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I want to call to mind for you a uh a historical event that maybe you uh maybe you remember. It wasn't that long ago, it was only 17 years ago. On January the 15th, 2009, there was a uh a famous plane crash in the United States of America, and it was it was famous because all 155 people on board, they all survived. You may remember this plane crash because they made a movie about it in 2016 starring Tom Hanks, the movie called Sully. Captain Solenberger, his nickname is Sully, he was a hero in this movie, but also a hero in real life back 17 years ago. What happened was there was a commercial airliner, a commercial plane that took off from New York, headed for Charlotte, and very quickly after takeoff, they encountered a large flock of birds. Now it's not uncommon for uh birds to strike a plane. It is uncommon for birds to do any real damage to a plane, however. On this day, on this cold winter day in January of 2009, these birds not only did damage to the plane, they disabled all the plane's engines. And so suddenly Soly was the captain of basically a glorified hang glider. There was no more propulsion available. He made the quick decision that there was no airport close enough to where they were at the time. But based on his altitude and his speed and how quickly his speed was going to decrease because he had no engines left, he said there is not an airport close enough. And then he decided there's also not a highway long enough within reach. Even if the police were able to clear the highway, there's not one long enough with a long enough straightaway to land a giant commercial plane. And so what Sully did is in the moment he made a split decision to land the plane in the Hudson River. You guys remember this? Now, if he had made one wrong move, he and his co-pilot, the plane could have quickly become a torpedo that went straight to the bottom of the river. The plane could have hit on impact and had several injuries in the cabins or casualties in the cabins, but his approach to the Hudson was just right, so that the plane, it wasn't a super soft landing, but everybody survived. The plane landed and went from being a glorified hang glider to a glorified boat floating down the Hudson River. It was freezing cold, and so the rescue was very frigid. You had some people that were on the verge of hypothermia, but at the end of the day, all 155 people on board, including the pilot and the co-pilot and the crew, they all survived. You see, Sully's approach to the Hudson River, it was quite literally a matter of life and death. And the reality this morning, Oxford campus, is that our approach to a holy God is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. We serve and we worship a holy God, and the way in which we approach him is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. Now, in some ways, our God is a divine paradox because he's so holy, yet he's so approachable. And if we approach him correctly, he wants us to come to him, he wants us to approach him. But at the end of the day, the way in which we approach a holy God, it is indeed a matter of eternal life or eternal death. And that's the title of our message this morning, Oxford Campus, is approaching God correctly. We want to be a church and we want to be a campus filled with people who are daily and weekly approaching God correctly. And so if you haven't already, turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 18, Luke chapter 18, and I'll meet you there in just a moment. Man, there's never uh there's never truly a sad day at Oxford campus, but today's a little bit of a sad day. Can I tell you why? Today is the last Sunday in our Parables Sermon Series. And I thank you, thank you for saying, oh, I appreciate that. It's it's a little bit sad because I've enjoyed it a lot. Now, some of you would think to yourself, you know, you're a you're a pastor, of course you enjoyed the series. But you know what I'm saying. There's some tough texts in the parables, and I've really enjoyed studying them with you. I looked back, and if you've been with us throughout this entire series, you have studied 24 parables. We started this journey on the first Sunday in the month of September. Uh we took a one-week break in September for a standalone message on the topic of biblical marriage. We took a three-week break in the month of December for a Christmas sermon series. But over the past seven months, you have done a great job studying 24 different parables, today being the 24th. So I'll remind you one last time what a parable is. Parables are stories told by Jesus that begin on earth and they end in heaven. Parables are simple stories with powerful truths embedded within them. Parables are earthly stories that have heavenly meanings. And as we've mentioned before, our prayer throughout this series is that our church and our four campuses and