16

This is God's soulmate for me."

00:50:18

No, no, that's why you're not married.

00:50:20

You choose, you choose to believe,

00:50:24

and you come into a deeper walk with God

00:50:26

when you choose to believe the things that

00:50:29

He says about himself in the way that life works.

00:50:32

You choose to believe it.

00:50:34

And if it's stupid and you can't believe it,

00:50:36

then great, don't, don't believe it.

00:50:38

But at some point you have to choose to believe.

00:50:40

And Zechariah at this point right here

00:50:42

is choosing not to believe it.

00:50:44

I know we all want to believe.

00:50:46

I know we all want a Santa.

00:50:48

I know we all want the transcendent.

00:50:49

I know we all want the mystical.

00:50:51

I'm going to give you a couple real life examples

00:50:53

today just to say, even if you're not seeing it,

00:50:55

it's real.

00:50:57

Even if you're not experiencing right now, it is real.

00:51:00

A lot of us, about thousands of us,

00:51:02

experienced this at the revival

00:51:04

we did a number of months ago.

00:51:06

And people come out to our Base Camp property.

00:51:08

And someone who was talking

00:51:10

spoke about a cloud of witnesses.

00:51:12

And those of us who were there will never forget

00:51:14

at that moment, above that tent, there was a circle cloud

00:51:19

that's a meteorological phenomenon that came out.

00:51:22

We all cleared out of the tent and we said,

00:51:25

"What is a circle cloud? Never seen it."

00:51:27

It wasn't a plane that went in a circle.

00:51:29

It was a cloud that hung there

00:51:31

along with two rainbows

00:51:34

when there was no rain that had happened.

00:51:37

And we all sat there going,

00:51:39

"This is a meteorological phenomenon.

00:51:40

These things none of us have ever seen.

00:51:42

And it happened right now when this is being talked about?"

00:51:45

And there wasn't a person who was there

00:51:47

who chose not to believe that

00:51:50

that was God sending a message.

00:51:51

Do I get any amens from people who were there?

00:51:53

It was unfreaking believable.

00:51:55

It was unbelievable.

00:51:57

Now you could be there and you could choose to say,

00:51:59

"Well, I've never seen that meteorological phenomenon.

00:52:02

Fascinating. This should happen just now

00:52:04

when someone was talking about

00:52:05

the cloud of spiritual witnesses

00:52:06

from the book of Hebrews."

00:52:08

And you could choose not to believe.

00:52:10

You could, but you would have to make that choice

00:52:12

just like you have to make the choice to believe.

00:52:15

A couple weeks ago, I talked about a key element

00:52:19

of increasing likelihood of the X factor

00:52:22

happening in your life is to pray.

00:52:24

And the kind of prayers were you humbly ask, you ask.

00:52:32

I had a guy. I had one guy on that week come up

00:52:36

and ask me to pray for him to heal him.

00:52:39

His name is Dave Stansbury.

00:52:40

Many of you know him and his wife Lori.

00:52:42

I like giving names because it's verifiable,

00:52:47

because this is a verifiable miracle, I believe.

00:52:50

I believe, I choose to believe it.

00:52:52

He came forward, and Dave's story is that

00:52:53

he had cancer and cancer treatments

00:52:56

and all the radiation and the chemo just zapped,

00:52:59

zapped everything in here.

00:53:00

And he hasn't had saliva for two years,

00:53:03

and he hasn't had taste for two years.

00:53:05

And it's really, it's horrible.

00:53:07

It's just horrible for him.

00:53:08

He says, "I've been in a prison for two years,"

00:53:12

because he can't, he always has to have

00:53:14

a Camelback or a bottle of water with him,

00:53:17

because that's how he has the moisture

00:53:19

so he can swallow.

00:53:20

And he said, "I can't fly, or when I do fly,

00:53:22

it's really scary because I have to turn in

00:53:24

the water when I go through TSA,

00:53:25

and I don't know if I'll make it

00:53:27

to the next water fountain where I can buy water."

00:53:30

He says, "I'm losing weight.

00:53:33

I probably have to get a feeding port put in

00:53:36

because I can't eat.

