PKLM Sermons

October 19, 2025 - Dr Mark Turman - A Strange Thing Happened Along the Way

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PKLM 20251019 - Dr Mark Turman - A Strange Thing Happened Along the Way

00:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks
00:09 Reflections on Jesus and the Sea of Galilee
01:21 Upcoming Bible Study Tours
03:12 Changing Your Mind: A Call to Reflection
03:29 A Strange Thing Happened on the Way to the Cross
07:03 Jesus Confronts the Headlines
10:32 The Urgency of Repentance
16:36 The Parable of the Fig Tree
23:57 Healing on the Sabbath
34:26 The Kingdom of God: Mustard Seed and Leaven
38:19 Final Reflections and Call to Repentance

[00:00:00] Introduction and Opening Remarks

All right. You may be seated if you have a Bible in front of you or on your device. If you'd like to find Luke 13, please do that. 

[00:00:09] Reflections on Jesus and the Sea of Galilee

Uh, yeah, part of what I was sharing, it was actually something I saw that you saw in the images behind the music this morning. Uh, particularly that first song. Um, about Jesus as the cornerstone.

And uh, you saw some images, I believe they are from the Sea of Galilee. And one of the early images you saw, the outcropping of a mountain and a cliff that looked like something you'd see around here at Possum Kingdom. Uh, but I believe that was Mount Abell. Mount ARB Bell sits on the western edge of the Sea of Galilee at the North end.

And the last time I was in Israel, which was, uh, just before the war started in 2023, we went up to the top of Mount Arbell. And from there, uh, one of my friends who helps us with these tours, Mike Fanning said, look out here because what you can see just from this ridge is all the region of Galilee and 80% of what Jesus said, and 80% of what Jesus did happened right here in the area that you're looking at right now.

On the Galilee, spent lots of time, obviously down in Judea, but most of his time as far as we know, up in Galilee. 

[00:01:21] Upcoming Bible Study Tours

So you may not know this, but one of the things Denison Ministries does is we host Bible study tours and we are planning some trips in the future. If you have any interest, we'll send this out in the newsletter.

We're doing a faith and freedom tour. Uh, in April of next year, we're gonna celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country and we're gonna take an eight day, seven day. Eight night, wait a minute, that doesn't work. Seven nights, eight days. Um, trip up to the Washington, DC area. We're gonna go to some of the places you would expect us to go, like Philadelphia Hall and the Liberty Bell, Mount Vernon Monticello.

We're going to Gettysburg and we're going to the Museum of the Bible. And we're also taking a, uh, faith historian with us who will take us to some unique places that you wouldn't get to go on, on just any trip to. Uh, a place like Washington, DC and Philadelphia, and we're gonna tell some special stories about how faith informed and guided the formation of our country.

Uh, gonna be a lot of celebration next year, 250 years. Okay. And, uh, if you're interested in that kind of thing, we're going April the eighth, and we can get that information to you. Signups are open right now. We're also going to, uh, Greece and, uh, Turkey this time next year. And we're gonna retrace the steps of the Apostle Paul and some of the steps of the Apostle John, uh, if you'd like to do that.

And we are prayerfully. Uh, going to hope that we can go back to Israel late, late next year, maybe December, right after Christmas. And so if you have any interest in that or any of those things, let us know. We would love for you to join us. Uh, we take about a hundred people at a time, and it is a wonderful, wonderful experience.

Any of those places that you go, and, uh, if you'd like to join us, please let us know. All right. 

[00:03:12] Changing Your Mind: A Call to Reflection

Um, when's the last time you remember? Changing your mind. Think about that for a moment. When's the last time you remember changing your mind? 

[00:03:29] A Strange Thing Happened on the Way to the Cross

While you're thinking about that, we turned to Luke 13, I wanna talk to you today about a strange thing that happened on the way to the cross.

One of my primary mentors wrote a book in his retirement years called A Strange Thing Happened on the Way to Retirement. You might say that about Jesus as well. If you like to read and you're into literature, that type of thing, you might know that the value of a first line of a book or a chapter really can capture your attention.

We're all familiar, probably with the most famous first line of a novel. It was the best of. Times and the worst of times, the tale of two cities. We get to Christmas and we'll probably bump into Charles Dickens, the great English writer again, and the story, A Christmas Carol, which begins with these simple six words.

