WELCOME

Pastor Greg & Tamara Dumas Lead Pastor

Welcome to The Crossing Church!

Can you believe it’s December? In many parts of the country the seasons change as December draws near, but we are blessed to live in sunny Florida! Speaking of being blessed, sometimes it’s easy to forget how God has blessed our lives. We are in a time of year where it is better to “give than receive.” I pray that during this upcoming Christmas season, God would show each of us how truly blessed we are and that we have opportunities to share with others through a heart of giving.

Your Pastor,Greg and Tamara Dumas

For more announcement details: www.crossingonline.org/announcements

UPCOMING EVENTS

Adopt a Need If you or your LifeGroup would like to adopt a need for the Holiday (or any time), go to www.crossingonline.org/serve and select a family or agency to help.

Bulletin Assembly We need you! Bring your LifeGroup, your neighbor, and children 10 years and older to help assemble bulletins for the next fourteen services on Wednesday, Dec. 22 and Thursday, Dec. 23 beginning at 10am. Sign up in the Lobby today!

Marriage Mentor Ministry Mentor couples are standing by to help your marriage be what God intends for it to be. For more information, contact Pastor Dennie Walker at Dwalker@crossingonline.org and 813.626.0783 EXT. 148 or Laurie Weaver at Lweaver@crossingonline.org and 813.626.0783 EXT. 111.

Reverb Attention all young adults 18-29: Join us Saturday, Dec. 11 for Reverb’s Late Night Christmas Party in the Courtyard at 8:30pm. There will be food, fellowship, and good ole Christmas Cheer. Don’t miss it!

On Campus LifeGroups are an 18-week discipleship process that will help you discover and apply biblical truths in your everyday life. Join us January 22nd in The Life Center as we learn how God has designed each of us to connect, grow, and go. Register at: www.crossingonline.org/news.

• Warm Up: January 9

Christmas Eve Services Join us at The Crossing for our Love is Still Alive Christmas Eve services on December 23: 6pm & 8pm and December 24: 11am, 1pm, 3pm & 5pm. We will be having sign language interpretation on December 24 at the 3pm service. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Adele Morris at gram8597@aol.com.

Pastor Greg has been walking us through the story of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the protective wall that surrounded Jerusalem. Through this series we have learned that we have a good work to be a part of, and that by putting our hands to this work, we can accomplish the impossible. On the weekend of December 11-12 we will be taking a special offering that will give us the chance to invest in what God is doing through the ministries of The Crossing Church. Something to consider as you give: There are some companies who will match their employee’s charitable giving. Please be in prayer as to how God would lead you to give.

Saturday, December 11Sunday, December 12

NEHEMIAH PROJECTCelebration and Offering

Nehemiah 12:43 Lead Pastor: Greg Dumas

WELCOME TO THE CROSSING CHURCH

SCRIPTURENehemiah 12:43 (NIV) 43 And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.

• Jesus sets us free from a dead-end life of sin, which enslaves us.

• Jesus bought our freedom with His blood, and the price He paid set us free.

• The Lord has made us glad with His mighty works. The wicked will perish, but the righteous will stand forever.

• When we declare that we want NOTHING more than Christ, we are asking Him to turn up the heat of the refiner’s fire.

• The Lord promises to bless us abundantly if we follow His commands and precepts.

• Christ is the fullness of all things and God’s indescribable gift to us. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. FREEDOM - DECLARED BY GOD (Exodus chapter 5)

Romans 6:6-8 (TLB); John 8:33-36 (MSG)

2. REDEMPTION - BLOOD BOUGHT (Exodus chapter 12)

John 1:29 (NIV); Colossians 1:13 (TLB)

3. DELIVERANCE - PARTING OF THE RED SEA (Exodus chapter 14)

Psalms 92:4,11-15 (NIV)

4. GOD’S PROVING - WANDERING IN THE DESERT (Exodus chapters 15-17)

Psalms 110:4 (NKJV)

5. GOD’S PROMISE - CROSSING OVER (Joshua chapter 1-6)

Deuteronomy 11:8-9 (NIV)

OBSERVATION

APPLICATION

Father God, thank you for giving us salvation in Christ Jesus. His sacrifice is a gift that is indescribable. It’s beyond human comprehension and utterly unsearchable. Lord Jesus, you made the way because you ARE the way, and you are the truth, and you are the life. You are our resurrection, and you are our eternal portion. Thank you for hanging on the cross of death and dying for my sin and me. You took the pain and shame and the penalty that would have judged me throughout all of eternity. Lord, sometimes I find myself asking why? Why did you do such a thing? Why did you humble yourself and come to earth in the likeness of a man to suffer so greatly for me? I know, Lord, your answer is always the same. I can hear you speaking even now, “I did it because I’ve always loved you.”

Continued...

• NEHEMIAH OFFERING (Nehemiah 12:43)

Prayer: 2 Chronicles 7:13-16 (NIV) 13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

6. GOD’S GIFT - CHRIST JESUS

Romans 4:16 (MSG) 16 …God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that’s reading the story backwards. He is our faith father.

John 11:25-26 (NIV) 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PRAYER

APPLICATION