WEBVTT

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 Well, good morning and happy Christmas.

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 We're going to read from John chapter 1 this morning.

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 We're going to read the first four verses and then go from 9 to 14.

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 John chapter 1, beginning at verse 1.

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 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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 He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

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 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

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 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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 And then down to verse 9.

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 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

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 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

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 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

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 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

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 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

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 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.

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 And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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 This is the Word of the Lord.

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 Well, good morning, everyone.

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 Merry Christmas.

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 Well, we're celebrating the birth of Jesus, and it reminded me that Sam was asking about his birth.

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 I've got a photo of him as a baby when he just came out of the womb.

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 And his story was an emergency C-section.

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 And so Emma had done all the hard work and still knocked out on the operating table.

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 And I had the privilege of holding Sam on my chest for the first time.

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 And it's a joyous news, isn't it, when someone's born?

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 It's a new beginning, the start of his story.

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 And it's not like we can tell Sam's story on his own.

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 He was born into family.

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 I think all our stories is about family, and Christmas is about family, isn't it?

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 So when we come to the story of Jesus, where do we start?

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 We picture that nativity scene, and we're talking about birth.

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 It feels like we're at the start of the story.

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 But then John, that's not where he starts.

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 That's not the start of Jesus' story.

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 To explain it, I'm going to get the kids up front, okay?

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 So kids, any kids here?

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 Do you want to come up on stage?

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 This is time for you.

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 And you're going to have to see the screen.

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 So sit here.

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 Make sure you can see the screen, kids.

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 Well, kids, John begins the book of the story about Jesus in the beginning.

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 And he says that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit made the world, made everything.

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 This means that Jesus, he made the world that he would be born into.

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 So we're just going to remember that story, and we've got some pictures to help us remember.

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 In the beginning, there was nothing.

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 Nothing.

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 That's kind of something on the screen.

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 Nothing.

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 Nothing except God.

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 And then God said, come, light.

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 And the light came.

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 God filled the daytime sky with the sun and filled the nighttime sky with the moon and stars.

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 And God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit made the world.

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 Jesus made the world he would be born into.

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 And then God said, come, sky, come.

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 And God filled the sky with birds of all kinds.

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 And then God said, come, sea, come.

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 And the sea came.

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 And God filled the sea with fish and creatures of all kinds.

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 God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit made the world.

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 Jesus made the world that he would be born into.

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 And then God said, come, land, come.

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 And the land came.

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 And God filled the land with plants of all kinds.

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 And God also filled the land with animals of all kinds.

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 God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit made the world.

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 And that means Jesus made the world that he would be born into.

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 But he's still not finished.

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 Finally, God said, come, people.

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 God made people.

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 God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit made the world.

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 Jesus made the world that he would be born into.

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 Isn't that amazing?

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 That he made the world so that he could come into it and know us.

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 He's the one who made us.

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 I don't know if you've got a tag on your shirt.

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 Mine says Connor.

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 So thank you, Connor Shadwick.

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 Did you make...

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 You made my...

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 Thanks, Connor.

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 It must be a different Connor.

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 These tags, they tell us who made our clothes.

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 And it's like there's a tag on each of us and a tag on the whole world saying,

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 made by Jesus.

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 Isn't that amazing?

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 And he came into the world.

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 How about we pray?

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 Let's pray.

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 Dear Jesus, thank you for making us and the whole world.

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 And thank you for coming into this world so that we can know you.

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 Amen.

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 All right.

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 Thanks, kids.

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 Do you want to go on back?

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 So that's where John starts his story of Jesus.

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 That's the start of Jesus' story.

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 He made the world that he was going to be born into.

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 So at Christmas time, we're picking up in the middle of the story when he comes into his world.

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 We celebrate that the word, talking about the self-expression of God, you get to know me through my words.

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 The word, the self-expression of God became flesh.

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 That word is like meat.

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 It meted himself.

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 I think sometimes we can think of God as the rule maker.

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 And he is the one who makes sure everyone follows the rules.

