Christ Is What Christmas Is About

In one paragraph

This Sunday was the third Sunday of Advent, and rather than a single sermon, the service centered on reports from a mission trip to Beijing and moved into a Communion meditation on what it means to celebrate, not just mourn, what Jesus did. Pastor Don tied the China stories directly to Communion and to the church's own life together in Jackson Hole. The thread running through everything was that...

Read together

1. Luke 2:8-11 read by the Swink family at the lighting of the third Advent candle of joy
2. Luke 1 (Mary's prayer) quoted at the opening of worship: 'My soul glorifies the Lord, My spirit rejoices in God, my savior for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant'
3. 2 Chronicles 16 (partial) Marlon quoted it in sharing about China: 'the eyes of the Lord range throughout the whole earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him'
4. Psalm 31:14-15 Marlon cited it as a verse she took to China: 'I trust in you, oh Lord, I say, you are my God. My times are in your hands'
5. Mark 13 (partial) Marlon read it as preparation for China: 'the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. Whatever is given you in that hour, speak that. For it is not you who speaks, but the Holy Spirit'
6. Colossians 3:12-17 Marlon recalled it at the close of her China reflections, including 'let the word of Christ dwell in you'
7. 2 Peter 1 (partial) Marlon referenced it from a missions meeting: 'make sure your election and calling are sure'
8. Psalm 107:9, 13-14 Marlon cited it as coming alive through Amanda's story: 'as she cried out to the Lord, he delivered and saved her out of her distresses'
9. Isaiah 58:10 Amy shared it as the scripture the Lord gave her before her ministry meetings in China: 'If you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness'

Talk about it

1. Chuck from the Good Samaritan Mission described people who came in 'rejected and dejected' and were changed by God working through the mission. Has there been a time when you saw God meet someone in a low point through the practical help of other believers? What did that look like?
2. Marlon shared that one of the main things God taught her in China was that He hears, understands, and answers prayer, and she leaned on the verse 'my times are in your hands.' How does that truth actually change the way you pray, especially when circumstances feel overwhelming or unpredictable?
3. Amy described believers in Beijing who could only get into their church service one or two at a time to avoid government shutdown, and yet their worship was so powerful that Pastor Don wished he could 'pocket it and bring it home.' What do you think produces that kind of worship, and what gets in the way of it here?
4. At the end of a Sunday service in Beijing, six or seven visitors stood up unprompted and said they were not believers but wanted to be. Pastor Don said that when you know Jesus and know about him, you want him. What does it look like in your own life to help someone get to the point of wanting him?
5. During communion, Pastor Don said we should celebrate rather than mourn, pointing to the image of Amanda holding her baby with 'the smile of a free person.' He said that staying in the same pit we have always been in is what keeps us feeling down. Where in your own life are you still sitting in an old pit, and what would it mean to actually celebrate what Jesus has done there?