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Dear Friends,It's hard to believe but the holidays are almost here. As I type this right now, snowflakes are flurrying down off of Huntsville Mountain. With the arrival of the holidays, we will begin a new advent sermons series entitled: The Wonder of Christmas.I'm profoundly grateful to Paul David Tripp who wrote a wonderful book called Awe: Why It Matters For Everything We Think, Say, and Do. This book, and much of what I will say, will serve as the catalyst for studying the Wonder of Christmas.In his book, Tripp explains that human beings are hardwired for awe. There is no getting around that fact. This why we all have an infatuation with awesome things. Some of us love sports, museums, food, national parks, and on and on. We love these things because we want our lives to have meaning and purpose. We want to be in awe of something. Christmas can and does do that for us ... it leaves us in awe and wonder if we truly look at who God is and what He has done in the mystery of the incarnation.Where you seek to find awe and wonder will shape the direction of your life. If you seek to live your life in awe of stuff or the material world, then you will spend all of your time, talent and treasure seeking to be satisfied with these things only to be left dissatisfied.So how do we re-calibrate our lives in such a way that our sense of awe and wonder is focused in the right place? This is where the message of Christmas can help us. This is why spending a season thinking about who God is and what He has done in the incarnation will save us from losing eternal wonder.In Luke's Gospel chapter 2, we have a little phrase that perhaps captures the true significance of Christmas: "And all who heard it ... wondered!" (Luke 2:18 ESV) The message of Christmas is a wonder! It is better than stuff. It is more beautiful that the most picturesque sunset. It is more majestic than the mountains.In this study, we will discover that there are many places in the Bible where we find God's people standing in awe and wonder at what He has done by sending His one and only Son into the world to save sinners. Join us this Christmas season as we study God's Word together and wonder at the mystery and glory of Christmas.See you Sunday!Your friend and pastor,Wilson
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