00:53:37

It's not that I don't taste how good food is,

00:53:39

food is horrible."

00:53:40

He said, "If I have a Diet Coke or a Coke,

00:53:42

it's like drinking battery acid.

00:53:44

If I have ketchup, Sonny's barbecue sauce,

00:53:49

Montgomery Inn, I can't tell the difference

00:53:51

in any of it and it burns and it's horrible.

00:53:53

So I don't want to eat." He's losing weight.

00:53:55

So many people pray for him.

00:53:57

And then I was probably just the straw

00:53:59

that broke the camel's back.

00:54:00

We never know how God works in this, right?

00:54:02

So he comes up and says,

00:54:03

"Hey, I want to, you know, ask pray for this."

00:54:05

He hasn't prayed for two years.

00:54:07

He stopped praying two years ago.

00:54:09

Stopped praying two years ago

00:54:10

because he just was too discouraged.

00:54:12

It's kind of one of those delayed things,

00:54:14

God has heard your prayer, but it came two years later.

00:54:17

So he said, "Pray for me." And I said, "Fine."

00:54:19

So I put my hands on him. I was praying for him.

00:54:21

And he said as I was praying for him,

00:54:23

it felt like ball bearings were rolling down his jaw.

00:54:27

And his wife, he asked his wife Lori,

00:54:30

like, was he taking his fingers and going like this?"

00:54:32

"No, he wasn't doing that." Said it felt like that.

00:54:34

So I got done praying with him.

00:54:36

It felt like there was some heat in one of my hands.

00:54:38

And I said, you feel anything?

00:54:41

And he goes like this. He goes. He goes,

00:54:44

"I think I'm -- I think I'm getting saliva back."

00:54:46

I said, "Really?"

00:54:48

I said, "Why don't you spit in my hand right now?

00:54:50

Spit in my hand." So he spits in my hand

00:54:53

and I take my hand, and I put it back on his face.

00:54:57

And I pray, I pray again. I pray for him.

00:55:00

And he's like, "I think I got saliva."

00:55:04

"Wow. Okay."

00:55:05

He immediately goes from there over to

00:55:07

the closest Mexican restaurant, he wants to test,

00:55:10

he wants to test this out, have salsa for the first time,

00:55:13

have a Coke for the first time. Here's a video.

00:55:17

God, thank you. Thank you, God. Thank you.

00:55:38

[cheers & applause]

00:55:39

- Him and his wife start making a commotion

00:55:41

and the server comes over and goes,

00:55:43

"What's going on here?" Tells the story.

00:55:46

She starts crying. She goes, "A year ago,

00:55:49

I lost my mother to the same kind of cancer."

00:55:51

She sits down and now he's got this thing

00:55:54

that he just talks with God all the time.

00:55:56

Like, all his neighbor see him walking,

00:55:59

for the first time they see him in two years

00:56:00

walking without a water bottle or a Camelback.

00:56:02

"What's going on? Do you feel all right?"

00:56:04

And he said, "No. Here's what happened."

00:56:06

He tells them the story and he says, "God healed me.

00:56:09

He just, He literally healed me."

00:56:10

He goes to the doctor, goes to the doctor.

00:56:13

Doctor puts a scope down his throat,

00:56:15

looks down his throat, looks at him and says,

00:56:17

looks to the scope. He goes, "Yeah, yeah.

00:56:20

You got saliva. How'd you say this happened again?"

00:56:25

He tells him the story.

00:56:27

Doctor says, "Well, that must have done it."

00:56:32

My God still heals. I don't know about your God.

00:56:34

My God still heals. [cheers and applause]

00:56:36

My God still has an X factor.

00:56:39

Go as far as -- you go as far as you want

00:56:41

and your cynicism is really getting you really far.

00:56:44

I'll tell you, what I choose to believe

00:56:46

that there's a God who loves me and cares for me,

00:56:48

and can do something that I can't explain

00:56:50

whenever He wants to.

00:56:52

Now, it's not all the time.

00:56:54

That's why it's called a miracle.

00:56:57

There's not a pattern you can follow and you get.

