Dec. 23, 2024

Problems With Christmas Sermons

Problems With Christmas Sermons

A discussion about Christmas sermons

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A discussion about Christmas sermons

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good morning everyone.

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It is Monday, December the twenty third, twenty twenty four.

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It is currently ten fifty three am Central Time, and

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I am coming to you live from the Theology Central

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studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I don't

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know where you are listening to me from. I don't

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know what the weather is outside. It may feel very winterry,

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it may feel very Christmas where you are. There may

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be other things around you that fills very Christmas now

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here in West Texas. I think today is going to

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be like seventy five degrees, So you know, yay, I get.

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I mean to me, that's great. I mean, that's that's

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a Christmas gift, is have the tip at your eighty

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five degrees. That's a Christmas gift. But it probably is

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not going to have that traditional feel of Christmas, at

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least not today. I mean, well, I think I think

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even on Christmas Day, I don't know right now what

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the temperature is. I think it's going to be almost

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in the seventies. So that to me, that's wonderful and

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that's great. Just is not going to feel like Christmas.

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And so maybe it's the weather, maybe it's things around you,

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who knows. For some people they get that Christmas feeling.

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They get it, they love it, they embrace it. They

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have a lot around them that can just really make

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you know Christmas special. There are others, and I always

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speak to the others, because there's always the others at

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this time of year obviously is horrible, It is depressing,

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it is discouraging. You feel abandoned alone, like all those emotions,

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maybe past trauma, and so I always I always speak

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really to that group, typically more than to the other group,

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because I can relate more to the group that it's

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it's not a pleasant experience, and I can't really relate

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to those who think it's the most wonderful time of

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the year. So I always always tend to speak to

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that one group because that group tends to get forgotten

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and become an and it's kind of abandoned. I did

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see though, kind of an interesting trend. I was going

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to do a podcast about it. I need to find

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the article. I don't know if I can find it.

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There is a trend happening in some churches, and I

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don't know what they're calling it. They're calling like a

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blue Christmas Service or something along that line, And it's

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basically a Christmas service basically for those who do not

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like the whole Christmas season, it's it's because it's miserable

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for them, it's depressing, and it's almost like a servicing. Hey,

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for all of you broken, depressed, discouraged people who have

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suffered great childhood trauma, you can come to this church service.

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All the happy people who've got family and all of it,

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they can come here. And it's kind of like, hey,

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this is the service for the for the really messed

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up people. The norm people get to go to that service.

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I think it's kind of an interesting idea. I don't

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know exactly how it's structured and exactly what is different,

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but I am pleasantly I am pleasantly surprised that at

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least some churches are taking into consideration this is a

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difficult time for many people. And if it is a

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difficult time for many people, this can be a really

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bad time maybe to listen to sermons, because almost every

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sermon is going to be about Christmas. Now, it depends

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on how they handle it, right, So do you love

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all of the Christmas sermons or do you loathe them?

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Do you love or loathe? Because if you open up

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the Sermons two point oh app, because I opened it

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up this morning, because I'm like, well, you know, we're

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doing the Sermon's two point oh app sermon challenge. That's

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the one thing I'm going to be able to at

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least feel like I completed in twenty twenty four. It's

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at least one thing I feel like I can say

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I accomplished. So you know, maybe I'll look for a

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sermon to review. So I opened I opened up the

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Sermon's two point oh app and I looked and guess

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what the trending hashtag is for the sermon's two point

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o app? Can anybody guess the number one trending hashtag Christmas?

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That means all of the sermons being uploaded are placing there.

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In its description for a hashtag is Christmas. And so

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then I went to the new sermons category. If I

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can go back up here newest sermons and the newest

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sermons it's loading. It's well, I'll just start reading some

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of the titles. Advent of the King, Priest Jesus, christ Fully,

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god Fully Man, Christmas and the Gospel Christmas Message twenty

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twenty four. Joy see here hymn's December twenty second Peace

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in Christ. I'm not leaving without my gift, the spirit

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of Christmas, the light of Emmanuel, the True Son is born.

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Here's why he came that way, In fact, a little

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while ago, that was the first sermon. Here is why

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he came. You want to hear just how that sermon begins.

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Here's why he came. That was the first sermon that

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was listed what fifteen minutes ago, thirty minutes ago when

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I was looking at all the sermons. Now all of

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these others have been added because you know, thousands of

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sermons are added each week to the sermons two point

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zero app. And I would argue, I don't know if

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I don't have any statistical proof, but most likely you're

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gonna see, at least probably yesterday and today a dramatic

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amount of sermons being added because everyone's doing there they're

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gonna be doing. And then you'll see it probably tomorrow.

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You're gonna see Christmas Eve services being uploaded and all

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kinds of just Christmas, Christmas, Christmas related thing. But here's

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here's why he came. This is how this sermon began.

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A s takeod word to God, please start the book

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of the Gospel. According to Luke, chapter nineteen, Matthew, Mark, Luke,

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and John glad to be your say. Amen, Well, I'll

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tell you what I certainly am. I have missed being here.

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Anytime that you're fathful the House of the Lord and

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you miss three services like I have missed, it feels

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like a lifetime.

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So I'm glad to be here.

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I'm glad you're here. You're all looking good from our

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house to your house.

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Merry Christmas. That volume was way way low, but Merry Christmas,

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Merry Christmas. And that was a sermon obviously from yesterday.

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So in many churches, yesterday was the big Christmas day.

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So if you went to church, just think about this.

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If you go to church and Christmas is already like,

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oh man, you're just having issues with it, and you

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going to church and everything is Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas,

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Christmas Christmas. Do you walk out feeling better or do

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you walk out feeling worse? Now saying churches shouldn't obviously

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talk about it, I just don't know what they always

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talk about it in a way that actually is beneficial,

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or if they're they handle it in a way that

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could be at least challenged or maybe even offer a

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little bit of criticism. So what I'm going to do

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in this hour, and I'm glad I decided not to

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review that sermon. I did not review how I did

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not realize how low that volume was. That was ridiculously low. Okay,

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but if we just consider so here's what we're gonna do.

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We're gonna consider Christmas sermons. We will acknowledge that for

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some people they can be uplifting. For some people it

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offers kind of a time for celebration. They're kind of

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a celebratory kind of an occasion, and people like that,

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but they sometimes I don't know if I should say

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sometimes or many times. I will say it happens a lot.

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I can't say if it's most or it happens a lot,

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but that many of these so called Christmas sermons suffer

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from I think some weaknesses and there's some problems with them.

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So I'm going to try to outline some of the

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issues that you may hear, Like today, if you were

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just like, you know, okay, it's Christmas week, I'm going

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to spend a lot of time listening to Christmas sermons. Now,

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for some of you, you're gonna love them all no

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matter how they go. But for me, I believe many

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of them will demonstrate specific weaknesses and there'll be some problems.

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So let's look at some common weaknesses and Christmas sermons,

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some common weaknesses in Christmas sermons. What do you think

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is the number one common weakness in Christmas sermons? What

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do you think? What do you think? I think you

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can tell me if you think this is fair. I

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think in many cases they're very they're overly sentimental. There's

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kind of a sentimentality and a lot of these Christmas sermons,

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and I think that that's a weakness because in many

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Christmas sermons they tend to emphasize warmth, nostalgia, and sometimes

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they do this at the expense of philological depth. In

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other words, the sermons are kind of more there to

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create this feeling, the sentimental feeling. The way the pictures

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are being you know, the way the scripture is being pictured.

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Let me state it that way. It's trying to create

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this warmth, this feeling of nostalgia that everyone can walk away. Oh,

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it's the most wonderful time of the year, and some

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people really can embrace that. But there's gonna be others

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that they're gonna push back on that sentimentality. They're gonna

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push back on that warmth that't there is no nostalgia

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for them and they're not. They're gonna feel disconnected and

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this can result. And I think this is fair. I

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hope I'm not being too overly harsh. You can tell

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me what you think. I think that this can lead

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that many sermons feel more like a Hallmark card. They

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feel more like a Hallmark movie, and it's trying to

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express maybe the sentiments you would see on a Hallmark card,

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rather than a robust exploration of scripture. It's the sentimentality.

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It's like a Hallmark movie. It's like a Hallmark card.

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It's trying to give you these sentiments and it really

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they do this, and it's not really an in depth

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study of the scriptures themselves and all of the difficulties

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and issues that may arise from really being honest with

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the scriptures. Now, I think there are many churches who

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try to avoid that over sentimentality. I think there are,

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but I think it's that even in those churches where

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they try to go in depth, they try to offer

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some great theology, there's still this overall vibe within and

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it may not just be the sermon itself. It just

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may be the overall vibe you get when you go

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to church around Christmas time that there's just really this

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push for the sentimentality and everyone is embracing it, right,

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And I think there, I don't know, I think this

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really comes to I think this is this is a

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situation where this is very person specific. Right, your experience

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with Christmas is going to greatly impact your your life

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situation at that very moment, whatever you're going through at

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that very moment, it's going to be greatly impact how

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you're going to feel about the whole thing. You may

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go walking into church and just feel like, look, I

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don't know what all these other people you look at

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all that they have, they don't fit in with it,

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and it can make it It may make it more

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obvious to you that what they have you don't have,

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and then that can turn into, you know, feelings of

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bitterness and disconnection. So I think it and of course

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the church can't fix that, right, There's no way the

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church can just say, hey, we can address this for everyone,

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but I think the church has to be aware of

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he not. I know you, it's it's a wonderful time

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for many people, but there's always those people that it's not.

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So can the church avoid being over sentimental during Christmas sermons?

