Palm Sunday W/ LeMarr Jackson

As we celebrate Palm Sunday let's reflect on a few things that God can teach us through hearing the story. God always moves in proper time even when we don't see it, God blesses our obedience, and His kingdom is here right now and will last forever! Hosanna in the highest heavens, save us now Lord. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, church. Alright, that is beautiful. Um, so yes, I am preaching on Palm Sunday morning today, and I came across an analogy that I thought was really interesting, so I even had to go do a little bit deeper uh research on it as well. Has anybody here ever heard of a false spring before? A false spring. A lot of people I'm sure out there are like, yeah, we live in Michigan. Yeah, we know what a false spring is, and that's kind of like you guys know what Michigan winters are like, you know, they get dreary, they get dark, and the snow comes and covers everything for months. They say three months, but really winter here is at least six. Um but a false spring is like something like in February when we know it's supposed to be snowing, but then this the sun begins to poke out, and then the weather begins to warm up all of a sudden, then we get reminded that oh yeah, Miskin does experience summer too, and we can have some heat here, and so that it's interesting how we can trick us humans, of course, but I'm always fascinated about how creation reacts to other beings in creation, like how the nature begins to respond. And I found out that in false springs, the the buds begin to bud as if it is spring, they get tricked, and then so they start the spring, and then you know, for whatever that week or whatever time it is that that false spring is happening, and then the winter comes back, and it actually kills all of those buds that had just sprung up, and it kind of lets them know, not yet. And I was reminded of that analogy as I get this message of Palm Sunday because I I I honestly I gotta be honest, Pastor Brad. I'm I'm never too sure if I should celebrate Palm Sunday or lament it. Because I know it it's that day when even the weather or the people of God declare that the sun is here, but then just a couple days later, the crowds start yelling, crucify him. And so Palm Sunday is it takes an interesting place in my heart and I believe in our church calendar. Um, and we're gonna discover a little bit more about what this day represents and what it means, and hopefully how we can have some application in our lives as we go out and try to live our lives the way that God has called us to live. So we're gonna read our text from Matthew chapter 21. I'm gonna read verses 1 through 11 today, and we'll have them on the screen for you. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to them now. I'll do a little filibuster to give you some time to get there. Um, but I also find it cool. Uh, I love to compare the different gospels and find out which gospels have which stories and which ones do the this one skip and that one skip. And what's cool about Palm Sunday is that it is in all four of the Gospels. All four of them have an account of this, but they don't all tell it the same way. And so we're gonna look at Matthew's uh in this reading today, and I'll also reference the other ones at a couple different points throughout um this sermon, if you would. So if we could all stand in acknowledgement of the reading of God's word, Matthew chapter 21, verses 1 through 11. And here's what the word of God says. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go to the village of Hedavu. And once you will find, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her coat by her side. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away. This took place to fulfill what the what was spoken through the prophet. Say to daughter Zion, see your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a coat, the fowl of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey in the coat and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest heaven. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, What who is this? The crowds answered, This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. This is the word of the Lord. You may all be seated. As I was going over this and preparing for this, there were three kind of main things that really popped into my mind. I'll tell you them right up front. The first, it made me reflect on the timing of God. And the second, it made me reflect on the submission of all creation, which always fascinates me. And then finally, I'll close with the establishing of his kingdom here on earth. And so I want to talk about the timing of God to get started here. And the timing of God is also interesting because it it rarely seems to match the timing of man. But the timing of God also shows us God's sovereignty, which is a you know a nice little long Christian way of saying God is in control, he is the one in rightful power. And we see God's sovereignty all over this text. We see it in the direction that he gives his disciples before he goes to go back to Jerusalem. He says, Go find this donkey, he's gonna be in this little town. You know, if anybody asks you, just let him know that the Lord has need of it. And and what's really cool about this is that Jesus is actually fulfilling a prophecy that was written 500 years before this. 500 years in the making, and that makes me think of God's timing. He's been waiting 500 years to fulfill this prophecy. That should tell