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In the last four episodes, Pastor Harris has been teaching about each of the spiritual gifts, gifts that he refers to as the “motivational gifts”. In this teaching, he’ll cover the last two of those motivational gifts, which include the gift of administration and the gift of empathy.  It has been great taking a deeper dive into each of these gifts and learning about the intricacies of each.  I know that it has been enlightening for me to cover each gift one by one.

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n this teaching Pastor Harris will follow a similar format as our last episode, this time he’ll cover the motivational gift of exhortation and will then cover the motivational gift of giving. He’ll walk us through what both of these gifts entail, and will wrap up each one listing seven dominant characteristics for both of these gifts.

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In this teaching Pastor Harris will discuss two more Spiritual Gifts, two that he has categorized as motivational gifts.  One is the gift of servanthood, and the other is the gift of teaching. It really is fascinating to listen to these gift bearer's descriptions.  Hopefully you all are having a similar experience as I am, learning about your own giftings.

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As always we hope everyone enjoyed our introductory teaching on the Spiritual Gifts.  I for one am very intrigued with the three categories of gifts that Pastor Harris has provided for us.  Of those three categories I am referring to, one contains 7 motivational gifts,  another contains 11 equipping gifts and another contains 7 manifestation gifts.  I am looking forward to digging into these with Pastor Harris as he unpacks each of the life of this teaching.  In this episode Pastor Harris we review the ins and outs of the motivational gifts answering questions like; when do we get assigned our gifts?  Are some gifts more dominant than others? Can you earn gifts or are there reasons that you would deserve a gift?  Pastor Harris will then cover the first of 7 motivational gifts to us, the specific gift he will cover in this episode will be the gift of prophecy.  

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In this episode we kick off one of our largest teaching series to date; Pastor Harris is going to walk us through the Spiritual Gifts. What are the spiritual gifts?  How many of them are there? How do we know which gifts we have? There are so many questions to be answered on this topic. In this episode Pastor Harris will examine these God given abilities through the lens of none other than the Apostle Paul and you know that is going to make for some great teaching.

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Given the nature of this podcast and how it is dependent on past recordings, it is inevitable that we are going to run into instances where we simply don’t have the full recording of the teachings.  Well sadly on this final teaching of dad’s 2017 Advent series it seems that the entire teaching was not captured successfully. However, I say we don’t let that get us down.  I say this Christmas we all put on our Hercule Puaro caps Pastor Harris taught us to wear for so many years, and we do our best to deduce where he was coming from leading up to the end of this teaching as we listen to the final 6 minutes and 45 seconds of his message.  I think there is so much that can be taken from this small snippet of teaching that I couldn't help but go ahead and share it to wrap up this series.

I mean… leave it to dad to be able to teach The Christmas Story from the Gospel of John.  He proves that you don't need wise men or shepherds or angels to tell the story of the miracle of Christmas.  I hope you are able to take away as much insight as I did from this very brief teaching.

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This episode marks the third week of this Advenseries.  It is that time when we remember God’s decision to become a man, and when we look ahead with anticipation to his second coming to establish his kingdom on earth. The magnitude of this first aspect of Advent, God’s decision to become a man is truly incredible. Just think about it! The one true God, the God who brought the world into being by the words of his mouth, chose, decided, willed, to become a human being. Can you imagine?

The facts are staggering. Almighty God willingly chose to put on this corrupt human flesh of ours, choosing to live in one of these bodies of sin. It truly is “mind-boggling.” Then, when we add to all of that the fact that by His own free choice, He subjected Himself to all the limitations that you and I experience, it is difficult for anyone to comprehend.

However, if we think this is difficult for us to understand, imagine how difficult it would have been for the ancient Hebrews to understand. For them, the idea that God would become flesh was the surest lunacy; it was unthinkable. After all, they saw God as being “wholly other,” and the very thought of Him associating with the likes of us, much less becoming man Himself was considered to be blasphemous.

Yet, there were a few men who dared to express such a thought, and this morning, Pastor Harris will point to these special men, and even name them. Their boldness set the scene for that great moment when God became flesh and dwelt among us. 

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In this episode we will jump into the second episode of our Advent series this year titled, “The Christ of Christmas”. Pastor Harris will tell us more about the “Little town of Bethlehem” which was made famous by the great Christmas carol that we all have sung so many times. Bethlehem is located some six miles south of the city of Jerusalem near the chief north-south route that links Jerusalem with the town of Hebron. The word Bethlehem means “house of bread” and its significance lies in the fact that it is located in a fertile region characterized by an abundance of grain, especially barley and wheat, thus “house of bread.”

The town was originally called Ephrathah, which means “fruitful.” The first biblical mention of the site is that it was the place where Jacob’s wife, Rachel, was buried after her untimely death, so the city must have existed as early as the time of Jacob and perhaps earlier.

In the prophetic book of Micah, Bethlehem is given its crowning glory. The prophet declares that this village will be the birthplace of Israel’s Messiah. In fact, Micah 5:2 reads as follows:

“But you, Bethlehem, though you were little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting.”

Ever since the first century AD, Bethlehem has been a place of pilgrimage and throughout the following centuries the city has continued to be a sacred site for Christians worldwide. There, we find the very ancient Church of the Nativity, perhaps the oldest church building in existence, which is located in the middle of the town. Beneath this church is a grotto, a cave, and it is here where the Lord Jesus Christ was born. In this teaching, Pastor Harris will be making reference to this cave and to the One who was born here. 

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Now if the Bible clearly teaches that when Jesus entered the life of this world, He was born in a land, and to a people who enjoyed a unique relationship with God. We would imagine, of course, that these people would welcome Him with open arms. Unfortunately, none of these things would prove to be true. Rather than being received with open arms, He was rejected and hated, not adored.

When God saw this He was heartbroken. Here was a nation of people who have been longing for a deliverer to appear, and when that occurred they rejected Him.  However, the Jews were not alone in this rejection of the highest and best.

Tragically, this is the sad story of the entire human race. There are so few of us who are willing to accept all that God has for us. And millions even billions of people reject His greatest gift, the Christ of Christmas. Yet this much can be said. Some of the Jewish people did accept God’s gift; and that gift empowered them to become everything God created them to be. As John will write, “To all those who did receive Him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God.”

John 1:10-12 will set the stage for Pastor Harris’s message as he speaks of “the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us.”

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As we wrap up Pastor Harris’s fourth and final message on Discouragement.  Let’s step back a few episodes to episode one where Pastor Harris defined discouragement and explained this with some of his own personal examples.  In the second episode on discouragement, Pastor Harris discussed Its many causes and ways that Christians can combat these feelings. In the third episode, Pastor Harris discussed three “don’ts”, or three things we should avoid doing to rise above discouragement.  In this final episode on the topic of discouragement, Pastor Harris will use the story of Joshua to paint a picture of the curse that discouragement can be and the parallels that can be found between the curse of sin. 

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