Do the Math About Jesus:
Jesus = WITH God + IS God (John 1:1-3)
Jesus = LIFE + LIGHT (John 1:4-9)
Jesus = GRACE + TRUTH (John 1:14)
Becoming a Child of God = RECEIVE + BELIEVE (John 1:10-13)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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Let's just be honest.
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It makes no human sense, am I right?
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If I said to you last night, I was with my buddy Nathaniel, and I was my buddy Nathaniel, you'd be like, what in the world are you talking about?
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Like, what were you and Nathaniel doing?
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Like, that doesn't even make sense.
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You, well, I was with Nathaniel and I was Nathaniel.
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It was some kind of costume party or what's going on there?
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It doesn't make human sense.
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This is how God has revealed Himself.
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This is how John is revealing Jesus Christ.
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First of all, notice he was with God.
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That means he's distinct.
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He's distinct.
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We saw that throughout the ministry of Jesus.
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But he also is God.
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Not a creation of God like a lot of cults teach.
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A lot of cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons teach that Jesus is a created being and John right off the bat says, "No, not only was He with God, at the same time He is God." Look at verse 3.
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Now, when we get to verse 3, I'm going to tell you there's a big difference between me and you.
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And here's the difference.
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Big difference between me and you.
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I couldn't show up at your workplace and do your job.
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But you could do my job.
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I'm going to show you.
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Look at verse 3.
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"All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." Okay, you ready?
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What does that verse mean?
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You tell me what it means.
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Okay, so who created all things?
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Go ahead and shout it out.
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did, in other words, Jesus, the Word. Okay, of everything that was created, how much of it was created by Jesus? All? Okay, now my next question is, was there anything that was created, anything in creation that was made apart from Jesus Christ? Yes or no? See, you could totally do my job. And I realize it's very dangerous for me to do this with you because you're going to be like, "We're paying you for what? I could have figured that out." Yeah.
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It's pretty clear, isn't it?
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It's pretty clear. Well, what's the point?
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John's clarifying that Jesus is uncreated. That's the point. What do you mean by He's uncreated? John's simply saying He's God. Jesus was not created. He is God Himself.
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And I want you to jump down to verse 14.
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John says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In verse 14, he says, "And the Word became flesh." "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." Became flesh.
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Jesus was God taking on humanity, is still remaining God at the same time.
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Understand that.
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It wasn't like Jesus is less than God.
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In fact, in Hebrews 1, God the Father calls God the Son.
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Do you know what He calls Him?
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He calls Him God.
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So Jesus wasn't like lesser of a God.
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Jesus was fully God and fully man at the same time.
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In other words, man's perfect God and God's perfect man.
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He says the Word became flesh.
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And then he says, "Dwell among us." Dwell is an interesting word.
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The word literally is encamped.
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Or camped out.
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Anybody here love camping?
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Who are my campers here?
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That is so not me.
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Why not?
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You know why?
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Because I own a bed, and I have a house that has running water.
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Why in the world would I get some sticks and some vinyl and go sleep in the woods?
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I just don't get it.
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I mean, I used to do it.
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Like, we used to do this church camp ministry thing, and I'm like, gosh, that must have been what Jesus meant by, you know, suffering for the sake of the gospel.
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But I'm just not a camper.
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Well, that's what this word literally means.
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The word became flesh and camped out.
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But it's even more interesting than that.
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It's using a word that we don't use very much.
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The word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
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Like, what does that mean?
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Well, do you remember before the temple was built, God told Moses how to make the tabernacle.
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That was, it was basically the portable version of the temple that the Israelites would take with them as they traveled and they'd set it up.
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And what was the big deal with the tabernacle?
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That was the place where God's presence dwelt uniquely.
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Ok?
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God's presence in the Old Testament times, God's unique presence was in a building.
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His Shekinah glory was in the tabernacle or in the temple.
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So you say, "Well, where is God?" The Old Testament mindset was obviously God is everywhere.
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The Old Testament does teach that.
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But to the Old Testament Jew, if you say, "Where is God's presence?" They would say, "God lives in the temple," or "God lives in the tabernacle." Well, where is God's presence today?
