Faith Community Church Of Hopkinton

God's love transforms. The grave becomes a stage for life. Where once guards secured a lifeless body, an angel protects a monument to victory, a garden of hopeless grief becomes the scene of celebration - all because God's love has won. Christians pushed worship from the end of the week to the beginning because they wanted to always remember the amazing display of love, life, hope and peace that emerged on Sunday. Their devotion to Jesus Christ moved them out of hiding, in fear of their lives, into the crowded streets to declare that God's love had won. Eventually, their awe over God's love in Jesus Christ would push them all over Europe, the Middle East and into Northern Africa. They would transform communities, heal the sick, build institutes of learning, translate the Bible into multiple languages and declare the life that God offers through Jesus Christ. Even when they faced their own execution, they possessed joy because love had won.

To watch the video Pastor Mike references in this week's message: https://www.rightnow.org/Content/VideoElement/164591   Throughout the record of the Old Testament, God demonstrates, displays, and describes His loving nature but there is the sense that it is like looking at a photo of the Grand Canyon. You see it and catch glimpses of its majesty but don't fully comprehend it. So God sends Jesus. He is known as the "word" (a concept with multiple applications). He is full of 'grace and truth', a phrase to draw us back to God's self-declaration. Jesus described His relationship to God in unprecedented terms of intimacy. He claimed His words were God's words, His actions were God's actions. He personifies the love of God. If words could not describe it, then the life of this unique man would. Jesus is God's love painted in action, released in words, felt through tender touch. All we need to know about God's love is in Christ.

To watch the video Pastor Mike references in this week's message, go to: https://youtu.be/TaNM_T1d1as   God's love is the reason why people turn to Him during times of suffering. Sometimes we realize that the suffering is the consequence, as warned by God, for our actions. We feel the pain of our choices and realize our folly so we turn in humility to God. Sometimes, we suffer because the world is a harsh place. The wicked prosper and the righteous do not. We turn to God in our confusion and cry out because we trust Him. We are willing to continue to obey because His love gives us the hope that His ways are better even if it doesn't seem so in the immediate circumstances. Sometimes, we suffer because we follow God. Our call drives us into places where persecution, sacrifice and opposition occur. Because of the love we have experienced, we want to bring that love to others so we are willing to suffer in order to do it. Whatever the circumstances, it is His love that draws us to Him.

To watch the video Pastor Mike references in this message, go to: http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/james-caldemeyer/   God's love becomes the reason why we can ask Him to forgive our sins. He first demonstrated it in the Garden when He covered Adam and Eve's shame. Forgiveness and mercy became part of the description of His nature. Because He knows our inability to not sin, He promises forgiveness based on His nature: eternal, complete, gracious and unexpected. Properly understood, it compels us to confession because we know we will be forgiven. Anyone who uses it as an excuse for sin doesn't understand it. God's love, which gives birth to mercy, is the reason why a holy God could stand the presence of an unholy people. Mercy is the reason why we return to God. It is the reason why we change for God. It is the most powerful, convicting, gentle force we know, purging us with forgiveness so complete we are transformed into something new. 

To see the video referenced in this message: https://youtu.be/UrvaSqN76h4   God's love provides the motivation to prayer. We come to Him because we know He wants us to come to Him. We can walk into His presence with confidence, not fear because our Father loves us. God knows us intimately, even knowing what we will ask before we bring it up. He wants to provide in a way that demonstrates His love so He answers our prayers in a manner that catches our attention. When He answers, we can receive His will because we know that His love is the driving motivation behind what he gives us (even if it is not what we asked). God's love draws us into prayer. God's love drives Him to call us to prayer. If we understand this, then we will be motivated to pray with confidence, hope and joy.

