Light in Impossible Dark | Christmas Time Week 1

“Not now, Christmas. Read the room—seriously.” Anybody else feel like this year has been too painful, too hopeless, too dark to really consider celebrating anything? Yeah, us too. Yet the story of Christmas is that no situation is beyond God’s reach; nothing is too dark that his light cannot break through. Join us today as Alli talks about the light that Christmas means.

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    [Cuckoo clock]
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    - Is Christmas canceled this year?
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    - Does Santa have to wear a mask?
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    - Does Santa have COVID?
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    - Am I still going to get presents?
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    - Yeah, this year's a little cuckoo.
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    The good news, Christmas is coming!
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    A season of hope and light.
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    It might just be exactly what this weary world needs most.
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    Christmas time 2020, a new weekly series from Crossroads.
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    - Are we still having Christmas?
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    - Heck, yeah, we are, kid.
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    Check out the Crossroads App on your smart TV
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    or go to Crossroads.net/Christmas.
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    [Cuckoo clock]
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    - Welcome to Crossroads Church.
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    I'm Ali and today it is officially Christmas Time.
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    As far as I'm concerned,
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    Christmas cannot come soon enough this year.
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    We need Christmas, don't we, now more than ever.
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    I know I am looking forward
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    to watching some Christmas movies this week.
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    For sure on my short list are Home Alone,
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    Christmas Vacation, obviously, and this random one
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    my husband always watches with me every year
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    called The Family Stone.
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    That might be what I'm doing the next few weeks,
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    but the next couple weeks here at Crossroads
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    we are going to do something even better
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    than Christmas movies.
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    We're going to find out why we feel like this.
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    Why do we need Christmas so much, especially this year?
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    It just doesn't seem like there's
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    a lot of light around us in the world right now.
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    As a matter of fact, I see quite a lot of darkness.
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    And today we're going to be talking about
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    how Jesus is the light we need,
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    how His light has been around from the beginning.
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    And he is still lighting up our paths today in 2020.
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    No better way to get started in our time together
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    today than with some good old Christmas songs.
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    - I love this season because
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    music is playing literally everywhere.
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    Stations that normally play like the warm, soft rock,
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    they're playing Christmas music as of Halloween.
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    And what I love about these songs is that
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    they're songs that talk about
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    the mystery of a coming King.
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    They talk about the hope that comes in Jesus.
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    So as we incorporate these songs into our worship time,
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    my hope is that you sing them through a new lens,
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    you sing them through the lens of joy
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    and through the lens of hope this year.
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    - Oh, hey, I'm Hannah.
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    - And I'm Kyle.
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    - And we're the Crossroads Christmas elves.
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    - And they made us wear jumpsuits again, so.
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    - Oh, that's just terrible. Are you kidding me?
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    I'm not -- I'm not going through with that.
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    I'm not going to be the elf. No, no, no. Not today.
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    [SFX tone]
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    - Hi, I'm Hannah. - And I'm Kyle.
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    It turns out this is in our contract.
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    - Yep, we work here, but we're here to spread
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    a little joy to all the girls and boys this Christmas.
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    - We've been working tirelessly around the clock
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    to make all of these toys, working really hard.
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    They forgot the tape in this one,
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    so I had to do it myself.
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    - I know. And you know what?
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    You won't believe it, but our elf staff
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    was cut in half this year due to budget cuts.
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    But we do have this giant mug
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    that everyone with the name Jane is going to get.
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    So, hey, to Jane.
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    And it does have hot chocolate in it,
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    but the hot chocolate is not included,
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    because COVID, you know.
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    - That's fine. It's not that great anyway.
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    So we're making all these gifts so that
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    the kids who otherwise may not get a gift
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    can know how much Jesus loves them this Christmas.
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    You know, you can actually do something to help
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    and have as much of an impact as us.
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    - Just like us? - Yeah, just like us. Yeah.
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    - And it's called the Christmas Gift Drive,
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    where we give gifts to kids
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    who wouldn't otherwise get them on Christmas.