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Where is God's unique presence today?
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Point to it.
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In the heart of every believer, the Bible says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, meaning a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. God dwells in you. You are God's building. So that's today. We talked about Old Testament, and what John is saying here is that during the life of Jesus Christ, where was the unique presence of God? It was fully in this one person, meaning this. You didn't point to a building and say that's where God That is, and it wasn't yet, "Well, God dwells inside each one of us uniquely," because that would come later.
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It was pointing to one person, Jesus Christ, and saying, "There's God." There is the unique presence of God fully inside that one human being.
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The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
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So, looking at this from God's point of view, you see a baby in a trough.
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God sees Himself in flesh camped out with His creation.
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Next equation, Jesus equals life plus light.
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Life plus light.
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Look at v. 4.
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John says, "In Him was life." I'll stop right there.
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That is such a unique statement.
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In Him was life.
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Because that statement can only be applied to God.
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Because every other thing that has life, received life from something else.
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Someone else.
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Raise your hand if you received life from someone else.
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Okay, that was a test to make sure you're paying attention.
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Yes, everyone, in other words, did you have parents?
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You received life from them.
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Ultimately, you received life from God.
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Jesus doesn't fall in this category.
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Jesus didn't get his life from someone.
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In him, what does it say?
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In him was life.
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He's the source of life.
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It reminds you of, you remember Moses back in the book of Exodus when God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and he's like, "Okay, well, I'm paraphrasing now, obviously." But Moses is like, "I'm going to go to them and they're going to be like, 'Yeah, like, what's the name of the guy who sent you?
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Why are you here again?'" Moses is like, "So what should I tell them?" You remember God's answer?
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He said, "I am." Tell them, "I am." God didn't say, "Tell them I was." Like, you know what, back in the day, Bob, back in the day, I was really something.
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You should have seen me back then.
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I was in shape and all.
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I used to be something.
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That's not God.
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Like, I was, my best days are in the rear view mirror.
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That's not God.
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He didn't say to Moses, tell them, "I will be." As in, you know what?
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Someday.
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Someday, Ken, someday.
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I'm working hard.
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I'm training.
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And someday, I'm going to make something of myself.
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I will be.
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That's not God either.
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God says, "I am." I am.
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He's as much God today as He was in the first century, as He was 5,000 years ago, as He will be in a hundred billion years, I am.
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In Him was life.
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He's always God.
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You know, God, He's never been more God, right?
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There wasn't a time that God's like, "Yeah, I was more God then than I am now." There's not going to be a time, nor was there a time that He was less God.
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He's life.
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So the source of life became the source of light.
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Look at what John says next.
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"And the life was the light of men.
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The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
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There is a man sent from God whose name was John." Talking about John the Baptist here.
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"He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
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He was not the light.
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It came to bear witness about the light.
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Again, the source of life became the source of light.
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In other words, when Jesus entered the world, the lights came on.
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Throughout the Old Testament, God showed up as light.
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We already talked about Moses and the conversation he had with God.
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Do you remember how God revealed Himself in that situation?
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He was a burning bush, right?
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In the Old Testament, you see God shows up and He's light.
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Really, He only made cameo appearances in the Old Testament.
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He would show up and give a message and then He was gone.
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And John's point here is in Jesus Christ, the light, God showed up and He stuck around.
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He stayed on the earth for 33 years.
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And look at v. 9 with me.
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He says, "The true light which enlightens that everyone, the true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world.
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Jesus Christ enlightens every man exposed to Him.
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In other words, Jesus is life.
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But that fact doesn't do us any good if the light doesn't enlighten us.
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What do you mean by that?
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I've shared with you before, I'm a sucker for infomercials.
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And that's why I don't watch them.
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Those people convince me that I desperately need what they're trying to sell.
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My favorite infomercial by far is the one with the knives.
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You know, the guy's cutting the cans, he's cutting the hammer in half, and he's like, "Let's take it outside." He's cutting a Volkswagen in half with the knife, and he takes it back in and it still cuts the tomatoes.
