HopeUC Secunderabad

Ascribe Greatness to Our God

• HopeUC Secunderabad

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What happens when we seek glory for ourselves? History shows a sobering pattern - pride leads to downfall, from Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation to Herod’s sudden death. Our culture celebrates self-glorification with anthems of personal greatness, shaping our beliefs more than we realize. Yet God’s greatness is altogether different—He speaks creation into being and redeems with love. Like a cloth soaking up what it touches, we absorb what we expose ourselves to. Are we steeped in God's greatness through worship and His Word, or in the world’s pursuit of fame? True worship flows from awe at who God is—not just on Sundays, but in how we live every day.

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Speaker 1:

okay, I'm very glad that uh pastor made a very good point towards the end of the announcements to bring hard copy bibles. You know, we've gotten so used to living smart lives with smartphones and smart devices that we forget how to turn the pages of books. Nowadays, with Kindles also on the rise, people are more used to swiping than turning pages. So bring that for parents over here, young parents or parents of teenagers, it's a good idea to do this. I don't know how many of you all in Sunday school would do something called a swaddle, where you'd have to actually just stand up with your Bibles raised up. A passage is called out. The first person to actually open that and read it out would gain a point for their team. Well, without further ado, let's turn to the word, and what I'll be doing is I'll be starting off slightly different today and it might feel like a classroom for a while. But bear with me. God's word speaks to different ways and we'll be looking at things. You know we all live on earth. Do you agree with that? Yes, show of hands. Who all agrees you are from earth? Okay, praise God for that. Okay, I'm happy. Now on earth we have something called written history, that is, basically, people have taken the time and effort to note down things that have happened through the years, and written history is estimated to be at least about 5 to 6,000 years old. Now there is history before that as well, but we don't have written records of it. It might be oral history, or it might even go into the realm of what people would call mythology or legends the realm of what people would call mythology or legends. Now, why I say all of this is in this world that we inhabit. You know, there are many people who are mentioned in recorded history, people who stand out to be notable men or women. You know how many of y'all have heard the name Alexander the Great? Okay, mahatma Gandhi, nelson Mandela, and then there are many other people like these. Right, these are people who have done something in their lives, during their lifetime that have made their names come up in history books that we learn about. They have been cemented in one way, and so their achievements, their accomplishments is what they are known for.

Speaker 1:

Now, among the many sermons that I have preached at church, one of the sermons I don't think I've preached that over here, but one of the sermons that I have preached about is about how finite we are. What I mean to say is it is about how you and I are dust. We are nothing else. The word of God says we were made from dust and we will return to dust as well, and so we fade away. No matter what we do, no matter how much time goes by while we are, and so we fade away. No matter what we do, no matter how much time goes by while we are on earth, we fade away. And so we are finite. And so keep that in mind no matter how much we try to do, whatever we do, no matter how much we want to become successful do, no matter how much we want to become successful, be it in our career, our business, in education, that is, at school or college, or no matter how much we want to make our skill that we are very good at be the best.

Speaker 1:

At the end of the day, what we strive for doing all of that is greatness, but that greatness will also come to an end. Like I said, it is finite. It will end, and so the pursuit of greatness for ourself is something that what I want to say is we should be careful of. We should be very careful of this, because the chase behind greatness generally comes at the cost of becoming boastful and prideful, and this, in turn, will lead to a very popular saying that I'm sure all of us have heard in school or among elders, which is pride goes before the fall, pride goes before the fall, and you know, nothing good comes out of pride, especially when pride is directed towards our name, to make ourselves known in all the lands, as the old sayings would go, or if we bring it to a modern context, to make our names known in all of social media, to be the number one influencer, be it through Instagram or any other means that are there, be it X or threads or anything. And so, with this in mind, there are examples of people from the Bible for whom pride came before fall.

Speaker 1:

Let's look at the first example Nebuchadnezzar. Now Nebuchadnezzar was known as Nebuchadnezzar II or Nebuchadnezzar the Great, and he was the king of a place called Babylon. Now let's turn our Bibles to Daniel, chapter 4, verses 30 to 33. You just have on screen the passage, the reference. Okay, turn your Bibles. There will be a great practice already to start from this week. I'll read it out.

