Abraham’s Sons
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Good morning. Welcome to Insights. This
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is Pastor John. Uh first, it's uh
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Christmas Eve, so I want to wish you a
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merry Christmas. Uh let's pray and then
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we're going to go in to take a look at
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Abraham's sons. That's today's message.
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Heavenly Father, we thank you for an
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opportunity to take a look at your word
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today. We ask you Lord to help us
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understand that uh your word is here to
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help us grow to give us guidance and
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direction and to help us understand you
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and what you have for us to know in
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Jesus name. Amen. So,
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you know, when I first got saved, one of
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the one of the things I I remembered was
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we used to teach we used to teach the
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kids in Sunday school a song which was
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Father Abraham. And it goes, "Father
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Abraham had many sons. I am one of them.
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So are you."
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And uh a lot of times when you talk to
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people about or or people think about
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Abraham's sons, we automatically go to
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Ishmael and Isaac. And a lot of people
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never go beyond that. But Abraham
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actually had eight sons.
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And uh it's important to understand this
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because these eight sons of Abrahams
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plus the descendants of Esau
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um
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are the people who live in the Middle
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East.
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And uh you know there's this push right
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now for what's called the Abraham
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Accords and uh in the Middle East to
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create peace. So, first thing we need to
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do is we need to realize that there's
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more in the background about what's
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going on in the Middle East conflict
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than most people can uh usually wrap
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their mind around. But so Abraham,
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he had eight sons. He had Ishmael
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whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian. He
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had Isaac whose mother was Sarah. And
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then he after Sarah died, Abraham took a
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second wife and her name was Kitura. And
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she had six sons.
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And u these six sons are Zimran, Joshan
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and Megan, Midian, and Ishbach and Shua.
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And these
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sons
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are the fathers of the people who live
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in what we call the Middle East.
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We have to first thing we have to keep
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in mind is the fact that Abraham was not
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a native to Canaan. Abraham came from uh
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which is in modernday Iraq. Abraham was
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Calaldian
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and believe it or not that makes them
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related to the Babylonians because the
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Calaldanss became the Babylonians
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u later on 1,500 years later. So these
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people in the Middle East are all
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related to each other because they're
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all descendants of Abraham.
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And remember Moses when he left Egypt
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and he he fled Egypt, he went to Midian
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and his wife Zapora was a Midianite. his
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father his father-in-law Jethro was was
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the high priest of the Midianites
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and they were the Midianites
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were Abraham's
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descendants through his wife Coutura and
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so when you start looking at this I want
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you to if we get in Abra Abraham's
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descendants are listed in Genesis 25
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verses 1-6 so he says then again Abraham
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took a wife and her name was Kitura
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And she bear him Zimmeran and Jacan and
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Midian and Midian and Ishbach and Shua.
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And Jacian begat Shiva and Deedon. And
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the sons of Did Ashuram and Leashim and
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Li Leamin. And the sons of Midian, Epha,
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and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Ela.
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And these all these were the children of
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Cutura. Now here's where the conflict
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starts. And Abraham gave all that he had
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unto Isaac.
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So the birthright, the promise to
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Abraham of that God had said that
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everywhere you look that you're able to
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see, I will give to you as a possession
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to you and to your descendants
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is part of the birthright. And uh
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and then but he didn't leave his other
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sons out. It says, "But and Abraham gave
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all that he had." This is verse 5. "All
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that he had unto Isaac, but unto the
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sons of the concubines which Abraham
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had, Abraham gave gifts and sent them
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away from Isaac his son, while he yet
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lived eastward unto the east country."
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It's important
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that uh we realize that those maps in
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the back of your Bible are important
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and uh we need to uh
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keep this in mind.
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The Saudi the people in Saudi Arabia
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they are descendants
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of
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uh
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Ishmamail. And then the other people
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there are all descendants
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from either the other sons of Cura or
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from Oh man. Crap.
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Okay.
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Okay. So, uh, my microphone died.
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Hopefully that I can still be heard on
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my phone.
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Um,
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so what's going on there is you have the
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birthright which was given to Isaac.
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It's that small strip of land we call
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Israel was given to Isaac and these
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other seven sons
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were excluded from the birthright and
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Abraham sent them away. He sent him to
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the east away from Isaac so that Isaac
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could flourish in the land that God gave
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him.