Marley was dead to begin with, and it goes from there. If you sit down to read a book with a child. So many of those stories begin with four simple words. Once upon a time, well, this might be Jesus's story. A strange thing happened to me on the way to the cross. If you were reading the Gospel of Luke, the biography of Luke.

You could divide it in a number of different ways. We had people long ago who took the gospels and all the rest of the Bible and they divided it up into chapters and into verses so that we could navigate scripture and find things more easily. You know, that it wasn't originally written that way. Right.

So we're grateful for them, but they didn't always get it exactly right. So just remember. That the chapters and the verses are not inspired. They are helpful, but they came much later. If we were doing it in a little bit better way, we would put, we would put at least chapter two, if not section two in the Gospel of Luke, all the way back in chapter nine, not chapter 13, but chapter nine, chapter nine, verse 51 says this, Jesus, when it was time for him to be taken up.

Jesus determined, Jesus resolved. Literally in the language it is. Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. The word can actually be translated that he set his face like flint, like a strong metal or stone. He determined it is time and he started charting a course. Toward Jerusalem, toward the cross, toward the story of hope and resurrection and everything in some way connected to that, but particularly from this pivot point, Jesus was declaring that his earthly ministry was going to end so that his universal ministry might begin.

And so that's where Jesus is headed. In Luke 13, lots of things happen before Jesus gets to Jerusalem and before he gets to the cross. But I don't wanna just take you through a couple of, of vignettes, a couple of experiences with Jesus. We're on the way to, to the cross on the way to Jerusalem for our salvation.

[00:07:03] Jesus Confronts the Headlines

Jesus confronts the headlines of his day. He talks about some of the things that have tragically occurred even in recent days. He will bump into yet another person who has been afflicted with illness or injury for a very long time, and he will intervene in her life. And all along those experiences, he will tell a few stories.

Some of them seem really strange in some way, but all of them with a core message. The simple core message, repent. Change your mind. Believe and follow, repent, change your mind, believe and follow. That was Jesus's mission as well as his message. So let's jump in and chapter 13 of Luke's biography of Jesus and see some of these strange things that Jesus did and said on his way to the cross.

And we'll just break it down into some simple sections that will be easier for us to follow along with. But here's how it starts. Luke 13 verse one. At that time, or you might say, if you were reading to children once upon a time. At that time some people came and reported, notice the word reported. They reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices, and he responded to them.

Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, change your mind, you will all perish as well. Or those 18 in that the Tower of Salon fell on and killed, do you think they were more sinful than all the other people who lived in Jerusalem?

No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish as well. Wow. Jesus is confronted with the headlines. I don't know of another place in scripture where somebody comes to tell Jesus the tragic news of the day and ask for his response. It's a very unique moment. This tragedy of this group of Galileans who had traveled all the way from the north end of the, of the Sea of Galilee, all the way down the Jordan Valley for their annual pilgrimage perhaps.

And they'd come into Jerusalem, possibly in one of the festival seasons. And Pilot had decided to make an example of them. And we don't know all of the details of this story, but we do know. From other historians, such as a guy by the name of Josephus, that the Romans could be cruel when they wanted to, when they wanted to make a point, when they wanted to deter the possibility of rebellion, when they wanted to get the people's attention, they had no limits on the kind of violence that they were willing to perpetrate on people like the Jews that they had conquered.

And this was obviously one of those situations. We don't know if they were actually in the temple in the middle of their Jewish worship experience offering their sacrifices at Solomon's temple or if they were on their way and had their sacrifices bought. 

[00:10:32] The Urgency of Repentance

We don't know any of those details. We just know that this had been probably a recent event and that these Jewish people had been tragically violently taken by Pilate and his forces.

These people come to Jesus and say, what about this Jesus? Now listen to the words carefully as Jesus responds. This would, this would be like folks, this would be like if somebody walked up to Jesus today and said, Jesus, Jesus, what about this Charlie Kirk thing? The, the next thing that Jesus does is he tells another story.

Possibly a recent event as well where a large tower down in the southern section of Jerusalem, near what is called the pool of Salom Salom, that we read about in John nine, where Jesus actually met a blind man and and touched his eyes. And then told him, go to the pool and wash, and the man went down to the pool and washed and his eyes were open.

He was able to see for the very first time in his life, it is that section of Jerusalem that apparently had a great tower, possibly built by a, uh, a ruler named Herod. And something had happened. Maybe it was an earthquake, maybe some people pushed it over, we don't know. But there was a tragic, random event that this tower fell over and killed 18 people.

