Sunday, December 4 - Advent Peace
2022-12-04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60IHnPqts9g

We'll be right back. Like the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Glory to the newborn King, glory to the newborn King. Christ my heart is still adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. Lay him high, behold him calm, cross-spring of the virgin. Vailed in flesh to God and sea. Hailed in calm deity. Released as men with them to dwell. Jesus, I remember you well. Hark the narrow angels. see glory to the new born here And the Lord's way, we dream, we dream, we dream, we dream, we dream, we dream, we dream. Oh, yeah. Glory to the newborn King, glory to the newborn King, glory to the newborn King, glory to the newborn King.

Turn it easy to live in time. Turn it easy to live in my life. Heart to every angel see. Glory to the newborn King. here

In the name of our dear Savior Long lay the word that sin had never found Till we appear in the soul of its word A thrill of weary world rejoicing for yonder new glorious morning on your knees. Come hear the angel voices O night divine O night when Christ was born

Truly taught us to love and unloved His honor is great, and His gospel is pure Shame shall be brave, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy And grateful for the praise That always in us Praise the Lord's name Christ is the Lord Oh, praise me forever, oh, night divine, oh, night when Christ was born.

I'm going to go. To purchase our salvation That we might dwell We can never know What grace us for To lead the bliss of glory And die for sinners Guilty and forlorn Oh, Lord, indeed Repeat the wondrous story Of night divine All night, all night, when Christ was born, all night, all night, all night, when Christ was born. Oh, Christ was born.

Oh, who is it? Uh-oh, I can't see it. And all is bright She seems to carry my life Gloria Gloria I hear the angels singing Gloria All of the heavens We can Gloria *music* buddy

Good morning. As you can tell, I am not Rachel, but I'm filling in for Rachel today. She's, I think, at Liberty, maybe, visiting with some college friends that were in town. So I'm filling in, and I'm going to do my best. So if you all would stand, we're going to start with some Scripture reading. Our Scripture this morning, and it should be on the screen, it's Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, and it says this, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of 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. This is the word of the Lord. Will you bow with me in prayer? God, we love you and we just want to come before you humbly to thank you for this awesome time that we have to come and to worship you especially as we enter into this this advent season as we prepare for the the coming of Christ the Messiah that was promised like this verse in Isaiah says that the government was going to rest and there's going to be no end to the joy and peace that he was going to bring to the world father and we know that we haven't yet seen the full fulfillment of that father but we get the opportunity each and every day to go out into the world and to in our small spheres of

influence to start to bring this verse to life, and we just thank you for that opportunity. Bless our time that we have here this morning. Be with Brandon as he brings us a message later. We just pray that you would inspire him through the Holy Spirit, that it would be your words coming through him, that our hearts would be ready to receive it, and Father, ultimately that we could go out into the world and be beacons for the hope that we have in Christ. We pray this all in his name. Amen. All right, so our first Song is going to be indescribable, and during the song we're going to have some little munchkins that are going to come up and light our second, our first and second advent candle. So the reminder, the first candle represents hope, and today our candle represents peace. So now is the real test, is can I work this thing?

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea, creations revealing your majesty. From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring Every creature unique in the song that it sings Full exclaiming Indescribable, uncontainable You place the stars in the sky and you know them by name You are amazing God All-powerful, untangable All-struck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go? Or seen heavenly storehouses laid in with snow? Who imagined the sun and gives souls to its light? Yet conceals it to bring us the coolest of night? None can fathom, indescribable, uncontainable. You place the stars in the sky and you know them by name. You are amazing, God.

