Talks

Christmas Day Service

Gill leads our Carol Service

What a great Sunday! Abby is doing an amazing job directing not only our wonderful children but also all the adults in participating in this year’s “Instant Nativity”. There is a lot of fun and laughter, and we are also reminded of how Jesus came to live among us.
We also welcome three special guests from Malawi who explain to us how our giving into our Special Christmas offering will make a difference to people in some of the villages in Malawi.

Bob continues our Christmas series “HOME at Christmas”. Jesus came to this world to make his HOME among us.

Can you relate to the feeling of wanting to stay in bed on a cold winter morning and not leave the warmth? We can love God’s presence when we are together, but we can’t stay in that place all the time.
Jesus wants us to go out into the community and share His story and our story with the people around us.

Bob suggests three things we can share with people:

What has God done in the past?
See Psalm 40. 1-4.  As followers of Jesus, we all have a story of what God has done in us and around us.
What would life look like if you didn’t yet know Jesus? Let’s allow that thought to inspire us and motivate us to share the Good News of God with those around us.

What is God doing in us in the present?
If you don’t know what God is doing in the present, ask Him and He will show you. Some of the things He’ll tell you might not be what you want to hear. He’s tackling the things we need to sort out in our lives. He has a plan for each of us to be active in the presence.

What are you hoping God will do in the future?
We want to see communities transformed! And people set free!
We know there is a home to come (Heaven), but there’s also a home here and now that we are called to invite people to come into the fullness of.

May we be encouraged to share with people what God has done, what he’s doing now and what he will do in the future.

On the first Sunday of Advent Matt launches our Christmas Season with a message entitled HOME… at Christmas!
The Gospel writer John explains the incredible news that God came to dwell among His people – what an incredible thought!
The NLT translation puts it like this:  “The Word became human and made his HOME among us.”

Matt talks about “incarnation” – the theological word that simply means “with flesh on” – and explains that this is one of the foundational mysterious miracles that underlines the Christmas story.  He mentioned Jack Groblewski’s Christmas book and shared this quote from it:
“There is a doctrine underlying Christmas, and it is foundational to everything that Christianity stands upon.  The name of that doctrine is “Incarnation”, the mystery through which God became man and yet remains both God and man!”

Matt then encourages us to take time during the season to stop to WONDER – both in the sense of “being curious” and also in “amazement” of what happened during the first Christmas.  “Jesus left the splendour of His Heavenly HOME so that He could make His HOME with us on earth.”  WOW!

God made His home among us, in Jesus over 2000 years ago – but He still wants to make His HOME in us today too!  (THEME of the YEAR!)

We pray for God’s Hope to fill us and also that we carry His Hope to those around us.