Isaiah | A Promise of Peace Week 1

We all know the Christmas story—Jesus, Mary, the manger, some shepherds, and so on. But what if we told you that the Christmas story started way earlier than that nativity scene? Turns out that we aren’t the only ones waiting for Christmas. Join us today as Paco talks about the good things we can find in the waiting.

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    - Peace is not solving my problems,
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    it's not avoiding my problems.
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    Peace is in spite of my problems, keeping hope.
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    - (singing) Oh, Christmas tree,
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    oh, Christmas tree, [indiscernible]
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    Hey, it's Christmas time again.
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    We've been here before, right?
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    Every year we're talking about the same people:
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    there's Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the wise man,
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    rinse, cycle, do it again. Rinse and repeat.
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    Not this year.
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    It turns out the Christmas story
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    has some interesting characters
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    who affect it in massive ways,
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    and they're not even in this Nativity set.
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    Those are the characters and the stories
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    we're digging in today because we believe
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    they have the biggest impact on your life and my life.
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    We're going to start with my friend Paco
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    to unpack a character who's impacted this story
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    and was a live hundreds of years before it.
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    (singing) Oh, Christmas tree (mumbles).
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    I don't know the words.
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    - We're all familiar with Mary and Joseph
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    and the shepherds and the wise men.
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    But there's a whole second cast of characters
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    hiding in the shadows behind the Nativity.
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    Today we meet Isaiah.
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    Isaiah was a Hebrew prophet that lived
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    700 years before the birth of Christ.
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    He spoke on behalf of the leaders of Israel and Judah.
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    He prophesied God's judgment and his hope for Israel.
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    Today we look at his prophecy
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    of the coming of the long awaited Messiah.
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    In the book of Isaiah, we hear these words:
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    - You know what, I can't stand?
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    Waiting. It's the worst.
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    I'm all about what's next.
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    My whole life is built around what is next.
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    Look, there's no off season in sports, right?
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    The season ends, the next one begins.
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    What's next?
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    I'm on to the next episode before the credits even roll.
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    And guess what?
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    Thanksgiving's over, so you know what that means?
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    Christmas is next, baby. It's Christmas season.
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    Now, don't worry, I'm not one of those
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    weird Christmas music before Thanksgiving people.
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    And by the way, if you played Christmas music
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    this October, I'm very disappointed.
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    No, stop it.
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    This is the best season ever.
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    The whole world waits for Christmas.
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    Problem is, too many of us miss out on the best part.
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    So today I'm going to reveal to you the biggest thing
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    people miss when it comes to Christmas.
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    We've been doing Christmas wrong this whole time.
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    But don't worry, I got you. We're going to fix it.
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    And to really get to know the meaning
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    and the power behind Christmas, we've got to start
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    with the players in the story.
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    This right here is the Nativity scene.
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    You probably have seen these folks.
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    This is little Baby Jesus right here. You see Him.
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    There's big mama Mary right there.
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    There's Joseph, Daddy-O Joseph there.
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    These dudes. There's an angel.
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    This guy is here.
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    He's a wise man, and he's here for a diversity, right?
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    You see the players, the sheep, the lamb, the goat,
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    thing, the manger scene, typical Christmas.
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    All the usual suspects for this wonderful occasion.
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    But today I want us to zoom out a little bit
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    and see the bigger story
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    that God is telling in Christmas.
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    And to do that, we've got to zoom out
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    really, really far.
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    We've got to go all the way back
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    to this dude right here.
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    This guy. Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos.
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    Mr. Here I am, send me.
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    Big prophet type energy.
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    This guy serving under five ruling under kings
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    and doing the things.
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    This is the Prophet Isaiah,
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    a mouthpiece from God to the people of Israel.
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    And he plays one of the biggest roles
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    in the story of Christmas.
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    And it all happened 700 years before the manger scene,
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    before Jesus was born.
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    What does he have to do with Christmas?
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    Well, first, Isaiah was anticipating something huge,
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    the same way we anticipate Christmas each year.
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    You know, if you ever wanted something for Christmas,
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    you made your list, your Amazon wish list,
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    and you thought about it every single day afterwards.
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    Or that thing that you put on your Christmas list
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    and you thought about year after year because
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    you just never seem to get it,
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    but you kept hoping like maybe next year,
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    but still nothing.
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    Isaiah and his people were waiting for a Savior
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    in the very same way.
