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Speaker 1: We've all seen the commercialization of Christmas. It's gifts under

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Speaker 1: the tree for family and loved ones, It's Sanna, Rudolph

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Speaker 1: the Red Nose Reindeer, debates over if Diehard is a

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Speaker 1: Christmas movie or not. You car commercials with bows on them.

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Speaker 1: You know, the list goes on and on and on.

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Speaker 1: But we all know that's not what Christmas is really about.

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Speaker 1: The true meaning of Christmas is celebrating the birth of

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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, that God sent his only son to save

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Speaker 1: us from our sins. And I think that message is

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Speaker 1: more important than ever this year, at this time when

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Speaker 1: it feels like we've been battling or we've been in

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Speaker 1: a battle of good versus evil as a country.

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Speaker 2: So with that, we are.

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Speaker 1: Blessed for this episode to hear the true meaning of Christmas,

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Speaker 1: what it's truly about, from doctor Robert Jeffries. He's a

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Speaker 1: senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.

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Speaker 1: He is also an author a radio podcast host of

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Speaker 1: Pathway to Victory. You've also probably seen him on TV

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Speaker 1: as well on Fox News as a contributor. But before

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Speaker 1: we hear this really important message, the most important message,

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Speaker 1: I want to wish you at home and merry Christmas

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Speaker 1: with your loved ones. I want to thank you for

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Speaker 1: listening to the show throughout the year. I want to

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Speaker 1: thank you for your continued support. So Merry Christmas to you.

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Speaker 1: And here is Pastor Jeffries on the true meaning of Christmas.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's that time of the year again when people

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Speaker 2: started bemoaning the commercialization of Christmas and lamenting that people

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Speaker 2: had forgotten the real purpose of the holiday. But if

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Speaker 2: you ask most people to summarize what Christmas is about,

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Speaker 2: they would have a hard time explaining it. And if

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Speaker 2: you told them they had to summarize the meaning of

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Speaker 2: Christmas in one sentence, most people, even Christians, would find

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Speaker 2: that impossible. But not the apostle Paul. In Galatians four

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Speaker 2: four through five, Paul uses one sentence to describe everything

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Speaker 2: you need to know about Christmas. But when the fullness

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Speaker 2: of the time came, God sent forth his son, born

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Speaker 2: of a woman, born under the law, in order that

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Speaker 2: he might redeem those who were under the law, that

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Speaker 2: we might receive the adoption as sons. Every journalism student

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Speaker 2: knows that if you're writing a news story, the lead

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Speaker 2: paragraph ought to answer six questions who, what, when, how, where,

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Speaker 2: and why. Paul does that in this one sentence from

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Speaker 2: Galatians four. First of all, he answers the question of

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Speaker 2: who and the fullness of time God. The subject of

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Speaker 2: the sentence is very clear. It's God. God is the

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Speaker 2: initiator of all of the events that led to the

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Speaker 2: First Christmas. In fact, He's the initiator of everything in

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Speaker 2: the world, including your world. We often refer to God's

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Speaker 2: control over all creation as God's sovereignty. He is king

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Speaker 2: over all. The late Ray Stedman, former pastor of Peninsula

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Speaker 2: Bible Church in California, wrote, there is the sovereignty of

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Speaker 2: the potter over the clay. Men make plans, but God

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Speaker 2: makes other plans. Napoleon had to learn that lesson. He

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Speaker 2: once said, God is on the side of the army

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Speaker 2: with the heaviest artillery. But there came a time in

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Speaker 2: his life when exiled on the island of Saint Helena,

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Speaker 2: he said, man proposes, but God disposes. Or in the

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Speaker 2: words of Mother Teresa, we are all pencils in the

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Speaker 2: hand of God. God is sovereign. He's in control of life, death, governments, angels,

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Speaker 2: your plans, your coincidences, and your so called control over

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Speaker 2: your life. Now, some people get nervous about the idea

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Speaker 2: of the sovereignty of God. Now, if God were some

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Speaker 2: giant ogre in heaven trying to inflict as much pain

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Speaker 2: on us as possible, then his sovereignty may be so

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Speaker 2: thing we should fear. But everything God does in the world,

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Speaker 2: including your world, is motivated by love. For God so

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Speaker 2: loved the world. John three point sixteen tells us that

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Speaker 2: he sent his only son, But God demonstrates his own love.

