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Why The Birth of Jesus is MASSIVE! · Off The Kirb Ministries

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OK, I want you to imagine you're growing up now and it's
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Christmas Day. What was Christmas Day like in
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your childhood? For some of you, it was a very
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happy time. You remember opening presents.
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You remember that excitement coming down in the morning and
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seeing what was underneath the Christmas tree.
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You remember seeing family members who you've not seen in
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such a long time. Your grandparents, perhaps
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cousins, aunties, uncles, all of that time together.
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It was a time that was very precious to you.
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But for some of you growing up, Christmas was the complete
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opposite. It was a time when all of your
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problems were sort of magnified. You're broken home.
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Perhaps your parents didn't have enough money to buy you presents
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and they felt embarrassed at this time.
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Maybe. Maybe just growing up or or as
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you're a little bit older, you realise you're lonely and you're
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alone. Maybe it's a time because there
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was just a lot of drama that happened or something went wrong
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around Christmas and every year you remember I can't enjoy
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Christmas like everyone else because that was when that
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terrible event happened. Now, before I tell you what
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Christmas was like in my home, I want to say if it's your first
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time on this channel, welcome. This is my cup of Joe podcast
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where if you see my main channel Off the Curb Ministries, I
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produce sort of highly developed, sort of sometimes a
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little bit sensational videos all about the Bible and they're
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very, very edited. These videos aren't edited.
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It's just literally me, you, a nice cup of Joe and some coffee.
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And if you can see faces just up in the corner.
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These are my friends who have bought these off the curb mugs.
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This isn't a money making scheme.
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I want to emphasize this. I make 0 profit from this.
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It's just kind of a little reminder if you'd like to pray
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for us. And it's just kind of nice to
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have something physical because everything I do is kind of
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digital. But I want to assure you I am a
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real person. Sometimes people say that when
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they meet me in real life, just a very, very average Joe.
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So it's just nice to do that. So if you buy one of them, I'll
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send you an e-mail and we'll put your face up here.
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If you would like to be there, you can send a photo over or
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your mug doing something cool, some kind of cool activity.
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So what was Christmas Day like in my household?
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Well, for us, it was a bit of a military operation.
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You see, here we are. We're put to bed and my parents
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are like, do not come downstairs.
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They were wrapping presents up till midnight and nothing's
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changed. As I've got kids, I'm not
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organized either. I'm wrapping presents very late
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into the night. You know, we're getting ready
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for church. We're putting our clothes on.
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We've got all of these different things to do.
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And then it comes to the Christmas dinner.
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Now, the Christmas dinner, that really is a military operation,
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isn't it? You know, you've got to deploy
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the carrots. You've got to make sure the
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Brussels sprouts aren't overcooked.
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No one likes soggy Brussels sprouts.
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You've got to loosen the cranberry sauce jar because if
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it's too tight then Aunt Mildred can't open it.
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You've got to put the roast potatoes in and the Turkey and
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all of these different things. And then you've finally got all
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of your roast dinner put together.
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It's all there, the Turkey, it's all there.
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And you sit down to eat. You start eating and you're
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thinking, I'm sure there's something missing it.
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Alan, is there something missing here?
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Steve, is this, Am I missing something here?
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We've got the gravy. It's not too thick.
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It's not too thin. Everything seems right.
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But there's something missing. You eat the whole meal.
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You go into the kitchen to start getting the Christmas pudding
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ready. And then you look in the
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microwave and there in front of you, glaring at you are the peas
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that you forgot to defrost. Guys, there's always some kind
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of missing ingredient at Christmas.
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It doesn't matter how much we try try to prepare, it doesn't
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matter how organised we are, we as humans, we always sort of
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miss something, don't we? But here's something I want to
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ask you, particularly if you've never watched on our videos
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before, here's what I want to ask you.
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Are you missing the key ingredients, the biggest
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ingredient, the huge ingredients of Christmas?
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Who am I talking about? Jesus Christ.
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Now what are we doing at Christmas time?
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Although we know Jesus wasn't born on the 25th of December,
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what are we actually doing here? We're celebrating his birthday.