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I don't know if they can, because it's just it's

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so it's almost baked into the holiday, right, It's almost

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just like it's synonymous with the holiday. Look at the

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Christmas movies, look at everything. It's this sentimental nostalgia. It's

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just built into it. I don't know if it can

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ever be removed from it, but I think that that's

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a possible weakness. I think that's fair to say. How

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about so there's the first one, and over sentimental oversentimentality

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within many Christmas sermons. I think that's fair. I don't

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think that's being overly critical. And again a little bit.

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Let me make it very clear. I think when I

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was younger, I almost resented it. I would almost kind

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of get ticked off about it, right, I think now,

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I think now I can at least understand that, Hey,

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for some people. That's why I think a lot of

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the things I've said this year and a lot of

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the podcast episodes, I've either said at the beginning or

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at the end that I think that for the people

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who have I mean, you've got family, you've got companionship,

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you've got all these you should just enjoy it. And

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I think the church can't ignore those people who enjoy

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it and love it. You want to make it even

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more special for them, right, I think you want to

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make it special for them, and I think that's probably

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the majority, so the church almost, I mean, the church

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can't just ignore those people, right and just focus on Hey, look,

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I know this time of year is complete garbage and

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trash for many of you, and just don't I don't

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think you can do that. I don't know what the

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balance is there. So I think what it is is

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for those who it's it's not a time of sentimentality,

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it's not a time of nostalgia. It's a time mixed

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with I think those individuals we have to almost we

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have to help those individuals understand that, hey, your feelings

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are just as valid and it's okay that you don't

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like it. You shouldn't have to feel guilty, you shouldn't

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have to feel that. But you let them enjoy their thing,

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don't become bitter about it, and then you grab onto

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what you can. I think it's very difficult. There's just

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no way you can address this for everyone. I mean,

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the church is almost design I mean the whole Christmas

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candlelight service for Christmas Eve. I mean, if that's not

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over sentimentality, I mean the whole it creates an entire vibe. Right,

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It's about the warm feelings. It's all about that. And

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then if you show up, you see all these people

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there with their families, husband and wife, all they're holding hands,

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their kids are next to them. They all leave together

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as a family, and they're happy, and they're going to

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go back to their home and sit in front of

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the fireplace and read the Christmas story and open presence,

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and it's this wonderful, big family thing. Well, other people

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will be like, well, they're not going to go back

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to the same situation. But what does the church do?

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Does the church at the same I'm trying to be.

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I'm trying to be I'm trying to see both sides here.

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I'm trying to see both. I think when I was younger,

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I was just like, I'm so sick of all of

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this right, and I'm trying to be more like, trying

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to be more fair to it. But I think there

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isn't a level of oversentimentality. I just don't know how

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you fix it. Second, a lack of contextualization. There's a

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lack of contextualization. Many sermons, and I think this is

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fair failed to adequately place the birth of Christ within

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the larger narrative of the Bible. Right. I think it

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tends to the focus tends to remain maybe on the

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Nativity scene without connecting it maybe to Old Testament promises

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or the ultimate purpose of Christ's coming, his death and resurrection.

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I think in some sermons they do say those things,

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but I think they try to. I think it gets lost.

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It's like it's not the sermon, it's not really designed

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about contextualization and how this connects to this and this

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is a fulfillment of this and this is what now

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some will do that. I'm not saying they won't, but

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I just so maybe the contextualization is there, but maybe

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maybe we should say this. The sentimentality almost overshadows the contextualization.

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Maybe there's not a lack of contextualization. Maybe there is

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plenty of context being provided, but the overall sentimentality and nostalgia,

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warm feelings, maybe it over shadows the contextualization, like it's

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hard to grab onto the context and where this all

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fits in philologically, biblically, textually, because everything else seems to

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overwrite it. Maybe is that a better way of saying it.

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May maybe there's a lack of contextualization. I struggle with that.

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Maybe it's just overshadowed. So number one over senti mentality.

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I do stand by that one a lack of contextualization.

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I think I should maybe say that the contextualization and

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everything dealing with the text kind of gets overshadowed. It

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may be mentioned, but it gets overshadowed. Right. It's like

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yesterday on the way to church, I was listening to

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a sermon on Isaiah forty verses three through five. I

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think it went from three through eight, and there was

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a lot of contextualization. There was a lot of history,

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but a lot of it got overshadowed when he basically

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took Isaiah forty three through eight and turned it into

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here are three things you need to do. You need

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to show up to church early so that you can

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prepare yourself for worship. You need to meditate on the

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text that the sermon is going to be taken from

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prior to arriving, so that you can be ready to worship.

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And you need to review what hymns are going to

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be sung so you can memorize that. And I'm like,

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what does that have to do with Isaiah forty three

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through eight? Now, there was plenty of things in the

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sermon about Isaiah forty three through weight, but it got

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overshadowed because it turned into that does that? So I

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think sometimes there is contextualization in Christmas sermons. It just

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gets overshadowed with the sentimentality and the nostalgia and the

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warm feelings. So maybe that's a better way of staying seeing.

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So there's the weakness of over sentimentality. There's a weakness

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of maybe contextualization and the text being overshadowed by the

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whole Christmas thing. Number three, this could be a weakness

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maybe overfamiliarity. We're so familiar with it, there's an overfamiliarity

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with the text itself, with the text that we typically

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look at during the Christmas season. So the preachers kind

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of approach it in many cases, like the congregation already

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knows this story, So maybe it leads them to almost

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a lack of any fresh insight, and maybe it kind

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of leads them they don't really engage the text. Instead

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of really engaging the text, they just kind of retell

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the story because they know everyone's already familiar with it.

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So maybe this kind of makes a Is this fair

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to say that if you can, you can listen for yourself?

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I mean, you've got the sermons two point oh app

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when you listen, let's say you listen to ten Christmas sermons.

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Because there's an overfamiliarity with it, do you feel that

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the sermons can become just they feel repetitive, they feel uninspired,

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they feel just kind of the same same old, same

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old Samuel. Now at the same time, maybe they's supposed

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to be a sameness to them, right, because I mean,

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you're taking these texts that are basically historical narratives about

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what happened. They are descriptive. There's only so many ways

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now I think what happens is that in what because

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we become so overfamiliar with it. Maybe you could argue,

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because we're so familiar with it that them pastors maybe

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take artistic license with it. I don't know. But there

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is a familiarity with it, and there's no way to

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fix that. I mean, every year you're gonna hear the

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same passages preached upon. So is that a weakness. I

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don't know if that's a weakness. Yeah, I struggle with

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that one. Is this another weakness? Maybe there is a

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pastor's limit the scriptures used to talk about the quote

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unquote Christmas stories. Preachers often isolate part of the Christmas story,

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such as Luke to or Matthew too, without exploring broader

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biblical context. They may go to Matthew to, they may

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go to Luke to, but in many cases they kind

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of ignore other parts and they kind of just retell

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the story maybe but see then at the same time,

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sometimes they will reference in Isaiah nine or maybe Micah five.

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But in many cases when they do reference them, then

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they don't actually deal with the issues. And if you

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go to Isaiah nine, there's a lot there to struggle with, right,

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if you go to Micah, there's a lot there to

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struggle with. Correct. So in many cases I would say

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there is a selective let's call it a selective use

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of scripture. They just go to scripture just to grab

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the kind of the Christmas part and without really necessarily

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doing all the work, because when the text were put together,

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it wasn't a Christmas text, right, Luke to Matthew two

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is not like, here's the Christmas text. It's like, no,

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here's the historical narrative about what happened, and contained within

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it is all kind not only of historical facts. There's

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there's a cultural context, historical context, textual context, there's all

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kinds of philological implications, and there's lots of textual issue

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chose to work through, but we don't really so it's

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a selective use. We go to the scriptures just because

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we need something for Christmas. I said, like, we're going

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to go to the scripture because it's in the Bible.

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I think in many cases what happens if pastors are

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going to deal with Matthew two or Luke to they

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do so in a better they do so in a

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much more correct manner when they're preaching those and it's

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not Christmas. If it's Christmas, then these texts are kind

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of selectively used just to get to the Christmas story.

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If it's not Christmas, then the sentimentality, the nostalgia is gone,

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and they're like, we're going to dig into loop two

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in Matthew two because you're not you don't have all

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the trappings of Christmas attached to it, so you can

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just dig into the text. I think that's fair to say.

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I think that's fair to say. So there's a selective

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use of scripture during Christmas, all right, So we have

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kind of a a over sentimentality. I think that that's

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I'm going to stand by that. I think that sentimentality

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kind of overrides any contextualization the sermon tries to offer.

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I think there's an overfamiliarity with the text, which can

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lead to some problems. And I think there's a select

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use of scripture. Scripture is used in a very selective

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way in order just to give us a Christmas message

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and versus actually digging into the text, because it's not

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going to be a series, right, It's gonna be like

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a one off sermon right now. Sometimes people will be

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doing some Christmas related sermons if they go through to

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say the month of Advent, but in many cases it's

397
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very limited. They're like, it's not like we can't stay

398
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in Matthew two for six months. Now, we're going to

399
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get through this because this is just our Christmas season

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and then we can move on to other things. So

401
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therefore the text has to be used in a very

402
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selective way. Oh, I think this one is a big one. Moralism, moralism.

403
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I think it's fair to say that in many Christmas sermons,

404
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the sermons reduce the Christmas story to a lesson about kindness, generosity,

405
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family values. It becomes about, you know, the moral lessons

406
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we can learn. We need to be like the wise Man,

407
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we need to be like Mary, we need to be

408
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and it's all moral lessons. Moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism.