Speaker 1:

I'm reading from the NLT version and it says this. As he looked across the city, he said look at this great city of Babylon. By my own mighty power, keep in mind these words. By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor. 31,. While these words were still in his mouth, a voice called down from heaven O King Nebuchadnezzar, this message is for you. You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. You will be driven from human society, you will live in the fields with the wild animals and you will eat grass like a cow. Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way until you learn that the most high rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses. That same hour, the judgment was fulfilled and Nebuchadnezzar was driven from human society. He ate grass like a cow and he was drenched with the dew of heaven. He lived this way until his hair was as long as eagle's feathers and his nails were like bird's claws.

Speaker 1:

Now, this is a passage that we may have learned while we were in Sunday school and, in fact, if you look at this passage and you try to search it up on Google, you will find people have made paintings of what it could have looked like for Nebuchadnezzar. It is a little scary. If you have an imaginative mind, okay, you might have nightmares looking at that, but the point I'm trying to make over here is Nebuchadnezzar suffered for his pride. You know. He took his pride to the extent of even thinking of himself as a god. You know why was this?

Speaker 1:

We see all of that in his own words from the passage I just read, especially that first verse, verse 30. It was all about the I, the me and the myself. In all of this we also see that he was very proud of whatever he had accomplished. And you know what is the irony in all of these things? It is that he had been warned. If you actually read a couple of passages prior to this, you will see Daniel going to Nebuchadnezzar and he had interpreted a dream he had had and he told the king to repent and turn from his prideful ways, and yet he did not. And so we see especially in verse 30, the type of words that came out. It was all about the my, it was me, it is I. And so what happened? Seven years, or seven periods of time, according to the translation I read, but seven years. For seven years. He ate grass like a cow. He roamed as a beast, wasn't like he was mad? It's not written that he was a madman, no, he was as an animal.

Speaker 1:

Now, after coming to Hyderabad, I see a lot of people don't want to eat non-veg. I mean, they don't want to eat veg. Sorry, they want non-veg. I've had certain brothers and other people that have been around when I suggested that we should maybe eat vegetarian food. No, that is like the response that comes no Meat Always. And so imagine eating grass, not even vegetables. Okay, I don't know if you've ever tried that. I was a small child and I would try many different things. One of the things I tried was eating grass. Okay, it was not a good taste. But why I say this is? This is what happened to him For seven years. That was his state, and that is how long it took for Nebuchadnezzar to come back to sanity, to accept that he is not who he thinks he is. And greatness is God. It belongs to God.

Speaker 1:

Let's look at another king, king Saul. Okay, turn our Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 15, and keep that open for verses 3 to 35. Now, I'm not going to read all of those verses, but I will read a short passage from there. In these verses, however, we find King Saul losing favor in God's eyes. Favor in God's eyes If you have been watching. If you watch, you have the habit of watching series online. House of David is about this primarily, this first season that they had aired, and I'll read out from verses 17 to 23. It says this I'm reading from the NIV version Samuel said although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel?

Speaker 1:

The Lord anointed you king over Israel and he sent you on a mission saying Go and completely destroy those wicked people. The Amalekites wage war against them until you have wiped them out. Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord? But I did obey the Lord. Saul said I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and bought back Agag the king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder the best of what was devoted to God in order to sacrifice them to the Lord, your God, at Gilgal.

Speaker 1:

Now, verses 22 and 23 mark them out on your bibles if you haven't already done this. These are very, very important words and these are very, very things that we should keep in mind. Verse 22. But Samuel replied does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams, for rebellion is like the sin of divination and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.

Speaker 1:

You know, in his effort to prove himself King Saul, and in the pride of his position that is, being the king of the nation of Israel, saul forgot his mission. You know, he was tasked. He was given the task to annihilate the Amalekites, and that was the plan of God. And this was set in motion because of one primary reason, that is, the Amalekites had ambushed Israel when they were in the wilderness, on the way to Canaan, to the promised land, on the way to Canaan, to the promised land. And so what Saul did was he goes against what God had intended to happen.