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    Here's a famous Christmas quotable from Isaiah 7:14:
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    There it is. You love it. Emmanuel, God is with us.
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    I love that song. It puts me in the Christmas spirit.
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    I'm feeling the vibes.
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    But here's the thing, we have Christmas vibes
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    that we think are traditional, right?
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    But we're those vibes what Isaiah
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    and his people were feeling?
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    You know the the traditional Christmas vibes:
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    gentle snowfall, nice sweaters, you know, hot chocolate,
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    maybe maybe a sheep going baa in the distance,
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    maybe a live Nativity scene, maybe seeing like,
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    you know, beautiful presents under a tree.
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    You know, traditional Christmas vibes?
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    That wasn't the life that Isaiah
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    and his people were living.
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    That wasn't what it was like for Isaiah
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    during his time.
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    So the question becomes, why would Isaiah
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    be waiting for God to be with him,
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    for God to be with them?
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    It's not because they wanted a new toy
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    and wanted a new iPod.
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    It's because they wanted God to be with them
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    because they were in an absolute mess.
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    Here's how the Bible describes it:
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    Israel was being plundered on all sides.
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    God was upset with them because they had
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    turned their back on God
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    and they were looking for a literal Savior.
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    They messed up what God had set up for them.
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    And in the midst of God's divine judgment,
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    God reveals to Isaiah a promise that God would
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    someday come back and be with them.
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    Despite all of the knuckle headed nonsense
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    that Israel was dealing with,
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    God was going to deliver them.
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    And there were staring down the barrel of real threats.
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    It's important to note, during Isaiah's time,
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    while he was waiting for a Savior,
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    there was a kingdom of Syria coming down
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    to take control of the southern Kingdom of Judah.
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    That's where Isaiah lived, in the city of Jerusalem.
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    And Isaiah wanted peace. He longed for it.
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    He waited for it hopefully.
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    His other famous quotable from Isaiah 9:
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    That right there, that is some Christmas prophecy.
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    But we've got to look a little closer.
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    We've got to look a little bit closer to
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    the context of of this whole story playing out.
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    Isaiah lives 700 years before Christ was born,
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    and he doesn't live to be 700.
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    He dies hundreds of years before this
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    famous manger scene happens.
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    Under a hostile regime. You know what that means?
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    That means Isaiah never got to celebrate Christmas.
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    He never got to see the prophecy fulfilled.
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    In his earthly life, he never saw the kind of peace
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    that God had promised him.
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    But he found peace in embracing the beauty of hope,
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    the beauty of the promise.
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    He found peace in the waiting.
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    So my question for you is: What are you waiting for?
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    And I'm not talking about A Lexus
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    in the front of your house with a bow on it.
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    I'm talking about what you're really waiting for?
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    Think about your life for a second.
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    Think about the things that you long for,
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    that you hope for, that you want so badly.
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    I know some of us this holiday season,
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    we've been waiting and waiting and hoping and praying
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    for a spouse for a really long time.
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    And you're looking at your life and you're like,
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    "Man, I don't want to spend the next month
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    scrolling through people with matching pajamas.
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    I don't want to spend the rest of the holiday,
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    the rest of December looking at people doing
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    epic proposals in front of beautiful Christmas trees."
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    You're waiting.
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    You're waiting for that promise to come true.
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    Some of us, we've received a diagnosis recently
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    and we're thinking through just how many
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    more Christmases do we really have?
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    You're just waiting for maybe something to change
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    or something to get better.
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    Maybe some of us, we're in a situation financially
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    where our job is just not cutting it,
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    and we're waiting and hoping and praying
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    and working towards maybe a better job
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    so we can give our family that kind of Christmas
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    that we know they they want.
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    What is it that you're really waiting for?
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    Maybe you you're going to sit at a table
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    this holiday season, this Christmas season,
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    and you're going to look over the kid table
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    and it's going to remind you of just how long
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    you've been hoping and waiting
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    for a child to fill a seat.
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    You're waiting. We're all waiting for something.
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    And let's be clear here, I want all of these things
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    to come true for you this Christmas.
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    I want all the things that you're waiting for
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    to happen right now for you. I do.
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    But we have a flawed view of what waiting is,
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    because we have a flawed view of what peace is.
