Behold the Lamb (Pastor Greg Hudson, 10/21/23)

So we're glad everybody's here and we look forward to fellowship and potluck together.

Now, I thank Elder Jaylee for giving me that kind welcome,

but I want to put some faces with some names here.

This is my wife, Jolie, and myself.

This was about last summer.

My son, Brandon, on the left was getting married,

and those are our two daughters, Peyton and Jordan.

So we've been married about almost 15 years.

Our kids are all in their 20s and I had the privilege on the other side there of performing the wedding for my son.

They're up in New Cleveland, Tennessee.

So there is some of us with Isabella,

Brandon's wife at a different wedding.

We tend to gather at weddings, it seems like.

Then there's Jolie with our daughters,

Peyton and Jordan, and there's the two of us.

A couple of weeks ago at Brasstown Ball,

the highest point in Georgia.

Then there we are a couple of years ago,

snorkeling with the manatees down in Florida.

Jolie and I at our anniversary.

Then we mentioned Watson.

Watson is a boy.

I'm not sure why he's dressed like Minnie Mouse in that picture,

but he's a precious little puppy that we appreciate now that our children have moved on out of the house.

So with that, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you.

For a Sabbath morning.

We thank you for a time that we can gather together with new friends and a new church family,

and we can open up your word and we can remind ourselves again of the incredible grace that Jesus has for us.

May we love you more.

May we want to serve you better as we go from this place.

In your name we pray, amen.

So we're going to be spending a lot of the first part of our time.

We're going to be in John chapter one.

John chapter one is where we're going to be.

Many times people if someone says a particular word or a phrase, you get a picture in your head.

We had an amazing children's story about pennies and God we trust.

I was a little worried because as we were sitting on the front row,

I saw several pennies scattered about and I had a fear that I had messed up the whole children's story

because we had picked up those pennies and we're going to put them in the offering basket.

But if you say something like the Fourth of July, we get different images in our head.

Perhaps you get an image of a picnic or fireworks or red, white, and blue.

We get specific images in our head.

If we say the word Christmas, maybe you've got particular customs in your home

and every home has got a little bit different customs.

Do you open presents on Christmas Eve?

Do you open presents on Christmas morning?

But you get some pictures in your head of what's happening.

Well, just this week I was reminded of a phrase that my family has.

And it's a weird phrase, but it's the phrase, this is a weird one.

Monkey suit. Monkey suit.

Now if I say monkey suit to you, you probably picture someone dressed up like a monkey

or maybe dressed up like Bigfoot or something.

But in my family, we have a story that maybe it's legend, but it's an actual story.

But maybe it's grown to legend proportion of the monkey suit.

And I posted this week online that this was going to be my first week pastoring in Ringgold

and Rossville.

And the next day I got a text message from my aunt, Aunt Judy.

And Aunt Judy said, you know, Greg, that your Uncle George and I were married

in the Ringgold Church.

And I was in that wedding in 1975.

And I talked to some people here this morning who perhaps were members

at that time, George and Judy Amos.

And she said, and we were members of that church for the first three years of our marriage.

And when she told me that, I said, you got to send me a picture of the monkey suit.

Because whenever our family gathered together at Thanksgiving or whatever it was

and told stories of the past, inevitably the monkey suit came up.

Now what is this monkey suit picture?

Now they were on vacation so they couldn't send me the picture of the entire wedding party.

But she was able to send me a picture of my Uncle George.

And then there's little Greg, almost three years old, in a monkey suit.

Now what happened was my grandpa on that day, he made me cry is how the story goes.

Because he kind of jokingly said, haha, you've got to wear a monkey suit at the wedding.

And I said, I don't want to wear a monkey suit.

And so I cried and cried that morning, but they finally got me to wear the little tux.

And looking at the picture, my aunt said it was in front of the stained glass.

I think it's a different stained glass, but it's maybe about right about here.

That picture was taken.

And I didn't realize I had been in this church before.

But that's just in our family when you say the word monkey suit,

that's the story that comes to mind.

In John chapter 1, John the Baptist says a phrase,

John 1 · chapter mention

he tells a story that is one of those universal memory words.

Now we're going to pick up the story in John chapter 1 in verse 23.

John 1 · chapter mention

And so John the Baptist was there baptizing people by the Jordan River.

In fact, a few weeks before he had baptized Jesus.