Speaker 1:

Apart from this, the Amalekites were also people who were known for doing witchcraft and sorcery, and also child sacrifices and human sacrifices. So what they did was an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, why you and I humans, basically, are made in the image of God and them doing whatever they did stood against everything that God stands for in his holiness. And so Saul failed. He had not only spared the king of the Amalekites, that is, agag, but he had also kept the livestock. And then he tries to justify all of that for two accounts the first being that all the livestock was going to be sacrificed for God, the best kept aside for God. And then, when he was called out on that, you know, saul then says he had no choice because of peer pressure from the people. What would they think if their king destroyed all of those good things that were there, when it's just available for us to take it? And so he gives these two excuses. And because he gave those two excuses, we see verses 22 and 23 being set out by Samuel. That is to obey is better than sacrifice, to heed or to listen is better than the fat of ram. And so Saul loses his kingship, he loses God's favor on his life and eventually losing his own life and being replaced by David as king. And if you actually read the life of King Saul, it's actually very sad the way it ends, the way it goes on for him. He becomes crazy. In a way. He's obsessed with trying to take down David because he thinks David is the one who took away everything from him, rather than accepting his own mistake.

Speaker 1:

Let's look at another king. Now we come to New Testament times, king Herod Acts, chapter 12, verses 21 to 23. It says this I'm reading from the NASB version On an appointed day, after putting on his royal apparel, herod took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people repeatedly cried out the voice of a God and not of a man, and immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory and he was eaten by worms and died. This is actually a very serious thing, you know. To give you context, there were a group of people who came from another nation and they were seeking help and had extended help towards them. And so, because of what he did, these people he had come upon. He sat on his throne dressed well, in all of his kingly clothes, okay, and those people started to cry out to him, you know, when he spoke, as it says, the voice of a God, not of a man. That's the mistake Herod did. He allowed himself to be acknowledged as a God. He did nothing to prevent the people from saying what they said. Here's the thing church Glory belongs to God alone. Please take note of that. It is not shared. God will not share that seat with anybody. He will not share it with any king. He will not share it with any government. He will not share it with any pastor, any worship leader, no one. That belongs to God alone, and we have to be very careful of what we do in our lives when it comes to this. We see what happened and angel immediately struck him down and he died.

Speaker 1:

Another example from New Testament times would be the Pharisees. Now, this last example I would like to give in the series of people you know, or let's say in a chronological order, of people making themselves great or bringing glory to himself, liking limelight, these are the Pharisees that I'm talking about. You know, the sad thing is, the origin of this sect of people was not with bad intentions. You know, when the Israelites, when the Jewish people were returning from exile, from Babylon and on, they were going back, they were called the remnants, the few that were left, and when they were rebuilding Jerusalem. Eventually, they came to this realization. We know we, from the time of the judges on, we constantly failed God because we kept going to these other gods. We kept worshipping these other gods. So this is what happened to us we lost 10 tribes. Now we're just 2 tribes over here. Let's not do this anymore. Let's now take God seriously and worship Him alone.

Speaker 1:

And so they did that. Actually, they actually did that. They stopped worshipping idols from that point onwards, and one of the sects that came out of this were the Pharisees. These guys were supposed to be in charge of making sure the people would follow the laws correctly, that they would not do any idol worship. They would not break any of the Mosaic laws that were stated for them. However, that's also another thing that turned around on them. You know, we would think it's a very wonderful commitment and they actually managed to do that.

Speaker 1:

But this group that is the Pharisees. The sad thing about them was they had grown to like those positions that they belonged to. They grew to like the power they had, the authority, and how people adored them and how they revered them. You know they would lift them up high. It came to the point of their actions actually having ne next to none? If not, there was no. What I'm trying to say is there was no spiritual debt in what they were doing. It was all on the surface to look good in front of people. Inside, it was hollow and empty. The Spirit of God did not reside amongst them at all. It was all about being legalistic, you know.

