WEBVTT

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 But before getting there, let me ask you to reflect for yourselves.

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 How good are you at giving gifts?

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 Honestly, my performance is fairly patchy.

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 A couple of particular low points spring to mind.

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 My poor mom suffers the low points.

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 When I was young and I had a little bit of money,

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 I very excitedly went to the local gift shop,

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 I came back to give my mom a lovely tax disc with some nice poetry on it.

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 Sounds great, doesn't it?

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 Except for the fact that my mom couldn't drive and we didn't have a car.

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 That was a slight fail.

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 Another time, I remember going to visit my cousins for a week in the summer,

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 came back with a gift that every mom surely would love,

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 a key ring with a mobile sewing kit on it.

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 My mom's so gracious.

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 She still has it to this day, I think.

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 When it comes to giving gifts,

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 it's something that can maybe make us feel a little bit anxious.

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 Did we choose right?

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 Will they want it?

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 Will they use it?

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 Will it be just what they need?

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 Will we see that person's face light up when they open the present or not?

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 Thinking about it from the other side,

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 what's at the top of your own personal wish list this Christmas?

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 We all have one.

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 Maybe they're just in our heads, but we all probably have one.

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 How do you make it known?

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 That's one of the challenges.

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 Are you the kind of drop the subtle hint person,

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 maybe a few weeks, even months before the time?

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 Are you at that stage where you simply just choose your own?

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 Are you the right, a list kind of person?

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 There's lots of different ways that we think on,

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 what is it that I would want?

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 How would you fill in this blank this Christmas?

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 I came across a little phrase from St. Augustine.

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 Way back in the 5th century,

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 you may have read Augustine's Confessions at school or university or somewhere.

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 He said this, and there's going to be a blank.

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 Two things that are essential in this world,

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 life and what?

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 How would you fill that?

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 What would come next?

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 Would it be the item at the top of your wish list,

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 or would you think bigger?

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 Let me tell you what Augustine said.

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 Augustine said,

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 two things are essential in this world,

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 life and friendship.

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 Interesting to reflect on that for ourselves.

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 What I want us to do this evening, very briefly,

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 is to consider God's great gift to us,

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 what we think about at Christmas,

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 his son Jesus coming to be Lord and Savior,

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 and to see how that very much connects to the theme of friendship.

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 Because we discover in the Bible

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 that one of the great news of Christmas

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 is that Jesus invites us into friendship with God.

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 In Matthew chapter 1 and verse 23,

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 you read this,

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 Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son,

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 and they shall call his name Emmanuel,

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 which translated means God with us.

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 See how in loads of carols you get that name,

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 that title,

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 Emmanuel, God with us.

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 There is a loneliness epidemic in society,

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 we're told.

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 Maybe we've experienced it.

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 And certainly in our own local community

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 around the church here in Edinburgh,

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 that's certainly true.

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 There are many elderly folks who feel isolated at home.

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 There are single parents who are lacking support.

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 There are international students who move across the world

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 and struggle to adapt to a new culture.

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 There are many people around us

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 living with a sense of sadness.

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 I have no one to be with me

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 in this moment in my life.

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 One of the things,

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 and maybe we've experienced this for ourselves,

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 Christmas can do two things in our experience emotionally.

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 It can heighten our joy,

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 absolutely,

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 as we think about all the excitement and family,

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 but it can also heighten our sorrow.

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 So some of us will be looking forward

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 to the big family meal and friends

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 coming to share that with us perhaps,

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 but for others,

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 there's that sense of deep sadness

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 because of who won't be at the table

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 and coping with that sense of loss and sorrow.

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 You and I were made for friendship.

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 We were made for community,

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 for relationship.

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 We were made to know and be known.

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 That's one of the things that the Bible says to us

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 right at the beginning.

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 But we know from experience often

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 that friendships can become distant

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 or strained,

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 and they can be lost.

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 So we struggle with that.

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 So the title of Jesus, Emmanuel,

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 comes to us as a precious gift from God himself.

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 God himself becomes one of us in Jesus

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 to be the God who is with us.

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 And that's good news for us

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 because on the one hand,

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 it reminds us that God in his goodness

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 has sent Jesus to come and fix

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 the broken relationship between people and God,

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 that all is not well with us and God

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 because of our sin and our guilt,

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 and Jesus has come to deal with that.

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 And when we understand that

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 and when we understand what Jesus has come to do,

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 the result is that we're invited

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 into a friendship with God himself.

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 We're invited into this friendship

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 that can never be lost

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 and that can never be broken.

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 That we're invited into a friendship

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 with Jesus himself

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 who promises to his people,

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 I will be with you always.

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 Always.

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 And so there is the good news

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 of friendship with God

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 that's offered at Christmas,

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 that nobody need ever feel alone

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 when we have Jesus in heaven

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 as our Savior and our friend,

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 the one who promises to be with us always.

