Good morning I always count on my choir brethren Welcome to first Presbyterian church. I am Steve Hawkins. I'm one of the ruling elders here And that is my privilege today to assist Robert elder and I'm sorry Robert row and leading us in worship Robert elder plays the ola for the Channeling of Symphony
Okay, I knew I wouldn't make it through this without at least one gas. So I've already gotten that out of the way If you're visiting with us today, we welcome you and are so glad that you're here to worship with us and There is a friendship register in each row and if you Those of you are there could find those and pass them down and fill them out so we can know that you are here to be with us Just a short reminder of giving thanks to everybody for having given or pledged to the Deacon's budget As you consider your year in giving remember that there is one critical date For you if you want to have your contributions judged Tax deductible by the IRS and that is December 31st So everything needs to be postmarked By December 31st to be credited for 2013 Gerald Maya 297 states seek the welfare of the city Pray for the Lord on its behalf Our church is going to participate in a something called project 297 which is a project involving many other churches in the city And the idea of this is an effort to pray around the clock Every day of the month for the coming year for the needs of our city Now Jim Lyon is coordinating this effort for first press and our church has committed to pray on the first thirsty Of every month for this coming year He needs prayer warriors and if you're particularly if you're a night owl I would ask you to sign up with Jim Lyon for this project and The and let us try and get all the times for the first Thursday the month covered The 2014 Bible reading plan is available in the black and white warrior the connector or on the church website This has been a real blessing to my wife and I over the past couple of years And I would encourage you if you haven't Availed yourself of the Bible reading plan to do that this coming year We're going to be going through the new testament and it's a nice systematic way to Read scripture on a daily basis and you know when you're reading it that you are reading The same passage that other members of the church are reading and we've we've made good advantage of that in our Sunday school class and in our D group and so I would encourage you if you haven't done that to Grab a copy of the reading plan and make that one of your New Year's resolutions So those are all the announcements and let us now prepare our hearts to worship the Lord and for God's call for our worship Have come to this place Looking for an encounter with Jesus The one who has so many prophets For told of his coming and so many people missed are you looking for the long expected Jesus again in your daily walk The Lord calls us to worship him Found in Ezekiel 34 I myself Will be the shepherd of my sheep and I myself will make them lie down declares the Lord God I will seek the lost and I will bring back the straight and I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak Jesus we praise you and thank you For you are the king who has exalted high the long-awaited Messiah That came and lived the perfect life that we cannot Who died upon across to take the penalty for sin for us and who rose again from the dead To gain victory and eternal life for his people Lord we praise you and adore you for you are continue to be at work in all your creation Lord you continue to be at work in your word and Lord Jesus you continue to be at work in us and in those around us So this morning we praise you and thank you for you a God you are a God who never slumbers nor sleeps But you are constantly at work and your people Redeeming and calling a people for yourself We praise you this morning for you are the Alpha and the Omega the seed that crushed the head of Satan Jesus Christ our Savior in his name we pray and all God's people said amen You
Catechism was written in 1563 in Germany for the purpose of instructing ordinary people in the major teachings of Scripture It is in the form of 129 questions And answers and today we will be responsibly reading question number 35 which deals with the meaning of a portion of the Apostles Creed so let us affirm our faith by reading responsibly What is the meaning of conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary? That this firm son of God who is and continues true and eternal God Took upon him the very nature of man of the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary By the operation of the Holy Ghost so that he also might be the true seed of David and be like his brothers in all things Expect sin you may be seated
Let us corporately confess our sins in a general sense by reading the confession of sin in your bulletin
Lord though you should guide us we inform ourselves Though you should rule us we control ourselves Though you should fulfill us we can solve ourselves We think your truth too high your will too hard your power too remote Your love too free, but they are not and without them we are of all people most miserable Now heal our confused minds with your word heal our divided wills with your law Heal our troubled consciences with your love heal our anxious hearts with your presence All for the sake of your son who loved us and gave himself for us. I'm in It has been said that the greatest expression of humility is confessing our sins Let us now individually go before the Lord and silently confess some of our specific Individual sins go before the Lord in prayer and pray the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray Our Father who art in heaven Power be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our deaths as we forgive our debtors and Lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil for dine as the kingdom and the power and the glory forever I'm in Sounded like happy sounds to me Okay, let's go before the Lord in prayer
