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Good morning, good to be with you today. See you all made it out in a little bit of fog and rain. We'll take that over snowstorms, right? Although we're still early in the winter, so I know some of that's still coming.

But I'm glad you're here today. I hope you had a good week, and I hope that this was a time that you could reflect upon the meaning of the seasons that we have today.

This is sort of the in-between time, this weird time where, because I think we had a service on Christmas Eve, I found myself yesterday, last night, saying, is it really Sunday tomorrow?

And here we are. But it's really good to be with all of you and to be a part of this spiritual family. We all know families and friends and gatherings come with ups and downs and joys and sorrows and sometimes some trials.

So we're glad to have you here this morning as a part of this imperfect, at times a little dysfunctional, but grace-filled family, right? We are a grace-filled family.

So I want to invite you to God's Word today. If you'd like to find the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, but before you say, really, are we doing Luke 2?

Luke 2 · chapter mention

It's after Christmas. I'm going to ask you to go all the way down to nearly the end of the chapter and join me in verse 40. Verse 40. I'm going to read the next 12 verses, and I'd like to take a look at a unique moment in the life of this Savior

who was born in this moment about 12 years before this. Jesus is a 12-year-old boy. So let me begin reading for us in verse 40. I'll read through verse 52.

And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Now, his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.

And when he was 12 years old, they went according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy, Jesus, stayed behind in Jerusalem.

His parents did not know it. But supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey. But when they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.

After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.

And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.

And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Will you pray with me one more time? Father, we come here this morning and Lord, we sit ourselves at your feet to listen to your word. We want your word to teach us.

Father, we come here on the very last Sunday of a year, another year, and we don't know what is up ahead. Father, we don't know what 2026 will hold, but we know that you hold it.

Father, some of us right now are walking through some darkness, walking through some dark times. Some of us, Lord, have been facing sickness and other physical ailments.

Others of us have different kinds of pressures. Lord, I pray that you would help us to fix our eyes on Jesus. He is the author and the perfecter of the faith that we have.

And Lord, we know that he went to the cross for us, that he scorned its shame, and now he reigns victorious with you in heaven. And so, Lord, we know that we are in your care.

We pray that you would work in us to develop what you want to grow this week, this next week, and in the coming months and year. And we pray this in the name of our Savior, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You know, I suppose there are worse things than a precocious 12-year-old boy. Right? Think about that for a minute. Like losing track of the precocious 12-year-old boy, only to find him after three days of looking for him.

And then having to listen to him essentially kind of talk back to you when you ask him, where have you been? Do you realize how worried we were?

But listen, here's the thing. I want you to try your hardest to distance that from your mind. Okay? That is not what we have here. Because things like back talking to your parents, or showing disrespect, or having disregard for their concerns or their feelings.

Listen, all that would be sinful behavior. And what do we know about Jesus? He is not sinful. So there is no back talk here. There's nothing sinful here in the boy Jesus, not even 12-year-old boy Jesus.

He is completely sinless. But granted that, we have to admit this is an interesting story in the life of Jesus for a lot of reasons. For starters, it is the first time recorded in the Gospels where Jesus speaks.

The baby Jesus wasn't talking. Okay? No babbling in the manger. I mean, maybe he cried. Although the song says no crying. But I think he did cry.

But we know that he went on to learn to talk, learn words from his parents, and he's now 12 years old. But this is the very first time that we have recorded words of Jesus.

The other thing about this episode, this moment, is that, you know, it's kind of easy to envision baby Jesus, right? Maybe it's because of all the nativities and the Christmas scenes and manger scenes.

It's not hard to envision Jesus as a baby. It's also not very hard to envision Jesus as an adult because that's pretty much what we have for three full Gospels.

We have an adult, 30-year-old, 30-plus-year-old Jesus walking around Galilee and Judea teaching and healing and doing all the things that we know Jesus did.

But this version here today, what is this? We have here the gangly, pre-teen Jesus, right? The pre-teen Jesus who is smart enough and developed enough to talk and interact with his parents and even go to the temple and talk and interact

with the teachers of the law here. but we also know that he's not ready yet for his mission. The mission has not started. He is not out of the gate yet.

