Pastor Chad. Good morning to you, sir. I hope you're will.
Good morn Tom.
I'm doing great.
How about yourself?
Doing great? No complaints? You know Christmas and you and I have talked about this. We talked about it right and before Thanksgiving on how holidays can be very, very stressful to people. But you suggest that actually Christmas time can help us deal with stress.
Well, definitely can.
And even if you have a cursory knowledge of Christmas and the story of what God did at Christmas, it's a story that God came and adapted himself to us. So think about God as a multi dimensional being beyond time and space, and he was willing to come in the form of a child, and just think, if that's true. Right,
I believe it's true, But if someone doesn't. If it was true that the God who made all the universe and holds all the planets and all the atoms adapted to you in such a dramatic way, then you might say, wow, I mean, idd did that for me, and maybe I could adapt slightly to my crazy uncle or my cousin or my relative is driving me crazy. So it's kind of a call to adapt, which is if God adapted to me, maybe I can adapt to others.
It's also call for reconciliation.
Where you think about what family doesn't need a little bit more reconciliation. Somebody not to hold some bitterness, somebody to maybe get over something significantly happened, but it's time to move on. While the whole story of Christmas is the story of reconciliation, God wanted to reconcile with us, and honestly, we weren't taking the first step, so he took the first step. I had that I haven't talked to my sister in law for fifteen years after a
big conflict that happened. I'd reconcile it with my brother, as we mentioned four or five months ago, but not my sister in law and my wife and I decided, you know what, this is the year we're going to do it. And honestly, because it's the right thing to do, not quite the motivation we needed.
It'll be good for you.
Maybe what really motivated us to hit FaceTime video and have that conversation was, you know what, God adapted, and God reconciled with us when we did a whole lot worse to him. Let's do it and so after about an hour conversation, for the first time in fifteen years, you know, we've now got a full path for families to get together again for Christmas.
And it was tough.
It was a tough conversation, and yet we felt like the spirit of Christmas is I want to do unto others what God.
Did to me.
I want to tack a couple of well known actors that you've talked about recently in some of your sermons here and around Christmas. Let's start with Jimmy Stewart and his father who sent him Psalm ninety one when he went off to war. And then Jimmy Stewart talking about why he got so cheerful during the filming of Its A Wonderful Life.
Yeah, you know Jimmy Stewart, we know him often from Its Wonderful Life those other wonderful movies. He was a brigadier general as well and disembalming in World War Two, and he had a lot of PTSD, so that you
know shows up in some of the movies. But when he went off to war, his father was a real strong Christian believer in God in the Bible, and so he sent a little personal note that said, Hey, in the middle of this madness, I want you to know you can trust God to be your tower, your refuge, and the one that will guide you in the midst of this. He saved the stem a copy of Psalm ninety one. It's kind of the source of strength you would have in the middle of the madness of war.
But after his filming of its wonderful life is that moment he gets real tearful. He's crying out God, and I need your help. If you're really up there, I
just need you to step in. And he later Jimmy Stewart said he just felt in that moment the hearts of so many who feel like in life, let alone Christmas time that they don't havingyone to turn to, the real sense of emptiness and real sense of you know, what's meaning, what's purpose, and that in that moment he felt like he was channeling those who didn't have access to that purpose and really felt that and he realized that's really the call of Christmas, is that we all
are calling out for God to be with us. And even one of Jesus's nicknames is Immanuel, which means God with us. If you're going through grieving this Christmas and you need some comfort. God with us will be your comfort if you're looking for someone who can take the manure of life, and life certainly shows a play and manure at us and turn into fertilizer for new growth.
And that's a story of Christmas.
And he's even born into a cave or an animal stall with manure everywhere, and look at the incredible story of purpose and meaning that he brings out of the manure that he's born into.
You know.
Recently, Kevin Kostner, he just released a documentary on Christmas where he talks about his faith and you can find this on Disney Plus, but basically talk about how he walked through the entire Christmas story from start to finish.
Yeah, really interesting.
It's a documentary and then Nancy's talking. There's some scenes that things are acted out, and in general it was really good. One he begins by talking about his first acting debut. What's playing an angel or playing one of the wise men in a Nativity scene. He had one big line, hark, and he missed it because his turmine
kept falling over his head. He said his love of acting began there and he kept just periodically through the play, saying hark again again, because you know, I missed the big moment.
But he kind of walks through that.
Many people have thought that Christmas is a is a miss or is a nice story, like a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. He kind of roots it in the history and shows this really happened. It happened in the facts. He shows you kind of what was going on during that time period. One of the things he highlights is King Herod, and King Herod is like a footnote in the Christmas story, and yet King Herod is probably one of the most powerful men.
Who've ever lived.
They did a great job of describing this historic figure. If you've ever been to Israel or heard of Israel, you know the Jewish Temple is built on this giant mount that was built by King Herod, the guy trying to kill Jesus.