God our heavenly Father Creator and sustainer of the universe we humbly come before you to offer our prayers for your people You have loved us with an everlasting love Despite our stubborn sin nature Though your ways are not our ways and your thoughts are immeasurably higher than ours We can still know what you are like by simply placing our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ Indeed the scripture tells us that if we see him we have seen you And he was the spotless Sinless Lamb of God who by his atoning death on the cross Provided forgiveness for our sins and who now intercedes on our behalf with you Father God Lord you know our thoughts and our needs before we even voice them But it pleases you that we offer them up to you now as prayers and supplications for your people Lord I lift up to you the many believers who are undergoing persecution for their faith in places like Syria Egypt Iraq Somalia China and many other countries Lord sustain them Encourage them use the persecution that they are undergoing to deepen their faith and their walk with you and use it ultimately for your glory I lift up those in Christian ministry around the world Be they pastors missionaries or those working in a multitude of ministries Protect them from the evil one sustain their families Cause much spiritual fruit to be produced from their ministry. I Lift up the poor for the many who did not enjoy the blessing of growing up in a stable home Who may have never experienced the love of both the mother and the father Who may not have enjoyed good educational opportunities? Help us as a society and as your body to show compassion to these I Lift up those in the body of Christ who found themselves behind bars Lord, I thank you for the way that your spirit has moved in the hearts of many prisoners and for the ministry that is taking place in those dark places I lift up to you Charles Darren Wayne Ryan and many others at Walker State Prison who are our brothers in Christ Encourage them keep their faith strong Bless their outreach to other inmates Lord, it is my prayer that one day they will join us in worship at this church. I Lift up those who are dealing with health issues of various types and the many who are afflicted with cancer specifically I mentioned Susie Weaver Francis North Claudette Griffin Cindy Tinsley and Jenny Suddeth I pray for your comfort and encouragement for these and for the many others who are who I did not mention but who you know For your healing hand to be of hunt them that they would know your peace Lord these and many others are facing similar trials and you know them all we lift them up to you now Now Father we come to give our tithes and our offerings I pray that you would bless these gifts use them for the advancement of your kingdom Father, we offer these prayers in the name that is above all names the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen, well that we could all sing that I know that's really spur of the moment is that is that possible? Sigurd is that possible? I'm so in a huge curveball here I know but we got extra time. I'll sing it for you Now you don't want that We'll work that in next week maybe Let's stand for the reading of God's word
God is always at work In his creation in his word and in your life and this morning. He's at work using this word to conform us To convict us and convince us of the truth of the gospel Matthew chapter two I'm gonna read through 12 just for context But we'll fix in our time on one two six now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King Behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying Where is he who was born King of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him when Herod the King heard this He was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born They told him in Bethlehem of Judea for so it is written by the prophets and you owe Bethlehem and the land of Judah are by no means Least among the rulers of Judah For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem saying Go and search diligently for the child and when you have found him bring me word that I too may come and worship him After listening to the King they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose Went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was When they saw the star they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going into the house They saw at the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshiped him Then opening their treasures the offered him gifts gold and frankincense and mirror and being warned in a dream Not to return to Herod they departed to their own country by another way. This is the word of the Lord May be seated well 2013 Has been termed in pot pop culture as the year of the selfie Now some of you who are in with the modern pop culture know what a selfie is but some of you are going I have no idea what a selfie is and so I'm going to demonstrate for you what a selfie is If you have a phone and you have a little camera on your phone and you can turn the phone so that it points and you can take a picture of yourself So I'm going to do that And it's showing me right now and so a selfie is simply me turning like this and taking a picture of myself with you in the background and just so the card doesn't fill left out A selfie with the choir in the background It's a selfie so this Christmas break I took time to download all of our photos From our computer and videos of our children on to an external hard drive and I've downloaded 20,000 photos 4,000 videos of my family taken in the last four years So I did a little calculating That means that I've averaged 5,000 photos a year of my kids And if I continue at that right by the time Mary Catherine is 18 I Will have I will have 80,000 pictures to choose from for her high school graduation