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    And you can participate wherever you live
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    through the miracle of online shopping. Hey, yo.
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    So head to Crossroads.net/CGD to learn more
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    and see the shopping list
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    and make a difference this Christmas.
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    - Christmas is coming.
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    A time to give and receive.
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    Unfortunately for a lot of parents,
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    2020 has made it harder than ever
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    to give good gifts to their kids.
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    But you can help.
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    Just search Christmas Gift Drive on Crossroads.net
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    and sign up to help a family in need.
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    You'll get a list of items that you can buy online
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    or in store, then bring or ship your items
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    to your nearest Crossroads site.
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    From there, we'll work with our partners
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    to deliver the goods. That's it.
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    Just a few clicks from you
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    and families get to experience the joy
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    of presents underneath the tree on Christmas.
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    Serve some love this Christmas,
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    it might just be the best thing you do all season.
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    - You can do that so the kids
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    don't have to get our terribly made toys.
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    - These are really bad.
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    - They're bad, I'm going to be honest about it.
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    - We are not gifted, this is not our spiritual gifting.
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    - You know, another way that those of us
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    who want to make a difference this year
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    can do that is by giving.
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    If you're part of Crossroads, you know,
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    this is a way to make a difference
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    in people's lives all year long,
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    not just at Christmas.
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    And it goes to amazingly good things
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    like helping people in poverty
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    and spreading this message
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    and making a difference in our world.
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    To give or learn more about what it goes to
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    or to make a year end gift, go to Crossroads.net/give.
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    - Let's pick back up with Ali, who is talking about
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    how Jesus is the light of the world.
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    And He was around way before Christmas,
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    before this whole workshop, before elves, before us.
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    - All of it. Yeah.
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    - Let's see what Ali's talking about.
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    - Darkness makes us uncomfortable.
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    I mean, I would never be out here by myself at night,
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    I mean, ever.
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    I don't even need to say that we tend to correlate
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    darkness with the things that we fear.
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    When I would put my kids to bed when they were little,
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    they would say things like,
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    "Mom, could you just check under the bed?
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    Just -- just let me know that nothing's under there."
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    And now that they're teenagers,
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    I find myself saying things like, "Listen,
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    you need to be back here by midnight
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    because I know nothing good happens after midnight."
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    Why? Why do we think this?
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    Why do we say these things?
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    We just seem to kind of innately understand
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    something that the Bible explains over and over again,
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    that good, good things,
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    they don't tend to thrive in the dark,
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    because it's light that's associated
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    with the presence of God himself.
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    Today, we begin three weeks leading up into Christmas
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    where we will be getting to know God
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    through three names given to Jesus that go way beyond
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    who we know him to be at Christmas time.
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    And one of those is light.
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    Christmas is a celebration of the birth of this baby
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    who would later call Himself the Light of the World.
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    Wherever Jesus went,
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    the qualities of light showed up on the scene:
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    warmth, clarity, invitation, accountability, truth.
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    This holiday, Christmas, it's filled
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    with celebrations of light everywhere light, right?
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    And it's really about when the Son of God
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    showed up for us in a dark world.
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    But the Bible says this actually wasn't
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    the beginning of His light.
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    It wasn't even the first appearance of His light.
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    Way back when the earth was formed,
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    the Son of God was there.
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    He has always existed together with the Father.
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    He was the Word of God
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    as the very first act of creation took place
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    when God spoke a word and light came into the darkness.
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    John 1 tells us exactly this:
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    The earth was dark
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    until the light of the Son of God showed up.
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    And that light comes through the life that He has.
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    And at Christmas, the very first Christmas,
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    that life was born as a baby named Jesus.
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    And only He can push back the kind of darkness
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    that you and I face all the time.
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    I know you know what kind of darkness I mean.
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    It's not the kind we can deal with
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    with the flick of a switch.
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    It's the kind we can't see,
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    the kind that hangs over us.
