Love God Love One Another

Questions about “what, where, and how” we should use our gifts are all secondary to the question “why?” In every setting we find ourselves, God wants us to use our gifts and to share them together to benefit the environment we are in…to reciprocate the love God first showed us. Where do I fit? has everything to do with recognizing “everyone matters.” If it wasn’t for our getting in the way, God’s love would flow to every person and every need. As we join our energy and serve united we unleash the spirit of God’s love for greater impact.

Last fall, many of you shared in Messiah's Fall Small Group and Message Series - Fit to be a Disciple. You learned about the skills and tools of being a disciple and follower of Jesus, and you learned that no matter who you are, where you're from, or how long you've been a Christian—you are FIT to be a disciple! Now as we begin 2017, we'll take those skills of discipleship and move them into Christian community. Where do you FIT? Where do I FIT? How can you work with others to follow Jesus and love God and one another? We'll begin exploring that this week, with a 4-week message series that unwraps 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, understanding what it means to be a disciple AND be part of the Body of Christ here at Messiah.

God is passionate for our lives and our bright future. The world in Jesus’ day was no less tumultuous. Then and now—despite terror, extremism, and views of mundane Christianity—God calls us to be alert and hopeful. We draw on the power of heavenly love and our inter-connectedness on earth to be a part of God’s bright future.

Happy New Year! Today we're continuing a tradition we started last year at Messiah. The first Sunday after Christmas, we'll take time to recount our year - to share moments of hope, joy, peace and love - and remember where the God of hope, peace, joy and love was present amidst it all. What did you get for Christmas this year? We hope today you see how richly Jesus blesses us all - and how he calls us into God's service. Feel free to join the conversation during worship!

Christmas is a classic love story. It is the "meet-cute" of the most unlikely kind...the intersection of a pursuing God and the target of those affections—you. The cosmic message of Christmas is endearing and unending love and side-by-side attention. God is with us!...today, in every place, and in any circumstance. The ultimate gift of Christmas is God with you!

This Christmas we're celebrating the Ultimate Gift—God's Ultimate Gift to you. It's a gift that changes everything. A gift that goes beyond the baby in the manger to the Savior on the Cross. It's a gift for the living, not for the dead. It's a gift that's meant to be shared. It's a gift that costs everything and nothing all at once. It's a gift that's among us tonight. O Come O Come Emmanuel: God with Us.

We crave good news and we wish for more of it, and yet we can’t turn away from dwelling on the bad. It envelops us, it comes crashing in…how do we push through? Loss, grief, illness, failure, disappointment? Is this your Christmas context? Do not be afraid! The timing, the purpose, and the context of our lives is all in God’s plan which began at creation and is fulfilled with the coming of Jesus. Immanuel—God with us! Repose in the arms of God, receive the angel chorus. God has come to dwell in you today!

In a time of instant gratification and virtual reality, we might be forgiven for thinking we've lost our capacity to wonder. The truth is though, in such an age, we need even more reminders that there is something greater than ourselves. This Christmas, God gives us the Gift of Wonder. This gift reminds us that we can choose this season: Fear or Joy; Despair or Belief. God comes again to the manger each Christmas morning. Have we prepared our hearts to receive the wonder this baby Jesus brings?

Surprisingly, throughout the world, dignity, health, joy, and love are not universally a part of every child’s life. Messiah stands with Tom Eggum and his worldwide outreach to address these basic four pillars of hope—Hope4Kids. The power of prayer and willing people make miracles possible: education, nutrition, clean water wells, medical care, and safe structures for living and worship. These are fueled by short-term mission trips, generous donations, and monthly child sponsorships. May we share with Tom in this daily prayer: Loving God, thank you for your mercy and grace. Thank you for the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. This is all we have. Thank you for another day to serve you. Like Isaiah who heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” May we say, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 5:8)

Today we begin our four-week Advent message series: The Gifts of Christmas. At a time when the world wants you to speed up - go to more parties, wrap more presents, buy all the things --Jesus wants you to slow down. Remember that the gifts of this Advent season don't come tied with a bow. Instead, they remind us of gratitude (remember Thanksgiving?) that God is in our midst each and every day. Today we'll learn about The Gift of Moments. You might feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to do it all. Maybe you feel like your best time has gone by. Or like you're waiting for your real life to begin. Wherever you are in your life journey, God promises you moments of communion with Him. Moments where the clock stops - and you feel the Holy Spirit in your midst. Today we'll remember those moments and give thanks for Jesus' giving them to us this season and every season.

