Weekend Teaching Series: Christmas at the Movies (series premiere, week 1 of 3)
Sermon in a Sentence: This Christmas, let the love of JESUS rule your heart, and don’t be a GRINCH!
Service Length: 66 minutes

Understandable Message: This week we kicked off our Christmas series – we’re doing 3 weeks and 3 different Christmas movies as illustrations of the Scripture/them we’ve chosen for the series. I got to kick off with The Grinch, and used clips from all 3 versions of the movie, including my childhood favorite, a clip from the live-action Jim Carrey version, and finally a really fun clip from the 2018 CGI remake as well. The message itself was fast-paced and fun, with 4 different clips showing the life change of the Grinch from the beginning to end. The main difference of course, was that the Spirit of Christmas changed the Grinch’s heart, but it is the Holy Spirit who changes our heart. I included several Christmas actions to take to bring more kindness and love to our homes/schools this holiday season.

Scriptures Used: Ephesians 4:32, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 3:13

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We started with the Dancing Christmas Beast countdown, played Anything for a Buck: Christmas Edition since it was our triple llamabuck weekend (what are those? I posted on it earlier this week here), and of course did the Impossible Shot for first time guests and the student who brought them. Super fun!

Music Playlist: Joy to the World, My King Forever

Favorite Moment: We had some GREAT clips from the movie, which always make the movie sticky and memorable. I had played 3 clips from the various versions of the movie, but then when the Grinch’s “heart grew 3 times that day” there was a montage clip of all 3. So good! 

Up next: Christmas at the Movies: Home Alone (week 2 of 3, Tammy speaking)