Finding Hope in Frustration and Fatigue | 2025-12-07
Each week we'll explore one of the four themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love
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Grace Church holds a Meet & Greet for those who are newer to Grace Church on the 4th Sunday of each month following the service in CJ's coffee shop. It is a great opportunity to meet the staff and leadership of Grace Church and learn a little more about the church. It also gives us an opportunity to learn a little about you! Contact Leslie Booher if you have any questions ([email protected]).
Pick up a Harmony Study booklet on Sunday after church!
Our Bible Reading Plan for 2026 is a study of the life and ministry of Christ using the harmony of the gospels. The printed booklet, ready for pick up on Sunday, lists all the passages to be studied for the week along with 4 questions you can answer in your personal study or with your H.O.M.E. Group.
Because this is a harmony of the gospels plan, you may want to use a harmony book (for example: The NIV Harmony of the Gospels by Robert L. Thomas and Stanley N. Gundry) but this is not essential to participate in the study.
We are very excited to dig deeply into the Word, to take our time to apply it to our lives and share the life-changing lessons and insights God has revealed to us during our time with Him. If you have any questions, contact Lisa Sterkenburg ([email protected]).
Our Bible Reading Plan for 2026 is a study of the life and ministry of Christ using the harmony of the gospels. The printed booklet, ready for pick up on Sunday, lists all the passages to be studied for the week along with 4 questions you can answer in your personal study or with your H.O.M.E. Group.
Because this is a harmony of the gospels plan, you may want to use a harmony book (for example: The NIV Harmony of the Gospels by Robert L. Thomas and Stanley N. Gundry) but this is not essential to participate in the study.
We are very excited to dig deeply into the Word, to take our time to apply it to our lives and share the life-changing lessons and insights God has revealed to us during our time with Him. If you have any questions, contact Lisa Sterkenburg ([email protected]).
If you have interest in sharing Christmas Card greetings with your Grace Church family, you can drop your cards at the Welcome Kiosk now through December 21st. The Welcome Team will be sorting the cards and distributing them to families on Sunday mornings. Contact Leslie Booher ([email protected]) if you have any questions.
Sunday, December 7th - Rick Abbott
Monday, December 8th - Logan Hoffman
Monday, December 8th - Logan Hoffman
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There is no definitive date for when we start preparing for Christmas in North America.
A good question to ask ourselves is whether or not we are prepared to "cheerfully" celebrate?
Do you find yourself dealing with frustration or fatigue during the lead-up to the holiday, the actual events, and the aftermath?
A good question to ask ourselves is whether or not we are prepared to "cheerfully" celebrate?
Do you find yourself dealing with frustration or fatigue during the lead-up to the holiday, the actual events, and the aftermath?
If so, there is good news for you today. There is HOPE...something we can refocus our mind and heart and allow us to enjoy the holiday for what it was intended, and not on what it has become.
Christmas was established to honor the Advent or 1st Coming and the life of Jesus Christ. It was to honor Him as our Lord, Savior, and Role Model. Our secular culture rejects this. The frustrations and fatigue that we're talking about are the result of trying to embrace our culture's values, priorities, attitudes, and behaviors.
Christmas was established to honor the Advent or 1st Coming and the life of Jesus Christ. It was to honor Him as our Lord, Savior, and Role Model. Our secular culture rejects this. The frustrations and fatigue that we're talking about are the result of trying to embrace our culture's values, priorities, attitudes, and behaviors.
This morning we're looking at Luke 2:8-12, 15-16.
The main characters are Shepherds - ordinary working class people doing their ordinary job on what seemed like just another ordinary night.
God meets us in our ordinary struggles. He comes to us right where we are in the ordinary moments of life, as we juggle our schedules and battle with our frustration and fatigue.
The main characters are Shepherds - ordinary working class people doing their ordinary job on what seemed like just another ordinary night.
God meets us in our ordinary struggles. He comes to us right where we are in the ordinary moments of life, as we juggle our schedules and battle with our frustration and fatigue.
Luke 2:8-12, Luke 2:15-16
BSB
8 And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
9 Just then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:
11 Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!
12 And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger.
9 Just then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:
11 Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!
12 And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger.
BSB
These Shepherds were not the cute little figures we often imagine from our Christmas cards.
- They were often the youngest son in a family of servants who worked for rich landowners and sheep barons.
- They were considered to be among the lowest social class, uneducated, ceremonially unclean according to religious law, and viewed as untrustworthy by the legal system.
- They were undesirables whose life could be summed up as dangerous, desolate, and despised.
- They were working the graveyard shift and among other things, were likely hopeless in their thoughts of the future - spiritually or secularly.
- They were often the youngest son in a family of servants who worked for rich landowners and sheep barons.
- They were considered to be among the lowest social class, uneducated, ceremonially unclean according to religious law, and viewed as untrustworthy by the legal system.
- They were undesirables whose life could be summed up as dangerous, desolate, and despised.
- They were working the graveyard shift and among other things, were likely hopeless in their thoughts of the future - spiritually or secularly.
And yet, this is exactly where God chose to make His announcement. To the regular people who were dealing with the frustrations and fatigue of life. God chose an ordinary field and ordinary people...and here they found HOPE! Here's a nugget for us from the Shepherd's story: God sees our ordinary struggles.
The very ordinariness of the Shepherd's situation is what makes the story so extraordinary. God could have chosen any setting or group of characters for the announcement of His Son's birth, but He chose the most ordinary setting and people possible. But why? Because that's where most of us live most of the time...in the valley of everyday responsibilities and struggles.
God was aware of their lives and chose to meet them right where they were and to use their situation for His Glory and their Good. The place where you are feeling frustrated and fatigued isn't a place God avoids...it's exactly where He wants to meet us. Our Christmas stress, family tensions, grief, and financial worries aren't barriers to God's love or forgiveness or provision. They are the very places HOPE shines brightest.
In verse 9 we see that God's message came to these Shepherds, they didn't seek this encounter.
God showed up. He cared enough to bring HOPE. This HOPE that God presented them with was a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus.
They were left with a choice. Were they going to continue living life on their own terms, trying to manage each and every situation and have no end in sight for their frustrations and fatigue or would they respond to God as we see the Shepherds doing in verses 15 and 16.
God showed up. He cared enough to bring HOPE. This HOPE that God presented them with was a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus.
They were left with a choice. Were they going to continue living life on their own terms, trying to manage each and every situation and have no end in sight for their frustrations and fatigue or would they respond to God as we see the Shepherds doing in verses 15 and 16.
Will you choose to respond to God's offer of Jesus as your Lord and Savior and surrender your frustrations and fatigue to Him?
Matthew 11:28
Matthew 11:28
Matthew 11:28
BSB
28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
BSB
God's HOPE for your life has a name...Jesus.
If you don't have a relationship with Jesus and want to have assurance of God's love and forgiveness, see Pastor Don in the lobby to pick up a special booklet.
If you are a person who may be struggling with frustrations and fatigue, open your hands and tell Jesus you are coming to Him and laying them before Him.
If you don't have a relationship with Jesus and want to have assurance of God's love and forgiveness, see Pastor Don in the lobby to pick up a special booklet.
If you are a person who may be struggling with frustrations and fatigue, open your hands and tell Jesus you are coming to Him and laying them before Him.
