Advent - Love | Pastor Kami Palmer | Faith Church

This morning, we have been, this Advent season,

which I know many of you haven't because of the

weather, been out. I hope you took, if you have

not gotten a devotional, we still have a few

days left before Advent ends. I did take them

to the coffee shop so that people could easily

pick them up there. So those are there if you

need one to end out your Christmas season. But

our focus for this Advent has been pilgrimage,

journeying. Because this is not our home, right?

We are pilgrimages, pilgrims. And in Psalms it

says, Blessed is the man whose heart is set on

pilgrimage. And so our focus for this Advent,

as you can see the different weeks, we started

out Advent with hope, with Mary journeying to

visit Elizabeth, her cousin. And then we moved

to joy. The Magi, the wise men, had their journey

of worship. And then the last week was a week

of peace with Mary and Joseph traveling to Egypt

to a place of peace and safety. And so today

we're ending it out with the week of love. And

we're going to look at another group of people

that encountered love coming down. And so we've

been talking and singing today about... Love

coming down, that was Jesus, right? And we see

that in 1 John 4 that says, this is how God showed

his love among us. He sent his one and only son

into the world that we might live through him.

This is what love looks like. Love coming down

in Jesus. And so today... How many of you would

say, I have been touched by that love come down,

right? Yes. So I wanted to read you a brief story

of a missionary in the 1840s. And his name was

John Getty, and he left the pastorate of a church

in Canada to take his wife and two small children

to the South Sea Islands to begin a mission work

there. After a voyage of more than 20 ,000 miles,

they arrived in New Hebrides Islands. I know,

I think that's supposed to be two. Twenty seems

a lot. The island chain was filled with cannibals.

More than 20 crew members of a British ship had

been killed and eaten just months before the

Gettys arrived on the mission field. Okay, all

you young parents. With little kids. Can you

imagine taking your children on the mission field,

much less a mission field where they are cannibals?

You got to know that you're called. They faced

the difficulty of learning a language that had

no written form and the constant threat of being

killed. Slowly, at first, a few converts came,

and then soon many more received the gospel.

Getty continued his ministry faithfully, including

translating the entire Bible into the native

language. Can you imagine not being able to read

your Bible, not having it in your language? I

can't even fathom what that would be like. But

there are, even today, cultures where that is

the case. He planted 25 churches. For many of

those years, Getty labored with little help and

little word from home. But God was faithful,

and in the pulpit of the church Getty pastored

for so many years stands a plaque in his honor

which says, when he landed in 1848, there were

no Christians here. And when he left in 1872,

there were no heathen. Isn't that good? Let me

tell you the story of another group of evangelists,

the first evangelists. This was a group of shepherds.

Because you might say, well, I could never do

that. I could never be a missionary like that.

This is why I like the shepherds. The shepherds

are a little more relatable for me, right? The

shepherds were a bit of a nomadic people because

they had to travel with their sheep from place

to place to find food. And in Israel, in Bible

times, this was such a huge part of their economy.

Just for a reference point, have any of you raised

sheep in here? We had one person for a while.

Yeah, they're noisy, aren't they? They're noisy

sheep. In Israel, Job, how many of you love the

book of Job? I think I had one new believer that

started in the book of Job. I was like, no, let's

move you off of the book of Job. But Job at the

end had 14 ,000 sheep. How many did you have,

Catherine? Highest was 27? Yeah. 14 ,000 Job

had. I'm just imagining the noise of 14 ,000

sheep. King Solomon, at the temple's dedication,

he sacrificed 120 ,000. Can you imagine the smell,

the flies? You think that God's aroma that he

receives has got to be this beautiful, sweet

smelling. That would be a stinky smell. But it

was a sacrifice. And so God's not afraid of what

comes out of you. Right? He received the sacrifice

of 120 ,000 sheep. So shepherds were essential

to the economy of Israel, but they were considered

lower on that social platform. I love, how many

of you like Bear Grylls? You guys follow Bear

Grylls? Oh my goodness. Do you guys know who

Bear Grylls is? Okay, so this week you need to

go and watch Bear Grylls. He's an outdoor, he

was a British special unit guy, like hardcore.

Like the stuff he does, he teaches you how to

survive in the wilderness. So he did a series,

he's a Christian, on diving into the Holy Land.

And so he walks you through the Holy Land. And

so in that series, he interviews a shepherd.

