WEBVTT 00:02.461 --> 00:09.173 [SPEAKER_00]: High-braze podcast. 00:09.193 --> 00:10.636 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh. 00:10.656 --> 00:16.146 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High-braze and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast. 00:16.166 --> 00:20.073 [SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you. 00:20.474 --> 00:24.722 [SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today. 00:26.086 --> 00:28.971 [SPEAKER_00]: So I can Corinthians chapter five, verse 17, it says this. 00:29.291 --> 00:39.508 [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away and behold, all things say, all things, all things have become what? 00:40.309 --> 00:50.085 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 00:50.065 --> 01:00.487 [SPEAKER_00]: That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 01:00.507 --> 01:05.998 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's read that verse 19 again, that is that God was in Christ. 01:06.637 --> 01:15.031 [SPEAKER_00]: that God was in Jesus, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. 01:15.532 --> 01:23.585 [SPEAKER_00]: And now he has committed to us, the Word of reconciliation, verse 20, now then we are ambassadors for Christ. 01:24.186 --> 01:30.316 [SPEAKER_00]: As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 01:30.697 --> 01:33.201 [SPEAKER_00]: For he made him who knew no sin, 01:33.181 --> 01:41.910 [SPEAKER_00]: to be sin for us that we might be become the righteousness of God in Him. 01:41.930 --> 01:42.370 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray. 01:42.390 --> 01:43.772 [SPEAKER_00]: Father, thank you for this word today. 01:44.212 --> 01:47.336 [SPEAKER_00]: I thank you for something good to say to each and every one of us in this room. 01:47.916 --> 01:56.685 [SPEAKER_00]: I thank you, Lord, this morning, no one is here on accident, but everyone is here on divine appointment that a righteous man or righteous woman steps are ordered of the Lord. 01:56.725 --> 01:58.547 [SPEAKER_00]: And you brought us here for this moment. 01:58.527 --> 02:06.506 [SPEAKER_00]: I thank you today, you will note my tongue is out of our ready in skillful rider to speak for with your words of life, exhortation, and comfort to your people. 02:06.867 --> 02:08.291 [SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for what you're going to do today. 02:08.331 --> 02:12.461 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Lord, that you give us ears to hear our hearts to receive and our spirits to respond. 02:12.481 --> 02:16.350 [SPEAKER_00]: To what the word is saying to us today, in Jesus name, and everybody says, 02:16.330 --> 02:16.871 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 02:17.151 --> 02:18.873 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to start a new series this morning. 02:19.394 --> 02:27.305 [SPEAKER_00]: As you kind of see on the screen, the title for the series is the carols of Christmas and don't freak out that doesn't mean every Sunday. 02:27.345 --> 02:29.548 [SPEAKER_00]: We're just going to see all the traditional Christmas carols. 02:29.568 --> 02:30.469 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of y'all might like that. 02:30.489 --> 02:31.370 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of y'all might hate that. 02:31.650 --> 02:32.451 [SPEAKER_00]: That ain't what we're doing. 02:32.472 --> 02:33.032 [SPEAKER_00]: Just calm down. 02:33.072 --> 02:33.873 [SPEAKER_00]: That's not what this is about. 02:34.314 --> 02:41.123 [SPEAKER_00]: But what we really do want to do is I want you to pause and think for a moment because in this Christmas season, 02:41.103 --> 02:45.143 [SPEAKER_00]: We often will hear these traditional Christmas carols. 02:45.505 --> 02:49.746 [SPEAKER_00]: They really could probably be better described as Christmas hymns. 02:49.979 --> 02:55.846 [SPEAKER_00]: We hear them a lot, and you have heard them a lot over the years. 02:56.186 --> 03:00.231 [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't talk about frosty the snowman and root off the redness reindeer, right? 03:00.251 --> 03:03.615 [SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about songs like Joy to the World and Hark the Harold Angels thing. 03:03.635 --> 03:10.723 [SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about these traditional Christmas carols that we have heard again and again and again and again and again through our lives. 03:10.743 --> 03:18.973 [SPEAKER_00]: But we often sing them without grasping the deep truths that are proclaimed inside of these hymns. 03:18.953 --> 03:36.418 [SPEAKER_00]: And in this series, what we really want to do is rediscover the rich theology and the rich doctrine that is in these beloved songs, we're exploring how these classic carols echo the profound truths of Scripture and the profound truths of the gospel. 03:36.958 --> 03:48.775 [SPEAKER_00]: And one of those classics, the one that we want to really kind of dig into a line in it today, is the classic hymn, hark, the herald angel 03:50.003 --> 03:52.747 [SPEAKER_00]: Hark, the Harold Angels sing. 03:53.268 --> 03:55.531 [SPEAKER_00]: This song was written, they might know who wrote this song. 03:57.113 --> 03:58.815 [SPEAKER_00]: Me, who ever said me wrong. 03:59.076 --> 04:02.020 [SPEAKER_00]: This song was written by Charles Wesley. 04:02.080 --> 04:03.282 [SPEAKER_00]: You'll know Wesley, right? 04:03.362 --> 04:05.104 [SPEAKER_00]: The great revival is the great man of God. 04:05.445 --> 04:09.030 [SPEAKER_00]: It was written by Charles Wesley in the year 1739. 