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I'm like, "Hey, hey, hey, don't be cutting my tomatoes with the knife you used to cut the Volkswagen, okay?" But when I watch his commercial, I'm just like, "Get the phone, I've got to have one of those things." Because his job is to convince me that I desperately need what he's selling.
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And here's the truth, I don't need those knives, I don't.
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But you know something I desperately need?
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Is life.
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Because the Bible says I'm dead in my sin.
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And I need life.
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But here's the problem.
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Dead people don't know that they're dead.
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So the fact that Jesus Christ is life doesn't really mean anything unless He also comes as the light to illuminate the fact that I need Him.
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Does that make sense?
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Jesus was shining the light saying, "Look, you're dead.
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I'm shining the light.
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You desperately need the life that I have.
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But you're so dead you don't even know that you need it.
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That's what John is telling us here.
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He's not only the life, but he's the light.
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And you see a baby in a trough.
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God sees the source of life and the source of light coming to illuminate a dark world.
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Next math equation.
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Jesus equals grace plus truth.
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I'm just giving you the answers.
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Don't you wish your math teacher did that in high school?
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Jesus equals grace plus truth.
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And picking up in verse 14, we're going to jump back, but I want you to jump down to verse 14 with me.
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"The Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth." you, what was Jesus like?
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What was Jesus like? How would you answer that? Well, He was like a Middle Eastern Jew, and He was a man, and He was...
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I guess another question you have to follow up is, "Well, how do you mean the question, 'What was Jesus like?' What was Jesus like? What do you mean by the question?" Well, here's what I mean.
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I want you to answer Imagine a new wife would describe her husband.
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Imagine this bride just got married last week and somebody says, "What's your husband like?" Or think of an adult man describing his father.
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"Hey, what was your father like?" "Oh, let me tell you what my father was like." When we say, "John, what was Jesus like?" Here's the answer.
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He says, "He was full of grace and truth." Grace, first of all.
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Unmerited favor.
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Grace.
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Always moving towards mercy.
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Always moving towards restoration.
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That's grace.
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Unmerited favor.
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I don't deserve a thing from God, but He chooses to give me everything.
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Unmerited favor.
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John says he's also full of truth.
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Meaning according to the righteous standard of God.
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We as imperfect people usually fall on one side or the other, don't we?
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who are grace people.
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Grace people care more about the relationship than any sin issue that a person may have.
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Who are my grace people here?
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You know, I care more about the relationships than anything.
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Grace people, raise them high.
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Go ahead.
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But then you have truth people.
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Truth people say, "Well, I care more about upholding God's Word than I do the relationship." I'm willing to let a relationship go He's unwilling to go after God's Word.
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How many people are saying, "You know what, honestly, I'm kind of more of a truth person." See, here's the thing, as John was describing Jesus, like, "John, was Jesus more of a grace person, or was He more of a truth person?" John's like, "He was full of grace and truth." Both.
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Fully.
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Perfectly.
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And here's the thing, He never was so much one, or He was never one in such a way that He violated the other.
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Jesus was never so gracious that He somehow violated the truth of God's Word.
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Jesus never got to a point in His ministry where He's like, "Well, I know what the Bible says, but I'm not really regarding that in this instance." Jesus wasn't like that.
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But on the other hand, Jesus wasn't so, "This is what the Word of God says, and I'm not showing any grace." That wasn't him either.
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John says the best way that I can describe Jesus is He was full of grace.
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He was 100% grace.
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You've never seen a more gracious human being walking the planet than Jesus Christ.
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But you know what?
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At the same time, you've never seen someone who loved this more than Jesus.
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He was both.
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He never violated one with the other.
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Full of grace and truth.
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So you see a baby in a trough.
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God sees holy and perfect attributes in human flesh.
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So that's math about Jesus.
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But as I wrap up, I want to give you an equation for you.
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It comes for you.
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And it's right here in the text.
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But to become a child of God equals receive plus believe.
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To become a child of God, receive plus believe.
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Look at verses 10-13.
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It says, "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, Yet the world did not know Him.
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He came to His own and His own people did not receive Him.
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But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.
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Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, More of the will of man, but of God.
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You have to get this equation right.