00:56:59

I don't understand it. It's -- I don't understand,

00:57:02

I don't. I don't understand, but it's real.

00:57:04

I've seen it enough times.

00:57:06

And that's the God who wants to give you a new identity.

00:57:09

But you've got to choose to believe.

00:57:11

It doesn't have to be perfect belief.

00:57:12

Jesus says it has to be faith like a mustard seed.

00:57:16

That's a little bit, a little bit.

00:57:19

But choosing to believe that.

00:57:23

You know, not believing that, not believing that

00:57:27

is way worse than not believing Santa. Way worse.

00:57:33

Let's get back to our story, verse 21.

00:57:36

And the people were waiting for Zechariah,

00:57:38

and they were wondering at his delay in the temple.

00:57:43

They're going like, "The dude normally goes in

00:57:45

and does the business and gets out.

00:57:47

He's, wow, like, did he get killed in there?

00:57:50

What's -- what's going on?"

00:57:52

It's just really weird because they don't know

00:57:53

that he's been having this long conversation

00:57:56

with an angel.

00:57:59

And when he came out, he was unable to speak to the,

00:58:03

and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple.

00:58:08

And he kept making signs to them and he remained mute.

00:58:12

Moot, mute, moot? Mute, mute.

00:58:15

And he remained mute.

00:58:17

And when his time of service was ended,

00:58:20

he went to his home.

00:58:21

End of the day he clocked out and went home.

00:58:23

After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived,

00:58:27

and for five months she kept herself hidden,

00:58:30

saying, 'Thus the Lord has done for me

00:58:33

in the days when he looked on me,

00:58:35

to take away my reproach among people."

00:58:39

So Elizabeth gets pregnant,

00:58:41

doesn't show herself for five months.

00:58:43

We're not sure exactly why.

00:58:45

Maybe she's afraid of a miscarriage.

00:58:46

Maybe, w don't know why, but she waits a bit.

00:58:49

But that's beside the point.

00:58:51

The real point that builds my faith

00:58:54

happens earlier. What happens earlier?

00:58:56

What happens earlier is the angel says,

00:58:58

"You're not going to believe me. A sign.

00:59:00

A sign, an angel. Here. I'm a sign.

00:59:02

I'll give you a sign. Boom! You can't talk.

00:59:05

That's a sign."

00:59:07

Be careful asking God for a sign,

00:59:09

you might not like it. I'm serious.

00:59:12

The things a lot of us think that we want,

00:59:14

you really don't want.

00:59:16

And then we get upset that God doesn't give them to us.

00:59:21

So now he's coming out and he's trying

00:59:24

to tell people like, but he hasn't learned

00:59:26

sign language yet and he's trying to, like,

00:59:28

figure out, tell them what's going on.

00:59:30

And then he's got to go home.

00:59:33

And here's where it gets really deep.

00:59:34

He's got to go home

00:59:36

and he's got to tell Elizabeth, figure out

00:59:38

how to tell Elizabeth, write it all out or whatever,

00:59:40

that they're going to have a kid.

00:59:42

God heard their prayer,

00:59:44

but it's going to have to happen old school way.

00:59:49

Now, some of you are young. You're younger than me.

00:59:52

You don't understand these things.

00:59:54

I know this is very uncomfortable.

00:59:55

I'm going to talk about these things because

00:59:57

there's things in the Bible you don't understand

00:59:59

because you refuse to allow your mind to go there.

01:00:02

Okay? This is one of those.

01:00:04

This is one of those times.

01:00:05

I said there's two miraculous births.

01:00:07

One is the birth of a woman who's never had sex,

01:00:10

and the other one is the birth that two people have

01:00:13

who haven't been able to have sex.

01:00:16

So he's got to go home and convince his wife

01:00:20

to try to have sex.

01:00:22

He has to convince actually himself. Okay?

01:00:26

They're both advanced in years.

01:00:27

This means that he has erectile dysfunction

01:00:30

in all likelihood, this means he can't get hard.

01:00:34

And when that happens to a guy,

01:00:38

not that has ever happened to me. [laughter]

01:00:42

It 100% has. That's another 11:45 special.