409
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And so you go to church and what you learn is, well,

410
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I probably am not having the right attitude. I'm probably

411
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not doing the right thing, and so instead of being uplifting,

412
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you may just walk away going, well, not only do

413
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I not have the right attitude about this time of year,

414
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I don't do these things. So now you just may

415
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walk away feeling even more guilty, and it may actually

416
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make the holidays even worse. Now I'm not saying there

417
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aren't moral lessons, just saying you gotta be careful when

418
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you reduce it to moralism. And then guess what happens

419
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if you reduce it to moral lessons, you miss the

420
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profound philological realities of say, the incarnation and its implications.

421
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Even the incarnation. Sometimes you just gets it turned into moralism,

422
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right because you go to John chapter one right in

423
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the beginning with the word, the word was with God,

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the word was God, and the word became flesh. And

425
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then you got to jump over to Philippians and you

426
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see how Christ laid aside, and then we learn about

427
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humility and putting others before ourselves. Now, I'm not saying

428
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that there isn't a moral lesson to be taught there,

429
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but it can just become moralism, right. So I think

430
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these are some weaknesses. And over sentimentality, you can now

431
00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:51.920
each individual is going to have a different feeling about that.

432
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I think that overrides any contextualization the pastors are trying

433
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to offer in the text. Because it's about the Christmas feeling,

434
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everyone's so familiar with these passages. The overfamiliarity can lead

435
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to some problems at least I think. So maybe it

436
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seems uninspired, It just seems like repetitive. It's the same

437
00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:12.279
same thing, But at the same time, is that bad?

438
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I struggle with that one, the scriptures are used in

439
00:27:16.759 --> 00:27:19.160
a selective way simply to get to a Christmas sermon.

440
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I think that that is a legitimate weakness moralism. I

441
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don't think that one can be denied. Now this next one,

442
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maybe this the Christmas sermons rely heavy on cultural elements.

443
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Cultural elements, maybe in an effort to be relatable. Many

444
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sermons they lean heavily on cultural elements of Christmas, gifts, traditions,

445
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and maybe even though they don't attempt to do this,

446
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it begins to overshadow the biblical message. They rely on

447
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a lot of cultural cultural things that the things about

448
00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:10.839
Christmas as it has become known within our culture are

449
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kind of inserted into the sermon, and that kind of

450
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overshadows the biblical message because it just becomes relatable and

451
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people gravitate to those cultural things that are mentioned, those

452
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things that are so a part of the Christmas at

453
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least the idea of Christmas. And how about another one

454
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is maybe we could call this uncritical traditions. So we

455
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have an over sentimentality. Number two. The sentimentality seems to

456
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overshadow sometimes the contextualization of the actual text. We're over

457
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familiar with it, which can lead to some problems. Pastors

458
00:28:57.960 --> 00:29:00.880
tend to use the scriptures in a very selective way

459
00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:06.559
simply to get to a Christmas message. Moralism, cultural ideas,

460
00:29:06.680 --> 00:29:09.839
cultural concepts are so included in the sermons that they

461
00:29:09.880 --> 00:29:14.000
overshadow the biblical concepts because then it becomes more about

462
00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:17.759
our cultural experience with Christmas than it is what was

463
00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:22.440
actually happening in the text. And then uncritical tradition or

464
00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:28.119
uncritical traditions sermons, many cases, not always, they kind of

465
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:32.920
perpetuate inaccurate details about the Nativity story. Three kings instead

466
00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:36.240
of wise men, Mary riding on a donkey, Jesus being

467
00:29:36.279 --> 00:29:40.839
born in a wooden stable. These reinforced traditions that aren't

468
00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:43.880
scripturally accurate, and we could go we could probably make

469
00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:47.079
a list of them. A thing said around Christmas time

470
00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:49.480
and you're kind of like, what in the world is

471
00:29:49.559 --> 00:29:53.240
going on? That's not that is some tradition, that's something

472
00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:56.759
you took from some movie. What are you doing? We

473
00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:00.319
got to get to the text. Oh you want and this,

474
00:30:00.519 --> 00:30:02.640
I know I'm gonna I know I'm gonna make people

475
00:30:02.759 --> 00:30:09.000
very upset about this, but you know what one of

476
00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:13.160
the number one culprits are is those little Christmas pageants

477
00:30:13.160 --> 00:30:16.680
that churches love to have. Hey, we get all of

478
00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:18.240
our little kids and we can get up there and

479
00:30:18.279 --> 00:30:20.759
put them up there to act this all out right

480
00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:23.279
so that everyone can take their phones and videotape it

481
00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:25.920
and send it to Grandma. Right, it's all wonderful, it's

482
00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:30.000
oh cute. Who cares if it's inaccurate? Who cares if

483
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.400
it gives a completely wrong idea? Nobody cares. No, we

484
00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:36.000
should care because it's the church and what the church

485
00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:39.400
is putting on something if it's not biblically, and I

486
00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:42.200
know people get so offended. Look, who cares, It's just

487
00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:45.279
a Christmas pageant, it's just the kids. Stop being all, oh,

488
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:47.000
you're getting all worried about it when you want to

489
00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:50.240
criticize it philologically. Look, if that's the game the church

490
00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:52.519
is gonna play that, it doesn't really matter if it's accurate,

491
00:30:52.519 --> 00:30:54.599
and who really cares? Then you know what, there's no

492
00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:56.480
point in me coming back to church. I can just

493
00:30:56.480 --> 00:30:58.559
stay at home because if you're just gonna if it

494
00:30:58.599 --> 00:31:01.279
doesn't really matter because it's our kids and we can

495
00:31:01.279 --> 00:31:04.000
have a nice little Christmas story and okay, well, then

496
00:31:04.039 --> 00:31:06.759
if that's all it is is sentimentality and cuteness and

497
00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:09.960
videos for Grandma, and that's all that's what you're gonna

498
00:31:09.960 --> 00:31:12.559
reduce it to. Then, you know what, it'd be better

499
00:31:12.559 --> 00:31:14.920
than everyone just stay home and don't even bother going

500
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:15.400
to church.

501
00:31:17.519 --> 00:31:17.640
Now.

502
00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:19.440
I know I say that I tick everyone off, but

503
00:31:19.880 --> 00:31:22.720
it's like, either either we care about truth or we don't.

504
00:31:22.960 --> 00:31:24.839
But many of these ideas show up and you're like,

505
00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:27.880
what that that this is completely not accurate to the

506
00:31:27.880 --> 00:31:32.160
Biblical story, And anyone who criticizes that, they're almost immediately like,

507
00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:36.480
you're screwed. You're still in Christmas. You're still in Christmas Joy,

508
00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:39.839
Get THEE behind me, Satan, What is wrong with you?

509
00:31:39.839 --> 00:31:42.799
You're just so all uptight. Now, I understand some people

510
00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:46.359
can be maybe quote unquote too uptight, but at the

511
00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:51.200
same time, the church has a responsibility then whatever it

512
00:31:51.240 --> 00:32:00.880
puts forth about the Christmas story is biblically and philologically accurate. Oh,

513
00:32:00.920 --> 00:32:03.880
I know that that probably didn't go well. So those

514
00:32:03.880 --> 00:32:07.799
are some weaknesses. I refer to them as weaknesses. Right,

515
00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:10.759
I'm not saying that these are necessarily wrong in every situation.

516
00:32:11.240 --> 00:32:13.440
I'm saying that there are Now I think when those

517
00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:18.359
Christmas pagets are completely biblically inaccurate. That is wrong. That's

518
00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:22.279
not a weakness, but because that's just putting forth the

519
00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:26.200
wrong you're preaching the wrong thing. But these are weaknesses.

520
00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:33.880
And I'm being very transparent here right. Your personal feelings

521
00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:37.519
about Christmas are going to greatly impact how you see

522
00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:40.240
Christmas sermons and how you see churches and all the

523
00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:42.680
Christmas things they are going to do. You're going to

524
00:32:42.720 --> 00:32:45.440
have different feelings. You're either going to be drawn to it,

525
00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:49.200
love it, and brace it, and it's wonderful for you

526
00:32:49.240 --> 00:32:52.240
and your family, and you should not feel guilty about that.

527
00:32:53.640 --> 00:32:55.680
But at the same time, you shouldn't be looking down

528
00:32:55.720 --> 00:32:57.799
at the person who seems to be like, you know what,

529
00:32:57.920 --> 00:33:00.279
I don't like any of these reindeer games. I don't

530
00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:02.000
like any of this. I don't because I don't like

531
00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:05.799
this is all negative for me. You can't look down

532
00:33:05.839 --> 00:33:10.559
on them either, because everyone shows up, everyone has their

533
00:33:10.599 --> 00:33:15.119
own story, Every person has their own story, and the

534
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:18.799
church likes uniformity. It wants everyone to conform to such

535
00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:21.440
an idea. Well, you can have the nice, little wonderful time,

536
00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:23.920
great for you and your family, but back off if

537
00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:28.599
someone else doesn't feel the same thing doesn't make them unspiritual,

538
00:33:29.720 --> 00:33:32.400
doesn't make them ungodly. They may not even want to

539
00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:34.720
have anything to do be around the church at that

540
00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:37.000
point in time, and I don't think they should be

541
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:40.880
criticized for that, because they got to do Sometimes. You

542
00:33:40.920 --> 00:33:42.839
got to do what's best for your own mental health

543
00:33:42.880 --> 00:33:45.599
and your own spiritual health. If going to church is

544
00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:48.960
actually detrimental to your mental and spiritual health, then take

545
00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:51.960
a step back at least for those few two weeks,

546
00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:54.160
three weeks, whatever it needs to be, and then you

547
00:33:54.200 --> 00:33:57.039
can come back when the church returns to normal programming.

