New Day Christian Church - Weston, WI

Christmas Eve 2018

One of the joys of this season is receiving Christmas cards in the mail. So often our mailboxes are filled with bills and junk mail. A Christmas card shows that someone thought enough about us to send us something good!

What we’re celebrating tonight is the fact that God thought enough about us to send us something that is so much better than any card or gift. He loves us so much that He sent His Son! He sent Jesus from a comfortable home in Heaven to live an uncomfortable life of sacrifice for our sake.

Sometimes we call someone to thank them for the card or the gift they sent. Tonight, we’re joining our voices together to sing our appreciation to God for sending Jesus. I am so glad we can share this time together.

Merry Christmas!  

1 John 4:9-11 (NLT) 9  God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10  This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11  Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.  

As the Father sent His Son into the world as an expression of love, so Jesus sends us.

Sent Part 3: Comfortable as the Army

Matthew 16:17-18 (NASB) 17  And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona [or son of Jonah], because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18  "I also say to you that you are Peter [GR: petros], and upon this rock [GR: petra] I will build My church [GR: ekklesia]; and the gates of Hades [or Hell] will not overpower it.

Sent Part 2: Baby it's Cold Inside

 

Matthew 24:12 (NLT)  Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.

Jonah 4:10-11 (NLT) 10  Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. 11  But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

Sent: For God So Loved the World

Jesus Himself is the ultimate Christmas gift, and to receive Him changes everything. Before Jesus, worship was centered around the temple in Jerusalem and led by the priests. After Jesus, Peter calls the gathered believers a “spiritual temple” and a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5,9). That’s a high calling for us to live up to today.

John 3:16-17 (NLT) 16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

John 20:21 (NLT)  Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

Living in the Upper Story

Every once in a while it’s important to take a step back and see the bigger picture.

 

Overview of 4.12 Youth Ministry

1 Timothy 4:12 says "Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young.  Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith and your purity." We will hear what God is doing in the lives of our youth students and leaders, and why this verse is an important part of 4.12 Ministry.

Come and see.

Come and follow me.

Come and be with me.

You will remain me.

God Time > Me Time

People striving to live as disciples of Jesus all know that personal time spent with God is important, but how do we find time in our busy lives? We’ll hear the stories of four types of people and how they can experience the truth that “God Time” is greater than “Me Time.”

Power: Part 8

There is a modern proverb that says, “Knowledge is understanding that tomatoes are technically a fruit; wisdom is not putting them in a fruit salad.” That’s true, but it doesn’t tell us much about the Spiritual Gifts of Wisdom and Knowledge, and how God uses those gifts to empower His church. We’ll go to Scripture for that.

1 Corinthians 12:9-11 (NLT) 9  The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10  He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11  It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.     

 

Gift Lists in Scripture: Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, 27-31, 1 Peter 4:9-11

 

Three ways to leverage your Spiritual Gifts.

1. Experiment with different areas of service.
   1. Plug into a Sunday morning ministry by marking your Communication Card (including contact info). Rachael Allen will follow up to let you know about open positions.
   2. Participate in your Small Group service projects.
   3. Connect with Service Initiatives like: monthly reviveWISCONSIN outreach events (second Saturday each month), New Day’s Community Christmas Eve Worship Service, Good Friday Blood Drive, Backyard Missions.
2. Use an online gifts assessment tool.
   1. Spiritualgiftstest.com is a good one. No single assessment is perfect.
3. Ask others what gifts they see in me.

Power: Tongues

The Gift of Tongues has been a divisive issue in the recent history of the worldwide Church. Before the Church was even born, the prayer of Jesus was that all the believers would experience unity with one another. Even though the worldwide Church hasn’t always been great at this, we can still expect the prayer of Jesus to be answered, and we can humbly work towards unity in our generation. We can unify around God’s saving grace, and His call for us to love Him and love our neighbor. In unity, there is power!

1 Corinthians 12:9-11 (NLT) 9  The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10  He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11  It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.     

 

Gift Lists in Scripture: Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, 27-31, 1 Peter 4:9-11

 

Three ways to leverage your Spiritual Gifts.

1. Experiment with different areas of service.
   1. Plug into a Sunday morning ministry by marking your Communication Card (including contact info). Rachael Allen will follow up to let you know about open positions.
   2. Participate in your Small Group service projects.
   3. Connect with Service Initiatives like: monthly reviveWISCONSIN outreach events (second Saturday each month), New Day’s Community Christmas Eve Worship Service, Good Friday Blood Drive, Backyard Missions.
2. Use an online gifts assessment tool.
   1. Spiritualgiftstest.com is a good one. No single assessment is perfect.
3. Ask others what gifts they see in me.

Power: Manifestation Gifts

We all have limitations. We all have imperfections. We are all broken in a variety of ways. The amazing promise of God is that His limitless, perfect, unbreakable power is displayed in us. Today we’ll look at the Spiritual Gifts of Faith, Healing and Miracles, and we’ll hear about God at work in Nepal.

1 Corinthians 12:9-10a, 11 (NLT) 9  The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10  He gives one person the power to perform miracles... 11  It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.    

 

Gift Lists in Scripture: Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, 27-31, 1 Peter 4:9-11

 

Three ways to leverage your Spiritual Gifts.

1. Experiment with different areas of service.
   1. Plug into a Sunday morning ministry by marking your Communication Card (including contact info). Rachael Allen will follow up to let you know about open positions.
   2. Participate in your Small Group service projects.
   3. Connect with Service Initiatives like: monthly reviveWISCONSIN outreach events (second Saturday each month), New Day’s Community Christmas Eve Worship Service, Good Friday Blood Drive, Backyard Missions.
2. Use an online gifts assessment tool.

1. 1. Spiritualgiftstest.com is a good one. No single assessment is perfect.
2. Ask others what gifts they see in me.