Today in the Town of David

Luke 2:1-20

Let's take a moment and pray that the Lord would speak to us by His Holy Spirit.

Lord Jesus, thank you for coming as a baby more than 2000 years ago. Thank you for stepping down out of the majesty of heaven to endure scorn and squalor beyond comprehension. You could only have done it out of love. There is no other motivation that could cause One who is perfect and has all things to leave it behind for a chance to redeem ones who rejected You from the start. Your compassion knows no bounds and Your glory will know no end. All praise to You, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

I don’t know how you find Christmas. When you stop to think about it, there are a couple of ways to take the question, “How do you find Christmas?” I imagine my meaning is not quite what you would expect. At first, what I mean to say is given all the hubbub and commercialism and fictional storybook trappings, what do you think of Christmas and what the season has become? What impressions do you take away from the entire Christmas experience? What is Christmas like? How do you find Christmas to be?

His Mercy Extends

Luke 1:46-55 & 67-79

The song we sang earlier is a really good song. It says, “Come though expected Jesus, come to set Thy people free.” And in Acts chapter 3 it’s really interesting because it says that Jesus actually came into the world to bless us by turning us away from our sins. And so I think that’s really cool just to remember that is one of the ways God’s been merciful to us, is that He blessed us to turn us away from our sins. And as that song said He came to set us free. So that’s God’s mercy thinking about how He doesn’t really give us what we deserve. If we turn from our sin that means that we are not going to get what we deserve which is an eternity in hell. So that’s really cool to realize this Christmas season, even as we look at the topic today of His mercy, the fact that His mercy extends. Let’s look in Luke Chapter 1. As you turn there I will open us up in prayer.

God, we just thank you for this morning. We just really pray that you would speak to our hearts. Pray that you would remind us of how great your mercy really is. How you have been merciful to us over and over and over and over. God I just pray that you would help me to step aside this morning and let you speak God and take away any desire that I might have that would want people to look at me God but I just pray that people would look at you this morning God. That we just really meet together this morning so we can bring attention to you. So we can lift you up so we can magnify you. And God I pray that we would open our hearts to your words and that you would cause us to be people that would be changed. And we just give you thanks. Amen.

Blessed is the Child

Luke 1:26-45, 56-66, 80

Good morning, are you ready to continue on in the Christmas story? Today, we’re going to look at the rest of the narrative, the story, in chapter 1 of the book of Luke. Last week, Fred spoke about the angel Gabriel coming to Zechariah to proclaim that even in their old age, his wife Elizabeth would conceive, get pregnant, and have a son. Their son would be called John, and he would be a kind of Elijah, a forerunner of the Messiah. John’s ministry would “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” After 400 years of prophetic silence, we have the announcement of the one who will prepare the way for the ultimate fulfillment of prophecy: the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.