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As a sign of respect, I always 
appreciate it when we stand to 

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hear God's word. 
So if you would enable, if 

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you're able to remain standing, 
please do so as we hear from the

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word of the Lord this morning, 
this evening. 

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For God so loved the world that 
he gave his only Son, that 

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whosoever believes in him should
not perish, but have eternal 

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life. 
For God did not send his Son 

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into the world to condemn the 
world, but in order that the 

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world might be saved through 
him. 

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Then in the first John, beloved,
let us love one another, for 

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love is from God, and whoever 
loves has been born of God and 

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knows God, And anyone who does 
not know love does not know God,

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because God is love. 
In this the love of God was made

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manifest among us, that God sent
his only Son into the world so 

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that we might live through him. 
In this is love, not that we 

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love God, but that He loved us 
and sent his Son to be a 

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propitiation for our sins. 
Beloved, if God so loved us, we 

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also ought to love one another. 
No one has ever seen God, but if

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we love one another, God abides 
in US and His love is perfected 

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in US. 
My friends, this is the word of 

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the Lord. 
Thanks be to God, Dear Father, 

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Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, we 
pray that you would grant to us 

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an understanding of this word, 
that you would change shape, 

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mold our lives by it, that we 
might love you more, that we 

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might serve you more, that we 
might know you more. 

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Lord God, make it so. 
We pray in Christ's name, we 

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ask, Amen. 
Please be seated. 

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Well, it's Christmas, so it's 
time to talk about love. 

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I know it is because every ROM 
com I've watched over the past 

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two months has all been about 
Christmas and love. 

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Every song that I've heard on 
the radio has been about 

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Christmas and love. 
Even the commercials that we've 

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seen. 
OK, so I was watching one of the

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football games a little bit ago 
and during the 2 minute warning 

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at halftime, there were five 
commercials. 

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Four of the commercials were all
about Christmas and love. 

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Even football ties together the 
idea of Christmas and love. 

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So it's all about Christmas and 
love. 

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And therefore we have our topic 
today. 

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We're going to talk about love. 
Now that's clearly not the case 

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that we're going to talk about 
this because the society is 

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drawing us towards it. 
We are talking about love this 

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evening because the scriptures 
drive us toward it. 

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It is the Scriptures that speak 
to us about God's love. 

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Certainly if you were listening 
to the songs that we were 

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singing, the Scripture that was 
read earlier, all that we've 

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been talking about has been 
focusing upon the love of God 

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for us. 
But it's easy to imagine a 

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Christmas curmudgeon. 
A Christmas curmudgeon is out 

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there who is saying, look, 
that's not really what Christmas

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is all about. 
And it's true that we've made a 

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major point here at Hebburn 
Church. 

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We've tried to make the major 
point over and over again that 

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the core aspect, the core, 
central, core theme of 

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Christmas, the central 
characteristic of Christmas is 

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that it is the beginning of a 
plan of salvation that leads to 

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the cross of Jesus Christ. 
That Christmas is so crucial to 

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us as Christians because it 
ultimately leads to the death of

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our Lord and our Savior. 
It's this is the incarnation. 

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We're celebrating the coming to 
earth of Jesus Christ, of God 

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himself. 
And that's a marvelous, 

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wonderful thing. 
And just on that basis, we can 

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cheer and be excited, but we 
need to realize that it leads us

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towards something that is brutal
towards the death of this God 

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who loves us. 
So that comes to earth. 

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So it would be easy for somebody
at Christmas curmudgeon to sit 

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there and say, look, Christmas 
is great and all, but it's about

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his death, it's about his 
sacrifice, it is dwelling, it is

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God revealing himself, it is God
comforting us. 

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It is all those things. 
But it doesn't necessarily have 

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to be about love. 
There are other reasons why God 

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might be compelled to come to 
earth and to give up his life. 

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In my previous church, I had a 
parishioner and I was pretty 

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confident that this guy didn't 
love me, didn't like me, let's 

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call him Joe, just to give him a
name. 

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I was pretty sure that Joe did 
not care for me. 

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And so I was quite taken aback 
when early on in my ministry, he

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presented me with a quite a 
substantial Christmas gift. 

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And I was like, wow, OK, I was 
really taken back. 

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So I went up to him afterwards 
and said, you know, Joe, Gee, 

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thanks so much for the gift and 
all that kind of stuff. 

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And he said, don't think that 
that means I like you, says I 

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just have to do this because 
you're the pastor. 

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I thought, well, forget that. 
And I threw the gift of what? 

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No, I didn't. 
I didn't do that. 

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But yeah, so there are other 
reasons why perhaps it is the 

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case that God just feels 
compelled. 

