Love + Christmas Presents

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Good morning. My name is Daniel Oster and I'm a pastor here and I'm excited to be with you guys. I'm excited. I've got Heath's baseball team pretty much here. So I just wanted to warn you if they start yelling and arguing with me or saying things like, you're blind, that's normal, okay. That's normal on a baseball Sunday, so just let it go. You know what I'm talking about. Okay, we are in week four of our Advent season and we're talking about love and Advent, what circles the kind of the emotion of Advent, the word means coming or arrival. So it develops this emotion of anticipation, which is not hard to manufacture around Christmas because there's a lot of anticipation around things that we have with our own traditions. You may get really excited and can't wait to decorate your house. You know, maybe you're competing with the neighbors down the road. You may also get excited about decorating the tree. We talked about this a couple weeks ago.

Even those ugly ornaments your kids made when they're like three and you still pretend that you like them and you put those on the tree. Maybe it's picking out the perfect picture for your Christmas card. Maybe it's seeing family you haven't seen in a while. It could be watching great Christmas movies like Elf, Home Alone, and Die Hard. And if you don't think Die Hard is a Christmas movie, there's exits here, here, and to the back. But I would say probably what causes the most greatest anticipation is around gifts, getting gifts, receiving gifts. How many parents have been woken up before 5 a.m. by their kids on Christmas morning to open up presents? Okay, we as kids one time, my grandparents lived two hours away. We woke up, opened gifts, and were on my grandparents doorstep at 7 30 in the morning. So I'm not sure what time that was, but we talked our parents out of bed early. And so, you know, our theme this month has

been kind of home for Christmas and we're going to look at the gift of love. And so we're going to start today in Isaiah 61 that I want to try to prepare this anticipation of this greatest gift in history. And so we're going to read scriptures that the Israelites, the Jews, God's chosen people were reading in anticipation of their Messiah. And so this morning we're going to explore the gift of love and we're going to look at two things. We're going to look at the gift of love found in both the pause and the privilege. Okay, so let's go ahead and let's look at Isaiah, which is a book of prophecy that was happening hundreds of years before Jesus came on the scene. So Isaiah 61, the first few verses there, starting verse one, it says, it says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the

brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and the garments of praise instead of a faint spirit that they may be called mighty oaks of righteous, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. So we see, first of all, we want to point out that we really see this is the Messiah, this is what's referred to as the anointed one in the scripture, who's going to be Jesus is saying that the Spirit of the Lord is on me. And we see both Jesus, the Spirit, and God kind of in these verses. And this anointed one is coming, and it's going to do seven things. And the first one is to bring good news to the poor. So it's like, what is this

good news? So let's, let's probably the best way to look at this is kind of a comparison form. And it says, it's going to take the brokenhearted, and he's going to bind, mend, or heal them. You've got the captives, you've got the captives are going to be liberated. Prisoners bound are going to be set free. You've got people sitting in ashes, now are going to be wearing haddressed, mourning is going to be wearing all of gladness, and faint of spirit is going to be wearing garments of praise. So what kind of what is easy to lose here is to remember where what the Israelites were when they were reading this, and they were at the time conquered by their nations, they were reduced to this powerless nation. And so when they heard phrases like brokenhearted, prisoner, faint of spirit, it really resonated with the what they were experiencing right then. And so the first three have to do with healing and free and freeing. And so the Israelites would have

heard this and just kind of waited for a day where they were freed, and could be the great nation they were again. The other three are a little bit odd to us because we don't hear these things today. Headdress, oil of gladness, and garments of praise. And what's important about this is this was around what the priest would do. So this messiah, this one that was going to come, was not only going to heal the brokenhearted and frame, but it was also going to make them priests, which was very odd because priests were a very designated thing, and that was the one who had access to God. So now it's saying the messiah is going to do these things and make everybody a priest, which means I'm going to have direct access to God and be able to be used by him. And so I want us to try to understand if we can the anticipation of how they could not wait for this day to come, where they

would just in their minds be a great nation again, all priests walking with God. Okay, so now let's fast forward 700 years or so, and we're going to look at Jesus's ministry beginning in Luke 4. And so to kind of set the stage in Luke 4, Jesus, even in this chapter before, has been baptized by John the Baptist and then is in the wilderness, attempted by Satan, and then it says he begins his ministry. So let's start reading in Luke chapter 4 and verse 14, we're looking 14-15.

