Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Faith and Obedience
guys i am so excited to celebrate because everybody knows that christmas is all about hot cocoa peppermint candy canes bright lights and lots and lots of presents wait it is right hello my friends welcome to our series called main event where we're going to spend this month looking at the true reason that we can celebrate around christmas time but before our lesson let's pray god please help us to be people who understand and appreciate your good plans for us and for the world we ask in jesus name amen thanks for praying everybody now it's time to open up those bibles today we're going to be in two different books of the bible matthew and luke matthew and luke what do you think new testament or old testament new testament that's right they're actually two of our four gospels about the life of who jesus that's right so we're gonna be in matthew chapter 1 and luke chapter 1 as we encounter jesus's parents hearing about god's plan to have their son jesus save the world and we'll get an understanding of how we can celebrate god's plans too all right first we get a view from mary's side of things now mary was just a normal young israelite woman who was engaged to be married just living life doing normal things until god turned her world upside down with a visit from an angel let's look at luke chapter 1 that says this god sent the angel gabriel to nazareth a village in galilee to a virgin named mary she was engaged to be married to a man named joseph a descendant of king david gabriel appeared to her and said greetings favored woman the lord is with you verse 29 mary tried to think what the angel could mean he said don't be afraid mary for you have found favor with god you will conceive and give birth to a son and you will name him jesus he will be very great and will be called the son of the most high the lord god will give him the throne of his ancestor david and he will reign over israel forever his kingdom will never end verse 35 says he will be called the son of god and mary responded in verse 38 i am the lord's servant may everything you have said about me come true and then the angel left her talk about top weirdest conversations ever mary wasn't even married yet and now she's being told that she's going to give birth to a son who would become the savior king that her people had been waiting for uh merry christmas mary i'm sure she was a little bit nervous and confused but she understood that if this was part of god's plan then it was good so mary said i will be whatever part you want me to play and i will do whatever you want me to do so that your good plan can go forward so we see that at christmas time we celebrate god's plan to send jesus into the world to save us and that gives me an idea for a game time i'm calling this one guess that tune i'm going to hum a popular christmas tune and it's your job to try to guess which one i'm humming how are you guys at christmas songs i guess we'll find out alright so once you think you know what it is just say it out loud you'll get a point for each one you get correct all right let's do this jingle bells anybody all right hopefully that wasn't too hard it's a lot harder to hum a christmas song than you think okay let's do another one wish you a merry christmas yeah all right last one see if you can get another point okay i know it's hard but what do you think he's made out of snow frosty the snowman i'm sure it was on the tip of your tongue okay so even though there's nothing wrong with jingle bells and christmas trees snowmen and hot cocoa we do know that the greatest most special reason that we have to celebrate is because god had a good plan to send jesus into the world to save us and not only did he have that plan but he fulfilled that plan in sending jesus to be born by mary all right and if we look over in matthew chapter 1 we get to see a bit of the story from the angle of joseph who would be jesus's adopted dad this is what it says in verse 20 an angel of the lord appeared to him joseph in a dream saying joseph son of david the angel said do not be afraid to take mary as your wife for the child within her was conceived by the holy spirit and she will have a son and you are to name him jesus for he will save his people from their sins verse 22 says all of this occurred to fulfill the lord's message through his prophet and this is a quote from isaiah saying look the virgin will conceive a child she will give birth to a son and they will call him emmanuel which means god is with us when joseph woke up he did as the angel of the lord commanded and took mary as his wife not only did joseph get to hear about some of god's plan and his promises to use jesus to save the world he also got to hear about how that was connected to promises that god had already made through his prophets like isaiah god had been telling his people that he would one day send the only one who could do what needed to be done the messiah the savior king the one we call jesus we too can celebrate god's plan at christmas time we celebrate what god has already done in sending jesus to be born as a little baby so that he could live a perfect life and die on the cross for us so we could be forgiven and have new life with god becoming a part of the family of god it's so amazing but not only can we celebrate what god has done but we can trust because god has already fulfilled his promises that the promises that are still yet to come we can trust in those and celebrate what god says he's going to do in the future as well god is so good and we have so many reasons to celebrate all right everybody that's going to be it for this week go have joy enjoy the season we're in and don't forget to celebrate see you next time hello everybody we are so glad that we can worship with you this morning and so i got my girls here and we're gonna sing a song for you and the first song we're gonna sing is called the lion and the lamb so if you know it sing along and dance with us as we sing the lion and the lamb you girls ready yes all right here we go is all right so open up the gigs here we go is oh is boy ready all right great job everybody hello everybody our next song is going to be jesus loves me one two three jesus loves me this i know for the bible tells me so little ones to him be long they are weak but he is strong yes jesus loves me yes jesus loves me yes jesus loves me the bible tells