Next Week | Is Christmas Pagan? | Season Finale

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00:52

What do you think of the set, guys? Is it amazing or what? Looks like Christmas came in here and threw up.

00:59

Hey, guys. This is our season finale. Our first season of Next Week with Jeff Durbin, guys.

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It has been amazing. It's just such a blessing, an incredible blessing, an honor to do it.

01:12

So thank you to everybody here who supported the show and worked on the show. And we will be back next year, guys.

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You excited about that? Good. Thank you, guys. Everybody who's watching right now on them Internets, I'm Jeff Durbin.

01:26

This is Next Week. You guys ready for the news? All right, so hey, a dazzling blue tarantula was discovered in South America.

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Dazzling blue. In other words, scientists desperate for new discoveries bought blue paint. Now, hey, a prostitution ring was found being run out of a senior living home.

01:47

Almost sounds unbelievable, right? But when questioned, the elderly said they had to have their grandchildren visit them somehow.

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Now, according to a study, men are perceived as not wearing the pants in the family if their wives keep their own last names after marriage.

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That's not true, replied Jared Kushner. He's the wife.

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Okay, so first lady, speaking of Trumps, First Lady Melania Trump decorated the

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White House this week to astounding approval. It turns out liberals hate Trump, but everyone loves

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Melania. Now, we've never had a better metaphor for how atheists hate

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Jesus, but love the holidays he brings. Here's how much people love

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Melania. The first lady posted a video of the Christmas decorations at the White House, and someone wrote a comment, and this is real.

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This is what they said. They said, this video gave me chill bumps. Wrong, wrong.

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You can have chills, you can have bumps, but you can't have chill bumps. Now, it actually sounds like the same kind of broken

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English that Melania Trump uses. So let's stop the whole Russian investigation and start a new investigation to see if the first lady is writing her own nice comments to herself.

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A child visiting the White House was mesmerized by First Lady Melania Trump.

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She was wearing a white cape dress with bell sleeves and a tiny gold belt.

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The child said, wow, she looks like an angel, and angels are from heaven. And then

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Donald Trump corrected him and said, no, son, angels are from Victoria's Secret. Actress Meghan Markle just got engaged to Prince Harry.

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All right, now this is the first good news we've heard in weeks involving a powerful man respecting an actress in Hollywood.

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It's true. It's true, it's a good thing. It's a good course we're on, guys. Now, Twitter users posted a

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Christmas nativity scene featuring two gay Josephs.

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Right, right, appropriate, yeah. Now, Christian believers said that it was not biblically accurate because there weren't that many asses in the stable.

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It's the show with the unpopular opinion, guys, and we love it. Now, as you can tell, as you can see, everybody, it's the

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Christmas season. You excited about that? Good. And we love Christmas so much on Next Week with Jeff Durbin that we bought every single tree from the local area.

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It's Phoenix, guys, give us a break. Now, I want... Jeff, Jeff, Jeffeth.

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Nebuchadnezzar Smooge, everybody. Let's hear it for him. If you don't know this, he's this show's

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Christmas Grinch. Now, what could you possibly be doing here? Wait, no, hold on.

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Let me guess, let me guess. You're here to talk bad about Christmas, right? So go ahead, go ahead. We'll give you the floor, right?

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No! You already seem to know what I would say. There would be no point in me saying anything,

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Jeff. Did you forget your cane? I forgot my cane. I got it now. Okay.

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Thank you, Cratchit. So you just want to stand here while I do the show then, right? Carry on, carry on.

05:30

All right, well then let's get back to it, guys. So as I was saying, everybody, we got every single Christmas tree in the Phoenix area to make this last season finale as Christmassy as possible.

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Because let's face it, I, Smooge, love Christmas. And when I say that I love

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Christmas, I mean that I... You fool! Can't you see what you're doing? You're giving in to society's demands.

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You've become a product of the million -dollar Christmas market. You've become the milk and cookies to the Santas in the corporate office.

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You're the chimney to the chimney sweep and the figgy to their pudding. The Christmas to their

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Christmas pickle. Okay, well... I don't even know what half of that means,

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Smooge. But look, seriously, what's your problem, Smooge? I mean, what do you have against Christmas? What do

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I have against Christmas? Oh, I'll tell you! Dramatic spotlight! Dramatic spotlight?

