The Announcement
Christmas Through Mary’s Eyes
Pastor Tom
November 30, 2008
Luke 1:26–38
Well God used His own extraordinary resources combined with very ordinary earthly resources to bring Jesus here. God broke every marketing rule in the book to announce Jesus’ coming. Yet it worked. The fact many of us in this room call ourselves Christ followers proves it. So today we begin to explore how God introduced Jesus to the world.
As we enter into the Advent or Christmas season today, we will again focus on the Christmas story from the Bible. Last year, we looked at the account from Matthew. This year, we will be looking at the Gospel of Luke. I’ve decided to focus our study on Christmas through Mary’s eyes. Luke provides the most detail about Mary through his account of the Christmas story.
God’s resources to stand firm against the enemy
Prayer
Pastor Tom
November 23, 2008
Ephesians 6:10–20
We might think that the Christian life is mostly joy filled and abundantly blessed. There certainly are many blessings along the way. But a serious enemy opposes every Christian. Yet in our modern and post modern world, widespread ignorance or determined disbelief about the reality of our enemy abounds. Such ignorance can leave us incredibly vulnerable.
Our enemy loves taking advantage of vulnerable Christians. He and his elite like special-forces know our weaknesses and seek to exploit them. But before we crumble in despair in light of this reality, we must hear the good news God has for us today.
God provides Himself and His armor to enable us to stand firm against abundant spiritual evil.
Jesus’ Prayers for You
Prayer
Pastor Tom
November 16, 2008
Though we know God is with us, there are times we might still feel alone. We may even look back at that time we first came to Christ and remember the enthusiasm, joy and closeness to God. But now its ordinary or things have gone bad lately. We wonder “is God there?” “Does He care?” “Is our salvation some past event that will result in a future blessing?” But until then we’re on our own?
I’m here today friends with good news for those lonely times. I’m here to proclaim the truth that God never leaves or forsakes us. I’m here to announce Jesus’ constant, active involvement in our lives and salvation. Infact Jesus never-ending prayers to God for us completely save us. That’s super news for Christians especially during those lonely times.
When we don’t know what to pray
Prayer
Pastor Tom
November 2, 2008
Romans 8:26–27
What do we do when we don’t know God’s will or what to pray?
God has revealed a lot of His will to us. Love your neighbor as yourself. Flee sexuality immorality. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Speak the truth in love. But in many other situations, like the ones I just talked about, His will is not clear.
Some people claim you can discover God’s will on everything if your faith is strong enough or if you walk close enough to God. But that position does not hold water in the Bible or real life. The human condition imposes upon us all sorts of weaknesses. We face some physical challenges. We suffer from lack of power. We have disabilities and inabilities. We have limitations to our knowledge. We don’t know what other people think. We don’t know God’s specific will in certain situations. We can’t possibly understand all that He’s up to. We live in a fallen world. We ourselves are stained with the sinful nature which we must struggle against in seeking God’s will. We face the opposition of the spiritual forces of evil who do not want God’s will to become known or carried out. All these add up to large obstacles in actually discovering God’s will. So we might know the door is open to pray. We have learned a bit more of how to pray over the last few weeks. But what happens when we don’t know what to pray?