Jesus brings up that headline and he says, let me tell you about these things. The first thing Jesus says is He doesn't blame the victims. He's very careful to say that these people. Who were either the victims of terrible violence or the victim of natural disaster. He says they are not guilty of some heinous sin that none of us knows about, and they got what they deserved.

Guys, this is, this is Jesus responding. If he was in our day, he would, he would be responding to, Hey Jesus, what about Charlie Kirk? Hey Jesus. What about, what about the Hill country flood? How do we understand that? Jesus is not in any way dismissing the significance of those events or of their lives then or now.

He's very careful to say, you just are not thinking about this right? These people did not deserve these things because of some form of sin in their life, but they, like you are sinners just the same. And while we pray for and care for those that become the victims of violence and the victims. Of natural disaster.

We must all know that the real message, or one of the main messages we need to take away is we are all fragile sinners in need of grace. And the way that we access that grace is by what Jesus said. Repent. Change your mind about your life. Align it with what God says about you and come to him in faith.

For his mercy and for his grace that we've been singing about this morning and follow him. Do not try to alleviate your place before God by trying to comfort yourself in comparing yourself to other people and to the ways that they may have lost their lives. Whenever you see brokenness in our world.

You should not only pray for the comfort and peace and work of God in those that have been directly affected. You need to remember just how desperate, how desperate it is that all of us as sinful people, connect to the grace of God through repentance, because it doesn't matter at the end of the day what the style of your sin is.

It is the reality of your sin that needs to bring you in humility and urgency before God and to a place of repentance. That's why the Bible gives this sense of urgency over and over again that it says today. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart like the people of old in the days of Moses.

They harden their heart in the rebellion. But the Bible says today, the urgency of repentance is in front of us at every moment. So stop trying to compare yourself to other stop trying to feel like there's some kind of a scale here. And if you're just good enough beyond a certain number of other people, you'll be all right.

That's not the way this works. All of us stand guilty and deserving of separation and even condemnation because of our sin and the call of Jesus. Just change your mind. Repent, stop going in your own selfish direction and turn on your heel and come back to God. And folks, that's the way we start our relationship with him, but it's also the way we continue our relationship with him.

That's why Margaret Ann's prayer was so beautiful this morning, calling us to a place of regular confession. Regular repentance because it's not a one-time thing. It's an all the time thing, and there is an urgency in the fragility of our day that every generation lives in a uncertain, sometimes violent, sometimes tragic kind of season.

Whether it was Jesus' time 2000 years ago, or Moses' time 3000 years ago, or our time today, every day. The incumbent call of Jesus is repent. It's urgent, but it's also available. Jesus moves on very quickly from this to tell a story that kinda reiterates and reinforces his point and his call. 

[00:16:36] The Parable of the Fig Tree

He says in verse six, he told them a parable or a story.

A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. Anybody in here have a fig tree? Some of you do. I have a neighbor that has a fig tree, and his fig tree is incredibly resilient and it's on the corner of his yard. That is where we share a fence. Now I have to tell you, uh, I don't have anything against fig trees except they sometimes produce figs, and those figs have a way of dropping in my yard.

And if my dog doesn't eat them, which is a problem into itself, they sit on the ground and they rot and they attract all manner of insects. And a matter of fact, they very much remind me of what I experienced growing up in my parents' backyard and where I grew up, we had a persimmon trees. Anybody know what a persimmon is?

Jim's shaking his head. Okay. There's no redeeming value of a persimmon of any kind that I know of. But when I was required to mow the yard in my parents' backyard, it got really, really messy when you had to walk through all the rotting persimmons that were on the ground. And that's what these figs from my neighbor, that's what they remind me of.

Bit of trivia. If you ever end up in a game of Bible trivia, only one tree specifically named. In the book of Genesis and in the Garden of Eden, it is a fig tree because if you go back and read the story of Adam and Eve and when they rebelled against God and it says that when they rebelled against God, they became aware that they didn't have clothes.

And so they were afraid for the first time in their life and they were embarrassing. You know what it says? They picked fig leaves and they sowed them together. The only tree named in the Bible would eventually become a symbol of blessing. In some ways, it would become a, a symbol for the entire nation of Israel in some ways in the Bible, but it begins as a symbolic expression of sinfulness.

