Fourth Reformed Church

Gospel seed works gently and yet powerfully toward ultimately gathering in a harvest. As we consider the parable of the soils this morning in our sermon series, we will see how gospel understanding and our response play a significant role in our ability to faithfully follow and become like Jesus.

Throughout his three-year earthly ministry, through his life and teaching, Jesus was constantly working to expand and correct a narrow and perverted understanding of what it meant to follow him. Today, our “Follow Me” sermon series will help us to understand some of the cost and nature of following Jesus.

We begin a sermon series today that will help us to learn what it means to follow Jesus—called “Follow Me.” It will shake up and alter some of our old ways of thinking and living and give us a vision for what authentic discipleship looks like for each one of us.Pray for God’s Spirit to startle and capture our hearts so that we can honor our Lord and Savior with radical love, joy and action.

Today’s celebration of the sacrament of baptism will hold up God’s gospel promises for us and remind us of our roles as servants for our children and others. Our “Promises” sermon series will focus on how we, like Mary, can be faithful in taking up our role as “the Lord’s servant.”

Today, our “Promises” Advent sermon series will focus on Joseph’s story and what it means for us to trade reputation for identity. Pray for God’s Spirit to work with his Word to transform us into the likeness of our Savior.

Our “Promises” Advent sermon series digs back into the story of King Herod’s ferocious evil spewing against the infant Jesus with an attempt to kill him. We will see how Jesus’ journey as a refugee on the run and ultimately out of Egypt has a great impact on our journey today.

Today marks the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting and preparation. We eagerly wait to celebrate the coming of the Christ into our world: God’s gift to his people. One way for us to prepare together is by lighting the candles of the Advent wreath, a symbol of eternal promise. As we light the candles each week, we focus on the light that shines in our dark world.We also prepare for our celebration of God’s gift of his Son to us with a sermon series called “Promises” where we will examine the Christmas story in the light of the many promises that God has made. We will see how God is faithful to every one of the promises that he makes and Christ has and continues to fulfill these promises.Our first promises today will show how Jesus’ coming was the stirring up and the beginning of the end of evil. Everyday, we groan under the evil in our world and in our own hearts. We will see, through the story of Herod, how Jesus ultimately and wonderfully brings evil to an end.