And, you know, shepherds are unique individuals.

I just don't think anybody could go be a shepherd.

It's a very isolating job. It's you and some

sheep. You're living on goat's milk and dried

meat. They're kind of, in my mind, like lighthouse

keepers. If you visited a lighthouse, I feel

like more of you have done that. Lighthouse,

yes? Yeah. We visited a lighthouse in Maine.

And they are a unique breed. They are assigned

that job. It is on the end, right, into the ocean.

The wind, like you could like lie on the wind.

It would hold you up. And in that kind of weather,

that constant wind and cold, they had to garden

to grow their food. They had to be a self -sustaining

people. And it's interesting to me because It

is very common amongst light keepers that for

generations, their sons and their sons and their

sons, they all will take up the cause of being

a lighthouse keeper. And so I find them to be

a unique breed of people. And I think shepherds

are like that as well. But I feel like we can

relate to shepherds, and Jesus often brings that

comparison to the good shepherd, right? And us

as the sheep. And so I feel like their account

of evangelizing will be a little easier for us

to identify with. And so let's look, Lila already

read part of it, but let's read in Luke chapter

Luke 2 · chapter mention

2, starting in verse 8, the account of the shepherds.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields

nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the

glory of the Lord shone around them, and they

were terrified. Well, wouldn't you be? If suddenly

the angels of heaven were surrounding you, you

might be a little terrified. But the angel said

to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news

that will cause great joy for all the people.

Today in the town of David, a Savior has been

born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This

will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped

in cloths and lying in a manger. And then suddenly

a great company of the heavenly host appeared

with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory

to God in the highest, and on earth peace to

those on whom his favor rests. When the angels

had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds

said to one another, let's go to Bethlehem and

see this thing that has happened, which the Lord

has told us about. They're kind of like, you

know, on the side of the road when there's an

accident and everybody pulls out their phone

to record it, right? I'm just like, why? What

are you going to do with that video? I don't

understand, but there they are videoing things.

And so, you know, I feel like the shepherds would

be pulling out their phones to video this occurrence.

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph

and the baby who was lying in the manger. And

when they had seen him, they spread the word.

Everybody say that. Spread the word. They spread

the word. What were they doing? They were testifying.

They were sharing their story. All who heard

it were amazed at what the shepherds said to

them. But Mary treasured up all these things

and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds

returned glorifying and praising God for all

the things that they had heard and seen, which

were just as they had been told by the angel.

So when the shepherds saw the Messiah, the Lord,

Their immediate response is we need to go and

tell someone. This is not news to keep to ourselves.

Love has come down. We must tell someone. Now

listen, all of us in here have said we have been

touched by love coming down. And so my question

for us today is what is our response? Is our

response to hide it under a bowl, like in Matthew

5, it says, do people with a light hide it under

a bowl? No. The response is to tell, to let the

light shine, to let the love shine. And so today,

I have just two directives that I want to share.

And the first directive is this, tell your story.

It's as easy as that. You don't have to be a

missionary called to go to an island full of

cannibals. I'm not saying he won't call you.

It would give me no greater joy than to send

some of you off to the mission field. As much

as we love you. You don't have to be a missionary.

going off to an island full of cannibals. You

just have to tell your story. It's as simple

as that. A few weeks back, for our Thanksgiving

service, we walked through Psalm 107. And at

the very beginning of that chapter, we touched

on it briefly. But this is the source of our

first directive. Psalm 107, verse 2. Let the

Psalms 107:2

redeemed of the Lord. How many of you have been

redeemed by the Lord, right? Let the redeemed

of the Lord tell their story. I know, the New

King James says, say so. But I like the NIV because

it says, let the redeemed of the Lord tell their

story. Tell your story. Those he redeemed from

the hand of the foe. Have you been redeemed from

the hand of the enemy? Yes. And so let the redeemed

of the Lord tell their story. You have a story

to tell. You have a story. You have encountered

love coming down. You have a story. I love that

this word tell, it has all kinds of different

levels of telling. You can speak it, you can

shout it, you can declare it. But what you get

from that is that it's definitive. Listen, you

may not be able to debate theology with the smartest

people. You may not understand everything that's

in the, you may not have even read all of the

Bible yet. You may be so new on your journey.

That's okay. That's not what the verse tells

us to do. Debate doctrine, does it? It just says,

redeemed of the Lord, tell your story. It's that

easy. It's that simple. It's that uncomplicated.

