First Baptist Church Nov. 28, 2021

[Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] welcome to first baptist church this morning please stand and join us as we sing [Music] joyful and triumphant oh [Music] come and behold him born the king of angels [Music] empire [Music] [Applause] all [Music] glory to God all glory in the highest oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore [Music] happy morning Jesus [Music] oh come let us adore [Applause] [Music] the Lord oh come let us adore him o come let us adore him oh come let us the Lord [Music] you can be seated and the fluids are going to come and participate in the lighting of our advent wreath this morning good morning today we begin the season of advent the celebration of the time leading up to christmas day the advent means arrival or coming and throughout the season we celebrate the coming of the Lord and our Savior Jesus born of the virgin Mary in a lowly manger so many years ago in the city of David

We begin this journey through advent by lighting a candle the light from these candles remind us of the power of light of darkness it reminds us that in the dark world we can find rest in the light of Christ this first candle is a symbol of the hope we have in Jesus it is called the prophecy candle and it reminds us of those who first spoke of the promise of the Christ child throughout the ages of history it is a reminder of the hope and God of Adam and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob it is a reminder of the hope israel had of the king who would one day end the repression and reign over them in righteousness and peace it is a reminder of the hope of the prophets who foretold the place and the manner of the birth of Christ and how he would fulfill the reconciliation of israel it is a reminder of the hope that believe that believers have today of a life marked by peace and righteousness and the hope that we have in the return that same king to rule over the earth and to reconcile us to God once and for all we need a prophecy of the hope of Christ in Isaiah chapter nine the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shone and for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father prince of peace of the increase of this government and the peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this

Time forth and forevermore the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this that was in chapter 9. Would you pray with me dear God on this first sunday in advent we begin a spiritual pilgrimage as we joyfully anticipate christmas day a reminder of the birth of our Savior as we come to this place to worship you and one another we know that we are in your presence let us place our hope and our trust in you and give us your peace that through this all may be able to place their hope in Christ in this in his name we pray amen [Music] come thou long expected Jesus born to set thy people free from our fears and sins release us let us find our rest in the israel strength and consolation hope of all the earth our desire of every nation joy of every longing heart joy to those who long to see the dayspring on high up here come thou promised rod of jesse of thy birth we long to hear or [Music] go to him your praises bringing Christ the Lord has come to earth come to earth to taste our sadness he whose new no end by his life he brings us gladness our Redeemer shepherd friend leaving rich riches without number born within a cattle stall this the everlasting wonder Christ was born the Lord of all [Music]

Born by people to deliver born a child and yet a king born to reign in us forever now thy gracious kingdom bring by thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone by thine all sufficient merit raise us to thy glorious [Music] and so we do ask this morning that we would be reminded of the Christ the Christ that has come we celebrate his birth but we also recognize that he's coming again to save us once and for all and so here I'd ask that you'd stand with us as we sing we look to you to our real and present Savior who cares about our every need [Music] deliver us from evil Lord we sojourn in a broken world though evil hands give rise to war remind us this is not our home we look to you the sovereign king of all the earth we look to you in your strength we will and [Music] temptation crouching at the door to turn us from the narrow way we look to you Christ the conquering son of God we look to you Lord complete what you've begun [Music] deliver us from evil Lord the devil seeking to devour trembling hearts we arm will crush his [Music] power and end his earthly reign [Music] we look to you will come again [Music] we look to you

All the earth will bow in praise [Music] deliver us from evil Lord we sojourn in a broken world though evil hands give rise to war remind us this is not our home we look to you the sovereign king of all the earth we look to you we in your strength we will endure [Music] in Christ alone my hope is found he is strength my song this cornerstone this solid ground firm through the fiercest heights of love what depths of peace when fears are stilled when striving cease my comforter my all in all here in the love of Christ I stand [Music] fullness of God in heaven [Music] scorned by the ones he came to save till on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied for every sin on him was laid here in the death of Christ I lived [Music] there in the ground his body lay light of the world by darkness in glorious days again [Music] curse has lost its grip on me [Music] no guilt in life no fear in death this is the power of Christ in me from life's first prize to final breath Jesus commands my destiny no power of hell no steam of man