all eight of our services that we wouldn't simply be entertained by these earthly stories, but that we would be transformed by their heavenly meanings. And today is no exception. Today we're studying the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14. Now, I I must I I must share with you, because I know it's on all of your minds. Uh, Miss Ginger just did a great job reading the Word of God for us. And you should study that parable that she read some other time, okay? But I gave her the wrong, I gave her the wrong scripture for this morning, okay? So that wasn't Miss Ginger's fault. That was my fault. Uh we're in Luke 8, 9 through 14. We're talking today about the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Sorry about that, Miss Ginger. Hey, as we take notes this morning, you're gonna see there's two characters. They're in the title of the parable, a Pharisee and a tax collector, but only one of the characters approaches God correctly. And you might be surprised by which one it is. And we're gonna learn from this character how we likewise can approach God correctly. So let's take some notes this morning, Oxford Campus. Number one on your notes is this number one, avoid the wrong way. As you seek to approach God correctly, what we should do is avoid the wrong way. Don't be so confident in your own goodness. Don't highlight all of your spiritual strengths for God. Don't show disdain toward others. As you seek to approach God correctly, what you should do is you should avoid the wrong way. Look with me in verses nine through twelve of Luke chapter 18, the first four out of six verses in our passage today. The parable begins in verse 10. The parable proper, if you will, begins in verse 10. Verse 9 happens before the parable. And it's in Luke chapter 18, verse 9, that Luke tells us exactly who the primary audience of this parable is. In Luke 18, 9, Luke tells us that Jesus was talking to those, check this out, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and as a result, they looked down on others with contempt. Now, we're not jumping to conclusions when we say that Luke 18 9 is a description of the Pharisees. They're not explicitly named in verse 9, but it's it's pretty clear that Luke is describing the Pharisees in verse 9. Now, why is Christ about to tell this parable to the Pharisees in this way at this time? What's going on there? You'll remember from last week that in Luke chapter 17, verse 22, that Jesus begins talking to his disciples. Luke 17, 22. And for the last 16 verses of Luke chapter 17, Christ is talking to his disciples all about the coming kingdom of God. And you'll remember this from last week, that in those 16 verses, in Luke chapter 17, Jesus says, The kingdom of God is coming, but it's not here yet, and while you wait, you will suffer. That's what he says at the end of Luke 17. And so we get to the beginning of Luke 18, as we talked about last week, and in verse 1, Jesus is still talking to his disciples, and he says, Okay, while you wait and while you suffer, here's what you should do. Don't stop praying. Remember that last week? The kingdom is coming, it's not here yet. While you wait, you're gonna suffer. To my disciples, Jesus says, What you should do, don't stop praying. Now, verse 9, Pharisees, while you wait for the kingdom to come, what should you do? That's what this parable is all about. The kingdom is coming. Disciples keep praying. Pharisees, you should take a hard look in the mirror. Pharisees, you should take a long look in the mirror and think to yourself if your self-righteousness is really going to be enough to permit you entry into the kingdom of God. That's what this parable is all about is Jesus telling the Pharisees what they should do while they wait for the kingdom of God to come. Verse 9 to those who trust in themselves and their own righteousness and look down upon others with contempt. In verse 10, the parable begins. And Jesus says to the Pharisees, he says, Two men went up to the temple to pray. Okay. This is a fake story, a made-up story, but it has a lot of realistic elements in it, just like all the parables. And the way this parable begins, two men went up to the temple to pray, pretty realistic. All the Pharisees listening, they're kind of nodding, like, yep, that makes sense. That happens all the time. I go pray at the temple all the time. Very believable. Verse 10 continues, and Jesus says, the first of the two men was a Pharisee. Again, the Pharisees continue nodding. They're like, yep, for sure. I do that all the time. I go to the temple to pray. But check this out. Jesus says, the second man was a tax collector. And you can just hear a gasp in the audience. No way. See, here's the thing about tax collectors. They were despised in the first century. And it's different from the way that maybe we get frustrated with the IRS today, okay? It's even worse. What tax collectors