Sermons from December 2021

This morning if you will turn with me in your Bibles to the gospel of Luke and the second chapter for our first scripture reading beginning in the first verse. I don’t think I can ever get tired of reading this or hearing this, so it may seem like we’ve just heard this like 48 hours ago or something. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first…

Good morning! Hey, Aliana! Hi, Nick! Charlie, you want to come on down? So, on Christmas Eve, we did something special. We gave the kids who were here a book. You’ll get this in a little bit. We thought it would be nice this morning if I would go ahead and read it to you. Even though I know some of you already got to read and hear it, which I’m glad of, it gives all the rest of everybody…

Please be seated. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for the joy that is within us. We thank you for the opportunities to gather together and celebrate and worship you and all that you have done. We ask now that you continue to be with us, to open our hearts and open our minds to receive and understand what you have given for us to hear. That you may expand us, that you may strengthen us in faith, in…

Good evening. Welcome. Merry Christmas! I’m Pastor Joseph Jurger, and I’m happy to see all of your smiling faces here this evening. Welcome to our visitors, family, friends, and guests. Just a couple of announcements as we get started: this evening will be a candlelit service. At the end, it will be a service of lessons and carols. Ordinarily, I will ask that you do follow along with your Bibles as you have the inclination, but this evening, I’m going…

Amen. This morning we turn again to the Gospel of Luke for our first reading, chapter 1, beginning at the 39th verse. In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah. She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you…

If you’ll turn with me in your Bibles, our first scripture this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke, the third chapter, beginning with the seventh verse. We are again talking about and hearing about John the Baptist. John said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves,…

If you’ll turn with me in your Bibles, our first scripture reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke, the third chapter, beginning with the first verse. Luke writes, ‘In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Anas and Caiaphas, the word of…