Christmas, the time to gaze at the wonderful salvation God provides for us through Jesus Christ! Enjoy this service as we turn our mind’s attention and heart’s affection to what the birth of Jesus means. Join with us as we worship, sing and hear from the Scriptures. Christmas must not be isolated from the rest of the story; Christmas must be strongly connected to Good Friday and Easter. To divorce one from the other three is like reading or watching one part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy with no reference to the others. The meaning is cut short, incomplete and incomprehensible. What we see throughout the New Testament is Jesus “fulfills” and makes complete the rest of God’s story. The Old Testament is full of whispers of the reality to come. Have you ever wondered how those Old Testament “prophecies” spoke of Jesus: his exile in Egypt, his birth from a virgin mom, and his ministry in Galilee? Matthew brings this up in his gospel at least 15 times, and in chapter 4 of his gospel he roots the coming of Jesus and his ministry to historical events: the unlikely defeat of Midian’s army of 120,000 by Gideon’s 300 soldiers (Judges 6 + 7) and the deliverer he will provide for Judah as the Assyrian army approaches (Isaiah 9). Doesn’t sound touchy feelly enough for a Christmas message? Well, hold on, because all of that is really talking about Jesus!

We have spent the last couple of months looking at what it means to be the Church. We've heard what the Bible says about topics such as: church leadership, biblical confrontation, baptism, and communion. This week we look at who God is calling us to be as a local church, at this time and in this location. At the end of this message Robert presents the Membership Covenant.