So Jesus tells a story about a fig tree. A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He then told the vineyard worker, listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down. Why should it waste?

Why should it even waste the soil? But he replied to him, the gardener did, sir, leave it? This year also until I dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down. Very strange parable in some ways, but probably the simplest way. You don't want to allegorize parables, but this one seems simple.

The owner is a representation of God, the father, the tree. It's a representative of perhaps the nation of Israel or an entire nation of other people, but probably best understood as a reference to each and all of us as people, as sinners, and the gardener. The keeper of the garden is probably an illusion to Jesus.

Very interesting that the frustrated owner is ready to do away with this tree that is using up needed resources. But the gardener, an allusion to Jesus says, no, wait, let's, let's wait some more time. Let's give it another year. Let's nurture this. And the tree itself is an either an allusion to the nation of Israel that by and large, not everyone, but by and large, is rejecting their Messiah or to unrepentant sinners who refuse to accept and embrace him as the savior.

What is the point? Well, it's like unto the first point, repentance is urgent, but it is in this moment still available. We don't know how long it may be available, but we do know that there is a day when Jesus is coming again and when Jesus comes again, the opportunity to seize the moment, the urgent moment of repentance will be gone.

This, the Bible says this is the day of salvation. And we are foolish beyond all measure. If we think, well, I'll get around to that later. I'll get around to it when I get closer to death, I'll get around to it when I feel a greater sense of need. Now, the Bible says, this is the day to turn away from your sin.

This is the day to believe. This is the day to seize the moment to accept God's gift of grace and mercy through Jesus. Accept it now because you don't know when that day of Jesus's return. Will come let it produce in you the fruit of righteousness of holiness, because that's what God's purpose is for us, to give us the life that the Bible calls is real life.

The Bible says in Jesus' famous teaching on math in Matthew five that we would do good works. That would shine a light on the goodness and reality of our father. We know that the Bible says in John 15 using a gardening metaphor yet again, Jesus says by this, by your good works done in faith and in holiness, and humility and repentance toward God, your good works are the thing that will glorify my father and your father.

Father, the early church picked up on that and embraced it so that when Paul is writing to his friends in the church at Ephesus, he says that you are saved by grace, not by your works, not by your efforts, not by your goodness, because you can never be good enough. This is a gift from God so that you can't boast in it, but it is a gift that leads to more gifts.

It leads to you becoming the masterpiece that God always dreamed you could be. That you would do the works, the good things that he planned for you uniquely. Excuse me. Since the foundation of the world, that is the opportunity in front of us now. If we choose to take it. If we choose to take it. It is always Jesus's invitation that this urgent and available.

Gift accessed through faith and repentance is available to us now, and we know what it looks like from the next story when it becomes real to us. He goes on in verse 10 to say this, a strange thing happened on the way to the cross. 

[00:23:57] Healing on the Sabbath

Verse 10, as he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. A woman.

Was there who had been disabled by a spirit for over 18 years? Notice, notice how providentially the stories are wound together. How many people died when the tower of SLO fell? 18. This woman has been stricken, afflicted for 18 years. That's not accidental. Most likely she'd been, she'd been suffering for 18 years.

She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus listen to how simple this is, when Jesus saw her probably in the synagogue of Capernaum there on the north end of the lake, when Jesus saw her, he called out to her woman, you are free from your disability. When he said this, when then he laid his hands on her and instantly she was restored and began to glorify God.

But the leader of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. Responding by telling the crowd. There are six days when work should be done, therefore come on those days and be healed and not on the Sabbath, but the Lord answered him and said, hypocrite. Doesn't each one of you untie his ox or donkey from the feeding trough on the Sabbath and lead it to water?

Satan has bound this woman, a daughter of Abraham for 18 years, so shouldn't she be untied from this bondage on the Sabbath day when he has said these things, all his adversaries were humiliated. The whole crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things he was doing. It's this kind of a situation that propelled those who would not believe in Jesus to become more and more and more enraged to drive him to the cross.

But Jesus, Jesus has come to set us free from those things that bind us. We will believe and repent and follow if we will seize the urgency of the moment and the opportunity available in grace and repentance. If we will seize it, Jesus can set us free. Now just look at how beautiful this story is. Now I gotta tell you kind of like the headlines that Jesus had already dealt with.

The headlines of a violent act of the government against a group of people, a religious political attack upon a group, and also the random just natural disaster of this tower falling and taking the lives of these 18 people. When I read this story, my instant reaction is I wonder if she ever thought, Jesus, why did it take 18 years?

