[0:00] Oh, wow, you guys are all visiting and having a good time.
[0:22] Good morning, everybody. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. If any kids want to come up and sing, they're welcome to come join us. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[0:45] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[0:59] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[1:12] Hi, I'm Julie Maciejewski. Most Sundays, you can find me right here at the Welcome and Information Desk in Mission Central. I'm the member of the hospitality team that doesn't walk around the building.
[1:27] I stay right here where you can find me. If you are new to our service, please pick up a welcome packet that you can find the back of the sanctuary at the connection site. And for everyone, we would like for you to fill out a friendship card.
[1:41] If you would like to receive our newsletter, be sure to fill in your address. On the back, you can put down prayer concerns, blessings, or notes to the staff. Welcome to Pendleton Center Church, and have a good day.
[1:55] We are glad to have you here. If you see Julie, stop by and say hello. She'd love that. I did want to mention a few things. First of all, cantata tonight. We're going to have a wonderful concert here. We've got a big orchestra. A choir fills all the way across here.
[2:07] Come and join us for an evening of music and cookies, cookies, lots of cookies. And also, I'd like to mention that we have our Advent play next Saturday afternoon. It begins at noon. There have been different times, people have said.
[2:19] And also, if you'd like to go Christmas caroling next Saturday afternoon, they're going to be going somewhere around 12, 31 o'clock. Talk to Louis Bobsin or Adrian Folby about that.
[2:32] We also have something about the youth in a survey. What is that, Pastor Sherry? Oh, the youth for the youth retreat, we're going to be playing a Christian version of Family Feud.
[2:44] And so, we have forms out at the information desk out there, the Welcome Center, because we need to collect the first 100 responses so that we can play the game.
[2:56] So, if you're interested in helping us out with that, that'd be great. So, go ahead and fill those out if you can. That'd be great. Speaking of filling it out, you've got a little green card in your bulletin. That's for Christmas Eve.
[3:07] We do invite people to let us know which service they think they're coming to. That just helps us for a lot of reasons. If you sign up for 5 and come at 7, nobody's going to say, sorry, you don't have a ticket or something.
[3:18] You're still welcome, so you can come any service you want. But put down the one you think you're coming to. We appreciate that. There are two clipboards floating around somewhere. I have no idea where they are. One is for flowers and the other is for communion elements.
[3:30] So, if you're interested in that, you're going to have to find them, because I have no idea where they've gone. And this Wednesday night, we're going to have our Wednesday night activities and a party. So, come join us for that. That's a lot of stuff to talk about.
[3:41] Let's talk to God in prayer, shall we? Dear God in heaven, we thank you for this morning. And we pray that you'll anoint us with your blessing. You'll pour your Holy Spirit into this place that we might be prepared to meet the living God.
[3:55] Touch us, move us, be with us, and bless us. In Jesus' holy name, amen. Amen. Amen. It's the third week of Advent, and so as we light our Advent candles this morning, hear these words from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18 through 25.
[4:12] This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
[4:23] Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
[4:34] But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
[4:48] She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.
[5:10] When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus.
[5:23] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I'd like to invite the frogs to come up. They've prepared some special music for us this morning.
[5:33] Thank you. Could you please pose to that show when you come up.
[5:48] How comes your body of the Lord, and you're the Lord. But of the Lord when you come up. Good news, Jesus 해� bruised the Lord.
[6:08] Tell the world good news. Because you pero information on this, Just tell the news. Born on Mary, God will shine, tell the good news.
[6:20] Good news, peace is born, good news, praise the glory. Good news, peace is born, tell the love of good news. Sing your praises, shout hooray, tell the good news.
[6:35] Born to quest, come on today, tell the good news. Good news, peace is born, good news. Can't say glory, tell the good news.
[6:46] She's the one, tell the good news. Tell the love of good news. Tell the love of good news. I'd like to invite you to stand as we're going to sing to the Lord a song, but I'm not sure what it is.
[7:09] Once in Royal David City, I suspect. I'm not sure what it is. I'm not sure what it is.
[7:21] I'm not sure what it is. Listen to the love of good news.
[7:34] Once in royal David's city Soared a lovely cattle shed Where a mother lay the baby In a manger for his bed Mary, loving mother, my Jesus Christ, her little child He came down to earth from heaven Who is God and Lord of all And his shelter was a stable And his cradle was a storm With the poor, the scorned, the lowly Lived on earth, the Savior fully
[8:37] Jesus is our childhood's pattern Day by day, like us he grew He was little, weak, and helpless Tears and smiles like us he knew And he feeleth for our sadness And he shareeth in our gladness And our eyes at last shall see him Through his own redeeming love For that child so dear and gentle Is our Lord in heaven above And he leads his children on To the place where he is gone
[9:42] The Lord be with you Take a moment if you will And greet your neighbor with the peace of the spirit Well I'm going to invite the children to come up And put an ornament on the tree If any children want to put an ornament on the tree They're welcome to come on up See if we can get them near the tree What about you, Tim?
[10:29] You hurt your chin That's not a good thing Oh Well that's not the best of things, is it? No You guys have your ornament on the tree Come on over here If you wouldn't mind You'd be so kind It's nice to see you all Good morning Last week we talked about Mary Who gave birth to Jesus Who gave birth to Jesus She was Jesus' mother Did anybody know who Mary was married to?
