My 12/15/24 sermon at Crestview, A Joyful King is Coming (Isaiah 52:7-10), is online. My sermon served to wrap the morning when we enjoyed our annual children’s Christmas program (clicking the link will send you to the place where the full YouTube of the program is available). They did a great job pointing to the King of Christmas. My sermon helped to reiterate that the coming of this King meant joyful news for all people. I hope it encourages you.
My 12/1/24 sermon at Crestview, A Comforting Hope (Isaiah 40), helped kick off the first week of Advent. You might remember that I love all things Christmas and am ready to celebrate it always. So, when Advent comes, I love helping our congregation take time to marvel at what we’re celebrating and dig into its impact on us. Isaiah 40 was the text for this year. When introducing all of Jesus to the world, Handel chose Isaiah 40 as the jumping-off point for starting his Messiah. I hope this sermon encourages you.
2023 Children’s Christmas Program
We enjoyed a fantastic weekend at Crestview. Like many other churches, we had children serving by providing a program. They did a great job showing how all creation sings praise to God. I had the chance to wrap up the program and connect the morning to the Christmas story, so I unpacked Luke 2:22-38 with a short sermon called Jesus Brings Saving Certainty. Simeon’s blessing (known as the Nunc Dimittis) showcased all that God was up to in sending Jesus to earth for us. I hope this sermon encourages you and that you have a wonderful holiday season.
(Oh, and if you follow the link for the sermon, you can watch the entire service, including the Christmas program, online.)
My 12/10/23 sermon at Crestview Bible, Breaking Good (Luke 2:1-21), is now online. Chapter 2 flows out of Chapter 1 (obviously), where Luke is helping to give us certainty and confidence about what we have learned about Jesus. A rhythm has emerged where a promise is made, fulfillment is seen, and praise has resulted. In this sermon, I tease out some more effects of God’s promises breaking into our world for the good of humanity. I hope the sermon encourages you.
We kicked off Advent 2022 at Crestview this past weekend. My opening sermon was Emmanuel Comes To Rescue. I tried to work hard in this sermon to dig into our longings in a holiday season like this, especially as it comes at the end of a year and wraps it up. For some, that doesn’t mean there’s a bow on top — the year has been rough! But passages like Matthew 20:28 show us that Jesus’s intention in coming was to affect change in people like us.
I hope this sermon and season affect your adoration of Jesus Himself.
Hey everyone! I hope you’re feeling blessed this holiday season. I found some resources that might encourage you this holiday season. So, I thought I’d post them here to keep a record of them.
One contention that preachers make is that the season of Advent is about hope. But, you might not realize just how much hope Jesus being born was to those first listeners. And, Glen Scrivener helps us see that here in this poem called The Night Before Christmas:
The Gaither Vocal Band isn’t my preferred genre of music, but I don’t think there is any denying how incredible David Phelps performance of O Holy Night was in this video. Stick around for the 3:20 mark and then how he brings it home at the end. Pretty incredible:
Finally, for the more theologically minded, I don’t know if you’ve ever read the Nicene Creed. But the Credo Magazine devoted an entire issue to this moment in church history. So if you want to have your mind stretched around what it means that the second person of the Trinity came to earth to save sinners, I’d encourage you to seek to digest these helpful articles.
The Nicene Creed issue by Credo Magazine
My 12/19/21 sermon at Crestview, Advent Joy (Luke 2:8-12), is now online. I tried to dig into what is producing joy in our lives and the reasons why the Gospel is the good news of great joy. I hope this sermon encourages you and helps you prepare your heart for Christmas later this week.
At Crestview this Advent singing, we love singing many of the cherished carols of Christmas. God has given us such a gift in the music the church has. This year, we introduced the song O Come All You Unfaithful. Here are a lyric video and lyrics:
Verse 1
O come, all you unfaithful
Come, weak and unstable
Come, know you are not alone
Verse 2
O come, barren and waiting ones
Weary of praying, come
See what your God has done
Chorus
Christ is born, Christ is born
Christ is born for you
Verse 3
O come, bitter and broken
Come with fears unspoken
Come, taste of His perfect love
Verse 4
O come, guilty and hiding ones
There is no need to run
See what your God has done
Bridge
He’s the Lamb who was given
Slain for our pardon
His promise is peace
For those who believe
Verse 5
So come, though you have nothing
Come, He is the offering
Come, see what your God has done
Music and words by Bob Kauflin and Lisa Clow © 2020 Sovereign Grace Praise/BMI (adm. worldwide by Integrity Music). Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Churches. All rights reserved.
I love these lyrics and this song. We opened our service with this song last week and invited everyone to come and enter in to find hope in the good that Jesus Christ has come for us. I hope it encourages us.
I love Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday. I love being able to pastor through the season of Advent. Each year, we take a break from the regular, digging into the Bible verse by verse work we do each week to think about what Jesus’ coming to earth means.
This year, we are using the colors of Christmas to inspire our imaginations.
We’ve already began with Red Christmas, showing that Jesus was born to die. Gold Christmas will point to our King being born. Blue Christmas will show how Jesus enters our despair. Finally, white Christmas will focus on Jesus taking away sins. It’s a simple way to worship Christ our newborn King.
Join us.
On December 1, Burk Parsons tweeted out…
This got me curious, so I dug into some research on Advent Antiphons and learned this…
Each stanza highlights a title for the Messiah: O Sapientia (O Wisdom), O Adonai (O Lord), O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse), O Clavis David (O Key of David), O Oriens (O Rising Sun), O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations), and O Emmanuel. Each verse praises the coming of the Savior by a different name, and closes with petitions appropriate to the title. According to musical scholars, the arrangement was not accidental. It is called an acrostic, something known to puzzle fanatics. If one starts with the last title and takes the first letter of each one – Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia – the Latin words ero cras are formed, translated as, “Tomorrow, I will be [there].”
So, when these are sung, they help express a longing for Jesus to come and each of these longings make an acrostic with a promise: “Tomorrow, I will be there.”
Now you may think, “I wish I could hear this song.” And, fortunately, you have probably heard it and maybe sung it already:
1 O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.
2 O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who ordered all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show
and teach us in its ways to go. Refrain
3 O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to your tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times did give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe. Refrain
4 O come, O Branch of Jesse’s stem,
unto your own and rescue them!
From depths of hell your people save,
and give them victory o’er the grave. Refrain
5 O come, O Key of David, come
and open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe for us the heavenward road
and bar the way to death’s abode. Refrain
6 O come, O Bright and Morning Star,
and bring us comfort from afar!
Dispel the shadows of the night
and turn our darkness into light. Refrain
7 O come, O King of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind.
Bid all our sad divisions cease
and be yourself our King of Peace. Refrain
Psalter Hymnal (Gray) (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel on Hymnary)
May this season be one in which you reflect on the longing those first-century people had as the Christ came and may you long for the returning Lord, as well.
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