- Well, hey, welcome to Crossroads.

I'm Andy. I'm the pastor for Crossroads Anywhere.

And today our senior pastor, Brian Tome

is going to be unpacking the Christmas classic

It's a Wonderful Life.

But before we get there, I've got two quick things

that I want to put on your radar.

A buddy of mine, Nick, he's a teammate

and a 20 something.

He's actually the co host of a podcast

that we have called A Better Answer,

is starting a group trying to form community

of other people that are in that life stage.

It's such an important season of life

where you're making plans and preparing

and just setting the trajectory for decades to come.

And we find that happens best in the context of community.

If you want to connect with other people

that are kind of right where you're at in life,

head to crossroads.net/anywhere.

Secondly, I don't know what the weather

is like where you are, maybe it's beautiful.

Maybe it's like where I am in the Midwest

and it is freezing.

We're going to take advantage of

this whole Crossroads Anywhere thing.

We've got people all over the country

and all over the world.

We're actually going to be traveling

because we want to be with you.

We don't want to connect just online

or just through video like this.

We want to be together.

We're doing our first meetup.

We're going to be doing them all year long every month.

But our first meetup is going to be

in the Tampa and Orlando areas.

We'd love to connect with you.

If you are in Florida, head to Crossroads.net/anywhere

to raise your hand so that we can come

hopefully see you before too long.

All right.

Now we're going to jump into It's a Wonderful Life

with Brian right now.

- Christmas at the movies is perfect with some coffee.

Don't be that ring-a-ling ding dong, ding, ding talking.

So if we see this glow of a cellular telephone

we'll take them and we'll break them,

and we won't say we were mistaken. You've been warned.

Merry Christmas. [breaking FX]

- Well, today we look at the classic movie

It's a Wonderful Life.

I'm curious how many of us in here --

I am curious of this.

How many of us in here have actually seen

the movie It's a Wonderful Life?

You've actually seen it.

How many people have have not seen it?

How many people have not seeing it?

Okay.

All the people who've seen it go, [grumbling].

Okay.

How many people just don't raise their hand in church?

So let's do real quick again, seen it raise your hand.

Not seen it.

Okay. All right. Well, good.

So, this is going to be a stroll down memory lane

for some of us who have seen it.

And for others of us,

I'm going to try to fill you in this movie.

Not because I'm a big evangelist for the movie necessarily,

but because there's certain things that are in this script

that I don't know that Frank Capra,

who actually wrote, produced the movie,

oversaw the whole project.

I don't know if he really knew what he was producing,

but he was producing something that was very,

I believe, very close to the heart of God.

Not the movie is close to the heart of God,

but there are things in it

that are all through the Bible

that I want you to understand today,

because -- have to raised our hand again.

Who wants a wonderful life?

Who wants a wonderful life?

Who wants a loser life? Who wants to loser?

Yeah, I want a wonderful life. I do.

And this is what we're going to talk about today.

So let's pray before I go any further.

God, I want the best for every life that's with us,

no matter where we are this morning.

I mean, geographically or spiritually,

I want the best for us.

And I believe you want the best for us, too.

And these things are what you have talked about

again and again and modeled inside of Your Word.

So help me to get those out in an understandable

and winsome way.

And thank you, God, for the honor of doing so.

And I pray these things according to character

and identity of Jesus. Amen.

So It's A Wonderful Life was a movie I never thought of

or heard of until I started dating my wife, Libby.

It is her favorite movie, so she watched it every year.

So we've been doing this for 34 years.

Something like 34 years.

I watch it pretty much every year.

She watches it every year, and she loves it

because it was her grandmother's favorite movie.

So she thinks about her grandmother,

which is like her favorite person in the world

and who's dead a long, long time,

and her self and family stuff.

It's just kind of a a really good, nostalgic thing.

This was, by the way, by the way,

this is a black and white movie, black and white.

If you see the movie, understand that

this is a world of yesteryear in America,

it's in black and white.

Actually, it's actually in white.

It's all white all the time.

Everyone's white in the movie.

It's all a white perspective,

except there's one person of color.

And she, of course, is the maid. Right?

That's just the way it was way, way back when.

But try to see past that,

to just see the things that are talked about.

In this black and white film, by the way,

black and white.

But, you know, we have today?

We actually have this thing called Technicolor.

Yeah.

Wooh, yes. We do.

This gets hot, too, by the way.

This movie, as it was put together way back when,

was meant to be a feel good movie,

but it was a very controversial movie from the beginning.

You know, God is good with you feeling good.