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That's what you have against Christmas? Dramatic spotlight? No, I'm saying I need a spotlight to tell my story!

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Well, you're on the wrong show because we actually don't even have the budget for a spotlight show. I was eight years old! And all

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I wanted was to be a writer! I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my favorite authors like Lewis and Tolkien and the guy who wrote that Get Well Soon card with a picture of Mike Tyson that says,

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Get Well Soon. It's a good one.

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But sadly, I had no notebook of which I could write. So I knew that was the very gift I had to ask for when

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Christmas came around, and I did! I asked everyone, my parents, Santa, I'm a miniature schnauzer at a dog park.

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A schnauzer? A schnauzer. I asked everyone, Jeff, why would I lie? I didn't just want any notebook,

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I wanted a special notebook, the Mead Five Star Spiral Notebook. Okay, that's, that's,

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Smooch, that's actually one of the most common notebooks. You can get that at school. No, it isn't! I'm just saying, you can get that out of any lo -

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Oh, that was your line, sorry, go ahead. I'm just saying, you can get that out of any locker in school.

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Will you let me tell my sad story, Jeff? Yeah, go ahead, Smooch. On Christmas morning,

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I woke up and tripped downstairs, severely damaging my right kneecap, which is why I have my cane.

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That has nothing to do with the story, just a last -minute character development before the show's over. Anyway, I opened one present after another, expecting to see my

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Christmas wish, and then - I got it, I got it, I got it, I think I know how the story ends. You never got your notebook, right?

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No, I got it, in fact, I got a whole pack of notebooks, exactly what I asked for. So what's the problem?

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But nobody ever thought of giving me the gift of a pen. I have nothing to write with.

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Okay, wait, wait, wait a second. You're saying that all the bitterness that you have towards Christmas is because you never got a pen?

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I never got a pen, Jeff! Well... I actually don't have one on me, so...

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Okay, good. There, now you got a pen. Wow, Jeff, thank you!

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Thank you for that pen! Nobody's ever given me a pen before! Wow, I've really been bitter because of this!

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You have, you have. And yet now, I feel like a changed man! I feel thankful and prepared!

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Good, good, good. What day is it, Cratchit? Cratchit, what day is it?

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Right here, sir. Is it Christmas? Is it Christmas? No, no, it's

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Tuesday, Smooch. And don't touch people, it terrifies them. Especially Cratchit, he's a weak man.

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Please, Cratch! Please don't hurt me, sir! Please! Hurt you? Why would I hurt you? It's the

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Christmas season and I'm full of joy! Does this mean you'll give me my Christmas raise?

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I said it was Christmas, I didn't say it was rich! But I will give you a bonus! Woohoo!

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That's the Christmas spirit, Smooch. A lot of people don't know this, Jeff, but Cratchit's actually a gambling addict.

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I feel so free and full of joy, now I understand the meaning of Christmas! It's not about some pen, it's about something greater!

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Christmas is about friends, families, and gifts! Yeah, it's actually about Jesus.

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Oh! That makes a lot more sense! It does, yeah. What's that noise?

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What's that noise? I don't know. Oh no! It's the ghost of Christmas past, present, and future!

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And I've already changed my heart! Have you really come to torture me with showing me stuff that would hurt my feelings?

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Uh, no, no, no, we're not even here for you. We want to do some monologue jokes. Yeah! Yeah! Not everything is about you.

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Sometimes we just want to do stuff for ourselves. Yeah. Selfish. Well, hey guys, it is the season of giving, so if you guys want to try a couple of monologue jokes, go right on ahead.

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You guys want to hear him do some monologue jokes, guys? There you go. Hey guys!

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Hey! I'm the ghost of Christmas past. Here's what's been going on in the news. Have you guys heard about this?

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President Richard Nixon just resigned from office. That was for obstruction of justice, and he could even face time in prison.

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Yeah, don't worry about it, though. We're going to hear a lot about it. He's already trying to tape record his possible prison cell.

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Here's another piece of news. I don't know if you heard this one or not. It's pretty recent. The bubonic black plague.

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It's wiped out 30 to 50 percent of Europe's population due to disease. Yeah. The black plague is also sponsored by Walmart brand soap.