pretty ridiculous I'm preserving their life in the digital age Right you may be going that's crazy Self-preservation is part of our technological culture Right the the year of the selfie for good or for bad Not necessarily going to discuss the cultural good and bad of those things But it is part of our sin struggle for autonomy for self-existence for self-attaining for self-preserving everything about ourselves We are going to dig a little deeper this morning into that subject in a minute So I don't want you to get too comfortable Had someone say from the first service that they felt like they'd been nailed to their seat and they couldn't get up So this morning my prayer is That you're nailed to your seat But it also means that I failed in the first hour Because I want to pull the nail out So that you come to your feet and you find hope in Jesus So I want you to see two things this morning The way of self-preservation and the way of the shepherd king So the way of self-preservation We look at this text sometimes and we look at the wise men and usually our emphasis is be like the wise men and But this morning I'm taking a different route um, and you'll see why later But Herod is an interesting character right there's Herod there's the scribes Then the the chief priests and then there's Jesus Being born the king and then these wise men coming and searching for him will Herod Is one of self-preservation But before we start going yes Robert Give it to that Herod that evil man I believe that the reality is that we have a lot of Herod like tendencies in us Sure, we're not a king like Herod Right that the irony of the passages here's wise men coming to search for a king and Matthew in the literary irony Turns and calls Herod a king But the wise man came to search for a king Right in 37 BC The Roman senate actually appointed Herod you ready for this Officially the king of the Jews was Herod's title Herod was masterful at gaining the favor of people both of the enemy and foe For his own personal benefit and for his own preservation But I don't think in many ways that we're Threaten like Herod was right we are we don't Threaten wise man wise men are coming to us seeking wisdom. We don't send out edicts across the earth to say any child two years or younger Have him killed But I do think in many ways that we're threatened just like Herod was By a rival king All right, there's essentially there's a there's an atheist in all of us An atheist says god is up there We're down here and there's no possible way That the two can ever come together
We grow uncomfortable with the fact that god himself Put on flesh walked among us Was nailed to across and rose again We're scared of that Because that means That there's a god Is very close to us very close uncomfortably close And the news of that May threaten you It may be the you may be more like Herod than you realize I'm more like Herod than I realize the the news of a rival king troubled him to the point Of his paranoia Right, he sent out the edict which was recorded in scripture But it's also recorded in history that Herod was so Consumed with preserving himself so consumed with His own goals his own agenda That he had two of his sons killed because they threatened the throne He had a A brother in law drowned and had one of his wives killed Because they were perceived as a threat to him They were perceived as a threat to his self Preservation the world he'd created around himself Was being threatened and every time it was He went after him What happens with you when your world's threatened When your agendas threatened do you lash out an anger Degrow impatient I think there's a little bit of Herod And all of us Maybe we don't go to the extent that he does but I would say that All of us in here have committed murder in our hearts Against people who've threatened our agenda Right Our our kingship is threatened And you know what's interesting is that our kingship most of the time is threatened by the people that are closest to us Here we thought about that Our kingship is threatened by those who are closest to us And here's the one that's closest to us God himself So it could be The God this morning that God Is your biggest threat Because you're scared that he's going to deconstruct your life And reconstruct it in a way that you don't want What I mean by deconstruction well the chief priests in the scribes are another group of people In this text who are really concerned with self-preservation also Right the chief priests in the scribes are in this you know, they're they're sitting around Doing going about their their duties Dilligently working hard and the job of the priest right was to uphold the rituals and the laws surrounding temple worship They were to keep everything in the temple and order right can you imagine back then the job of the priest and all the sacrifices that he had To do for the on behalf of the people on behalf of himself the the animals that would have to be killed constantly Providing for the atonement toning sacrifice for his people and along comes Jesus the one who's been prophesied the one who the whole Entire old testament is saying every time a lamb is killed They're looking forward to this one sacrificial lamb is going to come and be slain so that they no longer have to kill animals And it's been done century after century after century and then all of the sudden The Lamb of God walks on the scene is born And the very ones who I would think would be so looking forward to not slaughtering anymore animals They missed it the chief priests I didn't even see it The scribes right or another group Another group of self-preserving folks that Were the ones who really became the prophets because of the 400 years of silence All right, they were the ones who were taking the old testament passages They were the ones who who heard the truth that the ones that quoted Micah the prophet When haired came and asked where is the Christ to be born and they quote Micah Right, they knew the word They had the truth right in front of them. They read it. They studied it. They interpreted it. It was their job To be looking for the Messiah
