As we dive into a new series my prayer as a pastor is for your heart to be aligned with God’s desire for you. That you would know Him! And what better way can we know Him than by looking at Jesus, the visible image of the invisible God. So often I have preached to people all over that they need to follow Him, but I wonder how hard it has been to follow someone you may not know.

As Jesus’ story continues from His birth, we see Him grow and show more of what He knows. He learns and studies. Grows and discovers. At the age of 12 He clearly is becoming aware of who He is and what the scriptures say about Him.

For us we can learn in this section of scripture just how important identity is! Knowing who you are, showing who you are, and growing who you are all matter greatly as we live out our faith!

Join us for the launch of our Knowing Him series this weekend!

- Pastor Ben

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49533722

If anyone deserved to have His name announced by the most important religious and cultural leaders of His day, it would have been Jesus. And yet, as we read through the Gospel of Luke, that’s not what we find. Instead, we encounter ordinary—and if we’re honest, somewhat unassuming—people who play some of the most meaningful roles in Jesus’ story. Luke gently reminds us that Jesus is not only the Messiah for the rich and famous, but the Savior for everyone.

This week, we’ll be looking at Simeon and Anna and seeing how God uses faithful, well-seasoned lives to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah—the consolation of Israel. Simeon carries no title, rank, or prestige, yet he recognizes Jesus for who He truly is when many others miss it. Anna, a woman in a world that often preferred women to remain unseen and unheard, becomes one of the boldest voices proclaiming the truth about Jesus. They are ordinary people marked by extraordinary faithfulness to all that God had promised.

Simeon and Anna lived with deep conviction and patient hope, trusting that God would bring the salvation they had long awaited. Jesus is the long-promised sign for Israel, and through His work, many would follow Him and live with the same purpose and hope. Yet others would reject Him and choose their own way instead. We’re faced with that same choice today. Will we live with the hope and purpose of Simeon and Anna, or will we pursue our own paths—paths that ultimately lead us away from life?

Join us this Sunday at either the 8 or 11 AM service as we look at Jesus the Justifier and discover the purpose He invites each of us into.

- Pastor Brandon

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49533720

Merry Christmas!

Jesus’ birth marks a pivotal moment in history—when God took on flesh and dwelt among us. Emmanuel, “God with us.” This moment is astonishing on every level. The Maker and Creator of all things entered His own creation to redeem what had been lost. Angels filled the heavens with praise as the Father accomplished this extraordinary work of salvation.

We love Christmas and the familiar story of Jesus’ birth, but what if we don’t know it as well as we think? Too often, we admire the beauty of the story without truly beholding the Savior at its center—and it shows in how we live out our faith. My prayer this season is that you would discover the deeper truth behind why angels sang, shepherds searched, Mary treasured these things in her heart, and people marveled. I pray you would experience the peace that comes from truly knowing Him—Emmanuel, God with us.

To do that, we must intentionally refocus our hearts and attention on Him.

Join us for a special Christmas Eve service at 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM as we look beyond the familiarity of the story and behold the glory of Christ.

— Pastor Ben

Key Verse: Luke 2:14 (NIV) - "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49533718

I love pie. There are so many delicious flavors from classic apple and strawberry rhubarb, to mincemeat and chocolate silk. None of these compare to one flavor, though. This kind of pie is homemade every time, though sometimes it’s served up by others to you. It can be made unintentionally, or with intense purpose. It’s no one’s favorite flavor, but it is the one we should all learn to love. I know for myself that while I hate the taste, I also often love the benefits of choking it down. What flavor is it?

Humble pie.

Humility throw us off so much because of our desire for self gratification and self promotion. To willingly give that up often comes with a slightly bitter taste left in the back of your mouth. The choice to be humble truly is one that brings so much greater reward than anything we could gain by our prideful action.

In the Christmas story we get to see this choice play out for Shepherds, Kings from the east, and Herod the ruler in Jerusalem. Their decisions of how they would try to approach the new born King would be significant examples for us of what it looks like to approach Jesus. In your life you have the opportunity to come before the King, and you need to decide the posture you will do that with.

Join us this Sunday as we look through what it means to humble ourselves before the King!

-Pastor Ben

Key Verse - Matthew 2:2 (NIV) - "and asked, 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.'”

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49533716

The 19th century hymn by John H. Sammis and Daniel B. Towner puts it this way:

“Trust and obey. There is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.”

I always have found these lyrics to feel like a set of sheets made of fine sandpaper. Not because they aren’t true, or the melody isn’t catchy, but because they call out a reality I don’t want to face. I want happiness on my own terms. I don’t want to find joy only in my obedience, but instead I wish that joy could be produced through seeking after whatever my heart desires. This is the posture of our sin nature. Rebellion against the design and plan of God, and a belief that we know better than He does what is best for us.

Joseph found out that his betrothed was pregnant, and everything in him was ready to cut ties with her, and run after the life he wanted. Staying connected to Mary would have meant ridicule from all angles, and Joseph had done nothing to deserve that. He knew that what he wanted to do was justified by the Law of Moses, and no one in their community would have questioned it once the news broke. Then God sends an angel… And Joseph has a choice… Trust and obey, even though it may cost you greatly… or go your own way and trust your own judgment.

Obedience is not easy. It costs. Sometimes a lot. Yet we are still called to it, and blessed by it as we walk in it. Joseph’s choice to obey meant that he became part of the incarnation story, where God came to dwell with man. Emmanuel. God with us.