Now, I have a little rhyme for you. Okay, are

you ready? We're going to see if you can figure

out this rhyme. Loftily poised in the ether capacious,

strongly resembling a gem carbonaceous. Did you

get it? You need me to read it one more time?

Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific. Fain

would I fathom thy nature specific. Loftily poised

in the ether capacious. strongly resembling a

gem carbonaceous. Anybody have the interpretation?

What? We got star? Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

how I wonder what you are, up above the world

so high, like a diamond in the sky. Do you see

how we can overcomplicate something? I felt that

way when I first started working on my master's

degree because I didn't have an undergraduate

degree. The first, like, article or book that

I had read, I had my phone next to me so I could

look up what these words meant. And I would read

the word and I would be like, right, Derek? Like,

why can't you just say that? Why does it have

to be so complicated? I get it if you would just

say it, but they use all these lofty terms, right?

Listen, this sometimes we overcomplicate telling

people about Jesus when all he's really looking

for is us to tell your story. Tell your story.

So here's what we're going to do. We're going

to have a little training 101 right now from

the Apostle Paul in Acts 22. Okay, so go to Acts

22, starting at the end of verse 2. There are

three things that Paul includes when he's telling

his story. Okay, now if you've done any reading

of Paul, you know Paul can be very long -winded.

Paul has so many run -on sentences. It's like

a whole paragraph that's one sentence. Paul is

a wordy guy. But when it comes to sharing his

story, it's pretty simple. The first thing he

does, he tells who he was. All right? And so

we find in verse 3, I am a Jew born in Tarsus

of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied

under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in

the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous

for God as any of you are today. I persecuted

the followers of this way to their death, arresting

both men and women and throwing them into prison,

as the high priest and all the councils can themselves

testify. They can tell you how I killed Christians,

he's saying. I even obtained letters from them

to their associates in Damascus and went there

to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem

to be punished. This is who the apostle Paul

used to be. It's who he was. He was a murderer

of Christians. Dragging them out of their homes.

In the first account that we see of Stephen,

the first martyr, who was overseeing that? The

Apostle Paul. And so this is very simple. Number

one, he says, this is who I was. Here's number

two, part two of his testimony. This is the part

where it's his conversion account, his conversion

story, his turning point. Damascus Road. Yeah,

some of us like to lead Jesus on a chase too,

don't we? Why don't you give him one of those

little cutout cookies off of the tree in there

that Alexandra made? He'll enjoy that. Some of

you adults might enjoy it. Okay, so who he was.

And now his conversion experience, his turning

point. About noon, in verse 6, as I came near

Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven

flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard

a voice say to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute

me? Who are you, Lord? I asked. I am Jesus of

Nazareth, whom you are persecuting, he replied.

My companions saw the light, but they did not

understand the voice of him who was speaking

to me. What shall I do, Lord? I asked. Get up,

the Lord said, and go into Damascus, and there

you will be told all that you have been assigned

to do. My companions led me by the hand into

Damascus because the brilliance of the light

had blinded me. A man named Ananias came to see

me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly

respected by all the Jews living there. He stood

beside me and said, Brother Saul, receive your

sight. And at that moment, I was able to see

him. This was Paul's conversion experience, right?

He went into that experience as Saul and then

fell to the ground because the light of Jesus

was in front of him. And suddenly, Suddenly,

he became a new man. Now listen, your turning

point with Jesus, your conversion experience

may not have been as dramatic as a Damascus Road

experience. It may have been. For a lot of years,

I kind of was timid about sharing my story because

I didn't have a dramatic turning point like that.

I wasn't freed from drugs or alcohol. I didn't

have anything great like awe -inspiring like

everybody was like, oh, yeah. I didn't have that.

I had who I was, a young Catholic girl that even

in my limited understanding had a heart toward

God to the point that I, as a young child, was

considering becoming a nun. And then my dad had

that radical turning point experience. And we

came into an Assembly of God church. And I didn't

have, in fact, I remember being at camp one year,

and it was Salvation Night. They have, like,

Salvation Night, Holy Spirit Night, you know.