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Speaker 2: Romans five eight says, and that while we were yet sinners,

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Speaker 2: Christ died for us Ephesians two four. But God being

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Speaker 2: rich in mercy because of the great love with which

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Speaker 2: he loved us and one John four ten. And this

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Speaker 2: is love, not that we loved God, but that He

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Speaker 2: loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation,

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Speaker 2: the satisfaction for our sins. God is the first cause

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Speaker 2: of everything behind the coming of Christ in the world.

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Speaker 2: In the fullness of time, God, and what did God do?

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Speaker 2: He sent forth his son. Notice Paul doesn't say he

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Speaker 2: sent forth his infant or child. Too many times we

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Speaker 2: focus on the infancy of Christ at Christmas rather than

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Speaker 2: his deity. People tend to get all sentimental at Christmas

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Speaker 2: for all the wrong reasons. We see the Nativity scene,

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Speaker 2: the baby wrapped in the swaddling cloths. We get all

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Speaker 2: teary eyed and sentimental thinking about how sweet babies are,

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Speaker 2: and then about the birth of our own children, and

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Speaker 2: pretty soon Christmas is nothing more than a massive syraphy sentimentality.

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Speaker 2: The fact that a baby was born that night in

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Speaker 2: Bethlehem was nothing special. Hundreds of babies were born that

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Speaker 2: night in Israel. But this baby was different. He was

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Speaker 2: God himself. He would grow up to die on a

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Speaker 2: cross for our sins and be rescued from death for

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Speaker 2: our victory over sin. This is what made his birth

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Speaker 2: different than any other in history. And when did this occur?

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Speaker 2: Paul writes, it was in the fullness of time that

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Speaker 2: God sent forth his son. One paraphrase says, at just

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Speaker 2: the right time, God sent his son. Have you ever

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Speaker 2: noticed in your life that God is always on schedule.

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Speaker 2: He's never a minute late, he's never a minute early,

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Speaker 2: He's never in a hurry. God is always operating according

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Speaker 2: to his timetable. And it was true when Christ came

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Speaker 2: on that Christmas night so many years ago. It was

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Speaker 2: at the right time, and how exactly was Christ coming

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Speaker 2: at just the right time? Well, it was the right

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Speaker 2: time politically. The Roman Empire was at its zenith, the

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Speaker 2: Pax Romana, the Roman peace reigned over the world. The

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Speaker 2: world was at relative peace. The sophisticated Roman system made

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Speaker 2: it possible to travel more easily, facilitating the spread of

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Speaker 2: the good news about Jesus. It was the right time. Culturally.

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Speaker 2: The world was becoming more educated. More and more people

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Speaker 2: were speaking coin a Greek, the language of the common

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Speaker 2: pers that also facilitated the spread of the Word of God.

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Speaker 2: It was the right time spiritually in the world for

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Speaker 2: Christ to come. The polytheism, the worship of many gods

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Speaker 2: of both the Romans and the Greeks, was being replaced

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Speaker 2: by a belief in monotheism that there was one God.

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Speaker 2: And most of all, it was the right time prophetically

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Speaker 2: for Christ to come. The Old Testament had made dozens

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Speaker 2: of prophecies about the birth of Messiah, and all those

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Speaker 2: prophecies converged one night in the tiny town of Bethlehem.