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And finally, a young virgin named Mary is about to give birth to the son of God. Yeah. And Maury Povich already said that Joseph is not the father.

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Thank you. Hey guys! I'm the ghost of Christmas present.

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Here's what's going on. Each and every one of us is breathing right now. Boy, we're taking that for granted longer than the

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Clintons have been taking not going to jail granted. Have you heard this one?

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It is currently 10 .15 p .m. on the East Coast. But men who wear the hat backwards still think it's 1999.

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Lastly, somewhere in the country right now, an ice cream truck is driving around a neighborhood making people go,

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Is that still a thing? Hello.

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I'm the ghost of Christmas future. In the future, Queen Overlord has declared that this is a festive, inoffensive winter feeling time.

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All are one and intolerance will not be tolerated. All men have been generously sent to live in caves.

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This has resulted in all the toilet seats finally being left down. That's crazy.

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That's absolutely crazy. With the creation of AI and more advanced technology, people don't need legs anymore.

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They've become just as useless as thinking for yourself. Oh, this is awful. Why think when

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Queen Overlord can do it for you? I suspected as much. This is terrible. This is bad news.

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And lastly, the show next week with Jeff Durbin is about to celebrate its 30th year anniversary.

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That's awesome. Yeah. Wow. All right. All right. That's considered offensive where I come from.

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But a liberal secular woman is the host. Oh, that's awful. That's horrible.

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That's a terrible future. I'm just kidding, Jeff. The U .S. goes back to a Christian nation and shows like this and Abortion Now all over the world.

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Yeah. Now you should have seen your face. Are you gone?

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All right, guys. We'll be right back, guys. Don't go away. Merry Christmas, everybody. Like and share the episode.

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We have a very special guest today and an important guest piece about Christmas. Stay with us.

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And you're going to want to log on. Like I said, it's only $9 .99 a month. It's the same price as a cup of coffee.

14:13

Wait. Am I reading that right? A cup of coffee? There's no way that script is right. Who buys coffee for $9 .99?

14:21

Who's buying a $10 cup of coffee? This cup of coffee I stole from a man. There's a way that you can get around life without $10 for a cup of coffee.

14:31

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14:39

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14:45

Like how much foam did you get on that cup of coffee? Take that $10. Go use it just once for this month and get

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Sign up. Buy coffee a little better. Welcome back everybody.

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Sharing the episode with all your friends. Right on. Thank you live studio audience.

15:23

Welcome everybody. We're all in the Christmas spirit here and so we thought we would do a very special blend of the week.

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Are you ready for it? So this blend of the week is called

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Elfspresso. It's actually a blend that only elves drink. We actually took it straight from Jeff Sessions' desk.

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So it tastes like syrup.

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Alright, let's do this guys. As you can see, by looking around, taking a gander, we are very, very excited about this last episode of Next Week with Jeff Durbin, guys.

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Season finale. Now, not only does this episode mark the end of our first and very successful season, but it's also our

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Christmas episode. And as you can tell, of course, we are

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Christmas freaks at Apologia Church. And we're not sorry. Now, I mean, if we were a cheesy

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Christian parody of something secular, our show would be called Christmas Angel Mind Freak.

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That's how much we love it, guys. Now, we think that a worldwide celebration of God becoming a man is kind of a big deal and a very good thing.

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Now, it's a time of year when you can go to your local mall, the restaurant on the corner, the grocery store, gas stations, and public restrooms, and you can hear songs about Jesus coming into the world to save sinners.

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Now, some are played on the radio and some are sung by grown men in the bathroom who can't hold a note. But at least it's being sung, guys.

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Now, I'd actually call that a pretty significant sweet spot on the road to victory for the church. What do you guys think?

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However, not everybody is convinced that we should participate in a massive party about the birth of the

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Messiah. Apparently, celebrating our own birthdays is acceptable. But celebrating the eternal God taking on flesh and being born in a manger isn't.

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No candles and cake for you, Jesus. But I'll gladly take an Amazon gift card and a bounce house.

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Thank you, Lord. Now, one argument says that Christmas is a pagan holiday.

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You heard that one, guys? Now, if you have an internet connection and some Christian friends, then you know all about this one.