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Because most people don't.
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And you see very clearly in the text, "receive + believe = become." Breaking that down, first of all, let's talk about believing.
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What does it mean to believe?
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Well, believing means that you intellectually agree facts about who Jesus is. Like, yes, I see what you're saying. Yes, the Bible says He's God. I see it right there. You're talking about the cross. You're talking about the empty tomb. Yes, I agree with these facts of history. But you can't stop there.
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The problem is many people do stop there. Many people stop there and they sit in churches for years wondering, "Why am I not really that fired up about about my walk with Christ, or do I even have a walk with Christ?
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And those other people at church seem awfully excited about Jesus, and I'm just like, okay, I'm just not that fired up about it.
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I just don't get it.
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Well, that's why your spiritual life is stagnant if you just intellectually agree, Because there's more to the equation.
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John says you need to receive.
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You need to receive God's free offer of forgiveness and eternal life.
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You have to claim it for your own.
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And until you do, it's not yours.
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It's just something that you know the facts about.
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We get this, right?
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It's Christmas time, which for a lot of people means presents time.
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If somebody shows up to give you a gift, your part of it is receiving the gift.
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If somebody says I got you a gift, there's an action that must be taken on your part.
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The action is simply what?
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Reaching out and accepting that gift.
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So when it comes to Jesus Christ, you have to receive Him.
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Meaning you have to admit your wrongdoing.
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Turn from it.
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to humbly accept Jesus Christ's payment on your behalf.
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That's when we get to the next verb, which is "become." You see this?
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"All who receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become." And that's the life change that God works in us after we believe and receive.
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You can't just switch these components around in the equation and still get the right equation.
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Because here's how most people mix it up.
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Most people believe that the equation is believe plus become equals receive.
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That's what most people think the equation is.
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Meaning this, believe plus become.
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I've got to agree with the Jesus facts, but then I've got to work really hard on becoming something.
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And I'm going to have to clean up my act.
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And if I believe, and if I work on becoming, then that is what it means to receive Jesus.
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That is not the equation.
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And people get stuck thinking, you know what?
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I'm going to let Jesus down.
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I'm going to fail.
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I'm going to blow it.
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Jesus is going to be so disappointed in me, so I'm still trying to become something, so hopefully someday, I can receive Jesus.
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I've got to get my act together.
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I can't let Jesus down.
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I've got to make myself acceptable before I really receive Him.
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That is the wrong equation.
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You don't have the power to change anything.
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Some people spend their whole lives are starting to clean themselves up for Jesus.
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You can't do it. You can't.
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The good news is Jesus Christ will totally transform you.
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But He won't change your life until you give it over to Him first.
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John tells us the Word became flesh.
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I've been studying the Bible pretty intensely since about 1995.
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To this day, this is probably the most profound phrase I wouldn't even say just in the Bible, I would say in all of literature, this is the most profound phrase ever written.
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The Word became flesh.
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Do you understand what that means?
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I came to Christ, as I said, in 1995.
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I want to share a story with you.
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I typically don't share, you know, things that I read, illustrations that I read, but there's a reason I want to share this one with you.
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Because in 1995, someone had shared the gospel with me, and I'll be honest with you, it just did not make sense to me.
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You know, kind of growing up in the church, I knew some stories about Noah and Jonah and Moses.
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And then there's like Jesus - He's like the main event of this big book that people talk about but nobody really reads.
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I just didn't get it for the longest time.
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And I had this student Bible that had this little story as an insert in one of the Gospels.
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And when I read this story, It was like the lights came on.
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Like, I get it.
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I wanna share that story with you.
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Maybe you've heard it.
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Maybe you've heard a variation of it, but here we go.
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The story is about a man whose wife was getting ready for church on Christmas Eve, and it was bitter cold outside.
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And the wife had said to her husband, "Hey, you wanna go to church with me?" He just rolled his eyes.
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"No, not interested." Church doesn't mean anything to me.
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Like, you know, I'm not really like a church guy.
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I'm not really into the church thing.
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It just doesn't mean anything to me.
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So if you want to go do that, that's fine, but I'm not going out there in this cold.