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Speaker 2: Let me just mention one of those prophecies, Micah five

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Speaker 2: to two, was written seven hundred years before christ birth,

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Speaker 2: and it predicted that Jesus would be born in the

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Speaker 2: tiny village of Bethlehem. The prophet wrote, But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephitha,

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Speaker 2: too little to be among the clans of Judah. From

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Speaker 2: you one will go forth from me to be ruler

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Speaker 2: in Israel. His goings forth or from war long ago,

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Speaker 2: from the days of eternity. Seven hundred years later, the

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Speaker 2: Roman emperor Octavius we know in miss Caesar Augustus, was

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Speaker 2: meeting with his cabinet in Rome trying to figure out

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Speaker 2: how to handle a fiscal crisis of a shortage of funds.

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Speaker 2: Sound familiar, Well, they came up with a plan to

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Speaker 2: tax everyone in the Roman Empire, and the way they

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Speaker 2: would do it would be through a census. Without irs

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Speaker 2: computers to track people down, they had to rely on

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Speaker 2: this method. Every head of household would travel to his

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Speaker 2: hometown to be registered for the census in order to

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Speaker 2: be taxed. Little did Octavius know that when he signed

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Speaker 2: that decree it would cause a couple he had never

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Speaker 2: met to travel to a village so small it wasn't

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Speaker 2: included in the registry of Towns and villages in order

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Speaker 2: to give birth to the Savior of the world.

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Speaker 1: It was got to take a quick break. More on

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Speaker 1: the true meaning of Christmas.

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Speaker 2: When the time was just right, God sent forth his son,

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Speaker 2: and how did he do it? The phrase born of

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Speaker 2: a woman explains how this is a reference to certainly

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Speaker 2: Jesus virgin birth. Isaiah seven fourteen, written seven hundred and

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Speaker 2: forty years before the birth of Christ, predicted behold, a

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Speaker 2: virgin shall conceive. But this phrase points to something else

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Speaker 2: as well. It points to the humanity of Jesus. Yes,

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Speaker 2: Jesus was fully God, but he was also fully man,

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Speaker 2: meaning he could understand our difficulties and empathize with our

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Speaker 2: difficulties in life. A six year old boy was practicing

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Speaker 2: shooting baskets in his backyard. He was always falling short

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Speaker 2: of the goal. His dad came along, took the ball

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Speaker 2: and said, son, just do it like this. It's easy,

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Speaker 2: and with no effort, he put it through the hoop,

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Speaker 2: tried again, had missed. His dad showed him again, taking

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Speaker 2: the ball and making a perfect shot. The boy, obviously frustrated,

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Speaker 2: said it's easy for you up there. You don't know

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Speaker 2: how hard it is down here. You and I can

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Speaker 2: never say that about God. God knows how difficult it

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Speaker 2: is for us to live life because he's experienced humanity

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Speaker 2: as well. That means he knows what it's like to

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Speaker 2: endure heavy duty sorrows like losing a loved one, or

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Speaker 2: like undergoing tremendous temptations or being betrayed by those closest

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Speaker 2: to you. But it also means he understands the minor

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Speaker 2: irritations of life, like having to climb out of bed

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Speaker 2: with a sore throat and go to work, or stay

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Speaker 2: up late or get up early. Jesus knows how you feel,

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Speaker 2: and he sympathizes with you. That's why Hebrews four fifteen

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Speaker 2: through sixteen says, for we do not have a high

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Speaker 2: priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but one who

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Speaker 2: has been tempted in all things as we are yet

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Speaker 2: without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to

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Speaker 2: God's throne of grace, that we might receive mercy and

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Speaker 2: may find grace to help in time of need. When

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Speaker 2: you pray to God, you can know he understands your problems,

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Speaker 2: not just intellectually but experientially. And how do we answer

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Speaker 2: the question where the next phrase tells us Jesus was

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Speaker 2: born under the law. What does that mean to be

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Speaker 2: born under the law. Many people think that there's a

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Speaker 2: difference between the Old Testament God and the New Testament God.

