Bible Verse for Sunday Service December 15, 2024
John 1:10-14
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Announcements:
On December 22, the Shepherd High School Jazz band will play a program for us after church. We will meet in the fellowship hall, and enjoy the music along with some Christmas goodies. If you can make some finger food for this event, please let Brie Hofer know.
Our church directory will print for 2025 soon, and we want to be sure that we have everyone’s correct information. If you are not in the directory now or if you need to change anything, please fill out the insert in the bulletin and drop it in the offering plate or leave it on the foyer table.
Christmas Eve service will be at 5:30PM. We will celebrate Christ’s birth with Christmas carols, special music, and scripture.
Special: “One Pair of Hands”
We were blessed this Sunday by Jimmy Performing the song, “One Pair of Hands.” It is hard to find information about this song, and many people believe it is an Elvis song. However, it was written by Billie Campbell and Manny Kurtz. It was first made famous by Glenn Campbell. However, the song is most famous reinterpreted by Carroll Roberson to have an Elvis style treatment. And this was the version Jimmy chose to bless us with. You can watch below, or through this link on Rumble.
Sermon:
In honor of the Christmas season Pastor Jim preached on the Word in in John 1:10-14 a sermon he titled “Meet the Messiah.” To set the stage for his sermon, reminisced about the Queen of England’s visit to the US in 1995. He looked at the cost and the personnel. Truly this visit was a major undertaking with much pomp and circumstance. Now, compare that with entrance into the world of the Messiah, Jesus 2000+ years ago. While Jesus’ entrance had none of the pomp of the Queen’s visit, it was unique. Pastor explored this in three points.
Focusing initially on this unique entrance of our Messiah, Pastor asked us to consider the basic truths of his entrance. God became man with all that entails. In the Gospel of John, John chooses to emphasize the full dimension of Jesus, fully God, but fully man. A man that got tired and hungry, just like us. John balanced this focus on Jesus the man by explaining what he witnessed, beholding Jesus’ glory. He also described other aspects of His Godliness, miraculous healing and as an atoning sacrifice for out sins.
John also focuses of the responses to Jesus in his Gospel. Jews by and large failed to recognize their Messiah, treating Him just as a carpenter from Nazareth. And, this refusal extended to a refusal to receive Jesus as Messiah, and all that would entail. Much sadness accompanies our reading of this failure as the Gospel makes clear that they had no excuse. They had everything they needed, miracles for example, to recognize him.
For his concluding point, Pastor focused on our undeserved right we receive from the Messiah. Our receiving is another example of grace. We don’t deserve to receive Him, yet we can today. And, when we do, we are born again of God, and become part of His family. For our part, our response to Him, we can be like the shepherds and worship Him, and help those who do not know Him by praying for them. That is an act of obedience to Him.
Accessing the Service, Bulletin and Sermon Outline:
Here are the pages from the bulletin, click on the images below to see them full size:
If you would like to have the sermon outline, you can download it here, a pdf file.
If you would like a link to this service you can find it here. It starts a little later as we had difficulty with our camera at the start of the service. Perhaps you would like to share it with your friends. You could also share that link on social media, if you use any of the providers. We use Rumble, a safe alternative to Google’s YouTube.