Great Lengths
Christmas 2018
Part 3: Little Herod
December 23, 2018 • Chris Edmondson • Matthew 2:1–16, John 1:4–5
Maybe you wandered away from the church. Maybe the church pushed you away. You lost interest. You got busy. You got hurt. You thought you were done with God forever. But then you started to miss the peace. Despite everything you had experienced, you sensed a light out there. The doubt, the anger, the disappointment with God, the sin, and the shame didn’t put out the light. And here you are in church again. How did that happen?
Part 2: Great Lengths
December 16, 2018 • Chris Edmondson • Psalm 19:1–2, Matthew 2:1–11, Numbers 24:17, 2 Peter 3:9, 2 Chronicles 36:19–20
In the vast darkness. Deep in a cloud of gas and dust, a sovereign work begins. Within this distant nebula, gravity causes collisions of hydrogen molecules and atoms begin bouncing off one another. As the collection of molecules grows the temperature begins to rise. When this sphere of super-heated matter reaches seventy centimeters in diameter, the temperature climbs to ten million degrees. At this point, the boiling natural process known as nuclear fusion begins. Hydrogen fuses together to form helium and matter converts to pure energy. Finally, at eighteen million degrees a transformation occurs light bursts forth and a star is born. The light from the infant star races across the cosmos at one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second. Taking hundreds, if not thousands of years to finally reach our planet, to pierce the night sky—illuminating where Jesus—the gift of salvation—lies for religious outsiders.
Part 1: Coming Out of the Dark
December 9, 2018 • Dr. Carlo Serrano • Matthew 1:21–23, John 10:30, Isaiah 8:6–22, Isaiah 9:1–6
According to modest estimates, there are about 100 billion observable stars. Each of them powerful and potentially life-giving in their own right. And yet, for all of their power, might, heat, and light, the only thing that is comparable to the power of a star is its converse...darkness. Darkness is cold and uninviting. Darkness can be dangerous. It is the absence of light. Can you imagine a darkness so powerful that it sucks out even the possibility of light? Can you imagine a darkness so powerful that it leaves people feeling hopeless and helpless? What if you found out that God went to great lengths to keep us out of the dark?