I don't know if you know that or not.

He's okay with you feeling good.

In fact, He's really, really, really good

with you having peace,

because peace is part of what Christmas is.

The Book of Luke 2:13, if I go there, it says this.

This is angels.

This is angels who are proclaiming

what's going to happen with the birth of Jesus,

which is what we celebrate at Christmas.

And they say this:

Peace.

Feeling good, things going maybe wonderfully.

This movie has become a classic for two reasons.

One reason is it was such a bad movie

when it was first reviewed, when it was first saw

that it really went out of circulation

and no one really came to show up for it.

And therefore they never really went through

the process of copyrighting it.

So television stations said, "Free content,

we don't have to pay for.

We'll start running free content."

And then it became an ultimate classic.

That was one reason.

The second reason was it didn't quite strike

the right chord with its audiences.

Frank Capra, who's the creator of a movie,

he wanted a movie coming out of World War II

to make people feel good,

and he wanted it to be optimistic.

It's actually a challenging movie in many ways.

But some people didn't like this optimism.

The Independent says this:

I like that undemanding optimism.

Yeah, right.

So, if you're an undemanding optimist, then you're stupid.

If you're an undemanding optimist,

you choose to see things the positive way,

then you check your brain at the door.

Maybe that's why cynicism is so valued today.

We really -- we really think the smartest people

are the most cynical people. Why is that?

We think the smartest people are the most negative people.

That's really weird.

That's part of why our life isn't wonderful.

Frank Capra, when he created this movie,

I don't know if he had any relationship with God or not,

but what he has in this movie, through and through,

is the values that we find in the Bible.

Now, Christmas is in the Bible.

Christmas as a holiday

isn't a massive thing in the Bible.

Christians came along later and said,

"Hey, we should celebrate the birth of Jesus,

it coincides with this other holiday.

Let's do this," and off it's gone.

And sometimes we get carried away.

Like we get carried away when we

set up our Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving.

That is a -- that is a heinous sin in the eyes of God.

Actually, I'm lightening up on that a little bit.

I am.

We set our tree up before Thanksgiving this year

because Lib wants it.

I know, I know. I'm sorry.

I'm a good husband. That's all I can say.

Because she's always wanted it earlier,

she wants it earlier.

And by the way, no lie, right now the tree is dead.

So therefore you reap what you sow.

Honestly, it's a fire hazard.

Can't even put the lights on.

It's really -- it's really, really bad.

But part of the reason why I caved to her this year

is because, "You know what, honey?

If it helps you be more optimistic and happy.

Awesome. Great."

In fact, I repent of any judgment of all of you people,

except the ones of you

that put up decorations on Halloween.

You are disgusting.

That is just not --

Look, let's celebrate Halloween,

then let's do Thanksgiving, let's do Christmas.

But nonetheless, umbrella of mercy.

I'm sorry for judging all of you.

I think what you're trying to do

is you're just trying to feel good.

What's wrong with that?

You're trying to be optimistic.

You're trying to think of something

that's out there and in the future.

And this is why all of us want Christmas,

including the atheists and agnostics.

We want Christmas because

we want something to make us feel.

We're looking for something to make us a bit more optimistic.

It's a Wonderful Life does that.

If you want a Wonderful life,

you follow the life of Jesus.

And it just so happens the life of Jesus

is actually in the life, I believe, of George Bailey.

George Bailey is the main character

of It's a Wonderful Life.

He works in Bedford Falls.

And in Bedford Falls, his dad starts a savings and loan,

which is not an official bank,

but it's a place to give people, loan people money

who wouldn't be able to get into a house otherwise.

And George has a number of things going for him.

These things are the things that build a wonderful life.

Number one. Number one vision.

George has a vision.

The Bible says that without vision, people perish.

We need a vision. What is it?

A vision is something that's out there.

It's not here. I don't have it right now.

It's something out there.

It's a place where I'm going to

where I can sink my teeth into.

I'm planning against, I'm spending against,

I'm praying for.

And what's between where we are right now

and vision are two things: time and difficulty.

That's why many of us don't have vision.

We don't want to spend the time.

We don't want to go through the difficulty.

We want it now.

I want a fun day right now.

I want an easy day right now.

I've got a feeling that tonight's going to be

a good, good night tonight.

I want it.

I don't want it next week. I want it now.

And vision is always something substantive.

The reason why we don't have right now

is it's not automatic.

If it was automatic,

then it would be something we all had.

We wouldn't -- You don't need a vision

to be able to breathe,

unless you're on a breathing -- ventilator.