To see the video Pastor Mike references in this message: https://youtu.be/VCdqwowpr4Q When Moses asked God to show Himself.  God chose to describe Himself in terms of love. While all the other religions emphasized power and holiness and fear, the God of Israel emphasized His love. The term He used as the primary description of His nature is as indefinable as He is. It is a description of love that is unexpected and complex. This demonstration of His very nature was so profound that it stunned Moses. He fell to the ground and worshipped God, offering His obedience. This is the secret to true spirituality. When we understand the loving nature of God, we are overwhelmed, caught in a holy moment of stunned silence. All we can do is worship Him. The idea became a thread woven throughout the Psalms. People who experience want nothing but His presence in their life .They become willing to follow this type of God anywhere, do anything He asks.

God is amazing. People who come to see God's nature and understand His works find Him astounding. Whenever we discover something or someone we find beautiful, pure, rare, unparalleled or infinitely good, we marvel. Whether the work of an artist, the character of a hero or the beauty of nature, we find our attention locked and our spirits lifted. We praise it, applaud it, stand stunned before it, surrender to it and sacrifice for it. Christians worship God when they approach Him like this. When we expand our understanding of God, reflect on His nature, experience His loving presence, hear of His marvelous deeds, see Him in nature and witness His transforming power in our lives, we worship Him. When we come into a weekend service, we should come amazed at the God we get to worship. If our hearts and minds were already focused on the magnificence of God, we would experience awe and lift up joyous worship.

People rush into weekend services harried, busy, distracted, bored, frustrated, and disengaged. They skip weekend to weekend like a stone on water without ever sinking into God's presence during the week. The affairs of the week washes away the impact of the last weekend they attended. They forget their commitments, their experiences of the divine, their insights that were supposed to change how they live. Instead, they bring worry with them. They bring the anger and frustration of broken relationships. They carry in distractions of thoughts about work, future plans and home projects. Service is over and they have hardly engaged. Worship is about intentionality. It is about preparing to come in and participate in what is going on around us. It is about carrying momentum into our week through our spiritual practices. It is about blocking our distractions to focus on the music, the message, and the opportunities to worship.

It is hard to worship God. Our desires, our attention, and our affections are constantly drawn away from God to other people or other things. Even as we draw closer to God, we are tempted to pull away. Sometimes we are tempted by people who do not understand our desire to worship God. They mock, persecute, minimize and try to woo us away. Sometimes we are tried by the difficult experiences of life. They challenge our resolve and cause us to question God's concern for us. Sometimes we are distracted by our ambitions: career promotion, material gain, financial success. All of these things vie for our time, attention, energy, and sacrifice. Sometimes we let life's demands crowd out our time and attention so we wander from God. When our loyalty becomes diminished we drift from weekend services. We let our allegiance align with other relationships, passions, and pursuits. To worship God, we must make Him our first priority.

Genuine worship includes honesty. The Gospels are full of encounters between Jesus and people who confessed their sin, doubts, weaknesses and failings. They came to God without pretense or façade. The Gospels are also full of people who came to Jesus feeling that they deserved to be recognized by God. They took pride in their religious practices, expressed contempt for the sinful practices of others, found security in their lineage and protected their religious worldviews. They felt challenged by Jesus and fought back. They hid their inadequacies and excused them in light of other people's failings. Those who discovered the love of God in Christ and divine nature of His soul approached Him with humility. They confessed their fear, their sin, their soul's poverty and discovered love, forgiveness, purpose, direction, God. If we approach weekend services honest about our failures and weaknesses, we will find our worship acceptable to God.

We do not blink an eye to see countless Wise Men occupying “made in China” plastic crèche scenes decorating shops at Christmas time: a scene that would be shocking and disturbing to First Century Israelites. One simply does not expect pagan astrologists at the birth of the Jewish Messiah of God (let alone crusty shepherds, but that’s for another sermon). Yet it seems consistent with this outrageous God–who acts with a flair for Tom-foolery and holy mischief–that we find at the Messiah’s Delivery Room stable strangers to the covenant whose access would be made by way of the cross. These Eastern socialites could have sent servants teetering as they balanced a mountain of gifts in their arms, or they could have ordered a Levite to deliver a “So Glad You Are Born, Mr. Messiah” sing-a-gram. Instead, they came themselves to offer worship to the newborn King. Their real gift was their personal homage: pagan, foreign leaders bowing down and worshiping an infant Messiah. For, in the end, our gift is also our ultimate

