Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23

Thankful for their faith

Phil 3:8 – unsurpassing worth

Hope of your calling

Raised

“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

-Blaise Pascal

“The God of the Christians is a God of love and consolation, a God who fills the soul and hearts of His own.”

-Blaise Pascal

Knowing Jesus deeper and deeper results in our lives being transformed more and more into His likeness – thinking, speaking and acting like Jesus (Glorifying God)

Do you have faith in Jesus Christ?

Is your faith obvious to everyone around you?

Do you know about Jesus or do you know Jesus, personally?

This morning I would like you to think again. The Christmas, or Advent story, the coming or arrival of the Messiah began way back in the book of beginnings, Genesis. Before we can appreciate or rediscover Christmas, we really need to understand the back story of the Gospel – the Good News of Jesus Christ.

‌I hope you will join us for the remaining weeks of Advent, as we rediscover Christmas together and look forward to celebrating the arrival of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Today we will see the hope and joy that are found in the Gospel. In the following weeks we will see the joy and love that come with fully embracing the Gospel.

‌I encourage you to pick up the Christmas Devotional at the welcome center. I hope there are enough for one per family. I will connect my sermons with each week’s daily devotionals that follow. They will reinforce and go deeper into today’s message.

‌But, just three chapters into this epic story of our beginnings – tragedy struck. Chapter 3 tells of Adam and Eve’s unbelievable rebellion against the very one who gave them life and breath.

‌God says the future offspring of the woman will bruise the serpent (Satan’s) head or destroy him. And Satan will bruise his heel. The off-spring of woman is the Messiah. The Redeemer. God will send a Savior to crush Satan and destroy evil, and this Savior would be born of a woman. This is the reason for our advent celebration. The coming of a Messiah. That word means “promised deliverer.” What are people being delivered from? The effects of sin – separation from God, death, pain, evil and more. The promise is right here. God promised he would send a delivered. The Savior who is Christ the Lord. The word Christ means messiah. So when we read Jesus Christ in the Bible, it is not his last name – it is his title. Jesus – The Messiah.

‌Do you ever feel hopeless because your life is not what you thought it would be? Like there is no way it will ever change? Like you just can’t handle it one more day?

‌We often struggle, because all of those things God promised have not happened yet. We get frustrated, irritated, disappointed and sad. We lose our joy because the world and the people in it are not living the way God tells us too. Sometimes that describes us too. Doesn’t it? We need to be reminded of the hope that God will make everything right, and the hope that he will bring us home to heaven even though we are struggling now. As we remember God’s promises we can experience restored joy through God’s Holy Spirit with in us. God continues to work on his plan to restore his creation to its original perfection and glory. And we get to be part of that plan. In our own time and in our own place in the world, we can tell others the good news and we can show others God’s glory – His character, His love mercy kindness and justice. Our lives should spread supernatural joy everywhere we go. That is something to celebrate today!

‌John 13-16 is the basics of being His follower – like a 101 Intro Class at school. These were the last most important things Jesus wanted to share with his disciples, so I want to share them with you.

‌In today’s message from John 15 and 16, Jesus warns his disciples that the road ahead would not be an easy one, but he also promised peace in the midst of those trials. We all experience times of struggles and we look forward to times of peace. Let’s see what Jesus had to say.

“World” means unbelievers and what Satan currently “rules over”

Sorrow and struggles like childbirth

Have you confessed your sin and asked God to forgive you?

‌The Focus of chapter 15 is the resurrection – its centrality and vitality in the Gospel, the hope it gives us in this life and eternity, what resurrected bodies are like, and finally the victory we find in Christ.

Paul answers the question four ways. First with an illustration from nature. Second with a description of resurrection bodies. Third, he contrasts the difference betwen earthly and resurrection bodies, and finally he points us back to the firstfruits of the resurrection – Jesus himself.

All of these illustrations point to the fact that God created different kinds of bodies. Our earthly bodies will die and be raised as new heavenly bodies that are what we were ultimately meant to be.

Our earthly bodies are sown or planted in the earth when we die and they are perishable. This means they will decay and decompose. God explained this principle to Adam and Eve as a result of their sin in

“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”” This reality exists for almost all of humankind. There were just a few exceptions – Enoch, who walked with God did not die – he was taken directly to heaven. The prophet Elijah was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot.

prophesied that the Messiah, the Holy One, would not see corruption. Jesus was resurrected and his body did not decay. The last group of people whose bodies will not perish are the believers who are taken up to meet Jesus in the clouds in the Rapture of the church. This is the next event that will happen in the last days time line. The body that we have in resurrection will not be perishable, it will be imperishable or eternal. Sickness and death will have no effect on our new bodies.

