December 15, 2024
When The King Comes | Where Can I Find Joy In Life?
Advent 2024
When the Wisemen arrived in Jerusalem looking for the ‘King of the Jews’, the scholars read our Micah passage and told them to go to Bethlehem. Bethlehem was the place of the king's birth. That prophecy had been given 700 years before Mary and Joseph trundled into sleepy Bethlehem. All of this: Micah’s prophecy, the difficulty of his time in history, translates into joy for us and potential joy for all the generations of the earth.
Songs for this week: Spotify
- Look over your life; when did you feel the most joy? Tell that story to your group.
- How would you explain joy to your friends asking you about the Christian faith?
- Have you ever felt ‘under siege’ or that you’d been struck in the face emotionally? How did you respond? Do you think Jesus cares about your hard times? Explain.
- How do you explain “one whose origins are from of old, from ancient times”? Is this a legitimate claim to Jesus being God, or does it mean something else?
- What is gained in Jesus being our shepherd? Does that term deliver hope and joy, or does it feel underwhelming to you?
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Recent Sermons
Isaiah 35 – Out of a parched desert, crocuses bloom. A small sign of hope that doesn’t stay small. Best of all, our God will come. Isaiah points to Jesus.
Isaiah 25:1-9 - Isaiah’s images announce God’s hope in an anxious time: God loves us, is trustworthy, and will right every wrong and renew the world, including us.
Isaiah 5:1-2-Isaiah’s vivid images of a world-changing event on a rock invite us to dream of a new way to settle disagreements and disputes.
Isaiah 1:15-20-Join us for "Unshakeable," a new sermon series exploring the epic images God gave His people in Isaiah. We begin with a call to repentance.
1 Samuel 24:1-22 - David chose inconvenience and risk when he could have chosen an easier life. Jesus calls us to do the same—to “Go!” even when it costs us, because sometimes our inconvenience helps someone else find Life.
2 Samuel 24:18-25-After his second colossal failure, David refused to cheap out on his sacrifice. See how God used his obedience to end a plague and build the Temple.