01:00:45

You people bring out the best.

01:00:46

You people bring out the best in me.

01:00:49

When it happens to a guy,

01:00:53

it really messes with your mind

01:00:55

and you don't, almost don't want to have sex again

01:00:58

because it's embarrassing. It's humiliating.

01:01:00

You - it's a real buzz -- killjoy.

01:01:04

It's humiliating. It's all that stuff.

01:01:06

And then on the woman's side, of course,

01:01:08

when you're past menopause,

01:01:10

things are dry down there, and it hurts.

01:01:12

It's painful.

01:01:13

So them choosing to believe and to go have sex

01:01:19

for both of them is a horrible thought.

01:01:26

This is where you find out if you believe or not,

01:01:30

whether or not you follow through.

01:01:31

This is the third thing.

01:01:32

If you want the X factor, the presence of God,

01:01:34

you've got to take on a new identity,

01:01:36

you have to choose to believe

01:01:37

and you have to be faithful.

01:01:39

You have to actually do what you believe.

01:01:43

You actually have to do

01:01:45

what people don't want to do who don't believe.

01:01:48

You actually have to put yourself in un--

01:01:52

You have to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation.

01:01:56

And this is what they do.

01:01:59

They go to work.

01:02:00

They hit the bedroom by faith.

01:02:03

And what do you know? Things work.

01:02:06

Hey, what is it for you?

01:02:08

What is it for you that you have to choose to believe

01:02:11

and now you're going to have to do something

01:02:13

that's uncomfortable, that you don't want to do

01:02:18

where there was failure last time?

01:02:21

Maybe that's part of the thing,

01:02:23

part of the thing of putting yourself out there.

01:02:27

This is the way God consistently works.

01:02:28

I'm telling you from my from my life

01:02:31

and from in the Bible, this is the way it happens.

01:02:35

We take on the identity, we choose to believe,

01:02:37

and now we have to be faithful.

01:02:40

Now, if we don't want the X factor,

01:02:41

the presence of God, then don't do those things.

01:02:44

But if you want the X factor, the presence of God,

01:02:46

you want the peace that passes understanding,

01:02:48

this is just what you do, and what do you know?

01:02:50

It works.

01:02:52

So Elizabeth gives birth.

01:02:55

And here's where the story picks up

01:02:57

and where we'll end it.

01:03:02

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth,

01:03:06

and she bore a son.

01:03:08

And her neighbors and relatives heard

01:03:11

that the Lord had shown great mercy to her,

01:03:14

and they rejoiced with her.

01:03:15

And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child.

01:03:18

And they would have called him Zechariah after his father.

01:03:22

The eighth day after the child was born

01:03:23

in Jewish custom, eight days after birth if it's a boy,

01:03:26

that's when you come and you circumcise the child

01:03:29

and you give him the name.

01:03:31

So of course they're going, "Hey, old guy here,

01:03:33

dad, Zechariah is his name.

01:03:35

Of course, this son's name is going to be Zechariah."

01:03:38

But his mother answered.

01:03:39

Why did his mother answer?

01:03:40

Because Zechariah can't talk, remember?

01:03:43

He can't talk.

01:03:44

But his mother answered and said,

01:03:47

"No, he shall be called John."

01:03:50

Why John? Because Zechariah is told her the story

01:03:54

by writing, this is what he heard from the angel.

01:03:57

It's supposed to be John.

01:04:00

And they said to her, "None of your relatives

01:04:03

is called by this name."

01:04:05

Like, why this is this?

01:04:07

This doesn't make any sense.

01:04:09

They're thinking like, "Okay, this is --

01:04:10

When a woman starts making decisions,"

01:04:12

this is ancient culture.

01:04:13

They're probably thinking, "When a woman

01:04:15

starts making decisions, things go awry.

01:04:16

Let's go. Let's go to the man.

01:04:18

Let's ask him." So here's where we go there. It says:

01:04:20

And then they made signs to his father

01:04:21

inquiring what he wanted him to be called.

01:04:24

I think it's so funny, made signs to his father.

01:04:27

He's mute. He's not deaf. You know?

