Jesus Christ Show | Hour 1 [12/25]

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Episode Transcript

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What a story it is. Asyou go through my birth and the story
of what would take place not onlyon that day but for future to come,
the weight of the situation when itcomes to the people involved, my

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mother, my foster father. Andwhen you put this picture together you start
to see what many people will oftensay, Oh, this is the reason
for the season. As you gatherwith friends and family tonight and tomorrow to
celebrate, be reminded not only ofwhat took place and the faith they'rein,

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what you believe and why you believeit, And think that every turn of
the story, every piece, everyjot, every tittle, every single part
of the story rests on the bedrockof faith. Now you can get lost

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in details. Was I born inDecember? No, absolutely not. But
rather than getting into the different insightsand specifics of the history, I want

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you to think about the weight ofthe story itself. Matthew talks about the
breakdown of the birth of Suam Sih, the birth of Jesus the Messiah,

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and it says it came about thisway his mother Mary was pledged to be
married to Joseph. That betrothal isimportant back in the day, of course,
in Biblical times when you are betrothedto someone like that or engaged,

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there is a period prior to thatengagement of a year, and you were
technically married at that point, butthere is no consummation of the marriage.

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So pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, before
there was before they consummated that marriage, which she was found to be pregnant
through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the

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law and yet did not want toexpose her to public disgrace, he had
in mind to divorce her quietly.You know the scriptural language there is to
put her away quietly, and thereason was to have a child out of
wedlock. Wedlock in two thousand yearsago was more than just a scandal.

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The amount of focus on Mary couldbe life threatening. Now remember Mary went
through the weight of understanding by havingan angel tell her what was going on.

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Well, now it was time forJoseph as well. After Joseph considered
the divorce quietly, an angel ofthe Lord appeared to him in a dream
and said, Joseph, son ofDavid, do not be afraid to take
Mary home as your wife, becausewhat is conceived in her is from the

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Holy Spirit. She will give birthto a son, and you are to
give him the name Jesus, becausehe will save his people from their sins.
Now this is to fulfill what hadbeen said through the prophets. The

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Virgin will conceive and give birth toa son, and they will call him
Immanuel, which means odd with us. Joseph woke up. How's that for
a dream? Right? Coming backfrom that, and he did what the
Angel of the Lord had commanded.He took Mary home as his wife.

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So the simplicity of that story,obviously, there are the stories of the
Nativity and Luke as well, andbreaking down going through those, each little
nook and cranny of the story isone thing. But as you take in,

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as you take in truly what wasgoing on and what that would be
like, not only for Mary butfor Joseph. These were people of God,
These were people of deep faith,and they have now put upon them

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the most intense weight that could beimagined in seeded in their time over two
thousand years ago. And only bythat faith, only by the power of
their belief in God, their trustin God, could they move forward through

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something that is truly unimaginable. Hebrewseleven one says, now, faith is
the assurance of things hoped for,the conviction of things not seen. Some

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have twisted the concept in of faithinto something that is believing in something you
know not to be true, andthat's not faith in the slightest. Faith
is that small portion, that smallportion, that leap of faith that comes

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after reason, past reason. Youcan take in everything that you can from
your surrounding and you can believe thisis what's going on. I know what
is happening. But every time youactualize something, every time you do something,

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commit to something, there's faith.You can't have trust in a partner
know them for years, but toengage in a true relationship takes faith in
the things that you've seen, thethings that you know. But since you
can't know the future, you walkforward in faith. You walk to the

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curb to cross the street. Youcan look both ways. You can say,
my eyes can see at least aquarter of a mile that way,
at least a quarter of a milethat way, And I know that there
is no vehicle fast enough to beinvisible right now and to be able to

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get here and meet me in themiddle of the street in that amount of
time past my eyesight. But whenyou step off that curb, it is
still done in faith. Faith isnot the weight of everything. It's that

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smaller part that comes at the veryend where you can't know because it's future.
You can't know, because it's outsideof your true understanding. You can't
know about something. But if youlived that way, if you had to
have an engineer come in and checkthe structural integrity of every chair before you

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sat in it, you couldn't live. So the power of faith stepping into
a world of a virgin birth,not only as the woman, but now
as the man, and the entiretyof the weight that you are going to

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birth the savior of all mankind.That's a faith you can learn from.

