Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Pastor Brian: Well, Merry Christmas to everybody. Don't hush someone that's trying to wish me a merry Christmas. Thank you. Don't cover his mouth. I'm not saying the rocks will cry out, but-- Welcome everybody. It's so good to see you all. How many know that Gabriel had an assignment? And nothing could prevent him from carrying out that assignment. That assignment was to come to Mary and explain to her something that blew her mind. In a sense, how can this be right?
There are lots of different ways that we can honor the Lord, isn't there? We have a wonderfully gifted young lady in our church who has worked diligently for many, many years, even though she's still very young in the realm of the circus. She was part of Circus Juventus while she was here in Minnesota, Minneapolis. Now, she has moved on to other things. Covid has kind of put a little bit of a dent into some of that stuff with performances, but she has gone to a whole other level from what she was when she was with Circus Juventus.
We have her with us today to do a-- and this is not for me, by the way, today. Otherwise, John would need to get the paddles out back there and do something on me. But she's gonna use this device to paint the story of this encounter with Gabriel and Mary and the beginning of that aspect of the Christmas story. It's a privilege to have Shayna Rutledge with us today.
[Performance 32:59-38:49]
Pastor Brian: That would've looked like one of the three stooges if I'd have gotten up on that thing. Before we move on to the next facet of our program today, our service, I just wanna express my appreciation for our staff. They work tirelessly. They're kind to me all the time, which I don't deserve. I would like to receive an offering to bless them today. You who are watching by livestream can participate in this. We have technical people that provide our livestream for all of your viewers as well. And so they are all part of our staff.
We can give through the kiosk, it's under staff. You can just give that way you can text to give, go online to give under special if you do text to give. We just would like to really bless our staff this holiday season. I just read yesterday about a company who throws a Christmas party for everybody in the company and requires everybody to come and charges $30 for each one to attend.
Now, I would like to do something better than what that company does, okay? We're not gonna charge our staff for something. Let's just pray and let's pray a blessing over our staff, shall we? Please join me in this.
Father, I thank you for the wonderful staff that you've given to us here at Hope Community. And we just pray, Lord, the windows of heaven would open up and bless them. I thank you for your graciousness and providing us with them. And we pray that Lord, as we receive this love offering for them, that you will do with it like you did the loaves and the fish, that you multiplied it so that it will go much further when they receive it. Just bless them with good health, with strength, with wisdom as we navigate going forward in this coming year. We thank you for all you've done this past year, how you blessed us and you've been with us, Lord, not just through the mountaintops, but through the valleys as well. You've never left us in our times of sorrow or our times of joy. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
[music 42:04 - 42:23 ]
Pastor Brian: Merry Christmas everyone.
Pastor Jacque: Merry Christmas.
Pastor Brian: We're so thankful that you are part of our faith family at Hope community. We're so blessed that you have chosen to be a part of this faith community.
Pastor Jacque: And we are so blessed because together we know God's love. We've experienced it, we live it. We are so blessed. And then we have each other's love and care and friendship. We are blessed
Pastor Brian: And we, of course, have God with us. His name, Emmanuel God with us. I'm so thankful today that God is with us and we are so thankful that you are with us as well. Merry Christmas
Pastor Jacque: And a happy, happy year.
Pastor Brian: Yes to all of you.
speaker 1: Hi people of Hope. It's been a great year. So I just want to wish a merry Christmas and a happy New Year from me to you.
Welton: This is Welton Carey and I'm one of the worship leaders and I also work in the facilities department. I just want to take this time to wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Cindy: Hi, it's me, Cindy, your children's director. I just wanna wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Speaker 2: Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Speaker 3: Merry Christmas from the Boothe and a happy new year to all of you.
Speaker 4: Merry Christmas, everybody. Thank you again for another great year and looking forward to the next one. Thanks.
Speaker 5: Hello, everyone. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year.
Speaker 6: Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. God bless y'all.
Pastor Robert: From Pastor Robert and my wife Taquaris on behalf of the Smith family, we want to send you a holiday greeting,
TaQuaris: And we pray that in this season, your home will be filled with God's love, his joy and his peace.
Pastor Robert and TaQuaris: We want to wish you a Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Cheryl: Hi everybody. I hope this Christmas time has been good to you.