[Applause] [Music] I'll stand [Music] no power of hell no scheme of man can never block me from his head till he returns or calls me home here in the power of cries I'll stand you can be seated and so what we what we celebrate today as we start this season of advent celebrating the coming of Christ we celebrate not just that he was born although that is in itself miraculous God himself taking on flesh and becoming one of us that he so that he could experience the same trials and temptations that you experience and so that he could bear the wrath of God that you deserve that's what we celebrate and more than that we not only celebrate the coming of Christ to earth the first time but we celebrate now his future coming the one where he will come to end all suffering to reign over us forever as his chosen people and so we started this service with oh come all ye faithful [Music] and that's an excellent hymn but we also know that Jesus himself said the healthy don't need a doctor it's the sick and so here we're going to close with oh come all you unfaithful which is the state that all of us were in before we found before Christ found us maybe it's the state of you today [Music] oh come all you unfair come we can unstable no you are not alone [Music] see what your God has done Christ is born

For you [Music] oh come bitter and broken come with fears unspoken come taste of his perfect love oh come guilty and hiding once there is no need to run see what your God has done Christ is born before you he's the lamb who was given slain for our pardon his promise is peace for those who believe he's the lamb [Music] [Applause] his promise is peace for those who believe so come though you have nothing come he is the offering come see what your God has done Christ is born [Music] Christ is born for you Christ is born [Music] Christ is born [Music] so Lord we ask we ask your blessing on this service today God we ask that you would help us to open our minds and our hearts and our

Ears that we would hear from your word God we ask that you would open the hearts of those here that don't believe and Lord draw them unto yourself Lord show them just how worthy you are God we pray in your name amen well good morning church I missed y'all last week there's a little bit of more of you to love it looks like a little bit more of me to love too you understand what I'm saying yeah [Laughter] you're like I can tell cody you're looking down if you have your Bible and I hope that you do turn to Luke chapter seven Luke chapter seven is where we're going to be we are starting our new c series called all I want for christmas all I want for christmas it's over the next four weeks we're going to be looking at the advent wreath for those of you who aren't familiar with the advent wreath there is nothing special about this it's literally a wreath from like hobby lobby and some candles that we bought online there's nothing like special or representative of this other than the fact it functions as a symbol for us right Christians are people of symbols God is you know he's revealed himself through symbols through Scripture and we see here we see the light of the world coming and it helps us to prepare for the arrival of Christ Christians for millennia have celebrated the birth of Jesus because it gives us hope that since he came the first time and that was prophesied a lot and he promised over and over in the new testament that he was coming quickly for his bride that even though we live in a dark and broken world where there is so

Much death so much destruction so much tragedy we can have a hope that Christ is going to return where he is going to make all those wrong things right where he is going to take darkness and do away with it and bring in light and it will be a wonderful kingdom for his people that's why we celebrate christmas okay and so anyways I want to tell you guys I had an awesome vacation like with my with my family we got to go down to grandma's house right and we got to eat some good food and make some good memories and things like that I'd asked some of you to message me text me what you want for christmas if you if you don't get our emails you should go on to our church website fbcampton.org and plug in your email you get in on our email list and we send out an email about every week sometimes it has video sometimes it doesn't but they're pretty pretty good I think they are anyways we but I asked you guys to shoot me your christmas list and I got one from abby is she's lost two teeth that's the nicholson's granddaughter and so all that she wants for christmas of course is her two front teeth because she can't even whistle poor thing we some of you know you say I want I wanted I want some just vacation time right I just need some time to chill I need to veg out for a while right as I get older like my christmas list gets like a lot less things and more or less like big things you know it's like I don't want you know the latest greatest stuff I want peace on earth you know things like that and what we're gonna do is over the next few weeks we're going to be talking about like these different