You don't need a vision for things

that are naturally going to happen to you.

You need a vision for things that are out there

that are difficult.

And many of us just don't have any.

And it's sad when we don't have anything

that we don't have right now, but we're working towards

and we're enduring difficulty for

and we're planning towards and we're spending towards.

George has a vision and it comes up

again and again throughout this whole movie.

His vision is to go to Europe and visit Europe,

get inspiration of the greatest buildings in Europe,

and then be an architect and come back to Bedford Falls,

come back to America and build amazing structures.

His vision isn't to run a savings and loan.

His vision is to be a great builder

that can impact the country.

And he cast this vision for himself,

and he casts his vision for others again and again,

including the first date

that he has with his future wife, Mary.

- What'd you wish, George?

- Well, not just one wish. A whole hat full of them.

Mary, I know what I'm going to do tomorrow

and the next day and next year and a year after that.

I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town

off my feet and I'm going to see the world:

Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Coliseum.

Then I'm coming back here and go to college

and see what they know.

And then I'm going to build things.

I'm going to build airfields,

I'm going to build skyscrapers a hundred stories high.

I'm going to build bridges a mile long.

What are you going to throw a rock?

[shattering glass]

Hey, that's pretty good.

What do you wish, Mary?

- [singing] Buffalo gals, can't you come out tonight?

Can't you come out tonight, can't you come out tonight?

Buffalo gals, can't you come out tonight

and dance by the light of the moon.

-What you wish when you threw that rock.

- Oh, no. - Tell me.

- If I told you, it might not come true.

- What is it you want, Mary?

What do you want? You want the moon?

Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it

and pull it down.

Hey, that's pretty good idea.

I'll give you the moon, Mary. - I'll take it.

- Oh, it is good.

He has a dream and he's telling people about it.

It's the focus of his life.

Now, here's the thing, when you have a vision,

a place where you're going,

the way you get there is time and difficulty.

Another way to put it is sacrifice, sacrifice.

Sacrifice sounds like a really noble concept.

If you think sacrifice is a really great idea

and a noble ideal, then you, my friend,

have never sacrificed, because it sucks.

And I mean that.

Very few people have ever actually sacrificed.

There's some of us who have had things taken away from us,

some of us who have lost things.

That's not the same thing as saying,

"I could have this, but I'm going to give that up

so that I can eventually have that."

It's sacrifice, choosing to give something up

because God would be happy or you want to trade up

to eventually maybe have a vision.

George sacrifices again and again and again and again,

in this movie, over and over again.

He sees his brother,

his little brother in the first scene comes down,

he falls into an icy pond.

George jumps in to save him,

and he sacrifices the hearing in one ear

by trying to save a child.

He sacrifices.

He sacrifices when he wants --

it's first turn to go to college,

but he can't because his brother is going,

so he doesn't go to college.

George decides to not go on a trip.

He welcomes his brother who comes back home.

I can't remember it after the war or after college,

and George is ready to hand it off to him,

the savings and loan.

Good, you're going to do the savings and loan.

And now I'm going to go after my dreams.

And he realizes his brother has just gotten married

and now they have dreams.

And George sacrifices again and says,

"Okay, Harry, you live your life

and I'm going to sacrifice.

I'm going to stay here doing the building and loan,

the savings and loan."

He has a wedding. Him and Mary get married.

And they finally are going to be going to Europe.

And he's got a wad of cash in his hand

because they don't have credit cards back then.

And after their wedding,

they're in the car on the way to the train station

to get to the airport and everything else.

He sees there's a run on the town bank.

The depression is happening. There's crashes.

People are going to draw their money out.

And he thinks, "Oh, no, they're going to do

the same things at the savings and loan my dad started.

And we don't have all the cash on hand.

We're going to be run out of business."

And so he runs out with all the cash.

And as people come to get all their money out,

he talks them down and he gives them

just part of their deposits back

so he can keep the savings and loan alive, afloat.

So, the poor people who can't qualify

for a conventional bank loan can actually qualify

for a loan and get their own house

instead of being in a slum.

He sacrifices over and over again.

It's inspiring when somebody sacrifices.

It's inspiring because we really just rarely see it.

I'm personally really inspired by our Dayton community.

We bought an old Sears for our Dayton community.

They've been in a school forever and ever and ever,

and so bought an old Sears.

And they recently just got done with the campaign.

I say they because Dayton, I said they

because you know there's more people

who are not Dayton than there are.