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 Or we think of God as power.

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 There's nothing too wrong about that.

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 It's just not complete.

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 Because the story of Christmas is that God has revealed himself fully as a human being.

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 That's crazy.

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 I know some of us are used to hearing that.

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 But it's the biggest miracle in the Bible that God became a human being.

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 It means we can think of God, think of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus.

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 He has all authority.

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 At his word, a dead man comes to life.

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 But he's also flesh and blood.

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 He's with Mary and he's weeping.

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 He's crying with her.

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 That's how flesh and blood he is.

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 We can know God in his son.

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 He wants to be known.

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 That's why he came into the world.

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 I don't know if you've opened presents yet.

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 But we already have.

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 And it was a great time.

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 What I'm about to say didn't happen for us.

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 But doesn't it hurt when you put all this thought into giving someone a gift

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 and they look at it and you can tell on their face.

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 They can't hide.

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 Oh, thank you.

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 They can't hide it.

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 That they're disappointed.

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 You're laughing because we've all been there.

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 The sad thing is Jesus came to this world not to give us stuff,

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 although he does give us all we have.

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 He came to give us himself.

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 And John tells us God can see the look on our face.

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 We can't hide it.

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 The whole world rejected him.

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 All of us are disappointed.

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 We don't want him.

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 We want him at a distance.

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 We don't want him too close.

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 The world put him on a cross.

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 And he came into the world knowing that would happen.

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 Why did he do it?

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 Well, he came to make us family, is what we hear in the opening of John's Gospel.

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 Jesus became what we were so that we could become what he is.

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 A son of God.

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 Children of the Father.

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 Born into a new family.

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 And he did it by going to that cross so that we could become family.

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 Sam wanted Christmas lights this year, so we took the plunge.

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 And really, I wanted to do it.

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 It was an excuse to buy Christmas lights.

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 And there was something unexpected that happened.

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 I loved looking at it, and we love enjoying them together.

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 But as I walked into my front door, I used to struggle to find the key in the da.

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 I couldn't see.

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 And one of the unexpected things about the Christmas lights is I could see.

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 Oh, great.

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 There's my key.

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 Off I go.

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 Now, this is a pretty poor illustration.

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 But Jesus came into the world as light so that we can enter the family home easily.

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 Sorry for the poor illustration.

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 But Jesus has come so that we can come into God's family home easily.

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 We can see God.

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 We can see what he's like.

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 And we can just walk right in.

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 Verse 12 says,

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 To all who received Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

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 Like, family is the best thing about Christmas, isn't it?

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 Like, I think we're pretty agreed on that.

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 I saw this awful post on Lake Macquarie Local's Facebook page yesterday.

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 I don't know if anyone saw this.

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 But the person...

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 Anyway, I don't know why they decided this was a good idea to post this.

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 If anyone is alone with no one to spend Christmas with, please let me know.

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 I need to borrow some chairs.

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 I know we're laughing because it's shocking.

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 I laugh too.

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 It's black humour, isn't it?

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 Very.

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 Because there are people today, they can't wait till Christmas is over.

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 Because it just reminds them that they've got no family.

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 The good news of Jesus is where, if you accept him, you're born of God.

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 Even those who are alone today can know they're in the family of God.

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 Wow.

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 And there's a family reunion coming.

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 That's why Jesus came.

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 So that's the middle of Jesus' story.

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 What's the end?

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 What's the end of Jesus' story?

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 What's his goal in all this?

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 I've just been amazed thinking about this Christmas.

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 I've been reflecting on the fact that the Son of God didn't just become a man for a time

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 to achieve some goal.

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 He's going to stay a man forever.

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 He says he's going to come back into his world.

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 It's his world.

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 It's his home.

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 He's so committed to fixing this world.

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 He's a man.

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 He's entered it.

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 He's part of it permanently.

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 He's got skin in the game.

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 He's going to come and fix this world.

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 We're going to be able to see him.

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 We're going to be able to look him in the eye.