Are you saved? How do you know? Zacchaeus can tell us. He learned salvation is a gift that is given, not a process based on our life’s effort. Truth be told, we could never measure up…but God is enough. With an open mind and heart we accept that God shows up for us today. “God is in the house!” Conversion is complete and we become transformed by the love of God. We can become more like Jesus because he first loved us. A generous and grace-filled life is a sign of response to the gravity of what God has done. Teach us to give like Zacchaeus.

Gravity is an energy that brings everything together; it draws us, first, to common ground and, second, to each other. Gravity is a God-given gift that makes life on earth possible. In this and every way, God’s heart is a force of generosity—“ALL IN” for us. With God as our gracious benefactor, we are full beneficiaries…prepared to be a benediction (blessing) to others. The closer we come to God's heart the greater the gravitational pull to gratitude.

You did it! We made it! This is Week 6, the final week of Messiah’s fall message and small group series: FIT to be a Disciple. This is the week we put it all together: we’ve trained our bodies, minds and spirits; we’ve teamed up with our families and neighbors—now we study and learn from Jesus how to live as disciples long after this series concludes: how to live as disciples each day of our everyday lives. We’ll talk about vocation and how it doesn’t just refer to religious sisters and priests. We'll share the 3 keys to discipleship, and how they relate to being a Messiah partner. And finally, we’ll hear the 3 top misconceptions about a life of discipleship and the gift God has given us to make it through. Thanks for joining on this journey. We need Jesus and we need each other!

Who is my neighbor? It's the prescient question asked to Jesus 2,000 years ago by an earnest young lawyer, seeking to fulfill Jesus' command to love his neighbor as himself. Jesus responds with a well-known parable, The Good Samaritan, in which a neighbor is transformed from someone who is well known to someone who is unfamiliar and different. Thus the term neighbor replaces the term alien from the Old Testament. What about you? Who is your neighbor? Find out Jesus' challenge for you and your neighbors this week, as we Team Up with our Neighbors in Week 5 of our Fit to be a Disciple fall message series.

Everyone has a different definition of "family," and we all have different relationships with our families. But over the centuries - the most important unit to share faith and grow as disciples has been the family unit - composed of loved ones in your life. So this week, as we continue to become FIT to be disciples - we'll learn about how to Team Up with your Family. Families comfort, restore, hold us accountable, and help us grow. Hear stories of faithful yet challenged families, and learn how God worked in them to bring love, peace, and spiritual growth. Hear about Jesus' "second family," the hometown where he was rejected, and the Father he loved even upon the Cross. Most important: remember that we worship a Triune God who exists only in familial relationship: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What a witness to the importance of "teaming up" with our loved ones and families as disciples

The spirit of God breathes life into our dry life. This refreshment is not earned; it is a gift, already given. As we receive this love we become abundantly empowered to flow it out in joyful response. The fruits of the spirit include: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. With the help of God’s spirit we live to love God and love one another.

The mind of Christ…and how we treat each other is shaped by what we feed our mind. We often think that we can allow anything in but not be affected. God actually coined the adage “garbage in, garbage out” (see Philippians 4:8-9). How we fill our minds is how we see and act in the world. Martin Luther contemplated, “I can’t prevent a bird from flying over my head, but I can stop them from building a nest in my hair.” Fit to be a disciple, is about training our mind. Beauty in, beauty out!

FIT to be a disciple. We'll learn what FIT is all about. We'll learn the difference between being balanced and being focused. And we'll learn how to train our bodies to be disciples of Jesus - to love our bodies as the holy temple of the Holy Spirit that God created them to be.