December 1, 2024
When The King Comes | Is Life Supposed To Be Like This?
Advent 2024
Genesis 1:31-2:3
This is the beginning of the Beginning! The Creation story lays out many bedrock truths, including our purpose and God's purpose. The 7th day of Creation reveals that God is the rightful King and we are part of a good Kingdom. These two truths alone are the foundation for life-giving hope.
Songs for this week: Spotify
- How would you define ‘hope’? Recall a time when you had hope (confidence!) for something that had yet to arrive.
- In what ways could you use or draw upon the truths of the Creation Story to encourage a friend who was feeling hopeless?
- Does the picture of Creation (Earth and the far-flung stars) as God’s Temple resonate for you? In what ways does the visible creation move you to worship?
- God is the King of the Universe. With your small group, track through the Scriptures and remind each other how ‘kingship’ plays out through Israel’s history, through Jesus’ birth and death and into the promise of the life to come.
- Pray together for the person you named on the Christmas ornament you hung this past Sunday.
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Recent Sermons
Psalm 127 - Psalm 127 reminds us that unless the Lord builds the house, our efforts are in vain. It's a call to trust—learning to rest in God's provision while recognizing that every good gift, including our work, our homes, and our children, ultimately rests in His hands.
James 5:13-20 - A life of faith is a life of prayer. It’s also a life lived with others. When we follow Jesus, we belong to Him and to one another as brothers and sisters. As a family, we care for one another in weakness, confess our sins to each other, and gently confront one another.
James 4:6-10 -James knows that the heart of the Christian message is grace. God gives us good that we couldn’t ever deserve. The truth is that we earn and deserve justice and punishment. Thankfully, Jesus took both of those for us and gave us the good he deserved. As powerful as grace is, there is one thing that can re
James 3:1-18 -James is at it again! He has a real concern for the words that Christians use on themselves, with each other and with the world. Our tongues (James' favourite image for our words) can cause such destruction, and they are nearly impossible to control.
James 2:14-26 -James continues to press deep into the muscles and tissues of our faith. Is your faith doing what it was designed to do? Just like you might go to the doctor for a physical check-up, James offers a self-administered faith check-up in this passage. Where do you see signs of life in your faith?
James 1:19-27 - James is direct: angry words, thoughtless words, and religious words don’t have a place in a life of faith. Our words don’t work … but God’s word does! Our job is simply to cooperate with his word.
