Saint Nicholas

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Saint Nicholas

The Problem of Christmas, Part 2

December 17, 2023 • Chris Edmondson • John 3:16–17, Matthew 19:16–21, Romans 3:10, Romans 6:23, Romans 3:23

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Santa Claus is real. It rarely snows where he’s from. Palm trees and orange groves dot the landscape. If you went there today, you wouldn’t hear sleigh bells, but the sound of the Muslim call to prayer from the minarets of the town mosques. Born in 260ad, St. Nicholas was from a wealthy trading family off the seacoast of Turkey. But when he was a teenager, tragedy struck, and he lost both of his parents in a pandemic. Nicholas used his inheritance to love and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and became a leader of the early church.

But the problem with Santa Claus today is that most people believe that nice people go to heaven, naughty people go to Hell. That God is making a list and he's checking it twice. But the problem we discover is that no one nice makes it to heaven.

THE BIG IDEA: God love. God gave. We believe. We receive.

X Marks the Spot

December 24, 2023 • Jeff Bent • Luke 2:1–11

Ever felt the chaos of Christmas? Things that start off so beautiful become terrorizing and terrifying by the end of the season. The songs you love to sing become annoying. The food you look forward to eating you get sick of. The parties you been anticipating become a burden. Is that how you want to spend this Christmas? Do you think that this is how God wants you to spend this Christmas? To understand all that God did through the birth of His son Jesus to radically change and redeem our story. God gave us a whole new way to live, to love, and have relationship with him and others—all through the birth of a little baby, born in a forgotten town, to a teenage mother. THE BIG IDEA: God takes ordinary things and transforms them into extraordinary things.

X-Mas

December 3, 2023 • Chris Edmondson • Luke 16:10, Psalm 119:105, Numbers 24:17, Matthew 2:1–9, Daniel 2:48

What does Christmas mean to you? For some, it’s about the birth of Jesus—God in a manger. But for most of us? It’s not about Christmas, but X-mas. It’s about everything else. The presents, decorations, trees, talking reindeer, snowmen, candy—everything gets lumped into the X and Jesus gets left out. And that X is a problem we need to solve. BIG IDEA: Obey God and take a step, and He will direct your steps.