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To Christmas, one of the big 
ideas and big themes of 

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Christmas is the incarnation. 
And I wonder what is your 

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explanation of incarnation 
Incarnate in flesh? 

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So if you had to explain it to 
your neighbor who came over 

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because they saw your Christmas 
card or Christmas decorations 

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and said what is incarnation? 
Why is that a big deal at 

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Christmas? 
How would you answer that? 

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This was one of the big 
questions that all of the 

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apostles were trying to figure 
out as well. 

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How do we answer to our 
neighbors that we believe that 

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Jesus is God making creation his
home, That we believe that Jesus

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is God in the flesh? 
How do we explain this? 

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Not only how do we explain this 
to Jews, but also how do we 

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explain it to the Greek speaking
world and their philosophical 

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setting that they were in there 
in the 1st century. 

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They were trying to figure it 
out. 

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And we're going to read John's 
introduction to trying to 

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explain who is Jesus. 
How is Jesus making God's home 

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in the world? 
And so this is from John chapter

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1 beginning in verse 5. 
You can follow along as I read, 

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in the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and 

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the Word was God. 
He was with God in the 

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beginning. 
Through Him all things were 

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made. 
Without Him nothing was made 

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that has been made. 
In Him was life, and that life 

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was the light of all mankind. 
The light shines in the 

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darkness, and the darkness has 
not overcome it. 

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There was a man sent from God, 
whose name was John. 

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He came as a witness to testify 
concerning that light, so that 

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through Him all might believe He
Himself was not the light. 

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He came only as a witness to the
light. 

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The true light that gives light 
to everyone was coming into the 

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world. 
He was in the world, and though 

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the world was made through him, 
the world did not recognize him.

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He came to that which was his 
own, but his own did not receive

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Him. 
He came to that which was his 

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own, but his own did not receive
him. 

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Yet to all who did receive Him, 
to those who believed in His 

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name, He gave the right to 
become children of God, children

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born not of natural descent, nor
of human decision or a husband's

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will, but born of God. 
The Word became flesh and made 

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His dwelling among us. 
We have seen His glory, the 

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glory of the one and only Son 
who came from the Father, full 

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of grace and truth. 
John testified concerning Him. 

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He cried out saying this is the 
one I spoke about when I said he

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who comes after me has surpassed
me because he was before me out 

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of his fullness. 
We have all received grace in 

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place of grace already given, 
for the Law was given through 

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Moses. 
Grace and truth come through 

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Jesus Christ. 
No one has ever seen God, but 

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the one and only Son who is 
Himself God and is in closest 

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relationship with the Father, 
has made Him known. 

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Let's read this verse together. 
The Word became flesh and made 

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His dwelling among us. 
We have seen His glory, the 

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glory of the one and only Son 
who came from the Father, full 

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of grace and truth. 
John, this is one of the 

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disciples of Jesus who joined 
Jesus as a very young man but is

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now riding a little bit older, 
is trying to help the Greek 

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speaking world understand who 
Jesus is. 

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So he uses a phrase called the 
Word to gather up all of their 

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ideas of this what this thing 
that exists, that actually is 

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the prime mover of all things. 
And he says this word, this 

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Logos, has actually become flesh
and made his dwelling among us. 

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I hope you have this verse 
memorized by the time we're done

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today. 
We have seen his glory, the 

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glory of the one and only Son 
who came from the Father, full 

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of grace and truth. 
Now John sets the story of Jesus

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in the great narrative of 
humanity and Israel. 

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When John begins by saying in 
the beginning was the word he's 

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calling up for the Jewish 
speaking world. 

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The first book in the Bible 
which begins in the beginning, 

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God created. 
And so he's wanting us to make a

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connection to say this is the 
story of humanity, but it's also

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the story of Israel because he 
reminds us of Moses and he 

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reminds us that God had called 
out a people. 

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So when we think of this verse 
of how God is set, or these 

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verses how John has set Jesus 
into this pattern, we need to 

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see creation and we need to see 
exile. 

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We need to see these themes of 
creation and relationship which 

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we find in Genesis, the first 
book of the Bible. 

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But we also need to see exile 
and return, which is the story 

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of Exodus. 
It wasn't necessarily that the 

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people of Israel had been exiled
into Egypt. 

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They had just travelled there to
get help, but they had been 

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exiled out of the Garden. 
All humanity had been exiled out

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of the Garden and the closeness 
of their relationship with God. 

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And So what would be their 
return? 