It says, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues and everyone praised him. Okay, so does anybody know who this is? This is Kelly Clarkson. Y'all not recognize Kelly? Burleson's own Kelly Clarkson, okay. Most of America did not know what Burleson was before Kelly Clarkson came on the scene on American Idol and won the whole thing. So I wasn't living in Burleson at the time, but I'm sure there was a lot of buzz about Kelly Clarkson, what she was doing when she came home, she was celebrated, all these things were happening. This is similar to what was happening kind of with Jesus. It wasn't on American Idol, but he was starting to teach around the area and buzz of him and he was putting Nazareth on the map. Okay, and now what's happening is it comes time

for him to come and preach in his own town. So we're going to look at that. Let's see here. So he was teaching around Galilee, news of him traveled, and you have to think kind of as a Nazarene here. They're thinking, isn't this the boy, isn't this the carpenter that we know who's gaining his popularity? Now he's coming to preach in our synagogue. I imagine that early seating, I imagine the house was packed for him to come in and read. And so let's keep reading starting in Luke 4, 16 through 21. It says, he went to Nazareth and where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue. As it was their custom, he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, unrolling it. He found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim the freedom to the prisoners and recover the sight of

the blind. He, to set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and all the eyes in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So as a custom, Jesus set, reads the scripture, and now he sets down to preach. And you know, they didn't have Bible like we do that are scrolls, and so he's unrolling the scroll and he's reading the exact same scripture we just read in Isaiah. So this triggers, okay? This is a well-known

prophecy of things that people like to think about, and so this triggered. What did not is when he says, today in your hearing, scripture is fulfilled. That's a big deal. That's a big deal, okay? So he's basically saying, I am what this scripture is talking about. So I don't want us to miss the gravity of this, but also I imagine that mouths were wide open. I imagine that heads were kind of tilted going, what exactly did he say what I think he said?

I want us to look at where he paused, okay? When we read Isaiah 61:2, it says, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, okay? He stopped reading at, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. That's where he stopped, on purpose. And I think that's important because the first point that we're looking at this morning is the gift of love in the pause. So he stopped at the year of the Lord's favor. So I want to talk about that real quick. That's referencing old Leviticus 25. Every 50th year was the year of Jubilee. And during that year, all things were made right. So certain prisoners who maybe were bound by labor contracts were freed. Land was given back if you had to sell it because you didn't have money. So it was kind of like this 50th year, every 50th year, and then work wasn't done for a certain amount of time. So it was this great year where slaves were set free, debts were forgiven,

and all property was turned to its original owner. And so by Jesus proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor, he's pointing out a time where people are going to be freed from their burden and bondage. But what we can't miss is he's not talking about physical debt, bondage. He's talking about spiritual debt and bondage. So he meant to say that I'm the anointed one who's come to bring salvation to the people. This is the day of salvation. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 6:2, and he actually is quoting another scripture in Isaiah. He says, for he says, in the time of my favor, I heard you. In the day of my salvation, I helped you. And then Paul says, I tell you, now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. So how is this a gift of love? When Jesus, what did Jesus not read at that time? The day of vengeance of our God. So what's very important is

he's coming to bring a day of salvation. He's coming to bring away so that we don't have to face the wrath of God on our own marriage. Remember, Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. So in other words, we're in spiritual debt and bondage. And so do y'all ever watch like these mafia gangster movies? And what happens when somebody can't pay the mob boss? They seem like a big dude with like a bat, right? It's like rough them up. If they can't pay, end up killing them. Why? Because they can't pay the debt. They don't have it. And actually, it's weird to think that God would have been justified to come collect on his debt that we could not pay. That's kind of a scary thought. So the gift of love is the fact that Jesus came to make a way so that when the time to collect comes, we can show Jesus is showing a paid receipt on our behalf. And he's saying,

he's with me. The second half of Romans 6:23 says, for the wages of sin is death. And then there's the word, but, which thank God that's there. It says the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ the Lord. So when Jesus is reading about the year of the Lord's favor, it's very exciting to them to hear that. Brings back New Testament themes. And Christ is saying that he's the Redeemer to come and set those prisoners free. That he's going to pay our debt that we owe so that we're no longer in bondage. And so let's look how he continues to teach. And let's look at the reaction. So we see the gift of love in the pause. Now we're going to look at gift of love in through the privilege. Let's read verses starting in 22. It says, all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that come from his lips. Isn't this Joseph's son, they asked? Jesus said him, surely, surely you will quote this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself.