[11:07] Well sort of But Joseph, yeah Joseph And so we've got Joseph today Joseph Had a dream And he was told it was okay to be Mary's husband And so he went home And he made Mary his wife They actually had other children besides Jesus They had a fellow by the name of Jude and James And they had sisters too So Joseph and Mary became husband and wife Now they're not ready to go to the manger yet We've got to wait a little bit longer for that, right?
[11:41] You getting tired of waiting for Christmas? Don't you wish it was here yesterday? Yeah, but if it was yesterday You wouldn't have anything It'd be all gone Oh no, not yesterday Tomorrow, right?
[11:53] Yeah Okay Well we have to wait Sometimes we have to wait They had to wait Until God was ready to bless them Okay So they're going to be here Now The wise men It's a little early to talk about the wise men But they're not going to make it here for Christmas They're way over there Do you see them?
[12:12] Because they've got a long ways to come I mean if you were as small as them It would take you a while to get here, wouldn't it? Yeah Well there's actually There's three of them up there, yeah With camels Yeah They're on their way Yeah Maybe if they rode those camels Instead of walking It'd be easier, right?
[12:29] But they didn't So they're going to be here in a little while Next week we'll have somebody else here with us, okay? So what do you guys thankful for this morning? You want to share something? Raise your hand My family and friends Family My mom Play with the vocal stick Family My family and friends My sisters Friends and family Friends and family Family Family Mom My pets But I'm Clifford All right Everybody?
[13:24] Okay You too? You want to say something? No All right Let's bring it Lord, we thank you for all the great blessings Do you give to us Our moms Our dads Our pogo sticks And Clifford Bless us today Bless us always Just as you blessed Mary and Joseph So many years ago Be with us today and always In Jesus' name Amen Okay, you guys can all go out to church school Now the children are welcome to go out to church school If they'd like to at this time I want to mention that this week We do have a mission moment And it's kind of a special one Because the mission moment offering this week Is for our Good Samaritan Fund Which actually goes to help people Within our own church Most of the funds we use to help folks That get into a problem Or have difficulties Or just struggle generally in life To make ends meet Comes from the offering we take up this weekend So if you can give an extra gift this weekend To help with the Good Samaritan Fund We would appreciate that I'm thankful for the gifts people give For things like the Good Samaritan Fund I'm thankful for all the blessings God gives to us
[14:25] And as we're thankful Let's return our Thanksgiving With our morning ties and our offerings I'm thankful for the fire And the work struggles But we're doing hard It's about a two and a half months of effort And we hope you still come back tonight To hear the whole program We're going to be able to teach this morning And one of the songs We'll have about 20 to 25 more singers And a work of the program here So we're glad to be able to teach this morning And we hope to teach tonight Thank you So we'll give you a pouco here We'll be able to teach that tonight Do you hear theруmation VivSheest?
[15:06] It should say and кам防 sung in her Would you be able to teach that And we could teach that We'll get you And they could teach that We'll get you And we're expecting that But we're forgetting that We'll miss the难 And we'll be able to teach that And the question We'll be able to teach that We'll keep these Jenna And the combined There is a song I left you outside during the night A heavenly host in the night's earth and glorious night For love is born in heaven and home of all who search for the hill Come, close to Christmas time Behold the wonder, look what God has done
[16:10] Stand is one and all inside Come, close to Christmas Eve Hallelujah, this is what we've waited for God, give us forever more Here is the joy of His presence I am the one Jesus is waiting to meet you To promise you all Your Lamb of God is born to save All who know our Lord is in heaven Come, close to Christmas time Behold the wonder, look what God has done
[17:11] Stand is one and all inside Come, close to Christmas Eve Hallelujah, this is what we've waited for God will not forevermore Come and worship Come and worship Worship, worship Christ the King Come and worship Come and worship Worship Christ the King Come and worship Worship Lord Come and worship Come and worship Tick for His presence
[18:12] Come and worship Come and worship Come and worship Will the wonder, look what God has done Stand is one and all inside Come and prayer Even Him Come and worship Come and worship Stay Off become'll invals microbiome Hallelujah, this is what we've waited for God will last forevermore Come in worship Come all blessings come
[19:13] Praise Him, all riches here below Praise Him, all lovely heavenly host Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Amen Dear Heavenly Father, we do give You thanks and praise for this day That we have the opportunity to gather together and worship You Lord God, we just celebrate Your presence among us We are so grateful We ask, Lord God, that You accept these gifts Our tithes and our offerings Bless them and give us wisdom to know how to best use them For the furtherance of Your kingdom Lord God, especially this morning Bless the offering made for our Good Samaritan Fund We pray in Jesus' name That it will be useful to those that You have appointed to receive
[20:16] In Jesus' name we pray Amen Please be seated We have all kinds of joys in our hearts this morning I think that in my personal and humble opinion The snow held off long enough And now it's time for a nice light dusting like we're getting today We'll see what happens What a blessing it is to be entering into this Advent season And Christmas approaching so beautifully We do have a couple of concerns that we want to lift up before you Dan Furman, who is Pam Furman's brother-in-law Is in the last stages of cancer And he is going to be dying probably fairly soon And they are very much in grieving over this loss So let's keep that family lifted up Along with all families who are dealing with such troubles And there is a special note here for us to be in prayer for youth