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So Christmas christ Mass is upon us, and what you're celebrating is not only
my birth and the possibility of redemptionand salvation eventually through my death and the

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teachings along the way your cell upbraidingthe faith at the very least of two
people, my mother Mary and myfoster father Joseph. The weight of that

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faith is important because not only istheir faith in God, their faith and
belief was encapsulated in care for you. Were there going to be trials for

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them? Absolutely? Was there goingto be tribulation in their life, scrutiny
by people around them? Absolutely.It gets worse when those in power or
learn of a future king and godown the path of what is referred to

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as the slaughter of the innocence.All these things are put in the face
of humans who are not thinking aboutthemselves. They start that way. Mary

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says, how can this be?Joseph says, I need to deal with
this the way I'm a man ofthe law. This is the way I
need to do it. The angelsays, give it a second thought and
understand what's going on. Joseph makesthe right decision, and what goes forth

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is the opportunity unity for all.You contrast and compare that to what goes
on in today's world. People havebroken apart into individuals, become so independent

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they believe they need nothing else fromanyone but for that person to serve them,
everyone to serve them, and thento get out of their way to
get whatever their need is so thatthey won't be bothered. Could you imagine

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being bothered by bringing a son achild into this world? When you haven't
even been with somebody, yeah,I mean been with a man and then
your husband to take that on aswell, not for their own blessing and

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it was, but for the blessingof others and being in that mindset to
have a faith that surpasses even yourown comfort, but the comfort of others.

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Merry Christmas to you all, andI pray that you are spending time
with people that care about you andyou care about them. Gifts are nice,
but really it's about the connection andthe meaning in those gifts, just
like it was when I was born. The gold, the frankincense, and

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murr all have importance behind it.You have gold dealing with royalty, you
have frankincense, an incense that dealswith spirituality, and mr an interesting addition

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because it was used as an embalmingfluid and a fluid not exactly, but
a fluid that was used at thetime of burial. Those gifts obviously mean
something and speak to things that weregoing to happen. And I hope that

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the gifts that you give and receivetie into meaningful sentiments to the people in
which you give them. If youhave a theology question or a life situation
question, Give us a call.Eight hundred five to zero one five three
four, eight hundred five to zeroone five three four Randy. Welcome to

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the Jesus Christ Show. Hey,Merry Christmas and happy birthday Jesus. Oh
thanks Randy, thanks for calling.How can I help you today? Yes,
they're always longer on this topic.Oh, no, breaking up a
little. Oh, let me stepout. I'm sitting in a parking lot

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and I'm gonna guess he's sitting ina parking lot in his car. Yeah,
can you hear me? Now I'vestepped out, it's still it's still
breaking up a bit. What I'mgonna do is I'm going to put you
on hold and we'll check your lineand come back to you. Pat.

(17:30):
Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.Hi Jesus, how are you today?
I am well? How are youwell? I I have a quick question
maybe you can help me with Okay, I'm I don't know if it's a
faith question, but uh, basicallyI I worship you. I believe in
that you were born for our sins. But there's people that I work with,

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there's people that know that they don'tworship. They don't believe in you,
and they're their food there, They'reflourishing, they have money, they
have possessions, and I'm currently struggling. I'm struggling financially wise. I currently
lost a house due to a housefire. My son had passed away years

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ago, and I'm just wondering,Jesus, is is this a trial with
my faith? Well? A trialindeed. I mean those things are trying
to you. I mean, goodness, the loss of a son, a
home being burned. Absolutely, thoseare trials. Now, if you're saying

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it's based on lack of faith orsomething, absolutely not. But the weight
of what is valuable on earth ismuch different. That isn't to belittle either
of those things or anything that happensin your life Goodness, No, not
in the slightest. Whoever, thethings that you've described in many ways can

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be blessings, but aren't blessings untothemselves. Having things like you said about
you know, money or homes.Is there something to be learned? Absolutely,
whether it's the house, the circumstancewhen it comes to the death of

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a child, that is simply thatpeople die. Now they can go in
different ways. That's something, youknow. The moment a child is brought
into this world, the hope andthe prayer is that you know, no
parent wants to bury a child,and the hope in the prayer is that

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you go before they do. Butultimately, somebody's going to have loss,
whether it was your son when youpass or your son passing when you're alive.
That's a reality that everyone knows that. The hope is that they have
a long life, but none ofthat is guaranteed, of course, to

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anyone. So beyond the reality ofthat and the sadness and mourning, I'm
pulling back a little bit for youto see a bigger picture and understanding as
to how God interacts with you andto teach you. Now, it's not
that God puts trials in your path. There are things that happen in your

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life because of the collective of humanity. Your house, for instance, how
did it start fire electrical? Yeah, so that's not something you did per
se unless you knew about it orhad concerns or smelled smoke before and didn't
do anything about it, or you'dhad it checked or something like that.

