Merry Christmas!! The waiting is over! This week we celebrated the birth of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. When we put our lives under His authority and seek to please Him above all else, we gain Eternal Peace and the Best Forever Friend we could ask for!

This Sunday we looked at Mary's response to the goodness and faithfulness of God. As she looks back over her life and sees that the Lord has been a Promise Keeper, she responds with Overwhelming Worship and Overflowing Joy.

This week we dig into Luke 1:26-38 and study the angel Gabriel's "7 Declarations of the Coming Messiah." 

SPOILER ALERT: Jesus has been and will be King FOREVER!!

We begin the Christmas Season by looking at a passage that reminds us of the faithfulness of God. Whether Hope is Delivered, Doubted, or Delighted; His promises to us are always true!

Today's message is Part 2 of Luke’s record of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus has chosen his 12 disciples, teaching all about Kingdom character for those who trust and follow him! Kingdom people are wholly surrendered to Jesus and look deep inside their own hearts.

In Luke 6 verse 12 and following we see Jesus praying all night before choosing the twelve disciples. By following Christ these men would be representing the Kingdom of God. In doing so, they were to exhibit "Kingdom Character." For us today Kingdom Character should be displayed through Christ-like love (Luke 6.27-29, 32-33, 35) and radical generosity (Luke 6.30-31, 34).

Guest speaker, Pastor Ryan Ross, speaks on the story of when Jesus spoke to the rich man in Matthew 19. The rich man asked, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” When Jesus answered his question, the man went away sad, the Bible says, because "he had great possessions." In this message Ryan talks about three obstacles of faith, the first one being "idolatry." The rich man idolized his wealth over his worship of Christ. And the other two obstacles have to do with fear and weariness. Listen now to understand how we can all overcome these obstacles of faith in the Christian life.

In this message on healing and forgiveness Pastor Aaron speaks to respecting Jesus's power to heal completely and shows us a threefold display of God's power:

1) The Magnitude of the Miracle (Lev. 13:1-3, 45-46)
2) Jesus's Untainted Holiness (Luke 4:34, 5.8), and
3) Jesus's Dependence on the Father (Luke 9:18, 11:1, 22:41)

After these points, we see the importance of repentance because Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. Finally, there are four snapshots of repentance that we glean from the Biblical text:

1) Faith (vs. 12, 20)
2) Humility (vs. 21-24)
3) Surrender (vs. 27-29), and
4) Awareness of Sin (vs. 30-32)

Join Pastor Aaron as he deals with Luke 5.1-11 and brings out the following six points:

1. Take Jesus at His Word (v. 5)
2. Respond to Jesus with Repentance (v. 8)
3. Move from Repentance to Mission (v. 10)
4. Live on Mission in Community (vs. 7, 10)
5. Don’t Let Discouragement Hinder Your Decision to Obey the Mission (vs. 4-5), and
6. Understand the Cost of the Call (v. 11)