And that story is told in scripture, a voice from heaven comes down,

behold, this is my beloved son, and whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him.

But then Jesus had kind of disappeared.

He had removed himself from the scene.

He had removed himself from the situation.

And people didn't know where he was.

Now we know where he was, because as we've read the scriptures,

we know that following the leading, it even says driven by the Holy Spirit,

Jesus was in the wilderness.

And how long was Jesus in the wilderness for?

40 days.

And what was he doing there?

He was fasting.

And so there was this disappearance of Jesus,

and most people didn't know where he was.

And so in the meantime, the leaders are asking John the Baptist, who are you?

What is your ministry about?

What are you doing here?

And this was some of his response in verse 23.

He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

So he was saying, I'm here to prepare the way for someone else.

And they ask him a little bit more, are you the Christ?

Are you Elijah?

Are you one of the prophets?

And this is what he said in verse 26.

He said, John answered saying, I baptize with water,

but there stands one among you whom you do not know.

It is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap

I am not worthy to loose.

So John the Baptist is saying, I'm here.

People are coming to me, but I'm not the important one.

There's someone coming after me who's more important.

And in fact, in one place he says, Jesus must increase, and I must decrease.

And what a story that is, if we would all say that in our heart.

And so John the Baptist is there, and he's

proclaiming this message that Jesus is soon to come.

But suddenly, there he was.

Jesus was back.

The 40 days in the wilderness had passed,

and Jesus was back into the presence of John the Baptist.

Now imagine, he's been fasting outside in a cave in the open for 40 days.

Have you ever been sick, or known someone who was sick, maybe had the flu

or whatever, and you see them, and you say, whoa, are you all right?

Are you OK?

I've been sick.

I've been under the weather for a few days.

And you can notice in just 24 or 48 hours,

you can see someone who is feeling a little bit different.

Now imagine Jesus 40 days in the wilderness, how different he must have looked.

Just a week ago, last Sunday, I was able to participate up in Chattanooga

in the Seven Bridges Marathon.

Except I did not do the Seven Bridges Marathon.

I did the Four Bridges Half Marathon.

It's half the distance, so 13 miles.

So I ran 13 miles.

I'm not very fast.

My goal was to beat two hours and 15 minutes, which is a little bit over 10

minutes a mile, like 10 minutes and 10 seconds per mile.

I'd only done one other half marathon, and I was at two hours and 20 minutes.

So I was hoping I could do a little bit faster.

And as the race started last Sunday morning, I was keeping ahead of that pace.

They actually have a runner that carries a little flag that says 215.

And her goal, if you stick with her, you're going to get two hours and 15 minutes.

So I was trying to stay ahead of her.

I didn't want to be by her.

I wanted to be ahead of her.

And then there was one place where there was a hill.

And I'd planned on walking this hill, because I knew it was a little steep.

But as I was walking up this hill, about mile 12, here she comes.

I'm like, oh no.

And she got a little bit ahead of me.

But I kept her in sight.

And then when we got to the top of that hill, I started running.

I was able to catch up with her.

And then in the last little bit, I passed her.

And I came across in two hours and 14 minutes and a few seconds after that.

But as I came through, we took some pictures.

And my wife took some pictures.

So there I was.

And a friend of mine, Rick Grieve, one of the ministerial directors, he was there.

And he saw me.

He's like, Greg, are you OK?

You need to sit down.

And I'm like, oh, I'm going to find Jolie.

Oh, OK.

And so I got with Jolie.

And Rick's like, you need to sit down.

And so, OK, I'll sit in this chair.

I'll catch my breath and drink my Gatorade.

I sat down.

Some friends of ours had a booth.

They happen to have a medical clinic.

And they're like, are you OK?

Do you need an IV?

I'm like, no, I just need some Gatorade.

But apparently, even after just running two miles,

I looked in serious need of medical help.

I looked like I needed an IV.

I did not get the IV.

But imagine Jesus, 40 days of fasting, no longer an in-shape carpenter.

But how much different must he have looked?

As he comes back, John the Baptist is there.

There's a crowd of people.

And notice in verse 29 what John the Baptist says.

It says, the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,

behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

And immediately, there was that memory phrase

that everybody in that crowd, everybody who had grown up

in that community, everybody who had memorized

the law and the prophets, what we would call the Old Testament,

they began to think of what that meant, the Lamb of God.

