WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:10.080 Dorothy Sayers was a 20th century British author and novelist who was known for many 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:15.900 of her writings, but specifically her series of crime novels with her main character, Lord 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:16.620 Peter Whimsey. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:24.980 And midway through this series of crime detective novels, Sayers introduces a new character 00:00:24.980 --> 00:00:32.380 whose name is Harriet Vane, who helps Detective Peter Whimsey solve crimes and mysteries. 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:38.780 And as the series goes on and as these two characters solve crimes together, eventually 00:00:38.780 --> 00:00:40.760 these two characters fall in love. 00:00:41.579 --> 00:00:47.920 And a lot of literary critics who have looked at this series have noticed a lot of similarities 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:51.700 between Dorothy Sayers and her character, Harriet Vane. 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:56.359 Harriet Vane was educated at Oxford, so was Dorothy Sayers. 00:00:56.980 --> 00:01:02.280 Harriet Vane was tall and had dark hair, so was Dorothy Sayers, so did Dorothy Sayers. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:07.780 Harriet Vane wrote detective novels, so of course did Dorothy Sayers. 00:01:08.300 --> 00:01:12.719 And what some of the literary critics have said is it's rather obvious what Dorothy Sayers 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:17.439 was doing, that she was writing herself into the story. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:22.239 She had created this character in Detective Peter Whimsey, and the more that she wrote 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:25.399 his story, the more that she fell in love with him. 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:27.239 He was a great detective. 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:29.019 He was committed to justice. 00:01:29.259 --> 00:01:29.920 He was intelligent. 00:01:30.039 --> 00:01:30.640 He was rich. 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:34.799 But he had flaws, and he was lonely. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:41.340 And so she wrote herself into his story in order to rescue him, in order to fall in love 00:01:41.340 --> 00:01:41.700 with him. 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:46.340 And friends, in a way, this is what Christmas is all about. 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:53.180 In the birth of Jesus Christ, we believe that God himself has written him, he has written 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:54.859 himself into our story. 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:56.939 In the birth of Christ. 00:01:57.659 --> 00:01:59.760 This is what the word Emmanuel means. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:04.540 This Old Testament word from the prophet Isaiah that Daniel read earlier. 00:02:04.540 --> 00:02:08.640 This word Emmanuel means God with us. 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:14.400 And our gospel reading in Matthew chapter 1 picks it up and says the birth of Christ fulfills 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:20.180 this prophecy in Isaiah chapter 7 that there will be a child born called God with us. 00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:29.379 And if you understand these three words, God with us, you'll understand what Christmas is 00:02:29.379 --> 00:02:29.840 all about. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:35.700 And you'll understand not just the heart of Christmas, but the heart of the Christian faith. 00:02:36.659 --> 00:02:39.840 And so this morning, we're going to take a look at each of these three words, and we're 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:45.960 going to unpack what it shows us about how God wrote himself into our story at Christmas. 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.439 So we're going to take a look at each of these three words, God with us. 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:54.099 So first of all, Jesus is God. 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:54.840 He's God. 00:02:54.840 --> 00:03:01.420 Matthew 1 verse 18 says, Mary was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 00:03:01.780 --> 00:03:10.560 And an angel then appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him to not be afraid or to be ashamed 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:11.640 of Mary's pregnancy. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:17.420 Nothing scandalous or immoral has happened, but rather this has all happened through divine 00:03:17.420 --> 00:03:17.920 intervention. 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:24.959 Through the Holy Spirit, she would give birth to someone who would be given the name God. 00:03:26.279 --> 00:03:30.000 And I think a lot of people in our culture in our day find this pretty irrational. 00:03:30.419 --> 00:03:31.739 They find this implausible. 00:03:32.439 --> 00:03:35.799 Most people probably say Jesus was a good spiritual leader. 00:03:35.959 --> 00:03:37.039 He was a good moral teacher. 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:40.419 But he certainly wasn't conceived supernaturally. 00:03:41.179 --> 00:03:43.560 He certainly wasn't God in the flesh. 