Pastor’s Page | December 4th, 2025
Sermon Prep (Read 2 Timothy 2:23-25)
In our household, it is not the Christmas season until we watch Christmas Vacation. It is the first Christmas movie we always watch, and we will watch it at least 3 times during the season. If you listen carefully, you will hear me, without thinking, quote this movie daily during the Christmas season. It is just ingrained into my vocabulary. So, as you can guess, I love this movie.
During this Christmas season, we are going to take a break from our study in Philippians, and we are going to do a series using different aspects of this movie as our launching point. (The sermons are all still focused on the biblical text and centered on the Gospel, but this theme is just the launching point. I have heard too many sermons that use cultural things as the center of their message and ignore the biblical message. Our job here is to proclaim God’s Word, not our own. Okay…hopefully that clarifies that and puts your mind at ease. It does mine). The first message we will be looking at will be centered around “Loving the cousin Eddie in your life”. Now, if you haven’t seen the film, Cousin Eddie is the oddball who is quirky, crazy, very kindhearted, but also rude, demanding, and selfish. He is the kind of guy you love but doesn’t want to be around for very long.
We all know a “Cousin Eddie”. These people require extra grace. I had a wonderful lady in the first church I served named Cricket Riley. She was blunt, rude, and would say things that would make me squirm. She had no qualms about calling me at all hours of the night with a “concern” for the church and then get on to me for not coming by to visit her even though I had been to her house the week prior. She was very extra. Yet, she brought so much joy to me. In fact, her quirks and bluntness are what made her Cricket Riley. There were things I had to address with her (no, Ms. Cricket you can’t curse at the kids in church for chewing gum. No, Ms. Cricket, you can’t give my 6-month-old baby a sip of your whiskey) but there were a lot of things I had to just overlook with her. She was my extra person, but I loved her.
So how do we deal with these extra people? In 2 Timothy 2:23-25, Paul is talking to a young preacher and giving him wisdom on how to live in a godly way and how to deal with the people in his sphere of influence. What Paul says not only applies to preachers, but to all of us. And no, it is not simply by avoiding them. The cousin Eddie in your life needs the love of Christ too. These people need a little bit of extra grace. So, this week read through this text, and think about what this passage says and how it applies to showing extra grace to the cousin Eddie in your life. How can you be like Christ to the difficult people you have to live with?
Some verses to help you study: Eph 4:1-2, Phil 2:3-4, Proverbs 15:1, Romans 12:18, Ephesians 4:32, Matt 5:44, Colossians 3:13, Proverbs 12:16, 1 Peter 3:9
Sermon Series
“A Crazy Christmas Vacation”
12/07 - Loving The Cousin Eddie In Your Life (2 Tim 2:24-26)
12/14 - Happy With The Jelly Of The Month Club (James 1:16-18)
12/21 - The Lights Aren’t Twinkling, Clark (Isa 9:1-7)
12/24 - What Christmas Means To Me (John 3:16-17)
12/28 - SOUND OF PRAISE: MUSIC FOR HEAVEN & TESTIMONIES FOR THE SOUL
Updates, Thoughts and More
I want to thank everyone for the way you go above and beyond whenever we ask for something. We had asked for your help in getting some green beans to help with a local food distribution. We asked for 300 cans, and we got closer to 400 cans!!! That is amazing. Keep it up!
We started the angel tree last week and there are still some names available. Once again, we are helping out our local nursing homes by providing gifts for the residents who are forgotten by others. The names that are on the tree are those who either do not have family or whose family does not visit them at Christmas. The gifts are due back on December 14th . You can drop them off either by the angel tree or bring them by the church office.
Speaking of angel trees, we do have a few angel cards that are for kids. I have those and if you would like to help some young families this Christmas, please contact me and I will give you some further information.
In the Narthex, we have some Christmas cards with all the Christmas activities our church has coming up. I want to encourage you to take a handful of these and pass them out to your friends and family. They even have a section for you to mail the cards if you want. Let’s get the word out and invite everyone to come and experience the wonder of the Christmas message that a Savior has been born to us.
Before I get into football, let’s talk basketball. If you have noticed that I have been down and depressed, it is because my beloved Kentucky Wildcats have lost 3 games already this season. Not only have they lost 3 games, but they lost them in ugly ways. So, if you see me down, please provide me with some type of encouragement to get me through these dark times.
So, let’s talk about football. Who do you think will make the college playoffs? I think the SEC will get 5 teams in: Georgia, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Alabama, and Oklahoma. (Sorry Texas…you just missed the cut). If Alabama loses to Georgia in the SEC championship game, it may hurt them because they would be a 3-loss team. Yet, if you play in a championship game, it should only help you and not hurt you. Just my opinion.
For the NFL, tonight’s game is big. It is hard to believe but Dallas is still in the playoff hunt, and they have been playing really well. Hopefully they pull off the win against Detroit tonight, but it will be hard. Detroit is coming off a difficult loss last week and so they will be looking for blood. The other games that I will have my eye on include Bengals and the Bills. I love to watch Josh Allen play, but the Bills tend to play down to their competition. The Bengals are back to being the Bungles and so the Bills will play down to their level. They should still win though. The other game is the Bears and the Packers. I think the Packers take the Bears out. I don’t know how the Bears win because they are not a good team. I think they will get exposed this week.
What’s Going On This Week
Sunday (12/07)
Kids Christmas Program - 9am & 10:30am
Women’s Christmas Tea - Leanne Sparks’ House - 12pm (Noon)
Christmas Caroling - 2:30pm (Meet at Church) / 3:00pm (Arrive at Sandy Beach)
Monday (12/08)
Stitching Angels - 1:30pm
Tuesday (12/09)
Men’s Prayer Breakfast - 7:30am
Wednesday (12/10)
Prayer Warriors - 9am
Sip And Share - 10am
Table Talk - 5pm
Youth and Kids - 5pm
Bell Choir - 6pm
Choir - 7pm
Sunday (12/14)
Acton Music Academy Student Recital - 4pm
Joke of the Week
It was coming up to Christmas and Sammy asked his mom if he could have a new bike. So, she told him that the best idea would be to write to Santa Claus. But Sam, having just played a vital role in the school nativity play, said he would prefer to write to the baby Jesus. So, his mom told him that would be fine.
Sam went to his room and wrote; ‘Dear Jesus, I have been a very good boy and would like to have a bike for Christmas.’ But he wasn’t very happy when he read it over. So, he decided to try again and this time he wrote ‘Dear Jesus, I’m a good boy most of the time and would like a bike for Christmas.’ He read it back and wasn’t happy with that one either. He tried a third version. ‘Dear Jesus, I could be a good boy if I tried hard and especially if I had a new bike.’ He read that one too, but he still wasn’t satisfied.
So, he decided to go out for a walk while he thought about a better approach. After a short time, he passed a house with a small statue of the Virgin Mary in the front garden. He crept in, stuffed the statue under his coat, hurried home and hid it under the bed. Then he wrote this letter. ‘Dear Jesus, if you want to see your mother again, you’d better send me a new bike.’
Memory Verse of the Week
“And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everone, able to teach, not resentful.”
~2 Timothy 2:24 (NIV84)
Quote of the Week
“Ask God for grace not to run away, but to keep engaging in love that hard-to-love person.”
~Stacy Reaoch
