December 6, 2020 Gracepointe Full Service
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December 6, 2020 GracePointe Full Service Scott Brockett [00:00:00] Hello, my name is Scott Brockett and I'm the Creative Arts Pastor here. I want to welcome you to our online service. I'm so glad you joined us today as we gather together online to encourage one another and worship God with our hearts and minds. Scott Brockett [00:00:15] I ask that you take time today to fill out the Connect Card using the link near the video. We love knowing you are here with us each and every week and coming alongside you to pray and provide support for you in any way. One of the ways we come together as a community, as a family is through prayer. And I want to quickly tell you why prayer is important in our walk with Christ. When we pray, we pause our busy lives to listen to what God would say to us. We rejoice and give reverence to an Almighty God. We ask God for help. We ask him to come to our rescue. And finally we yield to God and we declare that it is not our way, but his way. So, friends, I just ask you to pray with us, put on that Connect Card anything that you need prayer for and let us come together through prayer. Scott Brockett [00:01:12] One of our Community Impact Partners is Prison Fellowship, and we are letting you know of an awesome way to help others through the program, Angel Tree. Please call the office at 503-654-9593 to get signed up for a child. As we have a goal of helping twenty one children this year, you can also donate twenty five dollar gift cards to those families all across the state in the Angel Tree program who don't have a church to support them all. Sign ups and donations will be accepted until December 10th. Thank you so much for your generosity in helping others. The latest way to get connected to GracePointe is through the Church Center app. Whether you're on Android or iOS Church Center is available and ready for you to watch services, read sermon notes, communicate with the church and much, much more. Just look for the Church Center app in the Android or iOS store. Once downloaded, search for GracePointe Church and click connect. And that is it. We are excited for this new way to connect with you at GracePointe. We'll be continuing our series When Life Doesn't Make Sense and focusing on Ecclesiastes, an often overlooked book of the Bible. We will look at how God desires for us to let go of our need of control and trust in God's faithfulness and love. Scott Brockett [00:02:31] In this we find meaning even when life doesn't make sense. Scott Brockett [00:02:36] Finally, GracePointe, please be on the lookout for upcoming emails regarding plans for meeting back together in person. That's right. Please, I'm going to repeat it. Please be on the lookout for upcoming emails regarding plans for meeting back together in person. We have been hard at work to come up with a plan to meet back together, a plan that's permissible, a plan that's attainable, and finally a plan that reflects our dependency upon God. Scott Brockett [00:03:03] Does it have a sense of humility? Scott Brockett [00:03:05] We have been working hard on that plan. So please be on the lookout next week for an email regarding our plans for Christmas Eve as well as future in- person gatherings. Thank you for your patience, your grace and your kind encouragement as we look to get back together as well as keep people healthy and safe. And with that, let us shift to hearing our advent reading of the day, I had a great time inviting my family to light the candle and give the advent reading. Benjamin Brockett [00:03:36] On the second Sunday of Advent, we realized the prophecy candle. And then we light the second candle, the candle of Angels, which reminds us of their proclamation of peace with God. Scott Brockett [00:03:51] Luke 2:8-14 says and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause you great joy for all the people. Jen & Charlie Brockett [00:04:14] Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven. Jen Brockett [00:04:34] And on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. Scott Brockett [00:04:40] Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, thank you so much for family. Thank you for your many, many blessings. Lord, during this season, we honor you. We honor the beginning of your rescue plan for all of us. God, thank you so much for all that you do. And we praise you now in your name, amen. Worship Team [00:05:31] Angels We Have Heard on High Worship Team [00:05:56] My Jesus, My Saviour Worship Team [00:09:12] This is My Desire Michael Beuving [00:16:52] As we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross, we're going to sing the song Take My Life, and I think it's such a great reminder that when we think of what Jesus did for us, his body broken for us, absorbing the wrath of God that we deserved and shedding his blood because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Michael Beuving [00:17:13] The only reasonable response from us is to say, take my life, take my life, all that I am, everything that I have. It's all yours, Jesus. And so as we prepare to remember Jesus sacrifice, I would encourage you now to to sing the words of this song or think through the words of this song. And I would ask you to consider whether they are are true of you this morning. Worship Team [00:18:07] Take My Life Michael Beuving [00:20:14] And on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it and he told his disciples, this is my body broken for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also, he took the cup and he said, this is my blood shed for you, do this in remembrance of me. Michael Beuving [00:20:46] Father, thank you for sending your son to live the life, the sinless life that we could never live. To take the punishment that we deserved so that we could have the relationship with you and the eternal life that you in your love for us wanted to give us. Michael Beuving [00:21:05] Father, I pray that you would help us be people that appreciate that and offer our lives back to you as a sacrifice of gratitude for everything you've done for us in Christ name, I pray. Amen. Michael Beuving [00:21:22] So when was the last time that you just felt anxious, miserable, frustrated, agitated, and you just wanted things to get better? Another way to think about it is when was the last time that you thought or said, man, life is not going the way I wanted it to? You know, we have a problem of creating elaborate expectations for our life, both short term and long term, and then adopting formulas that we think will get us there. And when it doesn't happen, when things start to crumble, we get really frustrated and agitated and desperate and we start clinging for things that we think will satisfy. This morning, the teacher is going to give us four suggestions for how to recalibrate or adjust when life isn't making sense. Basically, the idea is how to get better when life isn't making sense now. I said the teacher, if you remember the book of Ecclesiastes, the word Ecclesiastes actually means teacher. It's Greek for the Hebrew word Conjola, which means teacher. So really, the book of Ecclesiastes is the observations of this individual, the teacher, maybe Solomon, or maybe somebody using Solomon sort of as a pseudonym, a literate literary device to communicate kind of the absurdity of life under the sun. So we're going to look at Ecclesiastes 4:4-5:7 this morning. And as I read through it, I wanted to encourage you to look for the four different ways that the teacher says this is better than that or this way is better than that way. There's going to be four of them. Just watch for them. Listen to him. The clue is really to look for the word better. And remember that we're not looking for formulas. There are no formulas, no certainties in life this morning. We're really just trying to see how we can bring our lives more in line with the way God designed life to be.