December marks the beginning of the Advent season.

Advent comes from the Latin word, "adventus" which means "coming" or "arrival".

Adventus is a translation of the Greek word, "παρουσία" (parousia), which carries a sense of a royal visit or arrival of a king. In the New Testament, parousia is used for the Second Coming of Christ.

Therefore, the Christian advent is a celebration of the first coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, an expression of gratitude and thanksgiving for the ongoing coming of Christ into our lives by grace through faith, and the longing and expectant looking for the final coming of Christ at the end of time, the Second Coming (Last Judgment).

The Advent season is both the looking back and looking forward, waiting and watching for the "Coming One".

During this time of year it is common for Christians to be in conversations about the meaning of Christmas. The meaning is simple: God came to live with us and rescue us from our sin in the person of Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man.

We describe this first coming with the theological term, incarnation. The incarnation is what made our salvation possible through the birth, sinless life, atoning death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The righteous for the wicked.

I like to refer people to 2 Corinthians 5:21 as a verse that captures the gospel message:

"He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we [Christians] might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Allow me to encourage you as you have spiritual conversations this month, don't overlook the opportunity to discuss salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. You may be the only messenger God sends to that person with the gospel message. Try to direct people you encounter to the expositional sermons of Galatians in November that revealed to us biblical evidence of spiritual transformation: How we can know we are saved. This was discussed in two contrasting ways and two clarifying ways:

               1) Evidence of life in the Flesh (Galatians 5:19-21)

               2) Evidence of life in the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-26)

               3) Sign Gifts: Understanding Prophets and Prophecy

               4) Sign Gifts: Understanding Speaking in Tongues

As you consider the evidence of your salvation and talk with others about their salvation, I encourage you to integrate the biblical realties of Galatians 5 with others you encounter this Advent season.

May the Lord bless you as you seek Him in all things.

Post tenbras lux,

Pastor Dan | Ps. 46

Grace Maricopa will be celebrating Christmas Eve together at the church campus.

We will gather together in worship of God for Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God-with-us for a night of singing, celebration, and glorious praise to our God and King.

Join us on Christmas Day for a morning of prayer and praise as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

A potluck meal and fellowship time will immediately follow the service.

Have you pinned or saved a million recipes online but not had the opportunity to actually make any of these amazing dishes? Well, here is your chance to pick one of them and try your hand at making it!

Bring your recipe instructions and supplies to a fun evening with the Women of Grace.

We will eat together and have a fun evening of fellowship with one another.

Ladies of all ages are welcome!

This event will be held at the Rogers' residence. Please contact Christie Rogers for directions at, Christie@GraceMaricopa.org

Church Discipleship: Sunday @ 5pm

Pastor Dan teaches through the Bible using The Gospel Project curriculum.

The Church Discipleship class will not be meeting on December 21st, December 28th, or January 4th.

Men's Group: Tuesday @ 6pm 

Pastor Michael teaches the Men about Biblical Manhood.

Women's Group: Tuesday @ 6:30pm 

Linda Slusher leads a study over Elijah at her home. (Call church for address)

Fundamentals of the Faith: Wednesday at 7pm

Bob VonFleckinger leads a study of basic Christian doctrines.

The Fundamentals class will not be meeting on December 24th.

Women's Daytime Group: Thursday @ 10am

Christie Rogers leads a study of Ephesians designed for women. (Childcare provided)

The Women's Daytime Grace Group will not be meeting on December 25th or January 1st, 8th, and 15th.

The Women's Daytime Grace Group will begin again on January 22nd, 2026.

Socratic Study of Acts: Thursday @ 6pm

Tim Ihms leads an interactive Bible study over the book of Acts.

The Socratic Study Group will not be meeting on December 25th.

Grace Crafting

Lynn Jurgensen leads the group in a craft project. Contact Lynn for meeting days and times.

We are grateful to God, our volunteers, and the generosities of many to help Sojourners gain a foothold in the community. In recent weeks we have reached four unchurched students in the area, many of whom have returned and plan to return weekly. We praise God for the opportunities to reach these students with the gospel!

Christmas Party!

Youth Group Christmas party will be on December 21st at 5pm. Please contact Pastor Zach for details at, Zachary@GraceMaricopa.org.

Christmas Break

We will take a 2-week break for Christmas, not meeting on December 28th or January 4th.

Studying the Gospel of John

Our study of the Gospel of John continues. Pray for the students as they are challenged to respond to the gospel message through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

6th - 12th Grade Students are Welcome

Please be in prayer for our students and leaders as we seek to reach out to the lost students of our area.

And if you know of any youth students who would enjoy some community, invite them along, Sundays 5pm-7pm!

Christmas Eve Children's Choir

The Children's Choir is open to ages Preschool - 5th grade. We have begun practicing our songs and Scripture readings for the Christmas Eve service and two more practices will be held:

               Sunday, December 7th @ 5pm

               Sunday, December 14th @ 5pm

If you are interested in participating or have additional questions, please contact Christie in-person on Sunday or by email at, Christie@GraceMaricopa.org

Children's Church this month

Where is God?