548
00:33:59.559 --> 00:34:02.720
But those are some weaknesses. Let's then I'll look at

549
00:34:02.759 --> 00:34:12.239
some possible major problems with Christmas sermons. Neglecting the doctrine

550
00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:17.679
of the incarnation. Now we've already listened to one sermon.

551
00:34:18.320 --> 00:34:20.519
Let me do this. So this is a major problem

552
00:34:20.519 --> 00:34:22.920
with some Christmas sermons, and they neglect the doctrine of

553
00:34:22.960 --> 00:34:26.119
the incarnation. They don't really handle the incarnation in a

554
00:34:26.440 --> 00:34:30.960
philologically sound way. They don't really deal with the doctrine

555
00:34:31.039 --> 00:34:34.119
of it. It's all the sentimentality and the story. It's

556
00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:37.079
not the theology of the incarnation. But one makes it worse.

557
00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:39.679
And we've already. We just listened to one sermon already

558
00:34:40.039 --> 00:34:41.760
this year, and I haven't been going through all the

559
00:34:41.800 --> 00:34:44.760
Christmas sermons to find if others have done so. But

560
00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:47.800
we found a Christmas sermon. Well, it was a sermon

561
00:34:47.840 --> 00:34:49.920
dealing with I think I would have to go back

562
00:34:49.960 --> 00:34:51.800
to the dating of it, but it was a sermon

563
00:34:51.840 --> 00:34:55.159
and they mentioned the Immaculate Conception and referred to the

564
00:34:55.159 --> 00:34:58.159
birth of Christ as the Immaculate conception. Ladies and gentlemen,

565
00:34:58.440 --> 00:35:02.079
that is just philologically. The immaculate Conception is about Mary

566
00:35:02.119 --> 00:35:04.000
has nothing to do with it, and it's a Catholic

567
00:35:04.039 --> 00:35:07.119
idea that Mary was conceived without sin. How do you

568
00:35:07.159 --> 00:35:11.719
apply what are you doing so? Because again, many churches

569
00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:16.119
are so philologically sloppy at this time of year, and

570
00:35:16.159 --> 00:35:19.519
when it comes to the doctrine of the incarnation, things

571
00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:23.119
can get really weird. I've heard pastors start talking about

572
00:35:23.159 --> 00:35:27.719
the incarnation and the hypostatic union that don't use the

573
00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:31.239
term hypostatic union, but they're trying to describe truly God,

574
00:35:31.320 --> 00:35:35.199
truly man, one God, three distinct persons, and the next

575
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:38.320
thing you know, they either they flow, they slide into

576
00:35:38.320 --> 00:35:42.480
some crystological heresy from the past. They slide into maybe

577
00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:46.599
Modalism or Sabelianism, and you start listening to me, what

578
00:35:46.719 --> 00:35:50.719
is happening right now? Now? What ticks me off is

579
00:35:50.760 --> 00:35:52.800
when you call out the church, going what are you doing?

580
00:35:53.320 --> 00:35:59.360
You're destroying the whole theology of Christ. Your Christology is

581
00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:03.519
a massy. They'll just be like, you know, oh, you're

582
00:36:03.519 --> 00:36:06.119
being all picky. They get all and they get ticked

583
00:36:06.159 --> 00:36:08.519
off because they don't want to be criticized. But I'm sorry,

584
00:36:08.840 --> 00:36:11.719
if it's Christmas time and it's really Jesus is the

585
00:36:11.719 --> 00:36:14.280
reason for the season. If you're gonna talk about Jesus,

586
00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:17.360
you gotta either do so thiologically accurate or just say

587
00:36:17.519 --> 00:36:19.639
we're just gonna hear and we're just gonna sing songs,

588
00:36:19.719 --> 00:36:23.239
light a few candles, hold some hands, and sing Kumbaya

589
00:36:23.559 --> 00:36:25.840
so we all can have warm feelings for Christmas. We

590
00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:29.719
really don't care to deal with, I don't know, the incarnation,

591
00:36:30.280 --> 00:36:34.119
the eternal Son of God, and then the eternality of

592
00:36:34.159 --> 00:36:36.519
the I mean, we can get into so many philological

593
00:36:36.599 --> 00:36:40.119
issues around this. Churches could really go all in on.

594
00:36:40.840 --> 00:36:43.639
You could do this. What are the major I mean,

595
00:36:43.679 --> 00:36:45.760
I'll just ask you a question. If you've been going

596
00:36:45.800 --> 00:36:48.000
to church for years, and you've been listening to Christmas

597
00:36:48.039 --> 00:36:51.079
sermon after Christmas sermon after Christmas sermon. Listen to me

598
00:36:51.239 --> 00:36:55.679
that the three I'll just say three, three of the

599
00:36:55.800 --> 00:37:00.840
major chrystological heresies that the early Church fought against. Three

600
00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:04.800
of them. These are specific heresies about the nature of Christ.

601
00:37:05.719 --> 00:37:10.679
Just name three? Can you name four? Now? If you

602
00:37:10.719 --> 00:37:14.760
need help, you can take Grudom systematic Theology and he

603
00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:20.199
lists out the early heresies, the chrystological heresies. And what

604
00:37:20.280 --> 00:37:22.960
I have done around Christmas time before is I taught

605
00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:26.079
those chrystological heresies and like, here's what it taught, Here's

606
00:37:26.119 --> 00:37:28.079
what it looks like in the modern context. And in

607
00:37:28.119 --> 00:37:30.760
many cases I could take sermons that were being preached

608
00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:34.519
by good churches and say that's straight up that chrystological heresy,

609
00:37:34.519 --> 00:37:40.360
and they don't even realize they've walked into it. So

610
00:37:40.480 --> 00:37:43.639
when you begin to neglect the doctrine and the theology

611
00:37:44.119 --> 00:37:48.320
of the entire Christmas story, well then pastors are saying

612
00:37:48.320 --> 00:37:51.159
things like the Immaculate Conception. You're like, what are you

613
00:37:51.280 --> 00:37:55.000
talking about? They start saying things about the nature of Christ,

614
00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:58.519
and you're like, stop, stop, stop, You're fives you're walking

615
00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:00.280
and you can almost see it coming. You're like, you're

616
00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:03.199
walking towards the landmine. You're gonna Stoh, no, he just

617
00:38:03.199 --> 00:38:10.519
stepped on it. What just happened. The philological heart of Christmas,

618
00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:14.840
I should say this. The heart of Christmas is still logical.

619
00:38:15.840 --> 00:38:19.320
The heart of Christmas is not sentimentality. The heart of

620
00:38:19.400 --> 00:38:22.679
Christmas is not lighting candles in the dark and singing

621
00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:26.639
a m acapella so we get warm feelings. The heart

622
00:38:26.760 --> 00:38:31.679
of Christmas is phological and the key theological truth of

623
00:38:31.800 --> 00:38:38.400
Christmas is the incarnation God becoming flesh and the person

624
00:38:38.440 --> 00:38:42.960
of Jesus Christ. This is where you can clearly talk

625
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:47.199
about the hypostatic union, which counsel gave us. The hypostatic union?

626
00:38:48.039 --> 00:38:53.400
What is that called? Whoa? What christological heresy were they

627
00:38:53.400 --> 00:38:56.559
fighting against? See? I can start asking you very important issues,

628
00:38:59.559 --> 00:39:02.920
Sir Grans that focus solely on the narrative details without

629
00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:06.480
addressing the significance of the incarnation fails to convey the

630
00:39:06.599 --> 00:39:12.039
profound mystery and wonder of Christmas. Say, the true wonder

631
00:39:12.079 --> 00:39:16.559
of Christmas, the true mystery of Christmas is God in

632
00:39:16.599 --> 00:39:22.800
the flesh. It's not warm feelings. And you know, chestnuts

633
00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:26.440
roasting on the open fire and missile toe and all

634
00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:29.199
of that wonderful stuff. Now I'm not criticizing all of that.

635
00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:32.440
If you've got family and a loved one, and you've

636
00:39:32.480 --> 00:39:35.320
got all of that, by all means, enjoy it. I

637
00:39:35.320 --> 00:39:37.239
don't see. When I was younger, I would kind of

638
00:39:37.280 --> 00:39:40.719
just almost criticize that because if I didn't have it,

639
00:39:40.880 --> 00:39:43.079
you know, almost, I would use theology as a way

640
00:39:43.119 --> 00:39:46.440
to condemn it or to mock it. That's not right either,

641
00:39:46.599 --> 00:39:49.480
So I've not always handled this right either. But at

642
00:39:49.480 --> 00:39:53.840
the same time, my criticism was right, Hey, if it's

643
00:39:53.880 --> 00:39:55.960
all about Jesus and you turn it into all of

644
00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:58.239
this other stuff and you don't even walk away with

645
00:39:58.320 --> 00:40:01.400
a clear understanding of the end carnation. You can walk

646
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:05.159
around many churches and ask basic questions. Just ask people

647
00:40:05.159 --> 00:40:07.679
in your church the definition of the Trinity. Many cases

648
00:40:07.679 --> 00:40:12.719
they give you straight modalism, straight Sibelian, straight christological heresies.