[21:20] For youth from all of our communities In particular the community in this area But so many of our youths are afflicted by addiction to drugs and other substances And we just pray for them We pray for their families Let's keep them lifted up this season You are welcome to join me in prayer From your seats Or to join me at the prayer rail Standing or kneeling Come and pray Heavenly Father Heavenly Father As we quiet our hearts in prayer Knowing that you hear us That you answer us That you know what we need before we even ask
[22:22] And yet you call us To cry out to you To lift up those things in our hearts That are a burden to us, Lord To know that where we are having times Where we are in joy That you celebrate with us as well And you want to share that Father, we pray in Jesus' name For all of those Who are sick and infirm at this time Father, we just lift them up before you And pray for mercy We pray that you would touch them In their spirits and their souls And in their bodies That you would bring them healing That you would draw them near to yourself And help them, Lord We pray, Lord God
[23:22] That you would give wisdom and compassion To their caregivers That caring for one in need Would be a blessing It would be a time of joy And compassion and heart Lord God, we pray for those who are grieving losses This time of the year There's always such a mix of emotions We're in preparation with joy And wonder Desiring to make this holiday That we honor you With a joyful time And a wonderful time At the same time Lord, there are many things That weigh on us We remember With joy and with sadness
[24:24] Those who are no longer with us Help us, Lord Help us to receive joy That comes from you We know the joy of the Lord Is our strength Help us, Lord To be comforted And to be a source of comfort By your Holy Spirit To one another Lord God, we pray In Jesus' name For all of those Who are living in places Where they are In fear Whether it be Just the neighborhoods That they live in Lord God Or if they live in War-torn nations Places Where there is strife And trouble That becomes violent We just ask In Jesus' name For your peace To enter into them
[25:25] For your peace That passes all understanding To guard their hearts And their minds To draw them near To yourself And trust In your eternal salvation Give them hope, Lord Lord God We just pray That you would make us As your church To be a blessing To carry the light Of Christ With us Wherever we go And allow it To shine brightly Help us, Lord That those who see us Would be drawn Toward you Would be drawn To the message Of Christmas God with us Coming to be among us And that God Desires to be among all God desires to be received By all Let us be that message
[26:29] Wash over us, Lord As we hear your word As we sing The songs of praise As we prepare Our own hearts And celebrate Make us ready For all those You will put in our path Be with Pastor Tom As he delivers The message You've given him Let it be a blessing To him and to us Lord God We pray now That all of our worship Would be an acceptable Offering to you That you would be Blessed by it We came to worship You, Lord In Jesus' name we pray Amen Shall we hear from The word of the Lord Good morning
[27:53] Today's scripture reading Is from Ephesians Chapter 4 Verses 17 through 24 And chapter 5 Verses 8 through 13 So I tell you this And insist on it In the Lord That you must no longer Live as the Gentiles do In the futility Of their thinking They are darkened In their understanding And separated From the life of God Because of the ignorance That is in them Due to their hardening Of their hearts Having lost all sensitivity They have given themselves Over to sensuality So as to indulge In every kind of impurity And they are full of greed That, however, Is not the way of life You learned When you heard about Christ And were taught in him In accordance with the truth That is in Jesus You were taught With regard to your Former way of life To put off your old self Which is being corrupted By its deceitful desires To be made new In the attitude of your minds
[28:54] And to put on the new self Created to be like God In true righteousness And holiness For you were once darkness But now you are light In the Lord Live as children of light For the fruit of the light Consists in all goodness Righteousness and truth And find out What pleases the Lord Have nothing to do With the fruitless deeds Of darkness But rather expose them It is shameful Even to mention What the disobedient Do in secret But everything exposed By the light Becomes visible And everything that is Illuminated Becomes a light This is the word of the Lord You better watch out You better not cry You better not pout I'll tell you why Santa Claus is coming To town He's making a list And checking it twice He's gonna find out
[29:55] Who's normally nice Santa Claus is coming To town He sees you When you're sleeping He knows When you're awake He knows If you've been Bad or good So good for goodness sake You better watch out You better not shout You better not cry I'm telling you why He's gonna find out Who's naughty And who's nice How do we define What's naughty And what's nice anymore How do we know What's right And what's wrong We've been talking about The fruits of the spirit Love, joy, peace Patience Kindness Goodness Faithfulness Gentleness And self-control You all know self-control For some reason You're gonna have to work On that self-control Goodness I want to talk to you
[30:55] About goodness How do we know What's good Joseph Was It says in the Bible A righteous man He was what we would call Good He did the right thing Most of the time And so When his fiance Came home From visiting Her cousin Elizabeth And he found That she was Five or six months pregnant He said What?
[31:24] This is gonna mess With everything He thought Everything he thought About marriage Everything he thought About Mary Everything he thought About life All he wanted Was a normal life You know Raise a family Have a nice little home Nothing special It doesn't say He had any grand ambitions To be anybody huge He just wanted A regular life And now the woman That he loves And has planned His life around Seems to be Unfaithful So he has a hard choice Either he turns His back on her Or he turns his back On everything He's always thought Is right What do you do?