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:49.360 That's just sort of an outdated, antiquated way of reading the Bible. 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:56.439 But the problem, the main problem with believing this is that if that's true, then Jesus couldn't 00:03:56.439 --> 00:04:02.280 have been just a good spiritual leader or a good moral teacher based on his own view of 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:02.699 himself. 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:09.159 The gospel accounts clearly show that Jesus did in fact believe that he himself was God. 00:04:09.159 --> 00:04:17.699 Multiple times throughout the gospels, we read accounts of people who approach Jesus and 00:04:17.699 --> 00:04:21.719 worship him, sometimes even kneeling down before him. 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:27.519 And what you have to understand is this was a completely absurd thing for a person, especially 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:29.719 a Jewish person to do in the first century. 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:36.880 Because in that culture, it was a totally blasphemous and immoral thing to worship another human being. 00:04:37.880 --> 00:04:39.480 Only God could be worshiped. 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:45.980 And in no instance in the gospel accounts when someone comes and kneels before Jesus and 00:04:45.980 --> 00:04:52.140 worships him, in no case does Jesus say, hey, you've got the wrong guy. 00:04:52.340 --> 00:04:53.340 I'm just a prophet. 00:04:53.440 --> 00:04:54.140 I'm just a messenger. 00:04:54.500 --> 00:04:55.520 Don't worship me. 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:56.520 Worship God. 00:04:56.519 --> 00:05:00.500 In no case does he ever reject somebody who does that. 00:05:00.539 --> 00:05:02.039 No, in fact, it's the opposite. 00:05:03.159 --> 00:05:05.379 He accepts it and he welcomes their worship. 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:10.939 And so if he actually wasn't God, this wouldn't make him a great moral teacher or a spiritual 00:05:10.939 --> 00:05:11.240 leader. 00:05:11.899 --> 00:05:18.159 This would actually make him a complete fraud or a narcissist or both, perhaps. 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:21.939 If you have captured this better than C.S. 00:05:21.939 --> 00:05:28.560 Lewis in Mere Christianity, and Lewis says this about this very point. 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:35.759 He says, I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:37.040 often say about Jesus. 00:05:37.779 --> 00:05:43.500 That I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be 00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:43.779 God. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:46.639 That is the one thing we must not say. 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:53.180 A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great 00:05:53.180 --> 00:05:53.680 moral teacher. 00:05:54.639 --> 00:06:00.560 He would either be a lunatic on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg, or else 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:01.620 he would be the devil of hell. 00:06:02.659 --> 00:06:04.039 You must make your choice. 00:06:05.039 --> 00:06:09.879 Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman or something worse. 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:12.719 You can shut him up for a fool. 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:15.560 You can spit at him and kill him as a demon. 00:06:16.699 --> 00:06:19.740 Or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:24.480 But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:27.300 He has not left that open to us. 00:06:28.019 --> 00:06:29.180 He did not intend to. 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:34.839 These are powerful words from Lewis that when it comes to Jesus, there's only really three 00:06:34.839 --> 00:06:38.779 rational responses that either he was a liar, he was a complete fraud. 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:42.299 Everything he said about himself was false and he knew it. 00:06:43.379 --> 00:06:44.619 Or he was a lunatic. 00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:49.279 He actually believed that he was God, but he wasn't. 00:06:50.799 --> 00:06:56.399 Or the third option, that he's Lord, that he actually is who he claimed to be. 00:06:57.359 --> 00:07:02.239 If the Christmas story is true, then that means that Jesus is God. 00:07:03.259 --> 00:07:07.519 And we can't just think of him as a good teacher or a spiritual leader, but as someone who actually 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:14.579 has the right to make demands and claims on our lives, someone who deserves our worship, 00:07:16.180 --> 00:07:22.919 someone who deserves our surrender, as Tommy preached last week, somebody who deserves our 00:07:22.919 --> 00:07:26.399 obedience in every aspect of our lives. 00:07:27.479 --> 00:07:28.819 And so we have to make a choice. 00:07:28.939 --> 00:07:30.159 We have to decide for ourselves. 00:07:30.299 --> 00:07:31.419 Was Jesus a fraud? 00:07:31.420 --> 00:07:33.240 Was he a liar? 00:07:34.580 --> 00:07:35.660 Was he a lunatic? 