First Church Williamsport

Jesus overcoming death and darkness shows the depth of power His love holds.

A life defined by true freedom allows us to embody our true selves. The Good News is that followers of Jesus Christ have been set free from slavery to sin and receive true freedom as “slaves” of right living.

We are saved by faith in Christ, and no longer slaves to sin.

The Gospel is a gift for everyone. To truly realize the power that the gospel, the good news provides, transforms us.

When we encounter Jesus we are reminded of the gift that we can be changed for the better in Christ, no matter how long, difficult, or harmful the patterns we have been in.

When we encounter Jesus we are reminded of the gift that we can be changed for the better in Christ, no matter how long, difficult, or harmful the patterns we have been in.

Jesus invites us to experience eternal life by giving God control of every aspect of our lives.

Jesus can’t be put into a box, but encounters each of us as individuals.

The boy who encounters Jesus by offering the 5 loaves and 2 fish shows us how when we offer what we have by focusing on Jesus first, God will always provide enough.

John was captivated by joy in his encounter with Jesus because John realized the encounter was about Jesus and not himself. As a result John witnessed Jesus up close and personal and experienced the Holy Spirit.

When we truly want to see who Jesus is and are willing to humble ourselves to see Jesus, we encounter Jesus and are changed.

Jesus shows us the truth that the power of self-emptying love and service outlast power based on force, coercion, and might.

We are defined by the faithfulness of the past of Jesus rather than the failures of our own past. When we refuse to blame others and repent in Christ we can experience a brand new start where we see Christ clearly and walk closely with Him.

When we encounter Jesus, we discover a new family that we belong to in which we find meaning, grace, beauty, and belonging.

Sermon Takeaway: Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”

When we encounter Jesus, we realize how important is the condition of our heart. We recognize both the need to confess the sins and mistakes in our own lives while also embracing the cleansing grace of the love of Jesus who makes us clean in ways we could never achieve on our own.

Only when we experience the full truth and full grace of Jesus together do we find our lives transformed and set free in the love of Jesus Christ.

The love of Jesus is greater than any defining category we can come up with. When we realize this we discover that we are born again in new life in the Spirit of God. The love of Jesus is the answer to every question of “How?” in our world.

At Pentecost we are reminded that we do not deliver the Good News of Jesus Christ alone. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are empowered and given the right words to share the Good News with those that God has placed in our lives.

The good news of Jesus Christ can be summarized as “grace and peace.” One of the best ways to share this good news is to be anchored in grace and embody peace.

In a world thirsty for the good news of Jesus we can offer the living water of Christ through respectful, personal, loving relationships and by intentionally sharing the good news of Jesus in relevant language that others can understand.

God invites us to share the good news in word and deed with the right motivation of empathy for all.

God gives us different ways, like rational discourse, powerful experiences, and embodied character to relate others, so they may receive the good news of Jesus Christ in relevant and authentic ways.

The good news creates the possibility for a new kind of life. Throughout this next week, we invite you to pray for someone you care about to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ.

When we recognize the core message of our faith, we can better share it with others. 

When Jesus conquered death, He conquered darkness. When we walk through darkness, it isn't permanent. When we release our grip on our struggles, we can find healing and wholeness. 

In holy week we realize the various ways that Jesus experienced rejection. As we get honest about naming the pain of rejection that has happened to us and the ways we have rejected Jesus, we realize we can experience healing because of the rejection that Jesus experienced on our behalf so that we do not need to experience rejection from God.

Jesus models how to deal with overwhelm by consenting, not succumbing.

Jesus heals shame by seeing us and reminding us of our identity as children of God.

This sermon includes a brief clip from Brené Brown's TED Talk, We need to talk about shame and is being used under a Creative Commons License, Attribution--Non Commercial--No Derivates (or the CC BY -- NC -- ND 4.0 International)

Listen to the original clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C6UELitWkw

When we learn to become single-minded in the presence of Jesus we will experience less anxiety in our lives, no matter what circumstances we are facing in our lives.

In life’s darkest places, such as in the midst of significant depression, God does not abandon us. God invites us to share all of our feelings—no matter how hopeless, angry, or depressed we may feel—with the knowledge that because Jesus took the abandonment of God for us, we never have to be abandoned.

Scripture shows us that Jesus sees us and comes to us in our darkest times. We can experience peace, even in the storms of life, by keeping our eyes on Jesus, using the resources that God provides, and naming the burdens that weigh us down.

We will explore where God might be leading us in 2023 in prayerful obedience. As we move into the future we want to be a church that sees Jesus show up no matter what, makes a real difference sharing the presence of the living Lord, and follows wherever Jesus may call so that lives are transformed in Christ.

We will explore the Biblical model of being gathered and sent, one of our unique features as a church, and how to model this in today's world. We experience the power and vitality of the Holy Spirit most when we live and operate as a gathered and sent church.

We will explore the Biblical perspective of humble power, one of our core values, and how to pursue it. We are called to live into humble power not just as individuals, but as a church.

We will explore the Biblical perspective of beautiful diversity, one of our core values, and how to pursue it. We want to be a church that is beautifully diverse in the grace, truth, and mercy of Jesus Christ. We want to be a church that defies human categorization by breaking down the barriers that divide our society through love and service in Jesus Christ.

We will explore the Biblical perspective of rugged discipleship, one of our core values, and how to pursue it. We desire to be a church filled with rugged disciples. This means to live as disciples who not only believe in Jesus, but also seek to follow and act in accordance with Jesus by reorienting our lives in costly ways to share the love of Jesus in tangible ways with all people.

The essence of God is dynamic and leads to powerful transformation in our lives. We want to be a church that experiences transformation in Jesus Christ in ways that comfort us and disrupt us so that we can embrace new life in Jesus Christ for ourselves and with others.

In the model and words of Jesus we want to be a church that is gathered and sent, offers healing in our world, is fully reliant on God, and defies categorization.

Today, we get to experience the light of Christ and celebrate the hope, peace, joy, and love that comes with the birth of our Savior, Jesus. On Christmas Eve we are called to embrace and celebrate the light of Christ against the backdrop and expectation of darkness in our world. We recognize that the light of Christ comes and that the darkness does not overcome that Light.

Because Jesus comes in tangible form as a baby boy, we along with Mary get to experience the good news of the light of Christ in personal, practical, and specific ways in the midst of any circumstances in which we find ourselves.

The light of Christ gives us joy to see the purpose of our lives differently: to repent and give.

The light of Christ gives us peace for the present moment to help us prepare for Jesus' birth. John the Baptist introduces Jesus as the light of the world through the good news of repentance. Even though repentance does not sound like good news, we realize it is good news because it allows us to change in the light of Christ.

The light of Christ gives us hope from the prophecies foretold of His coming, that He will cast out darkness.

When we take ownership in God’s church, we commit to supporting it through our prayers, presence, and gifts. The level of our gratitude in giving thanks to Christ determines the level of sacrifice and generosity in our financial giving.

We give generously and regularly when our hearts are motivated by the love of Christ.