Advent: 4th Candle
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Peace: Angel’s Candle
Peace: Angel’s Candle
1st Candle: Hope: Prophet’s Candle
2nd Candle: Faith: Mary’s Candle
3rd Candle: Joy: Shepherd’s Candle
Culmination of Love through the birth of the Messiah
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Peace and Love play an important role in the Christmas story.
Now Women, I am going to talk about for a moment.
Many of you have endured the wonderful time of giving birth to a child. Now as you were in labor, squeezing the your husband’s hand til it almost fell off, screaming in writhing pain. Some of you may have said to yourself. NEVER AGAIN.
But then after XX amount of hours in labor, pushing and screaming. You hear it. The sound of a baby crying. And when you hear that, there is peace in your heart, knowing the struggles, knowing the love you gave them in your womb, singing, playing, talking with them has now flourished to a person you can hold. And when you hold them, the amount of love that you feel towards this little baby. Not only the woman feels this love but even the man feels this love. The love that you have never had before this child was born.
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
We brought this up last week with Shepherds.
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
GLORY TO GOD
Not Glory to Santa, not Glory to the Christmas Tree, Glory to God in the HIGHEST.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Spoken by Jesus.
Preparing the disciples for his Ascension.
Peace I leave with you, Peace I give to you
This is not World Peace. We are not at Miss America and Im not the host asking the girl what would you like to see happen in the world?
This peace is genuine, this peace if about making sure we know we are going to be ok in the end.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The last line there.
I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD.
Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1st candle talked about Hope
2nd Candle talked about Faith
4th Candle talks about Love
It ties together
God so Loved the World
Moses had a stutter and God used him, and Moses obeyed
Noah built an ark, God flooded the Earth, and He gave us a rainbow as promise to never flood the Earth
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
He saw the world hurting. God had a plan. That plan was Jesus Christ.
Jesus Showed Love
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
We need to follow His example.
What example is this?
Dont pull out your Sunday Card from your wallet and sit in these chairs and say, I love God, I believe in Him but then go out in the world, speak bad about each other, lie, cheat, and steal and then come back and say it’s ok God will forgive me so I can still do what I want. No that Sunday Card needs to come out on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
LOVE IS FROM GOD
Love is not from money, love is not from how expensive the gift is.
We love because he first loved us.
This comes back full circle. We love, because HE FIRST LOVED US.
I will finish with this.
This week as we prepare for Christmas, as we are running rampant trying to get the stocking stuffers, trying to finish wrapping gifts for our loved ones. Reach out to someone who may be alone this Christmas. Reach out to a family member whom you havent talked to in awhile and you know you wont see them for Christmas. Reach out and just say I love you.
In fact this morning, I want you to turn to your neighbor in front of you, behind you, to the right or to the left and just say I love you in Christ.