1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:02,180 really is great to be here. 2 00:00:02,180 –> 00:00:04,440 And I guess the first thing to say 3 00:00:04,440 –> 00:00:09,340 is it really doesn’t feel all that strange 4 00:00:09,340 –> 00:00:13,820 because you see every time you worship, 5 00:00:13,820 –> 00:00:15,720 my colleagues are here. 6 00:00:17,000 –> 00:00:20,740 So this is a familiar place and the truth is 7 00:00:20,740 –> 00:00:23,500 that my colleagues are around you far more 8 00:00:23,500 –> 00:00:24,959 than you probably think. 9 00:00:26,120 –> 00:00:29,559 Actually there is a whole world of spiritual beings 10 00:00:29,719 –> 00:00:32,000 hidden just beond your view. 11 00:00:32,919 –> 00:00:36,340 The Apostle John caught a glimpse of some of us 12 00:00:36,340 –> 00:00:38,020 in the vision that he wrote down 13 00:00:38,020 –> 00:00:41,119 in the book you call Revelation. 14 00:00:41,119 –> 00:00:44,660 He spoke about thousands upon thousands 15 00:00:44,660 –> 00:00:48,500 and 10,000 times 10,000. 16 00:00:48,500 –> 00:00:50,180 If you’ve got your calculator, 17 00:00:50,180 –> 00:00:52,220 you’ll know that that last bit alone 18 00:00:52,220 –> 00:00:56,759 is 100 million angels and that’s just the ones he saw. 19 00:00:57,439 –> 00:01:01,020 I can’t tell you how many angels there are. 20 00:01:01,020 –> 00:01:04,059 Frankly, I’ve got more important things to do 21 00:01:04,059 –> 00:01:06,379 than try and count them. 22 00:01:06,379 –> 00:01:09,580 But I suspect that there are at least as many 23 00:01:09,580 –> 00:01:11,779 as there are people in the world. 24 00:01:11,779 –> 00:01:13,199 Used to make us laugh, you know, 25 00:01:13,199 –> 00:01:16,419 when you ancients used to argue about 26 00:01:16,419 –> 00:01:19,820 how many angels could dance on a pin head. 27 00:01:19,820 –> 00:01:24,139 You know that when people become fascinated with us, 28 00:01:24,139 –> 00:01:26,500 they’ve usually missed the point 29 00:01:26,519 –> 00:01:30,680 which is of course that we are fascinated with him. 30 00:01:32,699 –> 00:01:36,040 The great privilege of my life 31 00:01:36,040 –> 00:01:38,959 is to stand in the presence of God. 32 00:01:40,879 –> 00:01:43,879 I see how the divine love flows 33 00:01:43,879 –> 00:01:47,300 between the father and the son and the spirit 34 00:01:47,300 –> 00:01:49,720 and then from them to us all. 35 00:01:51,500 –> 00:01:53,720 But what I want you to understand today 36 00:01:53,800 –> 00:01:57,279 is that you can experience the love of God 37 00:01:57,279 –> 00:02:01,540 in a way that is beyond anything I can ever know. 38 00:02:03,940 –> 00:02:05,180 Let me tell you about it. 39 00:02:06,720 –> 00:02:11,720 See, our father has made three orders of creation. 40 00:02:13,479 –> 00:02:15,080 There are the animals. 41 00:02:15,080 –> 00:02:19,320 They have bodies but they don’t have souls. 42 00:02:19,320 –> 00:02:21,360 Then there are us, the angels. 43 00:02:21,399 –> 00:02:24,100 We have souls, but we do not have bodies. 44 00:02:24,100 –> 00:02:27,520 We can appear, as you know, but we have no physical form. 45 00:02:28,479 –> 00:02:31,520 Then there are you, the humans. 46 00:02:31,520 –> 00:02:36,380 You are body and soul knit together 47 00:02:36,380 –> 00:02:39,220 in a strange and wonderful union 48 00:02:39,220 –> 00:02:42,880 which to us is endlessly fascinating. 49 00:02:42,880 –> 00:02:46,600 Think about it, the animals are physical beings 50 00:02:46,600 –> 00:02:49,300 which means they die and they’re not eternal. 