Sermons

Rachel Weeping for Her Children

1st Sunday after Christmas, Sunday, December 29th, 2019

God did not become incarnate in the son of Mary and Joseph to bring us a mid-winter festival of peace and contentment. No, God came into this world where families wander homeless and corrupt tyrants rule by murder and deceit. God broke into this world because this world needs a Savior for it cannot save itself. The slaughter of the innocent, the tears of Rachel weeping for her children, remind us that we live in the midst of brokenness. But in the midst of the brokenness, we also have work to do.

 

      (A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)

Sermon Notes

Bible Passage:  Matthew 2:13-23

Special Music

Offertory

 

Worship Bulletin, 10 am

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Gloria: The Peace That Passed Understanding

Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24th, 2019

It seems that from the beginning, from as early as the book of beginnings, Genesis, God has been searching for us. Like Adam and Eve after eating the forbidden fruit we have tried to hide from God because we are naked and ashamed. But God loves us. God loves us, each and every one of us. And God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. The world wants us to choose sides. But choosing sides is the Devil’s mischief because ol’ Scratch knows that if we are fighting with each other, we are not living into our call of reconciliation. The ministry of reconciliation is the Christian mission. Proclaiming God’s peace is the Christian’s calling. It is our sole work, no matter what our profession or calling.   “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among all with whom God is pleased.”

 

Sermon Notes

Bible Passage:  Luke 2:1-20

Special Music

Jesu Bambino

 

Dance of the Sugar Plum Faries and White Christmas

 

O Holy Night

 

He Is Born

 

Angel’s Carol

 

O Word of God Incarnate

 

Candlelight Carol and Silent Night

 

Celtic Christmas Blessing

 

Christmas Eve worship bulletin

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The Magnificat: The Manger and the Cross

4th Sunday of Advent, Sunday, December 22nd, 2019

The songs of Advent and the carols of Christmas will give way to the Cross of Calvary. There is an interesting thing in Bjorn Thorkelson’s painting. Both the manger and the shadow of the Cross are empty. Neither Christmas nor Good Friday has the last word. Death and Despair never have the last word. Easter does. “Because I live, you shall live also,” (John 14:19) 

 

       (A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)

 

Sermon Notes

Bible Passage:  Luke 1:47-55

 

Special Music

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel     arr. Geschke     Performed by the FFC Chancel Bells

 

Waiting for Bethlehem’s Light      By Dale Patterson     Performed by the FFC Chancel Choir

 

10 am bulletin worship bulletin

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Where’s Christ?

Third Sunday of Advent ~ Sunday, December 15th, 2019

So where is Christ? Christ is wherever there the least, the last, and the lost are found. Christ is where the hungry are fed, the homeless are sheltered, the spiritually blind are given insight, the sick, the dying, and the literally blind are cared for, where the lost are found, where the hopeless are given hope. Christ is in the midst of the world’s brokenness and Christ beckons us to be His Body, to be the Church, doing works of the Kingdom in His name and to the glory of God.

 

   (A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)

Sermon Notes

Bible Passage:  Matthew 11:2-11

Special Music

Children’s Christmas Program

 

10 am worship bulletin

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A Lesson from a Stump

2nd Sunday in Advent ~ December 8th, 2019

I think that stumps are fascinating things. We’ve cut several down in the flower beds of our yard. We even had a few ground “out”. The interesting thing about stumps is that just when you think that they are dead, just when you think that they are gone, a shoot pops up through the ground.

 

      (A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)

 

Sermon Notes

Bible Passage:  Isaiah 11:1-10   and   Matthew 3:1-12

Special Music

Christmas Cantata     A Mass for the Shepherds      By Karl Kempter     Performed by the FFC Chancel Choir and Violinists: Marcia Henry Liebenow,  Jane Hoffmire, Molly Wilson, and Casey Hoffmire

 

10 am worship bulletin

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The Benedictus: The Song Born of Silence

First Sunday of Advent ~ Sunday, December 1st, 2019

In first-century Israel, many people believed that God had been silent for a very long time. But that simply wasn’t the case. The people had become complacent. God spoke through the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Amos and Micah, and the other Old Testament prophets. But Israel grew deaf and ignored their words. At times they even killed the prophets who challenged them to live up to their calling. They chased not only foreign gods but became addicted through distraction. They cast out those who judged them. So God seemed silent but God wasn’t really silent. God just couldn’t be heard above the din of their own noise. The people had forgotten how to listen.

