What is our passion? What are we living for? Why were we born? What is our greatest concern for Hope Baptist church? Here is a truth: If our passion or the passion of the people of our church is off course all is not well with us. In John 1:6-13, we learn what is meant to be at the heart of every Christian life and every church. We learn this from John the Baptist. His passion must be the same all-absorbing passion of God’s people. Verse 7 states it very clearly, “This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all through Him might believe.” John the Baptist was a man sent from God as a “witness” for the “Light.” What is a witness? In John’s case, a witness is someone who speaks about, points to, and glorifies someone else. He is pointing to the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. In this section, we see one of the ways God announced the glory of His Son. John’s calling is in many ways, the calling of every Christian. We all do not have the exact ministry as John the Baptist… but our role is very similar. We are witnesses of the glory of Jesus; we point to His light; we make His name known. Let’s not get distracted from the main thing… the exaltation of Jesus Christ. Let us unite together on this, and say as one unified body, “for this I was born, to be a witness of the light of the world, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.” Let’s make this the heart and soul of all our hopes and conversations at Hope Baptist.

Get this on your year-end calendar… on New Year’s Eve, January 31, from 6pm-Midnight, we will be gathering at the church for a time of feasting, fellowship and singing and sharing what the Lord has done in 2017 and what we are praying for in 2018. The church will provide the meat and dessert. Please bring 1 side dish and a snack per family to share. And, we’d like to encourage everyone to avoid extra food preparation work on Sunday so plan to prepare your dish Saturday and bring it hot to the church at 6 PM Sunday evening.

And… Don’t miss this: here is a message of hope for all those who go to abortion clinics and cry out for life, Waiting Outside an Abortion Clinic Years Ago Was Worth It.

Please consider reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in 2018. I just wrote a book, “Journey Through the Bible,” to provide a concise help for families to read through the Bible. Here is the deal for people at Hope: If you sign up to read the Bible with your family in 2018, the book is free to you – one per family. We will have some at church to give to those who sign up at Read2018. To get a free book you must sign up. Also, I am lined up with around 30 pastors around the world to join me in a webinar at the end of each week in 2018 to discuss what we read the previous week, and we will attempt to bring very street level applications from the reading for families.

Prayer will be held at the Brown’s Barn.

Get ready to exalt our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh,  in these songs for Sunday…

Joy to the World
Joy to the world! the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heav’n and nature sing
And heav’n and nature sing
And heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing

Joy to the world! the Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy

No more let sin and sorrow grow
Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found
Far as the curse is found
Far as, far as the curse is found

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders of His love

O Little Town of Bethlehem
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

How silently, how silently the wondrous Gift is giv’n
So God imparts to human hearts the blessing of His heav’n
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive Him still
The dear Christ enters in

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend on us we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today
We hear the heav’nly angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord, Emmanuel

Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus
Hail, Thou once despised Jesus,
Hail, Thou Galilean King!
Thou didst suffer to release us:
Thou didst free salvation bring.
Hail, thou agonizing Saviour,
Bearer of our sin and shame!
By Thy merits we find favor;
Life is given through Thy name.

Paschal Lamb, by God appointed,
All our sins were on Thee laid;
By almighty love anointed,
Thou hast full atonement made:
All Thy people are forgiven
Through the virtue of Thy blood;
Opened is the gate of heaven,
Peace is made ‘twixt man and God.

Jesus, hail! enthroned in glory,
There for ever to abide;
All the heav’nly hosts adore Thee,
Seated at Thy Father’s side:
There for sinners Thou art pleading;
There Thou dost our place prepare;
Ever for us interceding,
Till in glory we appear.

Worship, honor, pow’r, and blessing
Thou art worthy to receive:
Loudest praises without ceasing,
Meet it is for us to give.
Help, ye bright angelic spirits,
Bring your sweetest, noblest lays;
Help to sing our Saviour’s merits,
Help to chant Immanuel’s praise.

In Christ Alone
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone! – who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!

And Can It Be
And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain;
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me.
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me.

He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace,
Humbled Himself because of love
And bled for all His chosen race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free
For, O my God, it found out me.
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray –
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.
My chains fell off; my heart was free.
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me.

No condemnation now I dread
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine
Bold I approach th’eternal throne
And claim the crown, thro’ Christ my own.
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me.