Pastor Gail – Welcome
1. So, Father, while we organize lots of things, we want to praise You, He is always here, whether we’ve got our everything ready or not. That’s exciting that You understand our humanity, and You’re so pleased Father, when we come to worship You. You hear our words of praise today, You hear the instruments, You hear, oh Lord, that we are here together saying who is like the Lord. And we declare, today, ‘There is no one like You Lord’. So, we praise the Lord, with all of our hearts, all you saints, raise your voices and give praise to Him today. Amen.
Pastor Gail
2. You may be seated for a minute. We’re getting ready to share with you the Advent lighting today. But before we do, I just want to share two things with you. I want to bless you. Yesterday, I was privileged to pray for a woman in a wheel chair, and she got up and walked. Praise God. Amen. That’s the first thing.
3. The second thing is, It was wonderful to be with women from the Sudan, maybe you know, it’s the poorest country in the world. Maybe you know that they’re dying of starvation there. Sorry, yesterday I was in Egypt, I got back from Egypt yesterday. It was for me, and I just wanted to share the beauty of being able to see these women, with 175 other women. Just loving the Lord, and they felt safe, and they felt free. They stood there, tears just running down their faces, that they with other believers, loving the Lord. We are so privileged, we are so honored here in Greece, to be able to celebrate this season, the gift of Jesus Christ to the world, Amen.
4. Holy Spirit played an amazing part in the coming of Jesus Christ. And as we’re going to light the candle in a moment, the very first candle of the Advent. I would like to read from Luke 11:13, if you would like to follow with us. There’re Bibles around the room if you don’t have one. We like to encourage you to read from the paper Bible. It just seems to help you to get the big picture. “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
5. And then if we could read from John 14:26-27, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
6. Advent is the time I personally remember, and I hope you do too, that Mary had a very direct encounter with the Holy Spirit. Every year, when I think about the angel’s words to Mary, it gives me a fresh insight, into the work of Holy Spirit in my life.
7. Go to Luke 1:35, “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’”
8. We’re imperfect. Sometimes I don’t even give the right gift to people. You know, they’ll say, ‘Can I return it, can I exchange it’, but God gave us the perfect gift, the Son of God, our Messiah, and today, I just wanted to encourage us, to think about that gift. Maybe you will not receive on December 25th, or January 6th all the gifts you wanted. But Father God, through the presence of Holy Spirit, and Jesus who is alive, interceding for you right now, He knows exactly what gift each one of us needs. Oh, we need Him. And in this season, He is wanting us to open the gift of the presence of Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
9. He came once, born in that stable, but we are celebrating His coming again. I think on the very first Sunday, today, it would be good, if we would give to God, the gift of telling Him, ‘We wait for You. Come quickly’. Maranatha. Can you say that with me, ‘Maranatha’. Oh, Messiah, Jesus Christ, come quickly. You are the greatest gift, for always, forever.
10. Would you pray with me. ‘Father, we thank You today, for Your great love, that You loved us so much that You sent Your Son into the world, so that we could be saved, Lord, because we did not know how to live aright without Him. And we thank You today, just as He rose from the grave and is now with You, as we receive You into our lives Lord, we too, shall rise. We shall live, forever in Your presence. So, we say ‘Thank You, and Maranatha.’ Hallelujah. Praise the name of the Lord. We give You glory, Amen.
11. So, that’s why we celebrate Christmas. It’s not about the gifts for us, or each other. But today, we remember how much God loves us, that He gave His Son, Amen. And to tell Him, ‘We are grateful, Lord, for who You are.’
Pastor Gail – announcements
1. You may be seated. Praise God and we have our announcements this morning. So, we hope that you will see them, and you’ll not them, because we’re not just saying them. They’re also for your eyes to see.
2. So, we’re very excited for today, many of you know, I love to celebrate Thanksgiving, with my church family. But I was in Egypt, so, we’re having a very special Thanksgiving coffee, today.

Please follow the rest of the announcements on the video.

Leto – Main message
1. We can also say a ‘Hallelujah,’ right? He is a good God, Amen. We thank the Lord that He gives us the time to share things amongst ourselves. You know sometimes our day may not start very well. But surely, with the Lord it ends very well. Because He looks after us. Firstly, I would like to thank pastor Gail, who has allowed me the time to share with you. I love being up here, sharing the Word of God. Praise the Name of the Lord. Hallelujah.
2. Over the last weeks we have been speaking about Holy Spirit, and before we get to the verses that I want to read, I was saying to Stavro, all this time that we have been speaking about Holy Spirit, I want to change my way of thinking about this. It’s not ‘The’, it’s not a ‘Thing’, it’s not something, it’s ‘He, Holy Spirit’. He is a person. In Greek, for me, this excites me, a new thing. I know that I always knew that He is a Person. But all this time I began to come to a deep realization (an aha moment, I would call it) that He is not just something, He is God.