You and you will tell me, do in your hometown as you've done in Capernaum, truly I tell you, he continued, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there are many widows in Israel in Elijah's time when the sky will shut up for three days and a half year, three and a half years, and there were severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and yet not one of them was cleansed only Naaman and Syrian. Okay, so this would be like if I came in and I said, hey, it's your lucky day, everybody in here gets a billion dollars. I'm going to pay you a billion dollars. That is really good news. That's exciting. But then you're going to start to think, wait, doesn't he just do insurance? This guy doesn't have a billion dollars to give away. And he may think, okay, well, maybe his

parents. Wait, doesn't his dad, Tim drive like a 15 year old Dodge Ram? There is no way that he has billions of dollars to give away. Who are you to say that you could give such gifts? And that's really kind of what they're saying when they say, isn't this Joseph's son? Wasn't a prominent family. How could Jesus be the one that's going to give us this? We've known him. And so it's almost like, okay, Jesus, if you are saying this, do your tricks, dance for us. Show us kind of the things that we heard. I mean, we are your hometown. Shouldn't you be doing these things for us? And so what they're missing is that the gift of love is through privilege. And I was making sure I understood what this word meant. But the definition says, and I think it speaks really well to what we're talking about. It says it's a special rights advantage or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group. So what

privilege can teeter on is this idea of entitlement, privilege and entitlement. Privilege says nothing about who deserves it, only that someone has the power to give it. Entitlement says, I don't care who has it, it should be mine. I deserve it. And that's what the mood that Jesus was picking up in the room, that there is a room full of people who are saying, we're entitled for you to show us certain things to prove who you are, where your hometown, do this. And so he responds with stories that we maybe not hit us. It's not familiar to Old Testament stories for us, but it's very familiar stories to them. He turns the heat up a little bit because he tells two stories that don't really shed a lot of good light on their people. He says, and both to deal with other prophets, Elijah and Elisha. So just quickly, the first one, Elijah, prophet came and said, hey, you need to stop worshiping Baal. They didn't. So famine came

over three and a half years. God sent the prophet not to those people to help, but to some non-Jew widow. And so that's not like a good story that they told around the campfire. Elijah is the other one. There was lepers in Israel. And Elijah was sent to a non-Jew who was actually a military leader who was in his faith. He washed in the river and he healed him. So it's two stories about prophets healing non-Jews. And this was not something they like to hear because it's reminding them that God still sought out the outcast, those that have been forgotten. So Jesus was clear in his saying that he had come for the spiritually poor, brokenhearted, those prisoner, not those who feel like they deserve it,

not a certain particular social class or if they were good. And that's kind of where you know John 3 16 which is a very common verse. It says for God so loved the world, not God so loved the Jews. God loved America. God so loved Republicans or those who deserved it, but that he gave his son up for the whole world that we should not die but have eternal life. And so there's a parable that I really like about a wedding or about a banquet. And it talks about this master who sends out invitations to all these people and it's time to have the party. And he sends his servant out to go and to go and say hey it's time for the party y'all come. And so this this is in Luke 14 and so I'm going to start reading in verse 21. So the master says go, so the servant reports back and says hey nobody's coming. They've made excuses. One said they bought oxen, the other one said they bought a field, the other one said they just got married. Nobody's

