Podcasts about likewise god

Believe it or not, God has a purpose for us. When a couple fall in love and decide to get married, they often pledge to be together “till death do we part.” After the ceremony the married couple begins a lifelong sharing of a common purpose. Likewise God loves us dearly and wants to share His purpose with us. This week in our sermon series God’s Blueprint for Transformation, God told Moses what He wanted for the Israelites in Exodus 19. This Sunday come and hear what God wants for us to be His transformed people. Like the Israelites, like a wedding couple, will you be able to say, “I do”? “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” (Exodus 19:5)

Believe it or not, God has a purpose for us. When a couple fall in love and decide to get married, they often pledge to be together “till death do we part.” After the ceremony the married couple begins a lifelong sharing of a common purpose. Likewise God loves us dearly and wants to share His purpose with us. This week in our sermon series God’s Blueprint for Transformation, God told Moses what He wanted for the Israelites in Exodus 19. This Sunday come and hear what God wants for us to be His transformed people. Like the Israelites, like a wedding couple, will you be able to say, “I do”? “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” (Exodus 19:5)

In the pre mortal existence there was a war between good and evil, a war between a good messiah and an evil messiah. There was one father and he chose the good messiah to represent him and his plan of salvation. The evil messiah and was angry and he rebelled taking a third part and he was cast out by Michael the arch angel. The devil would could continue his fight against the children of god as the great deceiver and liar to man. Men would be confronted with choices or morality. They would be left to chose life eternal through Jesus Christ or captivity and bondage through the devil. Revelations 12 7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Our free agency is a power. The devil can not force us to be evil. Likewise God can not compel us to be good. Our life is a series of choices good or bad. When we love god with all our heart and might and strength than we start a life of discipleship. We start to live after the manner of happiness . We become more willing to help others. Heavenly Father listens to our requests. We must have the morality and faith to ask for important things from the lord. This is the measure of our character. This is the miracle and power of choice. Our focus must be single upon building the kingdom of God and furthering the purposes of god. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/david-nishimoto/message

One day King David was walking through the palace, and he heard a child crying. What was going on? The child was being weaned. The mother was saying, “Now, my child, you are growing up, and it is time for you to be weaned.” The child was saying, “You don’t love me; you hate me. If you loved me, you wouldn’t do this.” Then David went to his desk, got his pen and wrote Psalm 131. The problem with too many of us is that we have grown old without growing up—we still need to be weaned. The weaning process is important. God’s goal for your life is maturity, and His method for maturity is winning. He has to wean us away from things we think are important. God has to wean us away from the things of the world, from the cheap toys that we hold on to. He wants to give us the best, and His desire in weaning is our submission. The weaned child of Psalm 131 was not losing; he was gaining. He was moving out into a larger life. Likewise God has to take things away from our lives, not because they are bad, but because they are keeping us from the best. The next time you whimper and cry because God take something away from you, remember: He might be weaning you. He might be saying, “Get closer to me. Step out into a life of maturity and let’s go together.” *******^******* God wants His children to grow into mature believer and eventually to become like His Son. When He decides to wean you from something in your life, be an obedient child. Let Him prepare you and develop you for what He has in store for you.

Hey everyone I’m Pastor Gary Hoban and welcome to Refinery Life Australia. Our goal is to release a new video / Podcast every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. To begin the new year we are starting on Wednesdays with a 5 part series from Philippians 4 about the Pathway to Success. Today is part Five and we are talking about God’s Supply. Text Philippians 4:19 (ESV) 19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Supplies are important in every endeavour. Before kids go back to school, parent go out and buy school supplies so their children will have the materials to do their work. Before we start church each week we have to ensure all the supplies needed are purchased, sometimes its the simple things like coffee, sugar, and toilet paper. When an army goes to war, supplies are imperative, support supplies such as food and shelter in addition to military supplies. And the logistics of transporting supplies to the troops can often become a problem. Likewise God supplies His people with what they need to get their jobs done. Paul referred to the present when he said that God would supply our needs. He was not merely implying a future hope. The Philippian Church had supplied Paul’s need. So this turned his thoughts to God, who supplied their every need. Notice the significant things that Paul said about the way God supplies our needs. To read more Visit us at www.refinerylife.org Twitter @PastorGaryHoban @RefineryLifeGC Facebook @PastorGaryHoban @RefineryLifeChurch Instagram @gary_hoban @refinerylifechurch YouTube Gary Hoban http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxvrTCsjg98vGjMTObxJhtQ Refinery Life Church Australia http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkvD9z50SuKWxhSw0TPQkgQ Desire by Markvard https://soundcloud.com/markvard Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/desire-m Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/9Tuxt-nxh0Q --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/refineryliferadio/message