[32:10] It feels like We're getting caught In that kind of mix A lot lately A frustration Where we can't tell What's right And what's wrong And where our life Just doesn't seem To be turning out The way we thought It would Our jobs Our relationships Our finances Our homes They just seem Confused Nowadays As we can't figure out Which way we should turn Paul says in this passage From Ephesians I tell you this And I insist on it Lord You must no longer live As the Gentiles do In the futility Of their thinking But it feels futile It feels like It's so hard To navigate Our world Which way's right?
[32:56] Which voice Do we listen to? Who's got the answer To what we're looking for? Verse 12 Of the next chapter It says It is shameful Even to mention What the disobedient Do in secret Not anymore People seem to Live out loud It seems to be okay To be rude And crude And do everything That well I never thought You were supposed to be People might have done That in secret Forever But now It seems like It's everywhere Everywhere It's become The new normal And that just Seems Wrong Have you ever felt Like it appears As if People are telling us That what's right Is wrong And what's wrong Is right And we're not Sure which way To turn And the difficulty Is Is We also have This odd
[33:57] Occurrence Where We argue Over little Things And accept Huge things Jesus talked About a culture That would Swat away Nats And swallow A camel And sometimes I think we're Like that too It's Advent season The time We start Looking forward To Christmas And inevitably Somebody's going To argue About the fact That they didn't Have the right Christmas song At school They didn't Put the manger Out at the Town park But when I Talk to parents About them Going to visit Colleges It is such A rare Exception That they tell Me they look For a good Church They even Considered Whether there Was a church Anywhere near The college Or university Where their Kids are going To be bombarded With all sorts Of messages That go against All the things You've taught Them You will not Have anybody There to say Anything else Because that Doesn't matter What really Matters more Is are the Apartments They're going To live in Have the right Appointments We swallow
[34:58] Camels We've come To accept All kinds Of things That honestly Years ago We would never Even consider And get arguing About the littlest Of things They said a word Wrong They made a Comment A slip of the Tongue And we make It into Huge things And then There are The huge Things Having lost All sensitivity They've given Themselves over To sensuality So as to Indulge in Every kind Of impurity And they Are full Of greed We go After things That will Touch our Senses Some special Taste Some special Feeling Or something That will Excite us Our life Has become Obsessed About sex Obsessed About games Obsessed About all Kinds of Things that Don't really Matter They don't Sustain us
[35:59] For more Than a moment They don't Even please Us very Long Oh my gosh We are going To live As a region Obsessed With whether The Buffalo Bills win Today Really Think about Honestly I know I'm preaching Sacrilege Right now But really Really Your life Will go On People Get angry About it And talk About it At work The next Day But they Let the Things that Matter Slide by And we End up With this Sense Of an Emptiness Because it's Just It's Short term Things that Don't satisfy Our soul They don't Sustain us A quick High Instead of A full Joy Because somehow We've lost The goodness Underneath All the Clutter Underneath All the Confusion It really Is still True Joseph Was faced With a Hard decision It was Confusing He wasn't Sure what To do He had An idea Of what He should Do But he Did something
[36:59] That most Of us Have heard When you've Got a Difficult Decision To make Sleep On it And he Went to Sleep And an Angel Of the Lord Appeared To him In his Dream And told Him What he Should Do Don't Be Afraid Joseph To take Mary Home To be Your Wife To live A full Life With her It's All right God Says It's Okay The story About this Being God's Child That she Told you Is true Now that's Really off the Charts when you Think about it I mean You know How many Of you If your Girlfriend Came home And told You that She was Six months Pregnant And said It was God's Job Would say Yeah I buy That But the Angel Told him In his Dream It was True And the Truth Was there In verse Eight Of this Fifth chapter It says You were Once Darkness But now You are
[38:00] Light In the Lord Live As children Of light For the Fruit Of the Light Consists Of goodness Righteousness And truth The fruit Of God Is that We will We will Naturally Be fruitful People And be Good We're not Living in Darkness God has Put a Light On it And the Goal is That we're Going to Live into That light And expose Everything Everything That's false Everything That's dark Everything That's a Lie To the Truth Of God It says In verse 11 Now this Doesn't have To be Harsh Ephesians In another Chapter Says to Us Instead Speaking The truth In love Will grow To become In every Respect The mature Body Of him Who is The head That is Christ Speaking The truth In love Not judging Not it Being hurtful Not trying To find Some way To insult
[39:00] Someone The goal Is that we Become Mature Are you Really feeling Like you live In a mature Society these Days With the way People are Acting It looks More and More like We're Living in A society Of teenagers No offense To the Teenagers I think Our teenagers In many ways Have it more Together than A lot of Our adults Don't No offense To the Adults Oh my god Now The truth Is We Have These Things Going on In our Lives That are Confusing Us Causing Us To feel Great Confusion And some Of the Messages Just get To the Point Where we Can't Be sure What we're Supposed To think Show that First Video For For all you Friendsgiving Hosts Invite who you Want Not who you Must