And that image kind of weaves together all the pages

of what we would call the Old Testament.

And so we're going to take just a couple minutes today.

And we're not going to be able to dig in fully.

But we want to examine what this phrase means

when John the Baptist says,

behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

So the very first place we're going to go now

is back to Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And we'll try to have some verses on the screen each week.

But I would definitely encourage you bring your own Bibles,

look up your own Bibles, whether it's one with pages,

whether it's one on a screen, because that makes a huge difference

when you're looking up the verses for yourself

and reading them for yourself.

But in Genesis chapter 3, we find the story of Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Now Genesis 1 and 2 tells us the story of creation,

and God creates this Garden of Eden, a perfect place.

But then in chapter 3, here comes the serpent,

here comes the deceiver, here comes Satan,

and here comes the first challenge, the first temptation, the first test.

And Adam and Eve were tempted and ended up disobeying God.

And what was their temptation?

What were they supposed to not do?

Eat fruit from one particular tree.

There was a bunch of other trees that they could eat from,

but there was one, and it seems like, from my reading of Scripture,

that that tree was basically like all the other trees.

Didn't look different, didn't have poisoned fruit.

The thing that was different is that God said,

nope, that's not the one.

That was the one thing that God placed His certainty in that,

and we need to obey the Word of God and listen to what God says,

even if it seems like it's a small thing.

But Adam and Eve did not do that.

They were succumbed to that temptation.

And so they had been told that if they ate the fruit,

the result was going to be what?

Death.

They were going to be, they were going to die.

Now we know from the story that in that moment, on that day,

they did not die.

But that began the process that resulted in their death years later.

But something did die.

And in fact, if we go to Genesis 3 verse 21, it says,

Genesis 3:21

Also, for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them.

And so while Adam and Eve did not die that day,

something died because of what they had done.

Something died in their place to clothe them from their nakedness,

to clothe them from the change that had taken place.

And from the very beginning, we begin to see that at times,

something dies in place of the person that deserves to die.

Adam and Eve were the ones that messed up, but something else died in their place.

Similar story, we're not going to read the verses,

but in Exodus chapter 12, the children of Israel are in bondage in Egypt.

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

God sends Moses, let my people go.

Time and time again, Moses proclaims, let my people go.

And Pharaoh, sometimes he says yes, sometimes he says no.

He keeps flip-flopping, changing his mind.

And finally, there begins to be plagues, and there's going to be one more plague.

This Passover angel is going to Passover, and they're told to do something.

They're told to have a sacrifice.

They're told to take some branches and to paint the door post,

the lintel in the post of the door with blood.

So something was going to die.

And then as the Passover angel came, as they saw that blood on the door post,

the Passover angel passed over those homes.

And the Egyptians and those who hadn't put the blood in place,

the firstborn died in that tenth plague.

So something died in place of someone else.

It's also seen, it's kind of codified through the sanctuary and the tabernacle service,

and then later in the temple.

And that's in Leviticus chapter 5.

Leviticus 5 · chapter mention

We'll go ahead and read this one.

Leviticus 5 and verse 5.

It says, and it shall be when he is guilty in any of these matters,

this is just one of the verses, we could have read some other ones.

Leviticus 5 verse 5.

Leviticus 5:5

It shall be when he is guilty in any of these matters,

that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing,

and he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin,

which he has committed.

And then it goes on and says,

so the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin.

So if I am the sinner, I bring an animal from my flock,

and that animal dies for my sin.

I'm the one that messed up.

I'm the one that sinned, but that lamb is the one that dies in my place.

There's a story we can look at as well.

Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

Go back just a few pages.

This is the story of Abraham.

Abraham, who numerous times, about eight different times,

Abraham heard the voice of God, the actual voice of God,

spoke to Abraham and gave him different directions,

about eight times, and this is one of those times.

And if Abraham had not heard the voice of God so many times before,

he would be okay, I think, maybe to wonder if this was really the voice of God.

But he knew what the voice of God sounded like.

They had a relationship that God would speak to Abraham,

and Abraham would respond.

And so in Genesis 22 verse 1, it says,

Genesis 22:1

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham

and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.

And then this is the test.

Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,

and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering

on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

So picture this.

Let's consider what's happening here.

So there's Abraham, and he has a son, and God names him.

