Do you know what the Advent season is truly about?  Chris Brannon wraps up our Foundations series with a sermon on bringing the Gospel to all!  Jesus Christ has come and will come again.  This is the hope of the Church, whom He purchased with His blood.  Jesus’ coming is the eager expectation and desire of His people.  This is the theme of “Advent”, formed from a Latin word, meaning “coming” or “arrival”.  It is an opportunity to pause and reflect on the birth of Jesus.

Think about the way you felt on December 24th as a kid.  You could hardly wait for the next day to arrive, and the anticipation made it hard to sleep!  There were some shepherds that felt that way on the first Christmas Eve, but their excitement wasn’t just about what was to come; they were excited by what they had already seen and heard.  They had already received the good news of a promise.  Chris continues to tell us what that good news was and why it was such good news.

We are each placed strategically in the lives of others whom God is calling.  See yourself as an ambassador of Christ for the purpose of sharing the good, good news!  See yourself as sent by God for the sake of sharing good news of the kingdom.  Pray for eyes to see, doors of opportunity to open and wisdom to speak.

What are we doing to help empower the poor?  Chris Brannon continues in our Foundations series by talking about empowering the poor.  He shows us God’s heart for the poor and goes over three types of the poor.  First, there is the humble poor.  These people acknowledge their helplessness and look to God alone for salvation.  Then there is the physically poor.  These are people who lack the basic necessities of life, like food, clothing, water, etc.  Lastly, there is the oppressed poor.  These are those people who are powerless victims of human injustice or oppressive life circumstances.  Should we be involved in serving the poor?  Absolutely!!  Chris shares some great ways that we can become involved in helping the poor locally and globally.  In what way will you start helping today?

Are you a disciple?  Chris Brannon continues in our Foundations series by speaking about making disciples.  He gives us the marks of a disciple:

A disciple’s life shines brightly

A disciple reconciles thoroughly

A disciple loves truly

A disciple gives liberally (but privately)

A disciple prays genuinely

A disciple gives generously with an eye to the future

A disciple trusts in the sovereign care of the Father

A disciple opens his or her life up to close scrutiny

A disciple bears good fruit

A disciple obeys and implements the teachings of Jesus

He wraps up his sermon by asking some questions to reflect on.

Church life is not about where we go to church.  It is about who we belong to.  Chris Brannon continues in our Foundations series talking about living in community.  We are a family.  We are a body.  We are members of one another.  We are a community – the people of God.  Being together is God’s design for us.  In Genesis, it says, “Let us make man in our image”.  The language that is used is one of community, not individualism.  Chris gives us some cultural obstacles to community and some personal obstacles to community.

Why do we need community?  When we live our lives independently, other people are poorer because they cannot benefit from our gifts.  Also, when we isolate ourselves, we are poorer because the benefits of others’ gifts are lost to us.  Chris gives us two erroneous beliefs about community:  I am not needed and I have no need of you.  The longer we stay in a church family, the deeper the relationship gets.  Listen as he explains how this relationship is not so different from one that leads to marriage.  What are you doing today to become a part of a community?

Transformation by the Holy Spirit is like the opposite of an earthquake: He transforms devastation to healing.  Tom Maus continues in our Foundations series by talking about transformation by the Holy Spirit.  The first church vividly depicts a progression of empowerment:

God takes nothingness and creates purpose out of it.

He takes brokenness and brings forth healing out of it.

He takes weak people and empowers them with His might.

He takes blundering individuals and joins them together in a family where His power and presence dwells and through which nothingness and brokenness of people’s lives can be                                 transformed.

Today we are supposed to continue in this power.  There are two ways that Holy Spirit empowerment contributes to transformation:

People are transformed as a result of coming into contact with God working through us.

We are transformed as a result of God working through us.

Tom wraps up his sermon by telling us how we should take this and respond to it.  We need to acknowledge that we need the Holy Spirit, receive the Holy Spirit and lean into the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

God’s heart is always to care for and bring the distant and disenfranchised to Himself.  Chris Brannon speaks about being adopted into God’s kingdom through this next sermon from our Foundations series.  He sent his son, Jesus to die on the cross for us so that we could be adopted into His kingdom.  It is the highest privilege that we can be given because it means that we are brought into the family and fellowship of God.  The entire Christian life has to be understood in terms of adoption.