3. I want to go to the Gospel of John 14:15-18, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
4. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I praise You, Because You present here, and You, Holy Spirit, give life to my words and give us Your Word which is what we need. Amen.
5. Firstly, in these verses, what I really like is the phrase, “I will not leave you as orphans.” It means that He will place us into a family. He will not leave us alone. He will send another Paraclete (Helper). Another encourager, to be with us always, so that we never feel alone, so that we don’t feel abandoned. He never leaves us alone. He told us that He would be with us until the end of the age. And here he wants to remind us once again, that we will be part of a family. We won’t be left abandoned and alone. Lord, we thank You for these Words.
6. The passage that we have just read, happened a little while after the feet washing and the partaken of the Holy Communion (or Last Supper). And Jesus Christ tells them has He is about to leave, but that He will send another Advocate (Paraclete), to be with us.
7. You see in Greek; the word Paraclete has several meanings. He is the One called to help. He is the One who gives us consolation. He is the person who stands beside us. He is our legal advisor. And all these things are on the person of the Holy Spirit.
8. That day, Jesus Christ was telling them that I will go away. You have seen Me and you have known Me. I have spoken to you. I have shown you things, but I am going away and I will send Someone else to be with you. He will stand beside you; He will comfort you; He will strengthen you; He will give you strength; He will always be there. He will always be present. He will be in you and beside you. He will be your teacher; He will instruct you all the things that I have told you. It is He who will testify about Me. He is the One who will say and give visibility to what is coming ahead. He is the One standing beside you. And He is the One who will bring righteousness.
9. And I will begin here, about righteousness. Christ is our righteousness. The Jews regarded the Law as righteousness; but they made the mistake of crucifying Righteousness itself. Because Christ came to become the Law and to become our Righteousness. By His stripes we are healed and saved. It is He, the sinless One, who became sin for all of us, so that we may be righteous before God. He fulfilled the entire Law in Himself, so that we could enter into the Holy of Holies.
10. Even today, if we do something wrong, it is He who checks us and prompts us. Praise the Lord for all these things. Amen. God is above all and in all. It is a revelatory testimony. He reveals to us that life does not end here. Today, we will partake of the Holy Communion; partaking of the bread and the juice. But the Holy Spirit reminds us that the table set here, is a table which begins here, but ends in eternity. It is a table where all the guests who have been invited will be seated, who are separated saints. They will be seated before God’s throne; the righteous of God.
11. This is what is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, that life in Christ begins here, but does not end; it doesn’t end. We’re speaking about eternal; we’re speaking about ‘no end’. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, but life in Christ is endless. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to us the goodness of God in our lives, because it is He who reveals the times to us.
12. We cannot know all things, but Holy Spirit, who is worthy, equally powerful; He can open our eyes to reveal to us the times we live in. And the times we are living in are not easy. But I praise God that we have the privilege to be living in such a time, with a God who is constantly with us. With the Holy Spirit guiding us and being beside us. Because the chaos that we are living in, in these impossible things that we are seeing now, Holy Spirit is beside us to support us. Because in these difficult days, in these difficult times, God is present in our lives. As I said in the beginning, if your day begins badly, remember that He will make it end well.
13. We live in an imperfect world (fallen world). And our eyes should always be looking towards the perfection, and perfection is Christ. And Holy Spirit is the One helping us to remember, what Christ spoke about and what we must do. He is equally mighty, equally worthy, and has equal honor with God.
14. Holy Spirit is here. You know that when we partake of the Holy Communion, what we are basically doing, is that we are remembering the work that Christ performed in our lives. But we declare, that this work will be fulfilled by Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit will conclude the work begun by Christ. Christ opened the way, for us to be reconciled with the Father, and He placed the bridge to connect us to heaven. But He who will be holding our hands, to cross the bridge, is Holy Spirit.
15. Holy Spirit is the One who will remind us of the teachings and the Words of Jesus Christ. Many time, we people tend to forget, or we tend to remember only the things that we like. But Holy Spirit, is here reminding us of things, whether we like them or not, but are things of God; the Words of Jesus Christ; to be commandments that are found in the Bible.
16. You know, we say that the Bible is just a book; if it is just printed words, but we say that it has been written, especially this book, is my own book and I open it, I see something different. These Words, are God breathed, and Holy Spirit comes to remind us of these things. Because He does not want us to forget, those things which will take us to eternity.
17. You know, it is not Pastor Gail’s words that will get me to heaven. It’s not Pastor Brian’s words that will get me a seat at the wedding feast of the Lamb. It’s not Stavros’ encouraging words at home. That, that will get me to heaven is if I keep God’s commandments, and if I love God with all of my heart, with all of my mind and with all of my strength, and this only Holy Spirit can achieve it in my life. And reminding me of God’s Word in my heart.