04:09.050 --> 04:11.974 [SPEAKER_00]: Say that's a long time ago. 04:13.336 --> 04:14.458 [SPEAKER_00]: Or don't, that's fine. 04:14.478 --> 04:16.821 [SPEAKER_00]: 1739, say that was a long time ago. 04:17.780 --> 04:19.586 [SPEAKER_00]: 1739 was a long time ago. 04:19.606 --> 04:21.632 [SPEAKER_00]: Give you an idea of just how long ago that was. 04:21.994 --> 04:25.545 [SPEAKER_00]: That was four years before Thomas Jefferson was born. 04:26.757 --> 04:51.043 [SPEAKER_00]: This song was written a long time ago, and interestingly, whenever Wesley originally wrote it, the opening line was not heart, the Harold Angels thing, it was heart cow, all the welken rings, which is a whole other thing, but nonetheless, and it was later changed to the version that we know today by another great revivalist at some of you may have heard of, a man by the name of George Wittfield. 04:51.209 --> 04:57.517 [SPEAKER_00]: So where we get heart that Harold Angel Singh starts with Wesley and it is with Whitfield. 04:57.577 --> 05:02.323 [SPEAKER_00]: If you remember, I actually mentioned some of these guys in our make the church weird again series. 05:02.884 --> 05:12.576 [SPEAKER_00]: We were in Boston recently and actually got to be in one of the buildings where I was in one where Wesley preached and then I was also, 05:12.556 --> 05:22.789 [SPEAKER_00]: Also in one where with field priests and just sitting in those moments the weight of knowing these great men of God preached in these buildings was a lot For me everybody else is like being all loud. 05:22.849 --> 05:39.711 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just sitting there crying because he's great men of God Preach in this building and people probably think I'm going through depression or something But I'm actually just overwhelmed by being in these rooms where these anointed men of God preached in these incredible Revivals and meetings and everybody got school groups running around just like banging on stuff and I'll make stop at them at that moment 05:44.213 --> 05:54.045 [SPEAKER_00]: But it's amazing that these great revivalists and men of God were the ones that actually wrote these songs that we now sing so flippantly today. 05:54.806 --> 06:03.016 [SPEAKER_00]: And because they wrote them is one of the reasons they are absolutely laden with theology and doctrines. 06:03.036 --> 06:10.305 [SPEAKER_00]: But if I have the songs that people sing today, even in church, are less theologically rich. 06:10.808 --> 06:21.673 [SPEAKER_00]: Then these songs and these Christmas songs and the hymns that we just so awfully, hard to hear, old angels sing, glory to the new boy king. 06:22.014 --> 06:24.239 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be done singing this song. 06:24.800 --> 06:27.366 [SPEAKER_00]: The Saint, my jam, I want something I can dance to. 06:28.443 --> 06:49.226 [SPEAKER_00]: But these things are laden with theology, they're laden with Christology, they're laden with understanding and trying to help us understand who Jesus is and what he did in his Advent, what he did in his coming is not just a song that you put on in order to decorate the tree and have some eggnog and make everything feel warm and merry and bright. 06:49.447 --> 06:57.876 [SPEAKER_00]: There is something that is trying to be communicated to us about who Jesus is and about what 06:57.856 --> 06:59.919 [SPEAKER_00]: It's rich in Christian doctrine. 06:59.999 --> 07:03.062 [SPEAKER_00]: It praises Christ, my highest heaven adored. 07:03.703 --> 07:08.609 [SPEAKER_00]: Christ, the everlasting Lord, and celebrates veiled in flesh that God had seen. 07:09.290 --> 07:10.772 [SPEAKER_00]: Hail the incarnate, Deity. 07:10.892 --> 07:12.654 [SPEAKER_00]: One is being communicated to us here. 07:12.995 --> 07:20.985 [SPEAKER_00]: In simpler words, it's reminding us that the baby that was born in Bethlehem is God in the flesh. 07:22.627 --> 07:25.230 [SPEAKER_00]: That he wasn't just another baby. 07:25.514 --> 07:29.400 [SPEAKER_00]: That sure he was fully manned, but he was also fully God. 07:30.261 --> 07:36.711 [SPEAKER_00]: That in that manger, in that stable in Bethlehem, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. 07:37.092 --> 07:43.702 [SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes we just set up our little nativity and his cue, and we missed the power that God became flesh for you. 07:44.804 --> 07:46.667 [SPEAKER_00]: That God became flesh for me. 07:46.927 --> 07:49.071 [SPEAKER_00]: That's what we're celebrating at Christmas. 07:49.251 --> 07:50.834 [SPEAKER_00]: I love the trees as in my wife. 07:51.154 --> 07:53.698 [SPEAKER_00]: Goes way too extra at Christmas time. 07:54.843 --> 07:56.505 [SPEAKER_00]: Anybody else, no one's talking about? 07:56.525 --> 07:59.509 [SPEAKER_00]: And I love it, so I'm not gonna act like I don't, right? 07:59.529 --> 08:03.193 [SPEAKER_00]: Come on, any other men, your wife, a bit extra, Christmas time with the decorations, y'all can wave at me. 08:03.213 --> 08:04.735 [SPEAKER_00]: It's okay, you're not gonna get hit, I promise. 08:05.836 --> 08:08.760 [SPEAKER_00]: Fewer y'all, and how many y'all also just absolutely love it, right? 08:09.180 --> 08:13.766 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, when it's goin' on, when the house is transforming, terrible. 08:15.268 --> 08:17.931 [SPEAKER_00]: But once it's done, praise God. 08:17.995 --> 08:20.018 [SPEAKER_00]: bring out the warm and fuzzies and make you feel good. 08:20.398 --> 08:24.524 [SPEAKER_00]: But Christmas is so much more than a nice tree and a monogins tree. 08:24.584 --> 08:28.329 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got like 47 in my house, right? 08:28.349 --> 08:30.992 [SPEAKER_00]: It's more than a stocking hung by the fireplace. 08:31.773 --> 08:35.418 [SPEAKER_00]: It's more than gifts under the tree, although we're thankful for all those things. 08:35.698 --> 08:37.541 [SPEAKER_00]: How am I going to give your kids some gifts on Christmas? 08:37.601 --> 08:37.881 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 08:38.903 --> 08:41.025 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, a few of y'all, some of y'all are grinchies in the room. 08:41.326 --> 08:43.108 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to do your remaining one, Mr. Grinch. 