At the beginning of this first chapter, John presents Jesus as the incarnation of the eternal, creator God. As God himself, Jesus reveals to us who God is and what He is doing in this world.

This series starts off with an overview of the book of John and the man who wrote it. The book was written to strengthen the faith of Christians who were struggling to believe from the unique perspective of a man who was close to Jesus.

The church is an interdependent community held together by what we believe about Jesus. When we gather together on Sundays we prioritize our commitment to one another.

Christians have gathered on Sundays to worship God and proclaim the good news of Jesus for over two thousand years. While our view and value of the Sunday gathering may have evolved over the years, God’s purpose for its place in our lives hasn’t changed. This week we look at the importance of hearing God's Wisdom weekly. We gather each week to hear from God's Word in order to give it priority and authority in our lives.

Wrapping up the series, this message looks at the emotion of fear. When we're scared, God reminds us that He is there if we just turn to Him and put our trust in Him.

Our happiness can be like decorations on a Christmas tree -- without something substantial (the tree) to hold them up, on their own they are just a pile of baubles. In this message, we look at what gives substance to our happiness - we can be happy because of all that God has already done for us and because of all that God will yet do for us.

I'm Ashamed

Often at Christmastime, seemingly out of nowhere we are overwhelmed by an emotion, of grief, sadness, stress, loneliness, anger or regret. In Psalm 42, we see an overwhelmed David run to God, pour his emotions out, and choose to put his hope in God despite his circumstances.

Christmas is a time when we are really aware of what others have, and often find ourselves lacking for things and longing for more. In Psalm 23, David writes that he lacks for nothing because God is a good shepherd. Christmas can be a time marked by jealousy, or it can be a time we become more aware of what we have in Jesus.

We need help with our sin. We have a sin debt from our past that we cannot repay. The only way it will be forgiven is if we bring it to God. We need help with future sin that temptation will lead us into. So, we ask for the power of God to lead us away from temptation and give us the victory over the evil one. We need God to deal with sin-past and future.