December 18, 2022 / Expectant / The God Who Brings Justice

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Metter, lead pastor

of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth for the life

we're searching for. So very glad that you're with us this morning. Please take your Bibles

and turn to Hebrews, the book of Hebrews today, chapter one. We're going to look at some verses

there. The God who brings justice. You know, the expectant series is all about what we're to expect

in the Messiah. Messiah, of course, is God's promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. And we've looked

at Old Testament prophecies that we're familiar with, but also those that we're not familiar with,

some of those more unusual prophecies that we don't often hear about at any time of the year,

much less Christmas. And they really bring definition to really what Messiah Jesus brings

us. So today, the God who brings justice. You know, I've noticed that we all tend to think in terms

of kingdoms. We think about all kinds of different kingdoms. Some of the most popular TV shows or

movies are movies that have to do with kingdoms. The Lord of the Rings, The Empire Strikes Back.

I'm not one for science fiction, but that's enormously popular. The Last Kingdom is a TV

series. Black Panther, Wakanda Forever is about kingdoms. Justice League, King Arthur,

the Princess Bride. Even the Lion King is something about kingdoms. And there are many,

many more. And really, the theme of all these movies and all of these shows are trying to get

the answer to the question, who is right, who is just, who has power, who overcomes,

what's the greatest kingdom of all, and how's it going to come about? We really think in terms of

kingdoms, don't we? We really do. What kingdom am I a part of? What kingdom are you a part of?

Old Testament Israel was looking forward to a kingdom. And their question was, when will

the kingdom come? When will the king come? What will he be like? What will Messiah actually do

when he comes on to planet earth? And they were really hoping for a Messiah that would help them

get military victory. They wanted victory over Rome. They wanted victory over other peoples.

And they weren't thinking about the fact that victory over death and sin and everything else

was even greater than the typical kind of kingdom dream that people have. And so the prophecy that

we have of Jesus is far greater than what they could possibly have imagined. So I want you to

stand with me as we read Hebrews chapter one. First nine verses will carry several prophecies

of the Old Testament that are quoted in Hebrews chapter one. Now Hebrews one is a description of

Jesus past tense. In other words, looking back on the cross, looking back on understanding who

Jesus really is, but it quotes Old Testament prophets who were looking ahead to where Jesus

would come. So the Old Testament prophets that were trying to describe the Messiah to come are

now being affirmed by the writer of Hebrews writing back about Jesus. So you have the

perspective of the past and the future as was who Jesus was in the present day of his birth and his

walking on the planet earth. And then we'll also look at what it's like in the future in the forever

sense of the word. Now Hebrews compares Jesus with everything else. In chapter one, it's Jesus

versus the angels. People were impressed with angels. They were impressed by the power, the

glory of angels, but here you've got Jesus contrasted with the angels. So here we find it

in chapter one, verse one. Here's what it says. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and

the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days has spoken to us in his son,

whom he appointed heir of all things through whom he also made the world. Now there's no question

he's speaking about Jesus here. Verse three, and he, Jesus, is the radiance of his glory,

that's God's glory, and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word

of his power. Talk about an amazing description of who Jesus is. There it is right there in verse

three. When he had made purifications of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on

high, having become as much better than the angels as he has inherited a much more excellent

name than they. For to which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son. Today I have begotten

you. And again, I will be a father to you and he shall be a son to me. And when he again brings

the firstborn, that is Jesus, into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him. And

that the angels, he says, who makes the angels winds and ministers as flames of fire. Now the

angels are important, but they're just ministers, they're ministering spirits. Verse nine, verse

eight rather. But of the son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And the righteous

scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. For you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. We're

going to look at one verse out of those nine today, but we're going to see some pretty expansive

things about our Messiah today. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that your Holy Spirit will just shine

light on this text in our lives. Help us know how to hope in you. Help us to know what we're looking

for. Father, thank you so much for sending us a Messiah like this one. We ask this in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen. Please be seated if you would. How big is your expectation of the Messiah?

That's my question. I want to know what are you expecting for him to do in your life? I've noticed

this about earthly kingdoms and earthly kings and leaders and rulers. I've noticed they've all

disappointed in me time after time again. Have you ever noticed that? Can you connect with that? Can

you evaluate that and feel that's probably where you are too? Anybody that's a human, that has power,

anybody that's got authority, anybody in positions of leadership are going to disappoint you in some

way. And we've enjoyed a long run in America, but if we read history right, America is temporary as

well. It won't last forever. So there's got to be something greater than even the greatest nation

on the planet or any nation that has long endured. Something's got to be greater than that. And the

Messiah came to bring us something even greater than that. Now as we read the prophecies of the

Old Testament, affirmed by the New Testament writer in Hebrews, looking back to the actual life of

Jesus, three things are going to come to the surface in this one verse. This one verse that I read,

focusing on verse eight, says three things. First of all, it says the Messiah will be the greatest

empire. He'll bring the greatest empire you and I can possibly imagine. Verse eight, it begins saying

this, your throne, oh God. Now when we think about empires, we think about those who sit on the

thrones of power, don't we? We think of those who are actually the powerful leaders on those thrones.

In Old Testament times, that would have been people thinking about David or Solomon. In New

Testament times, they were thinking about Caesar or Augustus that they did not want to be on the

throne or Tiberius and later on Claudius or Nero. When they thought about thrones, they thought about

the one on the throne. You do the same thing. I do the same thing. When we think about thrones,

we think about people who are in leadership positions. We think about Trump or Biden or any

other president of the past. Or if you're looking across the ocean, you're looking at Putin or the

leader of China, whose name I can't really pronounce at the moment. Names of all kinds of leaders

sitting on the throne. As we look at those leaders, we let those leaders define the power or the

authority of that throne, but we are always, always perpetually disappointed. We have hopes for new

leaders when they are elected or put into place in some way, but we are always disappointed. But

here in this passage, speaking of a ruler and a throne, we have a very different kind of look.

