2. Team Café
A committee sanctioned by the deacons to brainstorm and propose areas of ministry that would be beneficial to the growth of Orwell Bible Church.
Community
And
Family
Engagement

3. Christmas Towns

4. Christmas Towns - Nazareth
John 1.46 “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Nazareth is much more widely known today than it ever was in Jesus’ day.
Its population estimate then –
between 100 and 400 people. This was an insignificant little town.

6. Nazareth – Luke
Nazareth held neither the lure of a big city nor the quaint, rustic appeal of a small town.
While Galileans were despised by Judeans,
Galileans despised people from Nazareth.
“Nazareth?!  Can anything good come from there?”

7. Why Nazareth?!
It is just such a place – a run-down, scarcely-known, scoffed-at place – that God Himself chooses to call home, being the son of a teenaged girl named Mary.
What does it tell us about God and the people He uses to accomplish his purposes?

8. 1. This story illustrates the principle that God looks for the meek and the humble to use for his greatest purposes.
“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are.” 1 Cor 1

9. Out of the humble, broken down stump of a village comes the Righteous Branch that would save the world.

10. 2. This is a God who understands, who has felt our pain.
Kingdom logic is foolishness to the world:
the Creator becomes a servant of all,
the rich are pitied above the poor,
the persecuted love those who persecute.

11. “Come and see” (John 1:46) Whether hearers are interested in Jesus,
have heard nothing about him or
have legitimate objections,
the invitation is to come experience Jesus for themselves.

13. How will our lives answer them?