Bible Verses for Sunday Service December 17, 2023
Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Announcements:
Both Awana and Ladies’ Bible study will take a break until after the first of the year. The Bible study will resume on January 2nd, and Awana on January 3rd.
Gather with us on Christmas Eve at 5:30 to celebrate the birth of the Savior. Bring your family and friends.
On Sunday, January 7, we will have a representative from Heart Cry missions society, Hunter Gately. He is the coordinator for the ministry in Eastern Europe and he will be giving us a report and challenge regarding the work being done there. We will have an opportunity to give to the ministry of Heart Cry.
It’s time to get everyone an updated church directory. Please provide us with any contact information for you that needs updating. Also, if you are not in the directory, we would like to have you listed. You can use the insert to provide your information and leave it on the foyer table.
You can also use the church update directory form to let us know how you would like to receive prayer chain requests and information. We send requests for prayer via email, text or phone.
We will have a Deacon’s meeting on December 21, and our annual business meeting will be on Sunday January 14.
Specials:
We were blessed today with two musical specials one from the choir and one from Jimmy Sutton. First, The choir provided special Christmas music for service today. They sang “Oh Holy Night.” This song was written by Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure. The story of the Hymn is interesting. Here is a link. You can watch the special on Rumble in our channel, or here:
Next, Jimmy Sutton sang “Reaching.” This popular song was written by William J and Gloria Gaither and was a regular part of their performances. This song describes God’s love for us as reaching us through Mary’s son, Jesus. Again, this video clip is available on the church’s Rumble channel, or you can watch it below:
Sermon:
Staying with Hebrews, Pastor Jim spoke on Hebrews 2:9-18. He titled this sermon “Lower than Angels.” In this portion of scripture, the writer of Hebrews states that God made Jesus lower than angels. In his sermon today, Pastor explained the aspects of that so we have a clear picture. He began with an anecdote about reaching into trash to get something of value. Pastor compared that human experience to what Jesus did in leaving heaven to become one of us. He did so in three points.
Firstly, and always most importantly, Jesus is our savior, and we see His sacrifice in this passage of scripture. His sacrifice was necessary, his time on earth as a human because we cannot save ourselves. We also see the extent of it. Jesus’ work on the cross provides that everyone past, present and future can be saved. But, it requires believing in him for salvation. It is very sad some persist in trying to earn their own salvation.
Besides being our savior, Jesus is our captain. We his strength on our behalf. He suffers for us what we could not suffer ourselves, the wrath of God for our sins. Jesus also has the the strength to conquer. By His death and resurrection, He destroyed death. So many live in fear of death. By this fear the Devil keeps people in bondage. Jesus breaks this bondage if people believe and accept Him.
Lastly, Jesus is our high priest. In this role, we see His sympathy for us. He is a qualified high priest who understands our plight. That understanding made him leave heaven to come to earth to help us with what we really need. But, another aspect of being a high priest is being available always for us now and others in the future as we toil here on earth. He is available to strengthen us in this adversity. We should never forget he is sitting at the right hand side of the Father making constant intercession for us.
Lower than the angels, yes, and we should rejoice that He became human and shared our experience. So let’s keep this in mind as we celebrate His birth soon.
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. 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.