51 00:02:50,259 –> 00:02:54,580 We are spiritual beings which means we are eternal 52 00:02:54,580 –> 00:02:55,800 and we do not die. 53 00:02:56,860 –> 00:03:01,179 You are physical and spiritual beings. 54 00:03:01,179 –> 00:03:03,639 Being physical means that you die, 55 00:03:03,639 –> 00:03:07,259 being spiritual means that you are eternal. 56 00:03:08,860 –> 00:03:12,139 We are amazed at how often 57 00:03:12,139 –> 00:03:16,259 human beings miss the unique glory 58 00:03:16,259 –> 00:03:18,500 of your creation. 59 00:03:18,759 –> 00:03:20,699 That used to make us laugh, you know. 60 00:03:20,699 –> 00:03:22,600 In past generations, 61 00:03:22,600 –> 00:03:26,119 your scientific materialsists 62 00:03:26,119 –> 00:03:28,220 dismissed the spiritual 63 00:03:28,220 –> 00:03:31,699 and they placed all their interest in the physical 64 00:03:31,699 –> 00:03:33,940 as if a human being were no more 65 00:03:33,940 –> 00:03:35,919 than a highly developed animal 66 00:03:35,919 –> 00:03:38,500 or a programmable machine. 67 00:03:38,500 –> 00:03:40,580 Had they never heard of love? 68 00:03:42,139 –> 00:03:44,839 Did they really believe that what they experienced 69 00:03:44,839 –> 00:03:46,860 in the birth of a child 70 00:03:46,860 –> 00:03:50,279 or around the Christmas tree with the family 71 00:03:50,279 –> 00:03:53,839 was just the chemical stimulus 72 00:03:53,839 –> 00:03:55,880 of something going on in the brain? 73 00:03:58,039 –> 00:03:59,839 Boy, if you think of yourself 74 00:03:59,839 –> 00:04:01,800 as a highly developed animal 75 00:04:01,800 –> 00:04:03,380 or a programmable machine, 76 00:04:03,380 –> 00:04:06,580 you have totally undersold yourself 77 00:04:06,580 –> 00:04:08,979 and misunderstood the glory 78 00:04:08,979 –> 00:04:12,940 of your unique nature created by God. 79 00:04:13,860 –> 00:04:17,839 Of course, today as we watch the human world, 80 00:04:17,839 –> 00:04:19,700 we see the opposite problem. 81 00:04:20,959 –> 00:04:23,640 Spirituality is back in vogue. 82 00:04:25,059 –> 00:04:27,119 And so now folks have the idea 83 00:04:27,119 –> 00:04:30,279 that as long as you are spiritual in some way, 84 00:04:30,279 –> 00:04:31,600 it really doesn’t matter 85 00:04:31,600 –> 00:04:34,299 what you do with your body. 86 00:04:34,299 –> 00:04:39,299 So, we see kids spending hours and hours 87 00:04:39,320 –> 00:04:44,320 and hours looking at grotesque images on film 88 00:04:45,760 –> 00:04:48,200 and in video games. 89 00:04:48,200 –> 00:04:52,559 Completely unaware of how what they see with their eyes 90 00:04:52,559 –> 00:04:54,899 goes through the body and right into the soul. 91 00:04:56,200 –> 00:04:58,980 And it shrivels the emotions. 92 00:04:58,980 –> 00:05:03,980 It dulls the conscience and dampens spiritual life. 93 00:05:05,440 –> 00:05:08,519 In fact, it dulls all the senses. 94 00:05:09,380 –> 00:05:12,880 Which is exactly what your enemy wants. 95 00:05:14,260 –> 00:05:16,320 So here’s a word of wisdom from an angel. 96 00:05:17,220 –> 00:05:22,179 Choose what you watch and what you listen to carefully. 97 00:05:22,179 –> 00:05:24,399 And turn it off in church as well. 98 00:05:24,519 –> 00:05:26,059 Well… 99 00:05:30,799 –> 00:05:33,440 Think about the effect it will have on your soul. 100 00:05:34,880 –> 00:05:39,239 Will it bring more light or will it bring more darkness? 101 00:05:40,799 –> 00:05:45,920 What your eyes see, what your ears hear and what your hands do where your feet go. 102 00:05:45,920 –> 00:05:49,040 They all shape your soul. 103 00:05:49,720 –> 00:05:51,279 That seems obvious to us. 104 00:05:51,279 –> 00:05:54,160 And we would have thought that since you’re the ones with the bodies, 105 00:05:54,160 –> 00:05:56,739 it would have been obvious to you as well. 106 00:05:58,540 –> 00:06:02,160 Now just a word of personal introduction before I get into my story. 