Welcome to Worship

Good Morning and Welcome to Worship with Oxford Baptist Church!
We turn back to a more traditional worship service as we are blessed by several members who share readings, prayers, a children’s sermon, and singing. We hope you appreciate this service and trust that all that it is shared can help strengthen you in your life and faith today.

God Bless, Oxford Baptist Church

This morning we bless five deacons who begin their service for the first time. We also share in a devotional reflection about ordination from Rev. Rob Blackwood, who served as an intern while he was a student at Duke Divinity School in 2015-2016. We are thankful for all who have contributed to this service and pray it is meaningful and uplifting to you.

God Bless, Oxford Baptist

Good Morning and Welcome to Worship with Oxford Baptist Church!

As we share in this service together, we will hear an excellent sermon from Sam Harrell, Associate Coordinator for Global Mission with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The sermon leads into brief greetings and a recognition of our role as an Encourager Church to CBF Global Field Personnel serving in four different locations around the world. We fund these four missionary couples through the McFarland Endowment on a year to year basis.

We hope you appreciate this service. We pray the music, prayers, scripture, sermon, greetings, and the affirmation of our covenant to one another will strengthen you in your life and call today.

God Bless, Oxford Baptist

ps. In the video, Lita Sample’s name is misspelled.
This is Chris’s mistake and it will be corrected for all future publications.

Welcome to worship!
We hope this resource is helpful and meaningful for you as we nurture our faith from afar. Thank you to all the OBC members that contributed to our worship resource and service today.
God Bless.

Holiday Note:
The Church Office will be closed on Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday.
The office hours will be normal for the rest of the week.

Welcome to Worship
Today we gather for worship and celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord.
Our message comes from Chris Redmon. Chris is a PhD student at Duke and served as an OBC intern in 2016-17.
We appreciate Chris’ message and you joining us for worship. We hope this service helps you worship at home as we begin the new year and as we look forward to the ways God will work in us and through us in the days to come.
God Bless, Oxford Baptist Church

Happy New Year and Happy Epiphany! Today we celebrate the arrival of the Magi, the Three Kings, or the Wise Men. We hope this service helps you worship at home as we begin the new year and as we look forward to the ways God will work in us and through us in the days to come.

Merry Christmas!
May this worship service and resource for Sunday, December 27, 2020, fill your heart and soul with love as we continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

-Chris Aho 2019

In June of 1999, Natalie and I had bummed our way to Maui on my dad’s acquired airplane and hotel miles for our honeymoon. On our last night, we splurged and followed our Frommer’s guide to the Plantation House at the Kapalua Golf Resort, ready for a fancy meal. We were bright-eyed 22-year-olds who considered the Outback Steakhouse fine dining and immediately, it was clear, we were out of our league.

Wanting to fit in, we ordered tea because we didn’t drink wine and were too embarrassed to order Sprite. But when the tea came, it was not sweet. It was not even unsweet. What arrived was two cups with saucers and a porcelain kettle of hot water to pour over tea bags. We kept our composure as we learned to steep tea, on the spot.

I have no idea what I ate that night. I am sure it was a steak. I suspect it was excellent. All I remember is the feeling of not fitting in, ordering tea, and paying the bill. That night, my bill was $81. I had never seen an $81 meal tab before. The Outback was $40. The number 3 at McDonalds was $3. $81 dollars was Outback twice or Chili’s three times!!!

At our wedding, Mikey, our family friend (who was also a dead ringer for Travis Tritt), gave me a $100 handshake. I left that bill with the tab that night. All $100. A 25% tip because, well, I wasn’t going to ask for change.

******

That story doesn’t seem like it has much to do with Christmas, but I wonder if it has EVERYTHING to do with Christmas?

I suspect, if some reporting was done with the shepherds from Luke 2, they probably felt out of place in the stable.

And Mary and Joseph? They surely felt out of place after an unexpected pregnancy, a long journey, and no room in the inn.

Later on, how do you think they felt when the Magi showed up with valuable gifts?

We could go on about the ways different people didn’t fit in to this miraculous story, but the point is this:

When it comes to this story, the gospel, and the good news of Jesus, no one fits in which is exactly the point.

Jesus was born to a poor virgin, in a stable.

They went on the run to Egypt to avoid a massacre at the hands of the rulers.

When Jesus started his ministry, he didn’t call the established religious leaders, he went to the poor fishermen.

If he wanted to fit in, there were ways he could have. There were families, circumstances, cultures, rulers, or even professions he could have drawn close to if he needed to feel completely assured of their place in the world. But the good news of the Gospel, the power of this birth, and the wonderful significance of Jesus’ life, ministry, and resurrection is that he meets us even we don’t fit in. Maybe especially when we don’t fit in.

Today, we celebrate Jesus’s birth and we welcome our Savior. When we think about it — though we do our best in every way — we are still outsiders who do not quite fit in, and the best news is that is precisely who Jesus arrives to first. This gospel story is not about all the things we do right or the ways we get everything right. Instead, this story is powerful because we don’t fit in, aren’t fitting in, and Jesus welcomes us anyway. Jesus is the savior for those who don’t fit in perfectly and are ready to acknowledge our deep need for something more.

Thanks be to God that on this Christmas day, we can welcome him just like he welcomes us.

We hope you can gather with us tonight as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus.
May this time together on video, nurture your heart and soul for this Christmas season.

Alex Drake, 2018

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. -John 3:16

Think about our Love as parents… we Love without end, we sacrifice, we teach lessons by letting our children struggle to find the solution. We endure heartache to help them grow, we feel joy with their elation. We want them to enjoy life, safely learn the ropes, and in the end feel that they have had a fulfilled & meaningful life (in all areas).

So, what exactly is Love? As I write this devotional, I have tried to find the time during this hectic time of year to pause and think and figure out what Love means to me. Even though its meaning can be very different for each of us as individuals, I suspect we share many of loves underlying themes.

For me, Love is Family. Love is going to sleep every night beside our loved ones and waking up each morning to find them still there.

Love is looking into the eyes of our spouses and knowing we still Love them just as much or more than the day we first met. 

Love is our children. Love is watching them play and sing in bubble baths. It’s that lump in your throat we all get when we watch them walk away into school with their backpacks on and we realize they are growing up way too fast.

Love is working hard each day so we can rush home to be with them for those final few minutes before bed.

Love is loving a child that cannot always outwardly show signs that they Love you back even though we all know they do just the same.

It is a pet who is always happy to see us when we walk through the door.

Love is always being there for each other to help no matter what in times of need or life’s difficult trials.

Love is allowing us to struggle to deepen our faith. It is believing in something that we cannot see or fully understand.

Love is leading by example, the way God would want us to.

As I think about all of these aspects of Love, I also fully realize that the only reason we have the privilege to experience these things is through God’s ultimate Love for each of us. God, too, feels this same type of Love for us, times infinity. He knows where we are coming from, before we do.

It’s hard to understand the Love He has for the billions of humans he calls His children. It would be easier for us to understand if He had only a few children like each of us, but Billions?!?! He showed us His Love for us with the absolute ultimate sacrifice…His Son. That Love for us is so great that He sent His only Son to Earth to teach us about Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love (but the greatest is Love). He wants us to also have a joyful life on earth filled with Love. He wants to instill the tools necessary for each of us to make our way back to Him. He wants us not to perish but to have eternal life. Therefore, through His everlasting Love for us, He has prepared a room for each of us in His home as part of His family. All we have to do is believe & accept Him. We simply Love Him and through our lives show all others the immense & unwavering Love that He has for us.

For me, that is the Gift of Love.

Amen.