you right there that God can be a very patient God. Because if humans were doing it, well, we don't live that long here on earth, so we might not be waiting 500 years. We might want to wait five minutes, especially in the generation that we live in today. We love the microwave more than the stove. You know, maybe that's just me, I'm sorry. Uh, God forgive me, but I see the providence and I see the timing of God and him waiting 500 years to fulfill this prophecy. And this prophecy is showing us that Jesus is who he says he is, the son of man or the messiah. And then we will see a king riding in on a donkey. And the king riding in on a donkey at this time would represent peace. If a king rode on a horse, that means it was wartime. And that should have been a sign for the people right then and there, but I truly believe they were missing some of the undertones of what Jesus was doing. But this also makes me realize that God will keep his prophecies, he will keep his word in his own timing. I've heard some scholars count out all the days, and like they talked about uh God had actually given a timing in Daniel about when Jesus would come. And there's been some scholars, there's some scholarly debate about exactly when and how do we count these days. And and some people are like, you got to use this calendar, and others are like, you gotta use that calendar. I don't know about all that, but what I do know about is that God is sure and will fill out his word. If he says it, it will be accomplished. He tells us in his word that when he gives his word, it will not come back to him void, it will not come back to him empty. If he says it, it is true. Stick to what God says, hold on to what God says, he will maintain his word. There's a message in that that also tells us that fun fact, you don't have to maintain the word of God for it to be true. You don't have to make the word of God happen. We don't have to bring about the word of God. God will make his word come true because it's our job to be obedient, it's his job to be the promise keeper. And every word he gives is a promise. So I love propaganda. He's a spoken word artist. He also does some hip-hop and rap um in the Christian circles, and he has this great line when he's talking about the gospel and he's trying to explain the gospel, and he says this line. He says that defending the gospel is like defending a lion. You don't need to defend the lion, you just open the cage. The lion will defend itself. And so, yeah, we as God's people don't have to make God's word come true. It will. Our job is to be obedient. Understand that he is in control. And even when things don't seem like it, even when it seems bleak, just trust that God will make his word come to pass. Trust in God's timing, trust in God's sovereignty. I was given a message, I believe I've told this before. I've told this many times. I was given a message a few years ago about the word Godspeed. I grew up in a funny place. Uh, we didn't use the the phrase Godspeed at all. And so the first time I had even heard the phrase Godspeed, I was already an adult. I didn't know what it meant. I was really in the comics and things like that. And my second favorite superhero was the flash. And so when I heard Godspeed for the first time, the first thing that popped in my head was, Well, if flash is fast, imagine how fast God is. Godspeed, everybody. And God actually began to use this as a word to teach me something later on about his timing. And there's a message in scripture, it's found in the gospels. You'll see, uh, there's a man named Jairus who comes to Jesus and says that his daughter is sick, and he realizes that his daughter could be on her deathbed. And so he comes to Jesus, knowing that Jesus can heal her. And he says, So, Jesus, will you come heal my daughter? And Jesus is like, Surely, of course. And so there's this interesting thing we when we think about Jesus in this day, we have to understand that he was a bit of a celebrity. I used to tell all the teens, it's like, if I told you that Beyoncé was going to be walking down Madison Street, she won't be walking alone because as soon as I tell you, you'll tell your friends that tell some friends that tell some more friends, and pretty soon there will be a huge crowd of people mobbing around her, and she won't walk down Madison Street too fast. And so this is actually integral to the story when Gyrus comes and tells Jesus, uh, will you come heal my daughter? She's on the brink of death, and Jesus says, Yes, he begins to move, but understand they don't move too fast, they're gonna move extremely slow. And so I always imagine Gyrus in this story being at the front of the crowd, like, let me show you how to get to my house, and he's just moving along, and the crowd is just slowly moving, and then there's this thing that happens. This woman who's had an issue of blood for 12 years comes and touches the cloak of Jesus' garment, the hem of his garment. He just she just touches a piece of it, and she she gets the power, she's healed from this bleeding. She had been to the doctors and found no way to heal this, but she thought Jesus could heal it, and so she finds him and she touches this cloak. And then Jesus, and I imagine Jairus again, but Jesus, we would think, is in somewhat of a hurry to save this woman, this little lady, this girl on her deathbed, he stops. And I always picture Gyrus still at the front of the crowd, like, Jesus, why are you stopping? You said you're gonna heal my daughter, and uh