We know that doesn't happen until he's about 30 years old. Well, verse 40 is a pretty important verse because it really kind of sets the stage for us.

Luke tells us what? That this child, the baby that was just at the temple, the baby grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

What Luke means to tell us is that Jesus is developing well. He's gone through all the well baby checks, right? With the doctors in Nazareth.

No, they didn't have that. But he is doing well. He's growing up into what is a delightful, energetic, I'm sure curious young man whom others would, I'm sure, say that Jesus is wise beyond his years.

Now as we move from verses 40 to verse 41, I want you to try to imagine like, you know when you're watching a program and the screen goes to black and then the lights come back up and it's a new scene, that's kind of what we have here.

And picture this, it's an extended family in a caravan, traveling on the road, making what will be an 80 plus mile trip, it's not a small trip, it'll be three, four days journey, to go from up north in Nazareth, down, actually up because the elevation you climb, but we say down

to Jerusalem, the big bustling metropolis and why, where are they going and why at this time? Well, we're told right away it's the feast of the Passover.

This is their Christmas and New Year's and Easter and 4th of July all wrapped into one, it's that big. It's the biggest of the three festivals, Passover, Pentecost, Feast of Booths, but Passover is the biggest of them all.

Why? Because it is the commemoration of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. But by Jesus' day here, although Jewish law required men to travel to Jerusalem for these big three festivals, there had been some modifications that the rabbis had made and so now

the requirement was for every Jewish adult male to make this trip to Jerusalem a pilgrimage once per year and they all chose the Passover, of course.

And so here we have Jesus' family, again, traveling together in a caravan because it's safer that way, safety in numbers, taking three, maybe four days to get down to Jerusalem.

And right off the bat, Luke tips us off on a couple of very interesting, very noticeable features about Jesus' family and it's their piety. He points to their piety.

They are a very faithful family because the requirement was that only the man had to go, only Joseph is required and yet Mary's coming along too.

And Luke mentions that both of these parents went not only on this particular year when Jesus was 12, it was their custom to go up every year.

And further yet, as a testimony to the family's strong faith is how long they stay. The typical Jewish family would stay maybe two, three days of the Passover, but not this family.

Jesus' family stays the full seven days of the feast. And what's especially significant about this year, of course, is that Jesus is 12. It's the year before he turns the all-important age of 13 because at 13, according to Jewish tradition, a boy was considered

a son of the covenant. 13 was the year where every Jewish boy slash man became responsible before the Lord. In fact, many modern-day Jews still celebrate the Bar Mitzvah at 13.

So, we understand that what Mary and Joseph are doing is they're getting Jesus ready. It was typical to bring the 12-year-old so that you could say, okay, all this is going to become real for you next year.

You will go through the ceremony and you will become responsible as a man before God. You know, I think about these parents here, Jesus' parents, and I don't think we should just wink at this or move past this too quickly to see that Jesus came from a very pious and faithful family,

a family that really prioritized their faith and the customs of their faith. You know, that's no small thing. They went as a faithful family by custom to keep the observances that their faith required of them.

It reminds us that custom is not necessarily bad. It's very in vogue these days to give religion a bad rap, right? Take a look in Scripture.

Read the book of James and see what it says about religion. It speaks actually well of it. Now, a dead and empty religion that's only customs and rituals and going through the motions, that's of course not good.

We want faith inside of it, but customs and practices themselves are not bad. Here they are, Mary and Joseph making this pilgrimage. There they were, Mary and Joseph.

I'm sure every week in the Nazareth synagogue, there they were sitting, worshiping as faithful Jews, raising up Jesus to know the law. And here they're making this yearly pilgrimage a priority.

And remember, this is three to four days journey. This is not easy. This is not convenient. This is costly. It's an investment for them to make this trip.

They are not wealthy people, but their relationship with God was a priority. And you know, maybe being the last Sunday of the year, as we look ahead to 2026, maybe this is a good challenge or a good reaffirmation for some of us.

As you, and maybe if you have a spouse or a family, as you think about what your priorities are going to be in this upcoming year, what your priorities as a family are going to be, are you challenged at all?