649
00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:16.000
Ask them about the hypostatic union. They can't. But you

650
00:40:16.039 --> 00:40:19.039
know what, They've been going to church for twenty years,

651
00:40:19.119 --> 00:40:22.159
and I've heard Christmas sermon after Christmas sermon after Christmas

652
00:40:22.199 --> 00:40:31.320
sermon and completely miss the heart of Christmas, which is theology. See,

653
00:40:31.400 --> 00:40:35.039
on one hand, you don't want to use this reality

654
00:40:35.119 --> 00:40:38.119
that the heart of Christmas is still logical. You don't

655
00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:41.400
want to use that to condemn people who get to

656
00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:45.360
have a wonderful season, a wonderful holiday with their loved ones,

657
00:40:45.400 --> 00:40:48.800
with their family. They have closeness, they get to have

658
00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:52.880
that's wonderful for them. So you don't want to criticize

659
00:40:52.920 --> 00:40:56.880
those people, right because you can turn into well, since

660
00:40:56.920 --> 00:41:00.840
I don't have this, I'm just going to so focus

661
00:41:00.840 --> 00:41:03.280
on the theology and I'm gonna act like I'm spiritually

662
00:41:03.320 --> 00:41:05.679
better than everyone else. You don't want to do that either,

663
00:41:05.840 --> 00:41:13.840
and I've been guilty of that, right almost like I'm

664
00:41:13.840 --> 00:41:16.400
gonna use this as well. Well, you're off doing your

665
00:41:16.440 --> 00:41:20.639
little thing holding hands and you know you've got your family,

666
00:41:20.679 --> 00:41:23.480
you got all that. Well, okay, well I'm gonna know theology,

667
00:41:23.559 --> 00:41:26.039
like you see, that's not good either. But at the

668
00:41:26.039 --> 00:41:27.599
same time, all of those who have all of that

669
00:41:27.679 --> 00:41:30.800
other wonderful stuff. If you've turned Christmas into all of

670
00:41:30.840 --> 00:41:36.360
this wonderful, warm, Hallmark movie vibe and you don't even

671
00:41:36.440 --> 00:41:39.079
understand the theology of Christmas, I mean you've got to

672
00:41:39.119 --> 00:41:53.320
at least consider that's a problem. Right, Maybe so, I

673
00:41:53.360 --> 00:41:55.840
think it's a problem when the doctrine of the incarnation.

674
00:41:56.639 --> 00:41:59.719
Let me state it again, it's a problem when Christmas

675
00:41:59.800 --> 00:42:05.599
lose it's heart. And the heart of Christmas is theology,

676
00:42:07.599 --> 00:42:10.639
it's thelogical, and you can't say that it's not. No,

677
00:42:11.000 --> 00:42:13.760
the heart of Christmas is Jesus. That is that's just

678
00:42:13.800 --> 00:42:17.000
so vague, that's just pure sentimentality. No, the heart of

679
00:42:17.079 --> 00:42:20.079
Christmas is the theology of Christ. Now if you want

680
00:42:20.119 --> 00:42:23.360
to see it that way, because Christ is who Christ is,

681
00:42:23.480 --> 00:42:26.039
we have to have the right Christ. It's no what

682
00:42:26.079 --> 00:42:27.960
difference does it make. You had a wonderful time that

683
00:42:28.159 --> 00:42:30.280
Jesus is the reason for the season and you start

684
00:42:30.320 --> 00:42:31.920
talking to me about Jesus. The next thing I know,

685
00:42:31.920 --> 00:42:33.880
I'm like, I don't know what Jesus you're talking about,

686
00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:37.519
but that about every known philological heresy and the history

687
00:42:37.519 --> 00:42:47.639
of the Church just came out of your mouth. Maybe

688
00:42:47.639 --> 00:42:49.719
that's what I need to do this year. Maybe what

689
00:42:49.800 --> 00:42:51.960
I need to do is we need to study the

690
00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:58.239
christological heresies. Maybe that's what we need to do. Maybe

691
00:42:58.320 --> 00:43:01.360
I kind of I've got the focus and where to go.

692
00:43:01.440 --> 00:43:03.639
For the next couple of days, we'll just look we'll

693
00:43:03.679 --> 00:43:07.840
take maybe a each episode will look at a christological heresy.

694
00:43:07.719 --> 00:43:11.559
Maybe we'll do that. Maybe we'll do that. We'll see,

695
00:43:11.840 --> 00:43:16.639
we'll see, we'll see. All right, So the doctorate, the

696
00:43:17.599 --> 00:43:21.960
heart of Christmas is replaced with sentimentality and something else,

697
00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:24.239
and we lose the heart of Christmas, which is still logical.

698
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:27.840
I cannot state it again. The heart of Christmas is theological.

699
00:43:28.039 --> 00:43:30.679
If you go to church and you and you hear

700
00:43:30.760 --> 00:43:33.440
Christmas sermons, and you do the whole the Christmas stuff,

701
00:43:33.440 --> 00:43:37.239
and you leave and you really didn't get the philological heart,

702
00:43:37.559 --> 00:43:40.920
then I'm sorry. You've got sentimentality. You got the hallmark

703
00:43:41.039 --> 00:43:44.320
version of Christmas inside your church. No matter how philological

704
00:43:44.400 --> 00:43:48.559
your church can be, it's almost impossible to maintain that

705
00:43:49.679 --> 00:43:52.920
during Christmas because the people are come, The people come

706
00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:57.960
flocking in. They're wanting that feeling, that vibe. They want

707
00:43:57.960 --> 00:44:00.880
to And that's why churches love the Christmas Eve service.

708
00:44:02.119 --> 00:44:06.000
Have you ever noticed that churches love that thing? They

709
00:44:06.119 --> 00:44:10.800
love Christmas Eve service because what does it turn into? Candles,

710
00:44:11.199 --> 00:44:16.880
lights down, singing. It's all about a warm feeling, and

711
00:44:16.920 --> 00:44:20.159
everybody loves that feeling. And I'm not criticizing that you

712
00:44:20.239 --> 00:44:23.159
love that feeling, because who wouldn't love Look if you

713
00:44:23.239 --> 00:44:25.719
have all of those wonderful things about Christmas, who wouldn't

714
00:44:25.760 --> 00:44:29.559
love those feelings? They're positive feelings. The problem is you

715
00:44:29.639 --> 00:44:32.440
went to church and you played. You had this nice

716
00:44:32.480 --> 00:44:35.039
little warm feeling, but nobody in the parking lot can

717
00:44:35.119 --> 00:44:38.239
even tell you anything about the theology of Christmas. That's

718
00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:40.920
the problem. I don't know how you balance that out,

719
00:44:41.760 --> 00:44:44.320
but I guarantee you if someone if everyone showed up

720
00:44:44.360 --> 00:44:47.199
for a Christmas Eve service and the pastor is like, okay,

721
00:44:47.239 --> 00:44:49.719
for the next hour, what I'm going to do is

722
00:44:49.760 --> 00:44:53.679
discuss the major crystallogical heresies. I'm going to define them.

723
00:44:53.840 --> 00:44:56.039
I'm going to outline what they taught, and then I'm

724
00:44:56.039 --> 00:45:00.039
going to correct it with a correct crystalllogical understanding. I

725
00:45:00.039 --> 00:45:04.760
guarantee people would be like, what is this trash? I

726
00:45:04.760 --> 00:45:08.519
didn't come to church for this. I guarantee people would

727
00:45:08.519 --> 00:45:13.079
be ticked off. The majority would don't give me that

728
00:45:13.280 --> 00:45:16.039
because the majority want that nice little like let's light

729
00:45:16.119 --> 00:45:25.800
some candles, let's see Mary. Did you know? Oh come

730
00:45:25.800 --> 00:45:28.800
on now, don't get stop looking at me that way.

731
00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:31.760
Come on, stop getting mad. You know I'm telling the truth.

732
00:45:34.880 --> 00:45:39.000
Another problem is in many cases the whole Christmas sermons,

733
00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:42.760
they ignore the sin problem. The sermons emphasize joy, peace,

734
00:45:42.840 --> 00:45:50.840
goodwill without addressing when Jesus came to save humanity from sin. Now,

735
00:45:50.880 --> 00:45:54.280
sometimes it will be mentioned briefly, yes, but it's all

736
00:45:54.280 --> 00:45:58.880
this other stuff. It's not like, hey, Christ came because

737
00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:01.880
we are sinners and we cannot save ourselves and talk

738
00:46:01.880 --> 00:46:05.400
about imputed righteousness. And because in many cases you're too

739
00:46:05.400 --> 00:46:08.239
busy doing the moralism that you forget the actual that

740
00:46:08.280 --> 00:46:11.320
he came to Because we can't keep the morality. He can.

741
00:46:11.440 --> 00:46:15.800
Because we cannot keep the law. So maybe we it's

742
00:46:15.800 --> 00:46:17.760
some sermons kind of I don't want to say, ignore

743
00:46:17.760 --> 00:46:25.480
the sin problem. Maybe the sin problem gets overshadowed. So

744
00:46:26.760 --> 00:46:29.880
the heart. So the first problem is the heart of Christmas,

745
00:46:29.880 --> 00:46:33.119
which is ill logical. Is well, we miss it or

746
00:46:33.159 --> 00:46:35.320
we replace it with something else, and then the sin

747
00:46:35.400 --> 00:46:38.519
problem doesn't get handled in a really accurate way. In

748
00:46:38.519 --> 00:46:46.519
many cases, it gets overshadowed by moralism. How about number three,

749
00:46:48.480 --> 00:46:56.440
an over emphasis on emotion. Now we talked about weaknesses.

750
00:46:56.480 --> 00:46:58.679
Now we're talking about problems. These are things I see.

751
00:46:58.800 --> 00:47:04.599
It's very much more problematic. Okay, during this time this

752
00:47:04.760 --> 00:47:10.760
Christmas sermons, it becomes an emotional pill of the Christmas story,

753
00:47:11.599 --> 00:47:18.719
A baby and a Manger, Mary, Mary, did you know?