[40:01] Serve a turkey Don't serve a Turkey Bring classic Flaky crescent Rolls or not so Classic pizza Sticks And don't Forget something Sweet and golden Brown fresh From the oven Set the table Set the coffee Table Set no table At all The only rule To follow on Friendsgiving Is make it Your own Happy Friendsgiving What the heck Is Friendsgiving Can anybody Tell me I heard that On TV And I said What What What Friendsgiving Do whatever You want Have whatever You want Don't set a Table Just sit On the floor Do anything That pleases Your fancy Just make sure You've got Pop and fresh Dough Because that Is the key To happiness In life I got to tell you When I was young We used to have Rolls and sweet Things My mother would Make them for us They were made From something Called scratch I know most of you Don't even know
[41:01] What scratch is Okay And we would Smell that Sweetness Going through The house But nowadays What we're being Told by this Commercial is that It doesn't matter You can really Do anything You want Just make sure You open up A bin of These little Guys Stick them here Is there more In here Wow And they don't Even have to Be made right Just throw them On there That'll work And pop those Babies in the oven And life Will be good Now Now the difficulty Is Is that It's a fake thing It's not real It isn't true That you can believe Whatever you want It's not okay To think whatever Comes into your mind We're living in A strange world Where Where the artificial Has become the normal Is this your
[42:01] Christmas tree Is this what It looks like You know In the 1970s We had some Even real Cooler ones They were made Of silver And they had These lights That went round And round In circles Thank god That didn't Catch on Now I like The white Christmas tree For our For our Angel trees Because it Makes them Stand out We've got Like three Or four Left Some of The older Kids We need To get Them Christmas Okay But in A general Sense If everybody Starts making The Christmas Trees look Like this They won't Look like That anymore We'll start To think Normal Is fake Just as We're starting To think That this is The way We all make Business Now I know We want to Blame the voices In our culture We want to say It's the media's fault We want to say It's the advertisers Fault I'm going to Show you That the advertisers Are amoral I don't want you To hear that wrong Some of them
[43:01] Are moral But they're Generally As a business They're amoral They're really Not concerned With good or bad They're concerned With selling And if they Think that the Culture that They're speaking To wants to Hear about God They will make Sure God is In the commercial See Watch Baking holiday cookies Has always been A family tradition At our house It's easy With Pillsbury Sugar cookies I just slice Shape And bake And the cookies Come out hot And fresh And Jim and the kids Do the decorating How about a Green Santa Claus Oh Dave I know there's A green Santa Claus But did you see The angel Did you pick that up That angel wasn't Just accidentally Put there National commercials Are not made By accident Every little piece Is considered And they knew Christians were Watching those Commercials back In the 1970s So they made sure That we knew That making those Popping fresh Dough things Is Christian
[44:02] You follow They'll share Our message They don't have Any concern With that They're just Reflecting Whatever We ask for I don't know If you're Understanding The problem Isn't with The people Making the message The problem Is with the people Listening What do we Respond to What do we Determine Is going to Cause us To move To live And we're Responding To all sorts Of wrong messages We're living In the stuff That isn't True And isn't Real We're Responding To What isn't Good And so They keep Feeding it To us Because it's What we Ask for This time Of year We talk About The incarnation That means Jesus Being born Into the World We talk About a
[45:02] Baby born In a Manger Which is Which is A wonderful Story But the Incarnation Is not About God Being born In a barn It's about God being Born in Us And that Incarnation Makes all The difference All the Difference The Holy Spirit of God Is what's Born to Us Not Not just Not just Some baby Somewhere Long ago That we Can not Pay any Attention to Anymore Except for When we Light those Candles on Christmas Eve Some people Have to be Careful of Their breath As the flames Get going If they You know Get it Too close I didn't Say that Out loud No the The Christ Born to Us Is the Power of God His Holy Spirit Living Within Us And that Changes us Jeremiah Talked about This in the Old Testament He said This
[46:02] This is The covenant Or the Agreement I will Make with The people Of Israel After that Time Declares The Lord I will Put my Law on Their Minds And write It on Their Hearts I will Be their God And they Will be My People God Himself Will tell Us What we Need to Be In verse 18 of This passage It says These people Are darkened In their Understanding And separated From the Life of God Because of The ignorance That is in Them Due to The hardening Of their Hearts The problem Is We've Hardened Our Hearts And we're Living so Much In Darkness That we Can't Hear What the Spirit Is saying To us And God Wants To speak To us But the Voices Tell us So many Other Things Joseph Had to Figure out What's he Going to Do But everybody In his Culture Is saying Ditch The girl She's Going to Mess up Your life And yet