In “Building Favor In Famine” Pastor Kevin shows how Joseph endured imprisonment, loneliness, betrayal, and famine before he finally found favor. Likewise God will use what seems to be your mistake or even tragedy to show you not only His favor but His faithfulness.

In “Building Favor In Famine” Pastor Kevin shows how Joseph endured imprisonment, loneliness, betrayal, and famine before he finally found favor. Likewise God will use what seems to be your mistake or even tragedy to show you not only His favor but His faithfulness.

The main point of the cities of refuge was that an innocent person would not be killed. These strategically placed cities gave an asylum for a person who accidentally killed someone, to flee and await a fair trial. Likewise God becomes our person of...

A Shunammite Woman's life was blessed because she served the prophet. Likewise God is going to fulfill all the prophecies in your life.

A Shunammite Woman's life was blessed because she served the prophet. Likewise God is going to fulfill all the prophecies in your life.

Everything that lives, grows. Likewise God expects us to grow and produce fruit. Here are a few crucial steps to Godly growth and producing kingdom fruit.

We're talking this morning about our series on Angels and Demons and of course we get to turn to the bright side, the light side this morning which is nice. I'm looking forward to that, talking about angels. We have, I think as a culture, a real love, an affinity for angels as a people. Angels are in our art, our literature, in our movies. My favorite movie angel is Clarence in It's A Wonderful Life. Television shows, one that has really popularized angels is Highway To Heaven, remember that one with Michael Landon or Touched By An Angel with Roma Downey. That was must see TV on Sunday nights for a long time—this whole idea that an angel can take on human form and be among us. Actually, that's got a little bit of biblical support. There's an obscure passage in the book of Hebrews, the 13th chapter, the 2nd verse. It says, 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. It's a rather obscure, kind of a strange reference, isn't it? Almost as if an angel could be one of us and we not know it. I had a couple strange experiences in my life. One happened to Brenda when our oldest daughter was 1 ½ years old. She was in a terrible car accident. I was on my way to it and traffic was backed up for blocks. There were ambulances, fire trucks—a multi-car accident; I was terrified. When I talked to her, it was before cell phones, so she called my office and I asked if everything was okay. She said, “Carrie's been hit on her side.” She meant her side of the car. I thought she meant her side and so I was terrified. I bypassed the traffic jam moving in and out of traffic. I finally got there and I saw the car. You could tell the car was totaled; the car was in awful condition. Later on I would say to her, “It's a good thing that Carrie wasn't in the front seat, in the passenger seat, she would have been killed.” She said, “She was in the passenger seat.” All she had was a little tiny scratch. The car was completely caved in. What was so strange was, immediately after the accident, I mean seconds after the accident she was terrified for the life of our daughter. A woman showed up at the window, this was winter time, knocked on the window, Brenda lowers the window and (the woman) says, “I just want you to know that you're okay and that your daughter's okay and this was not your fault.” I mean, right after the accident (she is) in the street telling her this. She turned to look at Carrie and then she turned back to talk to the woman but she was gone. She was looking everywhere and she was gone. Did I tell that accurately? Thank you. (Laughter.) Another time I was teaching as a youth pastor in Rockford. We had this thing called “A Planned Famine” where you starved yourself for 30 hours to raise money for the poor. It was one of the first years that World Vision would ever do that and I was teaching on this passage (while) in a downstairs room with about 25-30 high schoolers who were all hungry. We're winding this thing down and I'm teaching on the passage in James about feeding those who are hungry and Hebrews 13:2 about entertaining angels unaware, you know. While I'm teaching this, do you get me? While I'm teaching this, there's a knock on the door and one of the girls is there. I said, “Sue, I'm teaching. Couldn't this wait?” She said, “Pastor Jeff there's a man upstairs who says he's had no food in three days and he wants to know if we'll feed him.” While I'm teaching about feeding the hungry and entertaining angels unaware…the kids are like, “That's a set up. Yeah. Very funny.” I'm like, “No, no set up.” They're like, “Whhoooaaaa.” We made food for the guy and