 

The Benedictus: The Song Born of Silence

 

December 1st, 2019 Frosty’s Sermon Notes ~ The Benedictus, The Song Born of Silence

Bible Passage:  Luke 1:68-79

 

Special Music:

2019 Mission Moment ~ Carl Cannon’s Elite Youth Group

 

Anthem     Angel’s Carol      By John Rutter      Performed by the FFC Chancel Choir

 

Special Music      In The Bleak Midwinter      arr. Geschke      Performed by the FFC Chancel Bells

 

Offertory     Let There Be Peace On Earth      Performed by Joel Harper

 

December 1st, 2019 ~ 10 am Worship Bulletin

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The Cross on the Table

Reign of Christ Sunday ~ Sunday, November 24th, 2019

Over the next several months she asked herself  “What difference does my faith make in my life? What impact does my faith have on my finances, my job, my family and my relationships?” Here’s a question for all of us to ask, “What difference would it make in my life if Christ truly was the King of Life?”

 

      (A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)

  The Cross on the Table      (A link to Frosty’s YouTube video of this sermon)

 

11-24-2019 Sermon, The Cross on the Table

Bible Passage: Colossians 1:11-20

Special Music

Anthem       A Thanksgiving Hymn      Cotton and Thiman     Performed by the FFC Chancel Choir

 

Offertory       Raise the Song of Harvest     

 

November 24th, 2019 10 am bulletin

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God’s Dream for the World

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost ~ Sunday, November 17th, 2019

Those who take Jesus seriously must, in the words of our epistle lesson, “Get to work doing what is right”, namely, working toward that day when the wolf and the lamb, the lion and the ox, when all of God’s children are secure, fed, housed, cared for, and beloved.

 

 God’s Dream for the World – Sermon Notes

Bible Passages:

Isaiah 65:17-25

Luke 21:5-19

II Thessalonians 3:6-13

Special Music

Offertory      Ah, Holy Jesus       arr. Hungerford     Performed by the First Federated Church Chancel Bells

 

11-17-2019 10 am bulletin

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Living Courageously

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost ~ Sunday, November 10th, 2019

I believe that he knew that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living and in God all are alive. I believe that he knew the truth of the Brief Statement of Faith, “In life and in death we belong to God.”

 

 

Living Courageously   (A link to Frosty’s YouTube video of this sermon)

 

11-10-2019 Sermon, Krummel – Living Courageously

Bible Passage:  Luke 20:27-38

Special Music

Armed Forces Tribute     The Pride of America!     arr. by Larry Clark and Greg Gilpin     Performed by the First Federated Church Chancel Choir

 

Anthem     Glory to God     Arr. Hal H. Hopson     Performed by the First Federated Church Chancel Choir featuring Tim McCoul on trumpet

 

Offertory     Battle Hymn of the Republic     Performed by Joel Harper

 

Worship Bulletin, 10 am

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When Jesus Calls Your Name

All Saints Sunday ~ Sunday, November 3rd, 2019

Once Jesus calls your name, once Jesus comes into your life, once you decide to take Jesus seriously and make him more than a Sunday thing, but an everyday thing; some every day things change everything.

 

     (A link to the YouTube video of this week’s service)

   When Jesus Calls Your Name   (A link to Frosty’s YouTube video of this sermon)

Sermon Notes

Bible Passage:  Luke 19:1-10

Special Music

Anthem     How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place     By Lovelace      Performed by the first Federated Church Chancel Choir

 

Communion Music     The Swan / His Eye Is On The Sparrow Medley     Performed by Joel Harper

 

Offertory      Precious Memories / Oh, That Will Be Glory     Performed by Joel Harper

“Precious memories, how they linger, How they ever flood my soul.

In the stillness of the midnight Precious sacred scenes unfold”

“Oh, that will be glory for me, Glory for me, Glory for me.

When by His grace I shall look on his face, That will be glory, be glory for me.

 

Worship Bulletin, 10 am

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