Take your son, your only son Isaac.

Let's pause right there.

Was Isaac Abraham's only son?

No, Abraham had another son.

He had a son named Ishmael who was several years older.

But Isaac was the son of the promise.

God had told Abraham years before,

You're going to have a son through your wife, Sarah.

Sarah, you're going to have a son.

And Isaac was the son of the promise.

And by this time, Ishmael had already been sent away.

He had sent him away a little bit before that.

And so this was the son of the promise, the son who was at home.

And then God makes sure, this is extra challenging.

He says, take your son.

Oh, by the way, he's your only son.

Oh, don't forget, he's the son whom you love.

And go and offer him as a burnt offering.

Something that God had never before, had never since proclaimed.

And yet Abraham knew the voice of God and responded to that.

It says they got up early the next day, verse 3.

They started off, some people like to say they got up early.

So they didn't have to explain this to mama.

They could just get out of there before mama started to ask any questions.

But verse 6, it says, so Abraham, they got to where they were going.

A couple days later, Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering.

And laid it on Isaac his son.

And he took the fire in his hand, probably in a brass pot or something.

And a knife, and the two of them went together.

So they got to the base of the mountain.

They left the servants there.

And we have a father and his son, his only begotten son, with wood upon his back,

beginning to make his way up the hill towards a place of sacrifice.

That's an image that maybe we see other places in scripture.

But Isaac was no dummy.

And he knew that something was missing.

And in verse 7 it says, but Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, my father.

And he said, here I am, my son.

And Isaac said, look, here, the fire, you've got the fire.

And the wood, I've got the wood on my back.

But we're missing something.

We've got the fire, we've got the wood, we've got the knife.

But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

If we're going to offer a sacrifice, we're missing a key ingredient here.

We're missing the lamb.

And notice what Abraham says in verse 8.

Abraham said, my son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.

And so the two of them went together.

God will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering.

There are some versions that if you read it, you could read it as God will provide himself

as a lamb for the burnt offering.

But the key is that God is providing something.

And the two of them went on together.

God is going to provide the lamb.

And so Abraham, who was raised in a pagan city, who was raised in a center of idolatry,

where he had been surrounded by people who offered sacrifices to multiple gods, probably

even offered some of their own children to these multiple gods, this Abraham, who was

raised in this center of idolatry, is about to get an incredible lesson in the free gift

of grace.

God is going to provide the lamb.

And so there's a picture of this only son with wood upon his back going up the mountain

to lay down his life in sacrifice.

And Abraham was old at this point.

Isaac was young.

Notice what it says in verse 9.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him.

And Abraham built an altar there.

That took a little bit of time, stacking up some stones, gathering the stones, making

sure everything stood up.

He placed the wood in order.

That took a little bit of time.

And then it says he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Abraham's over 100 years old.

Isaac could have pushed him back down the mountain, could have gotten on the donkey

and rode away.

But Isaac was willing to allow himself to be bound by his elderly father to lay down

upon this altar, waiting for the next blow to come.

And so you can almost picture it here as it says Abraham stretched out his hand and took

the knife.

And I can see it with, there's some trembling there.

There's some hesitation there.

He doesn't know what's coming next.

He tells us in Hebrews that he expects, this is the son of the promise, that he expects

at least Isaac's going to be resurrected from the dead.

He doesn't know how this is going to play out.

And he's there ready to plunge that knife, ready to sacrifice his own son.

And as his hand is raised up, God's hand reaches down from heaven and says, whoa, stop.

Notice what comes next in verse 11.

It says the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, here I am,

here I am, I'm here.

What do you want me to do?

Not this, surely not this God.

And he said in verse 12, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him for now I

know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.

That's it.

That's the answer.

You have, you were willing to give everything and now something is going to take the place.

Notice the very next verse, verse 13, Abraham lifted his eyes and looked and there behind

him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns.

So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his

son.

That's the key right there.

This ram was offered instead of his son.

And so each time we see this lamb of God, we see something instead of the one who was

guilty, something instead of the one who had messed up, the one who had had sinned.

And so we see this ram being offered instead of the son.

And Abraham appreciated that obviously.

And he called the name of the place Jehovah Jireh, Jireh.

I'm not sure exactly how to say that, but it means the Lord will provide.

As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.

And that is this picture of grace.