If there is no resurrection then..

But Christ has been raised from the dead…

Why be baptized to new life if we are still dead?

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The center of the Christmas story is focused squarely on the birth of Jesus. He is the fulfillment of Israel’s hope that God would push back the darkness and shine a bright light into the world.

One of the reasons Christmas resonates in our hearts is because we, too, live in a world that is similar to Israel. Our world is dark and corrupt because of the sin in every corner of the globe. There is war, disease, conflict, and oppression all around us. We, too, are in need of the Messiah, the Christ to bring light to push back the darkness around us. If all our focus is on the world’s darkness we will live in constant fear and anxiety. We may even lose hope.

Christmas is a reminder that whatever it is we hope for in our lives—healing, restoration, forgiveness, or a fresh start—it is available to us through Immanuel – God with us. Hope does not come because we have it all figured out. Hope does not come from other people or even from scientific advancement. Those things we hope for may be resolved here and now or it be later in heaven. All true hope is a result of the presence of God. And because God is trustworthy and keeps all his promises our hope in Him is sure and steady.

The hard part about hope is that it often takes longer than we would like to be fulfilled. Like the Jewish people experienced, hope requires patience.

How many enjoy waiting for things? Next day delivery has kind of taken away our need for patience. We order things and they show up in a day or two. And if they don’t we are tracking the package around town on our delivery app. It’s not like the old days when shipping was typically 6-8 weeks. We would almost forget something in that time and then be so excited and surprised when the package showed up two months later. Can you imagine?

Paul said everything that had been written in the past — all of the prophecy and fulfillment —is meant to teach us how to hold onto faith in God to answer our prayers. What has been written gives us endurance and encouragement that we might have hope. It is important that we revisit the prophetic words of the Old Testament and the fulfillment that comes through the birth of Jesus because it reminds us that God can be trusted to come through and meet us in our greatest times of need.

Though there are many distractions during the Christmas season, this message is a reminder that hope is offered to us through Jesus’s arrival in the manger. The hoped for Messiah finally arrived right on time.

Our God is always right on time. He knows exactly what we need and when we need it. He can be trusted to reveal the light of Christ in order to push back the darkness in our lives. In a land full of deep darkness, the light has truly dawned. And each Christmas as we remember the hope that came with Immanuel, God with us, we can be encouraged to look to that hope that Christ will return, bring us home to heaven, and set all things right again. God will fully restore His creation.

Through the ages people have placed all their hope in a wise leader, or in a larger army, or in science and medicine. But after several global wars, many horrific acts of hatred and terrorism, changing weather patterns, many people lost hope. Children have lost hope as parents abandoned them and spouses lost hope as marriages dissolved. Even trusting solely in your own knowledge and abilities will lead you to hopelessness.

We were created by God to know Him and to be known and loved by Him. Without that connection to your creator, your heavenly Father there is no lasting hope for this life or the next. The good news that we celebrate at Christmas time, is that God the Father sent His son into the world to offer forgiveness of sin, redemption, peace with God, and eternal life. You can find real hope only in a relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Are you looking to people, government leaders, science, or a really big retirement account to bring you hope? Your faith and hope belong in God.

Have you confessed your sin to God, and trusted Jesus as your Savior? Put your hope in God alone. Contact Pastor Mark if you want to talk more about this.

You can find real hope at the heart of Christmas.

Genesis Origins sermon series: https://dunkirkbaptist.org/sermon-series/genesis-origins/

Her given name, Sarai, means “my princess.” She was known as an extremely beautiful woman and maybe something of a pampered prima donna. And she could be impatient, temperamental, conniving, cantankerous, cruel, flighty, pouty, jealous, erratic, unreasonable, a whiner and complainer, and even a nag. Happy Mother’s Day Sarai! These are not the things you want written in your greeting card.

In Gen. 17, God reconfirmed his covenant with Abram who was now ninety-nine and gave him a new name – Abraham – the father of a multitude of nations. God also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah which means princess without the possessive “my”. She was no longer Abraham’s princess, she was God’s princeess.

The New Testament gives us more insight into Sarah’s character and faith with the Holy Spirit’s benefit of insight into the soul.

