Olive Branch Community Church - Weekend Messages

Jesus is the star of Christmas–without Him there is no Christmas

This week's "star" in the Christmas story is the villain: Herod the Great. This powerful, paranoid king of Judea pacified Jews through building projects and had members of his own family murdered. Why would God include him in the Christmas story?

As with the other "stars of Christmas," tradition has affected what we think about angels. Let's look at what the Bible tells us about them, and what that teaches us about God.

Every story has extra characters, and the Christmas story is no exception. Think: angels, shepherds, and wise men. God chose these extras to communicate something to us. Let's peel back what's been added to the story by tradition and legend to get to the heart of his message to us.

Christmas traditions and caricatures may have helped shape our ideas about Mary and Joseph, as well as the angels, shepherds, and wise men. This series will help us look closer at these "stars of Christmas" and why God chose them.

We've seen the universe has a beginning and is finely tuned, both of which uphold the God Hypothesis. So why do some scientists still deny God? That's where Pastor Greg begins this concluding message.

We live in a world of fear and anxiety. People fear sharks and ticks, diseases and death. Christians may think: What if God really isn't in control? Atheists may think: What if He is? And many people avoid thinking about these questions at all. In this message we'll look at the evidence, and we don't have to be afraid of doing that.

Some think science and God are enemies. Actually, God and science are so compatible they are allies. Listen to this first message in this series on the existence of God.

We tend to try to control a situation when we are in the dark, and do not trust God's setting. However, we need to trust that God hears and remembers, so we must pray with hope and obey His direction.

It's difficult to trust the Lord when we can't see what is going on. When our employers, rulers, leaders, or laws force us to choose between honoring them or honoring God, we must navigate with wisdom, grace, and trust in the Lord.

We can walk in the dark if we're familiar with the room. And it's usually people we're familiar with that we trust. How about God? Do you know him enough to trust him? Is he who you turn to when things go dark? Listen to this first message in the first series of our walk through Exodus.

In this series we looked at God, our bodies, our community, our value, and our sin. Now we'll put it all together to hopefully see ourselves truthfully, and see that Jesus Christ, who is the image of God, is transforming our characters, our bodies, and our minds, to be more and more like Him.

We’ve learned how to see ourselves rightly by looking at the image of God. We reflect Him in our very being, our bodies, our communities, and in our value. But there is a problem: we have conformed to this world, and we need transformation.

How do you determine your value? What does that question make you look at in yourself? What do you assess? Are you looking through the right lens? We've been learning that to develop spiritually we need to know ourselves rightly, and an important part of that is knowing our value rightly.

Part of knowing yourself rightly is to know how your community affects you, for the good or the bad. Spiritual growth is not just personal, it's also corporate. We need one another as we strive to be like Christ.

Last week we looked at being made in the image of God, but we left out one thing: our bodies! Our culture is, at best, confused on this topic. We don’t love the human body rightly; we worship it, hate it, or ignore it. But we are to love our bodies as God does—surrendering them to his will, because he loves our bodies.

What if the Bible gave us a way to understand ourselves that wouldn’t provoke pride? Guess what—it does! God's word calls us to humility in our spiritual journey, connecting spiritual transformation to seeing ourselves rightly. And to know ourselves rightly, we must first know God.

In this introduction to our new series, we'll see that Jesus saved us into a community because he knew we’d need one another’s encouragement, insights and accountability to really know ourselves.

Olympic athletes train for years and, in 1 Timothy 6:11-21, it sounds like it takes a similar dedication to maintain our spiritual life. As we conclude our last series in 1 Timothy, let's be encouraged to keep going, to "fight the good fight" and "take hold of the eternal life" to which we are called. Notes

It is commonly believed in our culture, and unfortunately commonly true, that POWER + MONEY = CORRUPTION. But in 1 Timothy 6 Paul proposes another equation, one that can transform the wealth of this world into a picture of Jesus—and so gives us another powerful illustration of the gospel!

In 1 Timothy 5:17-6:2 we learn how to relate to authorities in our life through the lens of Church, those who are authorities in the church structure, as well as those who are over us and attend church with us. Sound confusing? Our guest speaker will help make sense of it!

Whether you are on the right or left, you may be offended by this sermon. That's because many of us tend to add the Bible to our political view rather than allow the Bible to form our view. This may prevent a proper understanding of this week's text.

If the church is to be a household where the gospel is illustrated, leaders in the church must act as the heads of this household. In 1 Timothy 4:6-16 leaders illustrate the gospel by being an example to their followers. To do this leaders must train in godliness like an athlete trains to achieve victory.