Sunday Highlights
Today we started our new Christmas series “Rhythm” at all of our campuses. I’m very excited about this series because our hope is that we’ll all approach this Christmas season with more purpose than ever before – purpose to create a rhythm amidst the hustle & bustle that allows us to truly reflect and eagerly anticipate the celebration of the arrival of our Savior.
Honestly, I don’t do this well. I love all the festivities of the season, but oftentimes they fly by so quickly that I miss it.
This year Pat Rowland, our Family Ministries Pastor, and his wife put together an Advent Devotional to coincide with the Rhythm series. If you haven’t already checked it out, you can download it HERE.
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Here are my notes from Pete’s message today:
Are you living a rhythm of life that restores God’s wonder in you?
Most of us allow our understanding and experience of the birth of Christ to be stunted by the pattern of busyness and the message of consumerism.
The pattern of busyness and consumerism is going to bombard you 24/7 from now until Christmas and we need to create a rhythm of life to combat this.
Week 1 of Advent: Hope
Everything that you hope for is eventually going to disappoint you.
Hope is only a virtue if it’s directed towards what is good.
“There are only two things that will kill the soul: despair and false hope.” St. Augustine
If your hope is in things, they are going to let you down.
Luke 1:26-38
God will allow your plans to dissolve in order to detach your hope from other things in order to attach it to Himself.
You have to stop looking at your shattered dream or distorted plan as God doing something to you.
There is an undeniable connection between your shattered dream and God’s hope.
God is always looking for people who are looking for God.
Mary goes from “how can this be?” to “let this be.” She goes into a season of unprecedented hope.
Luke 1:46-55
Christmas is a reminder that you can’t predict God. Hope came in the most unlikely of ways to the most unlikely of people.
When you are waiting, you are not doing nothing. When you are waiting, you are growing up in hope.
There are better days ahead for people who learn to say “let this be”.
What are you hoping for? Are you willing to say “let this be”?
It's been hard for me to say "let this be" because God hasn't revealed to me what "this" is yet. I've been laying down a lot of things in my life and gave up a lot of long time hobbies and interests waiting for God but I'd love to know what my "this" is going to be.
The quote from St. Augustine is fantastic.