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Now, these people spend more time thinking and talking about Christmas than St. Nick ever did. Now, I mean, they mention

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Christmas more than Tyler Perry movie credits mention Tyler Perry. This first category can appropriately be called

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Christmas trolls. Now, they hide out in comment boxes with their fingers on the ready and their

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Grinch -sized hearts ready to pounce on anyone posting a jolly holiday comment much like this.

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How dare you enter the Grinch's lair! The impudence!

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The audacity! The unmitigated gall! You've called down the thunder.

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Now, get ready for the boom! Gaze into the face of fear.

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Booga booga! Now, is it true, is it true that Christmas celebrations began during a time when the

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Romans had been celebrating their pagan holiday? Yep, absolutely true. And like a bunch of kids kicking a guy in a

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Chuck E. Cheese costume, Christians beat that celebration into submission. Have you ever seen massive public celebrations of winter solstice going on anymore?

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Anybody seen that? No! And why? Because Christians, once a tiny, elfish -sized minority group in the

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Roman Empire, smashed that pagan celebration into non -existence. Here's actual footage of that being done.

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You feeling strong, my friend? Call me elf one more time. He's an angry elf.

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He wasn't ready for that.

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Call me elf one more time. Call me elf! You're an elf.

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Checkmate, pagans! That's right, Christians chose the darkest day of the year to be the mark when they would celebrate the greatest light coming into the world.

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Now, we have the true and better story, and we celebrated so loud, it drowned out the sinful pagan mess the

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Romans had created. We out -celebrated them, we out -sang them, we out -danced them, and we out -truthed them.

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We were like the homeschooled kids at a party that had more fun than the drunk kids did at the same party.

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And we won! We won over the whole party! Just kidding. Homeschooled kids wouldn't go to that party.

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Now, some might say, yeah, but you see, some of the Christmas traditions are pagan in origin.

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Well, that makes sense, doesn't it? Because all of us used to be pagans. And besides, the people making these claims don't really hold to the standard that they actually set up.

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Want some proof? I'd like all the married people to go ahead and hold up their left hand. Does it bother us that the ring on your finger was a symbol to the

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Romans of putting a chain on your heart because they believed that the finger went to the heart? Any of our beloved

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Christmas trolls blow out candles on your birthday cakes? Does it bother you that that tradition goes back to pagan necromancers reading your fortune in the smoke?

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Now, when your kids ask you what day it is after the day after tomorrow, will you tell them that it's

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Thor's Day, which is named after the pagan god Thor? You see, here's the thing. Pagans don't own trees, lights, gifts, feasts, days, and stars.

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Who owns them? God does. He does.

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Now, anything, anything can become a symbol, and we can give it the meaning that we choose to give it.

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For instance, at one time, a donkey was a symbol of prestige that kings and royalty would ride.

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And now, the ass is a symbol for jerks, smart -alecks, and Democrats. Appropriate.

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Now, most of the stuff on the Internet about the pagan origins of this or that tradition, they're written by a guy drinking eggnog living in his mama's basement anyway.

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The truth is, you can hold here for a second, the truth is, is that many historians have shown that some of these traditions were actually co -opted from the

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Christians by the pagans. They stole them from us. Now, what's Thursday now?

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What's Thursday now? It's the day after tomorrow. That's it.

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What's the Christmas tree symbolized to Christians? It represents eternal life, because the tree lasts through the winter.

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What do the lights symbolize? Want to take a guess? Jesus is the light of the world.

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What does the candy cane represent? It's a shepherd's staff, and it has stripes of blood on it. What does the giving of Christmas gifts mean?

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God gave us the gift of his son. Now, these are gifts without cost, given freely through our love, just like Jesus, y 'all.

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Now, what do stars mean to pagans? Well, they use it for astrology. What do they mean to Christians?

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They testify to the glory of God. What do wedding rings mean to Christians?

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It's a symbol of our love for one another. What do wedding rings mean to Kay Jewelers? So much money.

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Could go into a rap song. Now, someone might say, oh, yeah? Well, Jesus wasn't born on December 25th anyway.

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And to that we say, who cares? We aren't celebrating the birth of the

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Savior because we believe that that's the actual day he was born, although many Christians early on had estimated and guessed that may be the day he was actually born.

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However, it doesn't need to be. The truth is there's a lot of scholarly debate over when Jesus was born.