me so you guys i am so excited to celebrate because everybody knows that christmas is all about hot cocoa peppermint candy canes bright lights and lots and lots of presents wait it is right hello my friends welcome to our series called main event where we're going to spend this month looking at the true reason that we can celebrate around christmas time but before our lesson let's pray god please help us to be people who understand and appreciate your good plans for us and for the world we ask in jesus name amen thanks for praying everybody now it's time to open up those bibles today we're going to be in two different books of the bible matthew and luke matthew and luke what do you think new testament or old testament new testament that's right they're actually two of our four gospels about the life of who jesus that's right so we're gonna be in matthew chapter 1 and luke chapter 1 as we encounter jesus's parents hearing about god's plan to have their son jesus save the world and we'll get an understanding of how we can celebrate god's plans too all right first we get a view from mary's side of things now mary was just a normal young israelite woman who was engaged to be married just living life doing normal things until god turned her world upside down with a visit from an angel let's look at luke chapter 1 that says this god sent the angel gabriel to nazareth a village in galilee to a virgin named mary she was engaged to be married to a man named joseph a descendant of king david gabriel appeared to her and said greetings favored woman the lord is with you verse 29 mary tried to think what the angel could mean he said don't be afraid mary for you have found favor with god you will conceive and give birth to a son and you will name him jesus he will be very great and will be called the son of the most high the lord god will give him the throne of his ancestor david and he will reign over israel forever his kingdom will never end verse 35 says he will be called the son of god and mary responded in verse 38 i am the lord's servant may everything you have said about me come true and then the angel left her talk about top weirdest conversations ever mary wasn't even married yet and now she's being told that she's going to give birth to a son who would become the savior king that her people had been waiting for uh merry christmas mary i'm sure she was a little bit nervous and confused but she understood that if this was part of god's plan then it was good so mary said i will be whatever part you want me to play and i will do whatever you want me to do so that your good plan can go forward so we see that at christmas time we celebrate god's plan to send jesus into the world to save us and that gives me an idea for a game time i'm calling this one guess that tune i'm going to hum a popular christmas tune and it's your job to try to guess which one i'm humming how are you guys at christmas songs i guess we'll find out alright so once you think you know what it is just say it out loud you'll get a point for each one you get correct all right let's do this jingle bells anybody all right hopefully that wasn't too hard it's a lot harder to hum a christmas song than you think okay let's do another one wish you a merry christmas yeah all right last one see if you can get another point okay i know it's hard but what do you think he's made out of snow frosty the snowman i'm sure it was on the tip of your tongue okay so even though there's nothing wrong with jingle bells and christmas trees snowmen and hot cocoa we do know that the greatest most special reason that we have to celebrate is because god had a good plan to send jesus into the world to save us and not only did he have that plan but he fulfilled that plan in sending jesus to be born by mary all right and if we look over in matthew chapter 1 we get to see a bit of the story from the angle of joseph who would be jesus's adopted dad this is what it says in verse 20 an angel of the lord appeared to him joseph in a dream saying joseph son of david the angel said do not be afraid to take mary as your wife for the child within her was conceived by the holy spirit and she will have a son and you are to name him jesus for he will save his people from their sins verse 22 says all of this occurred to fulfill the lord's message through his prophet and this is a quote from isaiah saying look the virgin will conceive a child she will give birth to a son and they will call him emmanuel which means god is with us when joseph woke up he did as the angel of the lord commanded and took mary as his wife not only did joseph get to hear about some of god's plan and his promises to use jesus to save the world he also got to hear about how that was connected to promises that god had already made through his prophets like isaiah god had been telling his people that he would one day send the only one who could do what needed to be done the messiah the savior king the one we call jesus we too can celebrate god's plan at christmas time we celebrate what god has already done in sending jesus to be born as a little baby so that he could live a perfect life and die on the cross for us so we could be forgiven and have new life with god becoming a part of the family of god it's so amazing but not only can we celebrate what god has done but we can trust because god has already fulfilled his promises that the promises that are still yet to come we can trust in those and celebrate what god says he's going to do in the future as well god is so good and we have so many reasons to celebrate all right everybody that's going to be it for this week go have joy enjoy the season we're in and don't forget to celebrate see you next time hello everybody we are so glad that we can worship with you this morning and so i got my girls here and we're gonna sing a song for you and the first song we're gonna sing is called the lion and the lamb so if you know it sing along and dance with us as we sing the lion and the lamb you girls ready yes all right here we go is all right so open up the gigs here we go is oh is boy ready all right great job everybody hello everybody our next song is going to be jesus loves me one two three jesus loves me this i know for the bible tells me so little ones to him be long they are weak but he is strong yes jesus loves me yes jesus loves me yes jesus loves me the bible tells me so you
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.