As children, the expectation of Christmas morning was both exhilarating and

agonizing… “when will it be here?” The same sense of expectation surrounded the first

Christmas as devoted groups in the Israelite community were waiting for the birth of a

messiah for generations. This message explores how we respond when the things we

hope for are not arriving on the timeline we would like.

Luke 1:5-27

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.

Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.

But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God,

He was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.

But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.

He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth,

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.

And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.

And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

When his time of service was completed, he returned home.

After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

“The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,

To a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

Luke 1:68-79

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,

because he has come to his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David

(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),

Salvation from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us—

To show mercy to our ancestors

and to remember his holy covenant,

The oath he swore to our father Abraham:

To rescue us from the hand of our enemies,

and to enable us to serve him without fear

In holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;

for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,

To give his people the knowledge of salvation

through the forgiveness of their sins,

Because of the tender mercy of our God,

by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

To shine on those living in darkness

and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

Genesis 12:2-3

“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”

Do you have someone in your life who doesn’t choose Jesus? Is there tension there around the holidays? Why is that? If the message of Christmas is good news of great joy, then why does not everyone say yes to it? And why do we feel this tension and anxiety, and what do we do with it?

Luke 2:25-33

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,

Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

Which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

A light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory of your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

Have you ever felt distant from God—as if His holiness and your brokenness can’t meet? For the people of ancient Israel, priests bridged that gap through sacrifices and prayer.

But at Christmas Jesus came to be the perfect bridge - experiencing life as we do, though without sin.

Through Him, we can come to God with confidence, receiving mercy, grace, help, healing, and forgiveness.

Matthew 2:10–11

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Hebrews 10:10

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 4:14–16

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We only search for something when we come to the realization that that something is lost. The question isn’t whether something’s lost… it’s who we’ve lost sight of.

Luke 2:41-52

Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

One of the most amazing parts of being a Christian is that we get incredible help given to us - God’s very presence, his Holy Spirit comes to live inside us. This messages explores some of what this means And how we can cooperate with what God’s trying to do inside of us.

John 14:15–26

“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”

Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

What are the unmistakable aspects of Jesus life is that people nothing like Jesus liked Jesus. As they began to follow him they also began to believe into him. This led to these followers actually obeying Jesus as Lord and Master.

Matthew 9:9

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

John 6:68

Simon Peter answered [Jesus] “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Matthew 7:24-29

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law.

This message explores how we have been invited to know God. The same almighty creator who made the universe wants to know us as a father knows his child.

Matthew 22:37-38

“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment”

- Jesus

Isaiah 44:2

I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born.

Ephesians 1:4

“Long before He laid down earth's foundations, God had us in mind, and settled on us as the focus of His love.”

Ephesians 1:18-19

I pray also ... that you may know ... his incomparably great power.

Ephesians 3:20

“[God] is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask to even dream of – infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes!”

Matthew 6:9

“This is how you should pray, Our Father in heaven.”

- Jesus

Galatians 4:6

Because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”

Why is it so hard to “rest” - both physically and emotionally? Is the constant pull towards business and productivity actually our attempt to measure up to some invisible expectations? Somehow, all our progress and accomplishments still leave us feeling like it will never be “enough.” This message explores the concept of God's grace and how it can help us live full of peace and contentment.

Real rest comes not once you have accomplished or achieved or become “enough,” but when you’ve realized that you will never be, and instead, Christ is.

Romans 3:23-24, MSG

Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners…and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5, 8-10, MSG

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat.

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.