Dayton just had a campaign and they are committed

to sacrificing above and beyond what they regularly give

for three years to rehab this whole thing.

Sacrifice, it's tough.

Go without things you could have had.

Lib and I realized a few weeks

before that campaign in Dayton started, we realized,

"Oh, yeah, I am the senior pastor of Dayton.

I guess we need a sacrifice too."

And so we went through this whole process

and I always go to those with my feet dragging.

It's never exciting to sacrifice.

If you think it's exciting to sacrifice,

you're not sacrificing.

That's why it's called sacrifice.

But then on the back end, whatever sacrifice we've had,

I'm not talking about financially.

I'm talking also about sacrificing

your preferred vacation to do a mission trip.

I'm talking about sacrificing your preferred date night

for something the person you're dating would rather do.

I'm talking about sacrificing whatever it might be,

just saying I could have this,

but choose to not have this so I could have that,

or somebody else could have that.

George sacrifices.

When he sacrifices, he's being like Jesus,

because Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice.

He went to a cross, sacrificed His life on a cross

so that you and I wouldn't have to make any sacrifices

when we die to get to heaven

because Jesus paid the debt that you and I already owe

so that we wouldn't have to pay that debt.

He sacrificed for us.

When Jesus is born, which is what Christmas is about,

there's an interesting sign of sacrifice that comes to Him.

Let's read it in the Book of Matthew Chapter two.

This is the visit of the Magi, of the Wise Men.

These are people who are likely a sect of Zoroastrianism

over in the Far East, over from Persia.

And they get this dream.

They get this vision

that this very important individual being born.

And they they come, they go on journey.

They go on pilgrimage to find Him.

And when they find Him, let's see what happens,

verse 11 of Matthew 2:

Let's just stop right there.

Wait. Go into the house.

I thought, this is a stable.

Okay. Jesus was placed in a manger.

That's a feeding bowl for cows.

The Magi don't show up until at this point

they're settled in the house.

So Jesus could have been 2 years old at this point,

3 years old, 4 year old. We don't know.

But I mean, it takes a while to, like,

do a long journey and comes.

So Mary and Joseph are now settled.

They come and they find Him and then it says this:

Opening their treasures.

You know what I think?

I think what says opened their treasures,

it doesn't say then they brought out their treasures.

It says when they opened their treasures,

as if these are -- these are very rich people.

They've got camels and they open--

They go, "Hmm, now, now, which things

would be the most appropriate for Jesus?

What would we like?"

They look at all their treasures they have with them,

and they choose three things: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Gold is only what royalty would have.

It was top shelf thing.

Why? Because they have a king that is here.

Frankincense. Frankincense was used in worship,

burning of incense.

Jesus is like a priest.

He intercedes with us before God.

And then you got myrrh.

Myrrh, it's interesting. What is myrrh?

Myrrh could be just something that's valuable.

It's believed that Mary and Joseph,

this is actually what broke them out of poverty,

that's what I believe.

This I believe is what actually broke them out of poverty.

These gifts that they got when their son was a toddler

were incredibly value and maybe gave Joseph

a leg up to start investing in his business,

expanding his business.

This is all -- don't know any of that.

But all we know is Jesus was so poor,

He was so poor that they didn't have

a whole cloth to wrap around Him.

That's why He was wrapped in swaddling cloths,

not a whole blanket, swaddling cloths.

Mary and Joseph sacrificed to bring their son into the world.

They sacrifice their reputation to be able

to have a child that people thought was born out of wedlock.

And now they get rewarded.

They get these -- all of this, these resources.

But the last one, myrrh, is pretty interesting.

It was a valuable healing element.

You know what else myrrh was?

Myrrh was also embalming fluid.

It was spices that you would take

and you would put on the body and you would wrap it up.

In fact, Nicodemus comes in and John, 19:39-40,

I'm not going to read it for you right now,

but says Nicodemus comes and he brings the myrrh.

He brings the myrrh, he brings the embalming fluid

for the corpse of Jesus after Jesus goes to the cross.

I mean, how weird and wonderful is it

that at Jesus' birth He's given a gift like this.

It's weird that you would give embalming fluid,

and it's wonderful that it was like,

"Hey, hey, buddy, this is your vision.

This your vision. Your vision is to die.

The peak of your life is going to be

when you sacrifice your life."

Maybe the reason why more of us

don't have a more wonderful life

is we don't view that at all.

I only sacrifice when I have no other options.

I only give things over to God,

I only stop doing things when I'm backed up in a corner

and I have to just surrender it.

George sacrifices. Jesus sacrificed.

