Asbury Church

Everyone wants to focus on Mary and Joseph and the manger and the stable. Which is understandable! But this year it’s the message of the angel that really caught my attention.

What if we weren’t afraid?

There is a way that shuts down the future, and a way that opens it up.

Which way will you go?

Joseph made his choice for quiet mercy, and that choice made all the difference.

Preacher: Andrew Forrest

Date: Sunday, December 18 [9 AM service]

Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25

Only the wise and the few make an effort to remember.

Everyone at some point has an experience of God, an experience of the holy, but most people either don’t have the vocabulary to appropriately categorize it, or they just let the memory of that experience fade.

Not Mary: “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” [Luke 2:19].

Mary does what only the wise and the few make an effort to do: she deliberately remembers her experience with God.

And that recollection carries her through the dark and difficult times.

So, my theory is that you have had an experience of God, and it was good—you were moved, or brought to tears, or stirred in your heart.

Have you kept that memory close, to strengthen your spirit in the difficult times?

What have you forgotten that needs deliberate recovering?

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Date: Sunday, December 11 [11:00 AM]

It’s not possible to be grateful and unhappy at the same time. It’s not possible to be ungrateful and happy at the same time. This is good news because: 1. You—and everyone you’ve ever seen—wants to be happy; 2. And being grateful for God’s blessings is entirely in your control.

“They’re more scared of you than you are of them.”

That’s what my mom used to say to us when we complained about snakes around our house.

I still don’t agree with her about snakes, but when it comes to other people, she was right on:

They are more scared of you than you are of them.

Knowing that this is true, what does it mean?

It means in any and every situation, the right thing to do is to go first.

When you step forward toward someone else, you change the relationship.

In Genesis 44, Judah steps forward and offers his life in place of his little brother, and it’s that action that finally breaks open Joseph’s hardened heart.

Love Goes First. When we go first in love, doors that seemed shut fast suddenly swing open.

Preacher: Andrew Forrest

Series: “The Dreamer”

Date: 13 November 2022 [9:00 AM service]

What if, years from now, we looked around and realized we’d ended up in a place we’d never intended to go?

If we’re not careful, drift happens even when we have the best of intentions.

As Asbury begins a new season in the 60 year history of our church, let’s talk about what it will take to be sure drift won’t happen among us.

Scripture: Genesis 39:23; Genesis 41:14; Genesis 41:38-45; Genesis 41:50; Genesis 47:20-26; Genesis 48:1-6

What do you do when you are 100% certain the Lord is with you, but you find yourself in difficult circumstances?

Joseph—betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused of attempted rape, imprisoned—finds himself in about as bad a situation as is possible. And yet the narrator makes a point of telling us:

“The Lord was with Joseph.”

So, what do you do when you are certain the Lord is with you, but you find yourself where you don’t want to be?

My advice is two simple words.

Preacher: Andrew Forrest
Scripture: Genesis 39
Series: The Dreamer: Living in the Care of God’s Hidden Hand

One of the best ways to ruin your family and your future is to be controlled by your appetites.

Esau sells his future possibility for a present appetite, with the result being—as the narrator sums up in Genesis 25:34: “thus Esau despised his birthright."

This is what always happens when you allow your appetites to have control over you.

Here’s the truth: control your appetites, or your appetites will control you.

But here’s the GOOD NEWS: it’s actually possible, through the grace of God, to do it.

Let’s go.

Scripture: Genesis 25:19-34
Series: Family Is How We Fight
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11 am Modern Service