[47:04] There was Another message That God Wanted to Give I don't Want to Burn My There's Another Message That God Wanted to Give To Joseph So when He went To sleep God Spoke To him In a Dream I did A little Dream Research In the Bible Just to See There is Not one Spot In the Bible Where the Devil Speaks To Somebody In a Dream There's Never A spot In the Bible Where Demon Speaks To Anybody In a Dream So dreams Really are A place Where either God Speaks To You Or You Speak To Yourself Which You Do A lot Lately I Dream A lot About Work I Don't Know What That Means Right But But What You Put In Your Mind What You Fill Your Life With You Will Speak To The Reason Is Because It's One Of The Few Places Where You Can Get Your Attention And You're Not Distracted
[48:04] By All The Other Clutter Of Life See Now I Will Say You Can Have Dreams That Have Immoral Things In That Are Not Good And The Reason Is Because You Put The Wrong Stuff In Your Brain What Do You Think About Just Before You Said Your Prayers Before You Go To Sleep Have You Ever Do That Yeah A few Of Yeah Have You Ever Fallen Asleep Doing That Yeah And You Feel Guilty Right Oh Somebody Was Telling Me That That's Good It's Okay It's Okay God Is Not Upset What That Means Is You Go To Sleep Thinking Of God Do You Follow So What You're Doing Even If You're Actually It's Better If You Fall Asleep In The Middle Of Your Dreams Because Otherwise Your Mind Is Going To Go Someplace Where It Shouldn't You
[49:04] See So When You Fall Asleep In The Middle Of Your Prayers You Fall Asleep With God And Then God Can Speak to You In Your Mind In Your Dreams Would We Listen Do We Listen To What God Is Trying To Say To Us God Gives All Sorts Of Messages I Even Have A Person That Made Me A Pill That Says Sermon Ideas So That I Could Go To Sleep And And You Be Surprised How Many Of My Sermons Come Out In My Dreams So We Put The Right Input In And We Get The Right Results Hebrews Says It To Us This Way See To It Brothers And Sisters That None Of You Has A Sinful Unbelieving Heart That Turns Away From The Living God But Encourage One Another Daily As Long As It Is Called Today So That None Of You May Be Hardened By Sins Deceit Every Single Day Encourage One Another Fill Yourself Up With God Surround
[50:05] Yourself By People Who Will Make You Stronger In The Faith In God And You Will Be On The Right Path You Will Find Yourself Journeying To The Right Place Which Leads To Goodness We Are So Believing That It's The Culture Around Us That Can Make Us Bad No One Can Make You Bad Except You It's Not What Other People Are Saying It's What You're Accepting What You're Filling Your World With God Is Great God Is Let Us Thank Him We're Our With You That's The First Prayer Most Of Us Ever Said Right And It's A Good One God Is Always Good Life With God Is Better Than Life Without God God In First Timothy Chapter Six It Says This God With Contentment
[51:05] Is Great Game Sounds A lot Like God Is Good God Is Great Right It Is Because It's True Contentment Feeling As If We Really Are Okay And Our Lives Are In The Right Direction Comes From Filling Our Hearts Up With The Living God We Need To Seek As It Says In Verse 10 In Here The Pleasure That Comes From God That Leads To Real Blessing All These Other Things Just Give Us A Temporary High We Get A Sugar High We Feel Good Because We Just Engage In Some Activity That Kicks Our Endorphins Into High Gear But When We Live Towards Those Things Even Though They're Good They Turn Into Something Bad Too Much Sugar We End Up With Diabetes Too Much Promiscuity Any Promiscuity And We End Up With A Confusion About What Real Relationships And What
[52:06] It Means To Be Intimate And Loving Towards Someone And The Demons Take Over And They Destroy Our Lives They Ruin Our Bodies We End Up In Depression We End Up In Pain Because Those Things Are Temporary And Taken What God Gives Us Is Forever It Is Always Good It Is Always A Blessing And It Satisfies Us And Our Souls Joe Did What The Angel Of The Lord Said He Took Mary To Be His Wife And He Got The Life That He Was Seeking He Raised A Family He Had Other Children They Had A Wonderful Household And A Life Together That As Far As We Can Tell What We Would Call A Blessing Because He Did What God Wanted Rather Than Living To The Separation And The Darkness Of A Hard Heart We Don't Need A Hard Heart We Don't Need Hardness
[53:06] At All We Need Something Soft We're Living To A Toast World When We Need To Live To A Biscuit World That Sound Like Nails On A Chalk Board But Listen To This That's A Different Kind Of Sound The Sound Of The Weekend Oh What A Different Sound Yeah Nice Soft Biscuits With Some Nice Frosting On Now We're Talking Good Starting To Get Hungry They Asked Me In The Kitchen If I Was Going To Make These For Them I Said No I'm Not I
[54:09] Make Them For You Oh You Thought I Was Kidding You Want One Too These People Up Front Have Been Smelling Them Oh Man They're Not Let Them Go Here Anybody Else Want One Chelsea You're On The Other Side Of The Church Here This This Could Slow Everything Down You Know People Have To Watch Me Walk All The Way Around Here I Got Four Left We'll Get To Them You See This Isn't About Biscuits This Isn't About Artificial Trees This Isn't About Whether You Make Your Food From Scratch Or Not This Is About What's Right And What's Wrong He's Making A List He's Checking It Twice He's Going To Find Out Who's Naughty Or Nice Jesus Christ
[55:10] Is Coming To Town He Sees You When You're Sleeping He Knows When You're Away He Knows If You've Been Bad Or Good So Be Good For God's Sake The Bad Good To Bad Good So Bad He He Said We Are The Light We Are The Light You Want To Change The World Start Changing Hearts Start Bringing That Light Of God Into More People's Lives Paul Didn't Say We Should Live This Way He Said We Must Live This Way I Insist On It He Says Don't Live Like The Feudal Gentiles Do In Verse 22 He Says You Were Taught With Regard To Your Former Way Of Life To Put Off Your Old Self Which Is Being Corrupted By Its Deceitful Desires To Be Made New In The Attitude Of Your Mind To Put On