we all kind of stood there watching him walk down the hallway like he was just going to disappear. (Laughter.) That never happened. We watched him walk out of sight, but no poof. No glow, no Monica scene where the lights come up and she says “I'm an angel,” none of that stuff. But, it was very peculiar. I can't say for sure what those encounters were but very peculiar, indeed. There is a more definitive verse that's in the same book in the first chapter, the 14th verse where it says, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” He asks a rhetorical question, are not all angels, are they not all ministering spirits? Of course, the answer was supposed to be, yes, they are. So, the word angel means messenger. That's literally what it means. You are a messenger. You are someone who is bringing a message. Secondly, they are spirits which means they can minister spiritually. They are spirits. They have advantages that we wouldn't have. Thirdly, their job is to minister. Minister to whom? To those who will inherit salvation. How do they minister? We're going to see that they are very involved in the Christmas Story as we look at the birth narrative in Matthew. We'll look at the birth narrative in Luke tomorrow night in the Christmas Eve service. But, this morning looking at the birth narrative in Matthew, there's a lot of intervention (by) angels. What's interesting is they come and they minister. They come to encourage, comfort, guide, direct and redirect, and to warn, and to teach, much like ministry that we would do. The angles come to do it, what's interesting in Matthew is they always do it in dreams. In Luke it's not the case, it's a visual, awake experience. But, in Matthew every account of intervention is angelic and happens in a dream form. You're kind of vulnerable when you're sleeping, right? You're kind of receptive and you in an unconscious state. You and I have never ministered to someone in their dreams before, never done that, but a spiritual being could. Because while our physical beings are sleeping our spiritual self is very much awake. What is that like, before we look at the dreams, what would that be like? Have you ever wondered what that would be like, to be spoken to in a dream? I'm going to step out here and share a story with you this morning and you might think me crazy for telling it. But I'm going to tell it because maybe it will help us understand what Joseph and the Magi might have experienced. I can't say for sure that what I experienced was from God. I'm certainly not saying it was angelic, but maybe it might help us understand this important part of the Christmas Story. When I was 36 years old I found out that we were going to have another child. Now, I had a boy and a girl and I was very content with that. And so, you've got your future planned out and that's just the way it is. When the news came that we were going to have another child seven years after the last child, I was not ready for that. I was not ready for that emotionally or any other way. I was not overjoyed with the news. I'm thinking, boy, I don't want to be a dad again this old in life. I'm 36 years old and I'm thinking I'm old. I long to be 36 again. (Laughter.) I was like, at this age, to be a dad again? So, I went through a period of depression. I was just thinking, I had it all figured it and now we're going to have a baby and I'm not ready for it and I don't know if I'm going to be ready for it and I was just really down, just really discouraged, saying, “God do you know what you're doing?” kind of thing. One night, I had a dream. Again, I don't want to embarrass myself or for you to think I'm a wacko or something, but I just want to tell you what happened to me, to tell you my experience. I had a dream and it was one of those dreams—and I don't know if you ever had this before—but while I was having this I knew I was in bed, I knew I was sleeping when I had this encounter, and I was desperately trying to wake up. I knew I was in my bedroom, I knew all about my surroundings but yet, I was asleep. I felt like I couldn't move. In my dream a friend of mine whose name is Myla (she'd been a friend of ours for many years and then she died unexpectedly in her early 30s) whom I hadn't seen or talked to in years, in this dream, I saw her. I said, “Myla, it's good to see you. You look great, you look wonderful. It's so good to see you.” She smiled back and said, “It's good to see you, too.” I don't remember anything else but seeing her. I don't remember what was around us. I don't remember any other people. There was certainly no other activity. It was just a one-on-one conversation and the conversation made sense. It wasn't dream like. The conversation I had with her was as real to me as any conversation I will have with you today, is the best way