Key Idea: Let Christmas encourage your hope by reminding you of the relentless faithfulness of God. Two reasons Christmas encourages when we have a hope deferred: Christmas demonstrates God will always be faithful. Christmas demonstrates God’s plan is always best.

Key Idea:  Three ways the Christmas story provides real hope Hope for outsiders cultural outsiders social outsiders Hope for sinners Hope for sufferers The faithfulness of God’s plan The fullness of God’s plan

Key Idea: To embrace our sufferings we must believe that God’s purpose is greater than the suffering itself. 1. To embrace suffering you must have faith in the greater story of God 2. To embrace suffering you must have faith in the purposes of God

Key Idea – A life that matters is one lived FOR the gospel, because we live IN the Gospel. Gospel Ministry – Ministry that pursues the expansion of the gospel in the hearts of believers and in the salvation of unbelievers. I. A Life that is Wasted Our premises lead to our purposes. The wasted life – a life where what comes before your “therefore” isn’t the reality of the Gospel II. A Life that Matters A life that matters is not first about what we do for Christ, but about what he has done for us. The Gospel frees us from sin that leads to an inward bent. The Gospel gives me an identity tied to the Creator, not the creation. The Gospel tells us we have victory in Christ so we don’t have to pursue victory in the world. The Gospel reminds us that we are part of a much, much bigger story than our immediate circumstances. “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24)

Baptism Testimonies – 11/10/2019 Kevin Garcia Emily Jin (starts at 3:19) Marissa Cheung (7:08) Emily Zheng (10:51) Viet Truong (14:10) Paul Kim (17:55) Dhony Solis (21:34)

Key Idea: Jesus is the center of life and the defeater of death. Jesus, the Center of Life Jesus, the Defeater of Death  

Two hard truths about false assurance Two signs of genuine belief