December 13, 2014 - Church at Worship

Pastoral Welcome: Burt Clark

Lighting of the Advent Candle: Reyes Family, Hutchins Family

Sermon: "The Extras: The Shepherds" Part 3: The Players - Randy Roberts

Sermon Notes:

Have you ever noticed how often God does the unexpected? For example, would you really have expected Abraham and Sarah to have a child at their age? Or would you really have expected a young boy named David to defeat a giant named Goliath? Would you really have expected Joseph to rise from the pit to the pinnacle? Or Moses to follow sheep around in a wilderness for 40 years? Or Esther to save her people? Or a persecutor named Saul to be converted into a firebrand for God named Paul? Or—while we’re thinking of such things—would you ever have expected that those who first welcomed Jesus’ birth would be ceremonially unclean, low-on-the-social-ladder, dirty and unkempt shepherds?

But God seems to specialize in the unexpected. The story of the first Christmas, in fact, is inundated in the unexpected. It’s all a bit disconcerting, to be honest, especially to those of us who like well-ordered, carefully-planned lives. Those of us who like to know how to plan, and who plan how to know, can be thrown a bit off balance by this God of the unexpected.

But, let’s face our fears and join the shepherds in the fields as they serendipitously become the extras in an astounding drama. And while we’re there, we just may encounter God’s grace in a brand new way.

May you be open to God’s unexpected acts this Christmas.

Randy Roberts
Senior Pastor