time is ticking. But then he begins to have a conversation with the crowd. Jesus, like, who touched me? I just put yourself in Gyrus's shoes. Your daughter is on her deathbed, and he's asking who touched him in the midst of a giant crowd. And even his disciples are like, Everybody's touching you, Jesus. But he's like, No, there was something special. I heard I felt power go out for me, and then the woman stands up and says, It was me. I touched you, and you know, then they kind of do the testimony thing and find out that her that she had been healed and this and that, and gyrus at the front of the crowd. I just imagined with my Holy Ghost imagination, like, yeah, that's all good and great, but you said you would heal my daughter. And if you read that text, you'll actually find right at this point, before the crowd even begins to get moving again, Jairus gets the news. Your daughter is dead. And so they say, Don't trouble the master, don't trouble the teacher anymore, leave him alone. Imagine Gyrus. If the crowd wasn't here, he could have did it. If he would have just left the crowd behind, he could have did it. If he wouldn't have stopped to heal this woman who had this issue, oh no, if she wasn't dying, if he wouldn't have stopped to do that, he could have did it. But then Jesus speaks into that situation. No, we're gonna continue on. And they go, they make it to Jairus' house, and they he comes in and the mourners are in the room, he kicks all the mourners out, and then he says those amazing words to Letha Coombe. He tells this little girl to get up, and then he tells the people, it's my favorite part of the story. He tells the people, get her some food, she's hungry, she's just been sleeping. And so, what I learned about that story is that that woman with the issue of blood is really interesting because if the crowd was moving too fast, she probably could not have caught up to Jesus. But it seemed like to Jairus that the crowd was moving too slow, but then Jesus shows him that no, he's not moving fast nor slow, he's moving in the exact timing of God. Where he needed to be, he was. Because if I was doing the story and I left the crowd behind, there would have been only one healing that day. But because Jesus is in moving in God's timing and God's speed, if you will, we see two healings take place. I've taken from this story for a long time about matching myself to God's alignment in time. There's been so many times in my life, like, man, when I'm preparing sermons, like, man, when I was in school, I was this huge procrastinator, so I will wait to do everything last minute, but I know when I'm preparing sermons, I can't do that and things like that. And God actually used this message of God's speed and being in God's timing to teach me a lesson. Because it actually looked like this. I might, if I'm waiting to the last moment to prep prepare all I need to do to do this sermon that's coming in the morning, then I might miss my brother giving me a phone call. And my brother might need a healing that day. He might need to have a conversation with me that day. My mother might have a time that she wants to play games with me. And I know that our time on this earth is limited, so I might miss an opportunity in God's timing if I'm moving at my own pace and not his. So the message that I want you to hear here is that move in God's timing. It's not about being too fast, it's not about being too slow, but being in alignment with God. And I guarantee you there will be blessings in it. And I'm still learning how to live that message. But know this that Jesus is moving deliberately at the speed, the pace that God wants him to be move in, as he's moving in this passage towards Jerusalem, and he's also doing it with us today. There's a deliberate pace to Jesus, and there's a question that he wants to ask you, we'll close with. But just be ready. Know that we don't always get to understand God's timing, but he is moving on a divine schedule. Notice this other piece in the text the direction of God. Well, Jesus gives these very specific instructions like go get this animal, even though the disciples do not understand why Jesus wants this animal, what's going on? If you follow the gospels, we never see Jesus ever ask for an animal at any point in time other than this day. But his disciples, we don't even see them question it in the text, but they are wondering why does Jesus want a donkey? We've walked over a hundred miles with him, but now he wants a donkey. I mean, they know it's not because he's tired, though, but it's actually because he's gonna make a statement, and we'll get to that too. But understand this the disciples had to make a had to make a choice to be obedient in the moment, even though they didn't understand what Jesus was asking of them. Walk in obedience, and there will be a blessing there as well. And I want you to think about the story from the perspective of the owner of the donkeys. See, they're they're actually a testament, they're a testament to us to be ready to provide God with whatever it is that we have, be ready to provide it to God. Are you in the position to be used? Story time. I grew up as a young man, uh, definitely in the hood, and I definitely was attracted to the sounds of rap. Um, and later on in my life, I begin to start the rap and things like that. And when people would ask me to reflect on why did you ever start rapping? I would always think back to being in my house as a kid and had an older brother who was five years older