Dr. Jack Graham's mission is to glorify God by introducing Jesus Christ as Lord to all people.
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Power Point with Jack Graham | Jack Graham - Tell The Story | December 22, 2024
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- There is no person that god cannot save!
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- There is no promise that god will not keep!
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- There is nothing that our god cannot do!
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- In your bibles, luke chapter 2. verses 17 through 20. this is
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- In reference to the shepherds who find the babe jesus wrapped
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- In swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. and verse 17:
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- 17) and when they saw it, they made known the saying that had
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- Been told them concerning this child. 18) and all who heard it
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- Wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19) but mary
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- Treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
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- 20) and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising god for
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- All they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
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- Now, how do you keep it going all year long? how can you
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- Celebrate christmas first and foremost, by celebrating the
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- Christ of christmas. and first and foremost, by being a
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- Christian. that's how you can know and experience the love
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- And the joy and the peace always in christ that is
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- Christmas... the real christmas. not magic but the
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- Miracle of jesus' birth and his life and his death and his
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- Resurrection and his soon return. yes, it is so very
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- Important that you be saved in order to experience christmas
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- All year long. christ was born to save!
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- And to be saved means that you know that you're going to
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- Heaven because jesus came to earth so that we could go to
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- Heaven and know that we're going there! what a wonderful
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- Way to celebrate christmas every day. that's where it
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- Starts and i'm just getting started on this message but i
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- Wanted to say it up front... how do you become a christian?
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- You recognize that you have messed up, that you have sinned
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- Against god, that you need a savior. and you say i am a
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- Sinner and i need a savior and i believe that jesus is the
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- Savior. and not only the savior but you can say jesus is my
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- Savior. that's where it all begins. are you a christian?
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- If you are, you're forgiven of all your sins. if you are, you
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- Can live in confidence and certainty that when you die or
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- When christ comes again, you will be ready and you will be
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- With him. it means that his spirit fills your life and you
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- Live in hope and joy. the god of all hope. may you abound in
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- This hope, filled with the holy spirit. so let's begin right
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- There. we're talking about celebrating christmas all year
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- Long. it all begins and ends... it's all about knowing jesus,
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- Knowing him in your life as your savior and lord.
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- And then what happens we see in four specific ways that i'm
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- Going to mention right out of this text. if you're new to
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- Prestonwood, we're always preaching the bible and
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- Teaching the bible. we're going to be doing that today. so
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- There are four ways in which we celebrate like these christmas
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- All year long.
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- Number one, proclaiming. say that out loud. (proclaiming)
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- Proclaiming. because it says in verse 17 that they saw it...
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- They saw the wonderful miracles of the heavens when the angel
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- Spoke, and then they saw the babe wrapped in the swaddling
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- Cloth lying in a manger, they believed it, and then "they
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- Made known this thing that had been told to them concerning
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- This child." what was the saying that had been told to
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- Them? "for unto you is born this day a savior who is christ
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- The lord." so believing that and then seeing that, they
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- Began to proclaim this good news.
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- Shepherds were not the likely suspects to be attendants at
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- The birth of jesus. shepherds were generally from the baser
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- Class of the society of that generation. they were
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- Considered frankly lowlifes and vagrants and con men and
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- Shysters. i know david was a shepherd and i don't want to
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- Sell all the shepherds short, but i'm just saying to you the
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- Shepherds in this era were... were not powerful people. in
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- Fact, they were poor people; they were impoverished. and
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- These shepherds, think about it, no doubt they were
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- Illiterate. they couldn't read, they couldn't write; they'd not
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- Been to school. and yet they saw and heard the angels speak
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- That night when the heavens exploded with the glory of god.
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- Remarkable that god would speak to this... in this way to these
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- Lowly, humble shepherds. and then these men went to
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- Bethlehem and discovered christ in a cradle, born in a barn;
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- Probably a cave.
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- But when you walk into the church of the nativity, there
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- Is a low entry and it was a large door at one time at this
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- Church, built over the birthplace of jesus...the cave
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- Where he would have been born perhaps. i believe it was so.
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- But you have to stoop down to go in because the christians
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- Who are leading that church, some soldiers were riding in on
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- Horses proudly and tromping around in the church of the
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- Nativity, so they cover up the entrance and made it a small
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- Entrance to this very day, you have to bend down and go in.
