Attention Sunday School Teachers

We want to get pictures of all our Sunday School teachers to promote Sunday School. So please come to the prayer garden between 9:30 AM and 10:00 AM this Sunday, December 19^th, to have your picture made. If the weather does not cooperate, we will be in the library.  If you have any questions or won’t be available, please contact Jonathan or Sami Mastrario.  

MID-WEEK DEVOTION

Don’t forget to check out Brother David’s Mid-Week Devotion on the book of Psalms. They are uploaded each Wednesday on the sermon page.

LOTTIE MOON CHRISTMAS OFFERING

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Giving as of December 14, 2021

Budget for 2021 . . . . . . . .  $320,880.00
Tithes Needed to Date . . . . $308,534.43
Received to Date . . . . . . . . $240,825.40
Needed for weekly budget . . . $6,170.77
Tithes Received this week . . . $4,620.70

From Our Pastor

Wow!  Christmas is only a few short days away.  I’m sure that we are all scurrying about trying to get everything done.  We want everything to be “just right” for Christmas.

But, what about the wrong way to celebrate Christmas?  When we study the Scriptures, we usually look for lessons on how to celebrate Christ’s birth.  But the Scriptures also give us negative examples.  It is important that we learn from these so that we will not be like them.

The chief priests and scribes mentioned in Matthew 2:1-6 are examples we should not follow.  Although they were knowledgeable, respected and probably very moral, they are examples that should not be followed.  We should look at them very carefully to see their failures and then guard our lives from following their path. 

What were their failures?  First, they were satisfied with a head knowledge of God.  When Herod asked where the Messiah was to be born, they immediately knew the answer from Micah 5:2.  They didn’t have to research and consult experts for the answer.  They knew the answer.  But they made no effort to travel the five and a half miles to actually see the Christ.  They were satisfied with a head knowledge of the facts.

How we must guard ourselves from committing the same sin!  We must not have a mere head knowledge of salvation and not truly be saved.  We must not have a mere head knowledge of the commands and principals of the Scriptures and never apply them.  The chief priests and scribes show us the danger of mere head knowledge.

Similarly, the chief priests and scribes show us the danger of being merely religious.  It wasn’t that they were not religious enough.  The problem is that they were only religious.  There was not real heart devotions to God.

These men were the caretakers of the temple and the leaders of temple worship.  However, a study of the temple (copied from the tabernacle) and its worship shows that all of it illustrated the coming Christ.  Yet, these leaders weren’t interested in the fulfillment of the picture (Christ Himself).  They were satisfied with the form.

May that not be said of us!  May we never be satisfied with mere religion.  We must hunger for and pursue knowing God Himself.

Last, these men were more interested in man’s approval rather than God’s.  They had a very prominent role before men and did not want to lose it.  John 12:41-43 makes it clear this is why later rulers would not openly follow Him.

It’s great when we have the appreciation and approval of others.  We all enjoy that.  However, we must never compromise pleasing the Lord to gain or keep man’s approval.  Our desire must be to please the Lord.

We have so many good examples to follow in celebrating our Lord’s birth.  Unfortunately, we also have negative examples whose path we should not follow.  May we not be like the chief priests and scribes.  May we love, adore, and serve the Christ of Christmas.