754
00:47:19.239 --> 00:47:24.000
It becomes this very emotional appeal and it can overshadow

755
00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:29.960
the theological death. Once again, the theology gets lost, and

756
00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.360
so you leave listeners with an emotional experience, but with

757
00:47:34.440 --> 00:47:38.400
a shallow understanding of who Christ truly is. If you

758
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:43.119
leave with emotion but you don't leave with theology, then

759
00:47:43.239 --> 00:47:46.039
I'm going to say that's a problem. And many people

760
00:47:46.079 --> 00:47:48.599
go to church around Christmas, get the Christmas sermons, and

761
00:47:48.639 --> 00:47:53.360
it's about leaving with the right emotion, not the right understanding.

762
00:47:55.360 --> 00:47:58.800
And the emotions may be good, it's wonderful that you

763
00:47:58.840 --> 00:48:13.000
can have all of those greats. Next, another problem that

764
00:48:13.320 --> 00:48:18.079
Christmas season becomes for many churches. You see the influence

765
00:48:18.239 --> 00:48:26.000
kind of a commercialized, a consumerism, a materialistic focus kind

766
00:48:26.039 --> 00:48:28.880
of shows up. I can go through my email right

767
00:48:28.920 --> 00:48:33.239
now from ministry after ministry that has contacted me in

768
00:48:33.280 --> 00:48:37.679
the last probably seventy two hours. It's Christmas time. Jesus

769
00:48:37.800 --> 00:48:40.599
is the reason and God has given us his son.

770
00:48:40.920 --> 00:48:43.719
Now we need you to give your best gifts so

771
00:48:43.719 --> 00:48:46.119
that we can continue to proclaim Christ and it's a

772
00:48:46.760 --> 00:48:50.519
Christmas season becomes an opportunity for ministries and for churches

773
00:48:50.599 --> 00:48:57.079
to raise money. Now that that is so messed up. Hey,

774
00:48:57.119 --> 00:48:59.199
we're gonna use Christmas as a way to make sure

775
00:48:59.239 --> 00:49:02.519
we can finish a year strong with our finances. Now,

776
00:49:02.559 --> 00:49:04.360
I understand. You get to the end of the year

777
00:49:04.519 --> 00:49:06.039
and you've got to realize, I've got a whole other

778
00:49:06.119 --> 00:49:07.920
year coming. What can we do? I mean, I could

779
00:49:07.920 --> 00:49:10.480
do that from the podcast. Look, man, we're fast approaching

780
00:49:10.480 --> 00:49:12.880
the end of twenty twenty four. All right, let's raise

781
00:49:12.960 --> 00:49:15.719
enough money so that twenty twenty five is covered financially.

782
00:49:15.880 --> 00:49:18.360
But it is Christmas time, the time to do that.

783
00:49:23.159 --> 00:49:28.719
Sermons can unintentionally reinforce the consumeristic tendencies of Christmas by

784
00:49:28.760 --> 00:49:39.559
emphasizing material generosity or external celebrations rather than spiritual truths. Now,

785
00:49:39.920 --> 00:49:43.239
it can talk. Now, sometimes it can be a good thing.

786
00:49:43.519 --> 00:49:46.599
I guess it can talk about being generous towards other people.

787
00:49:46.719 --> 00:49:51.440
But it becomes about generosity and gift giving than spiritual

788
00:49:51.480 --> 00:49:55.000
truths about the gift, which is for God so loved

789
00:49:55.039 --> 00:49:59.000
the world that he gave his only begotten son. Now again,

790
00:49:59.039 --> 00:50:04.079
I'm not gonna I'm not here to criticize gift giving right.

791
00:50:04.440 --> 00:50:06.840
Gift giving and in some ways is if you're giving

792
00:50:06.920 --> 00:50:10.800
a gift and you're not expecting anything in return, and

793
00:50:10.880 --> 00:50:13.639
you're just giving not to get well, then in some

794
00:50:13.679 --> 00:50:16.519
ways that captures the spirit. But in many cases the

795
00:50:16.599 --> 00:50:20.519
churches are looking for you to give to them. Ok. Now,

796
00:50:20.559 --> 00:50:23.280
some churches they may say, we're going to give to you, right.

797
00:50:23.440 --> 00:50:25.159
Some churches at this time of year may pay off

798
00:50:25.199 --> 00:50:28.119
people's medical bills and they do some great forms of

799
00:50:28.119 --> 00:50:31.239
generosity not looking for anything in return. That's great if

800
00:50:31.280 --> 00:50:33.840
your church during this time of year, instead of focusing

801
00:50:33.920 --> 00:50:38.480
on telling everyone to give a special Christmas offering, they're like, look,

802
00:50:38.760 --> 00:50:41.599
we know of ten families, either in the church or

803
00:50:41.639 --> 00:50:44.199
maybe not in the church, in the neighborhood, and we

804
00:50:44.360 --> 00:50:46.800
know that they have some specific financial needs. We're going

805
00:50:46.880 --> 00:50:49.079
to cover those needs. Now. The problem is many people

806
00:50:49.119 --> 00:50:50.519
in the church will get ticked off and want to

807
00:50:50.559 --> 00:50:52.480
know what you're doing with the money and blah blah.

808
00:50:52.480 --> 00:50:54.679
But if you can, if the church can give, then

809
00:50:54.760 --> 00:50:58.320
that's great without any expectation to get. But almost inevitably,

810
00:50:58.360 --> 00:51:01.920
many churches turn it into don't forget us during your

811
00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:07.199
Christmas season, give to you see, that can become How

812
00:51:07.199 --> 00:51:10.719
do you keep from the consumeristic, materialistic idea from creeping in?

813
00:51:10.880 --> 00:51:19.119
I think that can become a problem. I think maybe

814
00:51:19.159 --> 00:51:25.360
another problem is that in many cases during Christmas, maybe

815
00:51:25.480 --> 00:51:34.719
eschatology gets forgotten in there a host of issues pertaining

816
00:51:34.719 --> 00:51:40.360
to eschatology when we come to when we come to

817
00:51:40.360 --> 00:51:48.280
the Christmas story, Right, isn't there a host of them?

818
00:51:48.760 --> 00:51:53.400
Just if we just go to Matthew chapter one, verse twenty. Now,

819
00:51:53.440 --> 00:51:56.960
while but while he thought on these things, behold the

820
00:51:57.000 --> 00:51:59.559
Angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and a dream saying, Joseph,

821
00:52:00.079 --> 00:52:03.039
son of David, fear not take unto thee Mary, thy wife,

822
00:52:03.199 --> 00:52:05.440
for that which is conceived in her is of the

823
00:52:05.440 --> 00:52:07.400
Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son that

824
00:52:07.519 --> 00:52:11.639
she'll call his name Jesus, for he shall save his

825
00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:18.519
people from their sins. Wow, who is who is that?

826
00:52:20.280 --> 00:52:24.559
Who is who is there? His people from their sins?

827
00:52:25.280 --> 00:52:28.400
There's a lot right there to be considered. Also we

828
00:52:28.440 --> 00:52:31.840
can look at there's a lot of other places we

829
00:52:31.840 --> 00:52:36.079
could look here, because that that's kind of then we

830
00:52:36.159 --> 00:52:38.079
have Israel coming into play there. I think I don't

831
00:52:38.079 --> 00:52:46.440
think we can even forget that, right, I'm looking at

832
00:52:46.480 --> 00:52:53.599
some other place like this is Luke one, and then

833
00:52:53.599 --> 00:52:59.119
we read these words he hath hoping his servant Israel,

834
00:52:59.400 --> 00:53:03.239
and remember and of his mercy. Israel specifically mentioned. That's

835
00:53:03.280 --> 00:53:06.639
in the Magnificat in Luke chapter one, verses forty six

836
00:53:06.719 --> 00:53:10.679
through fifty six, Israel is specifically mentioned. And there's other

837
00:53:11.239 --> 00:53:14.800
issues pertaining to eschatology about Israel, him being a king,

838
00:53:15.679 --> 00:53:19.199
all those other passages we could go into. So sometimes

839
00:53:19.239 --> 00:53:24.280
we neglect the issues or implications that Christmas story may

840
00:53:24.320 --> 00:53:29.559
have in regards to eschatology. See the coming story of

841
00:53:29.719 --> 00:53:32.599
Jesus isn't just about the first coming or the first Advent.

842
00:53:32.880 --> 00:53:36.599
It's also points towards his second coming. Many sermons fail

843
00:53:36.639 --> 00:53:39.840
to make this connection, missing an opportunity to tie the

844
00:53:39.840 --> 00:53:43.360
incarnation to the ultimate fulfillment of God's redemptive plant, or

845
00:53:43.400 --> 00:53:46.000
in many cases they forget Israel and all of it

846
00:53:46.039 --> 00:53:49.719
as well. So there is eschatology here, and I think

847
00:53:49.760 --> 00:53:52.239
that's a problem when that gets overlooked. Again. People leave

848
00:53:52.320 --> 00:53:57.239
church with emotions, with sentimentality, they don't leave with theology.

849
00:53:57.280 --> 00:54:01.360
The heart of Christmas is still logical from the incarnation

850
00:54:01.840 --> 00:54:13.039
to eschatology. So what could what could make Christmas sermons better. Well,

851
00:54:13.119 --> 00:54:16.599
I think Christmas sermons could be better if philological depth

852
00:54:16.800 --> 00:54:22.599
was a goal. Focus on the incarnation, focus on christological

853
00:54:22.639 --> 00:54:28.639
heresies of the past, focus on theology. Right, what else?

