Sermon
Who Jesus Was Before the World Was Ever Created (No Ads)
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome back to the Bible Stories. You may notice there
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are no ads on this video because YouTube has demonetized
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our channel. To support us, you can scan the first
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QR code to join the Bible Stories podcast app, where
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you can listen offline and access exclusive episodes. Or, if
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you simply want to give, you can scan the second
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QR code to donate directly. Thank you for helping us
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keep these Bible Stories going. Before the earth had a shape,
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Jesus was there with God, sharing a life and a
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love that had no beginning. When the Apostle John sat
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down to write about Jesus, he did not start with
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the manger. He reached back before creation itself, and he
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chose a strange and beautiful title for Jesus. He called
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him The Word. Listen to how his gospel opens. In
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the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
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and the Word was God. John chapter 1 verse 1
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Notice what John does not say. He does not say
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the Word came into being in the beginning. He says
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that when the beginning happened, the Word already was. Whatever
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moment you point to as the start of everything, Jesus
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was already there before it, fully alive, fully God, already
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at the Father's side. Why did John call him the Word?
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because a word is how you reveal what is inside you.
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Your thoughts are hidden until you speak them, and Jesus
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is how God speaks himself into the open. He is
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the way the invisible God makes himself known. When God
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wanted to say who he really is, he did not
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send a message. He sent his Son. And this word
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was not only with God. John says the word was God.
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This is not a lesser being, a helper, or a
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creature that God made first and used to make everything else.
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This is God himself, one with the Father, sharing the
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same life from all eternity. Look closely at that little phrase,
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with God. It tells us that before the world existed,
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Jesus was not alone in some cold and empty silence.
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He was with someone. There was closeness. There was a
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face turned toward him and a voice that loved him.
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When we try to imagine eternity past, we tend to
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picture blank space and nothing else. But the truth is
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warmer than that. Before there was a world, there was fellowship.
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There was a Father and a Son who had never
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been apart, who had never had a moment of distance
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between them. Jesus did not step out of loneliness to
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make us. He stepped out of love, and He made
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us to bring us into it. Then John writes, The
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Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. John 1.14
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The One who had no beginning took on a body
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that could grow tired. The One who spoke galaxies into
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existence learned to speak His first words as a child
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in a small town. The Eternal Word wrapped Himself in
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skin and bone and came to live on the street
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where we live. Think about the size of that. The
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oldest being in existence, the one who was there before
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there was a there, came close enough to be held.
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He did not stay far away and shout instructions from heaven.
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He came near. He came as one of us. And
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he did it because the people he made were worth
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coming for. We often imagine that before creation there was
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only emptiness, a cold, silent nothing. But that is not
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the picture the Bible gives us. Before there was a world,
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there was already love. There was a father and there
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was a son, and between them flowed a love so
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full and so old that it had never once been interrupted.
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We know this because of something Jesus prayed on the
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last night of his life. In just a few hours,
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he would be arrested. Soon after, he would be beaten
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and nailed to a cross. He knew all of it
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was coming. And in that heavy moment he lifted his
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eyes to heaven and prayed a prayer no ordinary man
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could ever pray. He said, And now, Father, glorify me
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in your presence with the glory I had with you
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before the world began. John chapter 17 verse 5 Notice
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what he is really saying. Jesus was not asking for
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a glory he hoped to earn. He was asking to
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return to a glory he already owned before the world began.
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He was remembering out loud a life he had lived
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with the Father before there was a single day on
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the calendar of time. No prophet ever prayed like this.
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Moses never asked to be restored to a place he
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held before the universe. David never longed for a throne
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he sat on before creation. Only someone who was truly there,
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awake and present with the Father in eternity, could pray
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those words and mean them. But he did not stop there.