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    Maybe you're facing just crippling anxiety.
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    Maybe this year has you in a funk
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    that you really have come to the conclusion
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    is actually a depression.
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    Maybe it's brought out in you a tendency
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    that you see all the way through your family tree
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    some kind of darkness that just holds on
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    to people in your very own family
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    over and over and over again.
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    For me, when I think of that kind of darkness,
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    I remember the time in my life
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    that was right before the birth of my first son.
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    I struggled through a year of infertility
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    The path I thought our life was taking,
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    it just sort of-- it was like curtain,
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    darkness right in front of my face.
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    Everything I thought I was seeing just vanished.
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    I'm sure I used the language that we were in the dark.
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    We couldn't see. We felt a little lost.
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    We didn't have a path forward.
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    And, you know what?
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    When we're in that place, we will take
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    whoever and whatever can show up
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    and put an end to that kind of darkness.
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    Who can actually say somehow to the darkness,
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    "Enough, you can't come any further."
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    The birth of Jesus was like that.
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    It was like a lantern that got lit for you
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    and for me right in the middle of that kind of dark.
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    And again, just like in the beginning,
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    the light of the Son of God came through the dark
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    and it gave it a boundary.
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    He turned the light on and the darkness has to go.
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    That's how it works.
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    The prophet Isaiah said this
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    about the Savior who would be born.
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    Isaiah 9:2 says:
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    The story of Christmas
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    is the dawning of that light for you.
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    It's the story of God pushing through the dark
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    to light up a path out of your darkness.
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    And yes, Jesus was born in a cosmic sense
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    of providing a light of salvation for all people.
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    Absolutely.
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    But Christmas doesn't just mean that.
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    Christmas also means there's a light
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    right now available to you that can push back
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    whatever the unique darkness is that you're facing today.
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    Wouldn't you give anything just to have
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    one little flicker of light
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    in whatever darkness you're in right now?
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    When I had my first job out of college,
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    I actually worked downtown Cincinnati.
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    And I would come out to go to my car
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    in the winter every night and I would look
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    like half a mile away at my car
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    parked out by the Greyhound bus station.
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    And I would have to plot my path to get to the car.
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    And I only did it based on one thing:
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    I wanted a path of light.
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    That's exactly who Jesus is.
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    He is the light on our path.
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    He is the One who lights up the darkness.
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    The Word actually says that:
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    Jesus doesn't just say that
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    He points the way to the light.
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    He doesn't say that He inspires us
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    to find our own inner light.
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    He says He is the light.
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    Jesus said in John 8:12 the words,
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    "I am the light of the world."
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    Here's what it says when Jesus
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    spoke again to the people, he said:
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    I am the light of the world.
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    To us, this sounds like a nice,
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    maybe kind of obtuse statement about who Jesus is.
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    It just sounds kind of nice, doesn't it?
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    But that's not how it sounded to the people
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    that heard it when He said it.
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    To the people that heard it when He said it,
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    it sounded like a very specific claim
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    to be their way out of darkness.
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    Jesus actually said these words in the context
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    of a feast called the Feast of Tabernacles.
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    And this feast is actually celebrated
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    when God Himself came into the darkness of slavery
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    that His people had been in
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    and He literally led them out as a light.
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    God Himself showed up to lead them
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    out of the darkness and into the light.
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    He didn't yell down from heaven.
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    He didn't leave them road signs
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    or He didn't leave them tea leaves to try to read.
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    Every single night as they walked
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    through the literal dark wilderness,
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    God showed up as a light.
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    Specifically, He showed up as a pillar of fire
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    that would burn through the night
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    showing them exactly which steps to take
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    and which way to go.
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    Just imagine that for a minute you've left a life
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    that you have no idea where to go next
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    and God shows up and He does it as a pillar of fire.
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    That's what Jesus was saying
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    when He said He was the light of the world.
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    He might as well have been saying,
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    "Remember the deliverer?
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    Remember the God that made a way out in the darkness?
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    Remember the God that led you through the wilderness?