It shows us the greatness of God’s love.  Of all the gifts of grace, adoption is the greatest!  Chris gives us the history of adoption in New Testament times and the importance of it to the families.  God adopts us out of free love, not because of anything that we have done, but in spite of what we have done.  Adoption also shows us the true meaning and motive for authentic holiness.  It is simply living out a life consistent with the beautiful relationship we have been brought into as a result of adoption.  Adoption shows us the glory of our eternal hope.  As sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, we have a promised inheritance.  God’s adoption of us makes us His heirs.  It guarantees to us, as our right, the inheritance He has for us.

Chris wraps up his sermon by asking us some self reflecting questions to help us realize who and what we, as children of God are:

*Do I understand my adoption?  Do I value it?  Do I daily remind myself of my privilege as a child of God?

*Have I sought to understand and live in the assurance of my adoption? Do I spend time dwelling on the love of God to and for me?

*Do I treat God as my Father in heaven, loving, honoring and obeying Him, seeking and welcoming His fellowship, and trying in everything to please Him, as a human parent would want a child to do?

*Do I think of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, as my brother too, granting me divine authority and divine-human love and sympathy?

*Do I often think how close He is to me, how completely He understands me, and how much He cares for me?

*Have I learned to hate the things that displeases my Father?  Am I sensitive to evil things to which He is sensitive?  Do I make a point to avoid them, so as not to grieve Him?

*Do I look forward daily to that great day when the children of God will finally gather in heaven before the throne of God, our Father, and our brother and Lord?  Have I felt the thrill of this thought?

*Do I love my Christian brothers and sisters with whom I live day by day, in a way that I will not be ashamed of when, in heaven, I think back over it?

*Am I proud of my Father, and of His family, to which by His grace I belong?

*Does the family likeness appear in me?  If not, why not?

There’s not one of us that can stand before God and say,”I’m good. I haven’t sinned.”  Chris Brannon continues in our Foundations series and speaks on being accepted by grace.  A sense of fair play seems to demand that you get what you deserve, but grace stands in drastic contrast.  Grace says,”I will not only release you completely from what you deserve, but will also give you mercy, kindness, loyalty, favor and everlasting blessings.”  Why does God favor us?  Why does He commit Himself to everlasting love?  He set His love on us because He chose to love us!  It’s not to be analyzed or figured out. Just to be enjoyed and celebrated that the Lord loves you because He loves you.

Chris shares some examples of God choosing the seemingly insignificant to do significant things!  God’s grace is given not for anything we have done, but for what He has done.

The word Glory literally means great, heavy or weighty.  It is is used often in a figurative sense to mean significant, important, noteworthy, impressive or severe.  Chris Brannon continues in our Foundations series by speaking on the Glory of God.  The glory of God is the manifest beauty of his holiness.  Chris explains to us how we see and know the glory of God.  We can see His glory through the majestic beauty and splendor of creation, through His holiness and in the person of Jesus Christ.  He then talks about the implications of God’s glory for us.  Christ is glorified in you when He is more precious to you than all that life can give or death can take away.

He is glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.  If that is true, then there is no conflict between your greatest exhilaration and God’s greatest glorification.  In fact, not only is there no conflict between your happiness and God’s glory, but His glory shines in your happiness when your happiness is in Him!  See God’s glory in the person of Jesus Christ.

As individuals, most of us have some kind of purpose that we’re living for and the church is no different.  Chris Brannon starts off our new Foundations series talking about who God says we are and not only what he says to do.  The mission statement of our church is the following:

We exist to bring glory to God as people fully accepted by the grace of God and adopted into His kingdom.  Together, we will be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, discipled to maturity, and released on mission to empower the poor and bring the gospel to the world.

Our behavior is a by-product of our beliefs.  So if we are going to align with Jesus and His mission for us, it is essential that we fully understand and embrace who He says we are.  Chris gives us eight broad themes that young outsiders have against Christians.  He also tells us what church is not and talks about the dynamic church of the Book of Acts.  We, the church must keep Christ as the foundation to everything that we do, He is the cornerstone.

If you are lacking in strength, you have not asked. Trust God to give you strength.  Justin Henderson speaks on gaining strength from God and not ourselves.  He tells us why Jesus would concern himself with us and gives us some key verses on God’s love and strength.  Know that, through Christ, you can face anything!!