107 00:06:02,160 –> 00:06:08,559 Did you know that there are only two angels mentioned by name in the bible? 108 00:06:08,559 –> 00:06:12,640 Apart from the other fallen one who I want to speak about today. 109 00:06:12,640 –> 00:06:16,799 But one’s name is Michael, my colleague, the Archangel. 110 00:06:16,799 –> 00:06:19,980 The other is me, Gabriel. 111 00:06:20,160 –> 00:06:25,359 I was chosen to be God’s special messenger, a great privilege, 112 00:06:25,359 –> 00:06:30,059 not on one but on three occasions. 113 00:06:30,059 –> 00:06:34,160 The first was when I was sent to the prophet Daniel. 114 00:06:34,160 –> 00:06:37,260 He’d been given a vision that he didn’t understand. 115 00:06:37,260 –> 00:06:41,399 Actually, Christians have struggled to understand it a great deal ever since as well, 116 00:06:41,399 –> 00:06:45,339 but I was sent at least to help him to make sense of it all. 117 00:06:45,339 –> 00:06:49,880 I remember when I appeared to him, he was utterly devastated. 118 00:06:50,359 –> 00:06:52,920 Prostrate on the floor he was trembling. 119 00:06:52,920 –> 00:06:57,480 It took him days to recover. 120 00:06:57,480 –> 00:07:01,899 The second time I was sent on a mission was to a man called Zechariah, 121 00:07:01,899 –> 00:07:05,359 the priest serving in the temple of God. 122 00:07:05,359 –> 00:07:10,440 My mission then was to announce the birth of John the Baptist. 123 00:07:10,440 –> 00:07:13,040 When I appeared to Zechariah, it seemed the same. 124 00:07:13,040 –> 00:07:15,040 He also was gripped with fear. 125 00:07:15,040 –> 00:07:18,480 I told him the word of God, but he didn’t believe it. 126 00:07:18,679 –> 00:07:23,119 Well, you can’t have spiritual leaders going around speaking unbelief, can you? 127 00:07:23,119 –> 00:07:31,839 And so speech was taken from him until his son was born, and then his speech returned. 128 00:07:31,839 –> 00:07:35,559 And he used it to praise and glorify God. 129 00:07:35,559 –> 00:07:41,519 I tell you that so that you understand that my previous visits to Daniel and Zechariah 130 00:07:41,519 –> 00:07:45,559 had obviously been quite devastating for them. 131 00:07:45,559 –> 00:07:53,359 And so when I was summoned for my third mission and told that it was to visit a country girl 132 00:07:53,359 –> 00:07:58,100 in her early teens, my first instinct was to say, 133 00:07:58,100 –> 00:08:01,940 are you sure that you have the right angel for this? 134 00:08:01,940 –> 00:08:11,899 There is a young woman, I was told, to whom you must give this message. 135 00:08:11,959 –> 00:08:17,019 It is the most important announcement we have ever made. 136 00:08:17,019 –> 00:08:22,079 And the future of the world hangs upon it. 137 00:08:22,079 –> 00:08:25,720 When I heard the message I was to give, I was the one who couldn’t speak, 138 00:08:25,720 –> 00:08:27,260 I could hardly take it in. 139 00:08:27,260 –> 00:08:31,579 And the truth is, I still can’t. 140 00:08:31,579 –> 00:08:40,000 If you had seen his glory as I did, if you knew him as I do, 141 00:08:40,039 –> 00:08:46,200 you would have been staggered and speechless as well. 142 00:08:46,200 –> 00:08:49,960 Well, I took down the details and off I went. 143 00:08:49,960 –> 00:08:55,520 Not to Jerusalem, not to the temple, not to a daughter of Caiaphas the high priest 144 00:08:55,520 –> 00:09:06,700 but to a peasant girl in a despised down in the hill community called Nazareth. 