Because, listen, I don't have to tell you that the world will vie for all of your attention if you'll give it. The world will ask for all of your investment, all manner of things from you, from your family members.

It will fill up your schedule for you. A million things will pull at you. And so maybe just give a little thought quickly to what we're seeing from this faithful family right here.

Well, in any case, the family, they come. They stay. We're not told anything especially noteworthy about the week other than that they stay until the very end, the last day.

And here's where the real story starts on the return trip. Take a look, middle of verse 43. As they were returning, Luke writes, the boy, Jesus, stayed behind in Jerusalem.

his parents did not know it. Now, I don't know about you and your family, but I think almost every family has a story, right, of somebody getting left behind.

Right? Maybe it's at the church. I mean, we'll keep them safe, but we're going to call you. You're going to have to come get that kid. Maybe it's at an event somewhere, a big gathering.

Hopefully it's not at the store or the mall, but usually it's a larger family, you know. I mean, if you have one kid and you leave your kid behind, we need to talk.

If you've got five or six or seven or ten, well, okay. It's not that we don't love you, it's just that you got overlooked and left if you've been that child.

But for me personally, we've left a lot of things, a lot of places. I mean, I've left all the glasses and contacts and everything. We would travel to see family when we lived far away from both sides.

We always left something. But we never left a kid. Thankfully. Came close a couple times, but we never actually left a kid. And now they're old enough that they can either get in their car and drive home or call an Uber, which is great.

So, we're through it. But Jesus gets left behind, doesn't he? Jesus, think about that. Jesus gets left behind. Oh, well. Tim LaHaye. Anyway.

Jesus gets left behind, but it seems that Jesus is okay with it. When he's found, he's not panicking, he's not worried, he's not crying. He seems more than okay with it.

Jesus is occupying himself quite well. But that's not where the story really is. The story is back with Mary and Joseph, and here's what happens.

We're told in verse 44 that they supposed him to be in their company, meaning in the caravan. Again, innocent enough. In fact, it's a bit of speculation, but it stands to reason that they had probably done this drill before with the caravan of relatives and friends from Nazareth, and taking a trip

on this extended caravan. It would be quite natural for the kids to want to be together, and we can presume that's probably what he said to them.

Mom, Dad, I want to ride with somebody else, and that the years previous, because remember, they went every year. The years previous, Jesus always goes with his cousins or whomever, wants to ride with someone else, and so here they are.

They stop for the night. I imagine Mary and Joseph, this is again speculation, but I imagine they probably saw Jesus at breakfast, right? Everybody's up for breakfast and still in the city of Jerusalem.

They see him hanging out with his friends and cousins there. They presume that he's somewhere in the caravan. Only trouble is, come nightfall, when it's time to stop and set up camp, it's like, hey Mary, have you seen Jesus?

Mary says, well, I thought, Joseph, I thought you knew where he was. Oh, he's probably with some of his cousins here somewhere. Let's go check.

Oh no, we can't find him. And before very long, there is some very real alarm in Mary and Joseph. I think every parent can relate to this. It's this feeling when a little bit of tension, some surprise that you can't find a child, gives way to concern concern,

gives way to worry and it's not long before you're in a flat out panic and that's where they are. The only trouble is, the other thing is where they are.

They are a full day out, probably in excess of 20 miles out of the city of Jerusalem on their way back and what that means is it's going to take a full day.

You don't travel at night so they're going to go to sleep and you better believe they didn't sleep well. They're going to go to sleep and get up as soon as the sun rises and they're going to travel all day the next day, day two, to get back to the city.

Can you imagine what the conversation must have been like with Mary and Joseph? What have you done? What have we done? We lost the son of God.

We thought he was with his cousins, Lord. Here they are, three days later. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of questions right now at this point in the story.

I'm like, what was Jesus doing? Like, was somebody feeding him? Where was he sleeping? Did he scrounge for food in the temple courts? You know, beg?

Did some nice teacher of the law take him home for the night? You know, and assume maybe the parents will show up at some point. Luke doesn't tell us any of that.

All we know is that come the third day they finally find Jesus and where? Where do they find him? Verse 46, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers.

Now, please understand, this is not typical for children to be around the scribes and teachers of the law. They had their students. You know, they were the rabbis.

