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Now on to the thing that you've all been waiting for.

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My final sermon of the year.

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Merry Christmas.

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My name, Andrea, that was a little too strong to laugh.

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I mean, it was meant to be funny, but not that funny.

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My name is Greg Hampton.

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If I've never met you,

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I would love to meet you.

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I'm looking at a couple of you that I've never met before.

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I would love to meet you and buy you coffee.

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Let me know after the service.

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Shake my hand or fill the connection card out

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and we'll make sure to connect.

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I would love to get to know you and your story.

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Today is the last Sunday of Advent.

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And because today is also Christmas Eve,

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today is about two things.

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We've gone through hope, gone through peace.

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Jen brought us a message about joy last week.

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And today, both subjects of love and light

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come through in our message.

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And so let's just jump right in to the book of John.

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If you don't have your own Bible,

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there's physical Bibles out on the bookshelf

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that you can grab, take home with you.

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They're blue, they're free.

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Just take one, take one for a neighbor

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if you think that they would need that.

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And if you'd like to download a Bible from digital app store,

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there's a lot of options like that as well.

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We like to give the scriptures our full attention

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when we read them at this part of the service.

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And one of the ways to do that is to stand.

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You're not required to stand.

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It's just a little tradition that some of us do.

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And so those of you that would like to join me

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in standing for the reading of John 1, verses 9 through 14,

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can join me now.

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I'm reading the Amplified Version.

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It says this, verse 9.

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There it was, the true light, the genuine, perfect,

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steadfast light, which coming into the world

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enlightens everyone.

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He was in the world.

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And though the world was made through him,

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the world did not recognize him.

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I'm going to jump to 14.

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And the word became flesh and lived among us.

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And we actually saw his glory.

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Glorious belongs to the one and only begotten

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son of the Father, the Son who is truly unique,

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the only one of his kind, who is full of grace and truth,

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absolutely free of deception.

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Let us pray.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for the scriptures,

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the way that they have persisted throughout the millennia

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that we can still read them, consider them.

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I pray that today, whatever you have for us to learn,

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I pray that it would stick, that it

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would become a part of the framework of our faith,

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that our faith would become stronger as we become

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more like your son, Jesus.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Thanks, all.

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You can have a seat.

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All right.

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So it's Christmas.

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And because it's Christmas, I've been thinking about things

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being opened, right?

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Gifts will get opened all over the world.

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The eyes of children will be bigger

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than they have been all year long.

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Parents will be ripped from their slumber

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like wrapping paper torn from gifts.

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Do you know what that means?

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Paper torn from gifts, duvets all over America, comforters,

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sheets, blankets.

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And then the opening will commence.

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Of course, my brain is weird.

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And so I started thinking about all the other kinds of openings

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that there are.

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Packages, yes.

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Thought about that.

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But now there's like UPS packages.

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I thought about cookies, cracker packages, candy packages.

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And then late at night, I thought about how the fridge gets

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opened for that midnight snack.

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Thought about how stores have openings.

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Did you see there's a Starbucks that's opening on 1st Street?

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In Moline, it is as close to being in Rock Island

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as you can be to Rock Island without being in Rock Island.

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And speaking of, maybe they have job openings.

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In sports, you have a hole that can open up in your defense

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defenses, structure, TV shows, plays, movies.

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All your favorite songs, they have openings.

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And I was thinking about how some things are open-ended.

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Anyone that's ever been on the verge of a breakup or a job

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ending, you know what this feels like.

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That last conversation or meeting

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didn't seem to clear things up.

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Still open-ended.

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That's not always comfortable.

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This brings me back to Jesus.

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I think the birth of Jesus was open-ended.

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The opening of his eyes on Earth as human child

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didn't answer every question, didn't end every debate.

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Wars didn't suddenly cease.

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Sickness didn't instantaneously disappear.

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When you read the story of Simeon in Luke chapter 2,

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it says that the Lord had promised him in particular

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that he would see the Messiah before he died.

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And so as tradition had it, this young firstborn son

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of a Jewish family was brought to the temple on a certain day.

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And Simeon was there.

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And he saw him.

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And he literally prayed, now, God, you

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may let your servant die in peace.

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Simeon's waiting was over, but the waiting

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continued for everyone else.

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As Mary waited to see how the life of her son

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would play out, how exactly would he save his people

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from their sins?

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That's what the angel said.

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He will save his people from their sins.

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How exactly would he end up on David's throne?

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That's what the angel said.

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He will sit on David's throne.

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How exactly would he end up being called

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the king of Jacob's people forever?

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That's what the angel said.

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For three decades between birth and adulthood,

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between manger and cross, I'm sure

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that there were things that were left or felt open-ended.

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Even when Jesus's earthly ministry began,

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the disciples that followed Him, they had their own ideas.

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They had their own ideas of what was supposed to be going on,

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of what was supposed to happen.

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And the longer that they followed Jesus,

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the more what they thought had been opened wasn't happening.

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What they thought would come to an end seems to still continue.

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What they thought would begin still

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seemed like it was open-ended.

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So what do I mean?