18. Holy Spirit, reminds us that we do not belong to this world. We may be building homes, we may be buying motor cars, we may be studying and getting diplomas, and that’s all very good, but I’ll tell you something, all these things will remain here on earth. We will not take any of these with us. The only thing that we will take with us is what God breathed into us. And Holy Spirit is here to remind us of this. He is here to say to us that we belong to another Kingdom. We belong to God’s Kingdom. We are here as strangers and visitors.
19. We must live a good, polite and lawful life on this earth. But we should never forget that our first priority is heaven. It is to get there. It is to travel to that place, that heavenly land that God is preparing for us. He says, “I will not leave you as orphans, but I’m going to prepare a place for you, and there where I’m going, there are many rooms, and I shall bring you there.” That should be our aim. And Holy Spirit is here, reminding us of this.
20. Holy Communion, is our communication. It’s the moment where Jesus says that, “My body was broken for you. Take and eat.” He then takes the cup and says, “This is My blood which was shed for the many.” It was shed so that all could drink from it. And Holy Spirit comes to remind us, that this table, is not only for us, but it is also for all of those out there, and God wants to invite all those who are out there and to sit at the table. To sit at this beautiful meal that God is preparing. The Lord is our strength. Let us prepare our hands and feet to go out and to invite people.
21. And lastly, Holy Spirit, is guiding us to the triumph of God’s glory. That is where Holy Spirit is wanting to lead us to. We are here, ‘fighting the good fight of faith’, but He who will lead us to God’s triumphant glory, is Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Spirit of all truth, leading us to that place, where, “Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.” That His Work was not in vain, that He died for us, He prepared the way for us and now He is standing at the right hand of the Father. He cannot be with us, but Holy Spirit is with us and He wants to lead us to God’s triumphant glory. And for me, triumph means, parades, hand clapping, loud voices, ‘Hallelujah, Glory to God! God is great, He is all powerful.’ That is triumph.
22. On that day, I don’t believe that we will be able to remain as quiet as we are today, unless you lose your voice like me. But Holy Spirit will lead us to God’s triumphant glory. For me, Holy Spirit, Paraclete, is He, who during the Holy Communion, has the most important role today. Because He unites us as brethren, He unites us as a family, and He tells us that we have a Father who loves us so much, so that He sent His Son to die for us, and that we have a Brother who intercedes for us. Amen.
23. So, be encouraged today, for you are not alone. You are not abandoned, but you are a part of a family, in the family of God. May God bless you.
Pastor Gail – Holy Communion and first Advent candle lighting
1. We are going to partake of Holy Communion today. And again, it’s the first Sunday of Advent. Some of you were not here from the very beginning and we said that we are celebrating the coming of the Messiah. And every time we come together to take communion, Holy Spirit in communion, reminds us that, “For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son.”
2. We’re getting ready to take Holy Communion today. It’s a time of great joy. Exceeding great joy. Especially for those of us who were lost but now we’re found. When we take communion together, Holy Spirit is with us. He is saying to us, ‘Jesus did this for you.’ He made the way, that you could sit at the table. Holy Spirit would say to us in communion, ‘See this bread? It reminds you of the body of Jesus, that was given for you.’
3. I don’t know about you; I don’t think that giving my body would do much for anybody. But Jesus Christ, in His Body, in His Spirit, He carried every lie, he carried every jealousy. As He was sitting at the table with His disciples at the table that night, looking each one of them in the eye, knowing that one of them would betray Him. Holy Spirit would remind us today, that He willingly He desired, He said, “I desire to eat this meal with you.” Holy Spirit, in communion, wants to remind us, that the Spirit of the Living God, the Spirit of Jesus Christ is with us today.
4. If you don’t know Jesus, the table is not quite ready for you. All you have to do, is to say to the Father, ‘Thank You for sending the Son, I want Him to come into my life. I need Him to come into my life.’ I don’t know about you, but sometimes I tell lies, I try not to, but sometimes it just kind of just falls out of my mouth. Sometimes I get jealous. Maybe you never do. Sometimes I get critical, and sometimes I don’t think very nice thoughts about you. But Jesus paid the price, when He said at the table, “All those things, I will carry them to the cross. I will give my life for you.
5. Today, as you take the bread and the cup, and we’ll pass then out is a moment, just hold them in your hands. As you take that bread in your hand, I don’t know about you, but I’m amazed, that He loves me like that, because I’m not always lovable. Are you? But oh, how He loves, you and me, oh how he loves you and me and He went to the cross, because of His great love for you and me.
6. So, when we come to the table, Holy Spirit reminds us of the great love of Jesus Christ. I think almost all of us in this room today, have invited Jesus into our life. We’re going to share communion together. And He sat at that table and He lifted the cup, and He said, “I give My Body, My Blood for you.”
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