They had their followers. They were not 12-year-old kids. Nevertheless, here's Jesus. And this is not like, you know, a university in a formal classroom where it's this, like, you know, one-way instruction.

No. This is more like, today we would say, like, if you're in the humanities and you go to grad school, you do these dialogues, you know, you sit together and you're now, you know, pulling your learning and challenging each other.

That's what Jesus is doing. He's probably either in the temple's house of instruction or more likely just simply outside in the portico, Solomon's portico area, where it was common for this kind of thing to be happening.

And we don't even know at what point during the third day he's found. Is it morning? Do they find him right away? Does it take a little bit into the afternoon?

It could even be the next evening. We don't know. But they finally find their 12-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy, and what's he doing? Is he playing with the neighborhood kids in Jerusalem?

You know, is he, I don't know, throwing rocks at dogs and birds like 12-year-old boys might do in the first century? No. They find the boy Jesus sitting among the theological scholars of the day, sitting with the PhDs as it were, listening to them

and asking them questions. Now, a couple things to understand. First off, it would typically be the rabbis who would do the asking, the questioning, and then the students would respond.

But in Jesus' case right here, there's a couple of very unusual, very noticeable things happening. For one, Luke says, in verse 47, that all who heard him were amazed at his understanding.

All who heard him. Not just the fellow students, not just the fellow listeners, not just the curious passers-by who would like to sort of eavesdrop and listen in.

Everybody, meaning the rabbis too. The scholars are also impressed. In fact, Luke says, they are amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Here's the other thing. Notice in verse 46 that Jesus is not just listening and answering. He's also asking them questions. questions. And the word that Luke uses here for questions in the Greek is a very specific word.

This is not a curious 12-year-old asking like, well, how did God create the universe? Or how big is God? These are deep, probing questions. High-level, engaging questions.

This is a deep, theological discussion that they're having. And it's one that's been going on for the better part of two full days now? Third day?

Verse 48. And when his parents saw him, yeah, they were astonished. But that astonishment very quickly gives way to parental instincts, doesn't it?

They immediately take over, especially mom. Verse 48 and 49. It's like, son, why have you treated us like this? Why have you treated us so? Is what she says.

Behold. That's like saying, listen up. Hey, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. Now, I'm not sure that the written page can give us the tone of voice, but I don't know about you.

I have a pretty good idea what Mary's tone of voice would have been like. I mean, it's been like, what, 48 hours? In a flat-out panic? Has anybody eaten?

Has anybody slept? Did Mary and Joseph enjoy a leisurely trip back to Jerusalem? You know, no kids, just us. No. Besides, they would not travel back alone.

It's not safe on those highways and byways. They would have at least part of the caravan with them coming back. So, listen, Jesus has inconvenienced, not to mention, totally stressed out a lot of people.

Mary's words and her tone, honestly, they're kind of understandable. Had Jesus been any other boy, he'd probably be in a lot of trouble. But he's not just any other boy, is he?

He's the son of God. Mary tries to make a point with her words to Jesus. Son, you've caused us anguish. You've put us in great distress. You know what's interesting?

Scholars are keen to note that this language here, the way she speaks to Jesus, it sounds an awful lot like a couple of responses that we have from the Old Testament.

A couple of stories in the Old Testament. Back in Genesis, there was this patriarch named Abraham and he deceived not one, but two very powerful people.

First, it was a man named Abimelech in Genesis 12 and then it was another man named Pharaoh in Genesis 20. Both times, out of fear, Abraham was trying to pass off his wife as his sister.

And he got found out because once Sarah, his wife, was taken into the harem of these important, mighty, powerful men, their families got really sick and it was discovered that Abraham had not been truthful and what was said to Abraham, what were the words to Abraham?

Here they are, Genesis 12, 18. First, it's Abimelech. He says this, What is this you have done to me? And then, eight chapters later in chapter 20 of Genesis, chapter 20, verse 9, Pharaoh says essentially the same thing.

Genesis 20:9

What have you done to us? Listen again to Mary's words in verse 48. Son, why have you treated us so? The tone is accusatory. Mary's words maybe even implying that Jesus has somehow done wrong to his parents.

