1. A Story to Tell
Mark 5:19

2. Mark 5:19
And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

3. Christmas

4. 6 Ways to Craft a Sermon Compare and Contrast Playing the Songs
Honor the Women
Read the Phonebook
Open the Old Testament
Highlight the Characters

5. A Detour
It is so easy to present to the world the babe in the manger, the God lying there delivered in a humbled estate
BUT People never valued what happened to this child afterwards, say thirty years after.

6. Christmas: A Social Gathering?

7. “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you,”

8. Asking for an appealing story?
A person’s personal story is too interesting to be disregarded. Just share what God has done to you. Use your own experiences!

9. 1 Peter 1:22- 2:11
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

10. 1 Peter 1:22- 2:11
 1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,

11. 1 Peter 1:22- 2:11
5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as pa spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

12. 1 Peter 1:22- 2:11
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

13. 1 Peter 1:22- 2:11
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

14. The Church: Metaphors
Family
Nation
House

15. Psalm 133
1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!

16. Psalm 133 3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.”

17. 1 Peter 1:22
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

18. 1 Peter 1:23
23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

19. Ever wondered why it seems at times we are running out of love?
Because we just understood love just that much, we are pushed to the edge of giving up on loving, despite the love of God being infinite.

20. Love others because God loved us first.

21. 1 Peter 2:1
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Put away everything-EVERYTHING!- that quenches love!

22. 1 Peter 2:2
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

23. “Like Newborn Infants”
Desire the truths of the Bible more than anything else because without it, like a baby longing for milk
The Bible also protects us.

24. Our God is Infinite
If He has been wonderful to us, then let us pray for more of this to come the next year and all the more that you continually be with me and with the whole family of SGC Rotorua as we are about to close this year with thanksgiving and greet the year to come with excitement.