Crossroads Church

Hey All

Christmas is here.  For those of you who are joining us for the ensemble in Woodbury, THANKS!  For those of you in Eagan giving up your time on Christmas eve to serve as well, THANKS! Below is just a little devo we have you read through out the week so you know where we are going in the service.  

We believe firmly at Crossroads that our worship team needs to be saying the same thing in our music as in the message.  What this does is create an overall worship experience, instead of a service be what I call chunky (separate worship, message, and so on...).  We try and create an atmosphere where our worship team are all worship leaders, which means they need to be leading the congregation.  In order to lead the congregation, they need to know what the overall message of the service is.  Hence the Devo's.  Enjoy!

DEVOS
WEEK: Dec 22, 23 & 24, 2011
PASSAGE: Galatians 4:3-6
Have you ever heard the phrase “lost in translation?” Besides being a movie, “lost in translation” is when someone is trying to translate an idea from one language to another, but the target language doesn’t have the same idea as the original language. Remember the old KFC’s “finger-lickin’-good” slogan? When it came out in China, something got lost in translation and it read: “KFC…eat your fingers off.”

We’re going to look at something that over the years has been lost in translation. Its real meaning has become muddled…twisted over time…altered over the ages. And what I’m talking about is…CHRISTMAS. If we want to understand the meaning of Christmas we have to understand sin and what it does to us. It leads to slavery.

That’s why Galatians 4:5 says: “God sent him (Jesus) to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law…” Jesus came to earth to buy something for you/me on Christmas—freedom. That’s why Jesus came. To bail us out. To pay a debt we couldn’t pay. To purchase something we couldn’t afford on our own…forgiveness. Freedom from sin’s consequences.

God could’ve stopped right there. But that’s not the complete Christmas story. Look at the rest of vs. 5 “…so that he could adopt us as his very own children.” You see it’s not enough from God’s perspective that our debt is forgiven. God says, “I want more. I want to be in a relationship with you. I want to adopt you into my family.”

DEVOTIONAL POINT: Do you ever wonder what you’re worth to God? The answer in one word is…CHRISTMAS. We matter so much to God that he came to earth to claim us as his own. God sent his son so we could become his kids. Not just forgiven. But adopted. That means we don’t have to bargain with God any longer. No more religious games. No more transactions with God. No more trying to pay off our sin debt. No more trying to make ourselves look pretty to God. What are we worth to God? Christmas. So be in prayer for this Christmas week that the real message of Christmas does not get “lost in translation”, but is able to touch the lives of those who need it through the worship service.

Music Summary…Why we picked what we did?
1. O Come O Come Emmanuel (Instrumental)—Song of Advent. Christmas tune.

2. Christmas Medley—Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Angels We Have Heard On High, O Come All Ye Faithful.

3. Adoption Song—Special Song.

4. Silent Night—Song of response