Five hundred years pass between the end of the last book in the Old Testament and the Christmas story. These are centuries where God's people remain faithful but His silence is deafening. When God finally did speak, it was through the life of Christ. God's silence is broken by words woven into a human life. Suddenly the God who seemed distant is near. You can see Him in Christ's deeds, hear Him in Christ's words, feel Him through Christ's touch. This child born at Christmas is the gift of God's presence, manifest in the form of a child who would be a Savior. In our present world, God can seem distant and silent as well. Christmas reminds us that the gift of His presence is still available to us. We can experience it through Christ - we can discover the gift of His presence in a way that will bring freedom, life and joy.

The Christmas story has a lot of strife. There is a broken relationship between a man who believes his finance has been unfaithful. There is the despot, full of fear and hatred who seeks to kill a child. Blood runs in the streets from his violence. Despite this, the story speaks of a peace that is available to everyone. Its the same today. We live in a world where people inflict senseless violence on others. It happens in schools, movie theaters, and churches. Places where you would expect safety. It also happens at home when family relationships break down into anger, discord, strife, and sometimes violence. There is always talk of peace at Christmas but the holiday can accentuate the despair of conflict. The gift of God's peace is found with the angels. It comes first to those who experience God's favor. Then it resolves the strife within a person. Finally, it is available to affect relationships. The gift of God's peace comes from a mended soul.

Life can feel overwhelming. Something like a unanticipated pregnancy can send our world spinning. Mary was on her own with the threat of losing her marriage, being rejected by her family and becoming a single mom without an income. For us, it doesn't have to be a surprise pregnancy. It can be job loss, unexpected illness, infidelity, the break up of a family, depression, and much more. Into these conditions, God emerges - a divine presence who provides help. He touches people's hearts, maneuvers circumstances, provides resources, speaks into the silence. He is a powerful God whose listening ear is always attuned to our voices. We can learn to trust Him so that we can pray the way Mary did. We can find security and hope even in the most difficult circumstances when we discover that we are never alone. God is with us.

In this first message, we'll look at the gift of God's plan. The world can seem like a chaotic place. There are stories of war and violence, suffering and tragedy, economic uncertainty and social instability. The people in the Christmas story had all these same uncertainties. Incredibly, God had a plan! He was working in their world and through their lives to achieve something great. He is doing the same today. Even though we may feel insecure and unstable because of what we see in the news or experience in our lives, God has a plan He is working out. We can see it when we look back at the stories in the Bible and the experiences in our lives. As part of this astonishing gift, God invites us to partner with Him in carrying out His plan. We can experience God doing something good in and through our lives when we surrender to Him, like the people in the Christmas story. Then we get to be a part of what God is doing in the world around us.

"Christians seem to have strong beliefs about what happens when someone dies. They talk about a heaven and a hell. What are these places like and why should I care where I go? Who (or what) determines where someone goes when they die? Why would a loving God send anyone to hell or deny anyone heaven? Christians seem to tie a decision regarding Jesus Christ with access to heaven. What does Christ have to do with it? There are people I know who have died. Are they in heaven? They were good people so why wouldn't they be there? I have a hard time believing that someone could be good their whole life and denied heaven while someone could be bad their whole life and get to go because of a last minute decision. Is that really fair?"

"Christians claim they know right from wrong. They judge people according to a standard that was developed in ancient societies. Because of that, they have justified slavery, suppressed women and promoted outdated sexual mores. Anyone who doesn't fit their narrow definition of morality is unaccepted and even ostracized. How can they say that there is a universal code that transcends all cultures of all time? Who are they to tell me what is right and wrong? Why would they be so condemning and judgmental when they don't even seem to live up to their own standards? How can anyone be morally good and acceptable to God?"