And so first night's Salvation Night. We got

to get all these kids saved at the beginning

of camp. And I remembered them saying, you need

to come up and say the sinner's prayer. And as

a young Catholic, I'm sitting back there saying,

I don't know the sinner's prayer. I know an awful

lot of other prayers I memorized for grade at

school, but I don't know this prayer. How am

I supposed to pray this prayer? I don't know

this prayer. You know, I never, and even now,

people will look back and say, on this date,

I gave my life to Christ. I had no date. I have

no date like that. We just kind of started going

to the church, and I flowed right into, got filled

with the Holy Spirit, loving Jesus. It was just

like this smooth transition for me. But I've

been following Jesus ever since. Never once have

I walked away from him. And so your conversion

experience, your turning point may be very dramatic,

but it also may be very simple. It doesn't matter.

One moment I didn't have Jesus, the next I did,

right? Tell my story. And then the Lord really

later showed me that my conversion experience

was the freedom from the law into relationship

with Jesus. And I'm convinced that it is the

greatest testimony because it's the most deceitful

thing, the law, when you are... It's all about

the outward, right? And I was saved from the

burden of that. That was powerful when I realized

this is my testimony. And so who you were, your

conversion, your turning point experience, and

the third part of the testimony was who he is

now. And in verse 14, he said, the God of our

ancestors has chosen you to know his will. So

this is God speaking to him. Actually, it was

Ananias and then God speaking to him. The God

of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will

and see the righteous one, Jesus, and to hear

words from his mouth. Isn't that good? You, Paul,

have been set apart to see the righteous one

and hear his words. You will be his witness to

all people of what you have seen and heard. And

now what are you waiting for, Paul? Get up, be

baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on

his name. And then the Lord said to Paul, Go,

I will send you far away to the Gentiles. This

is who he is now, a missionary evangelist. And

so it is very simple, your story, who you were,

what Jesus did, and what you are now, who you

are now. This is your story. If we think about

Paul, who he is now, who he was after Jesus,

he himself wrote this, that he was flogged by

the Jews five times with 39 lashes. He was beaten

by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks,

shipwrecked three times, adrift on the open sea

for a night and day, traveled hard year in and

year out, forded rivers, fought off robbers,

struggled with friends and enemies, endured risky

conditions in the city, wilderness, and storms

at sea. Betrayed by people he thought were dear

friends, served hard labor, was often lonely,

sleepless, hungry, and freezing cold. felt the

constant weight of responsibility for supporting,

training, and encouraging all the churches. That's

weight. And he experienced deep desperation.

I list all of that because what Paul endured

after his conversion is what gives his testimony

the weight of truth. Would he have endured all

of this? If he wasn't positive that the one who

stopped him on the road to Damascus was Jesus

himself. Who would endure that? Nobody. Why?

Why would you endure all of that? If you weren't

convinced that Jesus had changed everything for

you. And when you're convinced of that, nobody

can debate you out of anything. I know the one

who has saved me. And you can talk about all

kinds of things, but I know him. I've seen him,

and I know him. And that's my story, and I'm

sticking to it, right? And so Paul knew this

is no fictional story. So my question is, how

convinced are you of your story? How convinced

are you? You might say, I am not a missionary.

I am not Paul. But can you be a simple shepherd

who tells what they saw, who tells what they

experienced? Can you tell your story? Let the

redeemed of the Lord tell their story. The angel

declared, I bring you good news that will cause

great joy for all the people. This is why your

testimony is needed, why your story is needed.

What you have received should be cause for great

joy for all people. But how can it be joyful

for other people if we don't tell our story,

right? And so here's altar call number one. This

week, part of your end of your Advent time, if

you have never sat and thought out your story,

I want to encourage you to take a few moments,

15 minutes this week, and write your story down.

Just to, if there's something that happens in

your mind, it'll make it easier for the telling

if you just write your story down, who you were,

how Jesus changed you, and who you are now. Write

it down. Look at how simple it is so you're ready

to tell somebody, okay? So that's, your altar

call is at home this week doing that. Okay, so

directive one was what? Tell your story. Directive

number two is live your story. Don't tell your

story if you're not living your story. Nobody

wants to hear your story if you're not living

your story. That will do more damage for the

kingdom than if you just would not say anything.

And so 1 John 4 says it pretty straightforward

in verse 20. Whoever claims to love God yet hates

a brother or sister is a liar. This is a person,

this is just an example of a person that is not

living their story. They claim they love God,

but to love God is to love people because God

loves people. Here's an account of a woman that

has lived her story that I found fascinating.