Join us this Sunday as we dive further into the “With Us” God, and how He uses people like Joseph, and you, for His glory and our good!

-Pastor Ben Phillips

Key Verse - Matthew 1:24 (NIV) - "When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife."

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49530259

Have you ever had a friend, spouse, family member, or someone close to you let you down? Maybe they didn’t follow through on a promise or weren’t there when you needed them most. Moments like these can shake our confidence and make us wonder if we can truly trust them again. We’ve all felt that sting.

But the good news is that Jesus never fails to keep His promises. Just as He fulfilled the prophecies of His birth spoken centuries before it happened, we can trust that He will continue to be faithful to His promises for us today and for tomorrow.

This Sunday, we’ll be diving into Luke 1:26–38 and looking at Jesus’ birth announcement—seeing how every part of His story fits into a much bigger promise God made long before. As we consider what it means to trust Him as Immanuel, “God With Us,” we’ll discover that if He kept His promises in the past, we can confidently trust Him with our future.

- Pastor Brandon Marchetti

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49517148

Christmas season is here! While many people will be celebrating all over the world, there is a sad disconnect between the holiday and the Savior we celebrate on it. Who is Jesus really? It’s a question that everyone needs to ask at some point, and I pray they do.

The gospel accounts of Matthew and Luke both include answers to this important question. They display everyone’s favorite part of any “Bible in a year” reading plan… Genealogies! Matthew records from Abraham to Jesus on Mary’s side, and Luke comes from Joseph’s side all the way to Adam. One gives Jesus legal credibility to the Jews, and one gives connection to all of humanity as we could all be traced back to the very first man, Adam. These lists of people contain som interesting characters and ultimately point us to God’s redemptive power and providence to be able to use whoever He desires to accomplish His perfect will.

Join us this weekend as we launch our Christmas series “With Us”, looking at Immanuel! It truly is a powerfully important thing to know the One who has come, God in flesh with us, Jesus.

-Pastor Ben

Key Verse - Luke 3:23 (NIV) - "Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli,"

Key Passage - Matthew 3:23-38, Luke1:1-17

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49517146

WOW! We serve an incredible God! He has truly been at work here at Mitchell Berean over this last year, just has he has been in the 70+ years of people gathering in this local body. We are seeing people come to faith in Jesus, disciples multiplying, the Gospel going out, missionaries being sent, shepherds being raised up, saints being equipped and serving faithfully, and God providing for us from His abundant riches. It is truly a blessing to sit back and reflect on who He is, what He has done, and how He is moving.

Those three areas are where we want to focus as we gather for our Celebration Sunday this week! Who God is, and the unbelievable truth that He has sought after relationship with us. This alone is worthy of endless celebration, yet He goes beyond and has blessed us by doing so much for us! Then He invites us to be part of His mission and works through us! This all should have us overwhelmed with joy!

Ephesians 1 teaches us about the blessings we received in Jesus that are ours in the heavenly places. God has lavished upon us in accordance with the riches of His grace found in Jesus for all who put their faith in Him. My prayer this week is that as we gather you come ready for joyous praise being lifted up to our ever deserving God!

-Pastor Ben

Key Verse: Ephesians 1:7 (NIV) - "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace"

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49496624

Jesus was radical. Over the thousands of years people have studied, learned, and read about Jesus it feels that we have forgotten just how truly radical He was, and is! From His personal walk with the Father, to His intense focus on accomplishing the mission He came for, there are radical things we should be in awe of.

One thing that we see in Jesus as his compassion. Intense, deep, gut turning moments for Him where He “should” have been focused on Himself, and yet we see Him care deeply for those around Him. Imagine if we had radical compassion like Jesus did in Matthew 9 as He saw the crowds and cared for them because His compassion was for their real condition.

Join us this weekend as Greg Stier, the founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries shares with us about what it looks like to be Radical Like Jesus.

-Pastor Ben

Greg Stier Bio - Greg witnessed the Gospel radically transform his tough, inner‐city family before he reached adolescence, sparking his passion for evangelism. In 1991, as a young church planter, he founded Dare 2 Share to equip teens to reach their peers with the Gospel. Three decades later, millions of students have been trained and mobilized across the U.S. and around the world. Greg and his wife, Debbie, have been married for 35 years and have two adult children, Kailey and Jeremy, and Jeremy's wife, Kat.

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49496623

In our series “Radical Like_,” we have studied various individuals from the Old Testament who lived with radical faith through their faithful obedience to God. This weekend we take a look at our first person from the New Testament, and it is someone whose God-given purpose was to “prepare the way of the Lord.” (Matthew 3:3). He was prophesied about in the Old Testament, born the son of a priest and given the Holy Spirit before birth. His purpose in life was clear, and he spent his life fearlessly fulfilling the purpose of pointing to the One to come, Jesus.


While you and I were not granted the Holy Spirit before our birth or individually prophesied about in Scripture, our purpose of pointing to Jesus is similar. We may do that in different ways depending on who God created us and the specific gifts the Holy Spirit has granted each person, but all of us as believers can find true fulfillment in life when we realize our one goal, one objective and purpose in life is to point to Jesus.

Bring a friend! See you Sunday!

Key Verse: John 1:29 - The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

For this week's Scripture and notes:

http://bible.com/events/49496622