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In the same prayer, he said something that reaches all
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the way down to you. He said, The glory you
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have given me, because you loved me before the creation
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of the world. John chapter 17 verse 24 The Father
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loved the Son before the creation of the world. Love
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did not start when the world began. Love was already there,
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older than the light. And that changes how we understand
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everything that comes after. When this same Jesus later gave
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himself for us, he was not learning how to love
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for the first time. He was doing on a cross
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what he had been doing forever. He was loving God.
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This is why you can trust what happened at the cross.
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It was not a sudden change of heart in God,
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a moment when a distant and angry ruler was finally
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talked into being kind. The love poured out. There was
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the same love that had been flowing between the Father
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and the Son since before the first morning. It did
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not appear out of nowhere. It spilled over. The cross
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was not the beginning of God's love for you. It
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was that ancient love finally becoming visible in a way
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you could see and touch and never doubt again. If
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you have spent your life feeling that love is something
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you have to win, something fragile that could be taken
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away the moment you disappoint someone, then hear this. The
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love at the center of the universe is not fragile.
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It is not new. It was there before the world,
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and it is strong enough to hold you now. And
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this is the love he invites you into. On that
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same night, Jesus prayed that the people the Father had
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given him would be with him and would see his glory.
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He did not want to keep that ancient love to himself.
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He wanted to open the circle and bring us in.
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The love that existed before creation is not a treasure
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locked away in heaven where you can only look at
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it from a distance. It is a home with an
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open door, and the Eternal Son is the one standing
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in the doorway, calling you by name. There is a
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mistake people make about Jesus, and it is an easy
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one to fall into. They imagine him as the first
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and greatest thing God ever made. a creature above all
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other creatures, but still a creature, with a starting point
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somewhere back in the far distance. The Bible will not
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let that idea stand. Jesus is not the top of
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the list of created things. He is the one who
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made the list. Everything that was ever created came through him.
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Listen to how Paul describes him. For in him all
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things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible
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and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities,
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all things have been created through him and for him.
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Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 All things, not most things,
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not everything except himself, the seas and the mountains, the
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stars you cannot count, the tiny hidden life inside a
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single drop of water, the angels in heaven, and the
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very kings and powers that would one day put him
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on trial. He made all of it. And Paul adds
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a phrase that we should never rush past. All things
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were created for him. The world was not only made
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by him, it was made for him. You were made
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for him. The colors of a sunset that no painter
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has ever quite captured came out of his mind. The
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sound of the sea, the shape of a mountain, the
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song of a bird you have heard a thousand times
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without thinking about it, all of it was his idea first.
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He designed the human eye that lets you read these words.
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He set the sun at the exact distance that lets
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us live. Every good and beautiful thing you have ever
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loved is a small echo of the one who dreamed
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it up before there was anyone to enjoy it. And
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the same hands that hung the stars would one day
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be small enough to curl around a mother's finger. That
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is the mystery we are walking toward. Then Paul says
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something even more staggering. He is before all things, and
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in him all things hold together. Colossians chapter 1 verse
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17 says, He is before all things, which means he
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came before them in time and stands above them in rank.
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And in him all things hold together, which means he
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is not a clockmaker who wound up the world and
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walked away. At this very second, the world is holding
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together because he is holding it. The same is true
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of your life. On the days when everything feels like
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it is falling apart, the deepest truth is that you
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are still held. The one who made you has not
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let go. Some people stumble here because Paul also calls
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Jesus the firstborn over all creation, and they hear the
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word firstborn and think it must mean he was the
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first thing God created. But that is not what the
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word meant to the people who first read it. In
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that world, to be the firstborn was to be the heir,
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the one who held the highest place and inherited everything
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the father owned. It was a word about honor and rank,
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not about being born on a certain day. When Paul
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calls Jesus the firstborn over all creation, he is not
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putting Jesus inside the list of created things. He is
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placing him above all of it as the rightful heir
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of everything that exists. The very next breath makes it
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plain because Paul says that in him all things were created.