Speaker 1:

Let's turn to Matthew, chapter 23, verses 5 to 12. This is what Jesus has to say about this group of people. It says this. I'm reading from the NLT. It says everything they do is for sure. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with scripture verses inside and they wear robes with extra long tassels and they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces and to be called rabbi. Don't let anyone call you rabbi, for you have only one teacher and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters. Keep that in mind. All of you are equal as brothers and sisters.

Speaker 1:

Verse 9,. Don't address anyone here on earth as father, for only God in heaven is your father. And don't let anyone call you teacher, for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. The greatest among you must. Verse 12,. Highlight this if you haven't highlighted it. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. And so we see how God does not. Once again, he does not and will not share His seat with anyone, no person who makes themselves as great, as in the case of King Nebuchadnezzar and King Saul, nor anyone who is lifted up by other people, as was the case with King Herod or the Pharisees. All glory and honor belong to God and to God alone.

Speaker 1:

Now, with all of this long-winded exposition that I've just given, now I want to share the title of my sermon with all of you, that is, ascribe Greatness to our God. Ascribe greatness to our God. Now, when I use this word ascribe, or these words together, ascribe greatness what I mean to say is to give that attribution or that characteristic of greatness to God. You know, human beings, all of us, as we've been hearing today, as I've been speaking, we all you know, they try to make themselves something. It is an innate nature of us, within ourselves, that we desire to make something of ourselves. We want to be remembered, we want to be heard, and so people ascribe greatness or, like I said, they give that attribute or that characteristic to themselves or to others.

Speaker 1:

Now I want to ask us this question how many of us like to sing? Okay, let's see how many of us like to sing songs here at church, all right. Or if you feel like I'm not a great singer, but inside you go like, we all like that, hmm, hmm, we all like that, right, yeah. And so next question how many of us are moved in spirit when we come to church and sing? Now, here's a question to make you think how many of us, when we come to church and when worship is going on through songs, how many of us are moved in emotion during this time? Okay, there's, there's a reason why I state this very specifically. Okay, emotions are fleeting, okay, we feel one thing at one moment and we feel another thing at another moment. But and so that is being moved in emotion but when you are moved in spirit, that is a long lasting thing. It is not fickle, it is not temporary, it ends up being long lasting and if you nurture that, it will be a permanent stay in your life. And now, why do I bring all of this up? You know, at our church we have actually we are known for praise and worship, right, we all agree with this, we know this, and so when we come, we have these moments when we are singing glory to God, and then we know this for a fact that, while you know, all of this are going on.

Speaker 1:

I like how Pastor Allen said songs can reach out to people in ways sermons can't, it's true, okay, and barriers are broken, chains that hold us back from God, from having that relationship with Him, just pulling us back. Those are also broken. We are moved as a people from having that relationship with Him. He's just pulling us back. Those are also broken. We are moved as a people, and that is amazing, actually, when we think of it.

Speaker 1:

Songs are powerful tools, you know, and songs are also out in the secular world, right, the many songs that are there. Every country, every place has their own type of music, their own language, the ways that they reach out in certain phrases and proverbs that they have where they come from. But here's the thing Satan was known as the choir master of heaven before his downfall, and so a lot of whatever happens out there, at least I attribute this, okay, so I'm not going to make anybody confused. This is what I say. I believe when he was cast out, he used one of his most powerful tools to draw people away from God. The same tool that he used to proclaim glory to God is now also used to draw people away. And so songs are out in the secular world, and there have been many, many songs that have been written throughout the years which talk about the greatness of a person or a group of people, or about something that some songwriter or an artist wants to talk about, and so they place that thing above everything else in their song. That's the main focus. Now I'll share five songs with you guys, and these five songs on YouTube have over 1.1 billion views. Sometimes it astounds me how there can be so many views on a video. I don't know how many people just hear it on loop over and over again, but these have over 1.1 billion views on YouTube.

