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Hey everybody, time for a quick coffee break.

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And today's coffee break is actually going to be our Christmas message for this year

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as well.

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So let's turn our history book, so back to the year of 1914, when something absolutely

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amazing happened, something tremendous.

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It was a miracle.

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And it became known as the Christmas truce.

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And it's a testimony of the power and love of God.

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You see, early December that year, the Pope had asked everyone for a ceasefire for Christmas.

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After all, the world was at war.

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Now officially, he was ignored.

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The war was going to carry on business as usual.

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That was the official, right?

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However, on Christmas Eve that year, a miracle began to emerge and it covered a large portion

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of the Western Front.

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German soldiers laid down their weapons and they walked out into no man's land.

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Some of them singing Christmas carols and doing their best to say, Merry Christmas.

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Now initially, the British troops that were there, they were like, no, this is a trap,

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we're not going to fall for it.

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They were very much on guard, but they were curious, so they watched.

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And it didn't take long for them to realize that their enemy was unarmed and was trying

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to meet them in jest.

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So they met them halfway across one of the deadliest landscapes ever to have been fought

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on on the face of the earth.

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Across the Western Front, soldiers could be heard singing Christmas carols, instruments

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could be heard playing, even a soccer game broke out.

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A soccer game, or depending on where you live, football, right?

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But a football game.

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And for Christmas, there was peace, joy, and love for many exhausted and tired war fighters.

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Many of them wrote home.

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Still a shock over the whole thing, disbelief, right?

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And even just talking about it, it sounds very unbelievable, doesn't it?

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A German lieutenant stated, quote, How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was, the English

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officers felt the same way about it.

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Thus Christmas, the celebration of love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends

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for a time.

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Mortal enemies became friends.

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You know, there is only one person that has that kind of power.

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Only one.

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God.

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God who put his love and joy into the hearts of his children.

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No man on the planet could have pulled that off without the Holy Spirit.

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It was love, plain and simple, God's love for each and every one of us.

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And it shows that he's still with us.

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He's still with us.

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And as we celebrate his birth, we need to reflect on his life.

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We need to reflect on his death, resurrection, and the ascension.

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Jesus came to set us free so we could live in fellowship with him.

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And how do we honor him?

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And all those who have gone on to be with him?

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Well, by following his example.

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See what we need to do is we need to ask Jesus into our hearts and live a life of reaching

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out to others in his love.

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Matthew 28 verses 16 through 20, the Bible says, then Jesus came to them and said, all

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authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and

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of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

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And surely I am with you to the very end of the age.

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In this Christmas season, renew your answer to the great commission, because God didn't

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say come to me.

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Rather, he says, I am with you every step of the way.

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And it only takes a mustard grain of faith.

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And that, that is the least we could do in return for the great love and sacrifice that

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he's given us.

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From all of us here to all of you out there, Merry Christmas.