Carol Service 2016.
Christmas is brilliant. It is a time for give and and time for celebration. We all like to receive gifts at Christmas right? I'm going to give away three presents to very special people tonight.
(Rummage in bag): pull out Talk to Your Cat Mouth Spray and give it to Martin Woods.
(Rummage in bag): pull out 2016 Dairy and give it to Andrea Willis, Pastor's PA.
(Rummage in bag) Invite Jean Jordan to come and get her skateboard!
Gifts are only great gifts if they touch the heart of the person receiving the gift. I know people say, "It's the thought that counts," but sometimes you get a gift and you ask, "What were you thinking!"
These are the kind of gifts that we seek to give away, re-gift, store in the loft, or simply just throw away. We smile politely at the time, but we also ache internally for someone to love us enough to know what we really need or want.
Christmas for this reason can be a really painful time. It can be a time when we do not recognise what the season is really about. It's about good news.
There have been Good News Stories This Year - here are just three:
Story One: Message in a Bottle Found and Returned After 50 Years!
A message in a bottle sent out to sea by a New Hampshire man more than five decades ago was found 1,500 miles away and has been returned to his daughter.
The long lost message was discovered by Clint Buffington of Utah while he was vacationing in the Turks and Caicos. Buffington says he found a Coke bottle half-buried in the sand that "looked like it had been there since the beginning of time." The note inside the bottle said, "Return to 419 Ocean Blvd. and receive a reward of $150 from Tina, owner of the Beachcomber."
The Beachcomber was a Hampton motel owned by the now-deceased parents of Paula Pierce in 1960. Pierce’s father had written the note as a joke and cast it into the Atlantic Ocean.
Buffington flew to New Hampshire to deliver the message to Pierce.
"And it just hit me, it was my father's writing. And I was shocked," Pierce said.
She insisted on living up to her father's promise, giving Buffington that reward. But the biggest reward is the message in a bottle finding its way back home.
"The significance of the message in the bottle was not lost on him. It took him to find it, and it took him to come across the country and bring it to me," Pierce said.
(Read more at http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/1873/Daughter-Receives-Father-s-Message-In-A-Bottle-5-Decades-After-He-Sent-It-Out-To-Sea#kQfx1DC9PIhzuDmw.99)
Story Two: 86 Year Old Learns to Knit - Gives 350 Baby Hats to Premature Baby Unit.
Ed Moseley can no longer play golf. The 86-year-old with limited mobility can no longer dance.
But the retired engineer recently led the way at his senior living community by demonstrating you are never too old to learn new things – and help others.
It all started in July when staff at Dogwood Forest Assisted Living urged residents to be part of a outreach program to knit caps for preemies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Northside Hospital in Atlanta.
But there was only one problem, or so it seemed. Moseley who lives at the Acworth Residence didn't know how to knit. But with the support of family, Moseley taught himself how to knit using a loom kit.
Since then, he's knitted over 50 preemie caps in a rainbow of colours. He's also inspired others to learn to knit including other residents and children at his granddaughter's school (where his granddaughter is a teacher). Before long, people were dropping off completed knitted caps to Moseley's room and dropping off balls of yarn for him to knit.
"When they started this project a few months back, I told my daughter about it and I said, 'How can I knit? what do I need to do?' and bless her heart, she went to Jo-Anns [Fabrics] and got a kit, yarn and instruction kit for me. So I started slowly and learned it just takes patience,'" he said.
On Thursday, on National Preemie Awareness Day, Moseley delivered 350 caps to the NICU at Northside Hospital.
(Read more at http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/1911/86-Year-Old-Grandpa-Learns-To-Knit-To-Make-Hats-For-Premature-Babies#QqF6R7cTM67xK6MU.99)
Story Three: Senior Citizens in Care Home Caring for Abandoned Kittens
Many people who move to senior living centres at the end of long, productive, lives — especially those experiencing forms dementia — find themselves frustrated. Thanks to a wonderful new program called "Bottle Babies", senior living residents are regaining a sense of purpose.
The program allows seniors to feed and play with orphaned kittens who are in need of 24/7 care.
Rebecca Hamilton, the health service director at Catalina Springs Memory Care, came up with the idea to bring kittens to the facility. She's a veteran kitten fosterer at Pima Animal Care Centre and knows that really young kittens require constant care. She thought having the residents at Catalina Springs look after them might be a mutually beneficial program.
From the moment the kittens arrived, the staff noticed a significant, positive change in the residents' moods.
(Read more at http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/1909/How-Kittens-Are-Giving-Nursing-Home-Residents-A-New-Sense-Of-Purpose#04tUItMXWm7refEk.99)
I bet most of you had not heard of those good news stories. That's the problem really our lives are so busy we don't have time for good news. This Christmas there is another forgotten Good News story that really does change everything.