Speaker 1:

The first one is a song called Hall of Fame by the band called the Script, and this song talks about achieving greatness through determination and hard work. Its message to the person who's listening is to encourage them and to have them strive for greatness and to leave a legacy behind that they would be known for. The second song is Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston, and this song is about recognizing self-worth and inner strength. The message that this song brings forward is of true greatness, is that true greatness begins with self-love and confidence. The next song would be Born to be Somebody by Justin Bieber, and this song is about believing in your potential to achieve greatness. The message this song talks about is that everybody everybody, okay is destined for greatness if they believe in themselves and in their dreams. Then the next song would be the Greatest, by Sia, an artist called Sia, and this song is about resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity or opposition. The message it brings to all the people who listen to it is to stay strong and never give up.

Speaker 1:

And finally, here's a classic song that is very, very famous by a band called Queens, and that is we Are the Champions. This song is about celebrating victory and greatness after overcoming great struggles, and greatness after overcoming great struggles that song's message is about. It is basically a triumphant anthem For achieving greatness after hard work, after doing what you have been struggling to do. Now, all of these songs are very, very popular for their motivational themes and when you look at all of them, you know these are songs that are about personal triumph and greatness. These songs are about individual self and they promote self-glory and self-greatness. And you know these songs have had great impact on people. You know, just as we have testimonies in church, there are testimonies outside the church as well for songs such as this, where people would say you know, was that this particular song that helped me through my darkest times, it pulled me through, it gave me that confidence to move forward, to do what I have to do.

Speaker 1:

And here's the thing I bring all of this about for one reason we believe in the words we hear and speak. Words have power. Do you agree with that? Words have power and the things you speak will end up being the things you believe in. The things you hear will end up being the things that go in your subconscious mind and you actually strive towards these things. And so, if this is the case with words and what we hear and what we speak, how are we bringing greatness to God? Are we only when we come to church? Are we only singing with words and lips about His greatness and His glory on Sundays, or are we actually meaning it from the depths of our soul. You know. The question is how are we seeping in God? How are we seeping in His goodness and His greatness in our lives? Leave a white clot on a floor where tea or coffee is. It will seep it in. Our lives is meant to be like that clot. What are we seeping in? Because once you have it in, seeping in, because once you have it in, that's when you can give it out.

Speaker 1:

Now in the bible we have the words great and greatness. It can be originally found in hebrew and greek. We have a table that will come up. I'm not going to read out everything, so if you have your phone, feel free to take a picture. Okay for this. Let's look at the first word that's over there. Okay, the term would be great. The language is hebrew and the word is gadol. Could you repeat after me gadol? Now, the meaning is big, important, significant, powerful. It's often used for God, okay, or people, or nations or events. So those are the ways it's used. So Gadol is also found over 500 times. Let's look at the Greek word Megas. Can you repeat that? Megas? And this means great in size or power or importance. It's also used for God or miracles or descriptions of significant events.

Speaker 1:

Now, why I bother about all of this is when we find these words. Often, we know if something is repeated in the Bible more than once, we should pay attention to it. Here, the two words that we read out are 500 times and 240 times. Why are they mentioned there? How have we been taking note of this?

Speaker 1:

The question comes about why should we worship God and His greatness? You know, the short and quick answer is because it's right and it is the good thing to do. Do you agree with this? Yes, okay. End of sermon. Then I guess no, I mean, look, we all know that. Okay, we agree to this. But I want to at least give us three reasons as to why we should do that. You know Three reasons to be the start, at least, of us ascribing greatness to our God. And the first reason, let it be this God's greatness is unsearchable. God's greatness is unsearchable. Now, god's greatness, it surpasses human understanding. You know he is infinite, he is eternal and he's beyond comparison. You know that, making him the ultimate focus of worship.

Speaker 1:

Now, what I mean to say is let me put it this way so it's a bit more easier to understand Do we live forever. No, we know of people who have lived long lives, but that too had come to an end. We don't know of anyone in this mortal realm who is eternal, but god is eternal. Another thing is, when we make something, okay, we make something out of something correct. Now we were in Thailand just this previous week the staff we had gone, and you see so many types of food over there. People took years and years, and then, coming from my previous background working in the hospitality sector for food production, this is the best example I can give.

