Message Series: Keeping Christmas Well
Week 1
Scripture: Luke 1-2
Bottom Line: There is power and wisdom in the original Christmas Story.
Group Check in:
How is it with your soul?
Prayer Request? Praises?
How has God shown up in your life this week?
Icebreaker:
Share your favorite memory of Christmas?
Do you celebrate Christmas with your neighbors? If so, how?
Overview:
Advent: the season to help us prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate Christmas well, or as Charles Dickens puts it “Keep Christmas well.”
If we want to celebrate Christmas in a meaningful way, PAST, Present, Future framework is a great way to do that.
Today's message is focused on Christmas’ PAST. There’s wisdom in the past. There is wisdom in recovering the elements from the 1st Christmas.
Christmas should bring about a Posture of praise, prayer, and worship. (Elizabeth’s reaction: Luke 1:45 & Mary’s Praise: Luke 1:46-56)
Luke 1:78-79: Every person who comes into contact with the first Christmas story, has a posture of Praise.
This Christmas season doesn’t have to be what it has been in the past. It doesn’t have to be defined by grief, anxiety, or stress. If we can join Ebenezer Scrouge on our journey of redemption, it will bring us back to reality. It doesn’t have to be a busy and bad season. It can be filled with joy and praise. Slow down, recover our story, and celebrate it. Praise God. Allow this season to be life giving.
Discussion Questions:
1. How did they experience the birth of Jesus and how might that change our experience today? Review the following scriptures:
Luke 1:41: joy, blessing
Mary’s response - Luke 1:46-49: Rejoices, blessed, praise
Zechariah when John the Baptist is born- Luke 1:78-79: Praises, joy
Shepherds - Luke 2:15-20: Glorifying, praising, treasuring
Simeon- Luke 2:28-32: praised God
Anna - Luke 2:37-38
Magi- Matthew 1:9b-11: paid homage
2. How can you create a posture of praise and prayer during this advent season? What changes do you need to make in your life to live in this posture?
3. Allow this season to be life giving, instead of soul sucking. How can you reconnect to God’s story, the original Christmas?
4. Why is it so important to remember our past? Is their benefits to looking back?
5. Have you reread the Christmas Story yet this Advent season? If not, take some time this week to read it. If we never go back and read the story ourselves we miss the power of it. We miss the joy of the first Christmas, similar to how Scrouge forgot as well. This advent season, narrow your lens some and focus on the original story.
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