than me, and he would walk around just rapping Jay-Z lyrics of all people. Uh Jay-Z lyrics just rapping throughout the house. And I remember being attracted to the sounds that would come out. And then eventually I got old enough to start listening to music myself. So I began to listen to music, and then I became a student of rap. I would listen to certain artists because I felt like they had this one particular thing that I loved more than any other person had did it. And so I would listen to that exact thing over and over, and then I would mimic it. I would I would begin to write it and try to master the flow of rap and the art of doing things like that. And so as I became a student of rap, uh, I want you guys to understand this and hear me clearly. This did not start in the church for me. It's actually really interesting, but I actually there's a message in this as well, too. Seeing there was a friend of mine who came to me uh when I was 17 years old, we worked together. And he actually gave me a space. He told me, hey, there's a space where we do spoken word. And when you turn 18, I want you to come and do the spoken word. And that was the beginning of me actually changing this rap love into poetry, and then it became performance and doing things uh in crowds and being able to spread certain messages. I started to think about what things that I think were important to talk about, and so I would write about them. But again, even at this time, all of those things weren't church specific yet. And so, along the journey, though, I had a few people tell me that the Lord had a need for the gift that I had. And I had simply to just I had I needed to just be willing and obedient. I want to give a shout out to my homie me Miriam. I call her Mimi Arm. Um, I want to give a shout out to my homie Miriam because she's one of the first people who saw the gift in me, and then she said, Hey, I want you to start doing this in Christian spaces. The Lord has a need for your gift. The thing that you have, the Lord has a need for it. And then I begin to do it, and then God began to speak to me through poetry, and so and I I and I I wish I could tell you all the times that I've spoken, spoken word poetry in different places, and different kinds of people who've come up to me and tell me how that how they've been blessed by some of the words that God had laid on my heart. I know that I I mean I I I would tell people as a kid growing up, like, man, if I couldn't be a basketball player, I would settle for a rapper, but um, that none of those things worked out. But here's the thing: this impact that I began to understand that I could have came from God. I wasn't supposed to have an impact to only build up myself, even though it initially started that way for me. God had a need for my gift, and all I was supposed to do was be obedient, and so I gave that to him. And so I began to do spoken word in many different spaces. I want you guys to understand this that it was a long process for me. If you heard some of the lyrics that I wrote down when I was a teenager, some of you might be like, There's no way that he'll ever be a pastor, or that no way he'll ever be preaching the word of God. And I know this too, there may be some of you in this crowd who you might have children and you're looking over and you're thinking, God, I want them to use this gift that they have for you, but they're not. It's a long process. Trust in God's timing. And maybe you're just supposed to be one of those obedient disciples who comes to them and says, The Lord has need of this gift. Watch what he does, wait on it, be patient. So, yes, you and the gifts that you have do belong to God as well, too, but also look for the moments that. You can be the obedient disciple. I also want you guys to look at this, um, understand what's going on with the donkeys themselves. The donkey in this story is known as wild, and it had never been written before. And like I said, this is a special occasion. It's not quite Jesus rolling in in the Cadillac, but he is coming in on the donkey and he's given this message of peace. But I want to draw your attention to what Matthew does specifically in his gospel that none of the other three do. He actually tells you that there's two donkeys: there's a donkey and a colt. It's the child of that mother donkey. And there's some reason, there's something that sticks out in this passage to Matthew about there being two donkeys. And here's what I believe Matthew is trying to get across to us. Well, one, in that day, in order to try to keep a donkey tame that was crazy, they would have the mother of that donkey walk in front of it. That was one of the ways to try to keep it calm. But I truly believe that Jesus is doing something even more special than just that. He's showing us in a metaphor, even, that he is come to bring order to chaos. This crazy donkey that had never been written before. It's wild, it's not quite broken yet. But Jesus sits on the donkey, and I guarantee you, if that donkey was going crazy, we'd read about it in the gospels. But Jesus, being who he is, and for the time that it is, he brings order to the chaos. And again, I love to point out the differences in the gospel because they don't actually point to the gospel's lying. There's not inaccuracies because they do different things, they actually just show you what the author has a has an eye for. What is the author trying to uh um emphasize in that text? So they emphasize different things. Like if I was telling