01:04:32

They're like, "Hey, what do you --"

01:04:35

Whatever they're doing. Come on.

01:04:37

He's not deaf. He can hear fine,

01:04:38

but they're doing that with him.

01:04:41

"What do you want him to be called? What is it?"

01:04:45

And here's where it gets really, really moving for me.

01:04:49

And he, Zachariah, asked for a writing tablet,

01:04:52

and he wrote, "His name is John."

01:04:57

His name is John.

01:05:01

This is the moment where he's faithful, right?

01:05:03

Well, he was faithful going to the bedroom,

01:05:06

but this is the line of being faithful.

01:05:08

It's like, "I am not going to not believe what God said.

01:05:13

Maybe I want to keep some of the glory for myself

01:05:16

and have this child named after me.

01:05:18

Maybe I would like that because I have this child.

01:05:20

No, no, no, no. This is what happened.

01:05:23

You're right. His name's John."

01:05:26

There comes a point where you have to declare yourself

01:05:28

and you have to nail your colors to the mast,

01:05:30

you got to drive your stake in the ground.

01:05:32

Just go, "No. This is who I am.

01:05:35

This is my identity. This is what I choose.

01:05:39

I am faithful."

01:05:40

And when he says his name's John,

01:05:43

he's also declaring, "Nine months

01:05:46

I haven't been able to speak,

01:05:48

doesn't affect my wanting to obey God."

01:05:51

God never told him as soon as you do the right thing,

01:05:53

I'll give you back your speech. Never did.

01:05:55

He doesn't do this. He doesn't do this.

01:05:57

In order to get back his speech,

01:05:59

he does this to be faithful

01:06:01

because he's been told the name is John.

01:06:04

Some of us are only faithful because

01:06:06

we want to get something out of it.

01:06:10

And maybe that's why there's

01:06:12

the lacking X factor from the presence of God.

01:06:15

God's not going to be your genie.

01:06:17

He's not your genie who you do the right things

01:06:20

and God sprinkles blessings on your life.

01:06:22

He's not a spiritual form of genie.

01:06:24

Now God does what He wants to do,

01:06:26

and if you fit into it, great.

01:06:27

If not, He does what He wants to do.

01:06:29

And he wants to bless you.

01:06:31

And if it doesn't make any difference

01:06:32

to what he's doing, He may bless you.

01:06:34

But as soon as you start having your belief on God

01:06:38

contingent upon what He's doing for you

01:06:42

or not doing for you, you have lost it

01:06:44

and you have lost the X factor of the presence of God.

01:06:47

Zechariah here, doesn't matter

01:06:49

if he gets his speech back or not,

01:06:50

he's just going to do the right thing.

01:06:52

That's why it moves me, he's like, "His name is John.

01:06:56

Don't care I haven't spoken for nine months.

01:06:58

Don't care if I'm not going to speak

01:06:59

for the rest of my life.

01:07:01

I know what I heard. I believe it now.

01:07:03

His name is John."

01:07:08

And immediately his mouth was opened

01:07:11

and his tongue loosed, and he spoke blessing God.

01:07:14

And fear came on their neighbors.

01:07:16

And all things were talked about

01:07:18

through all the hill country of Judea.

01:07:23

Boom! God heals him. Boom, boom! He's able to talk.

01:07:28

It's beautiful. It's amazing.

01:07:29

It says immediately he started blessing God.

01:07:32

This is the fourth thing. Fourth thing.

01:07:34

Take on a new identity, choose to believe,

01:07:36

be faithful, and bless God. Give Him honor.

01:07:41

Give Him the glory.

01:07:42

Don't pinch it off for yourself.

01:07:43

Take it for Him.

01:07:45

Again, it wasn't me who had anything to do

01:07:47

with Dave getting healed.

01:07:49

I did something, but all the people prayers before,

01:07:52

it was God.

01:07:53

God chose to answer any number of different prayers.

01:07:56

That was God, because God gets blessed,

01:07:58

God gets the glory on all of those things.

01:08:02

And God's never blessed when we're about ourselves.

01:08:05

Never, never.

