Sunday Worship 12/9/18

Yeah, I didn't really help us to enjoy but I am very thankful for all of y'all but I do have to just just say a few words and and I'll do that and then we'll have our offering and then we will continue to ride into The Children's Program but last week we talked about Hope and the Advent the coming of Christ and how it gives that hope to have something to hang onto no matter the circumstances of our life and this week. I wanted to talk about love and my original plan. I will be preaching about love and I'm thinking about you and all of these promises are there that are called prophecies in the Old Testament. There's a stories narratives of the of the intricacy and the the divine plan of God to bring us into a relationship to put things back together as they were originally planned to because we know we live in a broken world and Chris just reminds us of the Brokenness but also reminds us of the hope we can hang onto in Christ, but you know when we About love, you know, the one great thing about having relationship with Jesus Christ to know that I will eternally beloved. I know sometimes we have experiences in our lives were we don't know any way. We feel like that we are all alone. No one cares, but we know in Christ that there is never a time that we will ever be alone. There's never a time where there will not be someone that is willing to pour out in minister to a service cuz the scripture tells us we had that holy spirit of God, but we also know this and the body of Christ the church that love in the spirit is profound and end in does we have a young lady come to be baptized today? She's joining that love and wants to be a part of that and will eternally receive that and I'm so excited about it, but I'm think one last thought though it is I think about this season, you know, one of the greatest stories in the Old Testament that is fulfilled in Christ. When Christ came has to do with Abraham and Isaac you remember Isaac is a man. That was a lot like You and I he he struggled in his faithfulness. He's struggling his commitment to what the Lord wanted them to do whenever whenever he was 75 years old. He was promised of God by God that he would give him an heir that would do that would make him into an amazing nation that would bless all the nations of the Earth at 75 and didn't have a child. But finally God gave him that that that promise child, but the one that that that would come to his wife Sarah, his name was Isaac. We know that story and and I know that it's time went on Isaac Abraham grew in his faithfulness and every song God's plan finally brought before me had his son and thought finally the promise is here. And then what did God ask him to do something that just stands out in the Bible is something that doesn't belong there. Perhaps some a myth worked its way into the story this it sounds so Pagan whenever God told Abraham to take his son to the mountain to sacrifice him and it just doesn't make any sense, but we know that God. You don't hit head led Abraham through this journey of faith. And I am 30 years before that would have been asked of of of of of Abraham. He'd say no way Jose. There's no way he would have done that. But but Abraham had learned to trust God and he knew that God loved and he knew that God had a plan in this did not make any sense at all, but he trusted the Lord cuz he had grown in that faith and groaning that love and so Isaac followed his father up the mountain. He packed Isaac Carree the wood for his own sacrifice Isaac didn't know what was going to happen to you know, the story right before after Isaac been bound on that Altar and is is is Abraham pull that knife of right before he forgot he was stressing what I don't know what this is going to mean but you have shown yourself to be faithful right before he was going to sacrifice his son Jesus stay the same. God stayed his hand and say look at the thicket. There's a ram. I provide the sacrifice. I will not require you to give up your son. It and it it it it was it was Abraham growing in his face. And and it's it's a difficult story with a profound this prophecy. It's a prophecy because God would not require this man to kill his son. But God would be the one that would do that because he loves us and in the end. It's a story of Abraham growing in his faithfulness in growing in his loving. Is it this time of year at Christmas as we know how much God loves us and how much we know we will always be love eternally and growing that faith and growing that love don't just receive that love would be like Abraham grow in your faithfulness reciprocate that Love Don't Live Your Life to make yourself famous live your life to make God famous in the love. It is given you cuz it's so pure and it's so perfect and these children that they've been doing that and I'm in is is there going to go crazy and have fun in a little bit. I'll talk to him about don't make yourself famous today in this drama make God famous and some of us there different stages in that process right all but adults those of us who've been following King Jesus. Let's make him famous in her life. I'd like to ask the Usher now others now, please come and we'll go ahead and pay.