All-powerful, untamable, awestruck, we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim, you are amazing God. Indescribable, uncontainable, you place the stars in the sky and you know them by name. You are amazing God. Incomparable, unchangeable You see the depths of my heart And you love me the same You are amazing God You are amazing God

I think in our next song, we're going to do a drum solo over here. So we're going to be in for a big treat. So we're going to sing our next song. And then after that, we're going to go into our prayer and share time. So if you have anything to pray or share about, be thinking about that during the song. And Russell will come up and we'll share this. So our next song is Joy to the World.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven and nature sing. Joy into the world, the Savior reigns. Let all their songs employ. Wild fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains. Repeat the sound in joy. Repeat the sound in joy. Repeat, repeat the sound in joy. He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness And wonders of His love And wonders of His love And wonders and wonders of His love Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're now going to move into our time of communion. And for that, we're going to be singing Jesus Messiah.

He became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become His righteousness. He humbled Himself and carried the cross Love's so amazing Love's so amazing Jesus, Messiah Name above all names Blessed Redeemer Emmanuel The rescue for sinners The ransom from heaven Jesus, Messiah, Lord of all His body, the bread, His blood, the wine Broken and poured out all for love The whole earth trembled and the veil was torn. Love so amazing, love so amazing, yeah. Jesus, Messiah, name above all names. Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel, the rescue for sinners. The ransom from heaven, Jesus Messiah, Lord of all. All our hope is in you. All our hope is in you. All the glory to you, God, the light of the world. Jesus Messiah, name above all names, blessed Redeemer. Emmanuel, the rescue for sinners, the ransom from heaven, Jesus Messiah, Lord of all. Jesus, Messiah, Lord of all.

One of the most profound moments for me in regard to the gospel was those first words we just sang about Jesus becoming our righteousness. Because for a lot of my life, I knew that Jesus had saved me, but then I had somehow thought that it was now up to me. In fact, I remember a Sunday school teacher once kind of describing it like a blackboard where Jesus wipes it off and cleans it, and then you fill it up with your sins, and then he'll erase it, but it'll never be as clean as it once was. And there was some sort of this discouragement as I looked at the brokenness of my life. But those words from Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21 about how Jesus became sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

That changes everything. That God, if you are a Christian, when He looks at you, He doesn't see your brokenness. He doesn't see your rebellion. He doesn't see a blackboard that you filled up and messed up and then tried to wipe out with forgiveness. When He looks at you, He sees Jesus. The one who kept the law. The one who was obedient in your place. the One who died for your sins and rose for your victory. And when you realize that Jesus doesn't just take away your sins, but He also gives you His righteousness, it changes and transforms everything. In Colossians, the first chapter, we find these words speaking about Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authority. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. And through Him reconciled to Himself all things, whether on earth or heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He is now reconciled in His body by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and a broad reproach in Him. Let's pray before we partake together. Father in Heaven, these words that we've just read about Your Son,

simple to read, but so profoundly wonderful as we just get a tiny glimpse of who He is and we see what He has done and how He has saved us. And we thank You that You have sent Your Son who died for our sins and who has given us His righteousness and has given us His victory. That He presents us blameless to You. So we thank You this morning by the Gospel. Humble us that we would not see our work or our ability, but we would see Jesus. Strengthen us so we wouldn't see our weakness and our fear, that we would see Jesus. And so help us as we break this bread and as we drink this cup, that You would help us to fix our eyes upon Your Son. I ask that You bless this bread and this cup.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jesus, with the disciples, they celebrate Passover together. After dinner, He would take a piece of unleavened bread. When He had given thanks, he will break it, and he will say, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also, he will take the cup, one of the four cups of Passover, the cup that celebrated God's people's redemption from Egypt, the promise that he would redeem them with an outstretched arm, and Jesus is about to redeem his people, not just from physical slavery, but from slavery to sin. And he will say this, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread or as we together eat this bread and we drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

This morning's reading is from Micah and Luke, and it begins with a word I had to look up to find out how it was pronounced, and that is Bethlehem Ephrata, and the reason we have that sort of transliterated Hebrew word is it's a backpack word that would be more or less a whole paragraph. But if you were Jewish, you would know the story of Rachel. And what makes this connection between Bethlehem and Ephrata interesting is Brandon had the opportunity to preach through Genesis. And one of the reasons it's good that he did that and good that we were here to hear about it was you get words like Bethlehem Ephrathah and you learn the story of Rachel and so we will read it and then Brandon will preach but you oh Bethlehem Ephrathah who are too little to be among the clans

of Judah from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel, and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and he shall be their peace. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over the flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them,

and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray and then dive into it this morning. Father in heaven, we thank you for grace, we thank you for your mercy, we thank you for your word and for the work of your spirit, we thank you for your church, we thank you for our worship this morning, we thank you for allowing us to celebrate the gospel together.