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- And it just speaks of the humility of... of the stable.
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- It reminds us today that the way in to the presence of the
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- Savior is in humility and even repentance.
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- So consider this... these shepherds outside of mary and
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- Joseph... outside of mary and joseph, the only people in the
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- World who knew about this jesus and this story were those
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- Shepherds. amazing! just shepherds! after 400 years of
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- So-called silence between the old testament and the new
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- Testament, there was no word from god, not to a prophet, not
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- To a priest, not to a king. silence! and when god broke the
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- Silence that night outside of bethlehem, it was to shepherds.
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- And with a shout... with the silence now broken, they began
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- To tell the world.
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- This is not a likely way to tell the world.
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- ♪♪♪
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- Powerpoint ministries began over three decades ago when god
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- Placed a burden on my heart. and my wife, deb's, to use
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- Media to reach more and more people across the world.
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- And over the years, we've been blessed to receive phone calls,
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- Letters, and personal stories from people sharing how god has
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- Given them a deeper understanding of scripture
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- Through our broadcast ministry. though it's my voice you hear,
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- It's god's message that i'm proclaiming. and all the
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- Credit, all the honor goes to him. when people hear the good
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- News of jesus, that's the gospel.
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- When the bible is opened and taught, and when they explore
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- Its message, it absolutely changes lives. and that's what
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- We are here to do. we take the gospel, the word of god, and
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- The testimony of jesus, and we share it across television,
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- Radio, youtube, facebook, instagram and more. all for one
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- Singular purpose to bring the message of hope to the world,
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- The message of jesus christ to as many people as possible
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- Right now.
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- Now here's where i need you. i want more and more people,
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- Especially those who are far from god, who don't know jesus
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- To hear the right message. this message of hope at the right
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- Time, which is right now. but we can't do it without your
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- Help. will you join us today by giving a financial gift to help
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- Us reach this important goal?
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- You can call or you can text cye that's cye to 59789 or
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- Visit jackgraham.org. for your best gift, i'd like to send you
- 00:09:08.437 --> 00:09:13.409
- A copy of my brand new book, the jesus book, which is all
- 00:09:13.409 --> 00:09:17.613
- About reading and understanding the bible for yourself. as well,
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- A generous friend of powerpoint is offered to match every
- 00:09:21.917 --> 00:09:24.720
- Dollar you give today, which doubles your impact and helps
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- Us reach more people with the message of jesus.
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- It's incredible what god can do when we get together, when we
- 00:09:31.894 --> 00:09:34.730
- Work together, when we pray together to share the message
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- Of jesus to the world. so please give your best gift
- 00:09:38.100 --> 00:09:41.704
- Today at jack graham.org or by texting cye to 59789 and your
- 00:09:41.704 --> 00:09:50.012
- Gift will be doubled. and we'll send you a copy of my new book,
- 00:09:50.012 --> 00:09:54.483
- The jesus book.
- 00:09:54.483 --> 00:09:56.085
- Together we'll be sharing the life changing message of christ
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- And christ alone till the whole world hears.
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- ♪♪♪
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- Here they are after being terrorized and traumatized out
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- There in the shepherd's field when those angels appeared. and
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- I don't blame them. that was an awesome... awe inspiring sight.
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- They get themselves together and their fear turns to faith
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- And now with ecstatic excitement they are telling
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- This good news. what did they do? they told everybody! it's
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- The middle of the night but in the night, the next day they're
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- Telling everybody! they couldn't keep this good news of
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- Christmas to themselves.
- 00:10:41.864 --> 00:10:43.265
- And this is the challenge to us, isn't it? if you want to
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- Experience christmas every day of your life, go tell somebody
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- Who jesus is. if you want to experience and celebrate
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- Christmas every day of your life speak this good news! tell
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- People what god has done for you! this is the call of
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- Christ; this is the call of christ to the christian; it's
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- The call of christ to the church. this is why we are
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- Focused always on christ and the bible and evangelizing,
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- Fulfilling the great commission. and the good news
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- Is that we don't go alone, the holy spirit lives in us and
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- Acts 1:8,7 jesus gave this promise. acts 1:8, pardon me,
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- Acts 1:8. he says that “you will be my witnesses (when?)
