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Week of: December 7, 2008
Special Speaker: Dr. Tracey Stout
No notes
Scripture: Luke 1:67-79
Week of: December 14, 2008
Christmas Program; Adult Choir
Week of: December 21, 2008
Title: The 12 Days of Christmas
Series: Christmas 2008
Scripture: John 3:16
1. There are many things which warm our hearts about Christmas! What are some of the things you enjoy most about Christmas?
2. Christmas presents…lights…music….celebrating Jesus. How about giving? How about giving to folks who cannot give back in return? How about people who can only give back through their love?
3. The spirit of the Christmas season is about giving… giving as God has given to us. Christmas is about remembering the ways in which God has given to us.
4. The most precious way being the giving of his own son.
5. John 1: 14 says: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
6. Those of us who have children know that the most precious thing we have is our children and, if we have them, our grand children—to sacrifice them, to have them suffer, for the likes of others would be unthinkable for us. Yet, God has given us that part of Him that is the most precious—his son.
7. Look at your handout!
8. Christmas is remembering God for the many, many, ways that God has given to us so that our lives might be saved, enriched, and transformed. Celebrating Christmas in the purest form is worshiping God because all of the ways He has chosen to change our lives by sending His Son.
Handout:
The 12 days of Christmas are not the 12 days before Christmas that we normally think of, but the twelve days after Christmas—December 25 to January 5th. The popular song “The “Twelve Days of Christmas” is usually seen as simply a nonsense song for children with very secular origins. However, some have suggested that it might be a Christian song of instruction perhaps dating back to the 16th century in England, which reference to the basic teachings of the Christian faith. No one knows for sure, it might or it might not be, but it could be an instructive tool to remind us of what God has given us.
The true love in the song is not an earthly suitor, but our Heavenly Father. The “me” in the song refers to every born again person that is a part of the Christian faith. Each day represents something very important that God has given us.
1. On the first day of Christmas (25th) my True Love gave to me “A Partridge in a Pear Tree.” Christ is symbolically represented by the mother partridge that risks injury or death to decoy predators from her young. Do you recall Luke 13: 34 “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often I would have sheltered you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but you would not have it so…”
2. On the second day of Christmas (26th) my True Love gave to me “Two turtle doves.” The two turtle doves stand for the Old and New Testaments.
3. On the third day of Christmas (27th) my True Love gave to me “Three French hens.” They stand for the three theological virtues Faith, Hope and Love.
4. On the fourth day of Christmas (28th) my True Love gave to me “Four calling birds.” The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
5. On the fifth day of Christmas (29th) my True Love gave to me “Five gold rings.” They stand for the First five books of the Old Testament.
6. On the sixth day of Christmas (30th) my True Love gave to me “Six Geese A-laying.” This refers to the Six days of Creation before God rested.
7. On the seventh day of Christmas (31st) my True Love gave to me “Seven Swans A-swimming.” Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophecy, Ministry, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leadership and Compassion.
8. On the eighth day (Jan 1st) of Christmas my True Love gave to me “Eight maids a milking.” The eight Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10): the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted because of righteousness.
9. On the ninth day (Jan 2nd) of Christmas my True Love gave to me “Nine Ladies Dancing.” The nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22): Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control.
10. On the tenth day (Jan 3rd) of Christmas my True Love gave to me “Ten Lords A-leaping.” The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20): no other gods before me, no idol worship, no misuse of the name of the Lord your God, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, honor your father and mother, shall not murder, shall not commit adultery, shall not steal, shall not give false testimony, and shall not covet.
11. On the eleventh day (Jan 4th) of Christmas my True Love gave to me “Eleven Pipers Piping.” The eleven faithful disciples (Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13): Simon Peter, Andrew his brother, James son of Zebedee, John brother of James, Philip, Matthew, Thomas, Bartholomew, Simon the zealot/Cananean, James of Alphaeus, Thaddeus/Jude son of James. The unfaithful disciple being Judas Iscariot.
12. On the twelfth day (Jan 5th) of Christmas my True Love gave to me “Twelve Drummers Drumming.” The twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed: God the Father maker of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, crucified, died and rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven, He will come again to judge the living and the dead, belief in the Holy Spirit, the Christian Church, communion of saints, forgiveness of sins, resurrection and life everlasting. The widely accepted prayer:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Week Of: December 28, 2008
Title: Three Ingredients For A Successful New Year
Series:
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13
1. Several years ago, Viktor Frankl wrote a book entitled “Man’s Search for Meaning.” It was about his imprisonment in Auschwitz, the War World II Nazi concentration camp. In the camps, he like millions of others was treated worse than a despised animal. He was imprisoned, stripped naked, shaved, starved, worked nearly to death, and generally condemned to a living death.