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 We're going to be able to look God in the eye.

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 We're going to be able to hug him.

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 He wants to remake his home with his family.

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 And he's going to be human forever.

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 It's mind-blowing.

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 That's the goal.

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 That's the end we get to look forward to.

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 I think Jesus' story should let us pause and consider our own story.

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 I think it makes us re-look at our beginning.

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 God sent Jesus to give us a totally new beginning.

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 To become a Christian isn't fundamentally something you do.

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 You've got to be born.

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 You've got to be born of God.

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 God, it's a totally fresh start.

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 And the only thing you can do is ask God to do that for you.

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 He invites us into a new beginning into his family.

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 Ask him.

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 It's open to all of us.

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 So it makes us consider our beginning.

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 I think it also changes our middle.

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 How are we spending our time?

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 I don't know if you've seen the Coca-Cola ad.

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 You've got the world full of Santas.

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 And one of the Santas gets the last Coke from the vending machine

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 and hands it over to the other Santa.

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 It's a nice message.

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 Wouldn't the world be nicer if people were kinder to each other?

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 I want to live in a kinder world.

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 It's a nice message.

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 But Christmas, it is calling us.

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 The Christmas spirit is much deeper than just kindness.

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 If God came to be rejected and still love us,

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 and it's a riches to rag story.

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 He became poor for us.

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 The Christmas spirit is calling us to spend the middle of our lives

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 pouring ourselves out for people, even if they don't like us.

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 It's a radical Christmas spirit that Jesus calls us to,

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 to serve people in love, to spend and be spent for them.

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 And I think the Jesus story changes the end of our story.

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 I keep getting asked the question, and Sam alluded, opened with this.

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 Are you ready?

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 Are you ready for Christmas?

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 Like my barber asked me that.

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 I said no.

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 My neighbour asked me that yesterday.

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 No.

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 If you asked me that before this service started, are you ready?

00:16:23.319 --> 00:16:23.579
 No.

00:16:27.620 --> 00:16:29.480
 We're going to Port Macquarie later today.

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 Are we ready?

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 No.

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 Jesus came to, he's going to come back.

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 He came in lowliness and weakness.

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 He's going to come back in power and majesty to remake his home

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 and remake his family.

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 Am I ready for that?

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 Yes.

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 It's about the only thing I can say yes to.

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 Not because of anything I do.

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 If it was because of what I do, I'd have to say no again.

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 That is because Jesus has given me the right to know myself

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 as a child of God.

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 I'm ready.

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 Whenever that happens, I'm ready.

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 So I just want to finish by leaving you with my barber's question.

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 Are you ready?

00:17:18.779 --> 00:17:21.180
 Are you ready?

00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:22.579
 Well, thanks for listening.

00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:24.740
 I hope you have a really lovely Christmas.

00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:26.379
 I think we're going to sing again.

00:17:26.380 --> 00:17:27.340
 That's all right.

00:17:27.340 --> 00:17:29.220
 That's all right.

00:17:29.220 --> 00:17:31.600
 But maybe I'm ready.

00:17:31.600 --> 00:17:32.260
 I think we're waiting for that, that's all right.

00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:34.080
 Yeah.

00:17:34.080 --> 00:17:34.220
 That's good.

00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:35.480
 You'll be increases.

00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:36.500
 It's not good.

00:17:36.540 --> 00:17:36.780
 What's it's remaining?

00:17:36.840 --> 00:17:37.920
 I'll be trying to address to you.

00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:39.100
 Okay.

00:17:39.100 --> 00:17:39.820
 There you go.

00:17:40.020 --> 00:17:40.520
 Thank you.

00:17:40.520 --> 00:17:41.320
 Thank you, man.

00:17:41.360 --> 00:17:42.260
 And I'm ready.

00:17:42.260 --> 00:17:43.040
 We'll have this right now.

00:17:43.060 --> 00:17:44.000
 And I'll open it up.

00:17:44.120 --> 00:17:44.940
 This is Rewn.