Tag: 2013

This is the 4th Sunday of Advent! This period of weeks before Christmas helps us to anticipate the arrival of Jesus through Mary. The time of His first coming helps us to look for His second coming! His second coming is sometimes called the second Advent. Just as His first coming was anticipated with Great Joy so we look forward to His second coming with great anticipation! His first coming was during a time of violence and evil upon the earth. Likewise His second coming will be during great tribulation upon the earth. Whether His first or second Advent the theme is God’s Love! John 3:16 What’s Love got to do with it? All cultures talk about love through poetry, literature or social media. The question we need to ask this morning is, “Can I be loved?” Am I loveable? We all want to love and be loved but there are risks and vulnerabilities. God risk rejection from you but He sent His Son Jesus anyway to be born to die for you! Families, marriages and nation’s are held together by love! Sometimes John 3:16 become too familiar to us. We memorize it yet miss it. Dietrick Bonhoefer was a German Lutheran Pastor, Theologian, dissident anti-Nazi and founding member of the Confessing Church. He was hung in 1945 while imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp just 23 days before the end of the war. He came to America in 1930 and attended Union Theological Center in New York City. He taught Sunday school at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. He formed a love for African American spirituals and took a collection back with him to Germany in 1931. While ministering in Harlem he began to see things “from below”— from the perspective of those who suffer oppression. God came to earth for the suffering! He said his impressions while working with the oppressed in Harlem turned his phraseology into reality! He was moved from a intellectual on theology to a man of “Faith.” The step to Faith is moving from knowledge to reality. From head knowledge to reality in your heart! Is Christ real to you? Bonhoefer said you must, “Believe.” The fact you are here may be a small clue. God see’s your humanity. He is aware of your faults. As an ocean wave consumes you let His love consume you. God is too big to comprehend all of Him but to experience His Love is enough. Ephesians 3:14-19. Paul’s prayer for you is that you be rooted and grounded in His Love! His love is bigger than the ocean! Powerful, beautiful, gentle and unending! Do you believe it? Just that simple but yet often missed. Believe Him and receive Him. Choose to accept His Love. A mother’s first baby is a mess at birth and sometimes ugly. But mom falls in love with her baby about 2 seconds after she see’s it! Yes, falls in love with a vulnerable baby. Jesus the Son of God was vulnerable as a baby born to a teenage mom. God calls us to be vulnerable! To believe in love you must be vulnerable. Be vulnerable and let God fill your empty cup. You have to believe differently so God can fill you with His Love and so you can give it away. You can change the world by changing your heart. Do you want to change the world? It starts at home! Be famous in your own home as a father or mother. Change your home to change the world. We change the world one home at a time. John 13: 34-35. A new and fresh commandment He gives us! Love one another! Start with your family, neighbor,ect. How about the person seated next to you? God has a simple bold plan. Receive love and give it away! Believe, receive and give it away. The way I love you changes the world! Do you believe God loves you? Ask your children! Source; Sermon notes taken from message given by Pastor Brady Boyd at New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado given on Sunday, December 22, 2013.