Freeport Maine is practically entirely LL Bean. Pastor Sam was there visiting his family over one Christmas a few years back. He was amazed by it all and had this to say about it. "As I looked up at that tree in Freeport Maine, I was initially struck by its size. Saying it is enormous is an understatement. Though after really examining it, I was more moved by the sheer number of lights on display upon that powerful pine. There were 1000s and 1000s and 1000s casting their luminescence on the night sky! It was a sight to behold. Light has way more important uses than just making our Christmas trees look pretty. Light reveals something, often the way, most notably against a pervasive darkness (which, pervasive darkness is a great way to describe driving around Maine at night)."  

Background: It is against the darkness of the world that we see the light of Christ shine most brightly. We will see in the gospels of John first and then Matthew, the significance of light and consider some ways that Christmas tree lights remind us of its importance.  God’s word reminds us of the importance of light.  (John 8:12, 9:1-5; Matthew 5:14-16)

If I told you that Thanksgiving dinner would be the last time that you ate, your response would probably be something to the effect of “Pastor is crazy. Why does he want me dead? Isn’t there a show about this on Investigate Discovery?!” But once you worked through that, you would probably think something to the effect of, I need to eat to live. In fact, eating is a BIG part of my lifestyle! For some of us, myself included, maybe too big sometimes. If we stopped eating after Thanksgiving dinner was over, we would certainly die. The same thing happens when we stop praising and thanking God after Thanksgiving…we die. Not physically or salvifically mind you, but we die in our spirit. Just like eating, praising and thanking should not be an event, it should be a lifestyle. Today, as we look at the words of Paul to the church at Thessalonica, we will see that he was calling those believers to make it a lifestyle as well. In chapter 5 we will see 3 things we must do to practice praise this Thanksgiving.

3 Things we must do to practice praise this Thanksgiving.   (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.” – John Lennon We could also say, “Thanksgiving is what happens to us while we are busy planning for Christmas”.  But what if instead of just letting Thanksgiving happen to us, we decided to prioritize it. Nay, even plan for it! Now I am talking about more than planning and preparing food, or even coordinating the gathering locations, but what if instead we planned for and prepared our hearts for Thanksgiving? How could this potentially change our entire Holiday Season? Today as we look at God’s Word, we are going to see 3 things we can do to prepare our hearts, this Thanksgiving.

3 Things we must do to prepare our hearts this Thanksgiving.  (Psalm 9:1-2)

Speaker : Kendra Connor  - Fears can lead to anxiety, panic, depression, hopelessness, especially when we forget where God is in our fear. There was one prophet in the Bible that also let his fear completely overtake him and he lost sight of God despite the great and wonderful things God was doing through him. Elijah allowed fear to overwhelm him.   God is our lifeline when fear threatens to overwhelm - 1 Kings 19:1-18

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What is Biblical Discipleship? (2 Timothy 2:1-7, 3:10-17, 4:1-5) If I asked you to define “disciple" what would say? A student, a listener, a follower, a teach?  The words “disciple” and “discipleship” get thrown around a lot in church culture, and rightly so. They are seemingly simple words, and easy to define technically speaking (re: definition/synonyms). However, when we really stop and consider what the words mean, they become a lot more intimidating rather quickly. But the Lord does not want us to feel overwhelmed regarding this task called “discipleship.” Instead, He wants us to understand what discipleship is and what it looks like biblically so that we can put it into practice. One such example of discipleship in Scripture, is the relationship between the Apostle Paul and Pastor Timothy. Today we are going to consider this example in asking, what is biblical discipleship?  Background: Paul wrote 2 Timothy as he was pastoring in Ephesus from a prison cell. Approaching the end of his life, Paul wanted Timothy to understand the importance of discipling others as he was discipled.

Speaker : Pastor Sam Murphy - 3 Do’s for Decision Making from the Wisdom Literature. (Psa. 32:8-9; Pro. 3:5-8, 16:1-3)

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In the story the Lady or the Tiger a man imprisoned for loving the princess is faced with a choice, door 1 or door 2. Behind one door is a beautiful woman for him to marry and behind the other is a starving tiger. The young princess knows what is behind each door and signals to the young man which to choose....The story of the Lady, or the Tiger is intentionally left open ended for the reader. Even though we never know the outcome, we are given a glimpse into the mind behind the one who is informing the ultimate decision.  Thankfully, though the princess’ motives are conflicted and questionable at best, our God ALWAYS prioritizes what is ultimately for our good and His glory when it comes to decision making. Knowing this about our God reveals that the onus of the responsibility rests with us being willing to listen to the wisdom of the One that has all the information when we make decisions. Knowing this, we are going to learn some things we can do to be ready to make decisions. Background: The Psalm that we will look at was penned by David, and the Proverbs by his son, King Solomon. And yet while these two men were both quite wise, these passages have their source in the wisdom of the breath of God.

Lauren shares from Matthew 9. The song “Come Thou Fount” was written by Robert Robinson. He lived a rough childhood, losing his dad at a very young age and needing to begin to work very early on to support him and his widowed mom. His maternal grandfather cut him out of the will and only left a small amount to him because he disapproved of his daughter's choice in a partner. Robert got in with the wrong crowd. One day Robert heard minister George Whitefield preaching and it changed his outlook on life. Robert began to study and eventually became a preacher. In his early 20s he penned the song “Come Thou Fount” to remember God's grace and mercy. Unfortunately Robert fell away from the faith and no longer preached the word as he once did. Robert was in a stagecoach one day later on in life with one other person. This other person was a woman who was singing come thou fount. She asked him his opinion on the song and he said, “Madam, I am the unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago; and, I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, if I could feel now as I felt then." And she responded with, “the streams of mercy are still flowing.”

The streams of mercy are still flowing, they never stop flowing. We see this in Matthew 9:9-13, which is the passage of scripture where Jesus calls Matthew to follow him.

Big Idea: 2 Lessons we learn about living the gospel from Jesus calling Matthew

God’s people were still traveling in the wilderness and arrived at a place called Rephidim.  At Rephidim, they experience another time of wondering where they were going to get water. The people’s short memory leads to them threatening Moses, and God telling Moses to strike a rock. The previous passage ends with his people asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?” In this passage, God is about to answer that.

Big Idea: The Lord wants us to experience victory in life as our Banner. [end] (Exodus 17:8-16)

5 years ago Pastor Sam had a heart attack at just 37 years old. After the heart attack while recovering he was asked who his family medicine doctor was. Problem was he didn't have one, he didn't even realize he needed to have one. He didn't realize he was "sick" enough to need one. Before we began a relationship with God through Christ, we do not realize that we were spiritually sick with our sin either. We did not know that we needed God, the doctor of our soul, to heal us and make us whole. Much like God’s people leaving Egypt in the Exodus, we were just living life with our internal and external struggles unaware of what the actual problem was: our sin sickness and its consequences. In this account in Exodus, God wanted His people to remember their need for Him and to understand that when they came face to face with their sin sickness, that they needed to go God, The Healer.

Health comes from going to The Doctor, and listening to what He says. (Exodus 15:22-27)