I want to go to one more place in the Old Testament.

Isaiah.

Isaiah, this isn't a story.

This is a prophecy.

And it's looking forward.

Isaiah 53.

If you've read Isaiah 53, some of you may have memorized some verses in there.

And it's looking forward.

It's referring to someone as the suffering servant.

Isaiah 53 is all about the suffering servant.

We're going to read one of these verses.

It's one of my wife's favorite verses.

But throughout Isaiah 53, it's talking about this one who is going to take the place of

others.

And any Bible scholar would say, yes, this is obviously talking about Jesus.

This is a prophecy looking forward to Jesus.

And we're just going to read a couple of the verses here.

Verse seven.

He was oppressed, the suffering servant, which is pointing towards Jesus.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

He was led as a, as a what?

As a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its sheers is silent, so he, so Jesus,

opened not his mouth.

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.

And if we go back just a couple of verses to verse five.

This is a verse my wife likes a lot.

Verse, Isaiah 53 verse five.

But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement for our peace was upon him.

And by his stripes or by his wounds, we are healed.

Now we're in a group right here.

We're in a church.

We're reading together.

And so we can say, you know, we can say he was wounded for our transgressions, for our

transgressions, this group.

But if you're reading it by yourself, I think it's okay.

I think it's still biblical to change that just a little bit from a, from a plural to

a singular.

And you can read it like, but he was wounded for my transgressions.

He was wounded for all of our transgressions.

And I'm part of that.

He was wounded for my transgressions.

He was bruised for my iniquities.

And the chastisement for my peace was upon him.

By his wounds, I am healed.

And that's what it's all about.

When John the Baptist says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,

that's what it's all about.

That the wounds that Jesus received on the cross were to bring us healing, to bring us

forgiveness, to bring us peace.

Now this is our first week together.

And so in the, in the weeks ahead, the months ahead, the years ahead, however it's going

to be, this is what we're going to be talking about.

Yeah.

We're going to talk about prophecies.

We'll talk about Sabbath.

We'll talk about what happens when somebody dies.

We'll talk about the craziness of the world.

But above all, we want to talk about this Jesus who was the lamb of God.

And so I want today just real quick to look at some basics, some very basics.

Now you may remember Colton did an awesome job reading the scripture.

I think he said you were in kindergarten, right?

First grade.

He's in first grade.

So when Colton was learning to read, they did not give him, you know, Webster's dictionary

to begin to learn to read.

They did not give him the complete works of Shakespeare.

They did not even give him the Bible to begin to learn to read.

You can remember back to kindergarten and preschool, you had a sheet of paper.

You probably had a big chubby pencil because your fingers couldn't hold the normal size

pencil.

You had a sheet of paper and it had a bunch of dots on it.

And if you traced those dots, you could get an A. And there's probably a full line.

And you took practice tracing that line to draw that A, to draw that A. And maybe by

the end of the page, hopefully, or the end of the week, you could draw that A all by

yourself and you didn't need the dots anymore.

And then you got the next page.

What do you think was on the next page?

B, the next letter.

And then the next page would have been C. And before you began to read, you know, about

a passage at church, you had to learn the ABCs.

And so, real quick, I want to remind us of the ABCs of what this means that Jesus died

for our sins.

So real quick, Romans 323.

If anybody asks you, what do I have to do to be saved?

ABC, here you go.

Romans 323.

It says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So there's your A right there.

All have sinned.

Have I sinned?

Yes, you can say that loudly.

I have sinned.

Have you sinned?

Yes, has everybody in this room sinned?

Yes, we have all sinned.

And if you turned one page over from there to Romans 623, it would say, the wages of

sin is death.

We've all sinned.

We all deserve to die.

But thankfully, the very next part of Romans 623 says, but we have a gift of God, which

is eternal life through Christ Jesus.

So we can say, A, all have sinned.

We've all sinned.

We all deserve to die.

That's the A. John 1.29.

That's the one we've been looking at today.

That was the one our scripture was.

The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who

takes away the sin of the world.

Now, if you're in the NIV, it says, look, the Lamb of God.

But in the King James and the New King James, the ABC still plays out.

So all have sinned, but behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

We all have messed up.

We all deserve to die.

But look, behold.

There's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And we said there was ABC, so there's one more.

There's several verses we could use.

Oh, I forgot this part.

