Present Promises | Week 5
- December 31, 2017
- Alex Mandura
- Sermons, Unexpected Jesus
Luke 2:22-33
We are a hurried and restless people. We are always ready for the next, running from one thing to another. Even on this first Sunday of Christmas we are rushing from the ending of one year, and pining for the next. Many of us have already plotted out how this next year is going to be different. We are ready for the shiny new year, ready to see the old gone, ready for new declarations, new beginnings, ready for our time to be different than before. A problem with this impatient rushing to the next is that we might end up forgetting the promises of God. We might even miss “new life” that God has been giving us along the way. Our story/text today shows us what it is to wait, to remember, to recognize and to take hold of present promises as we step eagerly into the unknown.
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Discussion Guide |
Your God is Too Big | Week 4
What if God became small because this is how things get done? This sermon will stress the importance of humility because it’s in the ordinary, common routines that we subvert the order of things.
A Different Kind of Power | Week 3
Even now we are tempted to fall for the way of Herod, the promise of power. But in the manger, God calls us to the way of Jesus, the power of promise. This sermon will stress the importance of vulnerability, for God has “lifted up the lowly…just as he promised.”
How Silently, How Silently | Week 2
Two thousand years is a long time to wait for things to change; yet that’s how long it’s been since Jesus said a change was coming. Perhaps we should look for something else. Maybe change comes like an infant born and growing up. Maybe it doesn’t come from the top, but from the bottom.