Christmas With Crossroads

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- Well, hey, I'm Andy,

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and this is Christmas with Crossroads.

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I just want to wish you a very merry Christmas.

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I heard somebody say recently that the Bible

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isn't just stories of things that happened

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thousands of years ago,

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they're stories of what God is still doing today.

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And today we're going to be looking at how

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God wants to bring light into the darkness

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and bring breakthrough into your life and world.

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And Christmas is a perfect representation of that.

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To participate today, there's two things

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we want you to grab that we'll use later.

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First, your phone. It's already in your hands.

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Secondly, go find a candle.

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And if you have kids with you, like I do,

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I've got a seven, five and three year old,

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head to Crossroads Kids Club for some amazing videos

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and content just for them.

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Merry Christmas. Let's get started.

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[music: Silver Bells]

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[music: Joy to the World]

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[music: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing]

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[music: The First Noel]

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- Throughout time, the way we celebrate Christmas

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has changed, but the story of Christmas hasn't.

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2000 years ago at Christmas, Jesus broke into our world.

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There is something under the surface

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hidden in the Christmas story for us to uncover.

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Jesus didn't just break through at Christmas 2000 years ago,

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He's still breaking through in lives today.

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And He wants to break through in your life, if you let Him.

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When Jesus is here, everything changes.

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[music: When Jesus is Here]

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- An angel of the Lord came to Mary and said,

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"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

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Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

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and you shall call his name Jesus.

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He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

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And the Lord God will give to Him

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the throne of his father, David,

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and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever

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and of His kingdom there will be no end,

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for nothing will be impossible with God."

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When the time came for her to give birth,

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and she gave birth to her firstborn son

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and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths

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and laid Him in a manger,

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because there was no place for them in the inn.

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And in the same region, there were shepherds

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out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.

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And the angel said to them, "Fear not,

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for behold, I bring you good news of great joy

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that will be for all the people.

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For unto you is born this day in the City of David,

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a savior who is Christ the Lord.

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And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby

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wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

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And suddenly there was with the angel

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a multitude of the heavenly host praising God

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and saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth,

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peace amongst those with whom He is pleased."

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Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea

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in the days of Herod the King, behold wise men

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from the east came to Jerusalem saying, "Where is he

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who has been born king of the Jews?

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For we saw His star when it rose

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and have come to worship Him."

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- Hi, my name is Brian.

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I am what's known as the senior pastor

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here at Crossroads.

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Welcome and Merry Christmas.

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Yeah, let's pray before we go any further. Okay?

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God, I'm thankful for this holiday.

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And more importantly,

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I'm thankful for what it represents.

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And I pray that today we get a better sense

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of Christmas, a better understanding of You,

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and an actual breakthrough in every life that's with us today.

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And I pray these things according to the character

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and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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Why did Jesus come?

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Why do we celebrate this holiday known as Christmas,

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or originally as Christ's Mass?

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Why is it?

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Was it because we needed another national holiday

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to celebrate, is that why it is?

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Is it because we all needed obligations

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to buy things for people we didn't have enough money for

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and go into deeper credit card debt?

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Is that what it was?

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Do we have this time because we all just love

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seeing nice Christmas lights?

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All those things may be true, to a degree,

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but we have this time set up all across the world

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to celebrate the birth of Jesus because

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it represented a breakthrough.

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I'm wondering if there's anybody with us

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who wants a breakthrough.

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Anybody want a breakthrough?

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I mean, a breakthrough in your family,

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in your personal life, physically, intellectually,

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emotionally, your relationships, your finances, your job.

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I just find again and again and again

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I'm not satisfied with where I am.

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I want to go some place else.

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And sometimes we want to go some place else

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and we just don't have the capacities

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in and of our natural selves.

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That is the message of Christmas.

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Christmas is about God breaking through

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to come to this world, to take you and I spiritually

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to a place that we can't naturally go.

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To come to an understanding of God,

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come to a place of spiritual potency,

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come to a place of shalom, of wholeness in our lives.

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Why is it that we don't have more breakthroughs in our life?

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One reason, I believe, is that we're afraid to.

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We don't have a breakthrough

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because we're not at that place yet

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and we're not sure exactly what that might be like.

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We maybe want to get rid of the pain and difficulty

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of where we are right now, but that would cause us

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doing difficult things that we haven't done before.

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That is tough.

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That would cause us to fear different practices

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that we haven't incorporated in our lives.

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That would cause us to maybe picture a place

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that we've never been before.

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And when there's a place you haven't been before,

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there is understandably fear.

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Our country is wracked with fear.

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It's wracked with anxiety on a bunch of different levels.

