FULL MEASURE 2021 ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 23

©© by Pastor Jennifer Rousseau Cumberbatch (proprietary)

MODERATOR: Pastor jen Cumberbatch  

Welcome Friends to The Full Measure’s Celebration of Advent 2021

ADVENT CELEBRATION Day 23, Monday, December 20,, 2021

SCRIPTURE: Luke:1-46b-55

READER: Herb and Kennisha Moffet

THEME: LOVE

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES: Light 2 purple and one pink candles, and the last purple candle for each reading this Week 4 of Advent. The HOPE Candle from  Week 1 and The PEACE candle for Week 2 and the JOY Candle for Week 3, and now the LOVE Candle for Week 4, the final week of Advent, 

Scripture

LUKE 1: 46b-55 NIV

My soul glorifies the Lord

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has been mindful

of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

for the Mighty One has done great things for me—

holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him,

from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones

but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

remembering to be merciful

to Abraham and his descendants forever

Just as he promised our ancestors.”

Reading

Use your soul: Your mind, your will and your emotions to recognize these attributes of God  

God is good.

God is just, yet, merciful 

God is kind

God is the God of the living and not the dead.

God is full of favor

God is everlasting

God is great

God is excellent

God is glorious and full of splendor

God is faithful

God is Peace

God is mighty

God is the one true and living God

God is Love

Now meditate on, mumble to yourselves ruminate on these things

How blessed is God! And what a blessing God is! God is the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before God laid down earth’s foundations, God had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of God’s love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago God decided to adopt us into God’s family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure God took in planning this!) God wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! God thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. God set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in God, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, God had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

 It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This down payment from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

Right here, right now, in this moment, in this season, lift up your voice and give praise to God.  Unmute yourself, unsilence your voice, lose yourself in an audacious, awesome, adoration to God and God’s Christ.

Yeah, right now, As Mary the mother of Jesus, magnified, glorified, made big, made great, esteemed highly God her Savior, we do the same.

We remember God’s faithfulness from generation to generation.

We remember, as Mary did, that we are the answer to prayers prayed and promises made by God generations ago.

We remember how God has rescued us from the hand of the enemy of our soul, who has sought to sift us, steal from, kill and destroy us. 

We acknowledge, God, that you continue to rescue our children and our children’s children.

We see how God has been mindful of us.

We declare God’s faithfulness in the great congregation and throughout the world. 

We recall how many great things God has done for us and our children and our loved ones

We reminisce on the prayers God has answered and our cries God has heard and taken action in our situation.

And, like Mary, we have seen how God has humbled the arrogant and raised the humble, fed the hungry, and scattered the proud.

And, in this litany of the goodness of God in both character and deed, like Mary, we the people of God say with her:

My soul doth magnify the Lord!

My soul glorifies the Lord!

My soul declares God is great!

And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. And, the people of God said: “Hallelujah, hallelujah.  Praise the Lord!

Prayer

Oh God of our salvation. Most Holy one, our Rock, you are God of our Hope in ages past and in years to come. Lord, thank you for being mindful of us, your human creation.  Thank you for including us in your great redemption plan to return the earth, to your first intent, good.  

Thank you God, for forgiveness of sins,

Thank you God for making peace between us and you, through the obedience and sacrifice of Christ.  

Thank you God for faith. You are the source and the object of our faith.  

Thank you for hope, in the eternal and good future you have planned and promised.  

And, thank you Lord for your great love, unconditional AGAPE, that sustains us, grounds us, and frees us to be our authentic selves rooted in Jesus, your Christ, empowered by your Spirit and sealed until the day of our full redemption, when Christ returns and there is the restoration of all things.

For all you are and all you have done, Lord, we give you unfettered praise.

In the mighty and matchless name of Jesus’ Christ, we pray. Amen!