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You cannot be one of the created things and also
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be the one who created all of them. Jesus is
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the maker, not the made. the writer of Hebrews, says
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it in one breathtaking line. He calls the sun the
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radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being,
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sustaining all things by his powerful word. Hebrews 1.3 Radiance
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is not separate from the light it comes from. You
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cannot pull the brightness away from the sun and set
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it in another room. The sun shines out from the
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Father the way light shines from the sun, always there,
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never apart, never made. That is who was there before
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the world, not a beginner, not a creature waiting to
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be born. the maker himself, shining, holding everything, and one
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day choosing to enter the very world his own hands
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had formed. And because he was there before everything, he
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will still be there after everything. In the last book
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of the Bible, the risen Jesus says of himself, I
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am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last,
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the beginning and the end. Revelation chapter 22, verse 13.
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Those were the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet,
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his way of saying that he holds both ends of
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the whole story in his hands. He was there before
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the first day dawned, and he will be standing when
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the last day closes. Everything that has a beginning and
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an end lives inside his life, and his life has neither.
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So there is no season of yours he is late for,
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and no ending you can reach that is beyond him.
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The one who opened the story is also the one
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waiting at the end of it. There is a moment,
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long before Bethlehem, where the Eternal Sun leaves a fingerprint
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on the pages of the Old Testament, and it happens
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in the middle of a desert, in front of a
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burning bush. Moses was an old shepherd then, far from
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the palace where he had grown up, hiding from a
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past he could not fix. He was tending someone else's
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sheep in the wilderness when he saw a bush that
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was on fire but was not burning up. The flames rose,
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but the branches stayed green. And out of the fire
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a voice called his name. Moses was told to take
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off his sandals because the ground he stood on was holy.
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Then God gave Moses a mission to set his people free.
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But Moses was afraid. He asked the most important question
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a person can ask. When they ask me, who sent me,
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what is your name? And God answered with a name
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that has echoed for thousands of years. God said to Moses,
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I am who I am. This is what you are
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to say to the Israelites. I am has sent me
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to you. Exodus chapter 3 verse 14. I am, not
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I was, not I will be, I am. It is
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the name of the one who simply is, who depends
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on nothing, who never began and will never end. To
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the people of Israel this name became so holy that
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in time they would not even say it out loud.
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When a reader came to it on the scroll, he
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would stop and say the word for Lord instead, so
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that the sacred name would never fall carelessly off his lips.
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That is how much weight this name carried. It was
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the name above every name, and it belonged to God alone. Now,
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travel forward across the centuries to a crowded temple courtyard.
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Jesus is standing among the religious leaders, and they are
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arguing with him. They cannot understand how this man, not
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yet fifty years old, could talk as if he had
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known Abraham, who had died almost two thousand years before.
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And Jesus answers them with a sentence that changed the
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temperature of the room in an instant. Very truly I
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tell you, Jesus answered, Before Abraham was born, I am.
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John chapter 8 verse 58. He did not say, Before
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Abraham I was alive. He said, I am. He reached
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back and took the name from the burning bush and
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laid it on himself. The leaders understood him perfectly. That
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is why the moment turned so tense so quickly. They
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knew he was claiming to be the God who spoke
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to Moses out of the fire, the same voice, the
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same name, the same one who had no beginning. Think
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about what it cost him to say those words. He
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knew that claiming that name in that place could get
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him killed, and before long it would. He said it
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anyway because it was true. He was not borrowing a
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title that did not belong to him. He was quietly
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telling them what he had always known about himself. Before
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Abraham took his first step of faith, before Abraham was
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even born, Jesus already was. He had watched Abraham's whole
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life from the inside of eternity. He was there when
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the promise was first made. He was there through every
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generation that followed. Standing in that courtyard was the one
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who had been present at every moment of the story
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they thought they knew so well. And here is the
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tender part of it. The God whose name means I am,
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the God so holy that people were afraid to say
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his name out loud, chose to walk among ordinary people,
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to eat at their tables, to touch the sick, and
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to let children climb into his lap. The name that
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once thundered out of a burning bush now spoke gently
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to tired fishermen and forgiven sinners. Holiness came near without
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losing any of its greatness. That is who Jesus was
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before the world, and that is who he still is.