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Christians have marked a day when we can celebrate that miraculous event. And, yes, we started the celebration on that day during a time when pagans were doing their shenanigans.

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Did I already say that we won? Because we did. Next, we run into what seems like a more sophisticated and biblical argument against Christmas.

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These well -meaning people suggest that because there is no designated

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Christmas celebration in the Bible, we can't designate one now. Now, that would make a lot of sense if people were forcing people to have

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Christmas celebrations saying it's part of God's law. However, we're not. You are absolutely, completely free to be this guy.

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Here, Francis. I've got something for you. Merry Christmas.

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Is this a choo -choo train? No, it's five pounds of veal. But, Daddy, I asked

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Santa for a choo -choo. Well, then go out and get a job and buy a choo -choo.

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Aw, Earl, he's only four years old. All day long I listen to people give excuses why they can't work.

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My back hurts. My legs ache. I'm only four. Now, there's no biblical mandate against birthday celebrations, wedding anniversaries, and parties.

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If Christians want to have a worldwide celebration of the incarnation and advent of Christ, then they are absolutely permitted to do so.

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Besides, there is an excellent example of Jesus participating in a celebration that wasn't commanded in the law of God.

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It was called the Festival of Lights. Now, today we know it as Hanukkah. In John 10, 22 through 23, we see that Jesus didn't have a problem with participating in a feast and celebration that wasn't commanded in God's law.

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So take that, Facebook covenanters. We love you. Now, the principle in Scripture is this.

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This is what it is. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the

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Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. That's the principle. We should laugh louder, celebrate harder, and feast better than people who don't even know

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God. Now, I'm actually of the opinion that God, the eternal

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God, the only God, taking on flesh to save us from our sins, it's a worthy enough event to dance to.

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Gets me every time. It's not Christmas without that movie, guys. And don't you dare watch it in color.

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That's a Christmas sin. Now, finally, we have the people who suggest that Christmas is too commercialized.

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It's just a bloated, bastardized Christmas harlot that has nothing to do with the message of Jesus.

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And to that I say, then you start fixing it. Just consider the fact that during this season, people are talking freely about Jesus more than any other time of year.

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The world is doing the heavy lifting for us by playing songs about our Savior and heralding the message about God saving sinners through Jesus.

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Name another time of year. I dare you to try it. Name another time of year when unbelievers decorate their homes and businesses in memory of Jesus.

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Name another time of year when unbelievers play songs that worship and give glory to Jesus. You see,

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Christmas is an opportunity to remember what matters most. Our relationship to God.

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All the lights, the trees, the gifts, the feasts, the parties, and everything else are opportunities for two things.

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Worship and evangelism. You see, in my family, Christmas is a time of special memories.

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We fill our house with special smells. We decorate and light up our entire house to remind our kids that something entirely unusual happened in the world 2 ,000 years ago.

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We read the story in Scripture about the incarnation. We dance together. We give gifts to remind each other of the free gift that we have in Christ.

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And we celebrate and remember the marvelous truth that God humbled himself to rescue us from ourselves.

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Now, sure, while the rest of us are celebrating, you can choose to be this guy. But as for me and my house, we'll be this guy.

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You'll want it every day of your life, and it can happen to you. I believe in it now.

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I believe it's going to happen to me now. I'm ready for it. And it's great.

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It's a good feeling. It's really better than I've felt in a long time. I'm ready.

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Have a Merry Christmas, everybody. Did I forget something, big man?

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Merry Christmas, you filthy animals. We'll be right back, guys. Don't go away. Thank you for watching

29:57

Next Week. Thank you very much.

30:24

Welcome back. So, it is fitting that on our season finale of Next Week with Jeff Durbin, that we would have our biggest guest ever.

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Are you guys ready for this? He is a member of Apologia Church.

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He plays for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He is called the king of closers in Japan, and he's broken some amazing records.

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Please welcome Dennis Arfati. All right.

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This is exciting, man. This is. Great set. Yeah. So, this is Dennis, guys.

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And, man, it's seriously awesome to have you on the show. And there's so much I want to talk about. We really could do like an hour -long episode.

31:15

It could be. So, the hard part is going to be squeezing this together to make sense of what God is doing through you. So, just, they call you the king of closers, so I don't know much about the baseball.

