2023 Advent-Christmas Preview

[00:00:00] God gives us peace through His Son, and He points us to that peace again and again and again.

[00:00:07] We're actually going to use a traditional five-pointed star as a way to remember and to consider these places where we look for peace and where God actually delivers it to us.

[00:00:19] And that's that's that star associated with David and...

[00:00:23] No, that's a six-pointed star.

[00:00:25] That's the six-pointed star.

[00:00:26] Just your traditional five-pointed star that you see on top of a Christmas tree. them. Digital media operates from a distance and that's not what's best for us with God or with one another. So, thanks for listening. Andm. on a Sunday morning, we won't have service. And at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday morning December 24th, we won't have service. But we will have the services at 3 p.m mixed ones. So the first one is at 3 p.m. And that is a coral Christmas service. So the choir is in the balcony, singing wonderful Christmas hymns and some anthems and congregation

[00:04:21] is in the naves, singing some wonderful Christmas hymns.

[00:04:26] There's a brief meditation as the culmination of the midweek services that later service. So let's do that. Let's do that since we're there. So the series itself is called Peace on Earth. Throughout the series, we're going to look at where God instructs us to find peace, and where we typically look for it, which oddly enough, aren't it's back to where God actually delivers peace. Advent as a season in the church here is about more than just preparing for Christmas. So what does Advent mean? Well Advent means coming, right? do it from a penitential perspective rather than from a glorious wonder perspective. Advent's important spiritually. It is. It's important and we'll get into this when we talk about the weekends or the Lord's

[00:09:40] Day services as well. He lives a simple life and he tells people to quit doing the rebellious things against God you do and repent and be and trust in the one who is coming and who is coming and who is righteous for you and who will forgive you. Yeah. You mean John the Baptist didn't have a light on the outside of his tent with coordinated

[00:11:00] to the blink to the beat of the trans-iberian orchestra?

[00:11:05] Come see the 900 Jesus. So that's the 13th, if I'm doing my math. That's correct. Yes, I have the 13th of December. Correct. Then the third week, which would be December 20th, is our peace rests on him alone. That's where we are founded in peace. And then again, at that 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve, we'll hear about the diamond found in

[00:12:23] the manger.

[00:12:24] Pastor, I thought you said first week is the Isaiah passage,

[00:13:42] which is picked up in the New Testament

[00:13:44] that God is the potter the often idolatrous, we're going to do whatever we want with ourselves. So let God make us a little bit, or a lot as it may be. The second week in Advent is we're going to look at at the tail end, the last Sunday in Advent is the December 17th. I want to focus especially on the Epistle reading there, which is from 1 Thessalonians 5, where the Lord tells us that we are in Christ sanctified completely. And because one of the things

[00:16:22] we discover in our flurry of buying things and haven't necessarily been a regular churchgoer, you stumbled across this or you had some friend of St. Paul's that said, hey, listen to our pastors talk about what we're doing at Advent.

[00:17:41] Because they're complete dorks.

[00:17:44] We've talked mostly this far about Advent.

[00:18:42] hold some things to watch on TV. There are for the most part.

[00:18:43] There can be.

[00:18:45] Because the Hallmark Christmas movie season has begun.

[00:18:47] So for my purpose is this really begins with Thanksgiving.

[00:18:52] It does.

[00:18:53] That'll be about the time of this episode.

[00:18:56] I'm doing my Thanksgiving as kind of a lead-in

[00:19:00] and it's just simplified Thanksgiving.

[00:19:03] And it'll be too late to simplify a lot of the Thanksgiving

[00:19:06] so the people there, but it'll give us some people who was born to be the final sacrifice and rise from the dead. Right. And there is our peace. So we'll look at where we scramble looking for it side to side to infrow. Hard not to think about it's the timing on that. Well, it's that time of year, the peace is always part of it. But with significant warfare going on in a couple different parts of the world.

[00:21:21] Yeah. All these different languages, all these different colors down before the throne of God together

[00:21:28] worshiping Christ, not at each other's throats.

[00:21:33] That's the only way this ends.

[00:21:35] All together crying out salvation belongs to our God.

[00:21:39] Into the Lamb.

[00:21:40] Yeah.

[00:21:41] Who sits on the throne?

[00:21:42] Who sits on the throne?

[00:21:43] I'm getting a little excited here, Chief. and the traditional Christmas day service. Choir singing, and that begins for us, our brief but important season of Christmas. Season of Christmas, which continues the next week, where our friend Dr. Nathan Metter will be back as our guest preacher.

[00:23:00] And he's always great, it's nice to have him,

[00:23:05] nice to have him back around. love to talk to you about it. And look for Pastor Shockman when he next offers his Lutheran Basics class. And when is that gonna be? I'm gonna kick one off after Easter. I'm gonna take a little bit. After Easter? After Easter. Okay. So I'm gonna, between Christmas and Ash Wednesday, I'm looking at doing a word on Wednesday

[00:24:20] and actually studying a book of the Bible.

[00:24:22] Yeah.

[00:24:23] Yeah, that'll be fun.

[00:24:24] Maybe first John is kind of what I'm thinking.

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