But they missed it. Why did the priests? Why did describe miss What appears to us now on the other side hindsight Other side of the cross Why did they miss it? I think it has to do with self-preservation
self-preservation Because if this scribes in the priests If Jesus was the answer to the prophecy That meant everything that they had ever thought About who the Messiah was going to be Was going to have to be totally deconstructed They're thinking was going to have to be totally changed And the way they live life and the way they went about their duties Right You and I are not much different There's other forms of self-preservation in our culture today Maybe it's protecting our reputation Whether it's a family name or a business Is protecting ourselves by making statements right that put us in a better light Right, my brother and I call this top-heading Right, I was kidding with Steve sorry who we oftentimes compare fishing stories Steve's always got Usually catches bigger fish and better stories We're gonna kid each other about top-hating right there have been in a group of facts It's some I'll tell a story and some I'll go oh you have that this happened and they they top that story And then the next friend chimes in and he tops that story Right, we're all about self-preservation in little ways There's preservation of our goals no matter what the cost There's preservation of our time Right, we all need a little me time And I there's some reality to these right if you're a mom and you've got kids You need a little time to yourself You need some me time But doesn't come at the expense Of shoving everyone else out and preserving you're so worried about preserving your life That you're not willing to give anything away Maybe it's a fluency Preservation of a fluence One way you can get at it what it is in your life is to ask the question what or who is it That presents a threat to my agenda right is it A threat of time Is it a threat upon your schedule is it a threat upon your goals and what you hope to accomplish There's a little bit of hair in all of us The dangerous result of what happened with Herod is over that long road of self-preservation For Herod and the danger for us is it leads to narcissism to the nth degree Narcissism simply put Everything in the world revolves around me my relationships My education My sports My recreation My conversation Everything revolves around me I want you to thank for a man as a I know I'm nailing you to your seat still on purpose My hope is to drive you low this morning And then to drive Christ high So hang in there while the stake is being driven in a little further I want you to think about Your closest relationship right now Look at that person in your mind The person in your life that you're the closest with
And got them in your mind Why are you in that relationship? Herod-like tendency Says that I'm in that relationship Because it benefits me Why are you in the relationships that you're in? Is it because it brings great benefit to you?
Or is it because You want to give yourself away to that person I'd say that most of us If we're really honest if we have time to assess and time to let the word of God bring conviction in our hearts That most of the time that we're in a relationship With another person whether it's our spouse, our children, our friends, our co-workers A minute For what's in it for me That is a reality Have how twisted Sin becomes in our lives And it brings wreck and havoc to relationships And ultimately Narcissism So We are at a unique point in history in this passage A unique point in redemptive history as Matthew brings to us and announces the coming one Who can create a different way Right? I've taken I want you to Imagine this giant spike that I've just that God's word is just drilled into your heart Because I have just equated all of us with Herod-like tendencies Was scribe and Pharisee-like tendencies But now I hope to ease the spike back out Right because there's one who came Who Matthew is announcing who we all know about right this familiar story And Matthew gives in these titles and he he's the one that's going to start to deconstruct your life And he's coming to you right now this morning and asking you
To give up Yourself Preserving ways
Almost named the second part of this sermon The way of destruction But I felt it was a little harsh but that is exactly what Christ Is invited in your life to do he's and he's born in the midst of turmoil He comes into your life to create destruction to break things apart But I don't want to just leave you there that Christ is there to break you up Because Christ is saying no longer do you have to create Facebook to create a life no longer Do you have and I'm not ragging on these and just use them as cultural examples Right no longer do you have to write the Christmas letter that says you're doing great no longer do you have to be in a relationship That just benefits you because Jesus Christ says you no longer have to write your own story