31:25

Yeah. The baseball. So, what does it mean? You're the king of closers. It's a big deal right now in Japan.

31:31

Yeah. You know, Japanese are really, they're crazy with their nicknames.

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You know, they call me the guardian of the Hawks. But they got king of closers because you're considered the save king when you lead the league in saves.

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So, two years ago, I got my first title, save title. Last year, I got another one.

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And then this last year, I got my third in a row. So, they call me the king of closers. King of closers.

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Now, you just have recently gotten back. Yes. The hard part of what you do is you're spending like half of your year out in Japan and then coming back.

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And you live here in Arizona with us. Yeah, I feel like I'm Japanese because I'm only in Arizona for three months.

32:10

Right. So, I really, I spend a lot of time there. You do. And so, you just recently, after you came home, we're all excited to have you home again.

32:18

And then you immediately turned back around, took like a 20 -hour flight back to be in Japan for like, what, 12 hours?

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Yeah. I got home. I was just getting over jet lag. And then they said, well, come on back.

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We got an award ceremony you need to be a part of. And so, I flew 16 hours there, stayed there for 12 hours, and got on a flight and flew 16 hours home.

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So, what's the big deal? There's a lot of talk about what happened this last season with you.

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What was the big thing that was historic? It was crazy. I just broke so many records that have been standing for years.

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I broke the foreign save record. I broke the 200 save mark.

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I broke the single season mark. We won another championship. Right.

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So, it was just, it was a crazy year. And then, to top it all off, at the end of the year, they gave me the league MVP, which is the first foreigner ever to win it, especially a pitcher.

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Wow, praise God. That's awesome. Crazy. Crazy year. Crazy year. God was definitely watching over it this year for sure.

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So, the thing that I think is so interesting, and we talked a lot about this, Japan's population,

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Christian population, they say is around 1%. 1 % of the Japanese are

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Christian, know the gospel. That's incredible. It's 2017, and 1 % of Japan identifies as Christian.

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And so, God has such a unique place for you, and then he sends you to Japan with this amazing gift and talent you have.

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And you can walk down the streets in Phoenix, Arizona, no big deal. It's the best. Yeah, but when you go to Japan, it's insanity, right?

33:58

I'm like Justin Bieber. My daughters say I'm Justin Bieber. So, I'd like to hear you talk about this.

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With Japan being about a 1 % Christian population, I've heard John Piper talk about this, we need to be sending missionaries to Japan.

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But God has one of the most well -known people in Japan, this celebrity status, which you're not asking for, but God's given it to you.

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You get to testify about the grace of God in Christ to people who don't either want anything to do with Christ or have never heard the message of Jesus.

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Talk about that. Yeah, so, first, I wasn't a believer when I got to Japan, so that's the crazy thing.

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I was here in the major leagues and things happened during the last year of my career here and ended up going to Japan, getting saved by the end of that first year.

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And what I've seen God do through the last seven years has been crazy where now I get to go to public schools and I can share my faith and my testimony.

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I think that's probably the strongest thing is I get to share the message that not everyone would get to do.

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They love baseball so much. They give me this platform. God's given me this tremendous platform.

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I don't deserve it. But for someone in baseball to be that successful, people will come and listen.

35:12

Right. And that's all I'm asking for is to come and listen, hear the message. I try to go to as many things as possible and just share

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God's word. Well, you know, you and I have—yeah, you guys can definitely applaud for that. You and I have talked before about—you know, it's interesting.

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If people are thinking about being missionaries to Japan, I'm sure there might be people watching this that are. They have to learn the language.

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They have to try to get there and sort of, you know, enter into the culture and embrace it and soak it up and be a part of the culture and then start that process of evangelism.

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But it's usually very humble beginnings. It's, you know, one person diving into a culture that's so foreign to them and trying to reach people for Christ.

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Maybe God through, you know, 30 years of ministry gives them, you know, a couple of people to legitimately communicate the gospel to.

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But God has placed you in such a unique position where you get to testify to all of Japan if you want to.

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And God's able to open people's eyes through this amazing gift that you have of being a pitcher, a closer.

36:10

Yeah, I've met with Campus Crusaders. I've met with different missionary groups that are there, and they always joke with me.

