WOW!! Powerful sermon and definitely NOT written by YOU but by the Holy Spirit in you!!! I'm very touched! And, just for the record, it would have been much easier to have let the candy issue go by. I would have loved to have just shown you the grace without the consequences!!
Throughout Advent, as we have been preparing for Christmas and for Christ’s return, we have been focusing on the four words of the Advent candles: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. Today, as we celebrate Christmas Eve, we lit the most important candle, the Christ candle. And as we light the Christ candle, it is only fitting that we would focus on Christ and his place within this wreath. Jesus Christ is not only the center candle for his obvious central role in the Christmas story, but his spot in the center of the wreath is because he is the fulfillment of all of the candles. We began Advent with hope. Fitting, that Hope Church would focus on hope. For a people caught in the “in between” times, Micah’s prophecy includes these words of hope: But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7) In the Old Testament, when you find the word “hope” it is almost always characterized not simply as “hope” b...
Philippians 1:12-30 In the last two weeks of our study of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, we have gotten all the way through the introduction and prayer. Today we will dive into the body of the letter. As we do, remember that Paul didn’t write this letter to right some kind of wrong; he is writing to thank them for their gift and to encourage them during a time of struggle. When you’re struggling, you’ll find that there are several kinds of people. The first kind really doesn’t care. They are simply self-absorbed. They say, “How are you doing?” and when you start to answer, they wait until you take a breath and interrupt to tell you their own story of woe. There are the well-meaning people who just don’t have the words to say to encourage you, but they feel like they need to say something anyway. They are the ones who you thought were your friends and then they say something so insensitive that you can’t believe anyone would say it, let alone a Christian friend. ...
Isaiah 54:10 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. Galatians 5:22-23: But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law. As we’ve been looking at the Holy Spirit over these past three weeks, I wonder something: are you any more loving and any more filled with joy than you were before? Part of being filled with the Holy Spirit is when you are, He brings about the Fruit. He brings that love and joy that we talked about over the past couple of weeks. One of the side effects of speaking on the Holy Spirit is that the devil doesn’t like it. He would rather you serve a distant impersonal God. He would rather you not know that your very body is a temple of the Holy Spirit – that the Spirit of God resides within you with power! He hates...
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And, just for the record, it would have been much easier to have let the candy issue go by. I would have loved to have just shown you the grace without the consequences!!