He didn't want to. He didn't want to go to the cross.

He's in the Garden of Gethsemani before He's arrested,

and it says He's sweating blood.

And He says, "God, I don't want to do this.

Take this cup from me, but not My will be done,

but Your will be done."

Jesus is sacrificing his preferences for the will of God.

Everybody who has a wonderful life, a truly wonderful,

not an easy life, not an approved of life by the masses.

Everybody who has a wonderful life, a life in totality,

understands vision and understands sacrifice.

Now, as George has this vision,

and he has these again, again and again and again and again.

And he, and by the way,

when he gives up these sacrifices,

he doesn't like them.

He's never like, "Oh, goody, I'll wait."

He doesn't like them.

In fact, there's times you can see

his anger over his sacrifices.

At one point, he's got a friend of his.

His name is Sam.

He's in the plastics industry.

He's making all kinds of money.

And Sam comes to celebrate his friend

who's now he has this multinational corporation.

Sam does.

Comes back to Bedford Falls

to see this new housing development

that the savings and loan has put in

under George's leadership

for people to have these houses.

And Sam comes down to celebrate

and there's this really pivotal scene where Sam is --

He's down in his really, really expensive Cadillac,

and his wife has a fur around her neck.

And then there's this old jalopy,

I guess like a model T, I think,

that George's is in.

And his wife, Mary's got this just unassuming scarf.

It's like you could see

the contrasting nature of both of them.

And then when they part, George is frustrated

and he kicks the door of his car.

You can see sometimes vision frustrates.

Sacrifice isn't a noble thing. It's difficult.

We don't like it, and we see that with George.

And that's why it's so tempting for George to turn back.

The figure that I believe represents

all that's wrong in the world is Mr. Potter.

Mr. Potter is this old, cranky guy

who owns everything in the town.

Mr. Potter, who, by the way,

is the grandfather of Harry Potter.

[laughter]

Mr. Potter has cares nothing about anybody.

He only wants himself.

He's not going to sacrifice anything.

He's not going to give anything.

Even when he accidentally, at the scene's climax,

accidentally gets the money of the silver --

of the savings and loan.

He accidentally received it.

So, it's an interesting scene.

He doesn't even return what isn't his?

He keeps it because he's all about getting ahead

at the expense of other people.

Potter represents what the world does to us,

represents the gnawing feeling that I'm losing,

that I'm doing something wrong,

that I'm not measuring up.

And what do you know?

George and the savings and loan

is cleaning his business's clock.

People are just there.

It's the one thing in the town that he can't have.

And so Mr. Potter finally realizes the epitome,

the representation of the world.

He thinks, "Hey, let's just get George to come work for me,

and then we'll eliminate all the thingsthat I don't like."

Let's look at that scene.

- The point is, I want to hire you.

- Hire me?

- I want you to manage my affairs. Run my properties.

George, I'll start you out at $20,000 a year.

- 20? $20,000 a year?

- You wouldn't mind living in the nicest house in town,

buying your wife a lot of fine clothes,

a couple of business trips to New York a year,

maybe once in a while Europe.

You wouldn't mind that, would you, George?

- Would I?

You're not talking to somebody else around here, are you?

This is me. You remember me? George Bailey.

- George Bailey.

George Bailey, whose ship has just come in,

provided he has enough brains to climb aboard.

- Holy maceral.

Well, how about the billing and loan?

- Oh, confounded, man.

Are you afraid of success?

I'm offering you a three year contract

at $20,000 a year starting today.

Is it a deal or isn't it?

- Well, Mr. Potter, I --

I know I ought to jump at the chance, but I just --

I wonder if it'd be possible for you

to give me 24 hours to think it over.

- Sure, sure.

You go on home and talk about it to your wife.

- I'd like to do that.

- Yeah. In the meantime, I'll draw up the papers.

- All right. - Okay, George?

- Okay, Mr. Potter.

No, no. Now, wait a minute here.

I don't need 24 hours.

I don't have to talk to anybody,

I know right now, and the answer is no, no, dog gone it.

You sit around here and you spin your little webs

and you think the whole world revolves around you

and your money.

Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter.

In the -- in the whole vast configuration of things,

I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider.

You --

And that goes for you, too.

And it goes for you too.

- I love that.

You just see he's tempted, like,

everything could have, the trip to Europe,

the salary, everything.

But he realizes, no, I've got to sacrifice this offer

because this would not be good for the town.

This is why he has a wonderful life.

I don't -- I don't know when Jesus really understood

what his life was about.