I just ask that as we look at a big, big scriptural idea, a wonderful idea, a life-changing thing, that you would be at work in our hearts, that you would change us, that you would transform us, that you would preach peace to those who are far off, and you would preach peace to those who are near. We thank you so much for Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen. So on occasion, the kids and I will find some sort of show that we all sort of connect on and then we watch it together. And the one I'm specifically referring to, I think it was originally maybe a BBC show, but it ended up on Netflix and it was called The Workshop. And so what people would do is they would bring in their beloved, cherished family heirlooms and they would bring them in sort of broken or in pieces or falling apart.

And the people in the workshop would take those things, and all different kinds of craftsmen, from woodworkers to upholsterers to painters to ceramics experts, all of these people would gather together and they would go to work on somebody's beloved heirlooms. Heirlooms that had memories and deep emotional significance. And they would take and they would work and they would put these things back together and they would present them to the people. And just about every time, you know, when grandma's, you know, beautiful china that she had had that was in pieces for years is put back together, right? There's an emotional reaction by the people. And the one that I think really kind of grabbed me was this family comes in and they bring an old accordion. And my thought, first of all, was like, I've never been a big accordion fan.

It's like, why would we restore an accordion, right? Like, maybe the less the better. And she begins to tell how her grandma, in World War II, you had this accordion, she learned to play it. And the granddaughter said, well, I've been learning to play the accordion, and I would love grandma's accordion. And so they go to work, and it's not an easy process, and they get it working. And the show ends with the whole family sitting in the living room, and there's 94-year-old grandma sitting right in the middle. And her granddaughter gets up and just starts playing her grandma's accordion. And grandma, you know, there's tears running down her face. Not sad tears, right? Tears of joy over this thing that she had loved and now her granddaughter loves. And it's like everything was all put back together.

The broken thing that was in all of these pieces is made whole. And it's a wonderful moment to experience. And it's a wonderful moment for those of us on the outside who witnessed it. That's a small picture of how the word peace is used in the Bible. There's sort of two main ways, one in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament. And the interesting thing, when we talk about biblical languages, sometimes it's easy to zone out. But the interesting thing about this is all of us already know both the Old Testament word for peace, which is shalom. And we also probably, even if we don't realize it, know the New Testament word for peace, a reine, or in our language we would say Irene, right? We know people who have been named Irene. It's literally just a transliteration of that Greek word for peace brought in to English.

And biblical peace is more than just the absence of conflict. It doesn't just mean that there's no war or there's no fighting or there's no noise. Biblical peace is more than simply absence. It's also presence. It's restoration. It's completeness. It's everything back where it belongs. So, for example, a rock that has no cracks and no flaws, that is whole, is sort of the picture of peace. Or a stone wall with no gaps or missing bricks. The core idea is that everything is out of alignment and peace brings it back to where it's supposed to be. It's not just that there's no conflict, but it's the presence of everything being put back together. Not just that we're not fighting, but that we are living together in harmony. And in our world, it's very easy and in our lives to see that everything is out of alignment and so much needs restoration.