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The story of Exodus. 
The Exodus from Egypt is the 

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story of God coming and 
delivering the people of Israel 

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from Egypt, bringing them into 
closest relationship with Him. 

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And He was forming a people with
whom he would dwell. 

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And so he came down after they 
built a tent of meeting, and 

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there this great pillar of fire 
by night, a pillar of cloud by 

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day, would indicate that God was
present and dwelling with His 

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people. 
He was tabernacling with them, 

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hanging out in the tent. 
And so John wants both Jew and 

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Gentile to understand that Jesus
is retelling or fulfilling the 

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story of creation in our 
relationships and the exile and 

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the return, the return into 
deepest relationship with him. 

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But they missed him, didn't 
they? 

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They couldn't find him. 
It was almost like a Where is 

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Waldo moment. 
Do you know that story, those 

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sets of books where you look at 
the picture and you try to find 

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where is Waldo in his red and 
white in this very intricate 

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picture? 
Here's a picture by Philip 

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Brouhelder. 
Brouhelder, I believe, is the 

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name. 
And this picture was unseen for 

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400 years. 
It's called the Census of 

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Bethlehem. 
Can you find Jesus in the 

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picture? 
Where is Jesus in the picture? 

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It's just people going about 
their business, aren't they? 

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Where is Jesus in the picture? 
Has anybody found him yet? 

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Well, maybe let's look a little 
closer and ask ourselves, where 

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is Mary? 
Oh, there's Mary. 

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You see, Jesus has come in the 
flesh. 

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He's come in the womb of Mary. 
And there's Mary on a donkey. 

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You have to look close, don't 
you, to find her there. 

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But he's painted just a normal 
scene of what was his experience

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of winter, and he just put Mary 
right there in the middle of it.

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And Jesus is cloaked in the womb
of Mary at this moment, but he 

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shall be born. 
And when Jesus is born, it 

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brings us into this startling 
confession of John, the 

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startling testimony of John to 
say the Word became flesh and 

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made his dwelling among us. 
Can you say it inside to 

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yourself? 
The Word became flesh and made 

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his dwelling among us. 
Can you find any flesh? 

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Yeah, this is it. 
Sark, the body. 

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I, I had the experience 
yesterday of banging my hand and

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I've had to put a Band-Aid on so
you all wouldn't be grossed out 

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by the, the big spot here on my,
my hand where I banged it. 

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And I was like, yes, I've got 
flesh and flesh is vulnerable. 

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This is the reality of God 
coming in Flesh is that God 

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comes to us vulnerable. 
This is why the incarnation 

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matters, is that it tells us and
reveals something about God and 

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his willingness to engage in 
relationship. 

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God shall be vulnerable with us,
and so he comes in flesh. 

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What is more vulnerable than a 
baby? 

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We've got a couple of them here 
today. 

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They're growing, right? 
But they are not independent 

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creatures. 
They are dependent creatures. 

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They are very vulnerable. 
Jesus was vulnerable at his 

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birth. 
Jesus was vulnerable at his 

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death. 
Jesus was vulnerable in the 

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whole movement of his life as he
made his dwelling among us. 

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And people are fierce. 
People are tough. 

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In fact, when confronted with 
something that would reveal our 

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shame, most of us armor up. 
As Brené Brown says, we put on 

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the armor so that we will not be
vulnerable. 

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We hide, we cover up, we get 
tough. 

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But Jesus did not armor up in 
his whole life. 

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He became flesh and he made his 
dwelling as if he was tinting 

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among humanity. 
The second thing that we we 

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really begin to see is that God 
himself. 

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Well, let's see there's let's 
see what's next. 

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I don't want to miss the story. 
Do you know this is Mary Clark? 

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She doesn't look like Mary Clark
here in this picture, she is 

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known as Sister Antonia Brenner,
not Mary Clark. 

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But Once Upon a time, she was 
Mary Clark, living in Hollywood,

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married with children, trying to
live her best life in Hollywood,

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and it all fell apart. 
At some point she was invited to

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begin to spend time with 
prisoners, and she would travel 

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and go to the prisons. 
Then she felt a sense of 

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invitation from God to dedicate 
her life to God. 

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And so she became Antonia 
Brenner. 

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Her ministry was growing so much
that she went to La Mesa in 

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Tijuana, the prison there, a 
prison for men. 

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And she asked the warden, I 
believe God is calling me to 

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dedicate my life to the men in 
this prison and serving them. 