08:43.128 --> 08:46.753 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the hand of Christmas we're doing. 08:48.623 --> 08:50.525 [SPEAKER_00]: How many give your kids some gifts on Christmas? 08:50.585 --> 08:52.106 [SPEAKER_00]: It's okay, I know it's December or not. 08:52.126 --> 08:53.087 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not starting to December yet. 08:53.107 --> 08:54.148 [SPEAKER_00]: Y'all are already getting tightened. 08:54.168 --> 08:54.989 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not even December. 08:55.309 --> 08:56.871 [SPEAKER_00]: How many give your kids something good on Christmas? 08:56.891 --> 08:57.171 [SPEAKER_00]: They're man? 08:57.611 --> 08:59.713 [SPEAKER_00]: That's a good thing, right? 08:59.733 --> 09:01.034 [SPEAKER_00]: Those are all good things. 09:01.174 --> 09:02.636 [SPEAKER_00]: Those are all wonderful things. 09:02.736 --> 09:06.559 [SPEAKER_00]: I have a thinking, giving gifts, we're commemorating the fact that the Father gave. 09:08.241 --> 09:18.310 [SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the day, what this entire season is about is that the word became flesh and he dwelt among us. 09:19.066 --> 09:38.543 [SPEAKER_00]: But the refrain I really want us to dig into today for a few minutes is where he says glory to the newborn king, peace on earth, and mercy mild, and then this line, God and sinners reconciled, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and sinners, God and 09:39.232 --> 09:40.113 [SPEAKER_00]: reconciled. 09:40.913 --> 09:45.157 [SPEAKER_00]: That one line captures the entire heart of the season. 09:46.158 --> 09:49.161 [SPEAKER_00]: It declares the very purpose for Christ's coming. 09:49.921 --> 09:54.946 [SPEAKER_00]: The God and sinners once separated are brought together in peace. 09:55.626 --> 10:00.370 [SPEAKER_00]: So today we're going to dive into this theme a little bit of God and sinners reconciled. 10:00.390 --> 10:03.553 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is what Paul is talking about in the second Corinthians 5. 10:03.893 --> 10:09.238 [SPEAKER_00]: The passage we read at the top of this is about 10:09.218 --> 10:12.364 [SPEAKER_00]: We have to understand that we needed reconciliation. 10:13.567 --> 10:30.180 [SPEAKER_00]: The Bible tells us at the beginning that sin causes a rift between God and humanity, in the garden, Adam and Eve fall and in doing so they become trapped and enslaved by the powers of sin. 10:30.380 --> 10:36.089 [SPEAKER_00]: in death by the power of Satan, they become in trapped because of their fall. 10:36.850 --> 10:42.319 [SPEAKER_00]: And because of their sin, there are strains from God, relationship is fractured. 10:43.381 --> 10:47.888 [SPEAKER_00]: And none of us were able to repair that breach on our own. 10:49.190 --> 10:50.652 [SPEAKER_00]: Adam could not repair the breach. 10:51.854 --> 10:54.278 [SPEAKER_00]: Abraham could not repair the breach. 10:55.287 --> 10:58.375 [SPEAKER_00]: David could not repair the breach. 10:58.556 --> 11:01.583 [SPEAKER_00]: Elijah could not repair the breach. 11:02.245 --> 11:10.647 [SPEAKER_00]: None of these incredible amazing features we read about in scripture were enough to repair the breach, no amount of good works. 11:10.627 --> 11:16.539 [SPEAKER_00]: No amount of good thoughts were enough to break the enslavement that humanity was under. 11:16.980 --> 11:25.798 [SPEAKER_00]: We stood in this spot in desperate need of reconciliation of someone who could break the bands that held us down. 11:27.261 --> 11:28.804 [SPEAKER_00]: But the good news is this. 11:29.273 --> 11:34.921 [SPEAKER_00]: God's heart was always to reconcile and to redeem. 11:35.241 --> 11:43.413 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to hear me, and this isn't in my notes, but I want you to hear me, God's heart in your life is still to reconcile and to redeem. 11:43.433 --> 11:49.341 [SPEAKER_00]: It is still the heart of God to put back together that which was broken. 11:49.321 --> 11:54.213 [SPEAKER_00]: It is still the heart of God to redeem that which other people said was irredeemable. 11:54.855 --> 11:59.567 [SPEAKER_00]: It is still the heart of God to make things right. 12:00.931 --> 12:06.860 [SPEAKER_00]: It is still his plan, and it is still his purpose to make things right. 12:06.981 --> 12:15.634 [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't want to jump away ahead of myself to the end, but there is a day coming where he will make all things right, where he will write every wrong. 12:15.935 --> 12:20.001 [SPEAKER_00]: That's why it says in the book of Revelation that he will wipe away every tear on that day. 12:20.281 --> 12:27.613 [SPEAKER_00]: He's not doing it just as someone who is consoling us, but he is someone who throughout all of time is making all wrongs right. 12:30.057 --> 12:31.399 [SPEAKER_00]: y'all are real quiet this morning. 12:34.345 --> 12:44.843 [SPEAKER_00]: There's this first hint in the book of Genesis of this plan to reconcile and to redeem in Genesis 3, it says at the seed of the woman. 12:45.312 --> 12:46.974 [SPEAKER_00]: would crush the serpent's head. 12:47.774 --> 12:51.178 [SPEAKER_00]: That's a promise that God makes in Genesis chapter 3 at the beginning. 12:51.438 --> 12:53.180 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, there is a day that is coming. 12:53.880 --> 12:58.064 [SPEAKER_00]: We're from the seed of the woman that the head of the serpent will be crushed. 12:58.084 --> 12:58.885 [SPEAKER_00]: What's he talking about? 12:59.125 --> 13:00.747 [SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about a day that is coming. 13:01.027 --> 13:03.490 [SPEAKER_00]: Where Jesus will crush the head of the enemy. 13:03.790 --> 13:08.475 [SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about the fact that the God is going to become flesh through the way of a virgin. 13:08.675 --> 13:11.978 [SPEAKER_00]: And he's going to crush the head of the serpent. 