coming that we've invited. So here's how the master responds. He says go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame. And the servant said sir what you've commanded has been done and still there's no room. And the master said to the servant go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in so that my house may be full. And so we see that the Jews, God's chosen people, were given an invitation and we're seeing them not respond to Jesus. And so what's happened is that privilege, that invitation has been opened up into the entire world, not just God's chosen people, which means us. So in this story of the banquet, guess who we are? We're the lame, we're the blind, we're the poor people out on the hedges of the city. And he got this master inviting them into his house and to his family. And so what a relief that it should be that

this gift of love has no qualifiers, that no one is entitled because no one could live up to it. And so but we are privileged by his invitation. So we see the gift of love in the pause in that Jesus is bringing salvation before the judgment of God. We see the gift of love and the privilege and that he's granting it to us based on what Christ has done, what we've not earned. So let's look how these people, they've got to be super excited right? Let's see what they do next in verse 28. Back to Luke 4 verse 28. It says, all the people in the city of God was furious when they heard this. They got up and drove him out of town. They took him to the brow of the hill, which the town was built on in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. So that escalated really quickly. We went from a room full of people clamoring to hear Jesus can't wait roomful. So now they're taking him up on a hill,

ready to throw him off and kill him. And it says that ESV says that he passed through their midst. I just think that this is like when I'm standing in front of the refrigerator and I can't find the ketchup and then Candace comes and she reaches and the ketchup's right there. That ketchup was going through my midst. I never saw it. So I imagine Jesus was kind of did like that. He just walks off. And so why would the Nazarenes reject such a wonderful gift? Why would they reject this? 20 years ago is a Christmas that will go down in my family's history forever. It will forever be told. It's called the Christmas of the gold chain. And I gave my parents a fair warning about this because my dad has PTSD. But my mom gave my dad the charge of, look, this year I'm not going to tell you what to get me. I want you to go out. I want you to show me a gift that shows you how

much you love me. Okay. So dad goes and gets my sister, which I started thinking like, why did he not consult me on this? But they decide that she has, she has these gold leafs that she wears, but she has no gold chain. So they go out and they spend money for our family. We didn't have a lot of money. Bought this gold chain. So it's kind of that Christmas morning where you open up all the gifts and now it's the big reveal gift, right? So you have my dad walking, my sister's videoing, and my dad hands my mom this gift. She opens it up and we're all like this. It's like, oh, that looks, that's nice. Yeah. Okay. Sets it to the side. The video recorder goes stop, you know, like really awkward. Turns out she had the exact gold chain. And so from that point forward, we have never, dad never buys, just buys what mom tells him, but we refer to the gold chain

often. It's very traumatic for our family. And so why, why did the Nazarenes treat Jesus like this gold chain? Why did they set him to the side? Why did they reject him? And then we're going to look at three, three reasons, not only why they, because I don't want us to distance ourselves from this story, not only why they rejected Jesus, but why we sometimes as followers tend to push back on it. And maybe if you don't follow Jesus, maybe there's some reasons why. The first one is we miss the value of the gift. Okay. Look, the Nazarenes knew Jesus as a boy. You know, they, they, they kind of related to him. And when they started thinking about a Messiah to come and make them this powerful nation, they thought of like a big, like, like the rock, you know, like some guy with a sword that was going to lead them military and just kind of build up the Jewish nation through

like force. So when they look at Jesus, this meek man, they're like, this can't be it. And I don't want to like, I don't want to act like they should have got it was clear as day. Because this is a hard concept for them to understand. And it's a hard concept for us to understand too what Jesus has done for us. And so had their eyes been open to really what it was, they would have worshipped him. But, but stop and think about the value of what Jesus is offering. He's saying, if you surrender your life to me, I'll give you eternal life in heaven. And not only just the future, but right now I'm going to be with you, I'm going to use you. And a parable that illustrates this well in Matthew 13 says the kingdom, verse 44, 1344 says the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure in a field when a man found it and hit it, when a man found it, he hit it again. And then in his joy,

went and sold all he had to buy the field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found the one of great value, he went and sold all he had, and he bought, and he bought it. And so what are we seeing in both of these instances? Somebody comes across something that they realize has more value than anything they have in their life. And so what do they do? And both the one, the treasure in the field he goes sells all he has, and he buys that land that has that treasure. The same with the pearl he gave all they have to go buy that pearl. And so if I was to say, if someone wants to say I found this piece of land, it's what you think it would cost, but underneath it is generations of oil and gas. If people said, hey, you should sell all you, that thing is worth more than all you have. And that's really what the gift of love through