Quit preserving your life Jesus is saying Because I am writing a story that's more beautiful than any story that you could write And so Jesus comes to you today and he says I want you to come into my story My story is not one about self-preservation Jesus says my story is about Giving myself away Total opposite from where you and I are Matthew caused him Jesus He caused him king of the Jews in verse two Verse four he called he's called the Christ In verse six The ruler and shepherd who's come into the world to break down the walls of self-preservation Through his life and his word Right his word has promised an eternal kingdom We're going to look at a few passes with this morning You know that throughout the whole Old Testament Is predicted to come to be the one is going to bring in a kingdom that's so different than anyone could ever imagine That the very strides and Pharisees who were looking for it totally missed it Because the kingdom itself was some kind of kingdom that was out of this world It was a kingdom that he was bringing in to spread in the hearts of men that would grow like a mustard seed They would grow one tiny heart at a time and as God's kingdom grows he brings people in Slowly but surely in his good timing and they said that it would come from the line of David Right, and it would be an everlasting dominion a kingdom that would endure forever all these Old Testament prophecies would come forth In the person of Jesus Inverse six look with me a verse six and our text is a quote from Micah 5, which we'll look at in a minute tells us that he comes from Bethlehem Which means house of bread Right, and then if you flip over to Micah go ahead and flip there. We'll just look at that passage Micah chapter five in verse two But you owe Bethlehem Ephritha Who are too little to be among the clans of Judah For from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler and Israel whose origin is from a bold From ancient days Right, you get the picture here that he when he's mentions Bethlehem right the the word Bethlehem means house of bread Ephritha means plenty So Jesus came from a place of plenty bread Or plentiful bread Right, what is John call Jesus in this gospel the bread of life The beauty of God's word is unending you could expand on that But Jesus the bread of life Right born in the very city that means bread the very region that means plenty And Micah says that he would be a ruler and a shepherd of his people And it's only by God's grace That these wise men understood something about kingdoms That neither hair nor the priests or scribes understood Right they were we we call them wise men And we oftentimes put them close to the manger scene But they probably need to be further away because it didn't actually visit the manger it was several months after But these wise men right were were seekers of truth They they were the ones who probably knew The Jewish religion they probably knew numbers 2417 which says the stars shall rise out of Jacob They were seeking him out, but it wasn't I don't want us to fall into the trap of going here's the answer Right here's the way that Jesus takes self preservation and starts to break it down and starts to build back up Jesus says Be like the wise men No No Not the point of the passage The point of the passage of the wise men Really is that it's a foreshadowing of the book of Acts Because the wise man were Gentiles who came from a distant land seeking the Savior And it points forward to the fact that Jesus is ushered in the kingdom that's going to bust open the seams And it's going to the Gentile world And the wise men were a foreshadowing of that that even at his birth It's going to do that These wise men were given the grace of God's word They were they had been transformed by these prophecies to go and seek out the king We're never to elevate the thing I love about scripture One of the things I love about scripture is all the failures of the men in it Right the failures of Moses the failures of David The failures of the disciples I love it because I'm a failure and I feel in good company when I read scripture The point is not Of this passage to build up the wise man and say be like him The point of the passage is Run to your Savior The true shepherd the true king Who even at his very birth had the kings of the earth shaking in their boots Jesus uses his word to draw people right could you imagine being one of the disciples when Jesus At the end of Luke Jesus says in the beginning with Moses and all the prophets He interpreted to them all the scriptures the things concerning himself That's a sermon. I would have loved to have sat and listened to That's a sermon right that what would love to have a podcast of Haha Jesus explaining From Moses through the prophets how it all pointed to him I wish every pastor every Christian had the cliff notes even of that sermon He Unrolls redemptive history for us And his word begins to deconstruct our thinking right in a reconstruction Which is what Paul means when he says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind Right, it's this deconstruction. It's this tearing apart that self-preservation and then it's reconstructing us with his word So Jesus does that by his word, but he also finally does that with his life You can tell there's something different about this king and the moment he's born Right what happens? Right when the baby's born He's born in an insignificant place But some people hear about it and he becomes a threat to a king Right the news of his birth sends shockwaves in the area And immediately the life of Jesus Begins deconstruction of men's hearts And his life is going to be about reconstructing and his death is going to be about destruction Reconstruction his resurrection is going to be about reconstructing eternal life and giving us life Right Jesus is about the business of tearing down walls in your life I don't know if you've realized that about Jesus yet But he's in the business of bringing about destruction To your sinful patterns your self-preservation in your life But he's also about bringing great Preservation and reconstruction Right Mike equates And say they quote Mike and he says he's going to be a ruler in Israel whose origins are from old from ancient days Right we spend all our lives Preserving our life The greatest gift that Jesus Christ gives is what Eternal life How is he able to offer eternal life to you Because he is the one who is a bold from ancient of days He's the eternal one and therefore he's the only one that can say here's eternal life for you Eternal life comes through Jesus Eternal life is the one way Which you and I as we continue our ways of self-preserving our life Through Instagram through Facebook which are really just external ways of internal realities We preserve and preserve and Jesus says I'm here Because I want to show you You're not to preserve your life I'm the one Who brings preservation to life And so give your life away Jesus came to give his life away And he does this beautifully and deconstructing us and reconstructing us turn to Ezekiel chapter 34