Pastor Jeff: Yeah, for me it has been especially meaningful. This particular Christmas season between the tea and the Hope Radio Hour and just being together with the church family has been very special.
Cheryl: I've been saying to myself one of the most popular senses for me this year is I can't do it all. And you know what? It's true, I can't. And that's okay.
Pastor Jeff: Nope. But somebody can, he always helps us. We can trust him with everything. That's why Jesus came.
Cheryl: So let's focus on what it's all about and remember that it's a great time to share with people that he's real and he loves us.
Pastor Jeff: That's true. And you know, we want you to know that we love you as well. Every single one of you, we love our church family. It's a very special place to be. So we hope you all have a very special Christmas and happy New Year.
[music 45:31 -45:51]
Pastor Brian: Well, Christmas really didn't start in Bethlehem. It started many years before. In fact, you can see traces of it all the way back into the garden after the fall of man. But one of the big moments where Christmas was really being announced was by the prophet Isaiah about 700 years before the birth of Christ, where he wrote : "Unto us, a child is born and unto us a son is given. And his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of Peace." That's what this song is about.
[music 47:06- 52:19]
Pastor Brian: Well, aren't you glad for that Prince of Peace today? Hallelujah. A lot of times it's easy to think that how things were hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago is kind of how they are even now. But we forget at times that the printing press is a relatively new invention. And that people didn't have books in their homes. They didn't read. Most people were not educated. Most people didn't know how to read and write. Only the most affluent of them among them were.
One of the things that the church did throughout history is it taught so much of the Bible through music and through songs. And this particular Christmas Carol that I've asked Bill to sing, the lyrics were written over a thousand years ago. This song actually has been sung for over a thousand years. It started in Ireland and then it kind of went throughout the world. And this Christmas Carol probably as maybe better than any other that I've ever come across, actually capsulizes the whole Christmas story and what it really means. And so I figured, who better to sing an Irish Christmas Carol than our Irishman Bill Malcho? God bless you, Bill, as you sing this.
Bill: Ah, God bless you too.
[music 54:24 -58:42]
Pastor Brian: Beautiful. Thank you, Bill. Paula is going to come. Did you ever think about the questions that maybe were presented to Mary during her pregnancy or maybe just the thoughts that she might have had about what was about to take place? Well, this song really describes a lot of those questions beautifully.
[music 59:14- 1:03:29 ]
Pastor Brian: Beautiful. Thank you, Paula. How many kings do you think would be willing to step down from their thrones or how many lords would be willing to abandon their homes for you or for me? Probably not very many, but one did. We're gonna have Jacque come. We're gonna sing this song. How many kings have poured out their hearts to a al world that is torn all apart? How many fathers have been willing to give up their sons for us?
Pastor Jacque: I like to look at you when we sing together.
Pastor Brian: I like to look at you too. But when I do, it's kind of a distraction for me.
Pastor Jacque: I love this song. It just so personalizes what Jesus, what God did for us, how much he loved each one of us individually, and what a sacrifice was made for each of us. We love you God, and we are so grateful.
[music 1:05:19 -1:09:13 ]
Pastor Brian: Shayna is going to come back and we have Katie here to sing for us, this beautiful song from the perspective of Mary: Breath of Heaven.
[music 1:09:52- 1:15:00 ]
[music 1:15:54 -1:20:14
[music 1:20:43 -1:24:41 ]
Pastor Brian: We thank you Jesus for that silent night, a holy infant tender and mild, Jesus Lord at thy birth. We thank you for the gift that you brought in yourself. As we now leave this place today. May the love that you brought with you and you left here on the earth to dwell within us, Lord, may that love overcome all of our fears. May that love overcome all of our doubts. Jesus, may that love overcome all of our anger and our hatred. You've come to bring peace on earth, goodwill to men, to all mankind, to the whole human race. I pray that, Lord, today, you can break through all of those obstacles and all those walls that we have built up and that the love of Jesus will be shed abroad in our hearts. This we pray.
And now, may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his smiling face towards you and give you his peace. This we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Merry Christmas everybody. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Thank you for celebrating his birth with us together this morning. It's so great to have you all with us. Merry, merry, merry Christmas to you all. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 12-24-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.