Why, why now? Why not eight days ago or eight years ago, or 18 years ago, I. And you know what? In all three of those situations, Jesus doesn't provide an answer because it is apparent from then till now that your brain and my brain, your heart and my brain and my heart, your soul, and my soul, that we are not capable of comprehending why some of these things happen.

We hope. I think we trust, we believe. Somehow God will make what is totally random, seemingly purposeless and even preventable, like the loss of a 22-year-old man, or the loss of several dozen children at a camp for summer, or a bunch of people that have been taken through a number of different wars in our world today.

Those things, folks are absolutely nonsensical to us and on this occasion and on every occasion, it seems clear that God Dec decided and determined that at least at this moment, at this season, you and I are not capable of understanding and comprehending all of the things that are going on and all of the ways that God is working to redeem what he allows, but faith.

Says that he will. Now, one of the things that ought to capture you about this woman and this story is that she doesn't do anything. She doesn't come to Jesus and ask for help. Nobody brings her to Jesus as some friends had done with a paralyzed man. Nobody advocates on her behalf. She's not like that woman that slips up behind Jesus on one occasion with the idea in her eye, in her mind.

If I can just touch the hymn of Jesus' cloak, I will be healed. A woman who had also suffered for many years, you know the only thing that she did, she showed up for church. Be careful about missing. She showed up for church. Which in and of itself was a very significant step of faith for a person who had been either made ill or perhaps injured through some mechanism of the devil.

Be very clear about this. Jesus is saying, this woman of no fault, of her home, of her own, particularly had become bound by Satan. In some ways, Jesus is alluding to that every bit of the weaknesses and illnesses and and brokenness of our lives is somehow attributed to the devil. It's not the way he wanted the world to work.

It is not the way his new world will work. Jesus is making all things new, but notice he just notices her and he sees her brokenness. In an act of love and power and goodness, Jesus simply heals her, but that's not the main point of this story. As wonderful as it is, the main story is what happens next when the synagogue leader loses his mind over this, you could not find a more powerful word of anger and.

Irritation, then this word that is translated for us indignant. He is outraged that Jesus has broken with tradition and that he has acted in work to help this woman to be restored. He completely looks past the miracle to only see that his tradition has not been kept. As one person said, tradition, when it becomes your idol, tradition is the clock that tells you what time it was.

Not what time it is, what time it was, and she is stuck in that and Jesus calls him out, you hypocrite. Do you not realize that this is a daughter of Abraham That is, she is a person of inherent worth simply because she is a human being. And then he indicts people like this, this synagogue ruler, he says, you treat your animals better than you treat her.

You treat your animals on a Sabbath day better than you treat human beings. And I could go on a long time talking to you about how I've met a number of people over the years who treat their animals better than they treat people. But that would be a whole other sermon. And some of you might get, well, nevermind, let's move on.

But Jesus is calling him out. He needs a repentance that will toil and till the soul of his life to a place where he can see people the way Jesus sees them, where he can come to a place where he has faith that results in true righteousness and fruitfulness to care for people in the ways that Jesus cares for us, because this guy is missing it.

He's so wrapped up in his own understanding of faith. He's so wrapped up in his own attempt to impress God by keeping rules, that he misses the power and the miracle of God, and he misses the people that God wants him to pay attention to. That's one of the things that repentance will do for us. It will give us the eyes, the ears, the feet, and the heart of Jesus to be curious about people.

To be compassionate toward them.

Jesus saw this woman who was afflicted. You know, our church today in America is really good in many ways to respond to an acute and immediate crisis. Somebody's in the hospital, somebody gets sick. We're really good to rally and rush to help people in the moment. We are really pretty lousy as a church to help people who are dealing with affliction.

Affliction means you have a problem or a situation that that just doesn't get fixed. It doesn't get healed. It doesn't get solved for a long time, like 18 years like this woman. And we need to ask God to help us repent and to get better at not just seeing people in the moment but coming alongside them for the long term.

Sometimes, as my pastor used to teach, sometimes Christians get sick or they get injured, and sometimes Christians stay sick or they stay injured for a long time, maybe for the rest of their life. But here's the deal, guys. If you're living a life of repentance and faith and following, you may not be able to bring a cure, but you can bring a level of healing, you can bring a level of comfort.