It says, behold, the Lamb of God.

We need to remind ourselves that it's not about a human.

It's not about a barnyard creature.

When it says, behold, the Lamb of God, in John 1.29, if we go just a few verses before

that, still in John chapter 1, to the very opening verses of John chapter 1, it says,

John 1 · chapter mention John 1 · chapter mention

in the beginning was the Word.

And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made.

So this Word was with God in the beginning, this Word was God, this Word was involved

in creation.

And then you can skip down in that very same chapter to verse 14, and it says, the Word

became flesh and dwelt among us.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.

The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

And so when we talk about, behold, the Lamb of God, it's not about a human who's down

here just doing good things.

It's not about some divine thing that's just up there.

It's about the Creator of the world, who left the glories of heaven to come and be with

us to live a perfect life and to die in our place.

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

And now we can come to the sea, Matthew 11, 28.

This is an invitation from Jesus, where Jesus says, come unto me, all you who labor and

are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

So we've got the fact that we're all sinners, we've got the fact that Jesus left the glories

of heaven, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and then we've

got an invitation to come to Him.

And so here's a little quiz.

I used to be a teacher for a little while at Georgia Cumberland Academy.

What's A?

All I've sinned.

All right, very good.

B, behold the Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world.

And then what's the invitation?

Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden.

Good news.

Good news you passed the quiz.

Good news that Jesus died to take away all of our sins.

And so we can trace the story from Eden to the sanctuary service to a story on a mountaintop,

a lamb died.

But now we remember that Jesus died to take away my sins, to take away your sins, to take

away our sins.

And the key is now left with us.

Have we confessed those sins?

Have we accepted that free gift that God has given us?

Have we laid our sins upon Jesus?

Have we said, Lamb of God, take away my sins?

So as we begin our journey together, Sabbath after Sabbath, this is what we're going to

be talking about.

This Jesus who died to take away our sins.

Because that's the key.

Because in this world, you watch the news and things are crazy.

You look at your own reflection and you think of the times that you have fallen short.

You think of challenges that you're facing, our loved ones are facing.

You just don't know how you can make it through, how you can carry on.

We're almost to the end of 2023.

What's going to happen in 2024?

And sometimes it seems overwhelming that day by day we can remember what Jesus has done

for us.

We can remember that we can trust in Him.

I want to tell one more story.

Has anybody seen this building before?

It's about two miles from here.

If you go just down the road, go through the gap, and there it is.

The old stone church.

I've driven by that church probably a hundred times at least between Calhoun and Collage

Dale and I had never stopped there.

I'd seen it, I knew it was some historic church and about, I don't know, over the summer

I was reading a book about the Battle of Chickamauga and it said something about, oh there's a

stone church in Ringgold that had been used as a hospital.

I'm like, I bet that's that church.

And so the next time, this was probably two months ago, I happened to be driving by and

I was like, I'm going to stop.

I pulled in.

It was locked up so I didn't get to go inside.

I still haven't been inside but apparently during the battle it was used as a hospital

for both sides at different points in time and they say there's some blood stains still

on the floor from taking care of the wounded there.

And I knew that part of the story but what I didn't know was that if you read the plaque

on the outside of the building, this church is historical for another reason.

After the Civil War, there was a gentleman by the name of A.J.

Showalter in 1887 and he was a hymn seller.

He sold hymnals, hymn books and he had an office in Dalton, he had an office in Chattanooga

and he also wrote a song and there was a hymn that was sung for the very first time at that

old stone church that's about two miles from here.

Anybody have a guess what that hymn is?

It happens to be our closing hymn of the day, 469, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms and what

a promise is we remember what Jesus has done for us that we can trust in him to forgive

us for our sins that even though we have all sinned, even though we all deserve death,

we can behold the Lamb of God who takes away those sins and we can respond to that invitation

to come to him and he's going to give us rest.

We can lean on his everlasting arms each and every day.

Let's bow our heads for prayer and then we'll sing.

Dear God, what a privilege and an honor it is to serve you.

God forgive us for the times that we have fallen short.

Forgive us for the times that we have been distracted and God help us to lean upon you.

Help us to each to once again accept you as our Lord and Savior, to cast our sins upon

you and to accept your invitation to come to you and receive the rest that you want

to give us.

God thank you for all you do.

In your name we pray, amen.