[56:10] A New Self Created To Be Like God In True Righteousness And Holiness A Paradigm Shift A Whole Different Way Of Being Because Of What You Live To What You Believe In I Was Reading The Buffalo News This Morning It Was Fascinating Because They Were Talking About Corrupt Regimes Around The World They Weren't Talking About Our Country They Were Talking About How Some Parts Of The World The Governments Are Incredibly Corrupt And They Compared The Ones Where The Governments Were Incredibly Corrupt To The Ones Where They Weren't And They Said You Know What The Big Difference Was Whether The People Believed It Or Not If The People Believed That Their Government Was Terribly And Incredibly And Irrevocably Corrupt Then The People Became Corrupt Too And They Accepted It But If The People Believed Their Government Was Good And Meant To Do The Right Thing They Didn't Tolerate Corruption And
[57:10] They Didn't Indulge In It Themselves Just Because Of What They Believed We Talk About What We Believe Makes The Difference It Does In This Case We Believe In The Lord Jesus Christ He Enters Into Our Heart And Changes Us Entirely We Live In A Culturally Confused Right Is Wrong And Wrong Is Right Swallowing Camels While Swatting Gnats Kind Of Society But We Don't Have To Be That Way In First Corinthians It Says To Us Who Has Known The Mind Of The Lord So As To Instruct Him But We Don't Have To Wait For Somebody To Instruct Us We Have The Mind Of Christ He Speaking To You He's Telling You He's Saying No Yes Do Don't Joseph Couldn't Figure It Out So He Turned To God And God Gave Him The Answer My Wife As Of Late Has Been
[58:10] Saying That She Wants To Go Home That's An Interesting Statement She'll Say It Sometimes When She's At Our House That We Call Home She Obviously Doesn't Mean A House She Wants To Go Back To That World Where Everything Is Right Where You Feel Safe Where It's Comfortable Where The Blankets Come Out Of The Dryer And They're Warm And Somebody Wraps It Around You Where You Just Know That Things Are Okay And Somebody Has Got Their Eye On The World And Making Sure That Goodness Happens I Had A Choice With These I Was Going To I Was Going To Get The Biscuits You Know The Flaky Ones The Flaky Ones But Instead I Picked These And There Was A Reason I Got To The You Are You Are You To You
[59:10] You You Pass Them Around I Bought These For A Reason I Saw Them Up There On The Shelf In The Grocery Store And I Put The Other Ones Back I Actually Had Them In My Car I Put Them Back Because These Are The Biscuits I Would Make With My Daughter Every Saturday Morning When She Was A Little Girl And I Said I Will Feel So Much Better Making Those Once They Start Cooking I Will Go It Home Again Life Is All Right Now We Say We Can't Go Back To That Anymore But We Can We Can It's A State Of Mind The Goodness Of God You Know The Story Of The Prodigal Son And He Went Away And He Was Living In An Immoral World Where You Are Starting To Think That What Pigs A Was The Food He Should Eat We We're The Prodigal There's A Whole Culture Of
[60:11] People And It's What's Scary Is People Call Themselves Christians They're Living Like This Looking At The Stuff That We Know Is Just A Mess That We Know Is Going To Destroy Our World And Destroying Our Lives And God Is Saying Just Turn Around Go The Other Way Walk The Right Path And He'll Take Us To Goodness To What's Right To What's A Blessing If You Believe You Can Go Home Are You Far Away From All This Dark And Lonely Night Tell Me What Best Would Help To
[61:11] Raise Your Mind Someone To Give Direction For This Unfamiliar Road A One Who Says Follow Me And I Will Lead You Home How Beautiful How Precious The Savior Of Old Love So Completely The Low We Estore How Gently How Tenderly He Says To One And All Child You Can Follow Me And I Will Lead You Home Trust Me And Follow
[62:11] Me And I Will Lead You Home Be Near Me Lord Jesus I Ask To Stay To Find Me Forever And Love Me I Pray Bless All The Dear Children In Thy Tender Care And Take Us To Heaven To Live With The There Take Us To Heaven To Live Really There Hope
[63:15] We Hope This Starlit Night Our King Is Born In Beth Am Our Journey Long We Seen The Light But Leads To The Hollow And Danger Ground One Fear We Fell In The Silent A For Hundred Years And We Can We Bound For Glowing By A Baby's Cry Rejoice In The Hollow And Danger T Out Unity Lif娘 Ter
[64:17] Praise His name, Emmanuel The Son of God, He's born to plead A crown of thorns would kiss His crown And we beheld His offering Exalted now, the King of kings Praise God for the world, Emmanuel Emmanuel, Emmanuel The darling God is here to dwell Emmanuel, Emmanuel Praise His name, Emmanuel
[65:24] Praise His name, Emmanuel Jesus Christ, born to us, Emmanuel Jesus Christ, born to us, Emmanuel, God with us So we can overcome anything in this world Anything thrown at us as a temptation When we go astray, God gives us the power to overcome it all Emmanuel, Emmanuel, Emmanuel Emmanuel, Emmanuel His name is called Emmanuel
[66:25] Emmanuel, Emmanuel His name is called Emmanuel His name is called Emmanuel God with us, Emmanuel, Emmanuel Emmanuel, Emmanuel, Emmanuel, Emmanuel You know, the interesting thing about the prodigal son, the story of that is that The prodigal, when he turned around He was way far away from home He was way far away from home But it was only shortly thereafter that he met his father Because his father was all the way down the road waiting for him God doesn't expect you to do it This is part of our problem
[67:25] We think it's all on us And it seems like this huge burden And God has said, no, all you have to do is turn around Repent I'm there waiting He will carry us the rest of the way He'll speak to you in your hearts, in your minds, through the Holy Spirit He'll even speak in your dreams If you've got your heart open, if you've got your life turned towards him God will take you back to the home Where he will celebrate your life in him So let's turn around to our God, shall we?