Candles they represent peace and hope and faith and all these different things and we're going to talk about how Christ ultimately gives us those things that we really want and today we're talking about how Christ brings hope to a hopeless situation that's what we're going to be talking about that's the big point and so if you would stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Luke chapter 7 and we're going to read verses 11 through 17. Now this is a true story and so I want you guys to pay attention to some of these details Luke chapter 7 verses 11-17 soon afterward he went to a town called nain and his disciples in a great crowd went with him as he drew near to the gate of the town behold a man who had died was being carried out the only son of his mother and she was widow and a considerable crowd from the town was with her and when the Lord saw her he had compassion on her and said to her do not weep then he came up and touched the beer and the bearer stood still and he said young man I say to you arise in the dead man sat up and began to speak and Jesus gave him to his mother fear sees them all and they glorified God saying a great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people and this report about him spread through the whole of judea and all the surrounding country let's pray so God we do thank you how you brought hope to this poor widow and Lord so many of us need hope today

And we know that you bring that hope for our country that needs hope that needs peace that needs unity Lord you are the one that can bring it not the donkey not the elephant but the lamb we asked Lord that you would just help us to live like it as Christians Lord we pray that you would just help us to seek your will for our lives and Lord may your word today pierce our hearts and also heal us God and bring hope in Jesus name amen well Jesus he brings hope to hopeless situations amen and Luke or Jesus he goes to this little town and it's called nain and this little bitty town it was about six miles south west of Jesus's hometown of nazareth and it's on the northern slopes of mount mora this is this is the modern city of course didn't go back in time check it out and but during this time the city of nain only had probably about maybe two dozen houses there so only about two dozen families we could say so it's a very small village today it only is about 3 000 people roughly the size of our camdenton and there was no actual gate to the city like in when lucas is talking here he uses kind of a slang term for the main entrance of the gate we know that based off of archaeology and so this old widow woman she is coming down the main central part of this village which they would have called the gate and nain it literally is translated as beautiful but when Jesus visits this town it is anything but beautiful death despair destitution

Had visited this town and this woman now I want you to notice what's what's happening in Jesus's ministry at this point he's followed by his disciples he's a great crowd maybe numer numbering into the thousands at this point all talking all clamoring all wanting to get close and the reason for this is because they loved when Jesus worked wonders they loved when Jesus taught against the religious leaders with power they loved it when Jesus was performing miracles with food and doing all these really cool things all these signs and wonders and so this gigantic crowd way more than the population of this little village of only a couple dozen families here's this great clamoring coming towards them while they're in the middle of a funeral now they were all walking they were all talking they were all clamoring and asking Jesus questions this great big crowd they're following Jesus and Jesus stops in his tracks and what does he do he notices that there's this widow and that's the reason why he stops his travels he is on his way but he is not too busy to stop for this widow that needs him you see we know that her husband had previously died he's says so and her son is now dead we don't know if there's any daughters that are there but we can probably assume that the son since he was unmarried was in his late teens early 20s at this point and he's being carried out of the city on what's called a beer now a beer is a like a flat almost table with arms on it where they would actually place the dead body they would prepare it and they would take these bodies and they would put

Them into caves that are still there to this day with etch stone and that's where they would lay the body where the body would decompose and then you know they would collect the bones and they would put them into sarcophagi and that is the future and I want you to imagine firstly the horror of the situation if you're taking notes write that down the horror of what's going on we don't know what took the life of this young man but we do know that it sent his mother into a tail spin she was all alone now no son to help provide for her she had a community that could maybe help support her but remember that we're talking about first century world they knew hunger they made it day to day and so to have another mouth to feed was a huge burden on that community this is a terrible situation because if you're taking notes write this down death is terrible death is terrible the gut punch of death of losing a loved one it takes for months and for years to come doesn't it like those of us who have lost loved ones whether it was sudden and unexpectedly or slow in agonizing we all know what that feels like because death is an enemy it's an enemy of humanity it's the enemy of God in first corinthians chapter 15 verse 26 it tells us that the last enemy to be destroyed is death so until that day death is going to continue to wreak havoc in our lives today it is going to wreak havoc in our lives like we turn on the news and we see death and destruction over and over and over again you guys getting tired of it all right so like 14 of us awesome you see death it comes for all of us and