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Well, for one, they saw Jesus healing

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and bringing spiritual renewal.

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But the disciples almost surely thought

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that Jesus would bring peace as a political leader.

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And they almost surely believed that peace would be won

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through war, a war that would be led by Jesus.

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It made no sense to them that a messiah would reject military

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power or let himself be handed over to death on a cross.

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But they believed that Jesus would bring peace

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on a cross.

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I don't think they were that much different than people

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today, waging wars in the name of peace,

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waging wars sometimes in the name of God.

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So the gift of Jesus was opened.

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But the gift of Jesus was open-ended.

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And I think it's still open-ended.

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There it was, the true light, the genuine, perfect, steadfast

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light, which enlightens everyone.

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John continues, he was in the world.

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And though the world was made through him,

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the world did not recognize him.

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In two verses, John tells us, this light is for everyone,

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but not everyone recognizes it.

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The gift, the love of God in bodily form, the light of life

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interred the world, but to some, he was still unrecognizable.

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The good news is this, God is open-ended to those still

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closed to him.

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Jesus remains open to those that do not recognize him,

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that do not want him, that do not think they need him.

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That's what Peter was talking about in 2 Peter 3, 9,

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when he said, the Lord does not delay his return as though he

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were unable to act.

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And he is not slow about his promise,

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as some count slowness, but is extraordinarily patient

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towards you, not wishing for any to perish,

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but for all to come to repentance,

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because Jesus is open-ended.

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Jesus is the gift, opened on earth one night in Bethlehem,

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and is still open to enlighten all the world today.

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Guys, what I'm trying to say is this.

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This is especially important as many of us

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will be spending more time than normal,

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maybe today or tomorrow, with family,

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with people that probably think very differently

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about the world than us.

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Some of us have very diverse families

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when it comes to thought, political in nature,

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social in nature, you name it.

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A lot of us have families that span the spectrum of how

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we think.

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Maybe you have family that thinks very differently

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about God than you.

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So what I'm saying is that we should not imagine that Jesus,

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we should not imagine Jesus only being available to someone

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the first time they hear about Jesus,

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or the first time they hear a Bible verse,

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or the first time they're invited to something as weird

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as a worship service.

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The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus,

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and that gift is once and for all,

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but that gift is not available only once.

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If you don't notice it or understand it at first glance,

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it's not gone forever.

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The love of Jesus is the gift that is always there

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waiting to be received.

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It reminds me when I was younger.

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It was probably around my teen years

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when my sister and I were getting to the age

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where cold hard cash would be a really great present

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for us.

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It was a time in my childhood when I was a kid.

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And I remember going to a church where cold hard cash would

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be a really great present to get for Christmas.

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Some of you can probably relate.

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And my parents, they started hiding envelopes

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of cash in the Christmas tree.

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Have any of you guys ever done that?

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Kids, tonight, tomorrow, look in that tree.

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So the first time this happened, we had no idea, right?

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It never happened before.

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This was a new precedent.

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We didn't know that that was even allowed.

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We'd never been given just money.

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But the reality is that they were there the whole time.

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Envelopes of money just hiding in the Christmas tree

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with our names scrawled across the front.

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So when we get done opening all the gifts that we noticed,

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my mom or probably my dad said, well, hey, you know,

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there might be one thing left.

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You might want to take a harder look at the tree.

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Imagine instead that we didn't know the envelopes were there.

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We get done opening the obvious gifts

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and then being told, well, there was one more gift.

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But not only did you not notice it, you didn't open it.

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So we're going to keep that for ourselves.

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I don't believe in a God that hides and takes.

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I believe in a God that reveals and opens.

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I said, I do not believe in a God that hides His love

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and takes back His promises.

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I believe in a God that always reveals and is always open.

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Jesus isn't hidden and forever unavailable

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if you did not at first notice.

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Instead, if you didn't see it, I think the Father reaches in,

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moves things out of the way, makes the gift more obvious,

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moves it closer where it's available within reach

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and free.

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The open-ended love and light of Jesus is like that,

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like a Father giving a gift to the world that

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wasn't noticed at first, but is still very much there

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and available.

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But then I suppose that another way to say this

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is that Jesus doesn't need to be opened.

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We do.

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Our minds, our eyes, our hearts, our homes, our lives.

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Jesus isn't the gift that needs to be opened every day.

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Jesus is eternally open.

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We need to be opened every day.

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We need to see.

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We need to see.

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We need to see.

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We need to see.

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We need to see.

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We need to see.

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The first song we sang today, but now I see the light.

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We need to be open to receive the love of God

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born in human flesh.

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And I wonder if today, this Christmas Eve,

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if it's time for you to open yourself to Jesus,

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maybe for the first time or even in new ways.

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I wonder if today isn't the day that you tell someone

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that you have definitely already told about Jesus,

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that this is a gift that doesn't go away,

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that Jesus is always available.

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And as we are turning 10, I wonder

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if this coming year just might be more than it has ever been,

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the year that we as a congregation

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open ourselves to Jesus in ways that we never have,

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carry his life, his love, his life to the world around us.

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Amen.