Take Aways from our Advent & Christmas Worship Series
Advent and Christmas are times when we prepare, acknowledge, and receive the presence of Jesus into our lives. Listed below are the main truths that we encountered as a congregation on our Journey to Bethlehem.
- Getting our hearts in the right place is the most important part of Advent – the season of preparations
- We get our hearts right by making room for God.
- When we don’t repent, we worship ourselves.
- Repentance allows mercy to flow into our lives.
- When we experience mercy, peace comes right after!
- God’s power is being unleashed in our lives and in the world!
- God will sustain you. It is God’s faith that will prevail not yours.
- God’s not asking you to live like this for the rest of your life. God’s just asking you to live like this today.
- Joseph is prepared to go against expectations/rules so that a person’s dignity can be saved.
- The capacity to love beyond the world’s expectations or rules is a central theme of the Christmas story.
- The miracle of Christmas is that God gave up so much so that we could encounter this gift of love.
- Jesus is born into our messy lives so that our lives can be grafted into God’s story.
- God is not undone by the evil that threatens our lives. In Christ, there will be healing. In that is all the hope of the Gospel.
- Life is a gift. Let’s live it with the intention of spreading hope, grace, and love that God has given us.
- God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven… in order so that we might live with God
- We tend to evaluate or relationship with God based on if God has blessed our plan for our life instead of embracing God’s vision for abundant life.
- Baptism is a foundational step in our faith development. In baptism we receive God’s grace, gifts, presence, community, and promise. There really is no good reason to wait to be baptized.
- Don’t let social awkwardness, customs, or falsehoods stop you from dedicating your life to God.
- Following Jesus is a second foundational step in building our faith.
- Following Jesus means you are no longer the central figure in your life.