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    See, peace is not solving my problems,
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    it's not avoiding my problems.
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    Peace is in spite of my problems keeping hope,
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    having hope.
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    The peace of Christmas is not in
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    the elimination of peaceful circumstances,
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    that's called wishful thinking.
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    The peace of Christmas is continuing to ask,
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    continuing to hope, continuing to trust
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    that God's promises of being with us are real
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    and will eventually happen.
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    The peace of Christmas is found in
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    the long-term belief of God's goodness.
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    Maybe even mega long term,
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    of waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled.
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    In Chapter 40, Isaiah says it like this:
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    This snapshot of Isaiah's life and the prophecy
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    that God gave him and this snapshot of God
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    being with us in this manger, it's connected
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    to an even larger, more epic story that
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    I'm going to share with you in just a second.
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    So be patient. Wait, more to come.
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    - Hey, I'm just going to jump in here really quick
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    and talk about giving for 30 seconds, I promise. Go.
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    Isaiah 1:19, says if you are willing and obedient,
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    you shall eat the good of the land.
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    Giving a spiritual act
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    and it's one we believe God wants us to do,
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    if nothing more and to be obedient.
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    And being obedient is not like telling my dog to sit
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    or whatever.
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    It's more like listening and staying in line
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    with what God would have for your life
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    based on his character.
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    Giving us one of those things.
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    It can expose whether your heart is with God
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    or with something else.
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    And you know year end giving us a big deal
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    this time of year.
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    And I just want to ask that if you're considering
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    giving at year end that you would consider us.
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    You go to Crossroads.net/give for more information.
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    Let's get back to Paco.
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    - Christmas is a snapshot in God's unfolding plan
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    for you and for me.
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    Too often we're looking at this Christmas thing,
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    we're thinking, God is with us.
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    Yeah. There he is, right there, the little baby. Yay.
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    And we leave it at the manger.
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    We leave the story at the manger.
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    And Christmas, it's just a snapshot of God's story.
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    The God of the Cosmos comes,
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    and He puts himself in human form.
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    Big deal; that is a huge deal.
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    But if we leave it here,
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    we lose its power and its potency.
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    I don't want you to short sell the power of Christmas
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    and the power of God's promises.
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    So what we've got to do is we've got to see
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    what the rest of the story plays out
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    because Isaiah was waiting for God to be with us.
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    Then what next?
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    Well, eventually this little guy,
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    little Baby Jesus here would grow up
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    and He would become a grown man,
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    and He would start to fulfill even more of the promises
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    that God gave to Isaiah.
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    And in Luke 14, he says this:
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    See all that stuff that Jesus was saying,
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    He's quoting Isaiah 61.
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    All the stuff that Jesus is saying,
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    He's saying, "I'm going to bring that.
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    I'm going to bring that to people.
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    Freedom from guilt and shame,
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    a life of joy and abundance, hope for the future,
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    peace for right now, peace in the waiting."
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    Jesus says, "Hey, I'm that guy.
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    You want peace? I'm that guy.
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    You want hope? I'm that guy.
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    You want a future? I'm that guy."
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    He is saying the prophecy has been fulfilled in Jesus.
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    How do we know that this was the thing?
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    How do we know that he wasn't
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    just kind of talking talk?
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    Well, wait, right there. I'll show you.
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    We know that because the Cross.
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    You see this little baby that we see in the manger,
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    these little baby hands and these little baby feet,
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    they would eventually grow up to be
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    full grown man hands and feet,
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    and a nail would pierce them
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    as Jesus hung up on a Cross.
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    This little baby's skin that has, you know, baby lotion
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    would eventually become a full grown man body
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    that would be pierced.
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    Jesus would put himself up on a Cross
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    to redeem us, to redeem humanity, to redeem people.
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    And it's a gruesome death to die on a Cross.
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    But it had to happen because the promises of God
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    are going to come true.
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    Here's another quotable from Isaiah 53:
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    Pierced for our transgressions.
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    See that deliverance from bondage
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    that Isaiah was hoping for,
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    that maybe you and I are hoping for,
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    it's answered in what Jesus did.
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    The breaking down of strongholds in our life,
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    the promise is answered in what Jesus did.