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- After the holy spirit has come upon you.”
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- And when we are filled with god's spirit, we are speaking
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- God's truth.
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- Simply tell people. you can do this. tell people what christ
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- Has done for you. what you've seen and heard. like the
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- Apostles when they were threatened and told never to
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- Speak the name of jesus again, they were beaten within an inch
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- Of their lives. they said, “you keep talking about jesus it
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- Will be the end of you.” and they said, “we cannot help but
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- Speak of those things we have seen and heard.” we can't help
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- It because we have seen him and we know him in our hearts, in
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- Our lives. so it means share your faith. share your story.
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- Talk about jesus. invite people to come to jesus. good news is
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- Too good to keep! amen? this is the first way to celebrate
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- Christmas every day, by proclaiming.
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- The second way is not only proclaiming, but wondering.
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- Look at verse 18 again. verse 18 says: "and all who heard
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- It... (that is, the shepherds were sharing their faith and so
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- All these people are hearing it and what did they do?)... they
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- Wondered at what the shepherds told them." the word there
- 00:12:51.961 --> 00:12:56.899
- Wonder..., pretty self-descriptive. it's not the
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- Word questioning; they weren't questioning what the shepherds
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- Were telling them, but they were in amazement. they were
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- Amazed; they were star-struck, if you will, by what they were
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- Told about the angels and what the angels said about jesus.
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- And mary and joseph and the christ in the cradle.
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- These shepherds just by their testimony and their presence
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- Somehow these smelly guys were affected. they were... they
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- Were convincing; they were just so filled with the shekinah
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- Glory of god that was upon them; the holy wonder and awe!
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- God was moving in this little town of bethlehem! just a
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- Little place, but god was at work. history was changed, the
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- World was changed! no wonder they are amazed! so let me ask
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- You: are you still amazed?
- 00:14:14.310 --> 00:14:19.081
- It's unexplainable. inexplicable what god has done
- 00:14:19.081 --> 00:14:23.519
- In my life, in your life. and god is still doing the
- 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:29.491
- Inexplicable, the unexplainable through people who trust him;
- 00:14:29.491 --> 00:14:33.729
- Miracles. saving people that are far, far from god,
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- Restoring lives and marriages and homes and families.
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- Delivering the addicted, comforting the grieving,
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- Healing the sick. god still does all of this, and more!
- 00:14:48.610 --> 00:14:53.282
- “god is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we
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- Can ask or think according to the power that works within
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- Us.” why? “jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
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- I'm just telling you like these townspeople, let's be
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- Awestruck, amazed at this story of jesus! that's how you have
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- Christmas all year long.
- 00:15:16.905 --> 00:15:21.110
- You know, the last book of the bible, the book of revelation
- 00:15:21.110 --> 00:15:25.047
- Is filled with signs and wonders of the last days...
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- Amazing wonders. one of these days when christ comes with
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- Awestruck wonder, we'll see him face to face, when he returns.
- 00:15:35.324 --> 00:15:39.328
- And in revelation 19, verse 16 we're told that the wonder's
- 00:15:39.328 --> 00:15:43.599
- Going to happen when jesus comes back and there will be on
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- His thigh and on his robe these words: "king of kings and lord
- 00:15:47.603 --> 00:15:52.441
- Of lords!" what a day of wonders this is.
- 00:15:52.441 --> 00:15:57.479
- So christmas all year long. it is first... it is first
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- Proclaiming like the shepherds; and then it is wondering in
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- Amazement. and then thirdly, it is pondering. look again in
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- Chapter 2 and verse 19. pondering, and this is what
- 00:16:14.430 --> 00:16:18.667
- Mary did for it says: "mary treasured up (or pondered up,
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- Or pondered) all these things, pondering them in her heart."
- 00:16:24.640 --> 00:16:31.280
- Meaning that mary was cherishing these moments. not
- 00:16:31.280 --> 00:16:37.920
- Wanting to miss any of them. the word treasure or cherish...
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- It actually describes counting, considering.
- 00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:53.302
- I make lists. my life runs on my lists that i keep of all
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- Kinds. and so it's like a... it's like mary was making a
- 00:16:57.439 --> 00:17:04.580
- Reminder list. she was reflecting and pondering; in
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- Many ways it's deeper than wondering. wondering is one
- 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:17.426
- Thing and it is so external and it's a big part of it, but...