I talk Malachi do I talk with you about death pretty often yeah a little bit you know what song I like to I want played at my funeral you could probably identify that couldn't you with the flute and everything I like to play it and watch my kids cry like dad don't play that song weep for me come on but I don't want my children to be softened to the reality of death like I want them to know that it's a very real thing and that it could happen our worlds could be shaken just like that it can it happens because if you're taking notes write this down death is sure death is sure it is coming for all of us I've had friends who have died had a friend of mine alvin he died when he was 15 and had a friend of mine her name was krista she died when she was 16 and a one in a car accident another in a fire you know I've had some that were older like my great-grandmother the first funeral that I ever performed was for zadrian three months old and death it comes it comes unexpectedly you can't stop it the Bible it tells us that God he has numbered our days he has numbered your days like they're there we cannot go past it we have appointed limits and when it's your time to go it's your merry christmas death is also sudden it doesn't matter who it is that dies it's always too soon three months old or a hundred it's always too soon Scripture says in second Samuel chapter 14 verse 14 that we all must die all of us we're like water spilled on

The ground which cannot be gathered up again just as suddenly as death comes it could come for you death is also final I mean there's no coming back from it and I know there's kids and there's adults that have made a ton of money off of books and movies saying well I died and I saw Jesus and I went to heaven or some don piper he says I went to hell for 23 minutes Bible says it's an appointed undemanded die once and after that comes the judgment and I will always land on what Scripture says because life has no do-overs what's done is done Ecclesiastes 8 verse 8 says that no malware has no man no man has the power to retain the spirit or power over the day of death we don't it comes and it takes now this young man he died and when he died he left his mother alone and poor when a husband dies it is even today it is the duty of the family of the sons and the daughters to come alongside their mother to help her to assist her to love on her we see that in second Timothy or in first Timothy that it is good and it's right and it's righteous for us as young people to take care of our aging parents and since death is coming and since death is sure and since death is so final and since death is so terrible you have to ask yourself that question are you prepared for death you have to ask that question I mean there's roughly 20 000 teenagers that die every single year in car accidents alone that's car accidents and if you're a teenager are you prepared for that

Are you are you ready or you think just think I got my whole life ahead of me the Scripture says that there is none righteous no not even one no one understands no one seeks for God all have turned aside together they have become worthless no one does good not even one the Bible says for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God it goes on to say that the payment for sin is death not just in this life when we reach the end but also eternally in a terrible place called hell and so write this down you must be prepared for death how can you prepare Bible says the same thing that Jesus said from the very beginning of his ministry you must repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand that means turning away from sin and turning to Christ to turn away from that sin that is killing you and turning to Christ who died for you the Bible says that you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation Bible says that you must confess him as your Lord and your Savior and he will save you this is the only way that you can meet death with gladness rather than dread a lot of people they're kind of scared of death because it's the great unknown but it's not Bible makes it pretty clear there's two eternal destinations eternal joy and peace in heaven with Christ or eternal destruction and justice and wrath and hell so will you respond to the Gospel will you place your trust in Christ but I want you to look here Jesus he is with this massive crowd and he walks up to this poor widow who's being comforted by his community and what does Jesus do does he walk on by does he say I got places that I gotta go we're in our community group today and we had someone talk about how

