Matthew 1:1-2:12. In this lesson, we want to look at when Jesus first came into the world, the first time the world got a look at Jesus when he was born into this world. Last week, we looked at Isaiah 53, which promised the Savior would come and suffer for our sins. Isaiah also prophesied in Isaiah 9:6-7, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…" telling about the Savior who would be born into this world. What you do with Jesus effects the rest of your life on earth and in eternity.

Isaiah 53:1-12. The point of the Bible is Jesus. The Old Testament, Genesis-Malachi, is about Jesus coming. In New Testament, the gospels, Matthew-John, tell us Jesus is here, and Acts-Revelation are about Jesus coming back. God told of the coming Savior through his prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus came. He told us that God would send his servant to suffer for our sins so we could be saved from them. This was a greater deliverance than they would get from Babylonian captivity, because it was deliverance from captivity of sin and eternal death.

Revelation 2:1-7. If we neglect to evangelize we cannot be surprised when the church declines and dies. This happens if we lose sight of our mission to tell others about Jesus.

Acts 1:6-11. When a person is sent out to do something they are trusted to accomplish the task. Whether it be parents sending their child to buy milk and bread at the grocery store, or soldiers sent to rescue someone from harm, they were sent for a reason. Jesus has sent every New Testament Christian out on a mission. He has sent us out to accomplish the most important mission of all humankind – to continue the mission he gave his twelve apostles; to be his witnesses by telling others about him.

1 Peter 4:10-11. Today was our annual "Service Sunday" where we have a shorter sermon followed by presentations from Matt Perkins and Kenley Dover about ways to get involved in the work of the church.

Matthew 13:44-46. In this lesson, we’re going to look at two short parables that tell us about the value of the kingdom of God.

Hebrews 12:18-29. Gathering for various occasions is something people do. This morning, we’re going to look at the value of gathering as the Lord’s church. In our text we see that those in Christ, 1) Are gathered to God and to many other heavenly blessings; 2) Should listen to God; and 3) Should be grateful to God for his kingdom and salvation and therefore worship God as he wants to be worshiped.

Romans 15:1-7. Have you walked up to the front door of a home, and the owners had a mat at the front door that said, “Welcome”? If you didn’t know the people, but saw their welcome mat, you probably assume they mean it, but you won’t know until you knock on their door, will you? It’s not until you interact with them that you actually know if they mean what they say. How do you know if you’re welcome somewhere? Because they have a sign? No. It’s based on how they treat you, right? In the Lord’s church, we have to put out the welcome mat, but we have to mean it. We have to make sure that we show we are welcoming. Welcoming to who? We first think of visitors, but we also have to be welcoming of one another.

Galatians 3:26-29. Everyone wants to belong. In fact, God created us with a need for relationships; a need to belong. The New Testament shows us that every Christian should belong to a local church. Yes, when you become a Christian, you’re a part of Jesus’ church in a general sense, but the idea of a Lone Ranger Christian, a solo Christian unattached to a local church is foreign to the New Testament.

In Romans5, there are four “therefore's”, and even though this is considered one of the more difficult passages to understand, we want to look at Romans 5 to see what we learn from these "therefore's". We won’t be able to cover every detail, but we’ll understand the big idea of God’s message for us that Romans 5 shows us the blessing of salvation we have in Jesus and makes God’s grace and love that much sweeter.

Romans 5 reminds us of God’s great love, his glorious grace, and the incredible lengths he went through to make forgiveness and salvation possible for us. And it’s all about Jesus.