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Now can you think of anyone in the world who is not invited to
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their own birthday party? Can you imagine if all of your
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friends got together, they had a nice meal, they got hats on,
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they had all of this party, got dressed up all nice and then
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didn't invite you to your own birthday party?
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You think that's bonkers, That's crazy.
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And yet that's what millions do all around the world.
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They love the presents, they love the Christmas tree, they
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love the food, they love all of these things and yet Jesus
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Christ isn't welcome to to his own birthday celebrations.
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He's not even welcome. If you try it with your non
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Christian family members. You start talking about Jesus
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around the Christmas table. I can tell you right now that
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conversation will be shut down straight away.
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But why is it such a big deal? I mean, why do we celebrate
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Jesus? After all, there's one baby born
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every minute, as the phrase goes.
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There's babies all the time that are being born.
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What is the big deal about Jesus Christ?
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I'll tell you what it is in that Manger, in that little Manger,
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in that house, in that stable, as we sometimes refer to it.
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If those cattle there breathe in the condensations in the room,
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it's smelly, it's not glamorous. Mary and Joseph are there.
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They're stressed out again. It's not like the Christmas
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cards we see. But what was there in that
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Manger? That was God in that Manger.
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Here is the God of the universe who's so big, he's he's flung
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stars into space. There are millions of galaxies
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with millions of stars into them.
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And yet this universe, as vast as it is, it cannot contain this
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huge God. And yet here we've got the God
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of the universe and he confines himself into a span.
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Here is the God of the universe and he's encased in flesh, skin
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and bones. And there he is in that Manger.
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Here he is. Why?
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Why is that such a big deal? Because so many people have got
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it wrong about God. So many religions say that that
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God he's, he's too great, he's too holy, he's too wonderful,
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and he is all of those things. But they say he could never
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condescend. He could never bring himself
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down to to be amongst people. Oh, those people were were
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horrible. Oh, imagine God living amongst
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us. No, God needs to be away from
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us. But that's not the God of the
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Bible. That's not the true triune God.
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This God came down and he took on a skin.
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He took on a flesh and he dwelt amongst us.
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Why? Because you and I, we've got a
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skin, we've got a flesh, we've got hands, we've got feet, we've
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got this body. And yet this body has sinned.
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So we needed someone to come into this world, to take on a
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body, to bear our sin and to be the sacrifice for our sins, but
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not anybody. It has to be the Lord Jesus
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Christ, God in a flesh who never did anything wrong, who lived a
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righteous life and as you know, went from the crib to the cross.
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Let me let you into a secret. If I could spend Christmas Day
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or the Christmas season anywhere in the world, you know, I'd like
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to spend it New York. Now I know what some of you are
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thinking. You're thinking I cannot think
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of anywhere worse to spend Christmas Day in New York.
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I mean, it's so busy, all these people, all these lights, all of
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it. Well, for me, myself and I, I
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would love that. I love being around people.
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I love the lights. Maybe it's from watching Home
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Alone. When I was a kid, people used to
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say me and my brother look like Macaulay Culkin.
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So I don't know. There's something about New York
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and, and all of that and, and, and, and Christmas there.
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It just really appeals to me like a fairy tale, as they say.
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But come with me if you don't want to celebrate there.
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Will you just come with me for a second and let's go to the
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Empire State Building. Picture this vast building, if
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you like, wrapped around in tinsel.
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Now, don't quote me on this, but I think there's 103 floors to
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the Empire State Building. So I want you to imagine we get
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into the elevator and we go ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, all the way
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to the top. OK.
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Now I want you to imagine that the Empire State Building is a
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morality scale. It's a goodness scale of how
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good you are. I wonder what you would say.
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Where would we put people? Who would we put in the
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basement? Maybe we'd put, you know, Adolf
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Hitler, all those criminals on death row, all those naughty
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people would put them in the very basement.
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All them people that oh, you know, they, they send chills
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down our spine. They'd be in the basement.
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Who'd be at the top of this morality scale?
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Maybe you might say Mother Teresa or in my country there
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was a guy called Captain Tom who did a lot for the country and
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just inspired a lot of people. Maybe he would be at the top.
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You know, you've got these kind of people, maybe a neighbor down
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the road who does a lot of lovely charity.