13:11.958 --> 13:20.430 [SPEAKER_00]: And for God's set in motion, as soon as the fall happened, as soon as sin and death entered the world, God set in plan. 13:20.690 --> 13:25.157 [SPEAKER_00]: He set in motion a plan to defeat our enemy and to bring us back to him. 13:25.377 --> 13:28.461 [SPEAKER_00]: And we have 4,000 years of him working that plan. 13:28.722 --> 13:34.590 [SPEAKER_00]: And then the operation saved humanity starts in a manger in a stable and Beth 13:34.570 --> 13:58.114 [SPEAKER_00]: lamb, whenever God becomes flesh and dwells among us, not just to have a nice little nativity in your house, but as an announcement that the powers of the enemy are about to be broken, that reconciliation is going to be brought between God and man, that the power of sin and death isn't in a whole humanity forever, but there is a day that is coming, there is a day that came 13:58.094 --> 14:03.790 [SPEAKER_00]: We're the power of sin, and the power of death will be broken, but it all starts in a manger. 14:03.911 --> 14:10.028 [SPEAKER_00]: It all starts in Bethlehem, and all starts with God, becoming flesh and dwelling among us. 14:13.113 --> 14:18.421 [SPEAKER_00]: We needed reconciliation, and I want you to hear me, I want you to rethink Christmas, okay? 14:18.441 --> 14:20.745 [SPEAKER_00]: Once again, how many still have an activity set in your house? 14:20.765 --> 14:21.706 [SPEAKER_00]: Anybody still have an activity set? 14:21.726 --> 14:23.849 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, it's kind of old school now. 14:24.270 --> 14:25.932 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got an old nativity set. 14:26.013 --> 14:30.900 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the one that I grew up with in my house as a kid, as a child, right? 14:31.321 --> 14:34.125 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's old, it's my old, I mean, like the 80s. 14:37.149 --> 14:40.234 [SPEAKER_00]: I know, I know, which is old these days. 14:40.670 --> 14:43.814 [SPEAKER_00]: These young adults who he field old all the time like, oh yeah, we'll talk about 9-11. 14:43.834 --> 14:45.976 [SPEAKER_00]: They're like, yeah, that was like four years before I was born. 14:46.016 --> 14:46.757 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh my gosh. 14:50.601 --> 14:55.827 [SPEAKER_00]: Talk about something like, oh yeah, yeah, my kids asked me one day of TV was black and white, whenever I was born. 14:57.729 --> 14:58.690 [SPEAKER_00]: I was born in 1985. 15:00.793 --> 15:02.475 [SPEAKER_00]: We had time machines at that point. 15:02.515 --> 15:03.816 [SPEAKER_00]: Forget about, right? 15:03.836 --> 15:05.058 [SPEAKER_00]: Back to the future, anybody? 15:05.078 --> 15:09.883 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, praise God. 15:10.859 --> 15:18.128 [SPEAKER_00]: They were about 10 inches big, and weighed about 5,000 pounds, but they were not black and white. 15:22.113 --> 15:22.313 [SPEAKER_00]: All right. 15:22.333 --> 15:23.355 [SPEAKER_00]: We were on Walmart the other day. 15:23.375 --> 15:24.216 [SPEAKER_00]: I walked by a TV. 15:24.736 --> 15:26.539 [SPEAKER_00]: I think it was a black Friday of the day after. 15:26.559 --> 15:35.350 [SPEAKER_00]: And it was like 75 inch TV, ultra high definition, 4,000, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 15:35.490 --> 15:37.052 [SPEAKER_00]: And it was like $398. 15:39.108 --> 15:43.936 [SPEAKER_00]: And I told my wife, I said, I think I grew up the TV. 15:43.956 --> 15:46.400 [SPEAKER_00]: The first TV I had in my room was about 13 inches. 15:47.482 --> 15:48.664 [SPEAKER_00]: Come on, y'all remember that I'm out? 15:49.365 --> 15:51.448 [SPEAKER_00]: And it weighed about 97 pounds. 15:52.931 --> 15:54.293 [SPEAKER_00]: Had a VCR in it. 15:54.373 --> 15:56.256 [SPEAKER_00]: Praise God, come on, somebody. 15:58.460 --> 15:58.660 [SPEAKER_00]: All right. 15:58.680 --> 16:01.665 [SPEAKER_00]: Had the Nintendo 64 plugged into the front. 16:03.188 --> 16:05.892 [SPEAKER_00]: If you squinted enough, it would be clear. 16:11.491 --> 16:14.579 [SPEAKER_00]: But the activity sets, I've got this old nativity set in my house. 16:14.599 --> 16:24.825 [SPEAKER_00]: It's incredibly, biblically accurate with like the most blonde, blue-eyed pale skin Jesus you've ever seen in your life. 16:25.177 --> 16:28.943 [SPEAKER_00]: When I say Jesus is white, I don't mean he's white like I'm white. 16:29.063 --> 16:34.692 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean he is literally the color white in this like he's glowing in this nativity set, right? 16:35.133 --> 16:38.618 [SPEAKER_00]: The one of the most inaccurate things imaginable, but I love that nativity set. 16:38.959 --> 16:45.870 [SPEAKER_00]: We haven't put it out yet this year, but I put it out every year and threaten my kids within an inch of their life if they come near it, right? 16:45.890 --> 16:49.075 [SPEAKER_00]: Because it's something that's precious to me. 16:49.527 --> 16:55.658 [SPEAKER_00]: But we have these in the activity sets, but that in the activity set is more than just something you put out because it's your family tradition and it's what you do. 16:55.999 --> 16:59.244 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe whenever you put that in the activity set, you need to look a little bit differently. 16:59.585 --> 17:06.237 [SPEAKER_00]: And whenever you put that in the activity set, whenever you put the little baby Jesus in the manger, you need to be thinking, this is an announcement to the enemy. 17:07.735 --> 17:09.136 [SPEAKER_00]: that Jesus came for me. 17:09.837 --> 17:14.842 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a reminder when I put it out that in this house, we believe that God became flesh. 17:15.362 --> 17:19.967 [SPEAKER_00]: In this house, we believe that the power of sin and death has been broken over violence. 17:20.367 --> 17:26.633 [SPEAKER_00]: In my house, we believe that there is a man named Jesus who came and broke the bands of the enemy over my life. 17:26.653 --> 17:36.122 [SPEAKER_00]: In this house, we believe that God loved me so much, that he became flesh, and he became the man in order to redeem my humanity, he became a human. 