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- But pondering is deep within, just as mary is reflecting and
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- Remembering and resolving, no doubt, to be the best mother
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- That jesus needed, the kind of person that would mother the
- 00:17:31.940 --> 00:17:37.179
- Son of god. she must have been asking herself... have you ever
- 00:17:37.179 --> 00:17:41.016
- Considered what she was considering? she must have been
- 00:17:41.016 --> 00:17:43.619
- Asking herself, "am i up to this? can i do this? how about
- 00:17:43.619 --> 00:17:51.994
- Joseph... is he ready for this? to be the adoptive father of
- 00:17:51.994 --> 00:17:57.599
- The heavenly father's son? why has god chosen me? how did this
- 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:08.043
- Happen?" can you imagine what she was thinking? she's
- 00:18:08.043 --> 00:18:14.750
- Pondering. she's saying, "god, why me?"
- 00:18:14.750 --> 00:18:18.353
- So she's pondering that. it's so important to treasure god's
- 00:18:18.353 --> 00:18:21.657
- Word in your heart and to meditate upon spiritual things
- 00:18:21.657 --> 00:18:24.760
- In your life.
- 00:18:24.760 --> 00:18:26.495
- My friend robert morgan has written a wonderful book on
- 00:18:26.495 --> 00:18:30.766
- Biblical meditation. it's a powerful book that will show
- 00:18:30.766 --> 00:18:35.470
- You the value of meditation upon god's word... spiritual
- 00:18:35.470 --> 00:18:39.508
- Meditation.
- 00:18:39.508 --> 00:18:40.642
- I'm not talking about transcendental (boooo) ... that
- 00:18:40.642 --> 00:18:43.645
- Thing where you know, you just... the goal of that is to
- 00:18:43.645 --> 00:18:47.149
- Empty your mind. that's crazy. you empty your mind, all kinds
- 00:18:47.149 --> 00:18:50.786
- Of bad stuff is going to get in there! but biblical meditation
- 00:18:50.786 --> 00:18:55.190
- Is filling your mind! what we need, are christian thinkers
- 00:18:55.190 --> 00:19:05.834
- Who know their bibles, who know truth and who meditate on this
- 00:19:05.834 --> 00:19:11.306
- And know this and learn this!
- 00:19:11.306 --> 00:19:14.776
- So the third way... after proclaiming and then wondering
- 00:19:14.776 --> 00:19:22.584
- And then pondering or treasuring in your heart these
- 00:19:22.584 --> 00:19:27.589
- Things... to keep it going; the final thing is glorifying
- 00:19:27.589 --> 00:19:30.759
- Him... glorifying him. praising him. look in verse 20 once
- 00:19:30.759 --> 00:19:34.796
- Again... luke 2, verse 20: "and the shepherds returned,
- 00:19:34.796 --> 00:19:37.566
- Glorifying and praising god for all they had heard and seen, as
- 00:19:37.566 --> 00:19:41.603
- It had been told to them." the shepherds would never be the
- 00:19:41.603 --> 00:19:45.774
- Same! what a difference just a day makes! or a night in this
- 00:19:45.774 --> 00:19:51.380
- Case. everything is changed. the world is now upside down
- 00:19:51.380 --> 00:19:58.487
- Because god is changing it. wise men came later to worship.
- 00:19:58.487 --> 00:20:03.125
- They were impacted, impowered to the degree rather than going
- 00:20:03.125 --> 00:20:07.095
- Back through jerusalem to tell herod what had happen, they
- 00:20:07.095 --> 00:20:09.831
- Were warned and they went back in a different direction! their
- 00:20:09.831 --> 00:20:12.634
- Lives were changed. christ takes us in a brand-new
- 00:20:12.634 --> 00:20:15.837
- Direction.
- 00:20:15.837 --> 00:20:16.972
- And these shepherds... what did they do? what did these
- 00:20:16.972 --> 00:20:19.341
- Shepherds do? they went back to their fields. just back to what
- 00:20:19.341 --> 00:20:29.785
- They were doing. they told all the townspeople and then they
- 00:20:29.785 --> 00:20:34.156
- Went back to smelly sheep. how mundane. but this is really it,
- 00:20:34.156 --> 00:20:39.494
- Isn't it? christmas everyday is the miraculous in the midst of
- 00:20:39.494 --> 00:20:43.231
- The monotonous! the miraculous in the midst of the mundane!
