Yesterday was our 2023 Christmas Worship Service “For God is With Us.”
I’ll be posting the video here as soon as possible. In the meantime – our setlist was O Come All You Unfaithful, Hearts Waiting, Hope Has a Name, Grace of God with Us, Glory in the Highest, Son of God, For God is with Us, A Christmas Alleluia, The King Has Come, Light of the World, Hope Has Come (Behold Him), Hands That Are Holding Me, Your Praise Goes On, Highest Hallelujah, Ring the Bells
If you’d like to re-read the “program blurb” that I wrote – here it is.
Advent is such a special time for so many of us and at the same time, there are many that experience it as a reminder of pain in the past, current day struggles, or worries about the future.
The texts we are singing through this morning have been so impactful in my own life. I love the season of Advent. I love the intentional week-by-week effort that the church makes to separate out these four sundays and “slow down” the season. It gives us time to pause and remember that glorious gift from the Father – sending his son for our redemption. It gives us time to reflect on the present and what work he is currently doing in our hearts and our souls. It allows us to look to the future – a second advent – when our King is coming back to rule and reign in the new Heavens and the new earth.
As you worship with us this morning, my prayer for you is that you would engage with the words we sing. We’re opening with a great tune called O Come All You Unfaithful. The lyrics include those that are hurting, barren, weak, wounded, bitter, broken, guilty, hiding… Christ is Born!
The world seems crazy right now, and for some us it seems to be spinning out of control. People are looking for answers, they’re looking to politics, they’re looking to society, they’re looking to materialism, their bank accounts, their family to provide the answers.
One of the songs we sing – the title song “For God is With Us” dares us to imagine, dares us to believe in – the true love that gave us a REASON for living… the gift of God, His son and our salvation. Through the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, WHATEVER we are facing this side of eternity pales in comparison to the promise of Heaven – the promise given to us through Emmanuel – For God is with us.
The glorious part of Advent is we celebrate THE answer. Our hope is found only in Christ. The solution is found only in Christ. Our helplessness, desperation and longing are wholly fulfilled in our glorious king, a baby…born in a manger. That Baby is Emmanuel – For GOD is WITH us.