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Doesn't matter who you are, how old you are,

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or what side of the aisle you sit on,

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what your skin tone is, what your economic status is,

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there's never been a people,

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according to studies I've seen,

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that's more anxious and more fearful

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than we are right now in modern day America.

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I think that makes it difficult for us to have a breakthrough.

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When Jesus came into the world, it was a breakthrough.

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And over and over, people who encountered Him

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or that Christmas story had fear.

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Let me read you this.

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We actually we just saw this on this video.

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Let me just highlight one of the verses.

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It says this in Luke chapter two, it says:

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Filled with great fear.

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And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold,

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I bring you good news of great joy

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that will be for all the people."

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The shepherds had fear.

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This was a breakthrough moment and they were a bit scared.

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So if you feel scared, if you have a little fear,

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hey, you're in good company.

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Somebody hears the Christmas story felt the way you do.

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And then the book of Matthew, we see how Mary

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has miraculously been given a child inside of her womb.

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People don't believe this.

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She's going to be accused of things for the rest of her life.

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Jesus is going to be accused of not having

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a natural father for the rest of His life.

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It's going to be a very tenuous situation.

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Joseph, her future husband, knows about this.

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Joseph is freaked out.

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"I don't want to go through with this marriage.

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This is too much."

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And here's actually what happens to Joseph,

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while he's sleeping there's a dream that comes to him

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and it says this in Matthew 2:10.

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Oh, no. Wrong one. I'm sorry. Not that one.

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Don't you hate when you have the wrong place

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in your Bible marked?

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It's just you have a nice, finely tuned service

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with nice lighting cues and videos,

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and you realize you have the wrong one in your Bible.

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But that's all right, because you've actually been

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to seminary and you know the Bible a little bit.

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So you just turn the page.

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You turn the page, and here it says:

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But as he considered these things, behold,

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an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,

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saying, "Joseph, son of David,

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do not fear to take Mary as your wife."

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Do not fear.

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This was a breakthrough

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of cataclysmically cosmic proportions.

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And everybody who is connected with it

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that we read about has fear.

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I want you to know, if you're looking

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for something different and you're looking for God

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to bring you a different gift this Christmas

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and you're looking for a breakthrough

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and you feel a little tentative or uncertain about it,

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it's oh, okay.

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God can handle your fear.

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He's not judging you because of your anxiety.

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In fact, He may have come just because you and I are anxious.

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This may be the very reason Jesus came.

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It was a breakthrough into the world

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for God Himself to come into the world.

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Yes, it was a virgin birth. I know that sounds crazy.

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A lot of us are afraid to believe that because

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we might be ridiculed or accused of being uneducated.

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The Bible is not an easy book to justify and understand.

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If the Bible wanted it to be easy to believe,

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stories of virgin births wouldn't be in the Bible.

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The biblical writers knew they were writing something

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that would be hard to understand, but they wrote it

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because it was history, because it was true,

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because it was God breaking through right here.

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God can do miraculous things.

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If He can bring a baby to a virgin,

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He can bring a breakthrough to you.

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And the way He brings the breakthrough is through Jesus,

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not through our hard work, through Jesus.

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Now, when you came in today, you got --

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You got a little card with you.

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And we're going to do something with that card.

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I want us to --

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I want us to have a minute of reflection,

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as much as we can reflect with little squirmy kids

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who are in our room with us right now.

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And I wanted to take a minute,

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and I want you to write down over the next minutes,

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identify and tell God what is the breakthrough

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that you're waiting for, or the breakthroughs?

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Let's identify them and give them right now to God.

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- There's something that I'd love for you to do for me.

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I want you to reflect.

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I want you to consider what's an area of your life

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that you want to experience breakthrough in.

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We'd love to see God show up and bring breakthrough for you.

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Second, I want you to do something with that.

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I actually want you to text the word breakthrough

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to 301301 and follow the prompts.

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And do this right now, because later in the service,

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there's actually going to be an interactive moment.

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There's really good stuff.

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But take this seriously.

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God wants to meet you in this place,

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and I believe you can experience breakthrough this Christmas.

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[Silent Night]

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- Growing up as a child, I knew of God,

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but I didn't have a relationship,

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didn't have parents, didn't have any siblings

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or anyone to take me to church.

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At the age of 20, I started searching for a church home

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and searching for something more because

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working a life in emergency service,

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I was witnessing death on a regular basis.

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At the age of 41 and at Man Camp in the woods,

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away from all the distractions, that is where God found me.

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- I asked God for help.

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God broke through my life when I attended Man Camp.

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I prayed for healing and He restored me.

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I needed that direction and He gave it to me.

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- He restored my relationship with my bonus kids.