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Speaker 2: We think of the God of the Old Testament as

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Speaker 2: being strict and unreasonable and intolerant. But somehow we think

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Speaker 2: God loosened up a bit when Jesus came and is

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Speaker 2: much more lenient. No God is the same, He never changes.

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Speaker 2: Jesus said he did not come to abolish God's law,

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Speaker 2: but to fulfill it. God demands perfection, a standard none

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Speaker 2: of us can meet except for Jesus. And because he

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Speaker 2: was born under the law and obeyed God's law perfectly,

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Speaker 2: he's qualified to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

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Speaker 2: Tewod Corinthians five twenty one says it this way, He Jesus,

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Speaker 2: who knew no sin, became sin for us that we

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Speaker 2: might become the righteousness of God in him. And why

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Speaker 2: why did God do all of these things? Why did

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Speaker 2: God sin? Forth? His son Paul answers the why question

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Speaker 2: with two reasons for the coming of Christ. First of all,

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Speaker 2: to redeem us. Verse five says in order that he

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Speaker 2: might redeem those who were under the law. That word

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Speaker 2: redeem is the Greek word x meaning out of agorazzo

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Speaker 2: mean marketplace. In Paul's day, if you wanted to purchase

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Speaker 2: a slave, you would travel to the agora, the marketplace

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Speaker 2: where slaves were sold like animals. A slave would be

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Speaker 2: placed on the auction block and sold to the highest bidder.

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Speaker 2: The purchaser of the slave was free to do with

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Speaker 2: the slave whatever he wanted once he had paid the price.

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Speaker 2: He could abuse him, he could slit his throat, he

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Speaker 2: could torture him. The slave was simply transferred from one

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Speaker 2: master to another master in the Agora. You and I

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Speaker 2: were born into this world as prisoners of Satan, and

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Speaker 2: Satan is a cruel, sadistic master who has nothing but

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Speaker 2: misery planned for our life and our eternity. But God,

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Speaker 2: for no other reason than the great love with which

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Speaker 2: he loved us, chose to sin Christ to pay the

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Speaker 2: ultimate price for our sins, that he might purchase us,

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Speaker 2: redeem us from the marketplace of sin, and deliver us

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Speaker 2: to God. Becoming a Christian doesn't mean we have no master.

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Speaker 2: It means we have a new master and an obligation

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Speaker 2: to serve him with our whole hearts. Paul explained it

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Speaker 2: this way in one Corinthians six nineteen through twenty. You

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Speaker 2: are not your own. You have been bought with a prist. Therefore,

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Speaker 2: glorify God in your body. But Paul gives another reason

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Speaker 2: for the coming of Christ, not only to redeem us,

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Speaker 2: but to adopt us as sons. Paul's whole point in

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Speaker 2: this passage is that when God redeems us, we are

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Speaker 2: no longer slaves with no rights. We're not even children

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Speaker 2: with a few rights. We are full adults with complete rights.

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Speaker 2: In Paul's day, a son would receive the full rights

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Speaker 2: of being a family member. Between the ages of fourteen

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Speaker 2: through seventeen. God is saying that when we trust in

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Speaker 2: Christ as our savior, we have his status as fellow

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Speaker 2: heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. Three benefits of being

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Speaker 2: an adult child of God are first of all, a

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Speaker 2: new position. When we become a Christian, we are welcomed

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Speaker 2: into God's family and nothing will ever change our status

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Speaker 2: with God. We have a new privilege as a son

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Speaker 2: or daughter of God. We have the ability to ask

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Speaker 2: God for anything, knowing that He hears us. Now, that

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean God grants our every request. He didn't grant

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Speaker 2: Jesus his every request remember, in the Garden of Death semony,

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Speaker 2: Jesus prayed that God would spare him from the cross,

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Speaker 2: and yet God said, no. Everything God does for us

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Speaker 2: is for our best and his glory. One John five

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Speaker 2: fourteen says, and this is the confidence which we have

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Speaker 2: before him, that if we ask anything according to his will,

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Speaker 2: he hears us. By the way that phrase according to

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Speaker 2: God's will. Isn't some loophole meant to keep good things

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Speaker 2: out of our life. The boundary of God's will is

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Speaker 2: meant to keep bad things from entering our life. We

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Speaker 2: have a new position, we have new privileges, and being

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Speaker 2: a part of God's family gives us a new power.