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    Me again, and this time I've come for everybody."
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    Jesus was saying that He was the Messiah
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    to do what the words of Isaiah
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    said the Messiah was going to do for all people.
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    Isaiah 42 says:
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    Friends, God says that to you today.
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    He is not going to leave you in the dark.
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    Jesus is the way out.
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    He's our lantern, He's our lit path,
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    He's our pillar of fire.
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    And if you are the one today looking for a way out,
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    you're looking for a way out of your darkness,
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    I know something.
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    I know you're not going to make it very far
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    without a light.
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    I'm going to guess you've probably tried some ways out.
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    Maybe you've tripped over some things.
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    Maybe you tried to get out on your own.
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    Maybe you've been smacked in the face
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    and laid out on the ground in the middle of the dark.
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    That was me actually about a couple of months ago.
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    I was walking down a sidewalk.
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    I had just come out of a house,
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    a street I wasn't familiar with, no street lights.
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    And I walked straight into a bike rack
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    that was hanging out on a dark sidewalk.
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    And I hit it so hard, right on my eye,
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    right on this bone under my eye that it knocked me over.
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    This is exactly what happens to us
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    when we try to walk through the dark
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    with no real spiritual light.
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    When we look to our mom, our bestie,
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    inspirational quotes on Instagram to help us get out,
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    we end up with a bike rack in our eye on the ground.
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    Where is that place where you're on the ground today?
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    Where is the place that you are in the dark
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    where you've tried to get out
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    and there's no light on your path?
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    Maybe you thought you'd forgiven someone
  • 00:25:31
    and you're still obsessing over it.
  • 00:25:33
    Maybe you keep getting fired.
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    Maybe you're thinking,
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    "Here I am in the holidays alone again."
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    For me, one of those places is
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    with somebody I love more than anyone else in the world,
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    it's with my husband.
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    And sometimes I need a way out
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    of the dark place that we go to.
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    I don't know, maybe you have this place.
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    We usually do with the people
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    that were in the most relationship with.
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    We have a dark place.
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    A place where we kind of
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    get lazy communicating with each other,
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    we're not very gentle,
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    maybe we're not very tender for a while.
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    And we look up and it feels a little distant,
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    it feels a little cold.
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    And I finally realize, "Oh, crap,
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    we're standing in the dark again."
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    I could keep going without a light.
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    I know how that goes.
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    Or, or I could ask Jesus to be who He promises to be.
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    I can hold Him to His Word and so can you.
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    He says, "I am the light. I am the way out.
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    I'm the lantern on the dark path."
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    And when I do this,
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    it usually starts with a little prayer,
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    something like, "Well, Jesus, here I am again.
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    How do I get out this time?"
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    And I can also tell you where I tend to go next,
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    and I don't know if you're going to like it,
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    because I know probably 80, 90% of us don't do this.
  • 00:26:59
    I have a question for you today.
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    If you are somebody that would desperately like
  • 00:27:04
    the light of Jesus to come into
  • 00:27:06
    whatever dark you're facing,
  • 00:27:08
    if you would raise your hand and say,
  • 00:27:09
    "Yep, I'm up for that," I have a question for you.
  • 00:27:13
    Are you exposing yourself to His light?
  • 00:27:16
    Are you reading His Word?
  • 00:27:18
    Are you opening your Bible?
  • 00:27:21
    There's light in there for you.
  • 00:27:24
    And I'm not going to apologize for asking you that,
  • 00:27:27
    because I know it's the challenge you need to hear.
  • 00:27:31
    Even though I know the answer is probably no,
  • 00:27:33
    but just like the Israelites were led
  • 00:27:37
    through night by a pillar of fire,
  • 00:27:39
    there is light in the Word of God for you.
  • 00:27:42
    There is light when you encounter a spirit there.
  • 00:27:44
    There is light when you follow His teachings there.
  • 00:27:47
    And the Psalm that says His Word is a lamp and a light
  • 00:27:51
    and that is what we need.
