Happy Monday everyone! ...Another great weekend and with it, the official Christmas season is in full swing.
Yesterday, we considered four big ideas from the Christmas story, which I called four fa la la la la fundamentals that help us move past the hype and towards the hope and joy of the Christmas season. The following are some questions to consider as we prepare our hearts for this Christmas season.
- The first big idea is to receive God’s gift of a Savior. Who do you know who doesn’t know or isn’t currently following after Christ? Each person share a name, and then take a few minutes as a group and pray for these to know Christ at Christmas.
- Forgiveness is another big idea we take away from the Christmas story. One of the primary reasons Jesus came was to provide us with forgiveness and freedom from sin. With all of the benefits to forgiveness, why is it so hard to offer at times? Describe a time you wrestled to forgive someone (please no names), and then describe how forgiving or “dropping the rope” benefited you.
- Read Mark 10:45. List as many benefits as you can that are associated with serving and giving to others. Have a couple of people share how they will serve and give this Christmas season through Albany First Assembly.
- Yesterday, I shared that instead of viewing life as full of mountain tops (things are really good!) and valleys (things aren’t so good); I now view life as running on two tracks. Each track runs side-by-side simultaneously. On one track we have things in life that are NOT good. On the other, there are things in life that ARE good. Our capacity to celebrate the goodness of God is directly connected to the track we focus on most. Why is this true? Read Philippians 4:8 and discuss how “thinking about such things” affects our attitude and perspective.
Let’s believe that our great God will help us, and help us to help others to make the most of this Christmas season!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Frank
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