Back in the day we used to you know someone was broken down on the side of road it used to be people healthy helped each other but now we don't see that anymore because you know we just got this tunnel vision thing going on Jesus he took time look at verse 13 when the Lord saw her he had what on her compassion that's that greek word it's splagnitzo mai it's like got a l-g-c-h-n try to sound that out splaknitso mai which means that he empathized with her so much that he felt the gut punch of death himself he hurt alongside of her and I want you to write this down point number two the hope everything is hopeless until Christ reveals himself this is why first Timothy chapter one verse one Paul he refers to Christ as our hope when Jesus approached he didn't do it in this why are you crying for I'm the way the truth and the life am I gonna raise this boy like he didn't have that kind of attitude hey guys look how great of a Savior I am no he didn't didn't do anything like that's not the way of Christ let's let's define Biblical hope real quick because we're talking about hope let's define Biblical hope because it's not this wishy-washy wishing upon a star kind of kind of hope that we have it is a solid and firm assurance that Christians can stand on the promises of God we can stand upon thus saith the Lord and listen to this okay in Hebrews chapter six God the writer of Hebrews he's talking about how God had made a promise to Abraham and how God had guaranteed it with an oath

And the writer of Hebrews he says we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope that is set before us we have this talking about the hope we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Christ has gone what happened at the when Christ died on the cross that veil was that curtain to the temple that veil was torn and thereby we have a way to have a relationship with God because we enter through the mediator Jesus Christ and because we have that hope we have access to the father and we can go to God with all of our wants and all of our needs and all of our struggles and all of our trials and we can say God I need help in this situation and he promises that he will hear us and more importantly even promises that he his Holy Spirit will intercede for us showing us how we ought to pray actually praying for us the way that we ought to before the throne and so we can stand on the promises of God and Jesus he is concerned for this woman this is his created child he knew this woman he even knew her son and her husband before the foundation of the world he knew exactly what was going to be happening he understands her pain right here and right now he knows the anguish that they're feeling and out of this concern for her comes hope and he looks at her and he says do not weep what kind of hope does Christ give if you're taking notes write this down this is very important firstly a hope in this life like when we look at Christianity we oftentimes just focus on the future hope which is good and it's right

But Jesus also gives us a hope in this world too that he will take care of his people that his kingdom will come that his will be done we know that we believe that but oftentimes we have a hard time believing that or I guess mentally and realistically ascribing to it listen to me if you want if you want life to the fullest right now you need to follow Jesus Christ in this in this culture okay that Jesus was living in first century israel the family would lead the procession typically it would have sons and daughters and all these a big family but never just a just a mom a lonely widow and so she is there and she is weeping and her friends and her neighbors are walking behind her and they are weeping and Jesus he doesn't just get in the back of the line he does something very uncouth very taboo for this culture and he talks to the woman in the middle of the procession and he offers her hope right then and right there listen me you need hope right now do you need do you feel like you're drowning do you feel like you're hurting then you need Christ because he will give you the hope that you need Christ he offers us hope in this life and also in the life to come hope in the future John chapter 5 verse 24 it says whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life he does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life already we

Have eternal life if you are in Christ you have eternal life right now amen like yes we die okay we're talking about the future hope that we have a lot of people think that death is it that death is the end but the Bible teaches that humans are eternal creatures with two destinations either eternal joy in heaven or the lowest regions of hell the Bible teaches that if you don't have Christ then you don't have hope my great-grandfather he was on his bed his deathbed and this was a man who was he was a lobbyist in dc and you know he devoted his life to politics and business and he was a upper ranking freemason whatever that means weirdest funeral service I've ever been to but I had a chance to share the Gospel with him and all that I saw in his eyes was fear and that was my last interaction with my great-grandfather he didn't have any hope maybe he turned her around I don't know yeah you know I pray they did but you can have hope by trusting in Christ by turning away from sin and trusting in Christ as Savior and Lord point number three I want you to write this down as well the health look at the first part of verse 14 with me then he came up and he touched the beer and the bearers stood still I want you to notice that Jesus he's very active in this passage like he is looking he is listening he is seeing he is going he is touching he is doing all these different