145 00:09:06,820 –> 00:09:11,760 Why she was chosen, I cannot say. 146 00:09:11,760 –> 00:09:17,780 God’s choices are as inscrutable as they are glorious. 147 00:09:17,780 –> 00:09:24,460 All I can tell you is that He also has the right to choose. 148 00:09:24,460 –> 00:09:28,559 Her name was Mary, and she was a virgin. 149 00:09:28,559 –> 00:09:32,299 She was already pledged to be married to a man called Joseph who was in the line 150 00:09:32,299 –> 00:09:34,919 of descent that came from David. 151 00:09:35,000 –> 00:09:38,679 Their marriage was planned, but it had not yet taken place. 152 00:09:39,679 –> 00:09:44,119 When I appeared, I gave her my warmest greeting. 153 00:09:44,119 –> 00:09:49,520 Greetings I said, you who are highly favored the Lord is with you. 154 00:09:50,659 –> 00:09:57,640 Honestly, I don’t know who was more afraid, she of what was happening or me as to how 155 00:09:57,640 –> 00:09:58,640 she might respond? 156 00:09:58,640 –> 00:10:02,479 I mean, if she were to scream and run away, what was I to do next? 157 00:10:04,919 –> 00:10:08,219 It was obvious to me that she was a woman of great faith. 158 00:10:09,419 –> 00:10:13,460 And she seemed to sense that I had come as a messenger from the Lord. 159 00:10:13,460 –> 00:10:19,940 I saw how much she was troubled and so I said to her, don’t be afraid, Mary. 160 00:10:19,940 –> 00:10:24,020 You have found favor with God. 161 00:10:24,880 –> 00:10:33,700 See, I’ve noticed, that with humans when God comes close, your first instinct is to 162 00:10:33,760 –> 00:10:36,400 assume the worst. 163 00:10:36,400 –> 00:10:42,679 You just assume that God coming near means trouble for you. 164 00:10:42,679 –> 00:10:48,400 No human conscience is completely clear before God, and so your first instinct is to be more 165 00:10:48,400 –> 00:10:51,419 comfortable with God at a distance than near at hand. 166 00:10:51,419 –> 00:10:55,919 I guess that’s what Mary was thinking too. 167 00:10:55,919 –> 00:11:01,179 That’s why I said to her, you have found favor with God. 168 00:11:01,179 –> 00:11:05,799 The word favor means grace, you know that word well. 169 00:11:05,799 –> 00:11:10,059 You have been graced by God, that’s what I told her. 170 00:11:10,059 –> 00:11:14,520 And it wasn’t just her, it’s all of you as well. 171 00:11:14,520 –> 00:11:21,500 The whole human race has been graced by God in the coming of Jesus into the world. 172 00:11:21,500 –> 00:11:28,119 The only question is how you will respond to God’s grace that is held out to you in 173 00:11:28,119 –> 00:11:30,799 his son Jesus. 174 00:11:30,799 –> 00:11:37,739 So then I gave her this message, you will be with child I said, and you will give birth 175 00:11:37,739 –> 00:11:43,219 to a son, you’re to give him the name Jesus. 176 00:11:43,219 –> 00:11:48,159 He will be great, he will be the son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him 177 00:11:48,159 –> 00:11:50,479 the throne of his father David. 178 00:11:50,479 –> 00:11:58,859 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will never end. 179 00:11:58,859 –> 00:12:03,099 I paused and I wondered what she’d say. 180 00:12:03,099 –> 00:12:08,380 It seemed like time stood still just as it does in eternity. 181 00:12:08,380 –> 00:12:10,179 And then she spoke. 182 00:12:10,179 –> 00:12:18,099 How will this be since I am a virgin, she asked me. 183 00:12:18,460 –> 00:12:22,659 That was when I realised that she had not grasped what I was really saying. 184 00:12:22,659 –> 00:12:26,479 She thought that I meant that she and her husband would at some time in the future have 185 00:12:26,479 –> 00:12:30,099 a son who would turn out to be one of the great figures of human history. 