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They would be at the top. But where would you put yourself
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on this morality scale? I think if we're honest, most of
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us would say, you know, somewhere in the middle.
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I'm not down in the basement, but I'm, you know, I know, I
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know myself. I know I've got sort of
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skeletons in my closet. I'm not perfect.
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Well, do you know where Jesus would be?
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He'd be on the moon. His, his morality, his goodness,
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his righteousness is in a different realm, a different
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world, if you like. He's, he's completely above us.
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And let me tell you something else that's kind of shocking.
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He also, for us to get into heaven, we also have to be on
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the moon in righteousness. We also have to have that golden
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standard of perfection. But that's a problem for me and
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it's a problem for you because we can't meet that in of
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ourselves. And that is exactly why Jesus
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came into this world. OK, let me put it another way to
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you. So, OK, some of you will be
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saying I'm not on Santa's naughty list.
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I do try and do my best, OK? I try to be a good person, but
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you know you can't meet that standard.
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So let's think about this. I don't know what country you're
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in. I'm in the UKI need to imagine
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my Prime Minister Keir Starmer decides it's Christmas time.
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We want to spread a little goodwill to the world.
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We want to spread a bit of positivity.
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The Christmas is a time where we do nice things.
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Let's open all of the prisons in in the UK.
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If you're in America right now, imagine Donald Trump says it's
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Christmas time, goodwill for everyone.
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Let's open all of the prisons right now and let all of the
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prisoners out on the streets. What would you think of that
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decision? Now, some of you might be
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thinking some of those guys in there, they're innocent and I
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agree, or some of them have done their time and they truly are
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repentant for what they've done. But I'm saying, should we,
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should we open the prisons and let everyone on the streets,
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even those criminals who aren't sorry for what they've done,
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even those criminals who if they get the chance, they do it
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again. You say, I'm not sure it's a
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good idea at all. Joe, let me take it one step
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further for those who think it is a good idea.
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Would you let those unrepentant, those criminals who don't care
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at all, would you let them come into your house?
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Would you leave them alone? If you're a man with with your
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wife, with your children, would you let them come into your
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house on Christmas Day and stay at your house?
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What would you do? I think most of us, if we're
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truly honest, would say I'm sorry, there's no way.
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There's no way I can let you into my house.
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So if you've got rules about who enters into your house, why
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can't the God of heaven, the God of this universe, why can't he
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have rules about who enters into His house?
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And you know what his rule is? You've got to be washed.
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You've got to be cleansed by the blood of his Son.
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That is the only way you can get into his house, into his heaven.
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We're going to come to that in a minute.
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But first, I've got another question for you.
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So what is my question to you? Well, if I've never asked you
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before, I want to know what is your favorite Christmas song?
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Perhaps you love a good Carol, Silent Night or In the Bleak
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Midwinter, maybe you like Mariah Carey.
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All I want for Christmas is you. Or Wham do you remember that
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song Last Christmas? I gave you my heart.
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Maybe you like The Pogues. I don't know.
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What is your favorite Christmas song?
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Shall I tell you what mine is? Well, one of my favorite, apart
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from the carols. I like this one.
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Finish it for me. I'm dreaming of a white
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Christmas. Now let me ask you, what do you
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think the chances are that we will have a white Christmas this
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year? I mean, what do you think the
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odds are? I'm not a gambling man.
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But imagine we put a bet down. What do you think the chances
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are we'll it'll snow this Christmas for some of you?
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If you're watching this in Alaska, there's a very strong
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chance maybe you're watching it in, I don't know, Minnesota.
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Is it quite snowy up there? I'm terrible with the States of
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America. Maybe even in Scotland, up in
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the Highlands, there's a good chance it'll snow.
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But what are the chances? Well, I want to tell you that
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every single one of us, everyone watching this right now, we can
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100% be guaranteed that you will have a white Christmas.
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But it's not in the way you think.
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There's a verse in the Bible and it goes like this.
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This is the prophet Isaiah, and he's talking through inspiration
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of the Lord and he says, come now, let us reason together.