Things he's not just waiting for people to come to him but he is going to people I mean he walks right up and he shows compassion and he touches the situation and for us as believers listen to me we got to be better about you know making the most of the opportunities that God presents to us we've got to be better about looking out for opportunities to share the Gospel and to share the hope that we have in Christ I mean you know you know I guess I'll tell on our on our family a little bit you know we were down in texas and it's thanksgiving day and you know amber's family they had you know some drinks and stuff like that you know and it's funny because they've been doing it for like 10 years you know and all of a sudden it's I was talking one of the guys and he was talking about his girlfriend and you know that he likes to go out with and he's like that's pretty good right I was like I don't know it depends on what you're talking about man and then I had an opportunity to share a little bit of the Gospel with him about how that's not God's plan to just hook up with girls you know and it's not like I was looking for that opportunity we're just standing around and we're talking and you know they're drinking and all of a sudden now it's like oh look out for pastor guy you know all I was doing was trying to help the guy out you know like what is God's plan it's not for that listen when Jesus touches you're healed like not in a physical way okay maybe it is sometimes Christ he is on his way to heal jairus's daughter and a woman reaches out and touches him while he's on the way Jesus he went out and he approached lepers which was a cultural no-no you touched lepers you could get that

Disease you're ceremonially unclean no Jesus we know of like at least 11 that we know of that Jesus went out and touched and healed it doesn't seem like Jesus is so much concerned with touching the untouchable as he is with meat and their needs and remember that the touch of Christ changes everything and as the bride of Christ and as the body of Christ you and I we're commissioned to touch lives we are called to make an impact in our world a positive one where we share the hope of Christ with a world that desperately needs it what Jesus was doing right here is extremely inappropriate for the culture the rabbis they were actually taught that in the poorest the poorest people in israel should at least have two people on the flute and one professional mourner there grieving and this is the procession you know it's the poorest of the poor couple of flutes mourners professionally wailing women and Jesus stops everything and he stops the pallbearers and imagine that for a moment imagine being at a funeral and here comes the casket and the pastor gets in the way wait guys I'm going to touch this body family over here don't weep I mean even us today we would consider that pretty taboo what do we do this has never happened before what is Jesus going to do isn't this that prophet from six miles up the road does anything good come out of nazareth and then Jesus speaks these words young man I say to you arise which is exactly the same thing that he says to jairus's daughter young woman little girl I say to you arise and that word arises in the greek it has several different meanings it can mean to stand up it can mean to awaken

It means to get up or even to wage war against how many funerals did Jesus hear about or see how many times did he know of people who had died and yet only three times in his ministry do we know where he raised the dead listen to me sometimes God's plan is not always going to be healing and restoration for you sometimes it's suffering sometimes it's learning how to endure in Hebrews chapter 13 it says that women they receive back their dead by resurrection some were tortured refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment but God's plan for this woman ray here right now is to give her hope any and a lasting hope of receiving her son back in this situation though the widow she gasps and wonder because the dead man her son sat up and he began to speak listen to me Jesus he is the life giver in John chapter 11 verses 25 through 26 it says that and this is when like right before he is raising Lazarus from the dead and he's talking with martha he says I am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die and you can have that hope you can have the hope of eternal life by trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior you can ask him to save you and he will because he will never turn anyone away turn away from your sin that's killing you and turn to Christ trust in him and he will do that wonderful work and I want you to know this is not something that just merely happened by chance this is not we are not people of coincidence

Like as Christians we don't believe in luck we believe in the sovereignty and the will of God we believe in providence and Jesus he was always intentional and for you that are that's here today it's not by just chance that you're here there is a reason why you're here this morning right here right now listening to the sermon and I want to ask you it is the Lord working in your heart is he calling you to wake up and arise because the Lord he loves you he wants you to live forever and you need to trust in him look with me at this passage it says and Jesus gave him to his mother imagine that hopping off like a death bed like literally you were already dead fear sees them all and they glorified God saying a great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people in this report about him spread through the whole of judea and all the surrounding country fourth point here the happiness when God works man it should make us happy it should make us so joyful you know I mean like there's some of you and even myself I'm guilty of this it's like you see God work you're like yep that's awesome like I saw the hand of God praise the Lord what happened here the people that glorified God this is what happens when we're saved and we see God's hand at work this is the greek word dox doxazomai which is where we get the word doxology which means worship and that's what was happening people were worshiping the Lord this is the result of seeing God's hand when the nation of israel saw God's hand part the red sea and they got over to the other side and