I can explain it. I said, “Myla, what are you doing here?” It didn't take long for me to remember that she is deceased. I said, “Wait a second, you died. I can't be talking to you, you died.” She said, “I know. But, I've been sent by God to deliver a message to you.” I said, “I'm not comfortable with this.” (Laughter from the congregation.) That's what I said. I said, “I'm not comfortable with this; and I don't mean to offend you, but I want to leave. I want to leave.” She said, “I know, you can, but I want to tell you this. This child is a gift from God and you're going to love this child.” She started talking about my relationship with my soon to be born daughter. And then I said, “I appreciate your sharing that with me. I just want to wake up. I want to go.” You know, “Thanks for coming.” (Laughter) She said, “I understand.” I said goodbye and I was like, I gotta wake up, I gotta wake up, come on. It took me a while. I was like, I'm in my room, I want to wake up… As soon as I woke up I said, “Brenda, you've got to wake up. I just talked to Myla and here's what she said…” And from that moment you could say it was just a dream and it was nothing more than that. But, I wasn't thinking about her (Myla) and it was just the way it happened. For me, I had a visit; my attitude and my whole demeanor, my whole outlook changed from that moment forward toward the birth of our daughter. Maybe that's something like what Joseph went through—that stage where you're kind of asleep and kind of awake. You're cognitive, you're aware but you also know that you are sleeping. Okay? I won't go on anymore with that, you can call me crazy if you want to, but that was my experience. Now, I'm not saying Myla had become an angel, but she certainly was a messenger to me on that day. Matthew's gospel, the first chapter, we've already looked at the first dream—that was a dream that came to Joseph when he was embarrassed and ashamed to take Mary as his wife, feeling like she'd been unfaithful to him, that she'd not kept her vows of betrothal and that he was going to put her away, privately. But because of the encouragement and the teaching of the angel, who said look, this is part of God's plan. Do not be ashamed. Do not be afraid to take her as your wife. And so that dream took place. Through that ministry of the angel, Joseph married Mary. In chapter 2, a little time has passed and now the Magi are coming from the east to try to find where the Christ child was. We are, as a family, going to the Adler Planetarium this week just to get away, in Chicago. I'll never forget the presentation we all saw at the planetarium, they're not doing it now but they did it for years called The Star of Bethlehem. Did any of you ever see that when that was at the Adler? Wasn't that fantastic? I walked in there thinking, this is a place of science and they're going to just ridicule my faith. They recreated the sky over Bethlehem when Christ was born. They talked about this magnificent cosmic display. Science verifying, recreating the sky and talking about how the star would have seemed to have moved, this alignment of constellation and the Leo constellation and the royal planet and the royal star all aligned to create this brilliant affect in the sky over Bethlehem. They said they weren't saying it was the star of Bethlehem, we're just telling you something wonderful and strange happened in the sky over Israel at that time in history. And so they followed the star and they came to the place where they can't find him and they stop to speak to Herod. Now, Herod is an awful man. Herod is a man who will do anything to cling to power. Herod is a man who killed two sons that he deemed a threat to his throne, a threat to his power. This is a sick, twisted man. Not knowing these things, they come to Herod and seek out, “Where is this king, we've come that we might worship the King of the Jews?” And so Herod inquires. He finds out that there's a Bible prophecy in the book of Micah, that the Christ will be born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is this obscure little village. I mean this is pinpoint accuracy. Instead of saying the Messiah would be born in the United States it would be like a prophecy that said the Messiah would be born in Footville. Okay? I mean, it's pinpoint, a small little village. And yet, the prophecy was there and so King Herod knew there was something to this. Of course the Magi are warned in a dream that says not to come back because he is going to do great harm to the child. So, they find Jesus, Jesus is now a child. It says he is no longer an infant. He's in a house; he's not in a manger. I hate to spoil your nativity scene with your wise men; I think go ahead and keep the wise men there. They're part of the Christmas Story, but they came a little later and they worshipped him and gave him their gifts. In verse 12 they are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned another way. Let's pick up in verse 13. Open your Bibles to Matthew 2:13... 