Whangarei Central Baptist Church

Christmas is Good News for everyone.

Mary found peace in chaos when the angel came and told her, an unmarried virgin, that she was about to have a baby. Luke 1:26 – 38. We too can find that peace when we surrender our lives to God. It doesn’t mean that life will be easy, in fact life got a lot harder for Mary, but it does mean that God is with us.

Joseph, the Forgotten Hero

Look Like Good News – Colossians 3:11-17

Reflection Questions
This week we looked at how to be good news in our relationships. Below are several practical steps you can use to help you stay healthy in the way you relate with family (or friends) this Christmas:

Be aware of the role you play in your family. Our family role is the behavior(s) we often acted out during our upbringing which can appear again when back with family. What role are you tempted to play when around your family? (eg. rescuer, enabler etc.)

Be aware of which people or situations test you the most. What people or situations come to mind?

Decide what healthy (and unhealthy) boundaries look like. Are there any boundaries you need to tighten to have healthier interactions with friends or family? Are there any boundaries you need to loosen?

Remember we cannot change others, we can only change ourselves. What can you change in how you approach or respond to challenging, toxic or negative interactions with friends and family? Are there any actions or attitudes you want to start practicing now?

Don’t ride the emotional roller coaster. When someone close to us has mood swings or gets angry, we get to choose whether we get tossed around by their roller coaster of emotion or not. How often do you get pulled into someone else’s emotion? How might you best model a calm demeanor to an overly emotional person?

Self-Reflection

Read Galatians 5:22-23. As you go through these verses, how might each of the fruits of the spirit look in you as you put on the “new me” vs. the “old me”?

What advice does Romans 12:19-21 give you for how we can respond to challenging people and situations in a loving way?

Are you ready to pray “Lord, treat me the way I treat others” now that you have looked at these passages?

Being Good News – Philippians 2:1-18

Small Group Questions:
Every generation of Jesus followers is responsible to ensure the news of the Christian faith stays true to the original. So are you good news? What if you’re the only news someone gets?

Discussion Questions

1. Do you know anyone who left the church? Or de-converted from Christianity? What reason(s) did they give?

2. Have you been tempted to give up on church, or even faith, because of an encounter with a person of faith?

3. Read Philippians 1:1–8. What stands out to you? Have you ever met a Christian whose approach to relationships reflects Paul’s instructions in these verses? Describe that person to the group.

4. Is there anyone you’re aware of who needs to see and experience the good news through you? What’s one unexpected thing you could do for that person that would make your light shine a little brighter than usual? Any of these: Apologize immediately – Forgive quickly – Defer habitually – Give sacrificially

Being Good News – “Love One Another”

“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34

Jesus gave this command in the hours before his crucifixion. As the bearer of the best news, Jesus Christ reveals to us what love is through his life, death, and resurrection. Our greatest act as his followers is to act in love to one another.

What Does It Mean to “Love One Another”
Normally, jealousy, envy, revenge, and comparison trump most everything else. The notion of love, empathy, and compassion is almost unique, and definitely good news for all.

So let’s get practical on ways to “love out” John 13:34…
1. Check on your Christian family – visit them, call them, and be fully present
2. Help a friend plan a church event – help the helpers help everyone else
3. Host a friend for the night – know someone going through a difficult time? Give them a “get away” and have them over for a meal, a movie, a chat and a prayer.
4. Volunteer – Help each other with their thing (clean a garage, build a fence, clean a house, etc).
5. Do a favour – help a hectic day be easier and do an errand to someone
6. Spend some time in prayer – Make some time for a specific prayer for a specific friend’s specific need
7. Take a meal – know someone recovering from an illness or surgery, take a meal, and set up a roster so others can help as well.
8. Write a letter – encourage, appreciate and show a little love
9. Forgive someone – forget the grudge, forget the justice, no matter the pain
10. Practice radically ordinary hospitality – open your house to everyone, neighbours and Christian friends alike. It makes neighbours friends, and friends family in Jesus Christ.

I am very excited about our new Christmas series we are starting today.
Our Series is called “It’s all Good News.”
In a year of covid, losses, transitions and political campaigns, when we hear any good news, we perk up and hope it’s true—even before believing it.
So if the message of Christianity is supposedly good, why don’t more people perk up, lean in, and give it a go?
Perhaps we need to take a fresh look at this good news to see if our current version is in line with the original one. And then look to see if our own lives, individually and together as a church family, reflect the good news we celebrate at Christmas.

Jesus said, “More than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants”. Matthew 6:33
When we die, they put your name on a stone, the date you were born, a dash, and the date you died. And when we get to heaven, we will be asked what we did with our “dash.”
There would be nothing worse than getting to the end of your life and saying, I wish I had lived differently.
John Ortberg, writer and preacher from the US, says “We need to ask ourselves what we are doing (or not doing) with our lives now, that could lead to deep regret”.
In other words, it is very important we spend some time evaluating our lives before it’s too late. I think we all want to live our lives without regret, and be able to say, I spent my life wisely doing the things that were important.
And because there is no rewind button for the actions and words we say and do, this is worth a periodic “stop and think about it.”
Bronnie Ware, a palliative care nurse, wrote a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Ware discovered that there were five common regrets of people facing death:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish I had risked letting myself be happier.

This weekend we are looking at how to live a regret-free life. Because life is too short, and too valuable, to waste our “dash.”
Living well with you,
Pastor Brian

2 Timothy 2:1-13 – You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus