The prophet Isaiah announces the reign of a King: “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots." (Isaiah 11:1) This promised Ruler enters this world in a relatively obscure and humble manner—he is a small branch that shoots forth from a tree in a forest that in the earlier chapter had been cut down. This thick forest had been reduced to stumps for as far as the eye could see. There were no branches waving in the air, no birds flitting around, and no life, movement or sound. All appears dead. But look a tiny little shoot beings to grow—a reference to the birth of Jesus Christ, the first qualiified ruler of the Davidic line for centuries. Just when the vitality and hope of God's people seems all snuffed out, a small sigh of life appears. Joy to the world! The LORD has come!
As we celebrate our Savior’s birth this week we wish you all a blessed Christmas!
Here is some feedback we have heard recently from our faithful broadcasters who share how God is using SermonAudio in their church families and outreach.
SermonAudio is proud to be a partner with FAME as we co-produce a weekly 'audio journal podcast' called Five Minutes of FAME taken from a first-person perspective.
But first, some other encouragements!
This week, we received this in the mail. We don't get a lot of them, but we sincerely enjoy receiving your hand written letters. It's just such an encouragement.
This is a comment we received on Facebook in response to our post: "Amen! I got saved after listening to a testimony one night lying in bed on SermonAudio. Monday 21st October 2013! Now I'm in Bible College preparing for what I hope is a lifetime serving the King of Kings, our lovely Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ! Keep up the good work! God bless.. Isaiah 55:11"
What a blessing. Folks, this is why we do what we do. Thank you, Lord, for giving us the often rare privilege of seeing the fruit of our labors.
Encouraging broadcaster feedback..
Below is some of the feedback from broadcasters we've received just this past week. We encourage you to contact them and tell them that you saw them here!
Russ Peterson, Media Director, Cornerstone Church www.sermonaudio.com/cornerstonechurch"SermonAudio is a wonderful part of our ministry. We are a small church that has blessed with a small tech team which enable to livestream every service! Our pastor uses the twitter integration and blogs regularly via SermonAudio. We have people who faithfully listen/watch in our own community as well as around the world. If for some reason we aren't on, they contact us and ask what is going on! One evening a week, we do a very simple webcast for shut-ins where I share just a simple thought from a verse or two. Then I pray for each one by name and other requests in our church. We only have a few shut-ins but sometimes many others tune in as well. This communicates to our shut-ins that we are remembering them and they are important to us. If they need help with any technology issues we go over and help them out. We also have a worldwide outreach thanks to you all. SermonAudio today is like what HCBJ used to be years ago--but now SermonAudio allows churches of all sizes to be heard around the whole world! Years ago this was something I could only dream about but you have made it a reality. We do all of this on a very low budget and it really costs us no extra time because we do it all during our worship service!"
Pastor Dave Johnson, Community Bible Church www.sermonaudio.com/cbcpastordave"We are very pleased to broadcast on SermonAudio. Most of our listeners are those who come up to our area as summer tourists who want to continue to listen year-round to the messages our small church offers. For those that come up regularly each summer, this enables us to keep up a relationship with them. My father originally started our work and I assumed the pastorate back in 1982 after my dad passed on to glory. Now, my son who was a missionary in Africa for 18 years is assisting me in the work and he will take it over when I am no longer able to preach! We meet in a 106 year old building but through SermonAudio we are able to reach others all around the world! We are well satisfied with this opportunity and the services you offer!"
We would encourage you to read through more testimonials we've received over the years from both listeners and broadcasters alike.