17:38.903 --> 17:39.904 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a rescue mission. 17:40.445 --> 17:41.726 [SPEAKER_00]: That's what we're celebrating at Christmas. 17:41.826 --> 17:49.835 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the story of God's rescue mission, the eternal Son of God, took on flesh and took on blood and order to save us. 17:50.636 --> 17:52.538 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus left the glory of heaven. 17:53.499 --> 17:57.043 [SPEAKER_00]: It became fully human in order to redeem humanity from the inside out. 17:58.505 --> 18:00.808 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, if to understand this, why did he have to become human? 18:01.128 --> 18:04.692 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus took on our humanity so that he could fight and win on our behalf. 18:05.650 --> 18:11.218 [SPEAKER_00]: The writer of Hebrews talks about this in Hebrews chapter two, in as much than as the children are partaking a flesh and blood. 18:11.258 --> 18:14.383 [SPEAKER_00]: He himself likewise also shared in the same. 18:15.285 --> 18:22.756 [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, Jesus particular the same flesh and blood that we are, that through death, he might destroy him who had the power of death. 18:24.238 --> 18:25.480 [SPEAKER_00]: That is the devil. 18:26.121 --> 18:32.130 [SPEAKER_00]: And release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 18:32.532 --> 18:41.691 [SPEAKER_00]: Hear me only by dying as a human, could he break the power of death and the power of the devil that kept us captive in fear? 18:42.673 --> 18:44.998 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, the immortal word. 18:45.679 --> 18:49.547 [SPEAKER_00]: You have to understand, in John chapter one, don't know the gospel of John, right? 18:49.707 --> 18:51.992 [SPEAKER_00]: All the other Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 18:52.478 --> 18:54.961 [SPEAKER_00]: I'll start off with genealogy, right? 18:54.981 --> 19:05.933 [SPEAKER_00]: There's Adam, and Adam began, and he began, and he began, and there's great truth in that, and I've preached, I think last year, we actually kind of preached through the genealogy, specifically highlighting the women that are mentioned, because it's crazy. 19:06.754 --> 19:07.315 [SPEAKER_00]: You all remember that? 19:07.415 --> 19:07.755 [SPEAKER_00]: Feel you all? 19:07.935 --> 19:14.062 [SPEAKER_00]: Those were good, but John starts in a different way. 19:15.083 --> 19:19.448 [SPEAKER_00]: John starts, and he goes, in the beginning, was the word, 19:21.149 --> 19:23.033 [SPEAKER_00]: and the word was God and the word was with God. 19:23.915 --> 19:25.359 [SPEAKER_00]: And who is the word he's talking about? 19:25.379 --> 19:26.702 [SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about Jesus. 19:27.504 --> 19:28.666 [SPEAKER_00]: That's who he's talking about. 19:29.087 --> 19:33.758 [SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about Jesus and the word became what? 19:34.177 --> 19:37.142 [SPEAKER_00]: flesh and dwelt among us. 19:37.622 --> 19:40.787 [SPEAKER_00]: The word he's talking about is not some nebulous force. 19:41.448 --> 19:55.510 [SPEAKER_00]: The word he's talking about there is Jesus, himself that Jesus came and took the immortal word took on a mortal body so that in offering his life, he would conquer death and would restore us to life. 19:56.080 --> 20:07.917 [SPEAKER_00]: Athanasius says at this way, an early church Father says, it is by the very Christ who was mounted on the cross that death has been destroyed and vanquished finally. 20:08.958 --> 20:13.224 [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine the Holy God became a humble man. 20:14.046 --> 20:20.755 [SPEAKER_00]: Born as a baby, laid in a manger, all for the purpose of reconciling us to himself. 20:22.591 --> 20:32.822 [SPEAKER_00]: I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in our good at church on Sunday, I'd go half the time on Wednesday, occasionally I'd go to a community event because we're born in the South Blessed God. 20:32.862 --> 20:43.853 [SPEAKER_00]: That's what me mom did, and that's what Pat Pat did, and that's what Uncle Johnny and Aunt Sue and, you know, cousin Earl and all those people did. 20:43.893 --> 20:46.055 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's just what we do. 20:46.956 --> 20:50.640 [SPEAKER_00]: And we become these kind of like cultural Christians, 20:51.717 --> 20:55.807 [SPEAKER_00]: without really becoming theological doctrinal Christians. 20:57.290 --> 20:59.575 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, God, y'all are looking at me in that tone of voice. 21:00.678 --> 21:06.672 [SPEAKER_00]: Where we know all the right things to do, but we don't really actually believe any of the right things about who he is. 21:07.546 --> 21:13.835 [SPEAKER_00]: where we know how to shout in the fast song, raise our hands in the slow song, right? 21:14.296 --> 21:20.024 [SPEAKER_00]: And get and take communion and do this that and the other, but we really don't understand who Jesus is and what He did. 21:20.424 --> 21:23.028 [SPEAKER_00]: And we really need to understand who He is and what He did. 21:23.228 --> 21:29.057 [SPEAKER_00]: We need to understand the Carol says, please, as with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. 21:29.377 --> 21:32.281 [SPEAKER_00]: That means this, Jesus was more than just a man. 21:32.381 --> 21:33.503 [SPEAKER_00]: He was God. 21:34.613 --> 21:35.594 [SPEAKER_00]: Who became flesh? 21:35.614 --> 21:37.136 [SPEAKER_00]: This is, we don't even have time. 21:37.196 --> 21:44.903 [SPEAKER_00]: If people can't even really fully grasp or understand the incarnation and what it means because you are just fully human. 