00:07:36.379 --> 00:07:37.939 Or was he Lord? 00:07:39.379 --> 00:07:43.720 Emmanuel means that Jesus is God. 00:07:44.680 --> 00:07:50.300 Secondly, it means that Jesus is God with us. 00:07:50.939 --> 00:07:52.780 He's God with us. 00:07:52.779 --> 00:08:00.039 When we think about the story of Dorothy Sayers writing herself into Peter Wimsey's story as 00:08:00.039 --> 00:08:04.979 her character Harriet Vane, you know, we sort of think about that and we think, oh, you know, 00:08:05.039 --> 00:08:07.659 that's just a nice, sweet love story, right? 00:08:08.019 --> 00:08:09.119 It's a sweet story. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:14.539 And I think if we're honest, sometimes I think that that's how we imagine the birth of Jesus 00:08:14.539 --> 00:08:17.179 because it's about, it's a story about a baby. 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:20.180 It's a sweet story about a baby in the manger. 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:23.980 And we have sweet, sentimental feelings about that. 00:08:24.980 --> 00:08:28.740 But if we actually look at what the birth of Christ is about, we see that it's not just 00:08:28.740 --> 00:08:29.420 a sweet story. 00:08:30.300 --> 00:08:35.399 In fact, what we see if we read the Old Testament is we see that it was always a radical thing 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:39.120 when anybody got to be in the presence of God. 00:08:40.620 --> 00:08:44.399 God appears to Moses in a burning bush. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:50.199 He appeared to Israel on Mount Sinai with a cloud of fire, an earthquake, and a sound 00:08:50.199 --> 00:08:50.860 of trumpets. 00:08:51.799 --> 00:08:55.740 And at Mount Sinai, no one could even go near the mountain except Moses. 00:08:56.439 --> 00:09:00.879 God told the people, even if you touch the mountain, you'll die. 00:09:01.959 --> 00:09:07.159 Encountering the presence of God is not a sweet moment. 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:10.039 It's actually like encountering nuclear radiation. 00:09:10.039 --> 00:09:14.659 To deal with nuclear radiation, you need lots of preparation. 00:09:14.819 --> 00:09:19.039 There's lots of stuff you have to learn, lots of protocols you have to go through. 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:23.679 You need lots of credentials and degrees and training and probably a really, really expensive 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:27.959 suit to deal with radioactive nuclear material. 00:09:28.740 --> 00:09:32.139 And if you don't do any of those things, it's going to kill you. 00:09:32.139 --> 00:09:37.439 And that's what the tabernacle and the temple and the sacrificial system were for Israel. 00:09:37.539 --> 00:09:47.360 They were there to prepare an unholy people to encounter, to be with a holy radioactive God. 00:09:48.580 --> 00:09:56.700 You know, there's that line in Fellowship of the Ring when Boromir says, you know, 00:09:56.700 --> 00:10:00.980 one does not simply just walk into Mordor, right? 00:10:01.020 --> 00:10:03.740 You can't just, no one can just walk into Mordor, right? 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:08.960 One does not simply walk into the presence of an awesome, holy God. 00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:10.080 You won't survive. 00:10:10.160 --> 00:10:12.540 His glory will melt your face off. 00:10:12.539 --> 00:10:21.899 And yet the news of Christmas is that this God who is so glorious and so holy came into the world as a baby. 00:10:23.019 --> 00:10:27.240 There is nothing in the world like a baby. 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:34.099 I have held all of my nieces and nephews when they were newborns. 00:10:35.139 --> 00:10:41.059 And, you know, one thing I've learned about holding babies is there's not much that they can do. 00:10:41.059 --> 00:10:54.019 All that they can really do, all that they really know how to do is be with you, is be available to you, is be open to you. 00:10:54.859 --> 00:11:06.159 And that's what we should see when we see the birth of Christ, that God himself has come to be totally and completely with us, to be available to us. 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:17.539 Don't you see that because of the birth of Christ, all of God's radioactive presence and all of its awesome power and glory and love can actually come into our lives? 00:11:18.459 --> 00:11:22.120 You know, every other religion in the world says, here's what you have to do. 00:11:22.219 --> 00:11:26.059 Here are the steps you have to take in order to be with God. 00:11:26.059 --> 00:11:33.379 But Christianity is the only religion that says, here is what God did to be with you. 00:11:34.579 --> 00:11:35.719 Look at what he did. 00:11:36.139 --> 00:11:45.259 Look at what God did in the birth of Christ to make himself completely available to you, to make himself utterly open to you. 00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:51.479 In the birth of Christ, God went to infinite lengths to be with you. 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:57.680 And so I think the question for us is, what are we doing to be with him? 00:11:58.899 --> 00:12:07.860 I think that all of us, including myself, have excuses for not spending more time in the presence of God. 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:19.639 And I think I'm particularly aware of that at the end of the year, as I think back on the year and I think about ways in which I have succeeded and failed at spending time in the presence of God. 