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They say I'm an overpaid missionary. But I bring the platform, and, you know, they have the hard work.

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They don't have that platform and that status, you know, so to say, right when they get there. But God has given me that platform, and they invite me to go speak at different things, and those are always the biggest turnouts because people love to hear about baseball.

36:35

And so whenever I can go and do something, I love just to be able to help them out because I'm sure it's tough being over there, and no one wants to hear what you have to say.

36:43

Right, yeah, I grew up, and you know this, I grew up in Japan myself, but I was military. And I do remember

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I was there for five years. I do remember I wasn't even a Christian then. And the hostility that they have in many respects, especially the older people towards Americans and the

36:58

Christian religion, and so it just seeped in sort of idolatry and this old sort of pagan culture is still around.

37:05

And only 1 % are Christian, and you're speaking into that. Yeah, and you know, the biggest thing is they're so materialistic in Japan.

37:12

You know, they care about their cars and the way they look. They don't, the best thing that ever happened to me in my second year, one of the ladies in the front office said, you're a

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Christian. And I said, yes. And she said, well, that's just a lot of rules, right? And I said, well, no, it's not a lot of rules.

37:29

I mean, we have rules, but there's a standard of living. And I think that really changed because a lot of them just think

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Christianity is just rules and you can't have fun. But I said, I've had more fun as a Christian than I was as a regular person.

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So it's crazy. So it's, this would be really good to talk about since we've,

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God has brought us together in our relationship and I'm your pastor. We're friends.

37:55

I've been able to introduce you to, in a big way, and hopefully in an important way, the doctrines of grace, the truth about the sovereignty of God over all things.

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And before that was really, I guess in some sense, in theory, right? God is sovereign.

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But over the last year, God has really been sanctifying you and your family and just blessed you in a tremendous way.

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And you've been a light to Japan. People in Japan know about your family's struggles this last year with health issues.

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How has the truth about the sovereignty of God impacted you? And how has that been used by God as you testify to the

38:31

Japanese culture as they know about your family's struggles? Wow. Yeah, this year was so, so hard.

38:36

On the field, the accolades and all the awards, they were great. But my teammates knew the struggle with Jada, my wife's health, and being here in Arizona while I'm in Japan 8 ,000 miles away.

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That's tough on anything. I mean, that's really hard with kids too. It's really hard to be that far away.

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And they saw me come to the field every day in joy, and they didn't know the struggle I was going to until it came out where I almost quit five times.

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And every time I wanted to quit, every time I wanted to go home and say, God, I'm done with this, God had a little subtle way to remind me about why

39:13

I was there. And one time it was putting on a shirt that I just grabbed out of my locker real quick, and it was my strong Joshua 1 -9 t -shirt.

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And I'm like, really, God, thank you. And then the next time it was an interview where they asked me why I chose to come back.

39:27

I had mentioned in an interview where I said God has me here for a reason. And every time

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I got to relive that, I knew that God was doing something. He was going to use what was going on at home.

39:38

And he kept me there, and he gave me the accolades this year for a reason, to have a voice.

39:43

And I'm just blessed by him and just so happy. Dennis, how has this last year, dealing with the health struggles in your family with Jada, how has the truth in Scripture about God's sovereignty impacted you?

40:02

How have you been able to walk through it in light of God's truth about his sovereignty? Well, I know he's in control, and that's the biggest thing, is every time we try to do something that we want to do, it never works out.

40:14

But when we finally just submit and say, God, whatever you're planning on doing in this year or next year, we're going to submit to you, and he is sovereign.

40:23

And before, I never really knew what that meant. I was like, okay, yeah, it's God's sovereign. Okay, great. But now when I meet him, he's in control of everything.

40:29

And we've seen it just with how things have set up in our lives, Jada and I, where her parents moved to the house right behind ours.

40:38

And this past season, if they weren't there, I couldn't be in Japan. I would have came home because I didn't have anyone to take care of her or my kids.

40:44

So just in that alone, I saw that house came available. They moved in there, and next thing you know, we needed them to be there.

40:51

And so from that thing on, I just saw how God has worked, and it's just incredible every time.

40:57

All things work together for good, right? That's right. Amen. All right, guys, the king of closers. Continue to pray for Dennis, guys, and all his work in Japan.