And this idea of biblical peace, not just leaving behind conflict, but this picture of restoration, of putting things back the way they should go, should grab our hearts. It's something that's talked about frequently in the ministry of Jesus. In the prophecies that we've read this morning from both Isaiah and from Micah, we see peace. The angels, as they announce the birth, they announce the birth of Jesus as peace on earth. Jesus in John 14 will say, My peace I give to you. In Ephesians 2, it talks about how He Himself is our peace. And then He preached peace to those who are far away and preached peace to those who are near. And so I want to look at a prophecy from Micah 2 this morning. And in this prophecy, it's going to point us to peace,

but it's also a beautiful picture of God's grace and His mercy to a bunch of rebellious, obnoxious, terrible people. There's a lot of wonderful things about biblical prophecy. It confirms the claims of Jesus. One of the ways in which we see that is through prophecy. It points us to the faithfulness of God. We see how God sovereignly, as at work, not just in single moments, but throughout history to accomplish His purposes. But one of the things that stands out, especially about this Micah passage, is that God shows grace and mercy to a bunch of terrible people through talking about the Savior that was to come. And if you're not very familiar with the context of Micah, God's people are divided into two separate areas. There are the northern tribes, we refer to those Israel, and then there is Judah, the southern tribes.

And at this point, the Assyrians are coming for the northern tribes because they are filled with idolatry. They're filled with injustice. Righteousness is nowhere to be seen among the people. And so one of the themes of Micah is you see this call for righteousness and justice. And the Assyrians are about to come. And in verse 1 of this text, we didn't read it this morning, it talks about how there will be a siege and an attack on the one who leads Israel. And so you have this punishment that bluntly is well-deserved, right? You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes, right? You do something wrong, you're going to pay for it. And if we looked at the northern tribes of Israel in this scenario, we would look at them and say they deserve everything they're going to get.

They got themselves into it, they can figure it out themselves. There's nothing that can happen to them that they do not deserve. And then here comes God in the midst of this. And He says, I'm going to send one who will shepherd you. But not just shepherd you, but shepherd you in the strength of the Lord. I'm going to send one who will be your peace. And I'm going to send him to this little tiny town. In the middle of nowhere, so small that in several censuses of Israel it doesn't even show up. And in this you see God's grace and His mercy to a bunch of undeserving people. It's a message that isn't just for the audience of Micah, but it's a message that our hearts need as well. That for undeserving, broken, rebellious sinners,

God comes with mercy and grace even in the midst of all of the chaos. We find God promising to bring this wonderful event to happen. And so we come to this little town. Brent talked about it a little bit. And it's sort of a surprising location for these kind of things to happen. Now for us, after the fact, it doesn't seem like that much of a surprising location. We sing, right? Oh, little town of Bethlehem. Or we sing, you'll come to Bethlehem and see. More than 2 million people a year make a trip to Bethlehem to see where it all happened. And so for us, Bethlehem is kind of a big deal, right? We talk about it, we sing about it, we visit it. But in Jesus' day, it was not. In Micah's day, it was not.

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, for from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, of ancient of days. And so for those in ancient times, this would be a shock. And they would go, really? There? In fact, we get a glimpse of that as the Magi come. They follow the star. They've come to worship the king. And they don't go to Bethlehem. They go to Jerusalem because it's the capital. See, this is where you would search for a king. So Herod sends forth those who study the law and study the Old Testament Scriptures and they come back and they say, well, it's in Bethlehem. Five miles south. This town is so small that in several of these censuses

it will not make the list. There's a time where a census of God's people is taken and any town that can field a thousand men for battle is listed and Bethlehem doesn't make the list. Most scholars think maybe between six or seven hundred people lived in this little tiny town. And here God takes this little tiny town and he makes the birthplace of the Savior. And part of the thing that as we approach things like that, for us to ask is to say, why would God do that? Why would God take this little town that oftentimes when towns are listed, it's completely skipped over because it's so small and so seemingly unimportant? I'll give you a little bit of history from Bethlehem. The very first place we find this mentioned is as Brent mentioned in the book of Genesis.

as Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, has died. And the picture of Bethlehem in Genesis chapter 35 is one of grief. But also, we find Bethlehem being a place of redemption. In one of my favorite books in the Old Testament, the book of Ruth, you find a family leaving Bethlehem, going into a far-off land. Everybody dies except for the mom, Naomi. She comes back with a Moabite daughter, Ruth. And when she comes back to town, everybody says, good, Naomi's here. She says, don't call me Naomi. Don't call me sweetness. Call me Mara, because I am bitter, because God has taken everything from me. And she comes back to Bethlehem. And it's in that town of Bethlehem that a guy by the name of Boaz, through the providence of God, will redeem a Moabite by the name of Ruth

and he will turn their lives from bitterness to sweetness by redeeming them. It goes on to be the fact that Boaz and Ruth will become great-grandparents of King David. The small young man who when Samuel comes to anoint him as king, he's so small that all the other brothers leave him out in the fields and they they bring the more important ones together to meet the prophet and the prophet goes through all of them and none of them passes is there anybody else yeah there's David but he's so little we left him out with the sheep and it becomes the hometown of David the name Bethlehem means simply house of bread and it's in this town we find grief we find redemption we find nourishment we find God taking little things and making them so very important and this town what it does is

it shows us the power of God think about it what's easier to do something that you have all of the resources for and all the skills and the abilities and it just sort of happens for you or to not have any skills or any abilities no resources at all and make it happen we love the second story more right? The guy who has to fight his way by practicing every day to make it into professional sports. Or the guy who against all odds and all failures and no resources managed to start a successful business. We look at those people who take nothing and turn it into something. And we admire them and we love their stories. We call them an inspiration. And here God takes this little town that's first of all known in Scripture for

grief, then becomes known for redemption. Becomes known for being the home of King David and becomes known for being a place where people are fed through the products that they raise. He takes this little tiny town and He uses it for such amazing purposes. This town gives us hope because God takes little insignificant, grieving, Broken people in need of redemption. And He sends them a Savior. And so it's to this sort of surprising town we come to our wonderful Savior. Listen to what Micah says. He shall stand and shall shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord and in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure. For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth and he shall be their peace. And in verse 2, we get this picture of the eternal nature of Jesus.

This ruler who's coming won't just be any ordinary ruler, but he will be one who from eternity past is coming to save his people. And we see, first of all, that our Savior stands. And that may not seem like a very big deal when you hear, He shall stand. But biblically, posture sends a message about you. For example, when Jesus talks about the tax collector and the Pharisee, and there's this picture of the humility of the tax collector as he won't even raise his eyes to heaven because he's so ashamed of who he is and what he has done, he won't look in the direction of God. And in the book of Hebrews, it goes even farther to unpack this, and it talks about how the priests stand daily ministering. And one of the reasons that Jesus is a superior high priest

is because He makes one sacrifice and He sits down. The fact that the Old Testament priests never got to sit down means their work is never done. Standing is a picture of somebody who is active and at work. And when we come to this text, we find a picture of our Savior not coming in an advisory role, Not coming to observe. Not coming to make suggestions. But He comes and He stands among His people. That He is at work and He is with them. And notice what it says. That what He will do. That He will shepherd. It's a picture that runs throughout all of Scripture. One of the things we find about biblical shepherds is they know their flock. Jesus in John chapter 10 will say that He knows the sheep and they know Him.

That He knows them. And to think about this in regards to our shepherd, that He knows you, right? Not just the face that you present to the world. Not just how you portray yourself when you're around others. That your shepherd knows you. The deepest part of your being, all of your failures, all of your fear, all of your sin, all of your brokenness, He knows you, and he knows you by name, and he loves you. The shepherd doesn't just know, but he also leads his flock. He goes out before them. John 10 will say, when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them. And have you ever thought what a wonderful thing it is that Jesus, the good shepherd, leads his flock? Because anything that the flock is going to encounter, the one leading it will encounter first.

That Jesus, by going ahead of us, He will encounter everything before we do. And so the good shepherd leads his flock, but he also feeds his flock. In one of the most famous good shepherd passages, we hear those familiar words, right? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. he makes me to lie down in green pastures he leads me beside still waters he restores my soul the shepherd also protects his flock in John 10 you have this picture of an ancient sheepfold and Jesus will say I am the door to the sheep for the sheep are brought into an enclosed area and the shepherd lays himself down between them and danger And you have this picture of a shepherd who knows you, who leads you, who nourishes you, and stands between you and danger.

