First Baptist Family of Asheboro, NC

We need to be connected to God.  Let's think for a moment about what it means to be in the presence of God.   Merry Christmas!  If you say Merry Christmas in April you better have a backstory, right?!  Today we read a backstory in Mary's life when she was carrying Jesus in the womb.  Why do we celebrate Christmas in December?  It's probably because there was a Roman holiday in December so the early church chose to celebrate Christmas on December 25.  Jesus was probably born in the springtime because the shepherds were in the fields at night and they wouldn't have been in the fields in the wintertime.  It's cold in the winter there just like it is here.  Here in Luke 1 we have the backstory.  We have all these announcements: Mary will give birth to the Messiah.  We don't know all that happened but we know God came for us.  God gave guidance and the people carried it out.  We don't know what happens in between when God speaks to someone and then they carry out

Luke is writing to a people who are asking a lot of good questions.  Last Sunday we learned about taking a look for ourselves and sorting out for ourselves what happened.  Luke writes in a way that invites anyone form any background to explore what's happened.  Can we trust what we are looking at?  We can take a closer look at Jesus.  The Bible tells us who God is.  How can we trust the Bible?  Luke begins here and his audience does not have a Jewish background.  We can relate to this in a lot of ways because we have uncertainty every day.  How do you know what you know?  There's questions and uncertainty.  Yesterday I was faced with a dilemma, with uncertainty.  I was faced with a new flavor of ice cream.  I know what I like and it was available.  Do I stay with what I like or do I try something new?  How do I know if I should try a new flavor or not?  If you're wrestling with whether or not to believe all of this and you have questions, Luke addresses this.  How do I know

        Happy Easter!   Easter gives us hope, not hope in general but a hope that we have overcome in Christ.  Easter is a fun time when we get together with family and friends.  We have egg hunts and it's fun to get together.  Today we step into a moment in Luke 24.  We've been looking at the people who were at the cross gathered around the crucifixion.  Those who gathered knew Jesus best.  It's nice to be around people who know us best.  They know you have holes in your socks and it's ok.  Some of the people gathered were family members.  It's surprising how they responded to the events of the cross.  We know all that happened already because we have read the story.  Luke is writing this passage to believers but he is also writing to the skeptics.  When we think about the passage our minds and we go directly to resurrection but what's written to the skeptics might speak to you today.  Those at the tomb were trying to sort things out in their minds.  This is a