This year we will gather around a tree. We will exchange presents (some good some bad). But who will gather around the manger?
On a dark night, lit by a star, in a cold animal shed Jesus was born. Just as the prophets had promised!
In fact - just around Jesus's birth and earthly life - there were 333 prophecies about Him (His birth, death and resurrection) and all of these were literally fulfilled. For instance, that He'd be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). He had no control over that. We could examine all the prophecies, and discover that all literally happened.
The only ones to come and gather around the manger we are told were shepherds and later the wise men. These events did not take place on one night but over many.
Today we have forgotten to gather at the manger. We prefer a tree.
Why was He born? We heard the reasons in the readings throughout the service tonight:
Galatians 4:4-7 NLT: But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father." Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.
This Christmas We Need Freedom
What! He was sent to buy freedom for us!
Freedom from what?
Freedom from condemnation, from yourself and others (Romans 8:1)
Freedom from consequences for sin. The wrong doing that you've committed in your life needs to be paid for. Jesus dealt with that. He died for you, taking your punishment (John 3:17)
Freedom from guilt and shame. He gives you a fresh start and a new life, eternal life (John 3:3-7; 10:10)
Freedom to become the man or woman you were destined to be.
Freedom to have joy and peace.
This Christmas We Need a New Family
so that he could adopt us as his very own children
Adoption is brilliant! God wants to adopt you!
We know that every human bing has an intrinsic worth because Christians know that everyone is made in the image of God.
But to become a child of Father God, you have to be adopted. Become His child!
When you're adopted the past is expunged. You even get a new birth certificate (an adoption certificate).
Everything that happened to you before that moment is considered null and void.
source: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/relationships/birth-certificates-and-changing-your-name/birth-certificates/
It’s the same when you join God's family! Everything that happened before is now null and void. It is wiped clean. It is over!
This Christmas We Need a New Father!
There's more!
"prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father." Abba is not translatable from the original language into English - it means a combination of daddy, papa, pops - but it is a term of deep endearment and love that doesn't translate. It is always followed by the word Father to give us a clue!
I don't know if you had a good dad or a bad dad, but I do know that compared to Father God they were not perfect.
He is the perfect Father.
He loves.
He guides.
He protects.
He provides.
He heals broken hearts.
He is dependable.
He is always there.
He is perfect.
He sent His Son Jesus for you!
He wants to call you son or daughter.
He is beckoning you this Christmas.
This Christmas We Need a New Future!
And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.
God has made you His heir! What does that mean? It means that there is an inheritance. There is the opportunity to gain more than we ever had:
Eternal life.
A promise of a future where, whist we might have problems, there are solutions!
An eternal happiness and a heaven.
Joy in our hearts now.
Peace that surpasses understanding.
The power of His presence.
If you have the courage to accept His invitation of love today you will gain more than you lose and become the person who were originally destined to be!
All of this can be enjoyed now. How? A word the Bible calls repentance: meaning to turn around and go in a new direction. We do this wth God's help (Ephesians 2:8).
This is not a gift you'll want to ignore anymore.
Appeal:
All of what I am about to tell you is supported by historical fact!
Jesus was laid in a wooden manger. Today that manger is empty. He grew into a man. He needs to grow up in your mind too.
Jesus was laid on a wooden cross and crucified. The Bible explains this was for us - He took our punishment. The cross is now empty.
Jesus was laid in a tomb, dead. The Bible tells us He was raised from the dead. The tomb is now empty. Deliberately so.
Jesus is alive now, but desires for you to be introduced to your new Father!
Some of you are ready for that step. Some are not, and that's OK, all this is new information to you. To some though you've known this for a long time, some since childhood, some since coming to Life Church.
I am going to ask you to say a prayer after me (all of us will say it). It's a prayer asking God to forgive you and to make you a new person. It will mean that you're accepting Jesus as your Lord, your Saviour!
After that prayer I am then going ask you to do something strange that will take courage only Father God will give you! I don't want any of you to leave here without the opportunity to ask questions & to receive information about what to do next. So after we pray, I am going to ask you if this is the first time you've prayed this prayer to come and gather around the manger. After that Pastor Phil is going to have a quick chat with you in just through the door to my right. You might want to gather around the manger with the friend who brought you - that's awesome.
It won't take long and I promise we'll keep you a mince pie!
OK, so here's the prayer:
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus. Thank you He came and lived and died for me. Thank you He has stood in my place to take my punishment. I ask for your forgiveness now I ask that I can have a new freedom, I ask that I can become part of the new family, I ask that I can have a new Father, I ask I can have a new future. Thank you. Amen.
Now, if you prayed that for the first time (or maybe you have and have never told anyone) come to the front and gather around the manger. Come with a friend if you want.
In a moment or two Pastor Phil will take you for a brief chat.
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