12/24/2023 Church service

周日礼拜

视频

        LOVE 爱

 

1 John 4:9: This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.
約 翰 一 書 4:9: 上帝是这样向我们展示了他对我们的爱的：上帝派遣他的独子来到世上，以便让我们通过他而有生命。(page 1981)

Isaiah 7:14: "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel."
以赛亚书 7:14: 所以，主会亲自给你们一个征兆，必有童贞女 怀孕生子并给祂取名叫以马内利。(page 1123)

1 John 4:10 - 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.
約 翰 一 書 4:10: 这是真正的爱：真正的爱是上帝对我们的爱，而不是我们对上帝的爱。他派遣他的儿子做为祭品，除去了我们的罪孽。(page 1981)

1 John 5:11 - God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
約 翰 一 書 5:11: 上帝告诉我们：上帝赐给了我们永生。这永生在他儿子（耶稣）之中。(page 1982)
Romans 8:38 - So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God’s love.
羅 馬 書 8:38,39: 因为我坚信，不论是死还是生，不论是天使，还是统治的灵，不论是现在还是将来，不论任何精神力量，
不论是在我们之上的任何事物，还是在我们之下的任何事物，或其它被造的一切，都无法把我们与体现在主基督耶稣身上的上帝之爱分开。(page 1833)


 

 

 

 扫码加美国牧师麦克的微信 Pastor Mike's WeChat：

欢迎扫码或者点击原文详情进入教堂网址了解详情

加入中美Bible Study与我们一起学习圣经（中英文）

视频脚本 Script

LOVE – Advent Week 4
1 John 4:9-10

What if I told you that the things that we see wrong in this world – the shocking things we hear and see – the problems that seem insurmountable – all stem from a lack of LOVE?

…from emptiness – from seeking to fill that emptiness in the wrong ways?

This emptiness that people feel inside that propels that to find love through other people, and when that doesn’t fulfill the need, (because people aren’t perfect and can’t love us perfectly,) in desperation they search in vain for other ways…

…or maybe we try to find our value and our purpose from what we do seeking validation from others, and we find that that doesn’t work, either
…and we’ve created these crutches to try to fill our emptiness

…and we’re so scared of turning back to God because we think He might ask us to give Him the crutches, all the while He’s really saying, “I just want the crutches so I can teach you how to walk.”

1 John 4:9: This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.

Emmanuel - "God is with us.”

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel." - Isaiah 7:14

Dietrich Bonhoeffer : “A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes - and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent”
Today marks Advent Week 4 – LOVE. “Love Came Down at Christmas”
Luther: “The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding.”
1 John 4:10 - 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.

Spurgeon: “It is the greatest marvel that ever will be- that He Who is God over all stooped so low as this. I can understand His stooping to poverty and being a carpenter. I can understand His stooping to hunger and thirst. I can even understand His stooping to death.
But that He should bear our sins – this is the greatest stoop of all. How must the Lord have loved us that He did not disdain to bear even the enormous burden of our sin?”

AMP: In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [that is, the atoning sacrifice, and the satisfying offering] for our sins [fulfilling God’s requirement for justice against sin and placating His wrath].

“the atoning sacrifice”

This sounds almost like an Easter message
You couldn’t have Easter unless you have Christmas
Emmanuel was sent to us - God’s love revealed to us in this way

1 John 5:11 - God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

God’s love gift to the world is Jesus. Emmanuel

“God is Love”

1 John 4:10 - 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.

We weren’t some wonderful holy people that earned a blessing from God.

We weren’t serving God when He rescued us. (God demonstrated His love)

We receive His grace by faith. (a gift)
Some Christians think that Christmas is just the prelude to the real message -
that of Easter.
But really, they are two parts of the whole message.
Christmas proclaims Jesus as the Savior, and Easter delivers on that proclamation.
At Christmas, then, we see that Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s covenant with people.
He is the King who comes to save his people.
He is the Lord who calls all who receive that salvation to follow Him as their Master.
1 John 4:9: This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.

It’s not who we are – it’s Who He is.
It’s not what we can do – it is what He can do through us.
Through our union with Christ we become complete. Whole.

We step out of our incompleteness, our brokenness, and enter into the realm of “all things are possible.”

“I can do all things” (through Christ) HE is the Vine.

Because of God’s Love – we can look beyond our limitations
…even though we have totally dropped the ball in the past

We walk by faith and not by sight. Faith works by Love

Romans 8:38 - So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God’s love.

Confession: I never do enough at Christmas. I always seem to wait too long – to get too busy and distracted to do things I meant to do

I blink – and it’s Christmas Eve. Where did the time go?

(this bugs me, but) We often feel inadequate at a much deeper level.
We feel we are never enough.

God’s gift at Christmas to you is to help you realize that because of Christ, you are enough.

You are enough. God loves you. God is for you.

Pastor Joel Osteen’s first book was entitled, “Your Best Life Now.”

I once heard a well-meaning, but very misguided preacher on YouTube attack both Joel and the title of his book, saying, “Your best life NOW?” Really? This isn’t the best life! This life on earth is just a short blip in eternity.”

Although he was partly on-track, he was overlooking the fact that THIS life – the life we now live on earth – is the life God has anointed us to go and serve in.

To make a difference in.

We’re not just here waiting to die and go to heaven.
This is the life where we need Jesus’ saving power – His healing power – His delivering power – His prospering, restoring power - in order to accomplish what Almighty God put us on this earth to accomplish.
The help we desperately need is for this life.
In heaven we will not even remember the struggles of our time here.

If you’ve got it all together and have it all figured out, please let us know your secret.

I am still desperately leaning on Jesus today. Apart from Jesus – I can do nothing.

Jesus brought to us a new covenant of grace

A saving grace. A healing grace. An empowering grace.

Grace produces an empowerment through the revelation of “no condemnation.”

Eph 3:20: Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us;

“He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.”

What is our part in the new covenant of grace? Our part in the new covenant of grace is to simply believe! This is what changes everything for us.

What should we believe? We are to believe in Jesus!

To believe in Jesus is to first and foremost, believe and receive Him as our personal Lord and Savior who died on the cross for all our sins.

To believe in Jesus is to believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation and that once you receive Him, you receive the gift of eternal life.

Furthermore, to believe in Jesus is to believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that all your sins—past, present, and future—were all punished on the cross and that today all your sins and lawless deeds He remembers NO MORE!

Based on the new covenant of grace, what does God want you to believe?

He wants you to believe with all your heart that He meant every word when He said,
“I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 8:12).

1 John 4:9: This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.

Hillside United Methodist Church
3739 US 80
Phenix City  AL  36870
United States
Pastor: Mike J Koger

How to get here 教堂位置
点击这里进入谷歌地图：谷歌GPS导航
You can use the church's neighboring shop address for your Google GPS navigation 你如果直接在谷歌地图上直接输入教堂地址找不到我们，建议你输入教堂旁的餐厅地址: T-Bones Steakhouse, 3747 US-80 W, Phenix City, AL 36870
You're giving to our  ministry， you can send those gifts to:
(奉献发送地址:)
PO Box 8513
Columbus, Georgia 31908