- 00:20:43.231 --> 00:20:47.669
- Glorifying god in whatever we do! small or large or something
- 00:20:47.669 --> 00:20:54.042
- In-between!
- 00:20:54.042 --> 00:20:56.478
- The scripture says, “whatever you do (1 corinthians 10:31) in
- 00:20:56.478 --> 00:21:00.048
- Word and deed, do it and glorify god” which means to
- 00:21:00.048 --> 00:21:04.753
- Magnify him. that's what they did. they went back to the same
- 00:21:04.753 --> 00:21:10.492
- Place where the angel spoke to them. maybe every night after
- 00:21:10.492 --> 00:21:16.465
- That they kept looking for the angel. we're not told the
- 00:21:16.465 --> 00:21:19.234
- Angels came back. that was a one-night thing. they just went
- 00:21:19.234 --> 00:21:23.839
- Back to doing what they were doing, but never the same
- 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:29.444
- Because now they knew jesus. now christ was reigning in
- 00:21:29.444 --> 00:21:35.384
- Their world.
- 00:21:35.384 --> 00:21:38.053
- So many people want the magic of christmas... the spirit of
- 00:21:38.053 --> 00:21:43.458
- Christmas... the fun, the days off, whatever... to stay. but
- 00:21:43.458 --> 00:21:49.831
- In just a few days we'll take down the lights and the trees
- 00:21:49.831 --> 00:21:54.136
- And the candles, pay the bills for the gifts, and christmas as
- 00:21:54.136 --> 00:22:02.611
- A holiday will be over for another year. but for the
- 00:22:02.611 --> 00:22:09.518
- Christian not everything... not every day is a holiday, but
- 00:22:09.518 --> 00:22:14.389
- Every day is a holy day.
- 00:22:14.389 --> 00:22:19.127
- The great devotional writer, oswald chambers says "every
- 00:22:19.127 --> 00:22:22.197
- Christian should be supernaturally natural and
- 00:22:22.197 --> 00:22:25.967
- Naturally supernatural." you know what that means? in all
- 00:22:25.967 --> 00:22:30.405
- Things natural... our normal lives... we're to live
- 00:22:30.405 --> 00:22:32.541
- Supernatural spiritual lives and in all things spiritual we
- 00:22:32.541 --> 00:22:36.011
- Are to live normal, natural lives. being spiritual doesn't
- 00:22:36.011 --> 00:22:39.981
- Make you weird but you're full of jesus and the miracles
- 00:22:39.981 --> 00:22:48.056
- Happen.
- 00:22:48.056 --> 00:22:49.291
- Well, christmas... what is it to you? i love the story of
- 00:22:49.291 --> 00:23:00.268
- Wadsworth... henry wadsworth longworth [longfellow] and the
- 00:23:00.268 --> 00:23:03.839
- Story of i heard the bells on christmas day. i want to close
- 00:23:03.839 --> 00:23:06.908
- With this because it's such a powerful story about hearing
- 00:23:06.908 --> 00:23:10.946
- The bells and hearing them every day. is based on a poem
- 00:23:10.946 --> 00:23:16.485
- By henry longfellow.
- 00:23:16.485 --> 00:23:18.720
- In 1860 longfellow was at the peak of success as a poet. he
- 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:25.227
- Had overcome the death of his first wife and regained after a
- 00:23:25.227 --> 00:23:30.432
- Season of great grief his equilibrium and began to write
- 00:23:30.432 --> 00:23:33.935
- The great works such as hiawatha and his poems and all
- 00:23:33.935 --> 00:23:37.205
- That. he was riding high. 1860 abraham lincoln had just been
- 00:23:37.205 --> 00:23:41.109
- Elected president, giving hope to the nation. and though his
- 00:23:41.109 --> 00:23:45.480
- First wife was now gone he had been led to another woman and
- 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:50.318
- He was remarried but things soon turned dark for america,
- 00:23:50.318 --> 00:23:56.091
- And for henry himself.