They see Pharaoh's army swallowed up what's the first thing they did they worshipped I mean they were they were dancing they were having tambourines and all that kind of stuff and you think about seeing God's hand even in our own lives and how many times are we tempted to worship but maybe we're just kind of like man what are gonna what are people gonna think if I if I raise my hand in worship I mean I'm like sitting there and I'm like oh come all you unfaithful like that's me weak and unstable yeah that's me and we're so afraid of just worshiping the Lord in an undignified way but I'll become even more undignified than this so says the prophet David and king when Elijah challenged the prophets of baal and the pillar of fire comes down and it consumes the offering and it licks up even the water that was in the trough buried around it the whole nation of israel bowed down and they said the Lord he is God the Lord he is God and there was a great call to action there to rid the land of false teachers you see here's what happens is that God works we worship God works we worship we are going to be celebrating being debt-free on december 1st this upcoming wednesday that's awesome right I praise the Lord some of you are like we've celebrated 13 baptisms this year praise the Lord it's a good thing it's a wonderful thing we've seen marriages restored seen families healed it doesn't always work that way but this should cause us to have joy and to worship but notice this there was also fear

It's a great fear that fell upon the people the Bible says that fear sees them all that word fear it's it's actually phobos in the greek it's phobia that's where we get it from it doesn't just mean to be terrified of something but it also means to have a reverential of respect for see when you and I when we have an encounter with Lord it never makes us feel very big but it makes us feel very small where we understand just a little glimpse of how huge God is and that he loves us notice also the excitement that happened and people are a great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people this isn't cynicism or sarcasm there's this genuine and pardon me if you would a thrill of hope people are excited to see God's hand at work because Christ he brings this excitement into our lives and the people know that God has visited his people not just life from death but also hope from destitution this meant the world to this helpless widow her darkest night her worst day had been turned into the best day all because of the touch of Christ and Jesus he can do that for you too and I want you to see how the good news has spread as well this report about him has spread throughout the whole of judea and all the surrounding country the good news of what Jesus did it spreads like wildfire when we start talking about the things that God does in our lives it spreads that's one of the reasons why I love my

Community group we talk about how God is working in our lives and you know some weeks like you know it's kind of hard to see the hand of God at work in my life but then other other times I can see it very clearly and what's interesting is that when I don't see it as much I can see it in other people's lives and then when they can't see it as much they see it in my life and that's one of the reasons why we do that in community while we have fellowship with one another it's because it's a beautiful thing and we see God's hand at work his will might be to heal that relationship or heal that disease or to heal that sickness or to bless you with favor or his will might be to teach you how to abide in him how to trust in him how to have patience see the situation changed here but I don't want you to miss the big point of this is that Christ alone is our hope see that mom is going to die one day that son is going to die one day the question is where is your hope is it in the shakeable things of this world your family your marriage your job where is your hope or is it in the unshakable work of Christ and what he accomplished for you on the cross head hand heart head I want you to know that Christ he gives us a hope in this life and the one to come we don't just have a future hope yes we do have that it's not just that it's a hope right here on earth this past week we amber she was visiting a friend in on monday and what was supposed to be

A great reunion of high school friends turned quickly into a prayer meeting because her friend's dad who is a two-time cancer survivor was going to the hospital with double pneumonia from kovid and you know oh man we need to pray we need to pray we need to pray we've been praying and we're praying we've been and now he's he's doing better he's been improving ever since that day we see God's hand and we're just like praise the Lord that's an amazing thing and you know his family they keep us updated on prayers they say you know we need you to pray when we believe in prayer and God he has been so good at answering those prayers we don't have just a hope in the future but a hope that he hears us right here right now and I want you to take time this week and I want you to share about the hope that Christ has given to you take an opportunity make an opportunity to share about Jesus talk about salvation talk about how you don't fear death because right behind that misty veil lies Jesus in beholding him face to face heart I want you to believe that Jesus offers us hope everlasting do you know where you will spend eternity if you don't then does that concern you at all you can get that settled today by turning away from your sin and turning to Christ you can talk to someone talk to a friend or a neighbor that's here with you can talk to me you can get it settled as we stand together let's spend some time worshiping the Lord in response so God we do thank you

