Click Above to Listen!
A Sermon by Dr. Bob Griffin, Teaching Elder at Sovereign Grace Church
“CAROLS OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON”
**GOOD NEWS from heaven the angels bring, glad tidings to the earth they sing. To us this day a child is given to crown us with the joy of heaven.” ~ Martin Luther
o #124 Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
o Pastoral Prayer at Christmastime
**CHRISTMAS IS when God walked down the stairs of heaven with a Baby in His arms.” ~ Paul Scherer
CAROLS FROM EARLY AGES
o #123 O Come, O Come Emmanuel
o #118 Of the Father’s Love Begotten
o #160 Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming
o Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7 (responsive #634)
o #137 What Child Is This?
o #145 O Come, All Ye Faithful
o Lighting of the 4th Advent Candle (by Children): LOVE
**I WILL HONOR Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. So remember that while December brings the only Christmas day, in the year let there be Christmas in everything you do and say.” ~ Charles Dickens
CAROLS OF THE SAVIOR’S BIRTH
o #132 Angels We Have Heard on High
o #143 Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
o #151 Good Christian Men, Rejoice
o Scripture: Luke 2:8-14 (unison #130)
o #139 I Wonder as I Wander
o #148 O Holy Night
o Lord’s Supper: (Led by Elder Jim Garbutt)
**IF WE COULD CONDENSE all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: “God with us.” We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than a baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth! ~ John MacArthur
o Break/Fellowship
**ONCE IN OUR WORLD a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.” ~ C.S. Lewis
CAROLS OF JOYOUS NEWS
o #125 Joy to the World
o #133 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
o #135 While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
o Scripture: John 1:1-14 (responsive #635)
o #131 Angels from the Realms of Glory
o #128 It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
**AND THEN, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment.
No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives.”
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
CHRISTMAS MESSAGE (Elder Bob Griffin)
“Anno Domini: the Year of the Lord”
**ALL THE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS in the world are worth nothing without the presence of Christ. ~ David Jeremiah
CAROLS FOR THE CHILD IN US ALL
o #141 O Little Town of Bethlehem
o #157 Away in a Manger (traditional)
o #152 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
o Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12 (responsive #636)
o #147 Silent Night! Holy Night!
o #158 Luther’s Carol: Away in a Manger
**INTO THIS WORLD, this demented inn in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ comes uninvited.” ~Thomas Merton
CAROL AS WE END OUR CHRISTMAS WORSHIP
o #163 As with Gladness Men of Old
o Benediction and All-Church Christmas Dinner
**DESPITE OUR EFFORTS to keep him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin’s womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked “No Entrance” and left through a door marked “No Exit.” ~Peter Larson