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Not putting the blame on you,but humans do human things or two,
whether it was not done properly,or whether some element of the house was
not done properly, or too manythings were put on a single circuit.
Whatever it is. Things happen inlife because a multitude of interactions. People

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come in, people come out,different things happen. So if there's something
that you could have done, thenyes, there's a lesson in there,
but it doesn't mean God made thathappen for you to have that lesson.
And I think some people get thatconfused. The blessing in the Old Testament

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really was about special favor. Itoften dealt with joy and prosperity. But
as you move into what Christians referto as the New Testament, that changes.
It's really about spiritual blessing rather thanmaterial blessings. And you can find
that that changes as if you thinkof Scripture, the entirety of it as

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the life of a child. Sothe beginning of Scripture and what Christians refer
to as the Old Testament really thelaw and the prophets, and you go
through that, you'll see that thereis a different kind of interaction with humanity,
between God and creation. It's alittle rougher. Yet the blessings often

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tend to be more physical in nature, So like a child, the rewards,
whether it be toys, getting food, shelter, all these things that
are necessities, the blessings seem bigger. But as one gets older, you
can see that God starts interacting withhumanity as it goes through adolescence, you

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know, in the teen years,and then into adulthood, and the blessings
become different. Wards are different,like love and connection is different than a
toy. It's deeper, it's realer, it lasts longer, it's not something
you put out in a garage saletwo months later. So similarly, as

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you get more mature in your relationship, it's the exact opposite of what most
people might think, Oh, mylife is going through these trials, so
I must not be connected with God. And although that could be the case
at times, but those trials speakdifferently. Those trials will deal with your

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relationships or things like that. Buthouses burned down, it's horrible that happens
to you. Electrical problems happen,and in life. As horrible as that
is, it's not completely out ofthe norm. So in this particular case,

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you're taking those things on. Sowhat can you learn from them?
You tell me, Pat, whatare some of the things that have gone
through your head as you've dealt withthese things. Well, I'm trying to
be as strong as I can formy family, you know, showing a

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good faith based for them, andthat's power. That is power. I
mean you really you hit it.Our conversation this morning and our talk this
morning was about having faith that isso deep it's but beyond your comfort,

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it's for the comfort of others.How spot on was that, like Joseph
who looked and said, this doesn'tfeel right to me. So you take
that on yourself, and no,it's not going to feel good. And
I'm not saying that this is goingto be the rest of your life,

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Pat, there is more to come. But you are the living proof and
example to your family and to peoplearound you of your faith. And I
know that's a lot to take on. You're going, so my house has
to burn down, I have tolose a child for others to see my
faith. No, but it happenedto you because people die and houses burned

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down, and it's not what hashappened to you. It's your reaction to
it that shows the world who youare and why you are and in that
one Peter three point fifteen, theywant to ask you about that hope that
they can't understand that lies within you. All right, Randy, let's give

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this a shot again. My friend, Hey, thank you Jesus. How
am I coming in? You soundbetter to me, my friend? So
what's going on? Yeah, I'mjust wondering all this hype about the artificial
intelligence and what's come. And they'vebeen talking about it a lot on the
on the air. Yeah, Ihave some conspiracy theorist friends and stuff that

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you know, you know those folksare. They're always worried about some nefarious
thing going behind it. But youknow, it brought me ever since I
was a kid. I remember inRevelations thirteen they talk about an image coming
to life and talking the false prophethas it yet they're talking about these robots
that they're making, Elon Musk andall these guys neuro link in our brains

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that coming cashless society. You know, we're halfway there. I wonder when
it comes to some of these scripturesabout not losing our freedoms, not being
able to sell or trade or barterunless you're hooked up to this electronic network.
And then on top of that,all of a sudden, what these
machines are all going to turn smarterthan us and trick us or manipulate us

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or I don't know, if youlike the Terminator movie and you know,
destroy all humans like this, Isaw movies. Say, why do you
think, Jesus, what's coming withthis? You know? I stay in
prayer and I'm not overly worried aboutit, but I have friends that seem
to be very worried about it.Well, this has happened forever, Randy.

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This has been going on since printingpresses. When the printing press was
invented, it was thought to beproblematic every new technology. You talk about
Revelations thirteen, fourteen and fifteen talkingabout what takes place before the mark of

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the Beast, you've got the anticrisis false prophet. You talk about things
that are taking place, like thebreath to the image of the beast that
you talk about coming to life andall of that, And people are trying
to fit these things into scripture.When you read scripture, a study scripture,

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there's isoget and exeget there is.When you're studying, you're either taking
from scripture. You see it andyou take from it naturally or you try
and force something into it, anddoing that can be highly problematic. They
talked about this with credit cards.Do you use a credit card? I

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do, yes, I have to. But you know that used to be
a problem for Christians when they firststarted. They thought that was going to
be the mark of the beast.You have to use this piece of plastic,
you become a number. And theythought that about social Security cards.
So Christians have many times and religionistsmany times over and over believed that some

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technology was going to be the markof the beast. But the reality is
that has never come to fruition.Technology is the same as any else.
In the hands of somebody who wantsto do good with it, good will
be done. In the hands ofsomeone who wants to do bad with it,
bad will be done. But thetechnology itself is neutral. It has

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no value morally one way or theother unless it's used for good or evil.
There are many good things that cancome out of AI, and there
are many bad things. It onceagain is in the hands of humanity to
make the decision as to what directionit goes. Your own personal Jesus someone

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to hear you cares, someone whocares