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After all, he made this world 
and this world is desperately in

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trouble. 
Maybe he feels compelled that he

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just says, well, I guess I have 
to go down and do something to 

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save them, they're in such a 
mess. 

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Or maybe there's a sense of 
obligation, or maybe it's just 

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something that he just thought 
to do and there's no real motive

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behind it. 
But Christmas curmudgeon out 

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there. 
The Bible tells us otherwise. 

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The Scriptures tell us otherwise
in that most memorable place. 

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I think in the 20 some years of 
it, I've been doing preaching 

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ministry or longer than that, I 
guess 30 some years preaching 

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ministry. 
I don't know that I've ever 

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looked at John 316. 
Just as that crucial text that 

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many of you will know by heart 
and all of you should know by 

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heart, here's a Christmas 
challenge for everybody out 

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there. 
Make sure that your family and 

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your family members can recite 
John 316. 

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Heavens, that should be on your 
task of things to do tomorrow. 

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For God so loved the world that 
he gave his only Son, that 

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whosoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal 

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life. 
There's a there's a purpose 

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right there that those who call 
on Jesus name would not perish 

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but have eternal life. 
A little bit later he says not 

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to condemn the world, but to 
save the world. 

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This is the point. 
This is the thrust of Jesus 

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coming to earth. 
That's the purpose. 

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But don't miss the motivation. 
For God so loved the world, He 

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so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son so that we

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might live the motive of God's 
interfering in the brokenness of

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this world. 
This is great love for us. 

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Now, again, it'd be easy to 
picture the great Christmas 

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curmudgeon sitting there sitting
saying, yeah, but I never see 

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that. 
I never see that. 

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And I fear that the curmudgeon 
never sees that because so many 

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of us who carry the marks of 
Jesus Christ don't really 

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believe it. 
I remember a college student, 

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young woman that I was speaking 
to one time, and she could 

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recite John 316. 
She could tell me that she 

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absolutely believed with all of 
her heart that God loves the 

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world, but she just couldn't get
it in her head that God would 

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love her. 
She lived a life of debauchery 

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in so many ways, pursuing a 
life, a lifestyle that many of 

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us would be horrified by. 
She had a background, a family 

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background, a living experience 
that would also horrify us. 

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And in the midst of all of that,
she was very convinced that God 

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could love the world, but that 
God could never love her. 

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So often, the Christmas 
curmudgeon has a point. 

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Why doesn't he see Christians 
experiencing the love of God? 

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Why doesn't he see us 
celebrating? 

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Why doesn't he see us loving it?
Perhaps there's a good reason 

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for that. 
One reason might be because, 

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frankly, we have a bad view, a 
bad understanding of what love 

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is. 
When we talk about love, it's so

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easy for us to talk about a 
sentimentalism and emotionalism 

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that is just ultimately drivel 
when it compared to what God's 

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love really is. 
But in light of that sentimental

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drivel, it would be easier for 
my college student friends to 

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look at her life and say, look, 
it would be impossible for 

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anyone to love her. 
She was unable to love herself. 

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She was convinced that nobody 
would ever love her. 

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She knew that God could not love
her. 

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And if love is just a 
sentimental drivel, and maybe 

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she's right or we've swung on 
the other side in our society, 

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that love is acceptance and 
approval of anything you want. 

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You only love me if you accept 
me and you approve of everything

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I do. 
That's the only expression of 

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love that is acceptable. 
Again, all you do is got to read

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the scriptures and realize that 
God doesn't buy into that 

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picture of love. 
So what do we say to the 

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Christmas curmudgeon that wants 
desperately to see this kind of 

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love that we're talking about, 
this kind of love that would 

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motivate God to send his own Son
into this world? 

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Well, it's a divine love. 
What is the divine love? 

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Self giving for the benefit of 
others. 

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Self giving for the benefit of 
others. 

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Now my friend Joe from my other 
church, he was self giving, gave

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quite a lot, but it certainly 
wasn't for my benefit. 

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It was for His benefit. 
There's people that can self 

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give. 
There's for people that can 

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pursue the benefit of others, 
but it is a divine love that is 

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self giving for the benefit of 
others. 

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This is the kind of love that is
expressed on Christmas morning. 

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This is the kind of love that we
see when we come to the cradle 

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and see that baby born and 
realize the incarnation, that 

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God has come here to earth to 
express a love for his people. 

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What kind of a love? 
A love that is self giving for 

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the benefit of others. 
Well again, our Christmas 

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curmudgeon can very easily sit 
there and say I never see that. 

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I never see that. 
I never see divine giving of 

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yourself, A love that pours 
itself out completely. 