41:05

Round of applause. Thanks, brother. Thank you, brother. Thank you, man. All right, guys, stay with us. We'll be right back with the finale to the finale right after this.

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Let's pray together. Father, please help today, Lord, as a church, as we as a church focus in upon your work in and through us.

41:27

Lord, what we're doing here that you've called us to, but also what we're doing around the world, we pray,

41:34

God, that you'd allow us as a church to have the endurance necessary, the humility necessary to accomplish this amazing task that you've set before us.

41:46

Please provide for all of our needs. Give us, Lord, commitment, strength, passion,

41:54

Lord, to accomplish your will. God, we know that if you don't build the house, the laborers labor in vain who build it.

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And so, God, we, Lord, we submit to you, humble ourselves before you, and we ask,

42:10

God, that you build this, not us. Let us be your hands and feet, God, that I pray that you would get us out of the way.

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Thank you, Lord, for calling us to something that in ourselves we're not worthy of. And please be glorified,

42:25

God, for making your name famous throughout the earth. And in this context, in the island of Kauai, in Jesus' name, amen.

42:48

Praise the Lord. Almost three years ago,

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God surprised Apologia Church by giving us the passion and commitment to plant a church on the island of Kauai.

43:12

A lot of time has gone by, a lot of work has gone in, a lot of work on our hearts as a church.

43:18

And right now, we're in the place where we're ready. We're going to Kauai. We're planting this church.

43:25

We're bringing the gospel to that island. Thank you so much.

43:38

Thank you.

43:49

Well, this, thank you, guys. This has been an amazing first season.

43:55

I mean, truly, we are so humbled to be a part of something like this. We've been honored by what God has done through this show, through our ministries.

44:05

And thank you guys so much for the audience. You guys have been so great every week. It's been amazing. Thank you to all of you guys who have been faithful in watching this show and sharing this show and being a part of all that God is doing through this ministry and Apologia Church.

44:18

So as we close out the season finale for next week with Jeff Durbin for 2017,

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I want to let you guys know that February 13th is the return date for season two. So be watching for that.

44:33

As we talk about every show, I want to end this. We wanted to provide a platform where we could have regular engagement with the culture on a host of different issues.

44:44

We can go to the root of the problems in our culture and respond to it with a biblical worldview.

44:50

We wanted to constantly engage the issue of abortion and focus on raising up people to end abortion immediately.

44:58

It has been amazing. And I want to say that since we started this platform, not only has it been seen by over a million people, but we were able to be in a place where we're in a holding pattern with end abortion now in terms of churches.

45:12

And then when the show launched, it popped again. And we have right now 274 local churches across the

45:18

United States who are part of End Abortion Now with us. You know, it's hard to even imagine, honestly, to be transparent.

45:26

There's really no way to figure it out. I mean, there's some of these churches, like say one church, has saved this year over 30 children from death.

45:34

That's one church. And so we really have no way to calculate all that God is doing.

45:39

But we're very excited about it, and we're excited to see what God does in the future. And with that, let me point you guys to what's going to be happening right here on this page.

45:47

December the 12th at about 5 p .m. Arizona time, we're going to have sort of an update and live like three -hour telethon for End Abortion Now.

45:57

So I'm going to point you guys to that. Guys, keep your eyes out for that. We're very excited to update you guys on all that God has done this last year through End Abortion Now, in particular for those of you guys that have been praying for us and you gave financially towards all that we're doing for End Abortion Now, whether it was the conference, whether it's sending out kits to churches, whether it's the free resources, whatever it's been, we want to update you guys and let you know all that God has done.

46:21

One more thing I want to point you to is tomorrow, actually, on YouTube, Apologia Studios on YouTube, and right here on Apologia Studios' page on Facebook, we're going to release our final documentary about our church plant on the island of Kauai.

46:37

So, yes, we are planting a church on the island of Kauai. We're sending out our first families in the middle of December, and our first date for the worship service is

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January 21st, 2018. We're going to let you know all about it on that documentary starting tomorrow.

46:53

Okay, guys? And so that's about it, guys. So thank you guys very, very much for watching

46:59

Next Week with Jeff Durbin. We love you guys. We can't wait for next year. Continue to pray for us, and don't forget to like and share the episode.