would do back then is they would collect the taxes you owe, plus a little bit more, submit your taxes to the Roman government and then keep some for themselves. They were slimy. They knew it, everybody knew it. This isn't an exact exchange rate, but if you owed$100 in taxes, they might come to you and say, give me$120, and they would submit$100 to the government and keep$20 for themselves. They were slimy in the way they operated, and everybody knew it. And so when Jesus says that two men went up to the temple to pray, one of them is a Pharisee, the other one's a tax collector, all the Pharisees are saying, no way. Jesus, we know this story isn't true, but it's not even realistic anymore. You're venturing into fantasy, Jesus. There's no way that a tax collector would ever go to the temple, much less go to the temple for the right reasons. So you might be able to picture a tax collector going to the temple because a Pharisee owes him some taxes and he's been struggling to pin down and find that Pharisee. And so he says, you know what? I know the Pharisee goes to the temple at this time every single day, so I'm just gonna go meet him there and interrupt his prayer and collect his taxes. That's kind of believable. I don't know if that ever happened, but I could believe that. But the Pharisees are saying, no way did a tax collector go to the temple and not only go to the temple, but go there for the right reasons to pray to the God of the universe. This is unbelievable. They had dropped their jaws, they were in shock. I wonder, Oxford Campus, who the Holy Spirit is bringing to your mind right now. Maybe for you, you once were the tax collector. And nobody ever thought that you'd say yes to Jesus, and here you are today. Well, praise God. But I wonder who the tax collector is in your life. That person in your life who, if they walk through the doors of Oxford Campus right now, and not walk through our doors to come find you and pick a fight, but walk through our doors to sit down and pray to the Lord, your jaw would drop. No way is he here. No way is she here. Who's that person in your life? I'll tell you what, Oxford Campus, I want to add a layer of challenge to our Easter invitations this week. As we're looking forward to Easter Sunday at Oxford next weekend, we are challenging you to invite your family, invite your friends, invite your neighbors. And what we do want you to do is engage and extend the easy invitations. The people that you think might say yes, and if they don't say yes, well, maybe they'll come next time and they'll be nice about it. But I want you to invite some tax collectors. Those people that the Lord is bringing to your mind right now, and you're saying they would never say yes to Jesus or to any Easter invitation. In fact, if I try to invite them, they're gonna rip the door hanger in half right in front of my face and just throw it in my face. And they might. And you're thinking to yourself, Gary, you don't know, you don't know my family member, you don't know my friends, you don't know my neighbor, you don't know what they've done, you don't know what they've done to me. And you're right, I don't. But the Lord does. And the Lord is calling you to share Jesus with them. The Lord is calling you to invite them to Easter Sunday at Oxford campus next weekend because they might say no, but what if? What if they said yes? What if they said yes and they sat in one of these pews next Sunday and they didn't just say yes to your invitation to a church service, but they said yes to Jesus, and their eternity was changed forever. What if? We'll never know if you don't invite them. Extend some invitations to Easter service this week because you'll be shocked. A tax collector went to the temple 2,000 years ago. Well, just maybe a tax collector will be sitting in this room next Sunday because you extended an invitation. In verses 11 and 12, we hear the prayer of the first man. We hear the prayer of the Pharisee. In verse 11, the Pharisee prays to God and he highlights for God all the things that he has not done and all the things that he is not. Looking at Luke chapter 18, verse 11, the Pharisee says, God, I'm so glad that I'm not an extortioner, I'm not an adulterer, I'm not even a tax collector. He's telling God all the things that he has not done. And he does it in such a way, it's listed in such a way that the tax collector sounds like the worst of the worst options. I'm not an extortioner, I'm not unjust, I'm not an adulterer, I'm especially, I'm definitely not a tax collector. Verse 11. And then in verse 12, the Pharisee goes on to highlight for the Lord all the things he has done. The Pharisee says, God, I'm so grateful that I fast twice a week, that I give some of my money to the temple, to the church. I'm so glad that I don't do these things, but then in verse 12 that I do these things for you. What the Pharisee's doing is he's hiding