[68:01] Let's pray together Dear God in heaven I have sinned I know what I do is wrong You know what I do I'm living for the wrong things I worry about the wrong things And I neglect the good things Change my life Help me to repent Help me to live towards you Fill me with your goodness That my soul might be satisfied And I might be a light to the world In Jesus' name we pray Amen God has already decided to change your life God has already decided he's going to transform you In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven Glory to God
[69:03] Amen God is calling us home to the table The table where he will bless us The table where we can have fellowship with him That is so close So intimate So wonderful God calls us to the table To pour into us All that we need from him And God promises if we come We will meet him In a unique and wonderful way So come to the table Everyone is welcome If you love God Repent of your sin And seek to live in peace As a disciple of Jesus Christ Doesn't matter If it's your first time here It's your first time in any church
[70:05] If you are seeking To walk with God If you are seeking To know that peace within you If you are seeking To be at home This is the place to come The Lord be with you Lift up your hearts Lift up your hearts Lift up your hearts Lift up your hearts Let us give thanks to the Lord our God It is right and a good and joyful thing Always and everywhere To give thanks to you Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth You formed us in your image And breathed into us The breath of life When we turned away And our love failed Your love remained steadfast You delivered us from captivity Made covenant to be our sovereign God And spoke to us through your prophets Who looked for that day When justice shall roll down Like waters And righteousness Like an ever-flowing stream When nation Shall not lift up sword
[71:06] Against nation Neither shall they learn war Anymore And so with your people on earth And all the company of heaven We praise your name And join their unending hymn Holy, holy, holy Lord God of power and might Heaven and earth Are full of your glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he who comes In the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest Holy are you And blessed is your son Jesus Christ Whom you sent in the fullness of time To be a light to the nations You scatter the proud In the imagination of their hearts And have mercy on those who fear you From generation to generation You put down the mighty From their thrones And exalt those of low degree You fill the hungry With good things And the rich You send empty away Your own son Came among us As a servant To be Emmanuel
[72:06] Your presence with us He humbled himself In obedience to your will And freely accepted death On a cross By the baptism Of his suffering Death and resurrection You gave birth to your church Delivered us from slavery To sin and death And made with us A new covenant By water And the spirit On the night In which he gave himself Up for us He took bread And gave thanks to you And he broke the bread And gave it to his disciples He said Take and eat This is my body Which is given For you Do this in remembrance Of me When the supper was over He took the cup He gave you thanks And praise And he gave it to his disciples Saying drink from this All of you This is the cup Of my blood The blood of the new covenant
[73:06] Poured out for you It is poured out for many For the forgiveness of sin Do this as often As you drink it In remembrance of me And so in remembrance of these Your mighty acts In Jesus Christ We offer ourselves In praise and thanksgiving As a holy and living sacrifice In union with Christ's offering For us As we proclaim The mystery of faith Christ has died Christ is risen Christ will come again Pour out your Holy Spirit On us gathered here And on these gifts Of bread and wine Make them be for us The body and blood of Christ That we may be for the world The body of Christ Redeemed by his blood By your spirit Make us one with Christ One with each other And one in ministry To all the world Until Christ comes
[74:07] In final victory And we feast At his heavenly banquet Through your son Jesus Christ With the Holy Spirit And your holy church All honor and glory Is yours almighty Father Now and forever Amen Shall we pray together The prayer that Jesus Taught us Our Father Who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day Our daily bread And forgive us Our trespasses As we forgive those Who trespass against us And lead us not Into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom And the power And the glory Forever and ever Amen Will those who are serving Please come forward Amen Amen
[75:08] Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen
[76:25] Amen Amen Jesus Christ Invites everyone Who seeks after him To come to the table It doesn't matter If you're a member Of this church or not You want God In your life God in your heart Welcome to come to his table Which was sent for you today Come home to the Lord His blessings And his peace If you'd like to light a candle as a prayer you're welcome to do that or deposit the rail for anointing for healing and blessing come and join us with the Lord and join us with the Lord and join us with the Lord and join us with the Lord and join us with the Lord and join us with the Lord and join us with the Lord and join us with the Lord
[80:51] and join us with the Lord and join us with the Lord and join us with the Lord We're going to close our service this morning by singing Come Thou Long Expected Jesus I'm going to invite you to stand if you're able as we sing together.
[81:34] I'm going to invite you to stand if you're able as we sing together.
[82:04] I'm going to invite you to stand if you're able as we sing together.
[82:34] I'm going to invite you to stand if you're able as we sing together.
[83:09] May God be with you and fill you with goodness.
[83:44] And may God take away all the calories, cholesterol, and everything from your sweet rolls today and always. Go in as peace. Amen.