This picture of someone who is active and alert and vigilant, seeking to provide the needs for your soul. We also see that our Savior is powerful. And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord and in the majesty of the name of the Lord God and they shall dwell secure. The purpose of this is to direct us to the strength of the shepherd and this majesty to remind us that these things that we're hearing that seem so great that there is one who is coming who is from eternity past who will stand and he will go to work for his people and he will know them and he will lead them and He will nourish them and He will protect them. That these are not just idle promises, but that He has the power

to do these things. And the first part of Micah v. 5 just simply says this, and He shall be their peace. Think about how we try to find peace. For a lot of us, maybe peace is a place. For me, I like being out in the woods. where it's quiet, maybe there's running water for me, that is something that is peaceful. Spurgeon writing to young preachers will say, it's a good thing to get out and walk through the fields and walk through the woods, because it restores your soul, and in the peace and the quiet, it brings life to your body. Most of us have a place, maybe not in the woods, beside a stream or beside a lake or on the beach, most of us have a place we see as peaceful. And we say, if I could just live in that peaceful place, it would happen.

And so we come to that peaceful place, and we want to maybe live there. In fact, some of us do, right? We'll go to the place that we want to live in. The problem is, is that in doing so, we pack up and we bring our troubles right along with us. And even if you don't bring your troubles with us, the problem is you stay long enough and they're going to find you. So we try to provide peace. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

He removes the conflict of our sin. He gives us his life. And in the gospel, we're restored. We're made whole. And he begins to see those who have been transformed by the gospel. It doesn't just transform their relationship with God. but he wants to transform his relationships, his leaders, his friends, his co-workers. He puts people back to you. Part of the Adventism is not just looking back. It's also looking forward. It's looking forward to that day when Jesus says, I am making all things new. We will see the peace that He will bring. And we look forward to today when He comes again. Father in Heaven, I thank You for Jesus and I thank You for grace. I thank You that You, through Your cross, have made peace. You help us look at You and confront You.

We would not try in our own strength to sit in the store and not hide. We're going to stand and sing. We're going to sing a song about building our life around Jesus. So we're going to sing Cornerstone.

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus' blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame But wholly trust in Jesus' name My hope is built on nothingness Bend Jesus' blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame But wholly trust in Jesus' name Christ alone, cornerstone Weak made strong In the Savior's love Through the storm He is Lord, Lord of all When darkness seems to hide His face I rest on His unchanging grace In every high and stormy gale My anchor holds within the veil My anchor holds within the veil Christ our Lord Call us Lord Weak and strong In the Savior's life Through the storm He is Lord Lord our Lord Christ the Lord Cold as snow Weak made strong In the Savior's light Through the storm He is Lord

Lord our Lord When He shall come with trumpet sound Oh, may I then in be found Dressed in His righteousness alone For this stand before the throne We've been strong in the Savior's love. Through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all.

I want to thank you for joining us this morning. Just a few announcements. We'll be here on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. for our weekly Bible study. So we're going through some of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. We'll be back next Sunday with sort of moving more through these things that Jesus brings to us in his arrival. Also, if you have not had a chance to do so, one of the things we're trying to do, we try to do this about every year, year and a half, is we'd like to update our church contact information. And so part of the way we do that, you can do it either online, there's a link in the email we sent out Friday, or there are some forms back there on the information slash snack table.

And you can just fill out your information and drop it in the offering plate. Just want to make sure we're sort of up to date on everybody's contact information. We're going to go ahead and we're going to pray. I'm going to read a verse from Ephesians and then we will sing. Instead of singing the doxology, we're just going to sing the chorus of Go Tell It on the Mountain. All right, let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for loving us and caring for us. Thank you that you bring us together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We thank you that you are our peace. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul's speaking to the Ephesian church after telling them that he's sending a brother in Christ to encourage them. He will say this,

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be to all who love Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible. Over the hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.