- 00:23:56.091 --> 00:23:59.561
- The civil war began to following year and longfellow's
- 00:23:59.561 --> 00:24:02.631
- Wife died of severe burns when she was lighting a candle in
- 00:24:02.631 --> 00:24:06.001
- The house and her dress caught on fire and she burned to
- 00:24:06.001 --> 00:24:09.804
- Death. longfellow himself had multiple burns all over his
- 00:24:09.804 --> 00:24:14.776
- Body trying to save his wife. he couldn't even attend her
- 00:24:14.776 --> 00:24:20.015
- Funeral he was so badly burned. so in his diary on christmas
- 00:24:20.015 --> 00:24:25.353
- Day, 1861, he wrote these words: how inexpressively sad
- 00:24:25.353 --> 00:24:32.027
- Are the holidays.
- 00:24:32.027 --> 00:24:35.964
- In 1862 the civil war escalated and the death toll from the war
- 00:24:35.964 --> 00:24:39.868
- Began mount and henry hated the civil war... hated it for what
- 00:24:39.868 --> 00:24:48.944
- It was doing to people and tearing the country apart! and
- 00:24:48.944 --> 00:24:52.981
- In his diary for that year, longfellow wrote a christmas...
- 00:24:52.981 --> 00:24:56.151
- "a merry christmas sang the children, but that is no more
- 00:24:56.151 --> 00:25:02.857
- For me." in 1863, longfellow's son who had run away to join
- 00:25:02.857 --> 00:25:09.264
- The union army to fight for freedom for the slaves, was
- 00:25:09.264 --> 00:25:14.102
- Severely wounded and returned home in december. and there is
- 00:25:14.102 --> 00:25:18.340
- No entry in longfellow's diary for christmas in 1863. there's
- 00:25:18.340 --> 00:25:25.480
- Nothing... just blank.
- 00:25:25.480 --> 00:25:29.451
- Yet on that christmas day that year, he decided to take a
- 00:25:29.451 --> 00:25:32.287
- Walk, trying to lift his spirits. he wanted to pull out
- 00:25:32.287 --> 00:25:37.993
- Of his depression and despair and somehow capture the joy of
- 00:25:37.993 --> 00:25:41.896
- Christmas. he began to listen as church bells began to chime
- 00:25:41.896 --> 00:25:46.401
- On christmas day and he wrote down these words:
- 00:25:46.401 --> 00:25:50.872
- I heard the bells of christmas day; their old familiar carols
- 00:25:50.872 --> 00:25:55.477
- Play. and wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth
- 00:25:55.477 --> 00:25:59.948
- And goodwill to men.
- 00:25:59.948 --> 00:26:03.318
- He began to write more of this stanza. he stopped and
- 00:26:03.318 --> 00:26:07.389
- Thought... to think of the condition of his beloved
- 00:26:07.389 --> 00:26:10.525
- Country. the battle of gettysburg was not long passed.
- 00:26:10.525 --> 00:26:13.228
- Days looked dark and he began to ask himself the question:
- 00:26:13.228 --> 00:26:17.198
- How can there be peace on earth and goodwill toward man in this
- 00:26:17.198 --> 00:26:21.603
- War-torn country where brother fights against brother, where
- 00:26:21.603 --> 00:26:26.107
- People are oppressed, where father's fight against sons?
- 00:26:26.107 --> 00:26:29.778
- How can there be? but he kept writing and oh, did he write.
- 00:26:29.778 --> 00:26:34.549
- He said:
- 00:26:34.549 --> 00:26:35.784
- And in despair i bowed my head; there is no peace on earth i
- 00:26:35.784 --> 00:26:39.754
- Said. for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on
- 00:26:39.754 --> 00:26:47.429
- Earth, goodwill to men.
- 00:26:47.429 --> 00:26:52.834
- But then inspired, he wrote these words:
- 00:26:52.834 --> 00:26:57.572
- Then peeled the bells more loud and deep. god is not dead; nor
- 00:26:57.572 --> 00:27:03.912
- Does he sleep. the wrong shall fail; the right prevail with
- 00:27:03.912 --> 00:27:12.687
- Peace on earth goodwill to men.
- 00:27:12.687 --> 00:27:18.526
- ♪♪♪
- 00:27:18.526 --> 00:27:18.526