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Dec 16
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2018-12-16 Message- Eagle and the Dove (Christmas Doing)

By Sermons
Image ©Barstow Creative Images, used with permission and courtesy of Robert Barstow.

This year’s Advent Message Series is titled The All-Inclusive Story featuring the animals of Christmas. Animals, you ask? Yes! You can become a part of the story, too!

The eagle’s sharp eyesight and the dove’s spirit will inspire us this week as we over-hear John the Baptist challenge the community who met him at the Jordan River. It was as if he posted on his Facebook page and live-streamed his message for all to see. What did John say about Jesus? What were the “take-aways” for parents, shopkeepers, and military types? What are we required to DO for Christmas? This week, our lesson from Luke 3:7-18 will challenge our preconceptions about Christmas and exchange them for eagle-eyes and a dove’s spirit which will provide a foundation for experiencing the presence of God in our lives today. Everyone is welcome to come and worship with us every Sunday in December. Enjoy special music, an interactive and inspiring message from God’s word, and a joyful community of faith!

Listen and consider how you can put “doing” into Christmas!

Dec 16
Love0

2018-12-16 Message for Kids- Doing Christmas

By Sermons

Christmas includes the tradition of exchanging gifts with those we care about. And also it includes volunteering and serving others in new ways. We call these activities acts of kindness. Christmas is about doing. Last week you selected an activity, what did you do. Read a book with a friend. That’s awesome! Well this week, I will offer you three challenges! Are you up to it? I have some great “gifts”, acts of kindness suggestions in this Advent Tin for you to choose from! Reach in a see what your challenge is this week. Great. Invite a friend to Christmas Eve service. Pick another. That’s a really good one: Help in the kitchen. Another. Make a Christmas card for a neighbor. God wants us to show our gratitude for his “indescribable gift” of Jesus! Thank you for being with me today! Be blessed as you do Christmas this week! Let’s pray.

Dec 09
Love0

2018-12-09 Message- The Ox and Preparing in Advent Light

By Sermons

Did you know that earliest followers of Jesus didn’t celebrate what we call Christmas? That’s right. In fact, it took them 300 years to set the date! Why? The focus of the early believers was on the life and work of Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Christ, and the birth narratives were not thought to be central to the Jesus-stories. The focus was on the atoning work of the cross, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and Jesus’ promised return. A few centuries later, however, it became important to introduce a more complete story of the Savior to show his full humanity and full divinity. The scholar and pastor, Jerome (347-420 AD), helped early believers learn the four gospels using familiar creatures, each representing a diffferent animal. Mark (the Lion), John (the Eagle), Matthew (humans) and Luke (the Ox).

This year’s Advent Message Series is titled The All-Inclusive Story featuring the animals of Christmas. Animals, you ask? Yes!

On the second Sunday of Advent, this week we will consider the ox and the donkey as images to help tell the Christmas story. The Gospel of Luke features the important role John the Baptist as a messenger to level the playing fields of life. The Good News is for everyone! God is in the business of smoothing out the rough edges, the ups and downs, the obstacles that impede our learning and growth as followers of Jesus. Listen to the an all-inclusive adventure toward Christmas hope this message.

Dec 09
Love0

2018-12-09 Message For Kids- Elf, Oxen, And Us, Oh My

By Sermons

Sharing the Message and Gift of Christmas. Everyone is invited into the Christmas Story. We don’t just want to hear the story of Jesus birth, we want to become a part of it! The wonderful git of Christmas is that God gave his son Jesus to us to empower our lives, to set us free from all those things that hold us back and help us to live our very best selves. Here’s what the Bible says about God’s gifts to us:

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (1 Corinthians  9:15)

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son… by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life (John 3:16-18).

We love because he first loved us (1John 4:19).

That gift is ours to open, but there’s more to it. God want us to be in the Christmas Story and we can do that when we also give gifts. What kid of gifts can you give? Here are some ideas adapted from Elf On the Shelf:

Hold the door for someone

Make a card for someone you love

Compliment a friend

Help a friend at school today

Write a thank you note

Give away some clothes that don’t fit anymore

Give books to the library

Give a kid a toy

Write a thank you note for your teacher

Give 5 people a high five

Bake cookies and deliver them to the firemen

Tell a friend what Jesus means to you

Smile at everyone you see today

Deliver cookies to your neighbors

Call your grandparents and tell them you love them

Make cards for kids at the Children’s Hospital

God wants us to become a part of the Christmas Story by sharing God’ s love this week. Will you do that? Thank you!

Some of our kids enjoy choosing how they will share the Christmas Story this week!
Dec 02
Love1

2012-12-02 Message- The Lion and the Lamb in Advent Light

By Sermons

Stretching for the limits? Is our faith experience a collection or facts, or a collection of connections? Life connections. When Jesus calls you and says, Follow me, are you ready to passionately just get up and follow, or do most of us just hold back a little because thats how we were taught. The Lion of Judah is leading into a future of hope. Let’s invest in that journey! Let’s try an experiment. Stretch your right arm up as far as you can. Now, reach further. Wow. Thanks. Did you notice that almost everyone reached further when asked. Why didn’t you reach at that far at the beginning? You can blame the inventor of the #2 pencil. We are not standardized, interchangeable parts on an assembly line of living. Do you know why the earliest teacher’s colleges were called Normal Schools? Because that’s all they expected!  They wanted everyone to be normal. But look around you this morning. Do you see normal? Of course not! Each one of us has that same inner light of Christ that shines in its own uniquely faceted beauty.

Who are you looking for this morning? A Lion or a Lamb? The Lion of Judah has your back. In fact, he’s leading you forward and you can be confident that Jesus the Lion of Judah will protect you into the future, though the future is uncertain and the sun and moon above may fall from the sky!

Jesus is also the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Maybe you need to meet the Lion. Or, the Lamb. Either way, let’s not hold back with that what we have been taught in school since the early 1900’s. Following Jesus is not done with a standard #2 pencil, as we answer standardized multiple-choice questions, so we can be the next interchangeable part for an assembly line called church. No! Church is not for normal people. You are not “standard!”

The Lion roars its invitation to a future of hope despite the sky falling and the uncertainties that abound! The Lamb has forgiven you of your past and freed you to live your very best self right now, and into the future. So let’s get up and go this Advent season. The light of Hope shines brightly and I can’t wait for what’s next!

Dec 02
Love0

2012-12-02 Message for Kids- Your Inner Advent Light

By Sermons

Why do we light our Advent Wreath Candles? Because it helps us to remember that God’s light is always present in our lives, every day. God offers us a dependable light, the light of Jesus Christ. This light, though, is not just in the five candle here in our worship center, no. The light of Jesus in within you. And you. And you. How do you know? Deep inside, no matter how we feel, no matter our mood. Sad or glad. Fearful or Courageous. The Light of Christ is within to give us hope. Hope that is brighter than any darkness. This week, remember that Jesus is your light.