•Outside the Box – through this season of Advent, a season of preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ; remembering his birth and looking forward to his return, we have been thinking outside of the box. We began by opening our expectations so that we are ready for what God has in store. We continued by opening acceptance so we can let God take control of our lives. Last week we opened up family to include all of those who Jesus came to make part of his family, God’s family. Tonight, as we approach Christmas Day, we need to open up ourselves.

•Invitation – no one wanted to have a shepherd in their family and most shepherds didn’t have families of their own, after all it’s hard to start a family when you are living with sheep. But of all the people we imagine at the birth of Jesus (Mary, Joseph, animals, angels, even wise men – who weren’t there yet) the shepherds were the only ones actually invited to be part of this moment. God actually used a chorus of angels to invite this forgotten and forsaken group of people into a pretty “family only” kind of moment.

Open Up…Acceptance – waiting is hard, but sometimes we don’t have a choice in the matter. What is harder is acceptance. We have no choice but to wait until Jesus comes again. But we can accept that truth and accept Christ’s call to make disciples of all people, bringing them the new life he offers them. As we approach Christmas think not only of what you expect, but think on what you need to accept. What is holding you back from truly following Christ and truly living new life?

•What’s in Christmas? – Now I want you to think about this Christmas season. What is in your Christmas box? What are your expectations? Christmas music. Holiday sales and shopping. Trees and lights. Gifts and more gifts? Times with family and friends. Perhaps a Christmas Eve Candlelight service. What if there was more to Christmas? What if you expected more?

My goal tonight is to introduce the five questions on the survey, give you the chance to discuss those questions with those around you. I hope is that you will take the survey home, talk about it, pray about it, and fill it out with careful consideration. After we receive an appropriate number of surveys the staff will go over them to discern the commonalities and see if we can sense God visions for our church.

•Declarations of your Heart – tonight we are going to talk a bit about giving and generosity and how those things are declarations of your heart, a heart that has been transformed and lives in new life with Jesus Christ.

•Bucket Lists – in 2007 a movie came out with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson called “The Bucket List.” It was a pretty good movie if you haven’t seen it. In the film both men have terminal lung cancer and create a “bucket list” or list of things to do before they “kick the bucket.” The list includes things like skydiving, motorcycling on the Great Wall of China, laughing until you cry, and witnessing something truly majestic. •Your Bucket List – what’s on your bucket list? Maybe you haven’t taught about it, but newsflash: you’re all going to die. So what would you like to do before that happens? My bucket list includes things like visiting all 50 states, visiting all the countries of my ancestry (Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Ireland), eating the world’s best cheeseburger and so on.•Church Buckets – so we all have some things we would like to do before we “kick the bucket” but what about our church? Should our church have a bucket list? Is there a list of things we should do as a community of faith? Today we are going to look at the hope and vision of our church, or our church’s bucket list.

•Shema – let us start by looking at one of the most important passages in the Old Testament. It comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6:4-6. We refer to it as the “Shema.” “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.” (NRSV)

•The Pulse – As we begin the journey toward extravagant generosity together, let’s start with a check-up. Find your heartbeat (demonstrate how to find your pulse). Did everyone find a pulse? If we checked our spiritual pulse, what would we find? Over the next few weeks, we will find some ways to check our spiritual health. Today we will consider how Paul begins to address the subject of spiritual health.

•What is New Life? – originally I had planned to use this time to share all the good things we have done, the people we have reached, the lives we have touched, and the various activities that have brought us closer to God and each other. But when I sat down to do the work of preparing this sermon I felt called to focus on our name, New Life. That is why I shared the story above and although we certainly didn’t plan it and certainly couldn’t have expected it, New Life has come to mean something very important to so many of us. So let us look tonight at the question, “What is New Life?”