The Word Made Flesh
An Advent Series
The Word Made Flesh: Character Development
December 31, 2023 • Pastor Kent Landhuis
Word Made Flesh: Character Development Pastor Kent Landhuis THEME - The character of Jesus developed to accomplish the purpose for which he came. TEXT - Matthew 2:1-18 1. Threatened. (Matthew 2:1-18) 2. Tempted. (Matthew 4:1-11) 3. Tested. (Matthew 16:13-20) 4. Trampled. (Matthew 26-27) 5. Triumphed. (Matthew 28:1-10, Colossians 1:9-20, Philippians 2:6-11, John 1:14) NEXT STEPS · Give thanks. · Don’t lose heart ------------------------------------------- 2024 Theme: Abundant Faith A year of living with open hands. Do not forget to do good and to share with others. Hebrews 13:16a In the New Year, we will focus on the spiritual practice of giving. This kind of generosity involves so much more than simply giving money. All kinds of giving flow from gospel-transformed hearts touched by God’s lavish love. Radical, whole-life generosity flows from a grateful response to God’s generosity toward us - it is the overflow of Abundant Faith. Our goal is to grow generosity by growing an awareness of our dependence on God and growing our response to God’s abundant provision. James 1:17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” 2 Corinthians 9:6 reminds us that “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” We want to be the kind of people who sow and reap abundantly! Some of the themes we will dig into in 2024 include: Generosity and God’s Grace Generosity and Relationships/Forgiveness Generosity and Hospitality Generosity and Ministry/Spiritual Gifts Generosity and Money/Wealth Generosity and Power/Influence Generosity and Justice We will focus Sunday messages on these topics and we will provide scripture and prayer guides to help all of us grow generosity in 2024. Pray for your heart to be open to where God wants to lead you in the New Year.
The Word Made Flesh: Growing up Jesus (8:30am Service)
December 24, 2023 • Pastor Kent Landhuis
Word Made Flesh: Growing up Jesus Pastor Kent Landhuis THEME - Jesus grew in stature and wisdom and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:52) TEXT - Luke 2:41-52 1. Do you focus more on the humanity or the divinity of Jesus? · Isaiah 9:6 · Luke 2:41-42 · Luke 2:49-50 2. Do you recognize what Jesus accomplished? · Luke 2:40,52 · Luke 24:26-27 · Luke 2:46-47 3. Do you know how much God loves you? · Isaiah 11:1-9 · Isaiah 53:4-6 · Isaiah 25:6-9 · Isaiah 54:10 · 1 John 4:7-21 NEXT STEPS: Receive God’s Love. Love God. Love People. 1 John 4:7-21 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
The Word Made Flesh: Water Into Wine Feasting (11:00am Service)
December 17, 2023 • Pastor Kent Landhuis
Word Made Flesh: Water into Wine Pastor Kent Landhuis THEME - Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. TEXT - John 2:1-12 OUTLINE 1. We have no wine. * John 2:3 * Matthew 25:1 * Revelations 19:7 * Ephesians 5:25-26 2. Do whatever he says. * John 2:4-7 * Hebrews 9:22 * John 6:53-56 3. The best is yet to come. * John 2:8-10 * Isaiah 25:6-9 * Isaiah 55:1-3 NEXT STEPS: 1. Admit your lack of wine. 2. Do whatever the bridegroom says. 3. Rejoice. A GREAT PODCAST: https://podcast.http://gospelinlife.com/e/lord-of-the-wine-1699279399
The Word Made Flesh: Life and Death
December 10, 2023 • Pastor Steve Poole
Word Made Flesh: Life and Death Pastor Steve Poole THEME - The flesh and blood Jesus deals with death. TEXT - John 11:17-44 1. Jesus doesn’t blame Lazarus or his sisters. “The flesh and blood Jesus doesn’t rebuke any of the mourners for showing their grief over the death of Lazarus, and he could have!” ~Steve Poole 2. Jesus doesn’t condemn their emotional response. “…the Son of God, having clothed himself with our flesh, of his own accord, clothed himself also with human feelings, so that he did not differ at all from his brethren, sin only excepted.” ~ John Calvin 3. Jesus offers peace through truth. “I am that high and holy One who, by taking man’s nature upon Me, have ennobled his body, and made its resurrection possible. I am the great First Cause and Procurer of man’s resurrection, the Conqueror of death, and the Saviour of the body. I am the great Spring and Source of all life, and whatever life any one has, eternal, spiritual, physical, is all owing to Me…” ~ J.C. Ryle 4. Jesus offers peace through sharing in our tears. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” ~ John 11:33 “Yet I have no doubt that Christ contemplated something higher, namely, the general misery of the whole human race; for he knew well what had been enjoined on him by the Father, and why he was sent into the world, namely, to free us from all evils.” ~ Calvin/Pringle 5. Jesus is deeply moved for ALL those who suffer the angst of death, even himself. “Jesus therefore again groaning within himself. Christ does not approach the sepulcher as an idle spectator, but as a champion who prepares for a contest; and therefore we need not wonder that he again groans; for the violent tyranny of death, which he had to conquer, is placed before his eyes.” ~ Calvin/Pringle
The Word Made Flesh: Resurrection and Return
December 3, 2023 • Pastor Kent Landhuis
Word Made Flesh: Resurrection and Return Pastor Kent Landhuis THEME - Jesus' flesh and blood resurrection and return give us hope. TEXT - John 1:1,14; Acts 1:3-11 OUTLINE - How important is flesh and blood? 1. Celebrate flesh and blood Jesus. John 1:1,14 Incarnation: the in-fleshing of Jesus. Hebrews 2:17; 4:15 2. Touch flesh and blood Jesus. - Luke 24:36-42 - John 20:24-29 - 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 3. Embrace flesh and blood Jesus. - Acts 1:3-11 - John 14:1-6 - 1 Corinthians 15:20-26 4. Eat Flesh and blood Jesus. - John 6:53-56 - Matthew 26:26-29 - 1 Corinthians 11:23-34 NEXT STEPS: 1. Ask Jesus to come near. 2. Put your hope in Jesus. HOW IMPORTANT IS FLESH AND BLOOD? Famous reflections on the incarnation: "Man's maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die." - St. Augustine "Without the incarnation, Christianity isn't even a very good story, and most sadly, it means nothing." - Michael Spencer "I've become convinced that what makes the difference for Christianity is the incarnation. No other faith says God became flesh. Christmas and the incarnation mean that God went to infinite lengths to make himself one whom we can know personally." - Tim Keller "The incarnation is a kind of vast joke whereby the Creator of the ends of the earth comes among us in diapers". - Frederick Buechner "God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak, and the broken." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer "The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this." - C.S. Lewis