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So the wife just kind of smiled and was off to church.
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And the man looked out his window as she left, and he saw in the bitter cold, There were some birds flying around his barn, flying around the outside of the door, trying to get in because there was some heat in the barn and it was bitter cold outside.
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The man looked at the birds and he thought, "Those birds are going to die.
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I mean, nothing's going to survive in this cold." He said, "I'm going to try to get them into the barn." As soon as he went out, birds as they do, they just like scattered in all directions.
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He went back in the house and sure enough, the birds came back flying around the barn.
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He's looking out the window and he says, "I got to figure out a way to get them in the barn." He goes, "Oh, I got an idea." He grabbed a loaf of bread and he went outside and he made all these bread crumbs leading to the barn door.
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Every time they saw him near, they would just fly away.
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The breadcrumbs didn't work either.
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And finally the guy went in the house and he looked out the window and he saw the birds flying.
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He said, "Well, because I tried, "I guess there's nothing I could really do for them." He said, "You know, if I could just become a bird "for five minutes, I could go to them, "they wouldn't be scared of me.
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"If I could just be like one of them, I could speak their language and I could say, "Listen, here is the way to be saved." And as soon as he had that thought, the story goes, the church bells rang, and he was like, "I get it now.
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I get it.
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That's why God became a man.
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That's why Christmas matters.
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So church, guests, Christmas can become a story about a poor pregnant woman overcoming the odds.
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I think for a lot of people that's what it is.
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Poor pregnant Mary, and is she going to make it to Bethlehem in time?
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And oh, we don't have any room in the inn.
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And oh, I'm with the cows now.
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"Oh, giving birth!" "Baby in a manger!" And it's like, "Aww." "Blessed sweet baby Jesus' heart, delivered right in the stalls with the animals." "Aww, poor Mary." I think it becomes this warm, cozy feeling about this woman who overcame the odds.
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I'll be honest with you, that story sort of has an across-the-board appeal, doesn't it?
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He sees a baby as a non-threat.
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John gives us a different point of view.
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We see a baby in a manger.
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God sees Himself reaching down with His life.
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Reaching down with His light full of grace and truth.
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Man's perfect God God's perfect man.
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Do you see Christmas the way that God does?
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I'm going to pray, and we're going to receive the Lord's Supper.
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Why are we having the Lord's Supper today?
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Like, it's Christmas, right?
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Because the same baby who was laid in the manger 33 years later would be a man laid on a cross.
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And you can't have Christmas without Easter.
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You certainly can't have Easter without Christmas.
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The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, what a glorious reality.
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That the infinite God stepped into time.
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Stepped into flesh.
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And lived on this earth.
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And had an impact that is still changing lives today.
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Father, we understand as we are about to come to Your table right now, You took on flesh because God can't die, but a man can die.
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You became a man so that you might die in our place.
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Father, I pray for those here who maybe have been sitting in this church or in other churches thinking that the equation was, "Well, I have to believe in Jesus and I have to try to become something and that's what it means to receive." Father, I pray that You would make it very clear from Your Word that You are the One who brings change.
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You've called us to believe. You've called us to receive.
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But You're the only One that has the power to make us become anything.
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Father, we thank You for Your grace.
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And we thank You for Your truth.
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And as we come to Your table now, Father, May we never lose sight of the mission, the reason that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
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We at Harvest Bible Chapel hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas, and pray that you take some time to meditate on the glorious truth That baby that is so celebrated is the Word that became flesh.
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Amen?
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Next week is a very unique service.
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We're going to be doing Q&A day.
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Questions that you submitted concerning, you know, what does the Bible say about, or what does the church teach about, we have some really, really good questions, and I'm looking forward to digging in God's Word you answers to the questions that you ask. So, come back next week and we'll do Q&A.
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No sermon. Q&A is going to be the main event as far as my time next week, alright? You are loved.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 1:1-14
How would you explain Jesus was WITH God AND Jesus IS God? (John 1:1)
How does Jesus enlighten people? Explain how that happens. (John 1:4-9)
Based on John 1:12, how would you share with someone how to become a child of God?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!