For this day and we ask Lord that you would just speak to us that we might be ambassadors of you which means an ambassador of hope that people in this world would know the hope and the joy that you alone give we thank you for your kindness we pray that you would work today in Jesus name amen deliver us from evil Lord we sojourn in a broken world though evil hands give rise to war remind us this is not our home we look to you sovereign king of all the earth we look to you in your strength we will endure sing that again we look to you sovereign king of all the earth we look to you in your strength we will endure do amen if y'all could have a seat I've got a couple of announcements for you real quick in your community groups you may have seen a christmas wish list from amazon about the wogamits they've got a number of things that they want and it's things like onion powder you know and so if you would like to you can email the church office we can email you that list if you didn't get a copy of it and we could be a blessing to that it's an amazon list so you know you can see if it's already been taken and stuff like that so anyways that's a easy way for us to love on the wolgum family family they are missionaries of ours that serve in the ivory coast and so you know they don't get I think one of them was like a liquid form of doctor root beer but it was like root beer water that could dilute I don't know anyways that's what they want so super cheap I think for like the total cost of

Everything it was like 120 bucks so anyways that's easy shopping right there a couple of other things if y'all could be in prayer for the gardens as they're traveling up to waukesha wisconsin they're going to go do some counseling with some of the children that were that saw that tragic event that took place pray for wisdom for them pray for peace pray for the Gospel to go out there and so we just pray for them also don't forget on december the 12th we are celebrating being debt-free which is awesome and so we thank the Lord for that but we need you to sign up okay we do we've got we're we're we're bringing in a dinner and so if you don't sign up we got your name like or we don't have your name okay and that means that you won't eat I'm sorry I gotta be that guy so sign up you can sign up by either grabbing a bulletin and following that link or calling the church office and leaving your name and how many will be with you we want you to be there we want you to celebrate that with us because that's a huge deal for us to become completely debt free and we thank the Lord for that we're going to have one service that day that's december 12th at 10 a.m followed by the meal it's going to be a big service it's going to be a loud service we're going to be celebrating we're going to be hooping we're going to be hollering it's going to be great okay and so just be ready for that also there's a note from miss suzy down here in we care she said thank you so much to everyone who donated money cook took turkeys and came to make our we care of families feel loved at a wee care thanksgiving dinner there were over 150 in attendance and everyone felt loved thank you thank you thank you and exclamation point exclamation point so

There you go also this little tree over here with the white lights that has some children that are in need in our community that maybe their parents they can't afford to get them christmas gifts or maybe they're in foster care and those foster care families need some help that'd be a tremendous blessing just take one of those and if you could text megan demintz or call the church office to say yeah we got one of those we'll bring them back and there's some details on that also in your in your bulletin also last thing joy group christmas party is december 7th this friday is the last day to sign up and so church office is closed on thursday so if you need to get in touch with someone on thursday or if you want to get in touch with the office call us on thursday cost is 10 bucks that's going to pay for your meal and a painting party led by steve warren and yeah so make sure that you sign up for that as I said last day to sign up for that is december 3rd it's going to be great all right awesome you all ready to go out there and share the hope of Christ with the world that needs it I am so let's pray and let's get out of here Lord we love you and we thank you for this great day we thank you that you have called us into a right relationship with you and for maybe anyone that's here that doesn't know you I pray that you would draw them I pray that you would make them miserable until they do trust in you and Lord that they might know that hope and that joy and that peace that surpasses understanding God we love you and we thank you for your mercy and your kindness help us to go as ambassadors of hope ambassadors of truth and let it all be wrapped up in a big bubble of love we love you in Jesus name amen