Speaker 1:

When I think of our Indian culture, we have a history of nearly about 5,000 plus years. It took 5,000 years of people doing so many different things for us in Hyderabad today to have the Hyderabadi biryani, which everybody claims is the best in the world. It took that long, okay, but that came out of something that existed already. Nobody just suddenly one day arose and said Hyderabadi biryani, and it appeared. It didn't happen that way. Arose and said Hyderabadi biryani, and it appeared. It didn't happen that way.

Speaker 1:

However, when you think of God, he spoke and it was. He speaks and it is. That's all it took for Him. It's beyond my understanding to understand that. I cannot make paper without trees or wood, which is brought down to a pulp and then spread out. Humans are great in one way, if you have to think of it. Okay, we've managed to make rocks speak through our phones and computers. Sand is what those chips are made of. Silicon, right, but we needed that silicon? God is the one who created that through nothing. He is unfathomable, and so that is one thing.

Speaker 1:

Psalm 145, verse 3, it says this Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. You know, worship acknowledges God's transcendent greatness, which cannot be fully comprehended, but it does call for awe, a-w-e, it calls for reverence and humility. Let me make this also clear. Worship is not just what we do on Sundayence and humility. Let me make this also clear. Worship is not just what we do on Sunday coming and singing. Okay, our very being, our waking, our speaking, our walking, talking, thoughts, actions, everything is worship. Here's the thing If you are a child of God, whatever you do is seen by the world, and so if you don't walk in worship, the world sees you don't walk in worship. If you walk in the light of the Lord, you bring Him glory and honor as well.

Speaker 1:

The second thing God's greatness is evident in His works, from creation to redemption, from the moment everything was created right till when our Lord died on the cross for us, where His body was broken and His blood was shed, and then resurrection, where we have proof that he is the living God, where we have proof that he is the living God. God's acts, all of his mighty acts. It showcases his unparalleled power, because if he created the universe, which, according to science, is ever expanding, and so we are just one small, tiny dot, he created all of that. He has wisdom to do all of those things which we don't. We are knowledgeable, we are not wise, okay, but despite all of those things, when he looks at you and I, he has love for us and he cares for all of us. You know, he is a God who knows not just our names but the number of hairs on our body, it's not just our head. That is the God we serve, that is the God we believe in, and so His greatness is displayed not just in the vastness of the universe, but it is also in His intimate care for you and me. You go out into nature, you see how beautiful it is and then be like how great is our God? But look inwards as well, because how great is our God to create me. How great is our God to create you. Every cell in our body, every atom that we are comprised of, was by Him, and he knows every single thing about you and me. Psalm 150, verse 2, says this Praise him for his mighty acts, praise him according to his excellent greatness, and so think of it this way. Worship flows naturally as a response to the magnificence of God's deeds, both as seen in nature and the many things that we experience personally in our lives.

Speaker 1:

And the third and final thing I'd like the worship team to get ready and come up is this God's greatness leads to His faithfulness and grace. God's greatness leads to His faithfulness and grace. God's greatness leads to His faithfulness and grace. You know, despite His infinite greatness, god relates to humanity with what? With love, with faithfulness and with grace. You know His willingness to forgive you and I and to save us from the sin that we have, something that we would not be able to come out of on our own. No matter what we try, for we are born into sin. It shows His greatness over there, and all of that to sustain us as well, so that we would be His, we would partake in His kingdom as co-heirs with our Lord Jesus. Psalm 103, verse 8, says this the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. And so church worship is not only about God's power, but it is also about the relationship and that relational greatness that he demonstrated in his mercy and steadfast love.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to bring this to a close here With a very, very Common passage that we all know, or should know. If you don't know, it's as simple as this John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him have eternal life. And this is his relational greatness. He did everything, from creation right up to redemption and his ascension, his resurrection, so that you and I who are seated in this room, and the rest of this world who would believe in him would have eternal life. It was not for waste In the grand scale of everything that God has created. He did this, he took that out for us.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how many times you've done something while working or cooking or anything. If something didn't go as you planned it and you just tossed it aside, you didn't care. Time to move on to something else. There's no time to waste there. But here's the thing God took that time for us. We were not perfect. He could have tossed us aside. He's God. He could just do it all over again. He didn't do that. He wanted you, he wanted me, each of us seated here in this room. He wanted you, you.