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Speaker 2: The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead

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Speaker 2: is available to you to give you victory over worry, stress, sin,

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Speaker 2: and ultimately over the grave. These are the reasons Christ

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Speaker 2: came to Bethlehem that he might redeem us out of

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Speaker 2: the marketplace of Satan and adopt us as sons and

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Speaker 2: daughters with full rights and privileges. The idea of God's

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Speaker 2: son giving up his rights as God and coming to

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Speaker 2: earth so that he might pay for our sins is

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Speaker 2: really a truth that is beyond human comprehension. The late

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Speaker 2: radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to tell story every Christmas

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Speaker 2: on his broadcast about a farmer who had become jaded

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Speaker 2: in his faith. Skeptical, he chose to isolate himself from

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Speaker 2: others and lit out his days without being confronted with people.

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Speaker 2: It took a never to be forgotten experience in the

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Speaker 2: dead of winter to change the farmer's perspective. One raw

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Speaker 2: winter night, the man heard an irregular thumping sound against

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Speaker 2: the kitchen storm door. He went to a window and

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Speaker 2: watched his tiny, shivering sparrows, attracted to the evident warmth inside,

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Speaker 2: beat in vane against the glass touched. The farmer bundled

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Speaker 2: up and trudged through fresh snow to open the barn

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Speaker 2: for the struggling birds. He turned on the lights, tossed

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Speaker 2: some hay in a corner, and sprinkled a trail of

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Speaker 2: salting crackers to direct them to the barn. But the sparrows,

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Speaker 2: which had scattered in all directions when he emerged from

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Speaker 2: the house, still hid in the darkness afraid of him.

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Speaker 2: He tried various tactics, circling behind the birds to drive

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Speaker 2: them toward the barn. Tossing cracker crumbs in the air

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Speaker 2: toward them, retreating to his house to see if they

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Speaker 2: would flutter into the barn on their own. Nothing worked.

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Speaker 2: He a huge alien creature, had terrified them. The birds

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Speaker 2: could not understand that he actually desired to help them.

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Speaker 2: He withdrew to his house and watched the doom sparrows

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Speaker 2: through a window. As he stared, a thought hit him,

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Speaker 2: like lightning from a clear blue sky. If only I

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Speaker 2: could become a bird one of them, just for a moment,

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Speaker 2: then I wouldn't frighten them, so I could show them

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Speaker 2: the way to warmth and safety. At that same moment,

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Speaker 2: another thought had dawned on him. He had grasped the

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Speaker 2: true meaning of Christmas. As Philip Yancey writes, a man

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Speaker 2: becoming a bird is nothing compared to God becoming a man.

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Speaker 2: The concept of us offer and being as big as

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Speaker 2: the universe he created. Confining himself to a human body

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Speaker 2: wasn't is too much for some people to believe, But

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Speaker 2: Paul believed it, and he wrote, when the fullness of

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Speaker 2: time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman,

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Speaker 2: born under the law, in order that he might redeem

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Speaker 2: those of us who were under the law that we

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Speaker 2: might receive the adoption as sons. That's everything you need

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Speaker 2: to know about Christmas. Merry Christmas.

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Speaker 1: That was Pastor Jeffries. I want to thank him again

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Speaker 1: for spreading that important message on the podcast, for taking

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Speaker 1: time for us to tell us about the true meaning

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Speaker 1: of Christmas. Also, Merry Christmas to you all at home again.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening every Monday and Thursday,

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Speaker 1: but of course you can listen throughout the week. Also

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Speaker 1: one of the things John Casio, my producer, for putting

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Speaker 1: the show together. Until next time,