186 00:12:30,099 –> 00:12:33,799 But since she was not married, that was not yet possible. 187 00:12:33,799 –> 00:12:37,159 So I tried to explain. 188 00:12:37,159 –> 00:12:42,419 It wasn’t easy to find words to express the greatest mystery your world or ours has ever 189 00:12:42,419 –> 00:12:45,260 known. 190 00:12:45,359 –> 00:12:48,700 What I said to her was this. 191 00:12:48,700 –> 00:12:54,419 The Holy Spirit will come upon you, I said. 192 00:12:54,419 –> 00:13:01,580 The power of the Most High will overshadow you so the Holy One to be born will be the 193 00:13:01,580 –> 00:13:06,460 Son of God. 194 00:13:06,500 –> 00:13:14,380 How the light and life of heaven could take a human form is beyond what even angels can 195 00:13:14,380 –> 00:13:16,500 grasp. 196 00:13:16,500 –> 00:13:24,260 How he could be helpless as a human child is beyond what we can fathom. 197 00:13:24,260 –> 00:13:29,780 It is a mystery to me still, as much as it is and always will be to you, but what I tell 198 00:13:29,780 –> 00:13:33,020 you is it happened. 199 00:13:33,080 –> 00:13:41,700 All I can say is what I said to Mary, with God, nothing is impossible. 200 00:13:41,700 –> 00:13:46,979 Well, after that I held my breath. 201 00:13:46,979 –> 00:13:52,359 Well, actually, angels don’t have breath, but it’s just a way of speaking that you 202 00:13:52,359 –> 00:13:53,580 would understand. 203 00:13:53,580 –> 00:13:58,500 I waited to see what she would say. 204 00:13:58,500 –> 00:14:01,859 God would never do this work through someone unwilling. 205 00:14:01,859 –> 00:14:06,900 He has His way, of course, of drawing our will, but He does not force His way or His 206 00:14:06,900 –> 00:14:09,559 will on anyone. 207 00:14:09,559 –> 00:14:14,900 By the way, that is why it’s not possible for everyone to be in heaven. 208 00:14:14,900 –> 00:14:21,000 Why would a person enjoy God in heaven if he or she had spent all of their life avoiding 209 00:14:21,000 –> 00:14:22,380 Him on earth? 210 00:14:22,380 –> 00:14:30,580 No, Mary had a choice to make, as all of us do, in response to God, and I trembled as 211 00:14:30,580 –> 00:14:33,760 I waited to hear what she would say. 212 00:14:33,760 –> 00:14:35,520 Then she spoke. 213 00:14:35,520 –> 00:14:40,179 “‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ she said. 214 00:14:40,179 –> 00:14:48,260 “‘Let it be to me, as you have said.’” 215 00:14:48,260 –> 00:14:52,099 And so it was that nine months later, Jesus was born. 216 00:14:52,099 –> 00:14:58,280 A whole company of my colleagues appeared in the sky that night, praising God and announcing 217 00:14:58,280 –> 00:15:01,479 the Good News to men and women. 218 00:15:01,479 –> 00:15:05,919 I have to tell you, we marveled as we watched His life. 219 00:15:05,919 –> 00:15:10,880 He was everything God intended a human being to be. 220 00:15:10,880 –> 00:15:19,919 Imagine, we said to each other, imagine if other men and women could become like Him. 221 00:15:19,919 –> 00:15:25,919 His ministry brought more good to the world than anything we had seen in all of human 222 00:15:26,400 –> 00:15:31,760 history, and that happened over a period of just three years. 