you guys to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I would tell you be heavy on the jelly. Some of you might be like, uh, you know, it's gotta be exactly half and half, not me. No, you gotta be heavy on the jelly, but we're all just making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So that's actually how the gospels are are written. It's that they just have certain emphasis that they want to bring out. And there's another one, a fun fact here, that isn't in the Matthew Gospel, but it's in the John Gospel. And it's in his gospel that we find out in John 12, we find out he tells us that when Jesus told them to go get the donkey, they didn't know what he was talking about. And then he actually writes in his text, like, because these two, Matthew and John, are the ones that reference that Zachariah scripture that was 500 years old, a prophecy that was fulfilled. He says in his gospel, yo, it was after the fact that it was revealed to us. Then we finally remembered that Jesus was doing all of these things to fulfill prophecy. It's happening in God's timing. So John actually gives us that detail. But understand this there's another really cool sign of obedience and submission that happens in this passage, and I believe it can be easily overlooked. And it's we see the people throwing their cloaks on the ground. Did you know that average people in Jerusalem in this day only had one pair of clothes? They did not have two. If you had two pairs of clothes, like a change of clothes, then you actually probably were doing pretty well. You wouldn't necessarily rich, but you were doing pretty well, and so they just had one pair of clothes, and they see Jesus walking in on the donkey, and what do they decide to do? Throw their clothes on the ground. This was a moment of obedience, this is an act of worship. Whatever it is that I have, if it's the only thing of that that I have, I give it to you because you are the king, Jesus, with no remorse. This is an act of submission. Where is your cloak that you would lay down before Jesus, your king? Might be the only thing that you have of it, but would are you willing to give it to Jesus? Closing here. We see another symbol in this passage. It's the symbol of the palms and these words that come along with it. They shout Hosanna. And I found this out. What does Hosanna mean? It actually means save us. It's a plea. They're actually yelling out to Jesus, save us now. Like Jesus, I need you to save me. They're actually claiming Jesus to be the king and messiah that he truly is. See, you wouldn't tell a baby Hosanna because the baby doesn't have the power to save you. But they're telling Jesus, Hosanna, because he is the one with the keys to their freedom, and they believe it. They're saying, Jesus, Hosanna, save us right now. I plead, I beg of you to save us. And the interesting thing is the saving doesn't come in the way that they expect it to come, but he is going to save them. See, in some other gospels, some of the other gospels, we actually see the Pharisees at this moment when they're hearing these Hosanna cries that begin to go to Jesus and they're like, Hey man, tell your disciples to chill out. They need to calm down, they need to quiet down in one of those coolest texts in scripture because it's almost like, Jesus, I kind of wish you would have let that happen for a little bit to see what happened. Jesus says, uh nah, chill out, Pharisees. Here's what I need you to understand. If all of these people stop yelling, then the rocks would cry out. And so it I think it's really interesting that it's actually in this moment in multiple uh in a couple of these gospels, we also see that it's related to Jesus' humility, which is interesting because Jesus doesn't do the you know the fake humble thing when the Pharisees come to him and he's not like, Yeah, man, you're right. I'm not really that important. We probably should quiet everybody down. No, he's saying that it is also humble to acknowledge who you are, it's not humble to lie about who you are. That's not what Jesus is doing here. Understand that, but he lets them know that if they if they stop crying out, then the rocks would, because he is the true living king, he is the Messiah, and it is his moment right now. The moment of celebration. I think of it like when a celebration happens when your favorite team wins a sports event, the most prominent one, hopefully, U of M does in a couple weeks. Let's go. Sorry, MSU, I was rooting for you two on the side, but but it's like when those teams win, you know what they usually do? They come back home and they shut down a block downtown and they ride on a parade. It's in celebration. That's actually what the palms represent in the palm sundae. They're actually a celebration of victory. We've done it, we've won. The king is marching in, and here's what the people of Jerusalem are actually thinking at this time. They're thinking Jesus coming in to overthrow the Roman government because the Roman government is oppressing them, and so they're actually selling, they're pre-celebrating because they know that it's written and they trust in God's word, and they're like, This Jesus guy is it, he's gonna overthrow this Roman government, and then we are gonna be on top. Let's go, Israel. That's what they're expecting. They see it happening, they see it coming. That's why they're shouting, Hosanna, save us now from the Roman government, please. But they had a misunderstanding. See, the kingdom that Jesus has been talking