I love reading about the war and what happened

with Jewish people. And so this is an account

of a Hebrew lady who once told how seeing another

Christian's faith converted her. She was fleeing

the German Gestapo in France during World War

II. She knew she was close to being caught and

she wanted to give up. She came to the home of

a French Huguenot. A widow lady met her and said

that it was time to flee to a new place. This

Jewish lady said, it's no use. They will find

me anyway. They are so close behind. The Christian

widow said yes. They will find someone here,

but it's time for you to leave. Go with these

people to safety. I will take your identification

and wait here. The Jewish lady then understood

the plan. The Gestapo would come and find this

Christian widow and think she was the fleeing

Jew. The Hebrew lady said, I asked her why she

was doing that, and the widow responded, it's

the least I can do. Christ has already done that

and more for me. The widow was caught and imprisoned

in the Jewish lady's place, allowing time for

her to escape. Within six months, the Christian

widow was dead in the concentration camp. Later,

this Hebrew lady accepted Christ as her Savior.

This lady wasn't just telling her story. She

was living it. Love had come down to her, and

she was giving out that love. When you know where

your eternal home is, you can do things like

that. She was more concerned with this woman's

eternal destiny because she knew her eternal

destiny, right? This is living your story. She

believed her story. She lived her story in the

same way that Christ did. He came down to a crucifixion,

bringing us into eternal life. I was in a Bible

study with one of the ladies this week, and we

were talking about baptism. And as we were working

through the verses, our conclusion that we came

to is that more important than the act of baptism

itself, because what is baptism but to declare

to everyone, I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm a disciple

of Jesus. But we concluded that even more important,

because a lot of people get baptized and then

walk away. We concluded it's more important to

live a baptized life, right? What is a baptized

life? The life that continually dies with Christ

and is resurrected with him. That is the life

we want people to see. We want people to see

us tell our story and live our story. So you're

going to tell it and you're going to live it.

And so the team's going to come back up here,

but in Matthew 5, verse 16, we referred to this

Matthew 5:16

earlier, and I want to circle back around to

it. Verse 16, let your light shine before others,

that they may see your good deeds and glorify

your Father in heaven. Listen. Let your light

shine, tell it, and then let them see your good

deeds, live it. Tell it and live it. This is

the goal. This is what the shepherds were doing.

They saw it, and it changed them, and they went

and they told. And so we're in a week where many

of you are going to be with family members, and

some of that will be really great, and some of

that might be really hard. Don't just tell them.

You got to live it in front of them. This is

the week. You may not be with them for another

six months or so. And so in this time that you

have this week, this Christmas week, I want to

encourage you to tell your story and to live

your story before your family, before your friends.

We're going to take up the declaration of Psalm

107, and the spirit of the shepherd. And we're

going to tell our story this week. Love came

down so that we could give love out, right? The

only way that the love that came down can give

it out is through you and I. We are the hands,

we are the feet, we are the body of Christ. And

love goes out through you and through me. Amen?

And so, My goal for 2026, we're coming up to

that very quickly. And my goal in 2026 is to

tell my story as often as I can. I love this

phrase, each one win one. What would it look

like if each one of us won one person to Jesus?

Let's be a people that... tells the story, and

lives the story. Amen? And so this morning, here's

what we're going to do. We're going to go out

as we came in, and the team is going to lead

us one more time and go tell it on the mountain.

And as we sing that, let it just be a moment

of declaration for you that, God, I maybe have

been putting my light behind a little bit of

a bowl, but I'm going to be like that lighthouse

keeper, and I'm going to buff the windows. I'm

going to buff the light and make sure there's

nothing to block the light, right? Anything that

I've been hiding behind. Listen, we are a Pentecostal

people. That isn't so weak as much as we love

to get touched by the Lord, and many of you were

being touched by him today. We have been filled

with his spirit that we might be a people that

tell it and live it. This was why he gave the

Holy Spirit, that we would have boldness to tell

and live it. And so as we stand this morning,

let's just, as we sing this, let's make it our

declaration before the Lord. Lord, listen, it

was never the intention that the church, us,

whatever that is, be the ones to do it. Our job

is to equip you to do it. Right? And part of

that is evangelist. Part of that is telling people.

And so let's, you know, loosen up and just shine

the light and be the light and live it and tell

it for people that need the good news that we've

received. And so Candice and Ben, let's declare

it as we finish up this morning.