21:47.446 --> 21:47.686 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 21:48.607 --> 21:49.828 [SPEAKER_00]: How many of you in here are fully human? 21:51.450 --> 21:52.451 [SPEAKER_00]: This isn't a short question. 21:52.511 --> 21:53.612 [SPEAKER_00]: How many of you here are fully human? 21:54.393 --> 21:54.653 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 21:54.713 --> 21:55.834 [SPEAKER_00]: We are all fully human. 21:56.015 --> 21:56.695 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a human being. 21:57.516 --> 22:00.960 [SPEAKER_00]: There's no part alien or superhero or X-Men or anything like that. 22:01.680 --> 22:03.422 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just a human being. 22:03.537 --> 22:05.480 [SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus wasn't just a human being. 22:06.462 --> 22:10.589 [SPEAKER_00]: He was fully manned, and he was also fully God. 22:11.150 --> 22:12.733 [SPEAKER_00]: We can't even really understand that. 22:12.833 --> 22:17.922 [SPEAKER_00]: Our minds can't even wrap around the fact that Incarnation is something that's even really difficult for us to understand. 22:18.123 --> 22:21.849 [SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the day, this is what you need to know and what you have to come back to. 22:22.290 --> 22:25.275 [SPEAKER_00]: God became human to rescue you. 22:26.504 --> 22:33.853 [SPEAKER_00]: He's our Emmanuel, God with us, God is literally with us in our condition to rescue us. 22:34.234 --> 22:42.264 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus as our Emmanuel doesn't mean that he just came to visit the earth, but rather he happened to humanity in order to redeem us. 22:44.047 --> 22:47.691 [SPEAKER_00]: We talk about this in HPSM, and I don't have time to go into it deeply this morning. 22:48.953 --> 22:50.355 [SPEAKER_00]: Things don't happen to Jesus. 22:52.197 --> 22:53.659 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus happens to things. 22:56.187 --> 22:58.253 [SPEAKER_00]: Humanity didn't happen to Jesus. 22:58.373 --> 22:59.716 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus happened to humanity. 23:00.920 --> 23:02.544 [SPEAKER_00]: Death didn't happen to Jesus. 23:02.684 --> 23:03.707 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus happened to death. 23:05.432 --> 23:05.893 [SPEAKER_00]: You with me? 23:07.072 --> 23:07.633 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 23:07.653 --> 23:12.897 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is not transformed by what He encounters, what He is encounters, is transformed by Him. 23:13.158 --> 23:22.847 [SPEAKER_00]: So in His coming, He is not changed by humanity, but rather what Jesus becoming art Emmanuel and becoming flesh to dwell among us, what is happening is He is changing humanity. 23:23.327 --> 23:25.950 [SPEAKER_00]: He is restoring it to what it was supposed to be. 23:26.370 --> 23:26.550 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 23:26.650 --> 23:28.973 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus isn't changed by humanity. 23:29.313 --> 23:31.355 [SPEAKER_00]: Humanity is changed by Jesus. 23:31.795 --> 23:34.257 [SPEAKER_00]: Death, Jesus is not changed by death. 23:34.638 --> 23:36.960 [SPEAKER_00]: Death is changed by Jesus. 23:36.940 --> 23:41.505 [SPEAKER_00]: The bonds the enemy would attempt to put on a human did not happen to Jesus. 23:41.865 --> 23:44.588 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus happened to the chains and he broke them forever. 23:45.629 --> 23:50.515 [SPEAKER_00]: Really understand what Jesus became flesh and dwelt among this means. 23:50.535 --> 23:53.838 [SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't mean he took a 33-year detour to earth. 23:55.260 --> 23:57.522 [SPEAKER_00]: It means he changed everything in the moment he came. 23:57.622 --> 23:58.283 [SPEAKER_00]: I gotta go faster. 23:59.584 --> 24:01.166 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the miracle of Christmas. 24:02.247 --> 24:04.770 [SPEAKER_00]: The miracle of Christmas isn't you found a good sale? 24:06.742 --> 24:10.887 [SPEAKER_00]: The miracle of Christmas is not uncle Johnny didn't get drunk at Christmas dinner. 24:12.829 --> 24:22.040 [SPEAKER_00]: The miracle of Christmas is that God became flesh to reconcile us, and to break the back of the enemy. 24:23.021 --> 24:24.603 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, hear me on TV. 24:24.623 --> 24:28.708 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus didn't come just to teach or just to model love, although he did those things. 24:29.288 --> 24:31.171 [SPEAKER_00]: He came to find a war on our behalf. 24:32.452 --> 24:36.597 [SPEAKER_00]: The early church understands this. 24:37.505 --> 24:38.968 [SPEAKER_00]: in which Christ was the victor. 24:39.949 --> 24:46.200 [SPEAKER_00]: They viewed Jesus as the conqueror of all of the powers that held humanity enslaved. 24:46.882 --> 24:51.269 [SPEAKER_00]: Once again, I wish I had more time to talk about this, but I don't. 24:51.289 --> 24:54.295 [SPEAKER_00]: Once again, this is the way that we have viewed our relationship with God. 24:54.876 --> 25:02.449 [SPEAKER_00]: Adam and Eve sin, God becomes angry at man, and he's angry at man, he wants to kill everybody. 25:03.627 --> 25:22.802 [SPEAKER_00]: until he sins himself, and he kills himself in Jesus, in order to pay a debt, there was O2 himself, he killed himself, there y'all with me, and this is what we taught it. 25:23.684 --> 25:25.888 [SPEAKER_00]: But God's not mad at humanity. 25:26.223 --> 25:27.986 [SPEAKER_00]: God's never mad at humanity. 