You can be the redemptive hand of God in these sometimes rather complex and seemingly never ending kind of stories. 

[00:34:26] The Kingdom of God: Mustard Seed and Leaven

Jesus finishes this little moment in his life with two other quick stories about his kingdom. Let's read them very quickly. It says in verse 18, he said, therefore, what is the kingdom of God?

Like, what can I compare it to? It's like a mustard seed that a man took and sewed in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches again. He said, what can I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like leaven that a woman took and mixed with mixed into 50 pounds of flour until it was all leavened.

Jesus is saying that he's up to something and it may not seem obvious to a lot of people. His kingdom is about, it is about a power that may appear subtle, but can literally change everything. It can become a place where people, not just birds, but the birds become a symbol of people of all different kinds in all different nations.

They can find a place to settle, a place of home, a place of peace. And that God is about something that appears insignificant, but eventually pervades everything and if properly received, transforms everything because dough without yeast never rises to become what it can be. That's what those small little miracles or those small little parables mean.

Just two or three years ago, the world, particularly the music world, became captured by an individual. His name is Jason Deford. Jason was off the radar, but had been working a long time to be a songwriter and a singer and a rapper. But whatever happened in the wonderful world of music, just. It just kind of struck lightning back in 2023, this guy Deford, was inspired to try to pursue a career in music by the likes of Johnny Cash and Jim Croci.

If you don't know who Johnny Cash and Jim Croci are, ask one of the more gray headed folks here in the room. But in 2003, lightning struck and the world, particularly the country music world. Discovered a guy who goes by the stage name. Jelly Roll. Jelly Roll has released multiple hits in the last two and a half years.

The most popular one that you'll hear on the radio these days is called Heart of Stone. Sounds very much like something you'd hear in the Bible. Part of the lyric goes like this, I'm wide awake and I'm dreaming. Wondering where and when I fell apart. Dear Lord, can you hear me? I'm shackled in these chains, haunted by the lies of every time I'd said I'd change.

I'm slipping through the shadows. It's weighing on my soul. The lights are shining on me, but there ain't nobody home. I had enough of my demons. Angels only meet you where you are and I'm in the dark Least for now. Lord, I ain't losing hope. That somehow you can make a heart of gold from this heart of stone.

He can do that. I hope he did do that in the heart of a repentant synagogue leader, and he can still do it in our hearts today. If we will offer that prayer of repentance, would you pray with me?

[00:38:19] Final Reflections and Call to Repentance

We ought not to let this moment pass without realizing that repentance and faith, they are the starting blocks of an experience in a life that holds the promise of eternal salvation of a life with Jesus forever in his kingdom. There may be somebody in this room who for the very first time in their life.

Needs to hear and receive and respond to Jesus's invitation that we would turn away, that we would change our mind, and we would turn back to God and away from our own way. If that's you, would you respond to God's spirit in your heart today? Would you tell him that you know that you've been going your own way, that you've been living by your own rules that you've been?

Set on your own direction, but today you're ready to change your mind and humble your heart before him and receive his forgiveness and grace.

I suspect that there are many of us in this room who did that years ago, but we need to be reminded today that the call to confession and repentance. A renewed sense of obedience and following after Jesus is as fresh as the very first time we realized it. And so maybe in these quiet moments before we head to lunch, maybe there's something going on in your life that Jesus has been talking to you about for a while, or maybe just started today, and he's calling you to confess it, to own it, to agree with him about it.

And to change your mind, to repent and to choose his way. Again, father, we're thankful for your love and we're thankful for the grace and mercy that you and Jesus and the Spirit have accomplished for us that is available but yet urgent in this moment. So, God, as we finish our worship time this morning.

May our time with you. Never be finished. Lord, may we have open and receptive and humble hearts that whether it is in this moment or a moment, an hour or more from now, that when you speak to us, we will recognize your voice. And when you call out that which is unholy and ungodly in our lives, that God, we wouldn't run away, we wouldn't.

Turn away. We wouldn't be stubborn, but rather responsive. As children of faith, children of grace, children of hope, children of mercy, and that Lord, you would lead us to a place where we're really ready at any moment to hear your voice of correction, to turn. And to follow you more passionately, more obediently.

Lord, may that be the rhythm of our lives every day as your spirit leads us. In Jesus' name, we pray and everyone said together. Amen. Amen. And let's eat. God bless you. Have a great day.