December 20, 2020
Upcoming Events and Notices
This week San Diego Country remains in the highest COVID-19 risk category of Purple/Widespread. The State of California guidelines for San Diego County states that all worship services should be conducted outdoor. And given the challenges of weather and logistics, we will continue to hold our Lord's Day worship service online only.
Please join us 10 AM, December 20, for worship. You can participate in this week's service via YouTube here. If technical issues prevent the livestream, a video of the service will be available later in the day. Further information will be made available Sunday afternoon via a separate email.
You can find the order of worship and songs here.
You can find the sermon from the December 13, 2020 service here.
December 20 (Lord's Day 11:15 AM): Please join us for fellowship after the worship service via Zoom: Meeting ID: 879 4595 5692
December 25 (Christmas Day 9:30 AM): Please join us for a short Christmas morning singing and devotion via YouTube livestream.
Thank you for your continued support of Grace Fallbrook (PCA). Your loving support makes the proclamation of the gospel and the building up of the saints possible. Please continue to mail in your gifts and offerings to our church treasurer, Bruce Summers. In addition, our church website now features online giving. Please visit the church website and click on "Give" which you will find in the upper left corner of our church's website. When you click on "Give Online Now" button on that page, you will be directed to the PCA Foundation where you can give towards Grace Fallbrook (PCA).
Before We Worship
Our Advent meditations have so far focused on Hope, Peace, and Joy. This week we celebrate Christ's advent by focusing on the gift of God's Love.
Our first Scripture reading is from Exodus 34:1–10. God had delivered Israel out of Egypt, and brought them to Mount Sinai. There the LORD ratified his covenant with Israel with the Ten Commandments, which were the terms of the covenant between the LORD and Israel. However, while Moses was communing with the LORD, Israel was bowing down to the golden calf. When Moses returned from meeting with the LORD, he "threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain." This indicated the covenant between the LORD and Israel was broken because of Israel's idolatry. And because of this, Israel's future was bleak. How can it not be? They had made the Creator of the universe and the Holy God who cannot abide sin their enemy.
But in Exodus 34 the LORD invites Moses back up to Mount Sinai, and declares these words to him: "The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…"" Israel's idolatry should have put an end to God's favor. But God responded to Israel's sinful rebellion with love. His love was what saved a sinful people doomed to face judgment.
Indeed, in time God's Love became a human baby. The birth of Jesus Christ brings to the sinful and fallen mankind the love that overcomes all sin. That is why when we celebrate Christ's Advent, we celebrate God's love.
What, then, is our response to God's love for us? John 13:34–35 tells us. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
We can speak eloquently about the beauty of love without every loving anyone in particular. For to love someone as God has loved us in Christ is to love in a costly way. It means to love someone who is not lovable. It means to do good to someone who has not done us any good, or perhaps, who has done us ill. Do you love as God has loved you?
Thus we repent. And believe. May we not merely love the idea of love. But may we love the people that God has placed around us. Do not seek to go to far away places to love some strangers you have not met. Love instead the people that are near you today. For this is how we celebrate Christ's Advent.