The Gifts of Christmas: Hope


“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭15:13‬ (‭ESV‬‬)

As we enter the Christmas season we will begin a series called The Gifts of Christmas. The first gift is the gift of hope. Why is this gift important? And what is hope?

Compartmentalization


“So Samuel passed on the LORD’s warning to the people who were asking him for a king.”
‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭8:10‬ ‭(NLT)‬‬

“But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said.”
‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭8:19‬ ‭(NLT)‬‬

Compartmentalization is the practice of keeping things organized into separate categories. This is what the children of Israel did in the book of 1 Samuel; they wanted to separate their spiritual leader from the leader of their nation. God could be the leader of all things spiritual, but they wanted a human—in the form of a king—to lead their nation.

We can find that we do this with our personal lives: God can be in charge of our spiritual life, but we want to be in control of the things we deem to be secular.

Back to the Basics: Sanctification


“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
‭‭John‬ ‭3:6‬ ‭(NASB)‬‬

Today is the conclusion of the “Back to the Basics” series of messages. What lies beyond being born again?  Where do we go from here? In our physical life, we grow and mature from the day of our birth; the same is true in our spiritual life. Healthy things grow and therefore God desires for us to spiritually grow and reach spiritual maturity.

Back to the Basics: Justification


It is through justification that we are declared righteous by God.  So today we look to answer three big questions:

  1. Why do we need it? (Hebrews‬ ‭9:27‬, Romans‬ ‭3:23‬, ‭Romans‬ ‭3:10‬)
  2. What is it? (Romans‬ ‭5:18-19)‭
  3. How do we receive it? (Romans‬ ‭3:21-22‬ ‭)