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Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white
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as snow. You see, snow has a sort of
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cleaning effect, doesn't it? I've told you about this before,
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I think, but in the street that I used to live on, when I used
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to live in a little town called Wigan, as we lived there, it was
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our literally our front door as we stepped out.
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There was no pavement, there was no driveway.
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It was just literally the streets, you know, we had no
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way. Everyone just walked on and and
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my door was open there. You know, if I open my door, I
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didn't know if there was going to be a person right in my face.
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And people used to walk their dogs there and you can imagine
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what they left. Those dogs left a little, a
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little bit of a Christmas present for us all, shall we
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say. And some days, me and my wife,
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we had to, it was like running the gauntlet.
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We didn't know what we were going to step in.
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Sorry if this is putting you off your coffee, by the way, but
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we're running around, you know. And the other side of it with
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this street is people used to drop rubbish.
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And at night you'd hear the rubbish collecting in at the
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bottom of the street with the wind just turning around.
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It was all. Yeah, very classy.
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St. And actually, believe it or not,
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I miss that house more than any of the houses we've lived in.
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It was a lovely time, but when it snowed, this very St. that
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was so dirty. That was so, you know, not the
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nicest St. It looked like a Christmas
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postcard. Why?
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Because snow has that cleaning effect.
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It makes everything look pristine.
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I want you to imagine you go to your local Skip or your rubbish
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heap or your junkyard, whatever you call it.
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And here you can see, you know, diapers, nappies as we call them
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over here. You can see baby toys, you can
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see Coke cans, bananas, all this rubbish just piled up in this
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big pile here. And you look at it and it smells
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and it's horrible. What happens when it snows?
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When it snows suddenly, this, all of this rubbish, It looks
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like Mount Everest. It looks like this beautiful
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mountain. Because snow does that.
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It cleans things. Can I ask you, is there anything
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cleaner? Is there anything whiter?
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Is there anything more pure than snow?
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And yet, what does the Bible say?
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That the very blood of the Lord Jesus Christ can do that for
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you. My wife was an atheist.
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I met her actually when I was in a state where I wasn't following
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Jesus and I fancied her and we got into a relationship.
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But there came a point when I realised we couldn't stay
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together. And actually at the same time
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God was doing her work on Emma's heart where he was drawing her
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as as I brought her to church, something was moving her.
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I gave her a Bible and I showed her some passages to read.
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And one of them was Psalm 51. And here in that passage, you've
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got King David and he's this king.
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And if you think you've made a mess, he really botched up, you
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know, he took another man's wife for himself.
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You know, he had an affair. And then not only that, the same
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man, because he wanted to marry this woman, he had him disposed
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of. He had him taken out.
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He did some terrible things and for years he, I don't know, I
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don't understand the story fully, whether he did feel a
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sense of guilt. So he was completely guiltless.
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He just didn't care at all. But there came a point where
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finally the guilt did come upon him, when the prophet Nathan
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said, you are that man. You are the one who's done evil.
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You are the one who's taken from that man, Uriah.
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And suddenly this overwhelming guilt of sin that I've sinned
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against the holy God, it came upon him.
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And in Psalm 51, David writes these words, Wash me and I shall
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be whiter than snow. That is the very verse that
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convicted Emma and was the very prayer she prayed out to God,
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Wash me and I should be whiter than snow.
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I wonder if someone today would pray that very prayer.
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Lord God, I've made a mess. Lord God, I'm a Sinner.
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Wash me and I should be whiter than snow.
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But why is he the one who can wash us whiter than snow?
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Because on the cross here we've got this baby, the God man,
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Jesus Christ, and he grew up into a man.
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He taught amazing things. He fed the poor, he healed the
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sick. He he, he was a person that the
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common people heard gladly. He said incredible things that
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would just just blew the the culture out of out of the world.
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He said things like love your enemies.
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I mean, imagine if all the the world leaders loved their
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enemies. Would we have any wars anymore?
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He said things like love thy neighbor as thyself, incredible
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things. And yet what did this world do
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to him? They took that innocent one and
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they put him on an old rugged Roman cross.
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There he was crucified between two thieves.
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That's the message of Christmas, that here God in a skin was put
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on a on a cross for my sin, your sin, the weight of our sin, the
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wrongdoing, the things we're so embarrassed of, the things we
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cringe at. All of that evil was laid on
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Jesus Christ and there God crushed Jesus in our place.