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The prophet Micah wrote about the coming of Jesus long
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before he was born, and he pointed to a small
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and forgotten town. He said the ruler of Israel would
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come out of Bethlehem, a place too little to matter
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to anyone. But then Micah added a line that opens
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a window into eternity. He wrote that this ruler's origins
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are from of old, from ancient times. Micah chapter 5
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verse 2. The child born in that small town was
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not new. His beginnings reached back before beginnings existed. And
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that raises the most humbling question in the whole story.
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If Jesus already had everything, all glory, all worship, all
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the fullness of God, then why would he ever come
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down into a world like ours? Paul answers that question
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with words that should bring every proud heart to its knees.
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He writes of Jesus, who, being in very nature God,
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did not consider equality with God something to be used
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to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by
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taking the very nature of a servant, being made in
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human likeness. Philippians chapter 2, verses 6 and 7. He
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made himself nothing. He did not lose his divine nature,
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but he laid aside the comfort and the glory of it.
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He set down the crown, not because it was taken
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from him, but because he chose to. Try to feel
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the distance he traveled. The one who was worshipped by
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countless angels became a baby who could not lift his
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own head. The one who never grew tired learned what
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it was to be exhausted. The one who fed every
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living thing had to be fed at his mother's side
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the one who had spoken every language into being had
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to be taught how to say his first words He
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did not arrive shining with power. He arrived small, poor,
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and dependent, wrapped in cloth in a place where animals
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were kept. Why would he do this? Why would the
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maker of everything become the smallest and most fragile thing
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in his own creation? There is only one answer that fits,
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and it is not a reason of logic. It is
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a reason of love. He came down because we could
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not climb up. He entered our weakness because that is
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where we were trapped, and he was not willing to
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leave us there alone. And notice that he did not
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come down halfway. he did not stop at being a
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king in a palace or a great teacher admired by
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crowds he went all the way down he was born
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to poor parents in a borrowed space laid in the
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place where animals fed He grew up in a town
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so small that people joked nothing good could come from it.
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He worked with his hands. He knew hunger and thirst
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and sore feet at the end of a long day.
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The maker of the human body chose to live inside
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one with all its limits and aches so that there
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would be no part of your life he could not understand.
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When you are weak, he knows what weakness feels like
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from the inside. When you are worn down, he has
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been there. He did not study our suffering from a
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safe distance. He entered it. This is the heart of
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the whole gospel. We do not worship a good man
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who slowly became something like a god. We worship the
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eternal God who freely became a man. He did not
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rise to us from below. He came down to us
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from above. and the road he took, from the glory
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he had before the world all the way to a
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cross on a hill, is the longest and most loving
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journey ever made. Now we come to the part of
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this that reaches right into your own life, into the
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fear and the tiredness you may be carrying even as
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you listen. The Bible says something about Jesus that quietly
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includes you in a story older than the world. Peter
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writes that Christ was chosen before the creation of the world,
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but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
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1 Peter 1.20 Before the creation of the world and
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for your sake. The plan to send the Son was
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not a rescue thrown together at the last minute when
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things went wrong. It was in the heart of God
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before there was a single human being to save. Before
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you drew your first breath, your rescue was already settled
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in eternity. Think about what that means for the weight
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you carry. You may feel like your life is small
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and unnoticed, one quiet person among billions. But the eternal
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Son of God did not overlook you when he made
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the world. He was not too busy with the stars
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to think about you. You were not lost in the crowd.