his true sinfulness behind a smokescreen of legalism. How often do you and I, if you're a Christian in the room, how often do you and I have to fight our inner Pharisee? What I mean by that is how often do we sin, and we know we sinned, but instead of confessing it immediately to the Lord and quickly asking for his forgiveness, we pray to God and say, I know I did wrong, but at least I didn't do this. Or we sin and we pray to the Lord and we say, I know I did something wrong, but I did these other seven good things that kind of it kind of balances it out. We need to fight our inner Pharisee. We need to avoid hiding our true sinfulness behind a smokescreen of legalism. Good works don't balance out bad works. You can't just have some broccoli before a slice of cake and it makes the slice of cake all good. That's not how this works. That's not how the kingdom of God operates. We have to resist our inner Pharisee. One preacher commenting on verses 11 and 12 of Luke chapter 18, he compares it to uh going to a wellness visit at the doctor. Now there are different reasons to go to the doctor. We have uh reactive reasons to go to the doctor. If we are sick or injured, we might go to the doctor for some medication or for some surgery. But there's also proactive reasons to go to the doctor, preventative care, wellness checks. And the Pharisee's behavior in verses 11 and 12, it's kind of like he went to a wellness check, sat down on the examination table in the doctor's office and said, Doc, put your stethoscope away, don't even bother. I'm good. I'll tell you what, doc, I have I have resisted all the junk food over the past couple months since you saw me last. And I'll tell you what else I've done. I've gone to bed on time, I've been exercising three times a week. You don't need to examine me. I'm good, doc. I'm good. And I tell you what, you might even want some of your time back. Why don't you just check off on your clipboard that I'm good? Because you got a bunch of people in your waiting room. You should see the people in your waiting room. They are way worse than me. That's kind of what the Pharisee's doing. He's showing up at a wellness check at the doctor, and he's not saying, Doc, I think I'm good, but would you check me out anyways? No, he's saying, I know I'm good. Don't bother. And that's the wrong way to approach God. A better way would be in Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. We know well Psalm 139 because of some famous uh pro-life verses in 13 through 16 about how God formed our inward parts and he knitted us together in our mother's womb. But Psalm 139 also ends well. Those last two verses, verses 23 and 24, David says, Search my heart, O God, know my emotions. Search my mind, O God, know my thoughts. Verse 24, reveal to me any wicked ways within me so that I can fix it. That's a much better way to approach the great physician. Don't go to a wellness check with the great physician like the Pharisee in Luke 18, 11, and 12 and say, God, I'm good. Put your holy stethoscope away, I'm good. No, approach a wellness check with the great physician like David does in Psalm 139, 23 and 24. God, I think I'm good, but can you check? Can you search my heart and reveal to me any wickedness? Can you search my mind and reveal to me any wickedness so that I can fix it? Avoid approaching God the wrong way. And so I wonder this morning, Oxford campus, I wonder about you. I wonder if you're confident in your own goodness. I wonder if you're showing any disdain toward other people. I wonder if you're highlighting for God your spiritual strengths. I hope you're not, but if you are, I hope that you'll avoid those things this week and for the rest of your life. Let's approach God correctly. Hey, oxygen campus, number two on your notes is this. Number two, pursue the right way. If you want to approach God correctly, then you have to pursue the right way. You have to have a deep awareness of your sin. You have to trust in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, and you have to have a desire to exalt God in all things. If you want to approach God correctly, you've got to pursue the right way. Look with me in verses 13 and 14 of Luke chapter 18. In verse 13, we are introduced to the second character in the parable, and he's the last character in the parable, and this is the last verse of the parable. In verse 14, Christ is commenting on the concluded parable. But in verse 13, it says that a tax collector, again, shocking, jaw-dropping, that he would walk into the temple, much less walk in for the right reasons. A tax collector walks into the temple, and he's standing in the back, getting ready to pray to the Lord. Now it's interesting to me that both characters in this parable are standing in the temple. You have the Pharisee earlier mentioned he's he's standing toward the front. He's praying very publicly and very loudly. He wants