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 So Jesus comes to offer that friendship with God,

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 but the next question that we have is,

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 well, how does he do that?

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 And again, in our Christmas story,

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 in Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21,

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 we're told this.

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 This is the angel speaking to Joseph.

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 She will bear a son

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 and you shall call his name Jesus,

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 for he will save his people from their sins.

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 There is a name there, Jesus,

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 which means God saves.

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 Hopefully that helps us

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 to understand the mission of Jesus

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 and the friendship that he offers.

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 So in our culture,

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 the meaning of names is not such a big deal.

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 I don't know whether you know

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 the meaning of your own name.

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 Some of us do, perhaps.

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 In other cultures, it's a very big deal.

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 All kinds of hopes and promises

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 tied up to a person's name.

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 But for us, not such a big deal.

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 But if you were to go back 2,000 years,

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 go back to the time of Jesus

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 for the ancient Jewish community,

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 names were a really big deal.

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 Jesus' name means God saves.

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 Jesus, we're told from the beginning,

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 is a baby who will become a man

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 who is on a mission,

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 a mission to save.

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 And we're told in our Bible verse

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 that he's come to save people

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 from their sins.

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 And that's important

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 because it ties up to friendship.

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 And when we think about some of the sins,

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 some of the issues

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 that we have in our own life,

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 we think about selfishness, for example,

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 or pride, or anger,

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 or our lies, or lack of love.

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 Those are things

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 that cause friendships to suffer.

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 Those are things that cause friendships

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 sometimes to break down.

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 Either we are responsible

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 or another party is responsible,

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 but either way,

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 those kind of sins,

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 those relational sins,

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 cause real problems.

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 Now, when it comes to our relationship

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 with God,

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 what's clear from the Bible

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 is that all the wrong

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 is on our side.

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 God has been a perfect friend,

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 offering perfect friendship,

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 but because of our failures,

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 we have caused the relationship

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 to break down.

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 With the result that,

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 we're missing out on this true friendship

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 that we were made for.

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 That we should be friends of God,

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 we should enjoy His love,

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 but instead,

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 we turn our back on God.

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 Sometimes we even treat God

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 as if He were our enemy.

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 And again,

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 the solution to that breakdown

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 is God's gift to us

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 in giving us Jesus.

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 Jesus comes on that mission

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 to save us from our sin

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 so He can bring us back to God.

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 Jesus talks about friendship.

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 He defines friendship in this way.

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 He says,

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 greater love has no one than this,

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 than that He lay down His life

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 for His friend.

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 So the mission of Jesus

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 is to die for His friend.

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 The mission of Jesus

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 is to show just how much

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 God loves the world He created.

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 We understand in our own friendships

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 that there is an aspect of self-sacrifice

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 that must lie at the heart of that.

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 It can't just be all about

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 what I want in a relationship.

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 We need to sacrifice for the other.

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 And that's what we see perfectly

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 in the life of Jesus.

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 From His coming to be born in the stable

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 to His going to die on the cross,

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 Jesus is on that journey of self-sacrifice.

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 He's giving Himself

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 to turn enemies into friends.

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 He's dying to forgive us

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 and to bring us peace with God.

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 With the result that,

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 when we enjoy friendship with God,

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 we are never alone,

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 nor are we ever unknown,

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 wherever life happens to take us.

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 And we get to enjoy a love

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 that lasts for now

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 and that lasts for all eternity.

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 There's one last benefit

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 of friendship with God.

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 When we have that ourselves,

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 we can be better friends also

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 to the people around us.

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 It's generally true

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 that we tend to become

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 more like the people

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 that we spend time with.

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 So if we spend time with Jesus,

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 we'll begin to adopt His habits

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 and His patterns.

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 We'll invite others in.

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 We'll respond to the loneliness

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 that we see.

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 We'll seek to make peace

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 with others.

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 So maybe as we reflect on Christmas,

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 as we reflect on gifts

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 and what really matters,

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 maybe we'll agree with Augustine

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 that life, for sure,

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 but also friendship

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 are essential in our world.

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 Friendship with one another

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 in our families,

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 in our communities,

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 but also the joy of friendship

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 with God.

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 God,

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 as we humble as Hewan.

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 I'll see you next time.

00:11:24.780 --> 00:11:24.820
 I'll see you next time.

00:11:25.500 --> 00:11:26.560
 I'll see you next time.

00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:30.720
 How about I'm going to find

00:11:31.140 --> 00:11:31.840
 in your Crow tweet?

00:11:31.900 --> 00:11:32.460
 Now,

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 let's play for me.

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 How about I'm going to play

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 in my Monaten

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 in my room for God?

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 And I'm going to try