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There God poured out all of his wrath, all of his heat, all of
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his anger that was directed to us.
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He turned it away from us and he confined it.
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He poured it out on Jesus Christ.
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Why? So that you and I can be
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forgiven? Because that blood that was shed
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at Calvary that can wash us clean.
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The Bible says without the shedding of blood, there can be
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no forgiveness of sins. And the one who shed his blood
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was Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God died in our
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place so that you and I can be forgiven.
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And then there is a third part to this act.
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You've got the birth of Jesus. You've got the death of Jesus
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and then we've got what? The resurrection of Jesus
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Christ. This is why we believe he was
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God in in that Manger. This is why we believe that he
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alone can wash away our sins and wash us whites and snow.
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Why? Because he went into a grave and
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there he blew death apart. He blew the grave apart.
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He did the impossible. He came forth triumphant and
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he'd conquered the grave. And that is so important for you
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and I perhaps, perhaps this very Christmas, you've heard some
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terrible news, you've heard the worst news, and you don't know
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if you'll be here next Christmas.
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Well, I would say to you, trust in the one who has conquered the
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grave, Jesus Christ. Because although things might
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look sad, although things might look grim from an earthly
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perspective, if you've got your trust in Jesus Christ, you've
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got nothing to fear. You've got hope beyond the
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grave, and you've got eternal life that waits awaits for you
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forever. Trust in him.
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Now you can probably tell this message was a little bit
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different. It was aimed at non Christians.
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Maybe you'd like to e-mail this video to someone in your family,
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someone who's not a Christian but perhaps would be open to
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listening to the Christmas message at this time.
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And I've still got loads of coffee left.
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So I just want to give you a little update for those of you
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who are sort of friends of the channel and the ministry.
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So as you know, this year has been a very difficult year for
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us. The Lord's taught me a lot at
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the beginning of every year in 20, you know, at the end of the
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year, sort of in between Christmas and New Year, I write
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out goals. I write out different things
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that I want to achieve. I can literally see all of my
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goals just behind the camera there.
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They're just written on the wall there.
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And the Lord taught me, and I knew this already, but but don't
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be presumptuous. As the book of James says, you
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do not know what a day may hold. You don't know what a year may
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hold. Don't say we're going to go this
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place and that place and do all of these things.
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And the Lord showed me that. I thought I was going to make
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loads of videos. I thought I was going to do lots
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of different things, exciting things, learn different things.
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But I spent a lot of time with my wife grieving and just trying
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to get by. So it's been a difficult year.
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And so I just want to say a few things in this coming year.
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Do pray for us. I've sort of learnt one thing
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that's been you might have noticed, I don't know if anyone
21:36
has noticed, but if you do watch Off the Curb Ministries, you
21:39
might remember I used to cover a lot of kind of more out there
21:43
topics, should we say conspiracies and I had good
21:48
reason for it. I'll give you an example.
21:50
I was in Manchester St. preaching about a year ago and a
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young guy called Nick came up to me and said I love your videos.
21:58
I watch them so much and actually I believe your videos
22:01
are what's leading me to the Lord Jesus Christ.
22:05
That very day I was, as I was chatting to him, I said, but
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have you committed yourself to Jesus?
22:10
Have you done it yet? And he said, no, I haven't.
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So that very day we, we said, said a prayer and he asked the
22:17
Lord to wash away his sins, to forgive him.
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And he, he committed his life to Jesus.
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I then stayed in touch with him through Facebook and I told him
22:25
about something called Victory Outreach.
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Now, what I've not told you about Nick is that he had
22:30
terrible dependency issues with the biggest things, the Big H,
22:35
you know, he struggled with that.
22:37
That's what he really, you know, he kept going back to that over
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and over. And he'd had 20 years on this
22:42
stuff, OK, And stayed in touch with him and he'd send me
22:46
messages like, I just don't know if I'm ready yet.
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And I told him about Victory Outreach in Manchester anyway,
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about 3 months after meeting. He then did get in touch with
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Victory Outreach and just recently.