God is in all places at all times and is always with His people.

December Memory Verse:

"The LORD your God is among you, a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in His love. He will delight in you with singing." - Zephaniah 3:17

Our lessons in December are from the books of Jeremiah, Daniel, and Isaiah. We will be learning about how God's people had been taken into captivity adn many of them were taken to Babylon.

Daniel was a young man who worshipped the LORD and remained faithful even when faced with death. God promised through the prophet Jeremiah that He would set them free and bring them back to their land.

December worship services at Grace Maricopa will be filled with singing many traditional carols and hymns.

Though these songs draw our minds to fond memories, we encourage everyone to look beyond the season's festivities to the true wonder behind it all; that God almighty, matchless and holy, became an infant human. His purpose, to die and rise again to put away sin once and for all (Hebrews 9:26).

May we rejoice in the birth of the last Adam, the better Moses, the root of David, Jesus the Messiah. 

Consider the classic hymn,

Comfort, comfort ye my people,

Speak ye peace, thus saith our God.

Comfort those who sit in darkness,

Mourning neath their sorrows' load.

Speak ye to Jerusalem,

Of the peace that waits for them,

Tell her that her sins I cover,

And her warfare now is over.

This hymn was written in 1671 by the Lutheran preacher and hymn writer Johann Olearius.

His inspiration was Isaiah 40:1-5, which opens with Yahweh calling for comfort to His people Israel. The expectation is of a Messiah who will come and console God's people after a long and dark season of wandering. Isaiah warned the disobedient people of Judah that God would send them into exile, captivity, for all their sins. But God equally promises redemption, a redemption that would make His saving Israel from Egypt pale in comparison.

In this Christmas season, we are witnesses to the beginning of this salvation. Christ came once and brought redemption from sin, but we rejoice in the fact that Christ will come once again, bringing comfort to His people and an eternal rest from darkness, mourning, death, and war.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Our church planter in Oklahoma, Pastor Nathaniel Jolly, has been hard at work preaching the Gospel in Harrah. He has recently completed a sermon series over Ephesians and has been leading the saints at Providence through a mid-week study over the allegory of Pilgrim's Progress.

As the Scripture promises, the faithfully preached word has not returned void (Isaiah 55:11). The Lord has been steadily adding to His church at Providence, including a young 16 year-old who was attending a seeker-sensitive church. This young man was surprised to hear a church that preached from the Scripture and "took it seriously."  This young man has been baptized and now gathers together with the saints at Providence under the faithful teaching of Pastor Jolly.

Pastor Dan will visit Pastor Jolly and Providence Bible Church in January of 2026 to worship with them and encourage them in their minisitry.

Please continue to pray for Pastor Jolly and Providence Bible Church as they faithfully serve our Lord.

Our Deacon Ministry has been hard at work around the campus over the last month making repairs and improvements.

The Overflow Area

Our Deacon Ministry has been steadily working towards an overlow area under the front, outside canopy. This area will eventually have chairs and tables along with a television broadcasting the morning worship service and sermon.

As our Sunday morning worship gathering grows, feel free to use this area to spread out and worship the Lord, together, as one unified church while we wait for our new building to be completed.

Make sure you let our Deacon Team know how thankful we are for their service to our church.

The Engineering diagrams for the construction of our new worship building have been submitted to the City of Maricopa for approval.

Please continue to pray that God will guide us to hire a construction company and contractors for this project.

Biblical Marriage Workbook

Pastor Dan is developing a workbook that will supplement the 5 part sermon series on Biblical Marriage.

Easter Devotional Book

Pastor Dan is writing a 7 day devotional guide: Honoring Easter: The Weight of Sin

Falling Into the Habit

Pastor Dan is writing a 27-day devotional guide to help those who have fallen away from the fellowship to return.

Please pray for him as he works on these projects in January.

Parsonage

Grace Maricopa has been gifted, by the grace of God, a beautiful 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in Maricopa to use as a parsonage for our Family Pastor. The paperwork has been filed with the escrow services and we are waiting for receipt of the deed.

Please join in us praising God for His generous blessing to Grace Maricopa through his faithful servant who, through their generous gift, has made generational impact to the future of Grace Maricopa.

Once the deed has been received, we will hold a dedication service at the parsonage. More details to come.

People Mover

Grace Maricopa has a vision for a robust Senior Ministry that will include monthly trips for Seniors around the state of Arizona and to Mexico border towns.

This vision requires the church to acquire a large bus for transporting seniors.

Please pray that the Lord will provide a large, comfortable bus that can acommodate wheelchairs for this ministry.

Prayer Ministry

Grace Maricopa has a devoted prayer ministry that meets every Wednesday @4pm. We invite everyone to join this pivotal ministry and pray to our loving, powerful Father in heaven for our needs and the needs of others.

If you have a prayer request please email your request to the church office at, Office@GraceMaricopa.org