everyone to see him, he wants everyone to hear him. And then you have the tax collector. The tax collector is standing in the back. He's praying very privately, very quietly. He doesn't want anyone to see him, and he only wants God to hear him. Standing in the back of the temple. Now, I want to tell you this morning Oxford Campus about a signed assigned seating in the temple or assigned seating in the church. Think about this. The Pharisees, so to speak, he had his assigned seat in the front of the temple. The tax collector, so to speak, he had his assigned seat in the back of the temple. At Oxford campus, we have no assigned seats. Now, this is this is important, okay? If I'm ever able to catch a guest in our lobby before the service, one of the things I make sure to say, I'm so glad you're here. Come on in, sit anywhere, there's no assigned seats. That's really important. Now, I don't know that it's happened here, but one of the things I want to prevent is this. If a guest comes and sits in one of these pews and someone walks up to them and says, Hey, that's my seat, you can expect to never see that person again. We have no assigned seating at Oxford Campus, and what a joy it is to walk into this sanctuary and see a new face sitting in quote unquote your seat. How awesome is that? And if it hasn't happened to you yet, Oxford Campus, I can pretty much guarantee it's gonna happen to you next Sunday. You're gonna walk in here on Easter Sunday, and there will be somebody sitting in quote unquote your seat. And so maybe we should actually be proactive. Maybe we shouldn't come in early next Sunday and put our Bibles and our pens and our notebooks in quote unquote our seats. Maybe we should give up the best seats for all the guests that are gonna join us next Sunday at Easter. Because we are a hospitable church. We are a hospitable campus. One of the comments I get most often from first-time guests is how welcome and warm you guys are. I'm serious. Like this past week, someone said it was so warm and so welcome when I walked through the doors of Oxford campus. Let's keep that up. Let's give up the best seats in the house. There's no assigned seats at Oxford Campus like there were in the temple. The tax collector, he's standing in the back. He's praying privately, he's praying quietly. He doesn't want anyone to see him. He only wants God to hear him. And the text says that he was beating his chest. Now, this isn't the tax collector beating his chest because he's like a football player that's trying to pump himself up before he takes the field. Just beating his chest, ready to take on the other team. That's not what's going on here. It's a natural human reaction. Maybe sometimes you hear shocking news and you say, Oh, and you touch your chest. Or maybe you're weeping and you're crying uncontrollably and you can't get words out, and so you just clear your throat and beat your chests. The tax collector's here, he's truly mourning over his sin. He's standing in the back of the temple weeping and crying and beating his chest because he feels the weight of his sin in the presence of God. And after beating his chest, he prays to God, he cries out to God and says, God, have mercy on me. I am a sinner. Mercy, simply defined, is when we do not get that which we do deserve. Grace is when we get what we don't deserve, but mercy is when we do not get that which we do deserve. The Pharisee was a sinner, the tax collector was a sinner, I'm a sinner, you're a sinner. The wages of sin is eternal death. The only option we have is the option the tax collector chose. Cry out to God for mercy. God, do not give me that which I do deserve, eternal separation from you, because I am a sinner. In verse 14, Jesus, the parable's over, and Jesus comments on the parable. In verse 14, Jesus says, the second man, the tax collector, he's the one that was justified. And everyone in the audience is shocked at this point. Not only shocked that the tax collector would go to the temple and go for the right reasons, but that the tax collector gets the good result. The tax collector is the one who's justified. Justification is a legal term. Justification means to be declared innocent. One preacher puts it this way when you're justified, when you repent of your sins and believe in the gospel, the good news of Christ's death and burial and resurrection, when I'm justified, it's just as if I'd never sinned. That's what it means to be justified. It's just as if I'd never sinned. My unrighteousness is imputed or transferred to Jesus, and Christ's righteousness is imputed or transferred to me, and it's just as if I'd never sinned. That's what it means to be justified. And the tax collector is the one who is justified because he came to God recognizing his true brokenness and recognizing his true emptiness, pleading to God for mercy. That's why he was justified. And then at the end of verse 14, we get a