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So you know what they did? 
They cleared out a prison cell 

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and it became hers, and she 
moved into the prison 

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vulnerable, she says. 
Anytime I was away, I wondered 

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if they had medicine and how 
their families were doing. 

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You know, when I returned to the
prison to live, I felt as if I 

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had come home vulnerable. 
Jesus came and felt at home 

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among the prisoners. 
Oh, in fact, people got really 

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angry when Jesus suggested that 
they were prisoners, that they 

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were enslaved to sin and said, 
oh, I'm not a slave. 

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And he says, indeed, you are. 
You are a slave to sin. 

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You are a slave to the one who's
captured you in darkness. 

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And Jesus came to be at home. 
And his people somehow also find

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that in the incarnation of Jesus
there is an Incarnate way of 

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living as a follower of Jesus. 
And so some of us, I think all 

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of us, are called to be at home 
among some people who are caught

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in darkness. 
The Word became flesh and made 

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His dwelling among us. 
We have seen His glory, the 

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glory of the one and only Son. 
When we think about the glory of

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Jesus, this again is a reach all
the way back in the Old 

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Testament to convey this idea of
the glory of God, where Moses 

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had asked God, let me see your 
glory, let me see you. 

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And God said to him, no, I, I 
can't do that for you, but I 

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will hide you here in the cleft 
of the rock, and I will pass by 

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and you will see me going. 
It's like he got to see the 

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glory going past him, got to see
God's back. 

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But John confesses something 
different. 

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He says we saw his glory, the 
glory of the one and only Son. 

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And basically he's saying Jesus 
has made God visible. 

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And so Jesus in the incarnation 
is God's visibility before us, 

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not just his vulnerability, but 
his visibility where he is 

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revealed and lifted up so that 
when we see Jesus, we see him 

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just days before Jesus died, In 
fact, the day before, one of his

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disciples said, oh, Jesus, we 
don't know where you're going. 

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Just show us the Father and that
will be enough for us. 

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And Jesus says, oh, Philip, do 
you not by now know me? 

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Do you not by now know who I am?
Jesus was fully aware that he 

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was God in flesh. 
Sometimes I think we we might 

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have this image that somehow 
Jesus was just the glory of 

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Jesus was just somehow under the
surface. 

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That if you scratch Jesus, the 
glory would break out. 

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That if Jesus had banged his 
hand, that somehow the glory 

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would go piercing out of there 
like a light in a broken jar. 

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In fact, it is true that the 
wounds of Jesus do show his 

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glory. 
For when the Scripture speaks of

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Jesus on the cross in his 
vulnerability, it says that the 

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visibility of God is great. 
It says this was his 

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glorification on the cross. 
And so we're pressed here to 

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think theologically about Jesus 
and that the mutual indwelling 

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of the Father and the Son and 
the Spirit, that God was always 

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present there in the flesh of 
Jesus. 

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You might feel a little strange 
explaining this to your 

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neighbor, but declare it and let
them decide for themselves if 

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they will enter into the mystery
of the incarnation. 

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Last night I was gathered with 
my neighbors for our regular 

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sing along as we sing Christmas 
carols and there were about 30 

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of us in this little corner of a
house with a piano which I was 

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playing and just praying God 
help me through this. 

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And we were singing the songs of
the Revelation of Jesus next to 

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Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph 
the Red Nosed Reindeer and 

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Jingle Bells. 
But we were singing the songs of

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God made visible. 
We have seen His glory, the 

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glory of the one and only Son. 
Can you bump me forward here? 

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When we speak of Jesus, then in 
his vulnerability, His 

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visibility, we also have to 
consider His vitality, that the 

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vitality of God is this. 
He comes from the Father, full 

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of grace and truth. 
This is His posture towards us, 

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coming from the Father. 
Do you know sometimes a 

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messenger overdoes the intent of
the one who sent them? 

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Maybe you've had this moment 
your your parents sends you. 

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Hey, go get your brother and 
bring him to the dining room 

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table. 
It's time to eat. 

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And so as a kid, you're sent. 
Go get your brother. 

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And you're thinking how how can 
I get my brother to listen to 

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me? 
You know, it's mom has sent him.

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So I come and I say mom is 
really mad at you. 

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You better come. 
Were you full of grace and truth

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at that moment? 
No, at that moment you were full

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of yourself trying to control. 
But here's what John says about 

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Jesus in his coming to us is 
that Jesus comes to us from the 

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Father full of grace and truth, 
full of grace, offering us so 

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much that we never deserved, so 
much that we were never entitled

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to, so much that he's embracing 
us with the love of God. 