223 00:15:31,760 –> 00:15:38,460 That is why we could hardly believe what happened next. 224 00:15:38,460 –> 00:15:42,960 You people crucified Him. 225 00:15:42,960 –> 00:15:49,960 I’ll never forget that day! 226 00:15:50,640 –> 00:15:57,640 We watched as He was scourged and bound and led away. 227 00:15:58,000 –> 00:16:04,900 We waited for Him to call us for deliverance but He never did. 228 00:16:04,900 –> 00:16:07,940 When He was nailed to that cross we said to the Father, 229 00:16:07,940 –> 00:16:12,760 please let us go now, but He held us back. 230 00:16:13,520 –> 00:16:22,039 God’s forbearance at human sin has always amazed us. 231 00:16:22,039 –> 00:16:26,940 But this had to be humanity’s Day of Reckoning, we knew that God’s judgment 232 00:16:26,940 –> 00:16:36,719 must fall that day, but as we watched we realized that the judgment for human 233 00:16:37,039 –> 00:16:45,580 sins was falling on Jesus, that He was absorbing it in His own body on your 234 00:16:45,580 –> 00:16:54,099 behalf, that He was actually making Himself the sacrifice, the sacrifice, for 235 00:16:54,099 –> 00:17:10,060 your sins. Then He died and heaven fell silent. Of course, we fully expected His 236 00:17:10,060 –> 00:17:14,260 Spirit to return to heaven where He belongs, but that would have meant 237 00:17:14,260 –> 00:17:20,880 abandoning His humanity, which would have been of no help to you. So it wasn’t 238 00:17:21,000 –> 00:17:25,060 until the third day that we understood what God was really doing. 239 00:17:25,060 –> 00:17:30,920 I will never forget that glorious morning. The corpse of Jesus had been 240 00:17:30,920 –> 00:17:37,680 laid out in a sealed tomb, and it was animated that morning with His life. 241 00:17:37,680 –> 00:17:43,520 His human body was transformed, it was energized, it was adapted for all 242 00:17:43,520 –> 00:17:49,359 eternity. Women came to the tomb that morning looking for His body, and one of 243 00:17:49,439 –> 00:17:56,280 my colleagues was sent to tell them he is risen. After that, he appeared to his 244 00:17:56,280 –> 00:18:02,500 disciples many times, and then he ascended into heaven. You can imagine our 245 00:18:02,500 –> 00:18:10,400 joy in receiving him back, but I’ll tell you, your joy should be greater than 246 00:18:11,099 –> 00:18:20,359 You see, he didn’t die for angels. It wasn’t the nature of angels that he 247 00:18:20,359 –> 00:18:29,660 assumed when he came into the world. He became a man. He died and rose for folks 248 00:18:29,719 –> 00:18:41,319 like you. And there’s a man in heaven, and his name is Jesus. He’s there for you. 249 00:18:41,319 –> 00:18:48,020 He’s the pioneer. He’s the first of many men and women who will become like him 250 00:18:48,020 –> 00:18:56,000 and share his resurrected body soul, his risen new humanity into everlasting life. 251 00:18:56,060 –> 00:19:04,719 He’s your hope. He’s your Savior. He’s your King. He’s your Lord. Now all the talk 252 00:19:04,719 –> 00:19:10,160 up there is about the day of his second coming. I’ll be with him then. So will 253 00:19:10,160 –> 00:19:14,319 Mary and Joseph and all of the disciples, along with everyone else who 254 00:19:14,319 –> 00:19:18,439 has ever put their trust in him. And all his people who are still living will 255 00:19:18,439 –> 00:19:24,719 rise to meet him in the air. You’ll see me then, though you’ll be much more 256 00:19:24,719 –> 00:19:34,459 interested in him. You know talking about seeing angels, it reminds me 257 00:19:34,459 –> 00:19:38,199 sometimes we hear people say oh if only I could see an angel then I would 258 00:19:38,199 –> 00:19:45,479 believe, as if an appearance from one of us could be greater than what God has 259 00:19:45,479 –> 00:19:48,780 already done in Christ. 