about, the kingdom that he is the king of, is not just this earthly kingdom. And he doesn't come like the earthly kings come in power and might. He doesn't come to take over land by force, destroying whatever is in his way and in a quest for more and more power. He comes humble, bearing signs of peace. He's a gentleman. I find it amazing that Jesus doesn't even force salvation down us, he offers it. And then we have to ask ourselves well, which king is more appealing to you? The power-hungry takeover by force, big brass, you know, strong king? Or is it the humble servant that's willing to sacrifice his own life for your salvation? Because that's why he's taking this walk on Palm Sunday. He knows that he's moving towards his death, and God's timing shows up again because it's also exactly during the time of the Passover festival. If you know anything about the Passover, it's this representation of when the Jews were trapped as slaves in Egypt. And then they said on that tenth plague, when that tenth plague would come, they said, slaughter the lamb and put the blood of that lamb on your door frames. And when that plague comes to take the firstborn male of each household, it will skip over your household because you're covered in the blood of the lamb. God's timing shows us that Jesus shows up right during that festival celebration because he is the Passover Lamb. He is the one who slaughtered in blood is spread to save you and I, to bring us salvation. So, yeah. God's timing is still evident here, too. And we have to acknowledge what it means for Jesus to be rightful king, not just over this world, but in every area of our own lives, then submitting to his will, his guidance, accepting his direction. Because Jesus was and is the one who claimed divine authority in being the son of God, in full humility of who he is, he is also the son of God. He's also the man who taught with authority, not like the scribes would teach of the day, but he taught as if the lawgiver himself was preaching the message. He's the one who showed his authority over nature, peace be still. This storm needs to calm down. He's the one who showed his authority over spirits, come out of him. He's the one who forgave sins. That Jesus is claiming his kingdom. It's true, and he's declaring to be king, but how do you respond? In submission, in questioning, in celebration, in execution, in worship, in disgust, in honor, and disdain. How do you respond when the king, Jesus, shows up and tells you he is king? Your response is up to you, but I want to tell you that he cares for you, he loves you, and this king of everything gave up his life for you. Here's the final point. Many of you know that this is leading to the crucifixion of Jesus, and here was the problem with their praise. They wanted to be saved from their circumstances, but they overlooked being saved from their own sins. They wanted Jesus to overthrow the government and put Israel on top. They were expecting a superpower shift so that their struggles would leave. But Jesus never promised us free freedom from struggle and suffering in this life. Not in this life. Jesus wasn't coming to save them just from their circumstances, but to save them from their sins. See, we can fall into the same trap today. God, I need you to heal my family. God, I need you to give me a new job. I need you to give me a partner that's made for me. See, none of these things are wrong to ask Jesus for. But that's ultimately not why he died on the cross for you. See, some of those things he will grant you and give you in this life. But no matter whether he does or doesn't, he is always and still will be the Messiah and King of everything. See, if that prayer that you want so bad doesn't come true to you, it doesn't change who he is and what he's done for you. Don't let your circumstances determine your faith. Because he didn't come to change your circumstances, he came to give you access to your creator, which we call eternity in heaven. Without the death that Jesus is heading into right now, without the death that he's marching toward boldly, we would have no forgiveness for our sins. We would still be trapped in sins, enslaved by it. But God saw fit that there would be no separation between us and him. So he sent his son, he put on human flesh and walked the life that we couldn't live and never sinned, and he went up on that cross and died the death that we couldn't die. Hopefully that means to you, yo Jesus, I want you to be king of my life because you are my Messiah. Save me now. And if that's who the Messiah is to you who loves you, then you have to go and live like it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for being a God who cares so much about us that you didn't just sit back, but you stepped down on earth. And you showed us how much you loved us. We thank you for being willing to die the death that we couldn't die. We thank you for giving us forgiveness for the sins that we commit. I pray, Lord, that the freedom of all of these sins, the freedom of the guilt, the freedom of the shame washes over each and every one of us in this place. And that you move us in a mighty and powerful way, that we live and act the way that you call us to, so that others will be inspired by the way that you've called us to live, so that they want to live like it too. Let us be lights, little lights, versions of you that draw people to the Father. Help us. In the name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray and we thank you, Lord. Amen.