Christmas Story (122023)

Announcements

Happy Birthday

Merry Missions

Thank you! Both the Catalan’s and Mrs. Kelsey have received their “packages!”

I look forward to making this an annual event.

Merry Christmas Card Sunday

Thank you for being a blessing to our Academy families!

Christmas Eve Service

Usual morning services.

Countdown to 2024

Usual morning services

Rejoice Sunday

We will have a combined teen/adult Connection Group at 9:45 AM, in the auditorium, on this day!

Church Work “Evening”

Men, please mark your calendar for this evening to help us remove the current partitions in the bathrooms. They will begin installation on Tuesday, January 9th.

Work has already begun on the parking lot repairs. The locating crew has already been out marking the location of the gas line. RAM pavement is scheduled to begin work the week of January 8.

Elton is continuing working on transforming the church library into a conference room. He’s working on painting the walls and replacing the carpet.

Current Events

I’m not going to preach on a current event tonight (as I did last week).

I would like you to read an article that I posted on my personal Facebook page.

It’s an article that is written by Dr. Naomi Wolf, a Jewish woman.

While there are a number of things that I could share from her article as a challenge to us, as Christians, there are just two things that I’ll share:

I remember in January, when the trees were thrown out onto the streets, naked now, and the decorations were taken down, that the sour mood of adults in ordinary life returned to the world.

Christmas was over.

And I would wonder at this, because I understood what I had lived through in December.

“Didn’t they realize?” I asked myself as I watched.

Christmas never had to be over.

And that should be a challenge to us: As Bible-believing Christians, Christmas really should never be over! We should never stop celebrating Christ!

She ended her article with…

Bring out your creches. Put them on your lawns. I won’t sue you.

Turn up “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”

I am not offended at all. You make me richer, and I make you richer.

Whoever you are, however you worship, please honor our Founders by expressing your religion freely out in the open without fear in exactly the way you choose.

Again, that should be a challenge to us: As Bible-believing Christians, we should express our beliefs freely out in the open without fear!

Psalm 96:3 KJV 1900

Declare his glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people.

Message: Celebrate Christ

Luke 1:46–47 KJV 1900

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

Mary, in these verses is celebrating! She is celebrating the Lord; God, her Savior.

Notice, though, what is missing in these verses.

In vs. 46, she points out that her soul magnifies the Lord. The word that is used for soul in this verse is the word from which we get psyche. This, then, indicates the fact that Mary’s celebration was mental, emotional, intellectual.

Hebrews Exposition

“The soul is the life of the natural man, and the spirit the life of the regenerate or spiritual man.”

In vs. 47, she point out that her spirit rejoiced in God. the word that is used for spirit in this verse is the word pneuma which indicates the fact that Mary’s celebration was spiritual. Her celebration of God was an opportunity for her to worship her Lord and Savior!

But, what does Mary not include in this celebration? Her body; the physical!

The kind of celebration which I have been preaching about isn’t a physical celebration.

When the world (and even at times, Christians) thinks of celebration it more often than not places the focus on the physical.

The place of the celebration: a friend’s home, a family member’s home, a restaurant, a bar, etc.

The people of the celebration: friends, families (even those family members that we hardly ever see), co-workers, neighbors, etc.

The ingredients of the celebration: Food, an activity (a party), drink (or drinking alcohol)

Holidays are occasions for fun and celebration, and alcohol plays a big role in the festivities.

Drinking during holidays is a relatively normal practice.

There are other reasons that people drink during the holidays, and not all of them are happy.

For many, holidays are a time of loneliness and stress; not everyone enjoys mingling at an office party, and having old friends and seldom-seen relatives under the same roof can lead to embarrassing situations.

Financial and economic difficulty is a real problem when there is pressure to buy something to celebrate the occasion while still struggling to pay bills and rent.

In this context, it’s hard not to drown sorrows in alcohol.

From this - and possibly from your own personal experience - you understand that many of the typical celebrations of the world are designed to forget the mental and emotional difficulties that people are facing.

And, along with that, our world today, certainly does not want to acknowledge the spiritual aspect of celebration.

Romans 1:28 KJV 1900

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

They did not like to retain God in their [celebrations].

God gave them over to a reprobate mind [which includes such as the annual SantaCon held in various cities around the world at this time of year.]

SantaCon (Yes, a real event!) has been described as a nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year for absolutely no reason.

In 2013, the New York Times (New York hosts the largest SantaCon.) described SantaCon as "a daylong bar crawl that begins with good cheer and, for many, inevitably ends in a blurry, booze-soaked haze."

One individual, who has participated in New York’s SantaCon, described it this way:

SantaCon NYC is an epic annual booze-filled event in the Big Apple.

The celebrations of the world are intended to forget God, forget your problems, forget troubles!

However, as Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord.

The kind of celebration which I have been preaching about is a spiritual celebration; an internal celebration which is not dependent upon any outward circumstance.

As we have already seen, the outward circumstances which Mary and Joseph were facing were not necessarily conducive to a celebration and yet she was able to say, My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior!

And it is why we are able to have Acts 16:25 in our Bibles:

Acts 16:25 KJV 1900

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

Is that the type of celebration which you will have this year?

Is that the type of celebration which you will continue throughout 2024?

Regardless of your answer to those questions, I can tell you that this is the type of celebration which should typify a Bible-believing Christian!

Certainly, let’s be sure that we don’t forget God in our celebrations!

Instead of seeking to forget our problems and difficulties, let’s instead praise God for the grace to endure - with rejoicing - such problems and difficulties.

Let’s not trade our Biblical celebration for the cheap imitations which the world seeks to push upon us!

Philippians 4:4 KJV 1900

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

Prayer Requests

Echo Prayer App

Dwain Roache and His High Tech Bible Study at Hendrick Automotive.

Tana received a good report from her check up (earlier this week) from the surgery on her hand.

Alex Motus’ mom’s health.

Pray for those traveling!

The Heater’s have already traveled to Colorado.

I will be traveling, tomorrow, to pick up Titus from college.

Other staff, church members and Academy families will be traveling in the days to come.

Fifth/Sixth Grade - Also need to mention Mrs. Katy Heater with this grade as she teaches English for both of these grades.

Outreach

Estates at Sugar Creek - Construction is ongoing. The sign says, “Early 2024.”

Prayer from the sign:

Steve Sandoval: His wife, Nancy, asked prayer for her husband who is in the hospital and battling alcohol addiction.

Rodarius Marcell: Asked a question, “Is what the Cotholic Church does with praying to the Virgin Mary and saints wrong?” which led to the question, “What’s the difference between the Baptist church and the other churches?” He identified himself as an agnostic “at least for the moment.”

Nadia: A single mother who has just recently lost her job. She has a 7 year old.