{"id":13602,"date":"2017-01-12T11:18:40","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T15:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=13602"},"modified":"2017-01-12T11:18:40","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T15:18:40","slug":"the-true-star-of-christmas-1817","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=13602","title":{"rendered":"The True Star of Christmas (1\/8\/17)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>In last year&#8217;s sermon series on Epiphany (entitled &#8220;Three Men and a Baby&#8221;),\u00a0 Pastor Jim focused on the Wise Men and the Gifts.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>In this year&#8217;s Epiphany sermon, he focused on the star.\u00a0 What was the star?\u00a0 Was\u00a0 it a natural occurrence or something else?\u00a0 What does it mean for us today?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>During the sermon, Pastor Jim referenced back to last year&#8217;s\u00a0 series, so links to each of the three sermons are presented below:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div class='et-box et-shadow'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><h3><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Three Men and a Baby&#8230;<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The first part of last year&#8217;s sermon focused on the gift of Gold:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"8SLsL3gCO9\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=10040\">What Gift Shall I Bring? (1\/3\/16)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;What Gift Shall I Bring? (1\/3\/16)&#8221; &#8212; pitmanumc.org\" src=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=10040&#038;embed=true#?secret=ZCUKgbg1GY#?secret=8SLsL3gCO9\" data-secret=\"8SLsL3gCO9\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The second part\u00a0 looked at the gift of Frankincense:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"dV980jOfkC\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=10211\">God&#8217;s Bridge Over Troubled Water (1\/10\/16)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;God&#8217;s Bridge Over Troubled Water (1\/10\/16)&#8221; &#8212; pitmanumc.org\" src=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=10211&#038;embed=true#?secret=WovFnC2eEx#?secret=dV980jOfkC\" data-secret=\"dV980jOfkC\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The third part wraps us the series by focusing on the gift of Myrrh:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"NLko6ASeTI\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=10290\">The Surprise Gift (1\/17\/16)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;The Surprise Gift (1\/17\/16)&#8221; &#8212; pitmanumc.org\" src=\"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=10290&#038;embed=true#?secret=6bbwBFPaNQ#?secret=NLko6ASeTI\" data-secret=\"NLko6ASeTI\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">In this year&#8217;s Epiphany sermon (given on January 8, 2017),\u00a0 Pastor Jim moved away from the Wise Men and their gifts and looked at what they were looking at:\u00a0 The Star!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">The following recording is from the 11:00 service. Click on the play button, then scroll down to follow along&#8230;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">THE RECORDING ISN&#8217;T READY YET&#8230; PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Our scripture was from Matthew 2:1-12. Pastor Jim read from The Living Bible (the New Living Translation is shown below):<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<div class='et-learn-more clearfix'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class='heading-more'>Matthew 2:1-12<span class='et_learnmore_arrow'><span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='learn-more-content'><p>2 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking,<\/p>\n<p> 2 &#8220;Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> 3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p> 4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, &#8220;Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> 5 &#8220;In Bethlehem in Judea,&#8221; they said, &#8220;for this is what the prophet wrote:<\/p>\n<p> 6 &#8216;And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> 7 Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared.<\/p>\n<p> 8 Then he told them, &#8220;Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> 9 After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.<\/p>\n<p> 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!<\/p>\n<p> 11 They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.<\/p>\n<p> 12 When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">Holy Bible, New Living Translation \u00ae, copyright \u00a9 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='et-box et-warning'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The recording and write-up for this week&#8217;s\u00a0 sermon are &#8220;under construction.&#8221;\u00a0 But we thought we&#8217;d post the links to last year&#8217;s series to &#8220;whet your appetite.&#8221;\u00a0 Please check back later and check out the sermon from January 8, 2017.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Quiz Time!<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>As you reflect on what you&#8217;ve just heard\/read, give this quiz a try. If you don&#8217;t understand an answer (or if you disagree with the &#8220;correct&#8221; answer, post a comment)&#8230;<\/p>\n<div id='quizArea'>\n<script type='text\/javascript'>\njQuery(document).ready(function($) {\n$( function($){\nvar quiz = {\nmultiList:\n[{ ques: 'When will the rest of this post appear?',\nans: 'Ya never know',\nansSel: [ 'Tomorrow.',  'Yesterday' ] }]\n};\nvar options = {\ntitle: 'The True Star of Christmas',\nhelp: 'Select the correct answers, then click &#8220;review&#8221; after completing the quiz.',\nshowAns: false,\nshowAnsInfo: false,\nallRandom: false,\nshowFeedback: false,\nrandom: false\n};\nvar lang = {\nquiz : { tfEqual:'' }\n};\n$( '#quizArea' ).jQuizMe( quiz, options, lang );\n$( \".q-innerArea\" ).css( {\"backgroundColor\": \"#EECCAA\", \"color\": \"#222222\"} );\n$( \".quiz-el\" ).css( {\"backgroundColor\": \"#776655\", \"color\": \"#222222\"} );\n$( \".q-ques\" ).css( {\"backgroundColor\": \"#EEEEEE\", \"color\": \"#222222\"} );\n$( \".q-ansSel\" ).css( {\"backgroundColor\": \"#EEEEEE\", \"color\": \"#222222\"} );\n$( \".q-result\" ).css( {\"backgroundColor\": \"#EEEEEE\", \"color\": \"#222222\"} );\n});\n}(jQuery))\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #003300; font-size: 14pt;\">+ + + + + + +<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Click this button to view other sermons: <a href='https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?cat=50' class='icon-button download-icon'>Sermon Archive<span class='et-icon'><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In last year&#8217;s sermon series on Epiphany (entitled &#8220;Three Men and a Baby&#8221;),\u00a0 Pastor Jim focused on the Wise Men and the Gifts.\u00a0 In this year&#8217;s Epiphany sermon, he focused on the star.\u00a0 What was the star?\u00a0 Was\u00a0 it a natural occurrence or something else?\u00a0 What does it mean for us today? During the sermon, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13602"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13635,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13602\/revisions\/13635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}