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And he's never leaving far 
behind the truth. 

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The truth is always present with
Him in His grace. 

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This is so important for us that
didn't we consider the vitality 

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of how Jesus arrives in his 
vulnerability. 

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He didn't armor up as He arrives
in His visibility. 

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It was clear to others who came 
to know him and recognize Him, 

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to all who received him His 
power to transform their lives, 

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that Jesus was not trying to 
form a transactional 

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relationship. 
Do this so God will give you 

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something. 
He was creating a 

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transformational relationship so
that they entered into a new way

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of life and that life would be 
in them, transformed their 

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identity, transformed their very
way of life, full of grace and 

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truth. 
You sang it this morning. 

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Many people have prayed for 
their children to get to know 

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God. 
It is our tradition and 

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understanding that we are not 
born a Christian. 

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We might be born into a 
Christian family, a family of 

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that has Christians in it, but 
we ourselves are not born a 

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Christian. 
We might be born in a country 

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that has many people who follow 
Jesus, but we would not say in 

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our tradition that you are born 
a Christian by virtue of being 

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in that family or of being in 
that country. 

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Instead, you must be born a 
Christian by the very will and 

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power of God that you have 
received that grace and truth. 

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But back to parents who pray. 
There was a mother named Monica 

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and she prayed for her son there
in North Africa. 

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She prayed for her son for years
that he would get to know Jesus.

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And when he got to know Jesus, 
he became a superstar in the art

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world where people were drawing 
pictures of him for hundreds of 

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years. 
This is the one you might know 

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as Augustine. 
There is Saint Augustine, but he

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had years of his life where he 
did not follow Jesus. 

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He rejected Jesus, but his 
mother prayed for him. 

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Monica prayed and prayed and 
prayed. 

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She wept for him and she was 
never defeated. 

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00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:01,920
One of Augustine's memories was 
of his mother pleading with a 

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00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:08,080
Bishop to pray for her son that 
he might come to know the truth 

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of his errors. 
And here is what the Bishop said

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to her. 
It cannot be that the sun of 

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such tears should perish. 
He gave hope to her. 

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00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:28,680
Augustine, in his confessions 
says that he was trying 

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00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:32,880
everything to meet the desires 
of his own flesh. 

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00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:39,960
He tried everything until one 
day he heard a voice saying, 

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00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:46,840
when he had come to the end of 
himself, take and read, take and

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00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:50,400
read. 
And so he opened the scripture 

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00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:58,670
that he had before him. 
I think it was the way a lot of 

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00:25:58,670 --> 00:26:04,110
you do your devotions. 
You just pop it open and you 

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00:26:04,110 --> 00:26:07,070
hope something's there and you 
throw a finger down. 

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00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:11,120
And he threw a finger down and 
he looked in the text and it 

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00:26:11,120 --> 00:26:14,600
said this. 
Let us behave decently as in the

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00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:18,560
daytime, not in carousing and 
drunkenness, not in sexual 

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00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:22,600
immorality and debauchery, not 
in dissension and jealousy. 

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00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:26,840
Rather, clothe yourselves with 
the Lord Jesus Christ and do not

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00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:31,000
think about how to gratify the 
desires of the flesh. 

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00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:39,400
And that was the verse of his 
turning, of receiving Jesus as 

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00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:44,400
the incarnation of God, as the 
Savior of his soul, the one who 

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00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:46,880
would be the homemaker for his 
life. 

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00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,600
And so there's four symbols. 
There's a lot of symbols in this

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00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:56,680
icon, this picture here of 
Augustine. 

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00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,240
I just want to point them out to
you real quick. 

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00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,920
The first symbol that's there is
the heart. 

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00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:05,640
Do you see the heart in his 
hand? 

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00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:13,800
The heart in his hand represents
the desires that Augustine had 

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00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,880
let rule his life, the desires 
of his passions, of his 

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00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:22,720
intellect. 
And it sort of represents this 

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00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:27,800
famous quote of Augustine. 
You have made us for yourself, O

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00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:32,080
Lord, and our hearts are 
restless until they find our 

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00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:37,480
rest in You. 
Our hearts are restless until 

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00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:41,240
they find their rest and You. 
So there's the heart. 

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00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,760
The other symbol that's there is
the arrow. 

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00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:48,080
Can you see the arrow? 
Sometimes they're there might 

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00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:51,440
not be in this picture. 
Sometimes the heart is drawn of 

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00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:54,200
Augustine with an arrow in the 
heart. 

