Born Champion

In one paragraph

This was week two of Tribe's Advent series "Hope is Here," preached by Brian Hunter on December 14, 2025. Before getting into the sermon, Brian paused to address a terrorist attack at a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony in Sydney, Australia that killed a Chabad rabbi and ten others, and called the congregation to pray for the Jewish community locally and globally. The sermon itself worked through...

Read together

1. Isaiah 9:1-7 read aloud by Janet as the primary Old Testament text showing Messiah prophecy fulfilled by Jesus
2. Matthew 2:1-11 read by Brian to show Jesus fulfilling the Isaiah 9:6 prophecy of a child being born, including the wise men visiting
3. Luke 2 referenced when Brian mentions Simeon, Anna the prophetess, and John the Baptist leaping in Elizabeth's womb recognizing Jesus

Talk about it

1. Brian opened with the news of the terrorist attack at a Hanukkah candle lighting in Sydney and said the church takes responsibility for the shalom of this town. What does it actually look like, in practical terms, to take responsibility for the peace of a community that holds a lot of different opinions and beliefs?
2. Brian prayed that the Jewish community here would follow the scarlet thread through the Old Testament into the New Testament and encounter Jesus as their Messiah. Gretchen said that evangelizing Jewish people has to be led by the Holy Spirit. What do you think that kind of Spirit-led conversation looks like, and what would hold you back from having it?
3. The sermon asked the congregation to read Isaiah 9 verses 1 through 5 on their own before looking at verses 6 and 7, and the point was that the picture those first verses paint, a warrior, a liberator, a champion, makes the arrival of a baby a genuine record scratch. Where in your own life have you seen God answer a serious need in a way you would never have predicted or chosen?
4. Brian said Jesus was born with the intrinsic qualities that enable him to be everything Isaiah 9 describes, that his body and language and development had to catch up, but the qualities were fully present from birth. How does that idea change the way you think about the familiar nativity story you have heard every Christmas?
5. Near the end of the sermon Brian suggested asking yourself the question, was I obedient today, and called it a dangerous and scary question because if the answer is no you have to course correct. Is that a question you are willing to sit with this week, and what area of your life do you think it would land hardest?