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And OK, maybe parents to some 
extent, but there's usually a 

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limit to which that'll run. 
Maybe kids to parents, but 

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that's the limit to that. 
Romantic love often falls far 

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short of that. 
Friendship love seems to fall 

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far short of that. 
Where can we see this picture of

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divine love? 
Self giving for the benefit of 

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others. 
I studied chemistry in high 

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school and when I was in high 
school, I enjoyed understanding 

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or trying to grasp the what was 
going on. 

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But I could always feel that 
there was just something 

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happening that I was just 
missing. 

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I was kind of grabbing a hold of
what was going on, but I but I 

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00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:48,600
could, I wish I could understand
it better and I just couldn't 

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grasp it just a touch. 
And then when I got to college, 

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00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:54,600
somebody introduced me one of 
those little model sets. 

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And some of you who've studied 
chemistry know about these kind 

194
00:11:57,560 --> 00:11:59,160
of things. 
You know, you've got carbon 

195
00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:02,720
atoms and you've got covalent 
bonds and they bond to hydrogen 

196
00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:05,240
model molecules. 
And you've gotten, you know, 

197
00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:08,280
all. 
And, and suddenly, like after 

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00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:10,920
years of trying to kind of 
picture it, not really being 

199
00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:13,760
able to picture, suddenly now 
I've got a model right in front 

200
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of me that kind of connects 
everything together. 

201
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And I went, oh, now suddenly I 
see. 

202
00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:22,520
And it was a, it was a, a, well,
in, in some ways it really was 

203
00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:25,440
a, an experience that shifted 
the way in which I went, did my 

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studies, I pursued chemistry 
after that because suddenly 

205
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things clicked a little bit. 
I understood what orbitals, 

206
00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:35,080
electronic orbitals look like. 
And some of the, and, and it 

207
00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:38,920
came from having a model in my 
hands, OK, to our Christmas 

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00:12:38,920 --> 00:12:40,920
curmudgeon. 
Where's the model? 

209
00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:49,160
And to our chagrin and shame, I 
think most Christians hide the 

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model that God has given to us 
to understand this self giving 

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for the benefit of others kind 
of love. 

212
00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:04,960
What's the model? 
The model, dare we say it on 

213
00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:12,560
Christmas Eve, is the Trinity. 
It's the Trinitarian love. 

214
00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:17,360
Now we tend to avoid talking too
much about this because we are 

215
00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:21,640
in the midst of a great mystery.
Here we have got the Trinity, 

216
00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:25,120
the three in one. 
Everything in which we all 

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00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:27,240
acknowledge is beyond our 
comprehension. 

218
00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:29,240
So why are we talking about 
something beyond our 

219
00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:31,400
comprehension? 
Because the Scriptures make 

220
00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:34,640
certain things clear about it 
and we can articulate those 

221
00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:36,000
things. 
God is 1. 

222
00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:39,360
We understand that there are 
three persons in the Godhead. 

223
00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:42,600
We don't understand that, but 
OK, there are three persons in 

224
00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:45,880
the Godhead and here's of beauty
that is communicated through the

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Scriptures over and over again. 
The Father loves the Son and the

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Son loves the Father. 
There's a love that exists 

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between the Father and the Son 
and the Son and the Holy Spirit 

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and the Spirit and the Father. 
There's a love that happens in 

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there. 
And because we're nervous about 

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the Trinity, because we 
admittedly can't understand it, 

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then we shy away from this 
beautiful model that the Lord 

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has provided for us, this model 
of the love of God. 

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Now picture what's happening in 
the Trinitarian doctrine. 

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Some of you might know it well, 
others may not. 

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But the concept is that God is 
always, from all eternity, been 

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a Trinity. 
There has always been these 

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three Persons, Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit, into all eternity. 

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And in all eternity there has 
been a mutual love that exists 

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between the Persons, the Father 
self giving for the benefit of 

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the Son and the Spirit, the Son 
self giving for the benefit of 

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the Father and the Spirit. 
The Spirit self giving for the 

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benefit of the Father and the 
Son for all eternity, for all 

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eternity. 
And have you ever wondered why 

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we talk about heaven is so 
positively? 

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Why is heaven in paradise? 
OK, there are some pictures in 

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the scriptures. 
Go to Revelation. 

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You got a great illustration of 
what a great picture of what 

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heaven should be. 
And you see this paradise, you 

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see this, this wondrous spot. 
That's true. 

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We can see it somewhat in 
Scripture, but Christians hold 

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passionately to the 
understanding of the reality of 

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the beauty of heaven, the 
paradise of heaven, the joy and 

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the blessing that is going to be
there. 

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In large part because suddenly 
we too are going to be immersed 

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in a community where the Father 
gives himself totally and 

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completely for the benefit of 
the Son and the Spirit, and the 

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Son gives himself totally for 
the benefit of the Spirit and 

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the Father. 
And we are going to be, Why is 

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it going to be paradise? 
Why is it going to be heaven? 