25:28.006 --> 25:37.900 [SPEAKER_00]: John 3 tells us this, for God's so love the world, that he gave not that God was so frustrated, that he needed to kill himself in order to bring back humanity to him. 25:38.201 --> 25:41.446 [SPEAKER_00]: That's not what he says, for God's will of the world, that he gave his only begotten son. 25:41.766 --> 25:48.957 [SPEAKER_00]: That Jesus is given that God becomes flesh and dwells among us not to save us from God. 25:50.962 --> 25:54.246 [SPEAKER_00]: You didn't need to be saved from a wrathful, vengeful God. 25:55.247 --> 25:59.071 [SPEAKER_00]: We need to be saved from the powers of death and sin and hell. 25:59.732 --> 26:01.394 [SPEAKER_00]: You didn't need to be saved from God. 26:01.734 --> 26:03.296 [SPEAKER_00]: God has always loved you. 26:03.596 --> 26:05.338 [SPEAKER_00]: God has always been for you. 26:05.599 --> 26:07.140 [SPEAKER_00]: God has always had listened. 26:07.160 --> 26:15.029 [SPEAKER_00]: If you walked in this room right now this morning and you walked in messed up jacked up, you were drunk high, whatever doing God knows what last night. 26:15.270 --> 26:17.492 [SPEAKER_00]: God loves you in spite of all of that. 26:18.198 --> 26:18.899 [SPEAKER_00]: He loves you. 26:18.919 --> 26:20.620 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's why he brought you here today. 26:20.680 --> 26:24.204 [SPEAKER_00]: It's because he's interceding on your behalf. 26:24.484 --> 26:27.327 [SPEAKER_00]: God's not frustrated and angry and mad at you. 26:27.347 --> 26:31.351 [SPEAKER_00]: God loves you so much that Jesus became flesh and dwell among us. 26:31.571 --> 26:35.335 [SPEAKER_00]: He happened to humanity to break the power of sin and death of your life. 26:35.595 --> 26:37.257 [SPEAKER_00]: God was never out to get you. 26:37.597 --> 26:38.758 [SPEAKER_00]: Sin was out to get you. 26:39.038 --> 26:40.380 [SPEAKER_00]: Death was out to get you. 26:40.400 --> 26:41.781 [SPEAKER_00]: The enemy was out to get you. 26:42.021 --> 26:47.867 [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus became flesh as a cosmic victor 26:49.484 --> 26:50.586 [SPEAKER_00]: once and for all. 26:51.908 --> 26:54.031 [SPEAKER_00]: Break those bands and break those bonds. 26:54.632 --> 26:57.076 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the victor. 26:57.516 --> 27:02.444 [SPEAKER_00]: All the spiritual tyrants are ruled over us, the fear of death, the oppression of the enemy. 27:02.784 --> 27:07.071 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus came to dethrone in the right of Colossians, says this expressly. 27:08.283 --> 27:11.128 [SPEAKER_00]: By the way, it's said expressly throughout the entire new testament. 27:11.529 --> 27:20.005 [SPEAKER_00]: It is not said God was mad and dead and dead and it talks about how death and sin and hell and all of these things were ruling over you, but Jesus came to break their power. 27:21.187 --> 27:22.550 [SPEAKER_00]: That's what the Atonement is. 27:23.411 --> 27:24.714 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is our champion. 27:25.495 --> 27:27.439 [SPEAKER_00]: He is our David, who's slewglyeth. 27:28.718 --> 27:31.781 [SPEAKER_00]: He is our Moses who lets us, leads us out of slavery. 27:32.221 --> 27:47.315 [SPEAKER_00]: And on the cross, Jesus dealt with sin and death once and for all, why to reconcile you, to reconcile you, by rising from the grave on the third day Jesus, once and for all, conquered the power of death. 27:48.917 --> 27:53.121 [SPEAKER_00]: The resurrection becomes God's definitive display that life wins and death loses. 27:54.482 --> 27:56.464 [SPEAKER_00]: Through Jesus, his birth, 27:56.545 --> 28:02.452 [SPEAKER_00]: His life, his death, his resurrection, the barrier of sin is removed, and the path to God is made open. 28:02.512 --> 28:03.293 [SPEAKER_00]: The war is over. 28:05.075 --> 28:06.037 [SPEAKER_00]: I said the war is over. 28:06.958 --> 28:12.485 [SPEAKER_00]: Christ made peace by defeating the cosmic powers that enslaved humanity. 28:13.826 --> 28:14.988 [SPEAKER_00]: He reconciled us. 28:15.929 --> 28:22.637 [SPEAKER_00]: So reconciliation means, it means restoring a broken relationship, it means bringing former 28:23.275 --> 28:29.564 [SPEAKER_00]: Think of the Father in the parable of the prodigal son running down the road to embrace his son who was a sinner coming home. 28:31.406 --> 28:34.170 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the reconciliation that God accomplished in Jesus. 28:34.711 --> 28:35.692 [SPEAKER_00]: He ran to us. 28:37.495 --> 28:43.703 [SPEAKER_00]: God with us, that His incarnation is Him running to us to bring us home. 28:44.404 --> 28:50.633 [SPEAKER_00]: He absorbed our debt, by the way, not a debt we owed to God, a debt we owned to sin and death. 28:51.035 --> 28:52.557 [SPEAKER_00]: And we now have peace with God. 28:53.138 --> 29:02.509 [SPEAKER_00]: So what Romans chapter five says, therefore have I mean justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 29:03.090 --> 29:05.933 [SPEAKER_00]: No more hostility, no more condemnation, no distance. 29:06.514 --> 29:13.863 [SPEAKER_00]: Peace has been made and truly, like it says in the song, God and sinners have been reconciled. 29:14.443 --> 29:16.085 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the good news of Christmas. 29:16.506 --> 29:17.447 [SPEAKER_00]: Christ has done it. 29:19.216 --> 29:25.465 [SPEAKER_00]: The king was born, the battle was fought, the victory was won, and peace has been established. 29:26.086 --> 29:33.336 [SPEAKER_00]: God and sinners come on Steve, God and sinners reconciled is not just a lyric that we sing. 29:33.396 --> 29:37.582 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the reality that we can live in every single day. 29:38.783 --> 29:40.806 [SPEAKER_00]: So, this is our response. 29:42.268 --> 29:43.570 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the way that we're to live. 29:45.541 --> 29:49.209 [SPEAKER_00]: knowing that we have this reality that God and sinners have been reconciled. 29:49.229 --> 29:51.473 [SPEAKER_00]: Number one, you may want to write these down. 29:51.514 --> 29:55.201 [SPEAKER_00]: Number one is this, you can rejoice in this reconciliation. 