Masada.
Have you ever heard of or seen pictures of Masada massive rocket by the dead sea. The guy built eleven swimming pools and a fully functional sauna in the middle of a desert at six pc. Guy was an unbelievable engineer. He ran this spice factory. I've been to the Herod's spice factory, and actually the Wiseman would have gone right past that spice factory as part of the trade routes. He also built this massive place called Cesri and maritime.
Bottom line is they did a great job of describing him and showing the evidence of Herod as a historic figure, that Jesus was born to the days of guy was the most powerful man in the world, probably next to the Caesar at the time, probably one of those wealthy people who ever lived. And he's the one trying to kill Jesus. And then they kind of get into his mania and all historians show what a maniac he is, so scared somebody's gonna take his kingdom from him. He
killed off his son. They got a scene in the documentary where it shows him killing off his son in the in the in the hot tub together which he killed many of his sons and many of his wives. And what of his wives throws herself off, I think it's Masada, and kills herself rather than stay with her husband. That's also an active there. They want you to see this guy who's going after Jesus was tyrannical and was
suspicious and paranoid. So when those wise men show up and say, hey, good news, there's a new king in town. I mean, this is like the worst guy you could ever say that to. And they also show that, you think in the Christmas story we kind of have all this nostalgia around it, but there's a lot of tragedy. I mean, he then kills off all the boys in Bethlehem trying.
To get after Jesus. So I thought they did a mess.
This incredible job of showing that God was born into this world with pain and suffering and difficulty. He's on the run from Herod he had. In the middle of that, God enters into our pain and shows that he's willing to not.
Watch from a distance.
But as John Osborne used to say in her song, you know what, God was one of us.
He became the story.
And so then you get to see Mary and Joseph kind of what was like in their lives during those days. It gives you a little cultural feel for what it was like for their patrol the period, how devastated Joseph was when he heard the news and the angel pierce him. The really great historic and inspirational pieces to it, and quite frankly toward the end, Kevin Costler says, many people believe that now he died ROAs from the dead.
And he says, I'm one of those, So I was.
Surprised, and how kind of hapt there he was and articulating his belief and faith in Jesus' birth, his death, and his resurrection.
Well, for those who are non believers, and look, there are a lot of them out there driving around right now that might roll their eyes and all that kind of thing. But one thing that cannot be disputed is that Jesus was a real person who walked this earth just like you and I. And if you just read about the way he lived his life, and he really only ministered of his thirty three years on this earth, he really only ministered, I think for about three years.
So even if you don't believe in, let's say, the resurrection, okay, and you think a lot of this stuff is just total nonsense, it's a fairy tale, what cannot be disputed is that Jesus did live in this world and the things that he did while he was here. All of us, believer or non believer, can take a lot out of it, especially during this time of the year.
Well, with that a doubt and if you're just a facts person again, I see myself as a philosopher and a facts guy. You know the Great Isaiah Scroll. We have a copy of that because it does he scrolls at one hundred and twenty five BC. We know it's everything written in Isaiah written at seven hundred BC, but we have a complete copy of one twenty five BC.
That's a fact of history.
And in that book one hundred years before Jesus, we have a copy of it. It predicts he will be born into the land of Zebulin enough tally that's the area need of ser Galley, That's where I'm side would come, where he's going to live. How he's going to be born, born of a virgin, predicted one hundred years in advance. Who's going to come visit him, Rulers and kings from a non Jewish nations, bringing specific gifts of gold and
of frankinsense that happens. Specifically, he'll be died by being pierced, you know, crucifixion. He'll be killed between other criminals. All of these are very specific, very detailed predictions. We have the writings and the facts of where he's going to live, how he's going to die, what he's going to talk, how he's going to talk, what his message is going to be. So I would just say, if you're a person who's into puzzles or archaeology or facts, this is
more than just a story. There are actual concrete evidence that one can look at and one can say, Wow, not only do he live an inspiring life, the life I wish I could be capable of living, but also the facts of history push me to look at the preponderance of evidence and say, I need to wrestle with whether or not this really happened, because how in the world do you predict in that level specificity that many details about any one human being hundreds of years in advance.
Well, it's just so inspiring this time of year, and all of us have the things we have to deal with, whether it's, as you mentioned earlier, somebody in the family that we've had issues with, and we're concerned about what might happen around the dinner table, or what might happen if we get into a discussion about this or that or whatever the case may be. But you know, this is just such a wonderful conversation to have this time
of year and really every day of every year. So I wish you and your family, Pastor Chad, a very very merry Christmas, and can't wait to be with you on Christmas Eve.
Yeah, all ten services, we'll see it.
Well, no kidding, all ten of them. They got going on, Pastor Chad Oven. We call it plain glass, stained glass. We do it every single week.