In 1 Peter 3:6, Sarah is celebrated as the spiritual matriarch of God’s people and lifted up as an example of a godly wife, in spite of her short-comings.

READ Hebrews 11:11-16

Sarah had faith and hope in God keeping His promises. God gave her the power to conceive in her old age when she was past normal physical ability to have children. She believed God and her faith saved her. She was not only looking forward to having a son but she had faith in the promised descendent who would bless all the world. That was the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.

First to the women here, whether you are single, married, with children or not – is your focus on your inner beauty or your outer beauty? Do you spend as much time in God’s Word and prayer working on your heart as you do working on your physical appearance? Is your desire for children greater than your desire to glorify God in everything else?

If you are married, do you submit to your husband with a gentle and quiet spirit?

If you are a mother or grandmother – do you teach and model God’s Word for your family all throughout the day – when you rise up, when you sit down, when you are out and about? Deuteronomy 6 calls us to share our faith with the next generations.

Kids – do you obey and honor your mother like God commands you to? God promises that your life will go better and you will live longer if you do. Some mother love gifts flowers and crafts that you make, but all of them would prefer your love, honor and obedience more than anything else.

Husbands – do you honor your wife? Do you provide for her and protect her above yourself? Do you speak well of her in front of your children and others? Do you encourage her in her faith and lead your family spiritually?

Anyone else – now that the Messiah has come, God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for our sins through his death on the cross and offer us eternal life as he overcame the grave. If you have never confessed your sin and placed your faith in Jesus alone to save you – I invite you to do that today.

The mission of First Baptist Church is to develop missionary disciples who worship God, grow spiritually, and share the Gospel and their spiritual gifts.

WORSHIP – Our lives are made to glorify God and recognize Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We love God by glorifying him through obedience and showing others what Jesus is like in our words and actions.  (Luke 10:27)

GROW – Developing Disciples, Spiritual Growth & Maturity, Fellowship. We love each other as we mature to become more like Jesus and we help disciple each other to grow and mature spiritually. We do this through intentional fellowship and living life involved in each other’s lives.  (1 Thessalonians 4:3 and Ephesians 4:13)

SHARE – Called to share the Good News of the Gospel and God’s love with our community & the world and to share our spiritual gifts and abilities. We love our local community and communities around the world by serving them and sharing the Gospel with them. God places believers together in local churches to be part of a living body each doing one or more parts.  (Matthew 28:19-20 and Ephesians 4:15-16)

Our three-week series will be looking more closely at how we put this into actions of love – again individually and together as a church family. Worship and Love God. Grow and Love each other. Share and Love our community.

Today we will look at the third command: Share or Love Our Community

First we are called to share the Gospel. We love our community by sharing the life-giving message of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection with them.

When we love our neighbors and people in our community, we show them God’s divine love.

When we are willing to sacrifice our pride or even giving something up for the people in our community, they will see and better understand Jesus’ sacrificial love on the cross.

People will know you are my disciples when they see your love. What is First Baptist known for in our community? A nice building. A small but caring school? Are we known for love?

People won’t come ask for help or see answers when all they see is anger, pride, self-righteousness, or despair and loss of hope for the world. But they just might come when they experience first-hand God’s love through you.

We cannot love our community in our own strength, but when we experience God’s grace and forgive love, He will be glorified as we live and love others.

To keep loving even when they don’t love back. We love our community because Jesus commanded us to.

We don’t love our communities because we want them to love us. We love our neighbors and the people in our community because God loves them and we hope that they will over time come to know Jesus as Savior, and better understand and love God themselves.

We love our community anticipating that souls will be saved as we show God’s love and His glory to the people around us.

In addition to sharing the gospel and God’s love we are called to share our spiritual gifts and abilities within the local church and our community. As we are each unique parts of the body of Christ, we have been supernaturally equipped for one or more areas of service.

What is God Like?

It’s not just a matter of more faith

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Begins with history

James Woodward is a retired police investigator from the Rochester, NY Police Department (1988-2020). He is a chaplain with the Flower City Chaplain Corps, which is a ministry to law enforcement in the Rochester area. He is available to active and retired police officers for conversations and chaplain ministry. Jim is also a chaplain with the West Webster Fire Department, is an itinerant speaker for churches in New York State, and is available to local funeral homes to preside over services.

Jim enjoys outdoor activities (biking, hiking, swimming, grilling, backyard campfires), writing, reading, and spending time with his family and friends. Jim is looking forward to the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl in the upcoming season.