854
00:54:28.719 --> 00:54:30.840
So if you want to make Christmas sermons better, it

855
00:54:30.840 --> 00:54:33.679
should be about philological depth. It should be about the

856
00:54:33.679 --> 00:54:38.480
heart of Christmas, which is theological, not sentimentality, not emotion,

857
00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:43.679
not giving everyone a Christmas vibe, just preach the theology

858
00:54:43.719 --> 00:54:49.239
of it. Next, focus on biblical context. Tie the Christmas

859
00:54:49.239 --> 00:54:53.320
story to Old Testament prophecies and the larger Gospel narrative.

860
00:54:54.480 --> 00:54:58.079
Focus on the biblical context. Now cultural context, not trying

861
00:54:58.079 --> 00:55:00.880
to make it all relevant to Christmas time, trying to

862
00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:07.679
just make it fit the biblical context. Now. This this

863
00:55:07.840 --> 00:55:11.440
is also I think needed, because there's such an overfamiliarity

864
00:55:11.480 --> 00:55:14.400
with it. Try to find some fresh perspective. I'm not

865
00:55:14.440 --> 00:55:22.360
saying create new doctrines, but fresh perspectives, right, I mean,

866
00:55:22.760 --> 00:55:25.599
try to look at some things that are often overlooked.

867
00:55:26.760 --> 00:55:29.199
Try to try to try to be willing to deal

868
00:55:29.199 --> 00:55:32.880
with the difficulties within the text, things that don't make sense,

869
00:55:33.039 --> 00:55:36.719
things that can be somewhat profoundly confusing, deal with the

870
00:55:36.719 --> 00:55:43.960
complications of understanding the nature of Christ, offer a fresh perspective,

871
00:55:47.119 --> 00:55:50.760
and then, of course, don't forget eschatology, because there isn't

872
00:55:51.079 --> 00:55:55.400
there is eschatology connected to it. How does Christ showing

873
00:55:55.480 --> 00:55:57.400
up and how does that relate to Israel? How does

874
00:55:57.400 --> 00:56:00.519
that relate to the Old Covenant, the new Covenant that

875
00:56:00.639 --> 00:56:02.400
is made with it, the House of Israel and the

876
00:56:02.400 --> 00:56:06.079
House of Judah. There's a lot of issues pertaining to eschatology.

877
00:56:06.280 --> 00:56:09.199
So if you want to make Christmas sermons better, philological depth,

878
00:56:09.239 --> 00:56:20.079
biblical context, fresh perspectives, and don't forget eschatology. Now, I

879
00:56:20.079 --> 00:56:21.880
don't know how many Christmas sermons are going to listen

880
00:56:21.920 --> 00:56:25.119
to today. I don't know. You've got plenty it you's

881
00:56:25.199 --> 00:56:27.440
from You've got plent In fact, just during the time

882
00:56:27.480 --> 00:56:30.199
that I have been broadcasting. Let me go back to

883
00:56:30.239 --> 00:56:32.519
the sermons two point oh app let me go back here,

884
00:56:33.360 --> 00:56:36.840
just from the time that I have been broadcasting. Go here,

885
00:56:36.920 --> 00:56:40.480
newest sermons. Oh yeah, I don't even know how many

886
00:56:40.519 --> 00:56:43.280
sermons that have been added. A whole bunch have been added.

887
00:56:43.559 --> 00:56:49.360
We've got how is he David's son? Behold, the Virgin

888
00:56:49.440 --> 00:56:53.000
will conceive more than the son of David Mary, Mother

889
00:56:53.119 --> 00:56:57.800
of God, My eyes have seen your salvation. Jesus, a

890
00:56:57.840 --> 00:57:01.159
lot of the world, the peace of God, Angels of Christmas,

891
00:57:01.280 --> 00:57:06.880
the promise fulfilled, The incarnation is not planned b the

892
00:57:07.000 --> 00:57:10.719
Great King. These are all new sermons that have been

893
00:57:10.719 --> 00:57:13.320
added just during the time that I have been broadcasting.

894
00:57:13.639 --> 00:57:20.280
You've got thousands upon thousands to choose from. Now, and

895
00:57:20.360 --> 00:57:24.079
as you listen, well consider some of the possible weaknesses

896
00:57:24.079 --> 00:57:27.320
in them, some of the possible problems. Some of them

897
00:57:27.360 --> 00:57:30.280
will avoid the weaknesses. Some of them will avoid the problems,

898
00:57:30.280 --> 00:57:32.679
and that should be great. Some of them will fall

899
00:57:32.760 --> 00:57:34.679
right into the trap of the weakness and the problems.

900
00:57:34.679 --> 00:57:38.320
But you can still possibly take something positive from it.

901
00:57:39.880 --> 00:57:42.719
What we would always hope, and I know this is

902
00:57:42.760 --> 00:57:47.000
not it doesn't work this way. What we would always hope,

903
00:57:47.400 --> 00:57:50.960
and this is sometimes I struggle with. This is when

904
00:57:51.000 --> 00:57:54.079
we reach whether you follow advent or don't follow advent,

905
00:57:54.360 --> 00:57:56.559
when we reach this season. Let's state it that way.

906
00:57:56.760 --> 00:58:00.840
When we reach this season, what you would hope is

907
00:58:00.880 --> 00:58:06.119
that when the season ends, you're better off spiritually. Now,

908
00:58:06.119 --> 00:58:09.159
for some people, they approach the season and all they

909
00:58:09.159 --> 00:58:12.039
want to do is argue with everyone about Christmas and

910
00:58:12.119 --> 00:58:15.880
paganism and it's connection, and that's what they want to do.

911
00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:18.239
They just want to go around correct everyone and say,

912
00:58:18.440 --> 00:58:21.480
what are you doing? You can't be celebrating Jesus during

913
00:58:21.519 --> 00:58:25.119
this time of year. I don't really understand that concept. Okay,

914
00:58:25.280 --> 00:58:29.320
but that's what they want to do. And I'm often

915
00:58:29.400 --> 00:58:31.960
curious when it's all said and done. Okay, you spent

916
00:58:32.079 --> 00:58:35.639
a you spent the entire month of December being the

917
00:58:35.719 --> 00:58:39.440
Christmas police, being the pagan police. Right, you went around

918
00:58:39.519 --> 00:58:42.159
telling everyone, Oh, see this, and this could be linked

919
00:58:42.199 --> 00:58:43.760
to this, and this could be linked to this, and

920
00:58:44.159 --> 00:58:46.800
you went and corrected everyone. How are you doing spiritually?

921
00:58:46.840 --> 00:58:50.599
Now you better off? Did it make you more humble?

922
00:58:50.760 --> 00:58:53.679
Did it make you more sensitive to Christ to sin?

923
00:58:54.079 --> 00:58:56.599
Or did it just make you more frustrated and bitter

924
00:58:56.679 --> 00:58:57.199
with everyone?

925
00:59:01.559 --> 00:59:01.760
Right?

926
00:59:02.480 --> 00:59:04.960
The same thing can be said to people like me.

927
00:59:05.119 --> 00:59:07.079
I don't get caught up in all of that craziness,

928
00:59:07.360 --> 00:59:09.599
but I do get caught up in churches trying to

929
00:59:09.639 --> 00:59:12.639
be more theologically precise and sound. Now I can go

930
00:59:12.679 --> 00:59:14.480
through all these sermons, and you know what I can do.

931
00:59:14.719 --> 00:59:17.039
I can find out what in the world is that

932
00:59:17.599 --> 00:59:20.599
you just talked about? The Immaculate conception. You completely messed

933
00:59:20.599 --> 00:59:22.840
that up. What did you just say about the incarnation?

934
00:59:23.039 --> 00:59:25.559
And I can point out all the theological the same

935
00:59:25.599 --> 00:59:27.440
thing can be said about me. When it's all said

936
00:59:27.480 --> 00:59:30.000
and done. Am I better off spiritually? Or do I

937
00:59:30.039 --> 00:59:33.519
feel better about myself? Am I more proud and arrogant

938
00:59:33.599 --> 00:59:38.000
and condescending? And I haven't been really found the beauty

939
00:59:38.280 --> 00:59:42.280
of the incarnation and been better off spiritually? In many cases,

940
00:59:42.719 --> 00:59:45.440
I'm not off. I'm not better off any spiritually than

941
00:59:45.480 --> 00:59:47.840
anybody else because I get frustrated with all of this

942
00:59:48.039 --> 00:59:54.159
nonsense that happens. That's not good for me either, But

943
00:59:54.320 --> 00:59:58.840
for others. You may not be the pagan police. You

944
00:59:58.920 --> 01:00:02.840
may not be the philological you know, being all philologically critical.

945
01:00:03.239 --> 01:00:05.519
You may be the one who embraces just the whole

946
01:00:05.599 --> 01:00:10.800
Christmas vibe and the sentimentality and the Hallmark movie vibe.

947
01:00:10.800 --> 01:00:14.239
And you love it, and you just you love that.

948
01:00:14.559 --> 01:00:16.559
And it's great that you do, and it's great that

949
01:00:16.599 --> 01:00:19.639
it brings you great joy and happiness, and that is

950
01:00:19.840 --> 01:00:22.719
wonderful that you have such good feelings and memories and

951
01:00:23.440 --> 01:00:26.280
you've got the family and you've got all of it.