260 00:19:49,760 –> 00:19:55,719 My colleagues did a fair bit of appearing before he came but since he’s 261 00:19:55,719 –> 00:20:01,800 come you shouldn’t expect to see us today. We’re always at work, but since 262 00:20:01,800 –> 00:20:06,400 he’s come there is nothing that we can add to what God has revealed in him. 263 00:20:06,400 –> 00:20:11,920 Candles are of great value in the darkness, but what would be the point of 264 00:20:12,079 –> 00:20:20,219 lighting a candle in the brilliance of the midday sun. I’ve only got a couple of 265 00:20:20,219 –> 00:20:28,420 minutes and then I really must fly. So let me just say this, there are some 266 00:20:28,420 –> 00:20:35,199 things known to us that are hidden from you and there are some things known to 267 00:20:35,199 –> 00:20:45,959 you that are hidden from us. We can’t imagine what it’s like to be forgiven, to 268 00:20:45,959 –> 00:20:54,640 be reconciled, to share the nature of Christ and to have His Spirit living 269 00:20:54,640 –> 00:21:02,520 within your own being. See we have not experienced your tragedy so we cannot 270 00:21:02,520 –> 00:21:08,400 imagine the joy of your restoration. We’ve never been lost so we cannot know 271 00:21:08,400 –> 00:21:13,040 what it is to be found we have not sinned so we cannot know what it really 272 00:21:13,040 –> 00:21:19,719 is to be forgiven we are His servants but you are his sons and his daughters 273 00:21:19,719 –> 00:21:27,099 adopted into his family for all eternity. The intimacy with God that is possible 274 00:21:27,119 –> 00:21:37,680 for you is staggering to us. We see his presence but you share his nature He has 275 00:21:37,680 –> 00:21:45,180 made himself one with you and bound himself to you forever. That’s why I said 276 00:21:45,180 –> 00:21:50,040 you can experience the love of God in ways that are beyond anything that is 277 00:21:50,060 –> 00:21:59,359 possible for me but then there are other things that are known to us and hidden 278 00:21:59,359 –> 00:22:12,040 from you. You can’t imagine heaven or hell. I’ve seen them both. You can’t begin 279 00:22:12,219 –> 00:22:23,680 to imagine what he has saved you from or what he has saved you for. But having 280 00:22:23,680 –> 00:22:32,199 seen it, I tell you we find it staggering that so many human beings 281 00:22:32,199 –> 00:22:36,219 give such little thought to their eternal future living as if this 282 00:22:36,219 –> 00:22:41,239 fleeting world that is passing away was everything, totally unaware of the 283 00:22:41,459 –> 00:22:50,219 eternity that is just beyond the line of your sight. Jesus came into the world to 284 00:22:50,219 –> 00:22:59,180 seek and to save the lost. We see men and women losing their way all the time. 285 00:22:59,180 –> 00:23:03,819 I have to tell you that whenever anyone repents and comes back to Him 286 00:23:03,819 –> 00:23:09,900 there is such joy and celebration among all the angels of heaven, God is for you 287 00:23:10,859 –> 00:23:15,560 and however far you may be from Him at this very moment He wants you back and 288 00:23:15,560 –> 00:23:22,319 this is why Christ is coming to the world. Believe in Him and you will not be 289 00:23:22,319 –> 00:23:29,500 disappointed. Follow Him and you will never go wrong. Live for Him you will 290 00:23:29,500 –> 00:23:36,300 find your life’s true meaning and your purpose. And I know that I speak for all 291 00:23:36,359 –> 00:23:44,579 of my colleagues when I say that Jesus Christ is our greatest joy. Is He yours? 292 00:23:44,579 –> 00:23:58,180 See that’s how you know if you belong to heaven. Christ is the joy of heaven and 293 00:23:58,319 –> 00:24:10,939 He’s the joy of all who belong there too. That’s my story. And so may God bless you 294 00:24:10,939 –> 00:24:18,819 and give to you very very wonderful and a very happy Christmas.