somewhat famous saying from Christ He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will one day be exalted. I recently heard a quote about humility, and it goes like this Humility is always 100% of the time a choice. The question is whether or not you will choose humility for yourself, or if God is going to have to choose humility for you. Will you choose humility for yourself, or will God have to choose humility for you? The one who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will one day be exalted. The tax collector came to God empty-handed. He came to God recognizing his brokenness, recognizing his emptiness. You know, there's a small debate in my household. Hannah's right, but there's there's a small debate, okay? And here's the debate it's when to fill up the gas tank in the car. Okay? Anyone ever had this debate in your in your household, okay? No elbows to the person sitting next to you. So uh we have in our in our van, it tells you, like, based on how many gallons are left in the tank and how many miles per gallon you're getting, it says you have this many miles left to drive on that gas tank. And when when that meter says 50, 5'0, when it says 50 miles left, it's as good as empty in Hannah's mind. Like we we gotta we gotta get to the gas station now. Now I look at, which is probably right, okay, but I I look at 50 miles and I say, man, 50 miles. I could get to Orlando on 50 miles. Like, what are we doing for the next couple days? Like going to church and taking May to school, maybe going to Costco. Like, we could wait a couple more days on 50 miles, but we gotta go, and I think I have a case to be made. Okay, there's an efficiency thing. Like, if you fill up the gas tank with 50 miles left, you're gonna end up making more visits to the station than if you wait. And it's anyways, Hannah's right. Don't clap for that. Now, here's the thing what the what the tax collector is doing is the tax collector is coming to God on empty. And he's saying, God, I'm empty. I got nothing to bring. He's not coming to God and saying, God, my righteousness tank is half full. If you could just top me off. No, he's coming to God and saying, God, I am I'm empty. I got nothing to offer. I've got nothing to bring. Now, here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying try to earn your own salvation and try to earn your own righteousness and work and work and work until you're burnt out and at the end of your rope and then go to God. That's not what I'm saying. But we should come to God with a heart posture of true brokenness and true emptiness and say, God, I've got I've got nothing to offer. The Pharisee thinks he has some stuff to offer, but I've got nothing to offer. My righteousness tank is empty. Would you have mercy on me? Would you fill me with your righteousness? God, have mercy on me. It's kind of like that old hymn, isn't it? With nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross, I cling. The correct way to approach God is empty-handed, recognizing our true brokenness and recognizing our true emptiness. This is why in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1, Paul tells us that, hey, I was I was dead in my trespasses and sins. Before Christ, you and I, we were not sick in our trespasses and sins. We were not injured. We were not drowning. We didn't have a half-empty tank. No, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. See, the thing is, when you're sick or drowning or injured or have half a tank, you can kind of help yourself a little bit. But when you're dead, there's nothing you can do. When you're dead, your only hope is a miracle of God. And that's true when you're physically deceased, but it's especially true when you're spiritually dead. There's nothing we can do to help ourselves. We have to approach God with a recognition of our true brokenness and a recognition of our true emptiness. Approach God and say, God, I'm I'm empty. I've got nothing to bring, I've got nothing to offer. Have mercy on me. Fill me with your righteousness. And so I wonder about you this morning, Oxford campus. I wonder if you have a deep awareness of the sin in your life. I wonder if you have a real trust in the sufficiency of Christ and his finished work on the cross. That Jesus is enough. And I wonder if you have a deep desire to exalt God and glorify God in all things, because he who humbles himself will one day be exalted. Now here's the thing about approaching God correctly. Here's some good news, Oxford Campus. If you approach God correctly, you can do it with no fear, because we serve and we worship a very approachable God. We mentioned that toward the beginning of this message, and how God is in some ways a divine paradox because he's so holy, yet he's so approachable. If you approach God correctly, you can do it without fear because we serve and we worship an approachable God. And that's no more evident and no more clear than today on Palm Sunday. Today begins Holy Week. This Thursday, we remember the Last Supper. This Friday, we remember the death of Christ. Next Sunday, we especially remember the resurrection of Jesus. But today is Palm Sunday. And we know what happened in Luke chapter 18. But what happens in Luke 19? In Luke 19, Jesus finishes his final journey down to Jerusalem. And he enters Jerusalem for the last time until he comes again. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But Jesus doesn't enter like other kings. Most kings, when they enter Jerusalem, they enter on a horse with chariots and trumpets and music and all the pomp and circumstance. But not Jesus. Jesus enters riding on a donkey with people waving palm branches, palm fronds. Jesus enters Jerusalem humbly. And I think Jesus enters Jerusalem on the back of a donkey in his sovereignty. One, to fulfill some prophecy from the Old Testament, Zechariah chapter 9, but also to signal to you and to me that we serve and we worship an approachable God. He's not up on his high horse, he's on a donkey. He's approachable. And if we're approaching God correctly, then we can have no fear because we serve and we worship an approachable God. And just like that song we sang earlier, all the earth will shout his praise, our hearts will cry, these bones will sing, Great is the Lord. One day every tribe and every tongue and every nation will be gathered around the throne of God. Revelation chapter 7, verse 9. But something especially important to point out to you today, Oxford Campus, about Revelation 7.9, is just not who will be standing around the throne of God, not just who will be standing up there, you and me, but what we will be holding. You ever notice this in Revelation 7.9? We'll be holding palm branches. You may not have gotten to hold a palm branch 2,000 years ago, but you'll get to hold one one day. As we praise and we worship our approachable God. If we approach God correctly, he's very approachable. But hey, Oxford Campus, maybe you're here this morning and you're not a Christian and you know that you're not a Christian. Can I tell you something? We're really, really glad that you're here. God has you here for a reason today. But maybe you're listening in on this Bible study for Christians, and you would say to yourself, I've never approached God the right way, I've never approached God the wrong way, I've never approached him at all. I don't think he's real, or maybe you do think he's real and you're kind of mad at him. But for whatever reason, you can't really explain it, something is stirring within you, and you kind of have a desire to approach God for the very first time today, I want you to lean into that desire. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, but you're interested in approaching God correctly through Christ, if you're interested in placing your faith in Jesus, coming to God empty-handed and saying, I have nothing to offer, have mercy on me. I need the righteousness of Christ. If you're ready to approach God and become a Christian today, and let me tell you what's about to happen. In just a moment, I'm going to pray to close our time of Bible study. And when I say amen, after I say amen, I'm going to stand down front with some members of our team as we sing one more song of response. And as we sing, you're welcome to stay seated and pray and reflect right where you are. But if you'd like to become a Christian today, if you'd like to approach God for the very first time and place your faith in Jesus, then I would encourage you to come down and grab one of the members of our team. We'd love to talk and pray with you about becoming a Christian. But hey, maybe you are a Christian and you got something heavy on your heart today. The altar is open as we sing all across this stage, all across this room. The altar is open. If you want to pray for something, for someone, with someone, feel free to do so as we sing. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we love you and we praise you. We're grateful today for the gospel for Christ and his death and burial and resurrection. God, I pray for myself and my Christian brothers and sisters in the room. That you'd help us to fight off our inner Pharisee, that we would not try to hide behind our own self-righteousness, God, but when we sin, we would confess it quickly to you and ask quickly for your forgiveness. God, would you help us to come to you empty-handed, asking for your mercy because your mercies are new every morning. God, I pray for that person in the room right now who does not yet have a relationship with you through Jesus. God, would you make today the day? You're stirring something in their heart right now. Would you help them to act on it and to walk forward and to pray to receive Christ today? God, we give this time over to you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.