952
01:00:26.519 --> 01:00:29.199
That's wonderful. But the same thing can be asked of

953
01:00:29.239 --> 01:00:32.079
you when it's all said and done, are you better

954
01:00:32.119 --> 01:00:38.119
off spiritually? Or you just had a wonderful December, great

955
01:00:38.119 --> 01:00:42.679
family memories, you're closer to your husband, you're closer to

956
01:00:42.719 --> 01:00:48.559
your kids, and that's all wonderful stuff. But spiritually, you

957
01:00:48.599 --> 01:00:50.519
didn't get anything from Christmas. You can. In fact, you

958
01:00:50.559 --> 01:00:55.280
missed the entire theology of Christmas. So that's not good either. See,

959
01:00:55.280 --> 01:00:57.159
we don't want to be the pagan police. We don't

960
01:00:57.159 --> 01:00:59.960
want to necessarily be the philological critic. We don't want

961
01:01:00.159 --> 01:01:03.599
necessarily be the one who who's the Hallmark mark okay,

962
01:01:03.840 --> 01:01:06.599
using a wrestling term, the Hallmark super fan, all right,

963
01:01:07.000 --> 01:01:11.719
the Hallmark fanboy, the Hallmark fangirl, that vibe. You don't

964
01:01:11.760 --> 01:01:13.440
necessarily want to be that. So we don't want to

965
01:01:13.440 --> 01:01:15.079
be the pagan police. We don't want to be the

966
01:01:15.079 --> 01:01:17.760
theological critic. But we don't want to be the Hallmark

967
01:01:17.840 --> 01:01:23.360
you know, fan person. There's gotta be a balance in

968
01:01:23.400 --> 01:01:25.400
all of that, and the problem is Christmas makes it

969
01:01:25.440 --> 01:01:34.599
almost impossible to find that balance. It really does. It's

970
01:01:34.800 --> 01:01:39.119
hard to find it. There's a fourth group, right, So

971
01:01:39.199 --> 01:01:42.239
you got the pagan police, you got the theological critic.

972
01:01:42.239 --> 01:01:45.000
You've got the Hallmark fan person, and you also got

973
01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.400
the person who's just broken and hurt and discouraged and

974
01:01:49.480 --> 01:01:52.599
depressed by Christmas. And by the time Christmas is over,

975
01:01:54.239 --> 01:01:57.840
you're just I mean, you're you're an emotional mess before

976
01:01:57.880 --> 01:02:03.119
it's over. That's not good either. Somehow the story of

977
01:02:03.159 --> 01:02:09.039
the incarnation of Christ should be philologically so significant and

978
01:02:09.079 --> 01:02:12.480
so powerful that by the time Christmas is over we

979
01:02:12.599 --> 01:02:17.320
are we're more focused on that, we're broken, we're humbled,

980
01:02:17.360 --> 01:02:21.039
we're convicted, we move somewhat forward spiritually. I just don't

981
01:02:21.039 --> 01:02:23.599
know if it really happens that way. I think when

982
01:02:23.599 --> 01:02:26.039
it's all over, we kind of find ourselves in one

983
01:02:26.079 --> 01:02:29.000
of these categories, right, the pagan police, where you're just

984
01:02:29.039 --> 01:02:32.880
going around pagan pagan, pagan, pagan, pagan, pagan pagan and

985
01:02:32.920 --> 01:02:35.079
even if you try to water it down, it's still

986
01:02:35.119 --> 01:02:39.639
that's your concern, right, or the philological police, right, theological critic.

987
01:02:39.840 --> 01:02:41.719
What is that that's not the incarnation, that's not the

988
01:02:41.760 --> 01:02:44.840
hypothetic union, that's a crystological heresy. And I think those

989
01:02:44.840 --> 01:02:47.079
things need to be addressed. But again, you just walk

990
01:02:47.119 --> 01:02:50.000
away just going around criticizing everything that's not good. Or

991
01:02:50.079 --> 01:02:53.599
you just get so wrapped up in the sentimental part

992
01:02:53.599 --> 01:02:56.239
of it. You're the Hallmark fan person, and what do

993
01:02:56.320 --> 01:02:59.400
you get from it? You get great emotions and wonderful time.

994
01:02:59.639 --> 01:03:01.719
I mean that's I guess a good thing. But you

995
01:03:01.800 --> 01:03:04.320
miss out in the theology as well. Or you can

996
01:03:04.400 --> 01:03:06.320
just be the person who approaches it and you just

997
01:03:06.360 --> 01:03:11.599
become more bitter, more isolated. You almost feel victimized by it.

998
01:03:13.039 --> 01:03:15.400
You almost feel like, like what happened to me here?

999
01:03:16.440 --> 01:03:21.159
How Like you almost feel like you've been you know,

1000
01:03:21.320 --> 01:03:23.599
you almost feel like you've been taken advantage of you.

1001
01:03:23.599 --> 01:03:35.719
You've been you've been brutalized. Those are all negative things. Now,

1002
01:03:37.119 --> 01:03:40.280
the reality is it's December the twenty third. We just

1003
01:03:40.320 --> 01:03:43.880
got to get through today, tomorrow and then the next

1004
01:03:43.960 --> 01:03:47.000
day and then really by December the twenty sixth, twenty seventh,

1005
01:03:47.440 --> 01:03:50.320
everyone's already moved on, I mean everyone, and then now

1006
01:03:50.440 --> 01:03:51.880
then it's like and then you got to get through

1007
01:03:51.880 --> 01:03:54.920
New Year's Eve right then New Year's Day, and then

1008
01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:57.320
finally it's over, and then you're just like, good, I'm

1009
01:03:57.320 --> 01:04:00.440
good for a year, and you can what but thee

1010
01:04:00.559 --> 01:04:03.400
is is what could be gained from all of it?

1011
01:04:05.559 --> 01:04:07.039
So what I want you to do is I want

1012
01:04:07.079 --> 01:04:09.039
you to listen to as many Christmas sermons as you can,

1013
01:04:09.199 --> 01:04:12.800
right to finish the sermon's two point oh app sermon

1014
01:04:12.920 --> 01:04:16.559
challenge strong. But I want you to just ensure that

1015
01:04:18.800 --> 01:04:22.280
you find something within no matter how good discermon is

1016
01:04:22.360 --> 01:04:24.880
or how bad descermon is, you try to find something

1017
01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:28.760
positive you can take from it, something good, something that

1018
01:04:28.880 --> 01:04:35.360
is spiritually beneficial, not just be a critic. And I

1019
01:04:35.400 --> 01:04:37.880
don't know which category you find yourself in. I don't know.

1020
01:04:37.960 --> 01:04:40.719
I don't know where you find yourself. I don't know.

1021
01:04:41.280 --> 01:04:44.199
We all find ourselves this time of year. We find

1022
01:04:44.239 --> 01:04:49.199
ourselves in very different It's almost like we're living different realities.

1023
01:04:49.440 --> 01:04:53.559
Like that's person's reality, and it's like two different worlds,

1024
01:04:53.559 --> 01:04:56.199
and like I don't really understand you and you don't

1025
01:04:56.199 --> 01:04:59.760
really understand me. And that's okay. You just don't expect

1026
01:05:00.039 --> 01:05:06.239
others to live your world, right, don't expect others to

1027
01:05:06.320 --> 01:05:10.079
live your world. Let everyone be them and make it

1028
01:05:10.159 --> 01:05:13.119
through this in their own way. Now, at the same time,

1029
01:05:13.119 --> 01:05:17.559
we want to clearly care about theology at theological accuracy.

1030
01:05:17.800 --> 01:05:19.639
We clearly don't want to miss the heart of Christmas,

1031
01:05:19.679 --> 01:05:22.760
which is illological, but we also have to let people

1032
01:05:23.239 --> 01:05:25.400
be them instead of trying to turn them into some

1033
01:05:25.480 --> 01:05:31.400
kind of little, you know, clone. Nobody is a clone.

1034
01:05:31.559 --> 01:05:37.920
We don't want conformity, right, we don't want conformity. People

1035
01:05:38.039 --> 01:05:42.800
will go through the holidays their own special way. The

1036
01:05:42.880 --> 01:05:45.000
key is we all do so in a healthy way

1037
01:05:45.400 --> 01:05:49.199
and a beneficial way. And the Church will always struggle

1038
01:05:49.199 --> 01:05:51.760
in exactly how to preach these sermons. So I think

1039
01:05:51.760 --> 01:05:55.559
there's weaknesses and there's problems. But no matter how weak

1040
01:05:55.599 --> 01:05:57.679
the sermon is or how many problems are in the sermon,

1041
01:05:58.440 --> 01:06:06.519
find something positive it all right, Thanks for listening. For

1042
01:06:06.639 --> 01:06:13.280
those who can have a happy, merry, wonderful Christmas. For

1043
01:06:13.400 --> 01:06:16.320
those who it may not be so merry, may not

1044
01:06:16.480 --> 01:06:20.559
be so happy. Don't feel guilty about that, don't become

1045
01:06:20.639 --> 01:06:24.280
bitter about that. Find the good things that you can

1046
01:06:24.320 --> 01:06:28.559
grab on to, and hold on to those positive things

1047
01:06:28.559 --> 01:06:32.239
that you can find. Right. May not be what everyone

1048
01:06:32.239 --> 01:06:34.719
else has. Don't look at everyone. Don't look at what

1049
01:06:34.719 --> 01:06:37.320
everyone else is doing. Ignore what everyone else is doing.

1050
01:06:37.360 --> 01:06:41.119
Who cares? They've got it wonderful, they've got it great, great,

1051
01:06:41.480 --> 01:06:48.320
Just applaud for them and move on, all right. Thanks

1052
01:06:48.360 --> 01:06:53.880
for listening everyone, have a great day. God bless