Bible Verse for Sunday Service December 24, 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:
Gather with us on Christmas Eve at 5:30 to celebrate the birth of the Savior. Please bring your family and friends. They are welcome.
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.
In the foyer, on the bulletin board, we have a list of nominations for the church officers. You can nominate someone to serve until January 7. Before nominating anyone, please check with that person and Pastor.
Our annual business meeting will be on Sunday January 14,24
Special:
A ladies trio provided special music for service today. They sang “I’m Glad I Know Who Jesus Is.” This song was written by Geron Davis, and is perhaps most famously performed by The Nelons. You can watch this on Rumble or below.
Sermon:
Today Pastor Jim preached on a medley of verses dealing with the birth of Christ, Luke 1:26-28, for example He titled this sermon “The Amazing Angelic Announcement” In these scriptures, Pastor asked us to look at three angelic announcements relating to Jesus. Pastor carefully pointed out that while these particular announcements are famous, the Bible contains other angelic announcements. He encouraged us to think of these announcements as very important, which they are. Perhaps like to us receiving a text message or email with many exclamation points.
For the first announcement, Pastor chose the message to Mary that encouraged belief, Luke 1:26-38. An angel announced to Mary that she would have a child, a miracle child without the intervention of a man. She asked the angel about this, not in disbelief, but in how it might occur, which allowed the angel to explain the full measure of God’s grace to her. Mary received this as a blessing, believing the message.
Next, Pastor looked at the angelic message to Joseph in Matthew 1:18-25 that encouraged him and helped him be obedient. Finding Mary visibly with child on return from her cousin was a shock to Joseph, and he wondered what to do. After deciding to quietly divorce her, an angel appeared to him and quoted a prophecy, Isaiah 7:14, about the virgin bearing a child. Hearing and understanding the angel’s message, He decided on his path, he would remain with the plan to marry, and would not consummate the marriage until Mary bore the child Jesus.
Lastly, Pastor looked at the angelic message to the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20 that encouraged them to worship the newly born Jesus. Luke records that unlike the other encounters described so far, this one was not a single angel. Instead, multitudes of angels beyond count appeared and filled the sky to herald Jesus’ birth. This was a very exciting time. Just like the shepherds, we should be excited about Jesus, and that excitement should lead to worship in our lives.
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.