  • 00:27:52
    We need a lamp on our feet so we can
  • 00:27:55
    literally know the next step to take.
  • 00:27:57
    And we need a light on our path
  • 00:27:58
    so we can pick up our head
  • 00:28:00
    and have some clue where we're going next.
  • 00:28:02
    The Good News of Christmas is that no matter
  • 00:28:05
    how many times we find ourselves in the dark,
  • 00:28:09
    Jesus is the one who can make good on God's promise
  • 00:28:13
    to turn the darkness in front of us into the light.
  • 00:28:28
    Jesus is not just a lantern
  • 00:28:30
    that we carry along with us,
  • 00:28:31
    He's actually the lighted path that we walk on.
  • 00:28:35
    It would be amazing if today you said
  • 00:28:38
    something to God like this,
  • 00:28:40
    "I believe that you are the light of the world.
  • 00:28:43
    I think you're my way out and I need your light
  • 00:28:47
    to get out of the darkness that I'm in right now.
  • 00:28:50
    I've tried to do it on my own
  • 00:28:52
    and I want to follow you instead."
  • 00:28:55
    If you said a prayer like that,
  • 00:28:58
    Jesus becomes this amazing light in your life.
  • 00:29:02
    Ephesians 5:8 actually describes it by saying:
  • 00:29:13
    It doesn't say that we were in darkness without Jesus,
  • 00:29:18
    it actually says we were the darkness,
  • 00:29:21
    that you were the darkness.
  • 00:29:23
    But as we invite Him into those dark places in us
  • 00:29:28
    and in our life, we begin to change.
  • 00:29:31
    We become alive in a brand new way.
  • 00:29:33
    We exist in a realm of light
  • 00:29:35
    that we can't even see without Him.
  • 00:29:39
    And as soon as we invite Him in,
  • 00:29:41
    the path in front of us gets lighter and lighter
  • 00:29:44
    and we begin to see Him in ourselves
  • 00:29:47
    and the world around us in a way that
  • 00:29:49
    we are just blind to in the dark.
  • 00:29:51
    Have you ever been in the dark
  • 00:29:53
    and had someone come in and flip on the light?
  • 00:29:55
    I have to admit, I kind of like doing that
  • 00:29:57
    to my kids at 6:45 when I wake them up for school.
  • 00:30:00
    My boys are like, "Oh, Mom, the light stop."
  • 00:30:03
    It's one of those little things as a parent I enjoy.
  • 00:30:06
    But it's kind of how we are spiritually.
  • 00:30:08
    We get orientated to the dark,
  • 00:30:10
    especially when we've been asleep a long time
  • 00:30:13
    and sometimes it just feels better to stay there.
  • 00:30:17
    When we decide to invite the light of the world in
  • 00:30:22
    I'm here to tell you
  • 00:30:23
    it doesn't always feel warm and Christmas-y.
  • 00:30:26
    When the first light hits our eyes,
  • 00:30:28
    we might flash away.
  • 00:30:30
    We might feel a little exposed because light exposes.
  • 00:30:35
    It actually forces us to see things
  • 00:30:37
    that we didn't even know were there.
  • 00:30:39
    Now, listen, I had something big happen in my life
  • 00:30:42
    about a month ago, I got a new vacuum cleaner.
  • 00:30:45
    That's right, big day at the Patersons.
  • 00:30:48
    And this baby is not just any old vacuum cleaner.
  • 00:30:51
    It has a headlight.
  • 00:30:53
    And after the first time I used it, I decided,
  • 00:30:56
    "I think kind of like my old one better,"
  • 00:30:58
    because I was seeing a lot of stuff
  • 00:31:01
    I just wasn't seeing before,
  • 00:31:03
    like in the dark corner of my pantry
  • 00:31:05
    where I never really like to clean.
  • 00:31:07
    Sometimes we don't want to see what's in the dark.
  • 00:31:10
    We feel uncomfortable when we have to see it.