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Jesus broke through my life in a real way,

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showing me that love can flow in blended relationships.

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- Jesus didn't just break into the world

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and break through 2000 years ago,

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Jesus is still breaking through

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and giving breakthroughs today.

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And he could do that for you today, this year

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or next year, in about a week or so.

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This is a part of my story this past year.

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You might be like me, you might not be like me.

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But I'll tell you one thing about me,

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the last two, three years has been incredibly difficult,

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very difficult, very tense, a lot of second guessing,

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a lot of regrets, a lot of just difficult stuff.

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It's been a period of time

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in which I've just gone through the motions.

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And I've gone through the motions

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as an act of faithfulness.

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Not like I'm faking it, like, I know the right things to do.

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I'm just going to do the right things

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even though I'm not feeling it.

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And it has been incredibly difficult.

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And then about halfway through this past year,

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I had a significant and massive breakthrough.

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I've been, the last six months have been some of

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the best six months I've ever had of my life.

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Say, like, "Brian, what kind of breakthroughs?"

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Well, I'll give you a few.

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Lib and I had a breakthrough in our marriage.

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And I can't even say when it happened

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or how it happened.

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I can say that we've had a lot of conversations.

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We've been -- we've seen people.

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We've tried new behaviors, we've done new behaviors,

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and we've always done those kind of things

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to one degree or another.

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And they've had some good effect.

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But something happened within the last six months

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to give us a breakthrough.

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We are more intimate and more in love

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and having a better marriage maybe than we ever have.

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It was a breakthrough by the grace of God,

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not a breakthrough by me, not a breakthrough by her,

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a breakthrough by the grace of God.

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And it's not like things were awful either,

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they just went to another level.

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I had -- I've had in the last year,

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I've been a part of more miraculous healings

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than I ever have in any other year.

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It's been a crazy year with that.

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One time I was around praying with a group of people,

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a person who was sick.

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We had our hands on him and we were praying for him

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and we got done, "Okay. And anything different?"

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He said, "No, nothing different."

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Asked him the next day, "Anything different?"

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"No, nothing different."

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I said, "Okay, well, that's the way it goes most of the time.

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It's called a miracle.

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It's not called a way you pray to always have what you want."

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Well, what do you know?

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One of the people who was there around that group

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as we were praying has had a hearing problem,

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she's had no hearing in one of her ears for,

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I think, her whole life, at least years and years.

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As we were praying for God's healing,

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she got healed of her hearing.

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And she has a 100% hearing in both ears.

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That is, friends, is called a breakthrough.

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That's what that is.

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And it's not something that you can manufacture.

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It's not something that you can strong arm.

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I am right now -- I am --

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Well, I'm officially part of

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the Association of American Retired People. I am.

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I'm not actually paying dues,

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but I've been getting their letters for years now.

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Bothers me every time it comes in the mail, bothers me.

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But yes, I am 57 years old.

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And to many of you, that makes me a very, very old man.

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And at minimum, I'm older than I was last year.

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And you are, too.

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And you're going to be older next year

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than you are right now.

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Something happens to you as you age,

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where you get more set in your ways

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and you justify the beliefs you've always had

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and you try to conserve what you have,

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you try to conserve your way of life.

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And what this does is it keeps you from having

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a breakthrough and dreaming about a future.

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It keeps you from stretching yourself

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and trying new things to bring about something that is new.

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And the Book of Acts Chapter one it talks about

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what happens in later times when the Spirit of God

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gets upon His people who have Jesus.

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Here's what it says:

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What does it mean to dream a dream?

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It's not the stupid crazy ones I have

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that mean nothing inside of my bed at night.

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It means old men, old women, older people

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who are set in their ways and who just have

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a certain belief and conviction about things,

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new things will pop up in your minds.

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New ideas.

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I've had more new ideas and new things I want to do

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over the last five months I've had since I was 40,

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30 years old, I've had in this area a breakthrough.

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Now, these are just three of my legitimate,

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real breakthroughs that I would not have seen coming

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six months ago or 12 months ago.

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And I say this to encourage you.

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There are things that

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you may not be able to understand and fathom.

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I tell you what, if Jesus can come and break into the world,

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He can break into your life

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and He can break something through your life.

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The birth of Jesus in a town called Bethlehem

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with a baby placed in a manger tells us about

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the love of God for you and how God has come for you

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and how God is for you.

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We have to believe that He loves us

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and believe that Christmas means there is

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a new breakthrough coming.

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Now, again, I want us to have another minute here,

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and I want you to take out your little paper

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that you got again.

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You wrote down

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maybe something you want to break through before.

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And now I'd like you to take that paper

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and I'd like you to pray.

