The birth of Jesus is truly a celebration and gift that's a treasure to celebrate year after year. As we know, Jesus did not stay a baby forever. He grew into a perfect, righteous, man, who would eventually die for the sins of you and me; and He was raised from the dead to give us eternal life. Between the miraculous events of the birth of Jesus and the beginning of His public ministry, we only have one account of his young life. The 12 year old boy Jesus in the temple. Discover, and marvel at the nature of Jesus; He is perfect man and perfect God. He is faithful to the will of His Heavenly Father. And He is the one and only perfect sacrifice for you!

God makes and keeps some incredible huge promises to David even though he is unworthy and undeserving of those promised because of his failure as a leader, husband, father, and friend. Yet those failures don't change God keeping his word to David or to you. God remains faithful always and makes those promises to us today in powerful, personal ways through the gift of baptism. A gift that no one deserves but everyone needs.

The birth of Jesus changes everything! If it doesn't feel like Christmas to you this year because of the brokenness that surrounds you, the truth is that you are exactly who Christmas is for. Christmas is for tears. And tears are only temporary because of Jesus.

Tags and labels from our past are hard to get over. Just ask Jesus' Great Grandmother Rahab the Prostitute who despite all that she did for God's people and being a relative of Jesus still is known by her struggle with sin. Some of the tags we carry are known to people around us and that tag defines us to them. Other tags we keep hidden, wishing no one ever finds out about them. No matter how hard we try to get past or make up for it, we still find that it haunts us. Yet Jesus has a new tag for us that can cover over any tag or label that is associated with our names. . A tag he has earned and paid for with his perfect fulfillment on the law for us. A tag that marks us as a child of God, washed in the water, fed at his table, and sent out to be the light in the world with a new identity.

Forgiveness is only for those who don't deserve it. In the genealogy of Jesus there are a number of people with a lot of past and a lot of secrets to hide. But because of Jesus they don't just play a role in the story of Jesus but are preciously the reason He came. It is Jesus suffering for sin that makes a difference in his family and in your family today.

Rip the wrapping paper off the Christmas story and you might just be surprised who and what you find. The unlikely, the unexpected, the unworthy, the undeserving, and the unknown who together make this story unforgettable. This week we spend time with Matthew as he begins to tell the story of Jesus but first we have to understand Mattthew's own story.

We all make plans but our plans don't always play out in our life the way we want. When God makes a promise or a plan you can be sure he will keep it and carry it out especially when it comes to the greatest plan of all, the salvation of the world!

As followers of Jesus we want to be generous people. We definetly don't want to be fools. Yet the alluring temptation of money and wealth can distract us from where true treasure is found in the person and words of Jesus. With the right generosity plan based on God's Word we can find that our wealth can be something that can be a blessing to us and others at the same time as we begin to see that we can never out give God the greatest giver of all.

What are you building your life upon? Jesus invites us to have a firm foundation for our life and eternity on him and his word. Yet one of the greatest competitors to that is our money and stuff which tempt us to rely and depend on it instead of Him. Paul too talks about this issue when he tells Timothy to instruct Rich people in a certain way. We might not think of ourselves as very rich because there is always someone who has more but when we stop and really see what we have we just might be suprised how rich we are.

It is really important to know where your treasure is becuase according to Jesus that is where your heart is. Yet despite that warning from Jesus many time we are tempted to make money our treasure. Perhpas the best way we can be sure to not put our treasure in the wrong place to is to learn to be generous. Join us in week one as we start to learn that when it comes to being generous it is all about what God wants FOR you than FROM you as we spend time with Jesus as he spends time watching people giving their offerings at the temple one day.