Isaiah 2:1-5 (NIV)
First Sunday in Advent
Welcome to Nambucca Baptist Church for our service this Sunday 29th November 2020. Today was a beautiful warm and sunny day in Nambucca heads and we enjoyed a wonderful service which we are able to share with you online today.
This morning we recognise the first day of the church calendar, Advent sunday. This will be the first of four messages leading up to Christamas. We are all looking forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem all those years ago. In one sense then this is what Advent is all about. The coming of Jesus. But it’s not just about that. Bethlehem was the first coming of Jesus. Advent also looks forwards to the second coming of Jesus. The bible has a number of names for this but the best known one is probably ‘the day of the Lord’. There are more references in both the Old and New testaments to the second coming of Jesus than to his first. I noted that despite the heavy emphasis on the second coming in the New Testament and similar emphases at various other periods in the life of the church, there is almost no mention of this event in the contemporary church. This is what makes the Advent season so valuable in the cycle of the church calendar, a four week period in which we focus on Jesus’ return.
This is where we would normally take up a collection but as you can see we can’t pass an offering bag around online. We have, however, provided a secure online giving facility for you. You can either use the Tithe.ly app on your smartphone or just click on the green button on the screen. We have been blessed by the way so many of you have managed to continue to give in various ways so that we can continue with the work of the Lord here in our church and beyond our walls.
We hope that you enjoyed our service today. As an added blessing I have included a video of another worship track from Maverick City Music based in Dallas Texas. These artists are turning out some of the best music that I have seen for some time. They are immensly talented and obviously experienced in praise and worship at the highest level. Enjoy.