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:22.779 Whether it's worship or prayer or studying his word. 00:12:24.220 --> 00:12:30.179 But if Abraham were here, if Moses were here, if the people of Israel were here, do you know what they would say to us? 00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:34.240 They would say, do you know what you have access to? 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:37.500 Do you know what's available to you? 00:12:38.899 --> 00:12:44.279 The God who revealed himself in radioactive glory on Mount Sinai. 00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:51.439 The God who created the world and the glories of our galaxy and universe is here. 00:12:52.439 --> 00:12:53.899 And he came to be with you. 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:58.480 And he came to give you access to him by faith. 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:02.019 So Jesus is God. 00:13:03.539 --> 00:13:06.379 He's God with us. 00:13:07.419 --> 00:13:11.220 And finally, he's God with us. 00:13:11.819 --> 00:13:13.199 He's God with us. 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:18.360 In verse 21, the angel appears to Joseph in a dream and says, 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:21.200 She, Mary, will give birth to a son. 00:13:21.980 --> 00:13:26.440 And you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. 00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:37.000 Many Bibles, your Bible probably has a footnote right next to the name Jesus that says that Jesus is the Greek name for Joshua, 00:13:37.259 --> 00:13:39.259 which means the Lord saves. 00:13:39.259 --> 00:13:43.939 Why was Jesus Christ born into this world? 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:53.540 Matthew chapter 1 could not be more clear that he was born into this world to save us from our sins. 00:13:53.539 --> 00:14:02.159 And I think a lot of people in our culture today think it's narrow-minded or morally regressive to believe in the doctrine of sin. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:07.719 But I would actually say it's the doctrine that our culture needs the most right now. 00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:23.420 Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a Russian author who was sentenced to be imprisoned and to work in the Gulag prison system under the Soviet Union for speaking out against the Russian government. 00:14:23.419 --> 00:14:33.459 And from prison, he wrote about how the culture that he lived in believed that there was a dividing line between good and evil. 00:14:34.199 --> 00:14:40.819 And that this dividing line between good and evil existed between groups of people, between this group and that group. 00:14:40.820 --> 00:14:49.600 And he critiques that and he says, if that were true, we would have been able to solve humanity's problems a long, long time ago. 00:14:50.300 --> 00:15:01.720 If humanity was just divided between good people and bad people, all we would have to do is find the good people, put them over here, find the bad people and lock them up over here, 00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:04.420 and all of humanity's problems would be solved. 00:15:05.540 --> 00:15:16.820 And Solzhenitsyn says the reasons why we haven't been able to solve humanity's most basic problems while they still occur today is because the dividing line between good and evil doesn't exist between groups of people. 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:23.440 But he says it cuts through the heart of every person. 00:15:24.160 --> 00:15:27.759 It cuts through the heart of every person. 00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:34.419 If the dividing line between good and evil runs through groups of people, then if that's our view of the world, 00:15:35.159 --> 00:15:39.779 then the oppression and violence and injustice in the world will never end. 00:15:40.860 --> 00:15:42.340 Because we'll always have an enemy. 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:45.080 It will always be us versus them. 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:52.120 But if the dividing line between good and evil runs through every person, through your heart and through my heart, 00:15:52.120 --> 00:16:01.799 then we have no basis to look at somebody who is different from us, who believes different from us, who votes differently from us. 00:16:02.340 --> 00:16:05.179 We have no basis to look at them and say, I'm better than you. 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:08.940 Because the evil in the world isn't just out there. 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:11.080 It's in here. 00:16:12.100 --> 00:16:15.519 The same evil that we see out there in the world is in us. 00:16:15.620 --> 00:16:18.720 And that is what the Bible means when it talks about sin. 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:21.720 And I think we need the doctrine of sin more than ever. 00:16:22.920 --> 00:16:24.580 And this is why Jesus was born. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:27.560 Because we all need to be rescued from this problem. 00:16:27.639 --> 00:16:34.120 It doesn't matter what country you're from, your race, your ethnicity, rich, poor, Democrat, Republican, independent. 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:38.519 The Bible teaches that we all fall short of God's holy standard for our lives. 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:43.000 We've all committed treason against the high king of the universe. 