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And they have been fighting over this
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ever since. Because real remember under
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normal circumstances the birthight was
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passed to the firstborn.
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And
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Isaac was secondborn. So Ishmael was
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already he was cut out of the
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birthright. He was the son of
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permission, not the son of promise.
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Isaac was the son of promise. So
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everything was given to him. But Abraham
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didn't leave the rest of his sons out.
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He gave all of them gifts and and and
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then sent them east to get to be away.
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And in the next generation, which is uh
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Isaac, he has two sons also, Esau and
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Jacob. The birthright gets passed to
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Jacob. Esau was the firstborn and he
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also went to the east. He went east of
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the of the land that was given to his
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father. and it becomes Isaac's
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possession.
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So,
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it's important for us to realize that
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this conflict that we're dealing with
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today, and we're 4,000 years out, the
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conflict that we're dealing with today
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is based on the fact that there were
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eight sons, not one or two. They're all
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fighting for the same piece of property.
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And there there is jealousy that's been
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there all the way back. So, if we're
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going to keep our minds wrapped around
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what's going on in the Middle East
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today, we have to go back and look where
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it all started. And where it all started
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was back with Isaac. So,
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Isaac received the birthright. He
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received Abraham's everything Abraham
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that God had given Abraham. The other
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sons didn't receive that blessing, but
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Abraham gave them gifts also. And then
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he sent them to the east. And if you
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look through the names of the
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descendants, and a lot of people don't
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like to spend a lot of time reading the
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genealogies that are listed in the
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Bible, but take my word for it, they're
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in there for a reason. And the reason is
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for us to better understand what's going
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on there. So you have Abraham, he leads
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of the Caldes. He takes he goes to Han
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and he takes his father and his brother
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and his nephew and everything that he
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has. When he gets to Han,
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um his father and his brother stay there
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and he takes Lot, his nephew, and they
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go to Canaan.
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When they get to Canaan, their their
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flocks and their herds are so big that
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they have to separate.
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And Lot goes to the east. He goes to the
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veil of Sodom and Gomorrah, the valley.
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And u he gets himself entrenched with
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the Sodom with Sodom and Gomorrah. Um
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and
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those his descendant Lot's descendants
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are
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um
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the Moabites and the Amorites that back
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and forth were either enemies or friends
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or vassel states of Israel. And then
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Abraham stays on the west
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and then Ishmamail he becomes the father
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of the people in Saudi Arabia. But as we
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were reading through there uh Solomon
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which this is thousand years later
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Solomon
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uh gets visited by the queen of Sheba.
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Well she was a descendant of one of the
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sons of Cura. So all these people in
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that part of the Middle East
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from the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia,
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the countries Lebanon,
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um
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Jordan, all these countries that are
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there, they're all related to the Jews.
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The Jews didn't become known as the Jews
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until they came back from captivity in
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Babylon. Prior to that, they were known
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as Israelites. provide it. Prior to
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that, they were all called Hebrews
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because of the field that Abraham
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purchased as a place to bury Sarah.
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And uh so we have this conflict going
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over there. All these people are related
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not only by genetics and and blood
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relations, but language wise, they're
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all Smitic.
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um
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and and they're related to the people in
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Iraq because that's where Abraham came
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from. So this conflict that's over there
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is all centered around a birthright.
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And if you read the promise, the promise
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to Abraham was not it was a promise that
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Abraham would become the father of many
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nations, which he did the whole Middle
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East.
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but also this promise of a savior that
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would come through the line of his son
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Isaac.
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That promise was made to Jesus in the
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New Testament. Jesus received that
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promise when he came as the Messiah, as
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the Christ. And he came as the suffering
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Messiah first. He's going to come back
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as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
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which he already is. But everything
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that's there is so jealousy is the focal
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point of why this conflict in the Middle
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East is continuing to go on is because
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all these people there,
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they didn't get Abraham's blessing.
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They didn't receive
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u the birthright which was given to
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Isaac. And even though they were
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Abraham's descendants, God chose to send
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the savior of the world, not through one
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of them, but through the descendants of
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Isaac, and then Jacob, who became
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Israel. And that's where Jesus's lineage
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as a human came from. And so you have
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this jealousy and anger between these
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descendants of these eight men that uh
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has been going on now for 4,000 years.