All I know is eventually He said, "I'm going to do that."

The way that George gets through things

is also similar to how Jesus chose to conduct His life.

Jesus chose to conduct his life with disciples,

with people around him, with friends.

And George, man, he builds into people left and right.

He's got this deep, deep, deep well of friends,

friends who he's helped get a house,

friends who he's given wisdom to,

friends who he's laughed with,

friends who he's been generous to.

He just has a really, really deep bench of people

who are around him.

That's one of the other things we need

for a Wonderful Life is we need community.

It's not a nice to have. It's a have to have.

And you don't know if you have community or not

until things are going poorly,

and then you either reap what you'VE sown,

you have someone bless you and gather around you

and sit in the mud puddle and prop you up and help you.

Or you sit alone and you get bitter

and you get more lonely.

We have not because we sacrificed not.

And friends, some of you are around other people

who are about other people and not just themselves.

And so when George is low, he's lost all of his money

because he's saved the building and loan.

He's lost it all.

And now he's dejected.

His honeymoon is now in tatters.

He can't go travel to Europe.

He has no money.

And that house that he and Mary on their first date

threw rocks through the windows,

that house ends up becoming the stopping point

for their honeymoon. And it is their honeymoon.

His friends gather together.

His friends see how he sacrificed, what he's done.

And so they try to make a makeshift honeymoon

in an old, beaten down house

that they've been throwing rocks through.

- Hey, this is the company's posters,

and a company won't like this.

- How would you like to get a ticket next week?

Is there any romance in you?

- Sure I have, but I got rid of it.

-Liver pills!

Who wants to see liver pills on their honeymoon?

What we want is romantic places, beautiful places,

places George wants to go.

[whistle]

- Hey, Bert. Here he comes.

- Come on. We got to get this up. He's coming.

Who?

The groom, idiot. This is their honeymoon.

Come on, get that ladder.

- What are they, ducks?

- Get that ladder up.

- All right. All right.

- Hurry up. Hurry up. - I'm hurring.

- Hiya. Good evening, sir.

Entray, monsieur, entray.

- Welcome home, Mr. Bailey.

- Well, I'll --

Mary, where did you --

(music) I love you truly,

truly, dear.

- Oh, Mary.

- Remember the night we broke the windows on this old house?

This is what I wished for.

- Darling, you're wonderful.

[singing] I love you truly,

truly, dear.

- Man, I'm gonna start crying.

Yeah. You know, if you haven't seen it,

I'm not ruining anything for you.

Seriously, some of us have seen it 30 times.

You'll see something I'm not even talking about in this.

But, George, he's got this deep, abiding friendship.

He's got this deep, abiding community.

At the end of the movie, one of the pinnacle lines is

they say you're a rich man, George.

Not because he ever has any money in the film,

but because of his friends, of his community

he is rich.

We need to realize this, friends,

because we all get freaked out about the economy

or get people freaked about their savings accounts

and all that kind of stuff.

And it's appropriate to have a certain level of concern

over those things for sure.

But I don't think most of us

are anywhere near as concerned

about the depth of our relational life.

We just think it should be automatic

or it's not going to happen at all.

George had the richness he had because

he made sacrifices and built into people around him.

And it was hard for him.

Towards the end of the movie he's not doing well.

There's a bank examiner that comes to savings and loan

and there's money missing because his uncle Billy

has lost it, fallen into Potter's lap.

It's a long story I'm not going to share.

But basically the building and loan is going to be shut down.

He's frustrated and he can't take the pressure anymore.

So he's about -- he's about ready to kill himself.

He feels that far down.

And then an angel comes to help him understand

the value of his life.

And one of the things that they do

is the angel takes him through Bedford Falls,

which if you hadn't existed, George,

it wouldn't be Bedford Falls.

It will be Pottersville.

And in Pottersville,

there's all kind of seedy businesses

and all that sort of thing.

And he's trying to give him a vision

of what his life would look like.

I struggled with this when I first watch this.

I didn't like this movie all that much

when I first watched this, because

when it gets into things in the spiritual realm,

I've had a good bit of experience

in the spiritual realm

and I know a bit about the Bible.

And so this --

how this angel is set up just kind of really rubbed me wrong

because it's not the way it is,

but it's Hollywood or they didn't know any better,

so I'll give them grace on that.

But this angel, his name is Clarence.

He's a previous human being who has not yet

ascended into the highest order in heaven.

And that's not who angels are.

Angels aren't previous human beings who then become angels.

Angels are separate beings that God has created.