13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. The word child for Jesus, describing Jesus the child, is the word for toddler. He's no longer an infant. He could have been as old as two years old by the time the Magi arrive. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Here in the midst of this story of joy and gladness, hope and light, is this dark story about a man who, not only would kill his own sons but would kill innocent little children that he would deem as a threat to his throne. We can (ask) how can a loving God allow that to happen in such a time of joy as the birth of the Messiah? How could (this be?) Maybe God's not all-good if he allowed that to happen. Or maybe he's not all-powerful because he knew about it and couldn't stop it. Maybe he's not all-knowing because he didn't prevent it. If you were here last week you might have an answer for someone who says those kinds of things. I just want to touch on that briefly for those of you who weren't here last week. We talked about the problem of evil. Remember we said what evil is. I'm not going to preach the whole sermon again but I do want to touch on it a little bit. We said what evil is. We define evil, let me back up, I'm a little rusty, it's been a week...We talked about what silence is, silence is the absence of sound. Silence is a nothing. If there is a room full of sound there's nothing that's called silence that's going to come in and overcome the sound. Darkness is the absence of light. There is no substance called darkness that is going to come into the room and steal away the light. Darkness is a nothing; it's when light is gone. Cold is the absence of heat. Cold is what we describe what we feel when heat is removed from a place. In like manner, evil is the absence of good. Evil is what happens when we turn away from the goodness of God because God has given us something called free will. It's a two edged sword. It's a blessing and curse. Free will can do wonderful things but free will can also kill and destroy. One of the ways we illustrate it is this, if somebody says to you, “How can God be good and allow this kind of an evil like Herod did in slaughtering the innocents?” You might say, “How would you like it if you were told what was right and wrong and you were forced to do what somebody else said was right. Somebody else defined your values and set the course of your life for everything you were supposed to do and you had no choice. Maybe it's a government, maybe it's a church—those are called cults and they exist. They tell you this is what you're going to do, this is what you're going to think and this is what's right and you have no choice in the matter. How would you feel about that? The average person is going to say, “I wouldn't like that very much.” Why not? Well, because I want to choose for myself. I want to have freedom to make my decision, what's right and what I want to do and how I want to live. So, we agree that freedom of choice is a good thing. Yes, we do. Thirdly, we ask the question, “If you can choose good, if you're free to choose good does that also mean you are free to choose badly, to choose wrong?” Yes, it does. If I'm free to choose (what is) good, I'm also free to choose what is evil. And lastly, the fact that I can choose evil is a good thing because it means that I am morally free. Not that the evil I would choose is good, but the fact that I am free to choose it means I am morally free. God agrees. To take away that freedom is a greater evil; so, God allows us to make choices, even horrendous choices. He's our judge and he would judge Herod and Herod would pay for his sin. But, no one was responsible for what happened to those babies besides King Herod. Herod made a choice to turn away from God's goodness. He had the audacity to think he could thwart the plan of God. Think about that, that's a monstrous sized ego to think you could thwart the plan of God, and yet he did. And so, there's this dark period in Bethlehem. Maybe some 20 boys were killed. Bethlehem is not a big place if you factor in the vicinity, we estimate maybe around 20 infants. But, one would have been too many. Herod just loses it and he sheds innocent blood. Verse 19, says, 19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead.” 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. This guy was so incompetent that Rome removes him after six years in office and just says you're done, you're an idiot, and you're gone. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.” So here are these dreams and in each of these dreams the angels minister. They minister in much the same way we would. Sometimes ministry is to warn, sometimes ministry is to guide, sometimes ministry is to redirect. Sometimes ministry is to comfort or encourage or to teach. Here is something that we have in common with the angels: you and I are called to be angels in this sense, we are messengers and we have been sent. The verse in Hebrews 1:14 says, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” Sent forth: that word is in the present tense meaning God has sent them, is sending them, and will continue to send them. Likewise God is sending us. (Turn to) the book of 1Peter chapter 4 verses 8-11 and let's read them together, 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. So how we minister is going to change. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. Peter says how we minister changes. What we do changes. But the fact is we have been sent by God. The fact is we have a message to give from God. I want to tell you, as your pastor, and I've been here since we started coming up on 23 years, I've never been prouder to be the pastor of Faith Community Church than I am right now. We are coming into a body that is “getting it”. We are recognizing that we have been sent and we're going. I think about missions in this last year and then looking forward into next year. I think about the group we sent to Haiti, we did wonderful things and they're going back in January. I'm so proud of that team. I'm thinking of Team Tychicus coming back from Cambodia and Zambia over Thanksgiving and the great work they did ministering to the missionaries there. I am thinking about the team of ladies we are sending to the Dominican Republic real soon. I think about the team that is getting ready to go to Mexico this summer to minister. I think about our youth who minister in Minnesota to an Indian reservation to the poor. I think about a team that we sent to Tuba City, AZ this summer with Bertie Baker to minister to the Navajo Indians on a reservation there. I see a church that's getting the message and I'm very proud of that, and I see that's going to continue. Not only abroad but at home here, I've seen us minister. During the fall in our small groups we had Micah 6:8 service projects going on: twenty-six small groups, 26 services blitzing this city with the love of Christ. We heard amazing stories of how you ministered to families who lost everything and how you ministered to women at the battered women's shelter for abused wives and women. How our youth group and other CARES ministries adopted those girls who'd lost their mother so tragically to a homicide this year and made sure that their Christmas had something good in it, distributing presents. I could just go on and on as I know you're involved with the CARES ministry. Every month we are involved in reaching out in CARES ministry and reaching out to Wilson School, the school that we're a part of. I see us in a tangible way, expressing the love of Christ. I just want to encourage you in 2013. If you're sitting on the sidelines, get involved. Join us. Recognize that Christ did send you. Recognize that you do have a message. It's not just to be a “pew potato”; it's not just to be a consumer, a sponge that soaks it up. Occasionally allow the Holy Spirit to squeeze you out and let his love and the knowledge and the goodness he's place within you come out of you and into the life of others. When you invite somebody tomorrow to the Christmas Eve service to hear the message of the good news, that's being a minister; that's being an angel to somebody. God has called us to be angels as well, not with wings and halos but as we are. He has called us to be salt and light to a lost and dying world. 2013 is going to be a good year for our church. I hope it's a year when you step up and say, “God, I recognize I'm being sent. I'm not waiting for orders to be sent, I have been sent. What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to serve? How do you want me to give?” Let's be light to our community and to our world. Let's pray together, “Father we are so grateful for the Christmas Story as we hear the good news of the Messiah. How you aligned those stars and those planets, and science verifies that, to show a brilliant light over Bethlehem, for those Wise Men to come. How you used the ministry of angels to guide and direct, to warn and to comfort, to teach and encourage. And Lord, our reactions with angels, only heaven will be able to tell us the things that happened to us that we're not even aware of. We're thankful for their ministry. We're thankful that we too have been sent, that we too are messengers of the kingdom, that we have a job to do. And, Lord I pray that as you have blessed us in 2012 that you will bless us again in 2013 and help us to do even greater things for the Kingdom