Jesus is, is it's better than anything we have. It is better than our entire life. So to have the same reaction as the people in that parable to go and sell all we have to follow Jesus, if we don't see the value, that becomes really difficult. So you're basically saying his value is worth giving up things like your pride, your bad habits, your reputation, your money, all these things right now, and consider them more valuable than Jesus. So let's not miss the value that Jesus has to offer. The next one, so miss the value, the next one is maybe you don't see a need for the gift. Okay, there's no need. So much like the Nazarenes, this is a common problem around us. You remember our verses in Isaiah when it's talking about the brokenhearted, the poor, the prisoner, like we don't, that doesn't maybe relate with us. We don't think that's us, especially, I mean, just like if you narrow it down to Burleson,

most families aren't worried about where their meals are coming from. You know, life isn't just immensely hard. And so there could be this idea of like, do I even really need, what does Jesus bring to the table? Like, why do I even need him? And we have to remember that Jesus isn't really talking, is not, is not talking about our physical state, but our spiritual state. And so what happens in your life when a bad diagnosis hits, or broken relationships, or you lose your job when something kind of knocks you off center?

That can be scary when those things you've put your trust in fail you. And so Jesus says in Matthew seven, it says, verse 24 says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine, and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, we got songs about this, right? And the winds blew against it. And that house yet it did not fall. Says because it had the foundation of the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine, and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand, the rain came, the streams rose, and the wind blew down against the house. And it fell with a great clash. So the differences where the houses are built. One thing to not be confused about Christianity and following Jesus is both these instances still have storms and rising winds and

rains. Like so it's not like, hey, if you follow Jesus, you're like skipping through life, and everything's great and grand, right? You're still gonna have the differences where your, where your foundation is, where your roots are. And so when those things happen, when storms come in your life, when you're, you can, you can look to a consistent rock that is Jesus. If it's on sand, you just, your house can feel like it's, it's crashing down on top of you. And I feel like in, in our area, in America, there's, there's this idea of where maybe the need for Jesus isn't there. And it's actually evidenced by the Christian growth in the world is primarily like right now happening in areas that are like Africa, Southeast Asia, places that are being persecuted in great need. And why? Because there's nothing else to kind of like, compete with what Jesus offers,

like, like we have here. And so recognizing the need for Jesus is the same, same time recognizing that we're need is something more to be a part of our life. So even when following Jesus, even when we're following, even followers of Jesus struggle with this, to think that sometimes they, they've got it. No need, no need for Jesus on this one. So we've got, so we're talking about why, why people reject Jesus. One is they don't see the value. Two is they don't see the need. The third one is it's an offensive gift. The gift of Jesus can be offensive. We see it here in a matter of minutes, the town went from clamoring to hear him to about to throw him off a cliff. Okay, that, that, that escalated quickly. When he said to him, when they said to them, he's basically saying that you're disobedient, say you're just, you're not good enough. Okay, people don't like to hear that. You're not good enough. And people say, hey, you know what,

I believe in a God, I believe in a Jesus. And there's some really scary scriptures around that because in James chapter two, 19, it says, you believe that there's one God good, even the demons believe and shudder. That's a scary sentence. Because basically what it's saying is, wait, biblically, the demons recognized who Jesus was and was scared of him. So they believe in a Jesus, they believe in a God. So what's different? What's different? And so, listen to how Jesus, listen to some other offensive verses in the Bible. The wages of sin is death. That's Romans 6, 23. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. That's John 14, 6. Luke, Luke 26, 27 says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children and brother and sister, yes, even his own life, such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever doesn't carry his cross and follow me cannot be