Ezekiel chapter 34 is There's something I didn't have a lot of time to go into um And Ezekiel 34 is really this the failure of the shepherds of Israel
The failure of the shepherds of Israel right just like the scribes Chief priests and the scribes were to shepherd their people they failed They pointed to the need for a greater shepherd just like King Herod failed and just like Micah's kings failed and he said hey, I'm gonna write chapter five because I don't want them looking at these kings and thinking That's what our king's gonna be like I need to look forward to this coming king just because Elders who are in your church are in this church fail you Kings are gonna fail you Presidents are gonna fail you Hear me Our hope does not lie in presidents or kings or even elders or pastors our hope lies in the fact that we have a shepherd King Who deconstructs and reconstructs our lives and keeps us from continuing to preserve ourselves Look at Ezekiel chapter 34 Starting in verse 11 If you've got a Bible in a pen, I want you to circle all the eyes This is God speaking for thus says the Lord God Behold I I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out as a separate a shepherd seeks out his flock When he is among his sheep That have been scattered So will I seek out my sheep and I will rescue them from all the places Where they have been scattered on the day of clouds and thick darkness and I will bring them out from the peoples And gather them from the country and will bring them to the end of their own land and I will feed them on the mountains of Visual by the ravines and the inhabitant places of the country I will feed them with good pasture and on the mountain heights of visual shall be their grazing lands There they shall lie down and good grazing in land and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel I myself will be their shepherd of my sheep and I myself will make them Down declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost. I will bring back the strayed. I will bind up the injured I will strengthen the weak Turn to mark six Mark six We just read Ezekiel 34 The prophecy Pointing to a Jesus who is going to shepherd and reconstruct his people
Around verse 37 Sorry 34 Jesus comes across the five thousand and hear the echo of Ezekiel 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd And he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd And he began to teach them many things If that's not enough 39 then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass And he fed them on the mountain The great shepherd feeds your soul You don't have to go through this life trying to preserve it Because Jesus is the one who says I'm the one who feeds your soul and preserves your life for you
Jesus was born to give his life away as followers of Jesus Or to give our lives away He's the good shepherd right? Who lays down his life for his sheep
One author in 1626 said this The whole life of Christ was a continual passion Others died martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr His birth and his deaths were about one continual act And his Christmas day and his good Friday For about the evening and the morning of the one and same day Jesus did not come to preserve Jesus came to give himself away One Group Christian group called go fish I like the name of that puts it this way In their song it's about the cross So it's not just about the manger or the baby lay It's not all about the angels who sang for him that day It's not just about the shepherds or the bright and shining star It's not all about the wise men who traveled from afar It's about the cross It's about my sin It's about how Jesus came to be born once so that we could be born again It's about the stone that was rolled away So that you cannot you and I could have real life someday It's about the cross It's not about the presence under the tree It's not about the feeling that the season brings to me It's not just about coming home to be with those you love It's not all about the beauty and the snow I'm dreaming of The beginning of the story is wonderful and great But it's the ending that saves And that's why we celebrate It's about the cross It's about my sin It's about how Jesus came to be born once So that you could be born again It's about God's love nailed to a tree It's about every drop of blood that flowed from him When it should have been me It's about the stone that was rolled away So that you and I could have real life someday It's about the cross Let's pray Lord Jesus, we thank you And praise you because you have come into this world To turn things upside down Oh, I pray this morning that you have turned our hearts upside down And that you have brought conviction that we all Have a little hair at in us We long for self-preservation
Or we thank you that you have come to be the king Who conquered that great enemy And that we are no longer a prisoner of self-preservation Lord Jesus, may we run to you The one who was born to give himself away In Jesus name, amen Please stand for God's benediction
Found in Hebrews chapter 13 Receive the Lord's blessing today Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus The great shepherd of the sheep By the blood of the eternal covenant May he equip you with everything good That you may do his will Working in us that which is pleasing in his sight Through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory Forever and ever and all God's people said Amen