And some of them have wings, perhaps,

and some of them don't have wings,

but they're separate created entities.

And Clarence comes down and he does what he's doing.

And I always go, "Oh, yeah, it just bothers me."

And he was like this almost like a guardian angel.

My religiosity, my anti-religiosity

made me hate the phrase guardian angel.

I heard people talk about guardian angel all the time.

And I just thought it was this construct,

this thing that wasn't actually true.

And then I started to realize, oh, no, no, it is true.

In fact, there's a lot of support

in the Bible for an angel.

And this angel keeps George from being dead.

I'm curious, how many of us in here,

you honestly believe and you could point to a place

when you say, "I actually should have died,

I should be dead?"

How many of us? That's me. I'm --

Thankful for the for the lives, others haven't.

But hopefully, it may be actually,

maybe you didn't raise your hand

because an angel kept it from actually happening.

You even knew it was as serious as it could be.

That's very possible. [applause]

Now when I tell you this, just understand

this is something comes up in the Bible again and again.

I'll give you some examples.

Hebrews 11:14:

So, angels are separate entities that come

and they serve those who are in the family of God.

Not all people,

those who will inherit the family of God.

They're ministering spirits.

And we don't talk too much about angels

because angels don't want to be talked about,

because angels aren't about themselves.

Whenever someone's really into angels, there's a problem.

You don't want to be really into angels.

You want to be really into Jesus, not into angels.

Because angels are about Jesus. They're not about themselves.

But having said that, but having said that,

angels will come and take the form of a human being

from time to time.

The Bible says many have entertained angels

and don't even know it.

They took on the form of am angel.

I've heard some stories of my mother-in-law

believes that her dead sister,

who died while she was babysitting her,

came and visited her the night that she was --

one night.

And I was like, "No, Carole didn't come visit you.

She didn't."

Maybe -- Maybe an angel took her form

to come and give you comfort."

But Jesus makes it very, very clear

that no one passes from here to there.

So angels are real,

we just have a lot of misperceptions about them.

One of the things understand is you're really important,

and if you're a follower of Christ,

you have an angel assigned to you.

That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.

You say, "Well, you just can't get that from one verse."

Okay. Let me give a couple of others.

The Book of Acts 12:15, Peter is in jail

and there's a miraculous way for him to escape.

And all the other believers, his friends,

his community, are hunkered down

thinking they have no out at all.

They're freaked out.

Peter shows up.

Can't get in the door, knocks.

Someone goes and sees who it is.

It's like, "Ah, Peter," slams the door in his face.

"Oh, my gosh."

Goes back tells them, "Hey. Hey. Peter's here.

I just saw Peter."

They're like, "Oh, it's not Peter.

He's in a Roman jail. He's not getting out of that."

And they say this.

They say -- they say this:

It's his angel.

They're going, "No, it's probably just

his guardian angel looking like him."

That's what the early followers believed.

Jesus in Matthew 18:10, here's what He says.

Their angels, possessive T-H-E-I-R, not tere are angels,

Their personal angel always sees the face of God in heaven.

I mean, I think that's why I'm alive.

It's the only way I understand me being alive

because there was an angel

that's helped me from time to time.

And sometimes, whatever, angels chose not to do that

and we die and life goes on, you know?

And life is difficult. We sacrifice.

This isn't ensuring life is going to be easy,

but I'm saying there is an X factor.

You have a wonderful life when you're following Jesus

and you have an angel that's assigned to you.

Back in my day, little kids didn't play video games.

They weren't invented.

We built tree houses.

Tree houses on somebody else's land or public land.

We'd take our dad's tools

and find rusty nails we would straighten.

And we would -- we would raid a local subdivision

where new houses were being built.

We'd steal their wood, God bless America.

And then we would go out.

We would build these tree houses.

And I mean, I mean, like 20, 30 feet up in the air,

on limbs as big as my thumb

with nails that weren't very long enough to hold the wood.

And I say, "Well, how in the world do we never fall?

And no --"

One of us had an angel. That's why, no question.

How in the world am I going 70 to 80 miles an hour

on a rented Harley-Davidson in Montana

about a decade ago

and I hit a deer going 80 miles an hour.

And I go through the deer

and I go down the road about 60 yards,

flying and rolling, and I don't have a helmet on?

And what I get is I get five stitches

in my left two knuckles.

People go, "You should have worn a helmet."

No. I should have worn gloves.

That's what I should have worn.

You'll never be able to tell me

that wasn't my guardian angel on job that day.