my disciple. So basically, it's saying that we're all sinners and deserve death. Jesus is the only way and that we must surrender our life to him. And so this sounds, what does this sound like today? It sounds like, hey, you're not a good person. And if you want to see this done well, there's a guy by the name of Ray Comfort on YouTube. And he's like this Australian, like a street preacher. And what he tries to do in the beginning is he starts asking them questions, have you ever lied? And they say, yes. Have you ever stolen something? They're like, yes. Have you ever used the Lord's name in vain? Have you ever lusted? And then at the end he goes, so you're saying you're a lying, cheating, you know, adulterous blasphemer. And they're like, you can tell they're like, well, when you say it like that, maybe, you know, but it's getting people to realize, oh, yeah, I'm maybe not as good as I think I am. And then so they hear Jesus,

they hear you're not a good person. Jesus is the only way. And that pushes against back a lot of society in religious, with other religions in our belief. Like Jesus talks about at the end in Matthew 7, he says, some will come and say to me, Lord, Lord. And he says, we've done all these things. We prophesied in your name. We drove out demons. We did miracles in your name. And he says, clearly, I never knew you. Get away from me, you who do evil. So what is he saying? He says, you've never been in relationship. Good works doesn't get you into heaven. So you're not a good person. Jesus is the only way. And the last one is, it's not all about you. It's one of my fun things to say. Only because I tell myself that, like, every day. We have tendencies to think the world revolves around us, that we're working to make our life comfortable and happy. But Christ

calls us to a life of sacrifice, which kind of pushes against that. A life that benefits others and gives God the glory, not ourselves. So you hear things like, you're not a good person. Jesus is the only way. It's not all about you. You're like, okay, well, I've been to church. You made me feel bad about myself. So I'll come back next week. And that's not really the purpose, even though I'm glad we're there, because I feel like sometimes to kind of get to that point makes you realize how good the gift of Christ is. Because when you start going, you know what, I'm not this great person. You know, my life is kind of around me. And I hear these things about Jesus did even before I gave him a thought, he's doing these things for my life. That is, that is great news. And so to think that John 15:13 puts it this way, talking about love says, greater love has no

one than this to lay down his own life for one's friend. And that's exactly what Jesus Christ did. And so when we celebrate Christmas, and there's a lot of fanfare that goes around, there's a lot of conversations that are happening around friends and family. And, you know, it's cliched and I miss the reason for the season and things like that. But, you know, my prayer would be that this week, when we go to open gifts, that seeing those gifts, those things trigger the memory of Christ's gift of love for us and what he did in in in pot in what we saw where he paused in Isaiah to give us a way to provide a way of salvation and also to where to impart to give us the opportunity, the privilege to be in a relationship with him. So this morning, you may be following Jesus and just kind of need to be reminded of this. This is a daily thing. We need to be reminded of what Christ did for us

and allow that to prompt your motivation, not to be a better person, but to lean into Christ more. And think about how you could have those conversations with family and friends this week about what Christ has done, what the love of Christ has done in your life. Maybe you fall in the category of not knowing Jesus and, you know, or maybe you know of them and it hasn't really done anything to transform your life. And you hear scriptures that says, you know, at the end, I never know you. And that's kind of unsettling. There's a process to go through that. And it's not saying a magic prayer. And after here's we close, we have couches and chairs back there where we kind of stand to like start conversations. And so as pastors, we're not some we don't have magic words. We don't have like Christian dust. We sprinkle on you or anything like that. What we do is we take we like to take people where they are, where they're having their

questions and just walk them through next steps. Let's talk about it. Is it worth exploring? That's what I would say. Is it worth just checking it out? And if you if you are interested in that, we'd love to start those conversations with you. But I just as we close, I just want us to just just be incredibly thankful. We sing this next song, just singing out from a heart of what Christ has done for you, how much he loves you and just just how we're not it. We didn't earn it. We're not even really worth it that he would love us like that. And that's something to really celebrate and sing. So let's go ahead and pray and we'll close in song. God, we read your scriptures that are thousands of years old, that it's kind of mind blowing that you knew that we'd be talking about today in 2024. And there's purpose for that. I pray that we hear these words and and we just allow it to change us and to just affect our lives that we just don't

walk out of here just hearing your word again and just going on doing about what we do. But we allow it to instruct and teach and guide us God. I pray that we go into song where we worship you for who you are and that you just help us to understand how much you love us. And we just thank you for that. In your name I pray. Amen.