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    Justice promised in what Jesus did,
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    comfort when we're hurting, promised in what Jesus did.
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    Good news to the poor and to mourning,
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    promised in what Jesus did.
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    Not just by dying.
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    Big part of it, but by what happened three days later.
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    See, three days later, Jesus was in a tomb
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    and He gets up out of the grave
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    and He walks out of the tomb.
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    It's called resurrection.
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    You see, the story of Christmas is tied to
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    the large story that God is unfolding
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    that includes the resurrection of our Savior Jesus,
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    and it includes power that can be in you and me
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    to overcome anything we face,
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    to be able to withstand everything
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    that life throws at us, to have peace while we wait.
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    And wild for me to say this,
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    but the story of God doesn't even end here.
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    Revelation 19, we get this image of Jesus coming back.
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    Not as a baby, not as a -- not as a carpenter builder.
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    He's coming back riding a white horse
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    with a sword in His mouth and a rod in His hand,
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    ready to claim it all, ready to make it all right.
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    And until that day, we're still waiting.
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    And we still hold on to His promises
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    that He will sustain us.
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    It's the same way Isaiah waited,
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    the same way the people in this stable waited,
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    the same way followers of Jesus have been waiting.
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    I am anticipating Jesus's return.
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    I'm anticipating coming in all His fullness
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    and the full fulfillment of that ancient promise,
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    that super old prophecy
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    that He's going to make everything right.
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    He is going to be the person that redeems all of us
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    and all the brokenness in the world.
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    I don't want you to short sell the promises of God
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    because you're only focused on
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    parts of the story that is unfolding.
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    Christmas is a chapter in the long unfolding story
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    of God that started well before Isaiah,
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    included His prophecies,
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    included Emmanuel God with us in this manger,
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    includes the Cross, includes Jesus's resurrection,
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    and also includes His return to make everything right.
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    So while you wait, while you wait,
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    I want you to hold tight to God's promise
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    that if He said it, He will do it.
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    Christmas is about anticipation, it's about waiting,
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    waiting for the peace that comes
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    when God fulfills His promises.
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    And the greatest news is you can have peace
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    while you wait.
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    In the middle of the wildest season of the year,
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    you can have this peace that passes all understanding.
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    So while you're waiting on God, I want you to do this.
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    I want you to lead into something this holiday season,
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    this Christmas season.
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    While you wait for that thing that feels like
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    it's just not going to come.
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    I want you to trust like Isaiah.
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    Because you can grow in peace, you can grow in hope,
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    and you can lean into the belief that if God said it,
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    it will come as promised.
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    - That can be life changing, can't it?
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    To know that I can have hope,
  • 00:20:20
    I can have peace in God's unknown.
  • 00:20:22
    You know, Paco talked about Isaiah who prophesied
  • 00:20:25
    about this awaited Savior who was coming.
  • 00:20:27
    One of the best ways to experience that hope
  • 00:20:29
    and that peace is through music.
  • 00:20:31
    And great news, our band actually made an album
  • 00:20:33
    a number of years ago called Awaited
  • 00:20:36
    by the artist Awaited.
  • 00:20:37
    You can find it on Spotify or Apple Music.
  • 00:20:40
    And I would love to just invite you
  • 00:20:41
    to make it part of your Christmas soundtrack.
  • 00:20:43
    It directly talks about this awaited one
  • 00:20:47
    that Paco talked about.
  • 00:20:48
    You can sink your mind in that hope and that peace.
  • 00:20:51
    We also wanted to let you know this is not a TV show.
  • 00:20:54
    We are a community.
  • 00:20:55
    There is an online community that you can be part of,
  • 00:20:59
    no matter who you are, no matter where you live.
  • 00:21:01
    One of the ways to take a step into that community
  • 00:21:03
    is by joining our Night of Prayer.
  • 00:21:05
    It's on December 2nd.
  • 00:21:06
    Whether you love prayer, whether prayer
  • 00:21:08
    is something that's intimidating to you,
  • 00:21:10
    this is the place for you to experience
  • 00:21:12
    that breakthrough of peace and power in your life.
  • 00:21:15
    Also, by the way, as a community, we need more mentors.
  • 00:21:18
    We need people who are at the place in their life
  • 00:21:21
    to say, "Hey, I think I could help somebody.
  • 00:21:24
    I think I can walk them just
  • 00:21:25
    a step or two closer to Jesus."
  • 00:21:27
    If that's you, we would love to know.
  • 00:21:29
    Details about both of those things, by the way,
  • 00:21:31
    are online.crossroads.net.
  • 00:21:34
    That's it for this week.
  • 00:21:35
    We'll see you next time on Crossroads.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend Follow-Up. These questions are for Paco’s online message.

Click here for the questions for Chuck’s live message.

  1. Do you hate waiting like Paco, or are you someone who prefers to take their time with things?

  2. Paco asked “what are you really waiting for?” What are the things you are hoping for, that you believe will fulfill you or change your life for the better?

  3. Read Isaiah 40:28-31. How does it feel to think about peace not as the elimination of suffering, but hope in the midst of suffering? How does it change (or confirm) what you’re hoping for or placing your hope in?

  4. Read Isaiah 9:3. What steps can you take this week to find hope in the dark like Isaiah and Desmond Tutu this week? Is it a prayer walk like the one Chuck described? Something else?

  5. Now close your time in prayer. Here’s an example: “Thank you Jesus for coming to us as a human, for humbling yourself to save us from our sins, to give us freedom from sin and shame and to bring us hope for the future. Give us the strength to not rely on ourselves but to place our ultimate hope in you. Amen.

More from the Weekend

Read John 1:14. At Crossroads we’re about the power of God who transforms lives. Everyday we’re getting outside ourselves trying to make a difference in the world. One way we do this is partnering with organizations who literally are changing the world everyday. If you want to jump in and start giving risk free, you can try the 90 day tithe test here.

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Nov 29, 2021 21 mins 45 sec

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