22:58
So the maths isn't right. I don't know how long ago it was
23:01
when I met him, but he sent me a message just a week ago saying
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Joe, it's been 11 months and I've been totally clean.
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I'm being baptized, I've been set free.
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It'd be great to meet up again. And I say praise God.
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And you'd be amazed at the amount of people who you
23:18
wouldn't normally get coming into a church.
23:20
They wouldn't have a suit and tie.
23:21
You know, people sometimes do. The world would just not even
23:24
look at even the people of the world.
23:26
They would just walk by and they were coming up to me and saying,
23:28
I love you videos. So I've got a reason why I made
23:31
these kind of more conspiracy videos because they were drawing
23:34
a different audience. And as an evangelist, what I
23:36
love to do is get people who've never heard the gospel and share
23:40
the gospel with them. So I was doing that, but at the
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same time as we've been through this tough year, it's not very,
23:48
you know, you can talk about, I don't want to name names, but
23:51
you know, there's a lot going on at the moment in that world.
23:54
And I could mention these things, I could talk about these
23:57
things. But when you've gone through a
23:59
period of loss, when you're going for a tough time, you
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don't want to be filling your mind with that.
24:04
At the same time, when I was filling my mind with all of
24:07
these things all the time, it was a distraction from the word
24:10
of God. And it was, you know, making me
24:13
think in a way that was making me a little bit, you know, just
24:17
not enjoying life or we've seen everything so negatively.
24:20
And it was it was time that I could be spending in the word of
24:23
God. And so I've been thinking a lot.
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I don't know how long the Lord will grant me on this earth, but
24:28
for the time that's remaining, do I want to feed into people
24:32
conspiracies and different things, even if it is to to
24:34
preach the gospel or do I want to put good into people, even if
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they don't reach as many get as many views, even if they don't,
24:42
you know, you know, have as much excitement to them.
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I believe the word of God, of course, is the most exciting
24:49
thing, but that's what I'm kind of focusing more on.
24:52
So where does this all come to? Why am I telling you all of
24:54
this? Well, when I started this
24:56
channel, it was very much this was my Christian channel and
24:59
then off the curb was the channel where I reached
25:00
unbelievers. Well right now I'm kind of
25:05
thinking should I just stick all of these coffee videos on the
25:08
off the curb one? Because really I'm just trying
25:10
to hit both non Christians and believers, but I want the focus
25:14
to be the Bible. I want it to be just Christian
25:17
good stuff because I do believe people will get saved by just
25:21
hearing the Bible unpacked. I think that's going to be one
25:23
of the greatest ways to do it. And as I said, I want to be
25:26
putting good into people and not be a distraction.
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Like I will have to give an account before the Lord God.
25:32
And if people have suddenly gone off on all these rabbit holes
25:35
because I've been telling them about them, that's actually a
25:38
very serious thing that I hadn't really considered.
25:41
So Long story short, this year's been a difficult year, but God's
25:44
taught me a lot of different things, many different things.
25:48
And I'm really sort of finding the old Joe again, more St.
25:52
preaching, not as bothered about views and subscribers, just
25:57
finding the old Joe. And just pray that the Lord
26:00
keeps, yeah, just keeps me humble, keeps my feet on the
26:04
ground and just guides me in this coming year.
26:06
I really do love all of you guys so much and I'm so grateful for
26:12
all of you who've had the coffees with me.
26:14
As I say, this is my favorite channel, so there is a partner
26:16
that just wants to keep it over here and have this little
26:18
community here. I just love you guys and you've
26:21
been so encouraged and so kind to me and you really did keep me
26:24
going in this tough year and then helped me to be strong for
26:28
my wife Emma, who was, as you can imagine, has carried this
26:32
heavier burden even more than me.
26:34
If you would like, if some of you have said I've never even
26:36
heard of off the Curb Ministries.
26:37
Well, if you would like to see some of these sort of long form
26:41
Bible documentaries we've been making and you can click here.
26:44
And if you've never subscribed to the channel and you want to
26:46
see more to this channel, please do subscribe.
26:49
But do let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
26:52
I'd love to hear from you. God bless you all and thank you
26:55
for your time with me today. And Merry Christmas, I should
26:58
say.