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:45.899 We all owe God a debt that we cannot repay. 00:16:45.899 --> 00:16:47.360 And the Bible calls this sin. 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:55.180 But the good news of Christmas is not only that Jesus is God, but that he is God with us. 00:16:55.659 --> 00:16:59.980 On the cross, Jesus Christ took on the evil that is inside each and every one of us. 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:02.480 And he placed it on himself. 00:17:03.580 --> 00:17:06.160 He took the wrath of God in our place. 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:08.779 So that we can be saved. 00:17:09.279 --> 00:17:10.680 So we can be forgiven. 00:17:10.820 --> 00:17:12.680 So we can be reconciled to God. 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:17.500 And this is good news not just for individuals, but it is good news for the whole world. 00:17:17.580 --> 00:17:21.340 If we actually admit that the Christmas story is true. 00:17:21.580 --> 00:17:25.540 If we actually admit that Jesus came into the world to save us from our sin. 00:17:26.380 --> 00:17:28.920 To save us from the evil that is inside our own hearts. 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:34.259 We can't look at other people who are different from us and hate them. 00:17:35.320 --> 00:17:37.340 Jesus said, love your enemies. 00:17:38.700 --> 00:17:41.900 And this wasn't just a sweet, cute saying to put on a coffee mug. 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:49.360 It was a declaration that love is the only rational response to the grace that we've been shown in Christ. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:57.659 Do you see that the dividing line of good and evil runs through your own heart? 00:17:58.759 --> 00:18:05.139 Have you trusted in Emmanuel to rescue you from this condition? 00:18:05.219 --> 00:18:06.559 The very reason why he came. 00:18:08.099 --> 00:18:12.179 Verse 21 tells us that Jesus was born to save us from our sins. 00:18:12.179 --> 00:18:16.779 To take down the dividing line of good and evil within your own heart. 00:18:16.779 --> 00:18:24.759 So that you in your life, in your work and vacation may cross all different kinds of dividing lines. 00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:29.639 Of race and class and politics and neighborhood and country. 00:18:30.660 --> 00:18:32.240 And to cross them with love. 00:18:34.420 --> 00:18:38.180 And to do any different is to completely miss what Christmas is all about. 00:18:39.399 --> 00:18:43.039 Because that is what God did for us. 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:45.039 In the birth of Christ. 00:18:46.779 --> 00:18:51.359 So Jesus is Emmanuel. 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:54.160 He's God. 00:18:55.460 --> 00:18:58.339 And therefore he demands our worship and our obedience. 00:18:58.539 --> 00:19:00.839 He demands our entire lives. 00:19:00.940 --> 00:19:03.660 And therefore we can't just treat him as a good teacher. 00:19:03.980 --> 00:19:05.879 We can't just treat him as a spiritual leader. 00:19:07.819 --> 00:19:09.940 He's God with us. 00:19:09.940 --> 00:19:14.100 He's done everything necessary to be with you. 00:19:14.200 --> 00:19:17.460 He's made himself completely open and accessible to you. 00:19:19.700 --> 00:19:21.240 What are you doing to be with him? 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:24.299 What do you need to change? 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:26.820 What do you need to stop doing? 00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:29.559 What do you need to start doing? 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:31.180 To be with him. 00:19:31.180 --> 00:19:32.180 What do you need to do? 00:19:32.180 --> 00:19:32.560 What do you need to do? 00:19:32.560 --> 00:19:36.440 And finally, he's God with us. 00:19:36.820 --> 00:19:37.460 With us. 00:19:38.600 --> 00:19:41.400 Sinners in need of a savior. 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:44.019 That's the heart of Christmas. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:54.160 It's the heart of Christian faith that God himself, through the birth of Christ, has written himself into our story. 00:19:54.840 --> 00:19:56.120 All because of love. 00:19:57.620 --> 00:20:01.340 That's not just a sweet story about a baby in a manger. 00:20:01.339 --> 00:20:09.859 But it's invitation to radically good news that can not only change our lives, but change the world. 00:20:10.539 --> 00:20:11.099 Let's pray. 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:21.159 Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. 00:20:22.779 --> 00:20:27.379 Thank you that you were born into this world to save us from our sin. 00:20:27.380 --> 00:20:35.300 Help us to see you and to follow you as the God that you came to be. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:40.100 Lord, all of us this Christmas need your presence. 00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:42.080 We need you to be with us. 00:20:42.840 --> 00:20:44.040 We need you to rescue us. 00:20:44.120 --> 00:20:45.000 We need you to change us. 00:20:45.080 --> 00:20:46.160 We need you to transform us. 00:20:47.480 --> 00:20:50.060 Lord, would you do that in this season? 00:20:51.120 --> 00:20:56.220 Would you reveal to us how powerful it is that you are Emmanuel? 00:20:57.380 --> 00:21:01.060 Would you show us the glory of that this Christmas, we pray. 00:21:01.900 --> 00:21:02.220 Amen.