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So you might say, "Well, Pastor John,
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why are you going through all this?"
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Because it's important.
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It's why the most hotly contested,
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fought over piece of land
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is about the size of New Jersey.
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And it's the center of everything. It's
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the center of everything in the Bible.
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Everything in the Bible, the thread that
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connects it all is Jesus. And everything
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centers around Jerusalem and and the
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promise to Abraham. If you read through
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the book of Revelations and and you're
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reading what's going on there, you re
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you realize that even though the whole
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world's involved, everything is focused
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on Israel.
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And so that is
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God trying to get us to focus on him and
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what he's doing. And then the other part
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that comes out of this that you have to
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realize that's why the genealogies are
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important. is why reading through what
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Matthew listed and what uh Luke listed
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as the genealogies of Jesus of Joseph
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and Mary
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is
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um
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when we as Gentile believers that's what
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the word the Bible uses these are
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non-Jewish believers is what that means
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became grafted in to the true vine we
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became
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hes and joint hes with Christ
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of the promise to Abraham. So we're no
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longer strangers, but we're family. So
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now we're So Abraham's descendants
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and those that are grafted in became the
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three major religions in the world. Do
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you realize there's 8 billion people on
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the face of this earth? Half of them are
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either Christians, Jews, or Muslims. If
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you combine them all together,
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Christians, there's about 2 and 12
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billion Christians in the world. There's
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one and a half billion um
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uh uh
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Muslims and and there's, you know, uh
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bearing in numbers, but there there's a
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significant number of Jews also. And all
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three of these are what's classified if
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you look it up as Abrahamic religions
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because they follow they they came
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through Abraham.
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So half the world
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is involved in an Abrahamic religion.
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And the sad part about it is everybody's
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fighting over the same thing. He
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realized that the crusades, there was
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three of them
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that went there, went to Jerusalem, the
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whole thing was to take Jerusalem
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and take it out of the possession
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of uh the Muslims.
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And the Muslims wanted to wipe out
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everybody else
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and the Jews.
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And
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this one piece of ground, the most
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central piece of real estate in the
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world, worldwide,
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is focused on this one strip of land
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roughly the size of New Jersey.
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Because everything in history,
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if when you read the history from the
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Bible and and you read Bible history and
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you look at everything that was going
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on, that one small piece of land on the
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east end of the Mediterranean ocean,
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Mediterranean Sea, is the most fought
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over, hotly contested
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piece of real estate anywhere in the
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world.
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and everything that we believe as
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Christians came from there. Um
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the message of Christ,
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the kingdom of heaven is at hand was
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preached to the Jews first and they
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rejected it. And then God said that when
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they rejected it, it be it went to
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um
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the Gentiles and the church became a
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gentile church. So,
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I want you to keep in mind of something.
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We're called to peace. We're called to
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be peace
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makers.
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And
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we're to be believers and we should be
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shining the light of Christ into
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people's life who haven't heard the
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message of Jesus. I I feel very blessed
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and and humbled by the fact that in in
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March I'm going to Pakistan. Pakistan,
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it's a Muslim country.
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They they have less than 1% of the
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population of Pakistan are Christians.
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Yet, I'm going there to preach the
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gospel to people who need to hear about
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the hope that's in Christ. The same
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message that's been going on now for
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2,000 years. Jesus said, "I am the way,
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the truth, and the life, and no one
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comes unto the father but by me." And as
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Christians, what we're our
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responsibility to others is to
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show the world the love of Christ.
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So I want you on this Christmas Eve, as
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we're going into Christmas tomorrow,
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think about the fact that Jesus came.
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He was born as a baby. He lived as a
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man. He was He died on the cross and
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then he rose from the dead three days
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later
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to redeem everyone.
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Nobody has a
19:13
uh a specialized seat at the table
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without Jesus.
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And uh we need to be able to tell people
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how much Jesus loves them no matter what
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the situation is. So, I want you guys to
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keep that in mind this Christmas. Jesus
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is the reason for the season and no
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other reason. He came to redeem the
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world. We'll see you guys next week.
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Have a merry Christmas.
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