01:08:08

He's blessed when we're about Him.

01:08:10

And He gives the glory to God meaning he blesses God.

01:08:14

Now in the Santa Claus movie,

01:08:17

Tim Allen undergoes a metamorphosis.

01:08:19

He actually becomes like Santa.

01:08:21

He starts gaining weight and eating a lot of chocolates.

01:08:23

In meetings he speaks up.

01:08:27

He doesn't like how Santa is going to be depicted\

01:08:30

by their toy company driving a Panzer.

01:08:32

You can see his identity is shifting.

01:08:34

He's becoming actually like Santa.

01:08:37

And then at the end, the end of the movie,

01:08:40

a very moving scene, which is a reprise,

01:08:43

basically of every Santa, every Santa movie there is.

01:08:47

There is again, here's the elements,

01:08:49

I'll give you the fourth element now.

01:08:50

There's the child who believes,

01:08:52

there's the parent figure

01:08:54

who goes along with their belief,

01:08:55

and then there's the antagonistic parent figure,

01:08:58

and then the fourth thing that happens,

01:09:00

in the end everyone believes.

01:09:04

And this was what happens with this movie

01:09:07

and two of the parents get things

01:09:09

that they hadn't gotten when they were kids

01:09:11

because Santa finally comes through for it.

01:09:13

Here's what happens.

01:09:17

- You gave me a wonderful gift, Charlie,

01:09:20

listen, a wonderful gift.

01:09:21

You believed in me when nobody else did.

01:09:24

You helped make me Santa.

01:09:28

Selfish? Come on.

01:09:30

You're the least, the least selfish person I know.

01:09:38

- I love you, Santa Claus.

01:09:51

- Go, go, go, go. - Team 1, heads up.

01:09:54

- Chief, look up there!

01:10:06

- Santa. - Look.

01:10:24

- I'm sorry. Charlie. - That's okay, Neal.

01:10:27

You're just denying your inner child.

01:10:31

- You'll make a great psychiatrist one day, kid.

01:10:35

- No. I think I'm going to go into the family business.

01:10:46

- Look out below.

01:11:00

- My Weenie Whistle.

01:11:08

[whistles]

01:11:13

- And at the end of that movie,

01:11:14

and every Santa movie, I cry

01:11:18

because I see the spiritual parallels,

01:11:20

because there's nothing more beautiful

01:11:22

than when someone comes to Jesus

01:11:24

who now chooses to believe, and the joy

01:11:28

that's going to be not just in that person's day,

01:11:31

but it's going to be in their life.

01:11:32

You can come to Him right now. Right now.

01:11:34

Well, first of all, you can be faithful to Him

01:11:36

if you haven't been faithful, you can choose to believe.

01:11:38

You can come and get your garments right now.

01:11:40

Just ask Him. Give your life to Him.

01:11:43

Ask for forgiveness right now.

01:11:45

Do it right now in any way you want,

01:11:48

He understands what's being said in a new day will start.

01:11:51

I want to end our time.

01:11:53

I'm going to go old school.

01:11:55

Before we came to Crossroads,

01:11:56

I was an ordained Presbyterian pastor,

01:12:00

and we would end our services

01:12:02

with doing what was known as a benediction.

01:12:04

It's basically when you speak a blessing

01:12:06

or you speak a Bible verse over the congregation.

01:12:08

I want to do that today

01:12:10

because there's a perfect one

01:12:11

that speaks to what we just talked about.

01:12:13

It's Romans 15:12 and following.

01:12:17

Here it is. Here it is.

01:12:20

May the God of all hope

01:12:23

fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

01:12:30

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit

01:12:33

you may abound in hope. Amen. Merry Christmas.

01:12:41

- Thanks so much for joining us today.

01:12:43

I hope that something Brian said really sticks with you

01:12:46

and that you're able to apply it to your life and grow.

01:12:49

As always, if you want to get engaged around here,

01:12:51

we'd love to connect with you at crossroads.net/Anywhere.

01:12:55

- Yeah, thank you so much for being here,

01:12:56

and we'll see you back here

01:12:58

for Christmas Eve on December 23rd.

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