29:56.183 --> 30:01.795 [SPEAKER_00]: You're no longer a slave to fear, you're no longer a slave to guilt, you're no longer a slave to shame, 30:01.994 --> 30:04.719 [SPEAKER_00]: to death, and we can rejoice in that. 30:04.739 --> 30:13.133 [SPEAKER_00]: I said it earlier, Christmas season is one of the best seasons to rejoice, because we remember that we once were lost, but we're now found. 30:13.654 --> 30:18.703 [SPEAKER_00]: We remember that Christ became flesh in order to free us from the bond of Satan. 30:19.624 --> 30:22.609 [SPEAKER_00]: The next thing is to embrace the freedom that Jesus won for you. 30:24.112 --> 30:27.057 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to live bound any longer. 30:28.032 --> 30:35.544 [SPEAKER_00]: If you've been in sin cycles, if you've been in problems, if you've been in issues, the good news is this, you don't have to live in those cycles any longer. 30:36.185 --> 30:40.372 [SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus defeated sin, that meant Jesus defeated sin. 30:41.253 --> 30:44.518 [SPEAKER_00]: It means it doesn't have to have power over your life any longer. 30:45.059 --> 30:48.825 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe you can actually live your life free from sin. 30:51.961 --> 30:52.622 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that. 30:53.303 --> 30:55.086 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe you can go 10 minutes without sinning. 30:55.687 --> 30:56.989 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've been preaching longer than that. 30:57.049 --> 31:00.555 [SPEAKER_00]: If you already had a problem, please let it go, man. 31:00.575 --> 31:04.422 [SPEAKER_00]: But I believe 10 minutes, a few of y'all, 30 minutes, an hour. 31:05.684 --> 31:09.210 [SPEAKER_00]: Come on, a day, two days. 31:10.291 --> 31:12.535 [SPEAKER_00]: You know how you live free over sin, one day at a time? 31:13.223 --> 31:16.508 [SPEAKER_00]: one moment at a time, one victory at a time. 31:16.968 --> 31:21.395 [SPEAKER_00]: That's one thing that we talk about in CR, it's one of the things that they talk about in celebrate recovery. 31:21.896 --> 31:26.442 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be clean the rest of your life. 31:26.963 --> 31:31.249 [SPEAKER_00]: You've got to be clean today, right? 31:31.269 --> 31:34.293 [SPEAKER_00]: And you stack days, and I think on Saturday, Torrey's a good example. 31:34.314 --> 31:35.776 [SPEAKER_00]: She celebrated six years clean. 31:35.856 --> 31:42.285 [SPEAKER_00]: Come on, pray is up. 31:43.143 --> 31:46.226 [SPEAKER_00]: one day at a time, one moment at a time. 31:46.606 --> 31:50.811 [SPEAKER_00]: Tory, probably six years ago, the idea of being clean for six years would have seemed impossible. 31:51.471 --> 31:59.719 [SPEAKER_00]: Listen, it may seem impossible for you to love living without side of a sinful lifestyle for a day may seem crazy to you. 31:59.739 --> 32:00.740 [SPEAKER_00]: So, okay, start with an hour. 32:01.862 --> 32:03.143 [SPEAKER_00]: Let an hour become two hours. 32:03.423 --> 32:08.408 [SPEAKER_00]: If we believe Jesus broke the power of sin, we have to believe that Jesus actually broke the power of sin. 32:10.193 --> 32:11.794 [SPEAKER_00]: The next thing is to be reconciled to God. 32:12.435 --> 32:14.897 [SPEAKER_00]: This reconciliation is not automatic for everyone. 32:14.957 --> 32:17.099 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a gift that's offered and must be received. 32:17.960 --> 32:20.643 [SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't surrendered to Jesus, now is your time. 32:21.483 --> 32:26.968 [SPEAKER_00]: God's already done everything you need to receive, forgiveness and peace in your life. 32:27.208 --> 32:31.392 [SPEAKER_00]: All that remains is for you to turn to Him and trust in Christ. 32:32.093 --> 32:39.880 [SPEAKER_00]: And then this is the one I really want to get to this morning, now that I'm out of time. 32:41.429 --> 32:49.627 [SPEAKER_00]: If you go back to second Corinthians chapter five, we read the beginning, it says this, the God has entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation. 32:50.309 --> 32:58.206 [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, God reconciles us to Him, and then he says, now I'm giving you the ministry and the message of reconciliation. 32:59.553 --> 33:18.048 [SPEAKER_00]: That means this, this good news we're talking about this morning, this gospel that we're talking about this morning that you now get to announce this to others that they too can find peace through Jesus in a world that is broken and sin and strife and bad news. 33:18.950 --> 33:20.633 [SPEAKER_00]: How desperately 33:20.798 --> 33:25.667 [SPEAKER_00]: do people need to hear that God has made a way for peace. 33:26.408 --> 33:32.419 [SPEAKER_00]: In a world where bad news sells, how much more so do we need to shout the good news really loud? 33:33.761 --> 33:37.388 [SPEAKER_00]: So as we kind of close this, I want to reflect one more time on that powerful line. 33:38.189 --> 33:39.151 [SPEAKER_00]: Peace on earth. 33:40.553 --> 33:45.422 [SPEAKER_00]: While we have peace on earth, because of Jesus, and mercy mild, 33:45.520 --> 33:53.632 [SPEAKER_00]: God and sinners reconciled because of Jesus this is more than just the phrase we sing it's our reality. 33:54.733 --> 33:58.418 [SPEAKER_00]: We who are once lost sinners have now found mercy. 33:59.280 --> 34:08.052 [SPEAKER_00]: We who are afar off have now been brought near, we who are enemies are now beloved children. 34:08.133 --> 34:25.703 [SPEAKER_00]: all because of Jesus, all because God and sinners have been reconciled. 34:26.020 --> 34:29.807 [SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you subscribe so you never miss a message here for high praise. 34:30.308 --> 34:38.843 [SPEAKER_00]: Also, you can follow us on social media, on Facebook and on Instagram, and don't forget to go subscribe to our YouTube channel. 34:38.863 --> 34:41.107 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back soon with another incredible message. 34:41.267 --> 34:43.371 [SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.