And clearly, Mary is just reacting out of her human emotions as she speaks to Jesus as, well, as a 12-year-old boy. But watch this. Jesus doesn't rebuke his mother.

He doesn't lose respect for her. He doesn't even remind her of his identity. Don't you remember who I am, mother? I, I am Christ the King whom shepherds guard and angels sing.

He doesn't do that. He simply responds with this, verse 49. And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?

Did you not know I would be here? That's, like, why did you have to search? Of course I'd be here. Of course I'd be in my father's house. You know what's interesting about the Greek here is that the word house is not technically in the verse.

Technically, there's no noun supplied at all. And this is actually common in the Greek, I guess. You would use a noun and then later you could kind of imply it in the next sentence.

And that's kind of what's happening here. only we're not really sure where the noun is, what he's referring to. Literally, what it says in the Greek is, Did you not know that I must be in the, of my father?

In the, what? Most translations say house. Some translations say things or business about my father's business. I must be about the stuff of my father, the things of my father, the business of my father.

Most translators go with house, the ESV goes with house because that's where he is, the location. It's almost like we could imagine Jesus, you know, gesturing, Did you not know I must be about this of my father?

He's telling his parents, You should have known where to find me. And really what Luke, as the writer, is doing for us is he's giving us an early preview of Jesus' priorities.

The necessity of his task. His parents need to understand his mission. And frankly, they should have known where to find him.

Well, hearing these words from their son to their credit, neither Mary or Joseph rebukes him. But they don't understand either. At least not completely.

They're perplexed. Here's what Luke says in verse 50. And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. But here's the thing. Jesus is not some bratty child.

He's not going to be rebellious. And now that he understands that his parents have been very concerned, we're told in verse 51 that he is immediately obedient, that he goes with them, makes the return trip to Nazareth, and Luke notes that he was submissive to them.

Really, he was never not submissive.

Yes, his identity was temporarily unveiled, a momentary glimpse of his unique personhood and his special relationship to his father. But as a respectful son, even in light of his true divine identity, he still chooses submission, doesn't he?

And this submission will continue to mark the next 18 years of his life, from age 12 to age 30, which is the age when he finally begins his earthly ministry.

And what about Mary? Well, for her part, like before, after the birth scene and the amazing visit from the shepherds in Luke 119, where we're told that she treasured those things, here again we read that she treasures up these things, carefully reflects on this, ponders over

the meaning of what she's experienced. And as for the boy Jesus, Luke again puts that other bookend here, and he closes this account on a growth note.

In verse 52, he says, And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men. It's a picture of perfect development. And why not?

He's a perfect child who's now become a perfect preteen boy. And he will go on to become a perfect man. Because that's what was needed for the mission that this man, this God-man was on, to give his life as a perfect sacrifice.

You know, it's hard to overemphasize just how unique this episode is here. I mean, looking at it again this week, I've read it many times, and it really struck me how unique this moment is.

Bookended as it is with these growth notes by Luke, telling us how Jesus is still growing, growing in favor with God and men, growing in physical stature.

And although he's not ready to begin his earthly ministry, again, we know that's not going to happen until he is 30 years old, we are given this, what to me seems like a preview, right?

You might almost say, like, if Jesus' life is a feature film, this is the teaser trailer. How about that? A feature film featuring three years of ministry, and here we get a teaser of just a few days in his teenage life.

You know, I was watching a clip the other day, there's a new teaser trailer out for a big movie next year, superhero movie. The clip that I watched features a man riding a motorcycle, maybe you've seen it, riding it up a dirt road, and parking in front of a quiet house.

next thing you know, he's resting his helmet on the handlebars, you can't see who it is, you can't see his face, and he walks up to the door, he's in the house in the next scene, pulling a familiar looking uniform out of a chest.

Next, he's holding a sleeping baby, and only then does the camera pull back enough so that you can see a chin and a mouth and the features and you recognize who it is.

It's Steve Rogers, right? Captain America will be back. I didn't know that, that was kind of cool. It's almost a little like that with the boy, Jesus here.