  • 00:31:13
    We feel exposed when we are looking
  • 00:31:16
    at things we don't want to see.
  • 00:31:17
    As a matter of fact, that's the word
  • 00:31:19
    that I've used for 2020, "exposed."
  • 00:31:23
    It really laid some things bare for me.
  • 00:31:26
    God wasn't, all for me,
  • 00:31:28
    He wasn't all, "Let's put a little light on it."
  • 00:31:30
    He was like Clark Griswold about it
  • 00:31:32
    and lit the whole thing up at once.
  • 00:31:34
    He showed me some things in myself that, frankly,
  • 00:31:37
    I would just rather not see.
  • 00:31:39
    Just to name a few, I'll just name a few.
  • 00:31:41
    I could go all day on this.
  • 00:31:43
    I'll just start with my anger
  • 00:31:46
    and the selfishness that came out of me
  • 00:31:48
    as my travel plans went up in smoke one after the next.
  • 00:31:55
    And how about maybe some of the thoughts
  • 00:31:57
    I had in my head
  • 00:31:58
    and they may have slipped out of my mouth,
  • 00:32:00
    but we need to beat them out here.
  • 00:32:03
    The things that I was thinking about my leaders,
  • 00:32:06
    maybe my governor or the school officials
  • 00:32:08
    during our little experiment with virtual learning
  • 00:32:11
    when I had four kids at three different schools.
  • 00:32:15
    Listen, I could justify all of these things
  • 00:32:17
    with a wink and a #2020,
  • 00:32:20
    or I can remember that this is what light does.
  • 00:32:25
    Light exposes.
  • 00:32:27
    And light, unlike the dark,
  • 00:32:28
    is actually where things can begin to grow and thrive.
  • 00:32:31
    And if you ask Jesus to begin to light up
  • 00:32:35
    the way out of your darkness,
  • 00:32:36
    it may not always feel Christmas cozy.
  • 00:32:38
    But this is the wrong time to turn back to the dark.
  • 00:32:43
    When the light first hits us, we have to reorient
  • 00:32:46
    and sometimes we just want to go back
  • 00:32:48
    to what we were before because
  • 00:32:50
    that's what our eyes are used to.
  • 00:32:52
    Don't do it, because with the light
  • 00:32:55
    comes all the good stuff.
  • 00:32:56
    Remember, the light is the presence of God Himself.
  • 00:33:00
    And with light comes the clarity that you need
  • 00:33:03
    for the situation you're in.
  • 00:33:04
    With light comes the goodness of God.
  • 00:33:06
    With light comes the truth.
  • 00:33:09
    And with light always comes
  • 00:33:12
    the invitation to something better,
  • 00:33:14
    the something that you are probably
  • 00:33:17
    searching for right now in your darkness.
  • 00:33:22
    When the light of the world starts to come in,
  • 00:33:25
    I just want to say, "Don't go back."
  • 00:33:27
    Don't go back, keep moving toward the light,
  • 00:33:30
    even if it feels uncomfortable,
  • 00:33:32
    even if it feels exposing,
  • 00:33:34
    even if you want to turn away,
  • 00:33:36
    because people who walk with Jesus
  • 00:33:38
    over a long period of time,
  • 00:33:40
    they end up walking on this path of light
  • 00:33:42
    that gets brighter and brighter
  • 00:33:44
    and brighter all the time.
  • 00:33:46
    Proverbs 4:18 says:
  • 00:33:54
    I love that and I don't think
  • 00:33:56
    it's some pattycake verse where we just
  • 00:33:58
    pretend we're happy, happy, and we deny
  • 00:34:01
    that there's clouds or shadows or valleys.
  • 00:34:03
    Rather, it's just this growing confidence
  • 00:34:06
    that when I walk on this path
  • 00:34:08
    and in this realm of light with God,
  • 00:34:11
    that I just have a confidence that
  • 00:34:14
    when that stuff comes, the light has not disappeared.