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00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:59,080
Sometimes 2 arrows. 
And these are the arrows of 

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00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:05,000
God's charity, the power of the 
Spirit and the power of the word

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00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:09,960
of grace and truth to Pierce his
heart. 

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00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:15,800
Like the the crowd that listened
to Peter preach and said, oh, 

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00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:20,960
our hearts are cut. 
The Spirit has convicted our 

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00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:24,600
hearts with this truth of who 
Jesus is. 

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00:28:26,360 --> 00:28:29,760
The third symbol is the flames. 
Do you see the flames coming 

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00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,160
from the heart? 
The flaming heart indicates the 

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00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:38,280
burning passionate love for God 
that consumed Augustine. 

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00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:41,000
He could have sang that song 
Ring of Fire. 

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00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:45,360
I fell into a Ring of Fire with 
Johnny Cash. 

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00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:49,680
But instead, the Ring of Fire he
had in mind was that he fell 

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00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:54,040
into the love of God and it 
inflamed his heart that had been

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00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:58,480
hard towards God with a great 
love and passion for God. 

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00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:08,600
And then finally, the open book,
the Bible, the open book was the

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00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:13,400
reminder of that little voice 
he's heard, like a child's voice

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00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:17,880
that said take and read, take up
and read. 

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00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:23,160
And then he began to feed his 
life on the Word of God. 

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00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:30,160
Augustine is called one of the 
four doctors of the Latin 

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00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:36,640
Church, that he and Ambrose and 
Jerome and Gregory the Great 

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00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:39,720
were the four doctors of the 
Latin Church. 

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00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,960
And he's called the doctor of 
grace. 

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00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:50,320
Not Doctor Who, but the doctor 
of grace whose grace of Jesus, 

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00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:53,520
who had now filled his heart and
life. 

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00:29:55,280 --> 00:30:01,680
Do you see it's not enough that 
God came and made his home in 

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00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:09,000
Bethlehem or in Galilee or in 
Tyre and Sidon, which I always 

351
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:10,880
wonder why did Jesus go to the 
beach? 

352
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,320
Did he like to go to the beach 
and sunny places for holidays 

353
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:20,040
and then make his home in 
Nazareth and make his home in 

354
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:25,400
Egypt and make his home? 
And yet he says of his life. 

355
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,400
I foxes have holes, birds of the
air have nests, but I have no 

356
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:32,400
home or place to lay my head 
down. 

357
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:36,360
Why? 
Because Jesus was holding out to

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00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:42,640
make his home in US humanity as 
the pinnacle of creation. 

359
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:45,960
He so desired to make his home 
in US. 

360
00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:55,360
And so Christmas is God working,
making his home in creation. 

361
00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:02,040
Christmas is God making his home
in creation. 

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00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:06,240
And the last time I checked, you
are part of creation. 

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00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,600
Touch yourself. 
Just remind yourself, I am part 

364
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,240
of creation. 
I am part of the creation in 

365
00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:22,680
which God is seeking to dwell. 
Receiving Him begins with a yes.

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00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:26,160
It might continue as we talked 
about last week, with 

367
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,320
repentance. 
It might continue with great 

368
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:33,760
mystery through the troubles of 
your life as we heard with Job. 

369
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:39,320
But here's the reality that can 
come about is that you do not 

370
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:43,760
live your life alone, but you 
live your life with a great 

371
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:51,400
homemaker making his dwelling in
your life and in time he makes 

372
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:56,040
all things beautiful. 
Let's pray together. 

373
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:03,680
Heavenly Father, we come and we 
set our lives here before Jesus 

374
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:10,200
the Lord, the Creator of heaven 
and earth, who came in 

375
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:15,960
vulnerability, who came making 
God visible, and who came in the

376
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:18,720
great vitality of grace and 
truth. 

377
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:25,120
And we say thank you as we come 
to his supper, to his table. 

378
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:31,160
We recall his body broken, His 
blood poured out. 

379
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:38,280
A great sign again of your 
vulnerable vulnerability, 

380
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:43,880
visibility and vitality. 
That's your blood and transform 

381
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:49,080
a life that your death on a 
cross was not purposeless or 

382
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:52,840
meaningless, but it had great 
purpose and great meaning. 

383
00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:00,680
And so as we come, we say thank 
you, Lord Jesus, for your 

384
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:10,400
incarnation. 
Let's stand together.