The perfect geometry for me to hit my back brake poorly

so it skids so when I hit that thing, I go over,

not headfirst, I go over sideways and land on my side,

impacting the body and take it and go off it.

Ridiculous. Ridiculous.

That's what God does.

Now I say this to us to go this should be encouraging.

It's encouraging.

You're really important to God.

He's got a safety net around you.

Don't abuse it.

It doesn't always work for whatever reason,

but you're really important.

And he wants you, and you need to have a wonderful life.

Clarence, this angel does his job.

George sees how good his life actually is.

And he goes all the way back to the house

and the bank examiners there with a beady eyes

who's going to throw him in jail with a sheriff

who's got the warrant for his arrest and all that?

And the money has to be money made whole that's been lost.

And look what happens to George through his friends.

- I made the rounds of my charge accounts.

- I'm not going to go, George. I changed my mind.

- Oh, I've been saving this money for a divorce,

if I ever get a husband.

Merry Christmas.

There you are, George.

I got got the faculty all up out of bed.

Here's something for you to play with.

- I wouldn't have a roof over my head

if it wasn't for you, George.

- Just a minute. Just a minute.

Quiet, everybody. Quiet. Quiet.

Now, get this. It's from London.

- Oh.

- Mr. Gower cabled you need cash. Stop.

My office instructed to advance you up to $25,000. Stop.

Hee haw! And Merry Christmas, Sam Wainwright.

[everyone talking at once]

- Mr. Martini. How about some wine?

[singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing]

Harry Bailey.

Harry. Harry.

- I got him home from the airport as quick as I could.

The fool flew all the way up here in the blizzard.

- Harry, how about your banquet in New York?

- Oh, I left right in the middle of it,

as soon as I got Mary's telegram.

Good idea, Ernie. A toast to my big brother, George,

the richest man in town.

[cheers]

[singing Auld Lang Syne]

Oh, man, it's really good.

[applause]

His brother comes in at the end.

You know. Harry --

Harry is an awful person.

He sucks. Seriously.

Because the whole movie, all he does, he takes, takes, takes.

He's a nice guy. Really happy.

But he takes. He never said --

even at the end, even at the end,

everyone's giving money to help.

He doesn't. He just takes a drink.

Great, drink. I'm making a toast.

Good public appearance.

But he never gives anything the entire time,

I mean in terms of himself, never sacrifices.

He does not have a wonderful life.

He smiles a lot.

But he doesn't have a wonderful life.

Look, you can have -- you can have a life like George

or you can have a life like Harry.

Actually, more consistent,

you can have a life like Jesus

or you can have a life like everybody else.

The path to a wonderful life is this:

Have a vision in your life,

get ready to sacrifice,

have friends around you that you enjoy life with

and you're a backstop for one another,

and see that there are angels.

Recognize that there's an X factor

in the presence of God that you get if you have Jesus.

That should give you a little motivation

and encouragement to take a risk.

God wants you to have this year a wonderful life.

Let me pray for you and I pray here.

There's some folks who are like,

"Hey, I've never heard the Angel perk thing before."

Maybe that does it for you to get you over the edge

and actually become a follower to receive Jesus.

Pray for you right now.

God, I thank you for your your generosity

in giving us Jesus.

And we pray that you would fill us with your vision and wisdom.

And God, some of us want to receive you for the first time.

We're thankful for your sacrifice.

We say, "Jesus, I want you in my life.

I ask you forgive me of my sin.

I asked you fill me with your Holy Spirit.

I commit the rest of my life to you."

Lord, thank you for being patient with our lives

and for having a vision for us to have a wonderful life.

You're good because of your son Jesus was so good to us.

I pray these things in His name. Amen.

- Hey, thank you guys so much for joining us today.

I've got two quick things before you go.

The first is this is a big time for a year end giving.

Crossroads is no different.

We're a nonprofit and we want to help you

make the most of your year end gifts.

We believe in the work that we do

and have seen it change lives all across

the nation and the world.

If you're considering where to allocate your year end giving,

hey, head to Crossroads.net/give for more info

and to join the team there.

Secondly, hey, we want to keep you in the loop

on what's going on with us as a community.

If you go to Crossroads.net/anywhere,

scroll all the way down to the bottom in orange,

there's a spot where you can create an account

that'll make sure you don't miss a single great thing

or a bit of content or chance to connect here at Crossroads.

Hey, thank you guys so much.

Real quick, I have a Christmas gift for you.

Next week we're going to be hearing from

our very own Chuck Mingo.

You don't want to miss it. See you next week.