Like Luke's giving us a teaser of things to come. Because so much here feels familiar. If you're at all familiar with the ministry and life of Jesus, the future ministry, you know that teaching is going to be a big part of it.

Jesus will ask and answer questions. You'll know that impressing and astonishing and amazing people, it's going to happen a lot. And even where he is, the location, in the temple courts, yeah, Jesus is going to spend some time here too, isn't he?

And yet, what's interesting, of all the things that his mother Mary could have passed on to Luke, you say, what do you mean Luke and Mary? You realize Mary is a key source for Luke's material.

Mary was interviewed by Luke, I guess. And a lot of these details of the birth narrative and the dedication of Jesus, his circumcision at the temple, and even this story, I'm sure, are straight from Mary.

of all the things, this is what gets preserved. Of course, the Holy Spirit's in charge of that. It's by his inspiration. But of all the things that we could learn about Jesus from little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay to 30-year-old Jesus walking down to a river to get baptized, of all the

things that could have happened, that did happen, that could have been recorded, it's just this lone episode. And I think we should be asking ourselves why.

Why is it here? What is here for us to see? And I would submit to us, I think there is really one point, a single major point here to see this morning, and that point is this.

It's to see that Jesus' relationship with his Father, being about the things of God, has priority over all other things and relationship. relationships.

Jesus' relationship with his Father, being about the things of God, has priority over all other things and relationships.

Consider Mary again. Think about the mom who ponders and treasures these things. Jesus, she says, Jesus, my son. Jesus, I know you're God's son, but look at this, his relationship with his heavenly Father has

priority, even over his relationship with Joseph and me. Jesus' relationship with his Father has top priority. Mary pondered this. Mary treasured this up in her heart, and then later she shared her ponderings with Luke who recorded them so that we can read them.

And I think maybe there's something here for those of us who follow Jesus. Something that we also should ponder and maybe treasure up in our hearts and think over.

In fact, I think that might be the real reason we have this lone story from Jesus' early life between infancy and adulthood. good. And I think the question that we should be pondering as we're about to again enter a new year is this.

Question. What things will you be about? And what will you make your highest priority in the new year? What things will you be about? What are you going to make your highest priority in the new year?

For Jesus, it's the things of his father. His father's stuff. His father's business. The problem with Mary and presumably Joseph is that they were only thinking of things from a human angle.

A narrow, limited human perspective. I mean, it wasn't a sinful one. It was a concerned parents perspective. There's a place for that. But they didn't understand that Jesus had different priorities.

priorities. They did not, she and Joseph, they did not understand Jesus' words. And the reason they didn't understand is because they were thinking of things from a merely human perspective.

But Jesus shows us that his relationship with the father has priority over all other relationships, even the relationship with his parents, human parents.

The father's will and priorities are his priority. That's why, that's what he was looking to. He was looking to his father's affairs, his father's business.

He was consumed with the stuff of the father. And what about you today? What about me? As we sit here on the last Sunday of another year, ready to greet a new one, what are we going to be about?

mere human business? The world's things? The stuff of this life? Are you going to take a Mary and Joseph limited mindset and perspective into 2026?

Or are you going to prioritize the things of your heavenly father this next year? Kingdom priorities, not just earthly ones. A kingdom perspective that looks beyond a mere human one.

You know, one of the apostles in the New Testament whose writings I love is James. The apostle James. I love how he writes. So practical. So much practical wisdom.

And I love how he speaks about this life that we're living. It's almost like he knows, like he recognizes how you and I, we can get so caught up in what we're doing day to day or what we plan to do tomorrow or plans for next week or next month or next year.

And so here's what he writes in chapter 4 of his letter. James 4.13. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

What James is saying is that a divine perspective, making our priorities submit to his priorities, the Father's, should be our perspective in everything that we do and everything that we approach.

And so my, I guess my final word to you church this year as we close the book on 2025 is that the Lord would give you the grace to do that. To be able to say, if the Lord wills, I will do this or that.

May 2026 be a year where you, like Jesus, make your Father's priorities your highest priority. So that you wake up and face each new day asking, what is the Lord's will?

Well, speaking of customs and rituals, as you see before me this morning, we have an opportunity to celebrate the Lord's table together. I think it's a great way to finish the year.