  • 00:34:18
    As a matter of fact, over time, our reality
  • 00:34:21
    gets orientated to the bigger and better reality
  • 00:34:25
    of the light of God.
  • 00:34:27
    And one day the great news is that
  • 00:34:31
    that light will be our only reality.
  • 00:34:33
    Jesus didn't just come that first Christmas,
  • 00:34:35
    He is coming again.
  • 00:34:38
    And when He returns,
  • 00:34:40
    He's going to gather up His people
  • 00:34:42
    and an eternity of light sustained by His life
  • 00:34:49
    is going to begin.
  • 00:34:50
    Revelation 22:5 says:
  • 00:35:06
    One day light wins.
  • 00:35:09
    One day our path never dark again.
  • 00:35:12
    One day we will walk freely with God
  • 00:35:14
    with nothing in our way, nothing to trip over,
  • 00:35:17
    and no darkness that calls us and pulls us back
  • 00:35:21
    to the place where we came from before.
  • 00:35:23
    This Christmas I want you to celebrate
  • 00:35:26
    the birth of the light of the world
  • 00:35:28
    by following the flicker of His light,
  • 00:35:30
    by inviting Him to be the path of light
  • 00:35:33
    that you walk every single day of your life on.
  • 00:35:36
    Because one day I know that where you're going
  • 00:35:39
    is you are going to find yourself
  • 00:35:41
    completely surrounded by His glory and His light
  • 00:35:45
    and His beauty, and it will never, ever end.
  • 00:35:50
    Lord, I thank You for Your light.
  • 00:35:52
    I thank You for Christmas.
  • 00:35:55
    I thank You for this time of year
  • 00:35:57
    when we're focused on You.
  • 00:35:58
    And when we are, I pray that You would
  • 00:36:00
    come into those dark places and invite us
  • 00:36:03
    into your light. In Jesus's name. Amen.
  • 00:36:07
    Because of Jesus we have light,
  • 00:36:11
    we also have hope and joy.
  • 00:36:13
    Let's sing this together.
  • 00:37:22
    Hey, thanks for joining us today.
  • 00:37:24
    And don't let your experience stop here,
  • 00:37:26
    we'd love to pray for you or help you
  • 00:37:27
    find the next step on your spiritual adventure.
  • 00:37:30
    Just chat with us at Crossroads.net
  • 00:37:32
    in the lower right hand corner.
  • 00:37:34
    Next week here at Crossroads,
  • 00:37:35
    Brian is heading to a Christmas tree farm
  • 00:37:38
    and he's going to cut down a tree,
  • 00:37:39
    even though there's plenty already chopped down.
  • 00:37:42
    That guy's never going to pass up a chance to use an ax.
  • 00:37:46
    He's going to talk about how Jesus
  • 00:37:48
    is not just the light, but he's also the lamb.
  • 00:37:51
    Don't miss it. We'll see you then.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. The questions below are for the weekend of Dec 5th & 6th.

  1. This year, more than ever, it seems like everyone is ready for Christmas. What are you most excited about this season? And Why?

  2. 2020 has likely either made you aware of dark places, or honestly, could have created some darkness in our lives we might not want to see. Where do you feel darkness in your life? (Hey, we all have something and we get power from light to overcome that darkness when we name it. Darkness is uncomfortable, but give it a try.)

  3. Read Isaiah 42:16. Jesus is light in any darkness, and can give us a path out of the darkness. Brainstorm ways you can experience more light by being in relationship with Jesus this season.

  4. Read Psalm 119:105. To experience light, we just have to take a step in that direction. What’s one way you can keep walking towards light this week?

  5. Close your time taking turns praying or one person say this one over the group, “Jesus, thank you for being light. Thank you for the gift of Christmas. Come into those dark places in our lives and show us the path to light. Help us to follow you there. Amen.

More from the Weekend

One way to be the church this season is to bring hope to a family by participating in the Christmas Gift Drive. Learn more here.

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Dec 5, 2020 37 mins 55 sec

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