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The love that held the Father and the Son before
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creation is the same love that reached forward through all
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of time to find you exactly where you are. Maybe
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you are afraid of what is ahead, maybe your body
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is not what it used to be, and each year
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feels more uncertain than the last. The one who was
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before all things is not aging with you. He is
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not worried about your future because he was already standing
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at the end of it before it began. You are
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walking toward a God who is already there. Maybe you
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are ashamed of something in your past, something you have
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never fully told anyone. Hear this clearly. The Jesus who
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knew you before the world began knew about that too.
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He saw all of it before he ever made you,
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and he still chose to come, still chose the manger,
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still chose the cross. His coming was not a mistake
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he would take back if he had known the real you.
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He always knew the real you, and he came anyway.
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Maybe you are simply tired, not tired in your body only,
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but tired in the deep places, worn down by years
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of carrying things that never seem to get lighter. You
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wonder some mornings if you have the strength to keep going.
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If that is you, remember who has been holding you
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all along. The one who never grows weary, the one
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who was strong before the world had strength, has been
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carrying you through every season you thought you were surviving
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on your own. Your strength was never the thing keeping
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you here. His was, and he does not run out.
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And maybe, more than anything, you are simply lonely. You
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long to be known and to belong somewhere. This is
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the promise that meets you there. You are already known,
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more deeply and more truly than any person on earth
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could ever know you, and you have been known that
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way from before the foundation of the world. You do
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not have to earn a place. There has always been
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a place for you in the heart of the one
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who made you. There is a strange freedom in learning this.
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So much of our striving comes from the fear that
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we must make ourselves worth loving before anyone will stay.
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We perform. We hide our flaws. We try to be
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impressive enough that no one will leave. But you cannot
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make the Eternal Son love you more than He already does,
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and you cannot make Him love you less. His love
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for you was full and finished before you ever did
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a single thing, right or wrong. That means you can
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stop performing for Him, you can come to Him with
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empty hands and a tired heart, exactly as you are tonight,
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and be received. The one who has held the universe
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together since before time began is more than able to
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hold you. So who was Jesus before the world was
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ever created? He was the Word who had no beginning.
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He was the Son held in the Father's love before time.
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He was the Maker through whom everything came to be,
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and the one who holds it all together still. He
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was the great I Am who once spoke from the
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fire and later spoke from a manger. He was and
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is and always will be fully God. But he did
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not stay far away with all of that greatness. He
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came near. He became small enough to hold, poor enough
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to understand your struggles, and human enough to die in
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your place. He crossed the whole distance from eternity to
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a cross, and he did it because he loved you
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before you existed. If you have been carrying the fear
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that you are alone, that you are behind, that you
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are too broken or too old or too far gone,
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let this ancient truth quiet that fear tonight. You were
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loved before the world began. You are held right now
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by the same hands that made the stars, and you
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are welcomed, not because of anything you have done, but
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because of who he has always been— You do not
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have to have the right words. You do not have
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to fix yourself first. You can simply come, just as
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you are, to the one who has been waiting for
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you since before there was a world to wait in.
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Come in out of the cold. Sit down. You are
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known here. You are loved here. And the God who
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was there before the beginning will walk with you all
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the way to the end. And when the hard days come,
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and they will come, you can hold on to this.
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The one who loves you is not new to your
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life and easily discouraged by it. He is older than
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your troubles and stronger than your fears. He was not
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shaken when the world began, and he will not be
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shaken by whatever you are facing now. Nothing that happens
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to you today lands on a God who is caught
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off guard. He saw it before he made the world,
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and he is already there on the other side of it,
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waiting for you with the same love he has always had.
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You are walking through your life held by hands that
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have never once let go of anything they made. So
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the next time you feel small or forgotten or unsure
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whether your life has counted for anything, remember who was
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there before the world began. Remember that he made it
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with you in mind. Remember that he stepped down into
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it to find you. And remember that the story of
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the Eternal Son is not a story about a distant
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time long ago. It is the story of how deeply
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and how long you have been loved. May the Eternal Son,
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who was there before the world was made, meet you
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today with the love that has no beginning and no end.
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