2. Frankl wrote that he was able to survive because he never lost hope. According to him, those prisoners who lost faith in the future were doomed.
3. Frankl said that this usually happened quite suddenly. One morning a prisoner might refuse to get up. No amount of pleading by his fellow prisoners or threats from the guards would have any effect. Losing all hope, he or she would literally lay there in their own excrement until they were killed or died. When a prisoner lost hope, Frankl said, “He lost his spiritual hold” on life.
4. Very few of us, if any, have ever experienced this type of despair. Yet most, if not all, have been down and out, if not depressed at times, because we thought that a situation was hopeless.
5. There is and has been for some time an air of doom and gloom over our nation and even over the rest of the world because of the financial crisis that our world is experiencing.
6. I am no expert on the stock market, the economy, or financial matters at all. In fact, I am like Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes, “I know nothing…nothing.”
7. But I do know how important it is not lose hope on the goodness of God and really the goodness that God has in store for us. I do know that is important not lose faith, and therefore hope no matter what may happen in life.
8. In our scripture this morning, Paul is talking to the church at Corinth about love. He is not talking to young couples that are thinking about getting married. He is talking to a church that is puffed up with spiritual pride, and needs to be reminded about how love is the most important value there is. They need to be reminded that all spiritual gifts, all the knowledge, all the power and wealth will someday go away but as Paul puts it, faith, hope, and love will remain. He says this because these three are the most fundamental to our survival as human beings.
9. Abraham Maslow, in 1943, wrote a paper called “A Theory of Human Motivation,” in which he said that the behaviors of human beings were based on getting their needs met—the first being physiological; safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.
10. While there is truth to Maslow’s observations, I feel that if Paul was looking at his observation he would be saying where does faith and hope fit into all of this. Because without faith and hope I truly believe we cannot go on.
We might or might not be able to continue on living, depending on how deprived we might be. We become a walking zombie, instead a functioning human being.
11. But the question today, as in every generation, becomes not whether or not we have faith, hope, and love, but what is that faith, hope, and love based upon. Is it based upon our own efforts, family, friends, jobs, our nation or our world, or is it based upon God.
12. We all have to measure faith, hope, and love, but the question is, is it well founded, well anchored, correctly understood, and based upon the Bible, and ultimately upon God? As we look to the new year, what is our faith and hope ultimately based upon?
13. I love my country, I have faith in our system of life and government even though I know that it is deeply flawed. My faith, however, does not rest upon American government nor upon the American people.
My faith rests upon the goodness of God. His loving character, His promises, His goodness and love that He has declared for all His people and even for our sinful world we live in.
14. Now I am smart enough to realize that even though God is good, and even though He does love me, that He hasn’t put a force field of protection around me or my family, certainly not around our nation or our world. I wish that were true, but bad things do happen to people God loves.
15. I cannot explain why, especially when things happen that are so horrible, except to say it might have something to do with the development of trust and character in His people.
16. I really think that what God wants us to truly and genuinely say and mean with whole hearted love is what Job said about God, “even though He slays me, I still will trust Him.”
17. Two things about this statement: One, if you can honestly say this no matter what happens, then you will never lose hope. You will be a survivor…not a quitter.
18. Two, if you can honestly say this no matter what comes your way, you’ll never have to question your love for God, nor you capacity to love others. Because faith and hope in God leads to the love of God.
19. But faith and hope are not only about the future, but also about the present. There is story told about a small town in Maine that had been told that in 5 years after the completion of a hydro-electric plant their town would be submerged underwater. Some people moved but others remained until they were forced out, but a curious thing happened to the town, all improvements ceased. No painting was done…no repairs were made. Day by day the whole town got shabbier and shabbier. A long time before the waters came, the town looked uncared for and for abandoned, even though all the people had not moved away. The most obvious reason you would think was that people just didn’t want to invest time, money, and energy in keeping their property and their little town looking nice. But one citizen got to the deeper reason when he said, “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.” The town was cursed with hopelessness because it had no future.
20. I know that I am not the most optimistic person in the world, but I do believe that my hope for the future, and my reason for living in the present, is based upon my faith in God. Our faith in God will keep us going when all else fails…
21. Do you have faith? Of course you do! But what is your faith ultimately in?