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Because we are suddenly going to
be surrounded completely and 

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totally with a love that has he 
gone on from all eternity, From 

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all eternity. 
This self giving love has led to

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Christmas Eve. 
Christmas Eve where the Father 

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gives the Son for our benefit. 
For our benefit. 

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Now our Christmas curmudgeon 
might say, well that's fine and 

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dandy for heaven, but I'm not 
yet ready for heaven. 

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What about today? 
What about now? 

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And the passage that we open the
text with speaks directly to 

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that in first John chapter 4, 
verses 7, verse 11. 

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Listen to verse 11. 
Beloved, if God so loved us, if 

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God has this ability to give of 
himself so completely for the 

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benefit of the other, if God so 
loved us, then we ought to also 

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love one another. 
The Christmas love that the 

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curmudgeon is looking for is 
supposed to be demonstrated 

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every day in the life of his 
followers. 

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Part of the reason why we 
celebrate Christmas and Eve so 

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much and get so excited about 
the love part that it 

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demonstrated in Christmas, is 
because we're supposed to see 

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shocking of shockers. 
We're supposed to see ourselves 

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there. 
When we see this, we're supposed

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to look and we're supposed to 
say that's the kind of thing. 

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Now, who do we love? 
What the benefit of others? 

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OK, within the context of the 
text, and I think the Scripture 

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is fairly clear about this, The 
focus of the others of our 

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attention is this community 
right here, right here. 

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We are supposed to love one 
another, giving of ourselves in 

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such a way that we're benefiting
the other person. 

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We're supposed to give ourselves
in such a way the world is 

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supposed to sit there and say, 
oh, how they love one another. 

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Seriously, I don't want to make 
you feel bad before Christmas 

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Eve, but when was the last time 
you overheard somebody saying 

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that about you? 
Oh, how they love one another. 

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That's what they're supposed to 
do when they look at this 

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church, when they look at this 
body, when they visit us in 

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worship, they're supposed to 
say, oh, how they love. 

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And what they're supposed to see
is a self giving for the benefit

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of the other. 
But the other extends far beyond

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just our community, extends 
outside the walls of this place.

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The other encompasses the other,
this world that is desperate, in

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need of nothing other than that 
Christmas expression of God's 

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love, that they would see the 
self giving of our God and 

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Savior in Jesus Christ that 
leads ultimately to the cross so

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that they would picture what it 
means to give of oneself for the

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benefit of the other. 
And they're supposed to see that

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in and through us. 
But finally the other is God 

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himself. 
We are supposed to self give of 

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ourselves for the benefit of our
God. 

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Now does that stir in you an 
excitement? 

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Does that stir in you a desire 
that says, man, that's what I 

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want my life to be. 
I want I want to be successful 

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at work and faithful in my 
family and and raise wonderful 

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children and be good to my 
parents. 

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I want all that. 
But man do I ever want to have a

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life where I am self giving for 
the benefit of my God and the 

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Christmas curmudgeon. 
Forget that your own heart 

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should be saying there's no way.
I know myself too well. 

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I've been a follower of Jesus 
Christ for 40 some years. 

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I know myself too well. 
There's no way that I will. 

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Ever. 
Be self giving for the benefit 

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of others. 
And then we hear John who speaks

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and says this. 
If we love one another, God 

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abides in US and His love, His 
love, is perfected in US. 

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My friends, this Christmas Eve 
we celebrate because God his 

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self giving of himself for the 
benefit of others, and that love

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resides in you. 
It might just be a spark. 

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You might find it just little 
bits, but it is if you're a 

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follower of Jesus Christ, it is 
there unmistakably. 

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It says so right here on the 
text that love is in your life 

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and in your heart. 
Allow it to grow, allow it to 

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perfect, allow it to show 
itself, manifest itself so that 

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you can self give of yourself 
for the benefits of those people

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that you worship with each and 
every week, for those people 

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00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:30,920
that are far beyond our walls 
and all around, and ultimately 

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00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:34,920
for our Lord Jesus Christ in 
whose name we pray. 

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Let's pray unto him right this 
time. 

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Christ our Lord, how grateful we
are for that divine love, the 

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giving of yourself, so that we 
it might benefit Jesus. 

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Thank you for doing that, 
Father. 

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Thank you for sending the Sun 
Spirit. 

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Thank you for indwelling that 
purpose so that we too might 

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know the fullness of that kind 
of a divine love and have that 

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00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:10,840
perfect within us so that we 
might share in the divine 

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nature, the divine purpose of 
demonstrating love one to 

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another. 
Lord, make that a reality in our

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lives, beginning right now. 
We pray through Jesus Christ, 

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00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:28,440
our Lord and Savior, whose birth
we celebrate this day, the 

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giving of His life for ours. 
Amen.