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Just write down a prayer.

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Maybe just tell God right now how you're feeling,

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what you're thinking.

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Or tell Him just silently, if you want to murmur it,

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where you are right now.

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God, I pray, as You have a mind to read

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all of these sheets of paper

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and you have the ear to hear every prayer.

00:33:12

Lord, we're wanting breakthrough.

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[music: God of the Breakthrough]

00:37:31

- The other thing that happens in the Christmas story

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again and again is worship.

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Whenever you have a breakthrough,

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whenever something happens that you can't determine,

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that you can't dictate, that you can't control,

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you're reminded that there's a God and you're not Him.

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And you're reminded that there's an entity

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that's brought about the miracle of Christmas

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and maybe bringing about the breakthrough for you,

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and He's worthy of being worshiped.

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Just like earlier I mentioned that time and again,

00:37:59

people are afraid at this initial breakthrough

00:38:01

of Christmas, the other thing that happens

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over and over again is they worship.

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That means they choose to put themselves

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under a God who always has been above them,

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they just recognize it.

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They put themselves under God,

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and then they lift their hearts up to God.

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They say things to Him as the angels say things to God

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in the presence of the shepherd of,

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"Glory to God in the highest."

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They sing things, or as the Magi, they kneel down.

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They kneeled before this child,

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who they may be older than,

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but they are far, far less than.

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They actually bring gifts and blessed Him with them.

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It says this in the book of Matthew 2:10:

00:38:46

And when they saw the star,

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they rejoiced exceedingly with joy.

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This is what worship does for us.

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We put ourselves under God, we rejoice.

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And going into the house,

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they saw the child with Mary, his mother,

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and they fell down and worshiped Him.

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And then opening their treasures,

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they offered Him gifts,

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gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

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The greatest gift that we can give

00:39:12

the one who is giving us or will give us a breakthrough

00:39:16

or already did give us a spiritual breakthrough

00:39:19

over 2000 years ago is our hearts,

00:39:22

and our hearts in worship.

00:39:24

That's we're going to do right now.

00:39:25

We're going to spend some time

00:39:26

worshiping Him with our voices.

00:39:29

He doesn't care how bad your voice sounds.

00:39:32

He doesn't even care how great your voice sounds.

00:39:34

He just loves to hear your voice.

00:39:36

And He knows that your voice is you give it to Him,

00:39:38

you're giving it to him as an offering of worship.

00:39:41

You're telling him, "God, I want your power

00:39:44

and I want to acknowledge Your power.

00:39:46

That's what I'm putting myself under You and singing."

00:39:49

So why don't we stand right now?

00:39:52

And why don't we worship Him together?

00:40:04

- All right, let's put our hands together.

00:40:07

Kids in the room, why don't you stand on a chair.

00:40:09

We're going to have some fun. Let's celebrate. Come on.

00:40:13

[music: Joy to the World]

00:43:34

- Let's sing to this King Jesus.

00:43:37

[music: Reign Above It All]

00:48:55

- Those words, you reign above it all, they're true.

00:48:58

They're true and they're true about

00:49:00

those dark spots in your and my life.

00:49:02

Those dark spots in your and my history.

00:49:05

And so what we're about to do, lighting candles,

00:49:08

isn't just a Christmas tradition.

00:49:10

It's actually a beautiful representation of God

00:49:12

bringing light and life to those dark places.

00:49:16

A candle on its own is nothing to write home about.

00:49:18

It's inert, it's dead, there's nothing there.

00:49:21

But when you light it, it can spread.

00:49:25

It can bring light and life and peace to whatever space.

00:49:30

And that spreads from person to person.

00:49:31

So I want you to light those candles now

00:49:34

as a spiritual representation of the breakthrough

00:49:36

and the light that God's bring into your life.

00:49:38

And watch as we do that together.

00:49:58

[music: O Holy Night]

00:55:13

- Go ahead and blow out your candles.

00:55:14

We're going to continue worshiping.

00:55:31

Let's sing this song together.

00:55:34

[O Come All Ye Faithful]

01:00:07

- Well, hey, we hope you enjoyed today

01:00:08

and that something impacted you in a powerful way.

01:00:11

If that's the case for you, I'd love to hear from you.

01:00:14

Shoot me an email, Andy.Reider@crossroads.net.

01:00:16

I want to connect with you.

01:00:17

And we want to do anything and everything we can

01:00:19

to encourage you in your spiritual adventure with God.

01:00:22

Hey, we do stuff like this all the time.

01:00:24

We actually have an amazing New Year service

01:00:26

coming up next week.

01:00:28

Make sure you check it out. Merry Christmas.

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