Here speaking of this throne and ruler, God speaks to his son through the scripture inspired by the

Holy Spirit and says, your throne, O God. In other words, the one on this throne is God himself. The

Messiah, Jesus is God. Now we say this in a variety of ways. We say that word became flesh and dwelt

among us. That helps us know that Jesus is God in the flesh. But here in a very different perspective,

the book of Psalms chapter 45 repeated in Hebrews chapter one, verse eight, simply calls the one on

Psalms 45 · chapter mention

the throne, God. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And the reason that they do that is so

that we'll know that there's never been one like this one. There will never be a one like this one.

Biblical writers used to speak of this throne and the one sitting on the throne in ways that made it

difficult for our minds to grasp, but they all knew something about this throne. They were given

some insight about it, but none of them could put it all together. But we have the privilege of looking

at scripture and knowing more about it. Let me read some of those to you. Matthew chapter 25,

Matthew 25:31

verse 31, that when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will

sit on a glorious throne. So the throne that we're talking about for this Messiah is first of all,

glorious. Or in Psalm 47, verse eight, God reigns over the nation. God sits on his holy throne. So

now the throne is not just glorious, but it's holy and it's unique and it's different from all other

thrones you can imagine. Daniel in chapter seven talks about the throne in a very vivid way. He

says, I kept looking until thrones were set up and the ancient of days took his seat. His vesture was

like white snow and the hair on his head was like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames. Its

wheels were burning like fire. Now that's no ordinary throne. That's a brilliant throne, a

glorious throne. We found the picture that some artists rendered regarding some of the descriptions

of the throne in the Bible. This is what that image looks like. It's an unusual image. It's a glorious

image in amazing ways, but that's the best an artist could come up with. And I have to tell you

today that in all the scriptures that the Bible gives us about this throne, the one sits on it,

that picture will be a disappointment to us when we see it face to face. More glorious, more holy,

blazing with more fire than you and I can imagine. God seated on that throne the ancient of days.

That's what the scripture says about this Messiah that is coming and that has come. It's not a

typical throne, just like the one that sits on it. It's not like anyone else. It's a throne of the

one on the greatest kingdom. Not because it's a glorious throne, but because of the amazing God

who actually sits on that throne doing what only God can do. Now our depiction of thrones in earthly

kingdoms that we have anything to do with don't look like that picture, do they? Because we are

perpetually disappointed. We really are. I've always been frustrated with national leaders,

governmental leaders, even local leaders failing to do the right thing, never seeing the opportunity

that they should do. They're completely human is the reason that they fail so badly. So what are

we supposed to do? We have this king who sits on a throne that we know is the Lord God. What are

we supposed to do as believers? As believers, we're part of two kingdoms. Hope you know that.

But the kingdom that we have right now, that we live in right now, the kingdom in the country that

we live in right now is not ever going to be perfect. It's not ever going to be what it ought

to be. But we do our best with what we have to work with here. But we also wait and are expecting

about the kingdom to come. Because honestly, we're people of a greater kingdom that will come because

of the Lord Jesus Christ who is coming. That forces us to strike a balance with the here and now and

the there and then. But I have to tell you today, I want to remind you today, the greatest kingdom

will never be an earthly kingdom. And the greatest leader on the earth will never compare with the

coming one. I know we're a political nation. I know we think about political things all the time.

And I know we have hopes and we ought to have some hopes. But when those hopes have been

disappointed by an earthly ruler, we need to keep in mind we have a ruler who's coming that will not

disappoint. He sits on a glorious throne. He is a king and he will never ever disappoint us. He'll

never make the wrong move. He'll never do the wrong thing. He'll never desert you or fail to

protect you. The Messiah is not a national king. He's a global king. He's intergalactic. He's

created everything that we know. So as the creator of the universe and the one who sits on the throne

is this one. This one who sits on the throne who draws near to us and who loves us and helps us.

This is the one that our hopes are in. You need to keep that in mind. Because it's the spiritual

kingdom, we can live in a physical kingdom and also be in this spiritual kingdom. We're really

citizens of two worlds, Paul said. You're a citizen of heaven and you're a citizen of earth.

But the reality is every citizen of every earthly kingdom in the world can also be a citizen of the

kingdom of heaven. It's really amazing the invitation is given to all no matter who we are,

no matter what nation we're from, no matter what color our skin, no matter what background we've

been in, Jesus Christ calls us all to worship him as the one who's on the throne. He is the greatest

king in the greatest kingdom. But this passage also teaches us about an eternal reign. He will

reign, the scripture says, forever and ever. Go back to verse eight. Your kingdom, O God, is forever

and ever. You don't have to dig into the original languages to understand what that means.

Forever means forever and ever. I mean, it's its own commentary. It says everything it needs to say.

It means an indefinitely long period of time as far as your mind can stretch and even beyond that.

I just got a word attached to that that I've only learned in the last few years or used very often,

perpetuity. That means the kingdom of God is in perpetuity. It goes on perpetually and never has

an end at all. Basically, this king, when he sits on his throne, will never be toppled. He'll never

lose an election. He'll never be impeached. He'll never suffer a coup or an uprising. He'll never

experience an inflation. He'll never be replaced. This kingdom is immutable. It's unchangeable.

And Jesus will bring about and sustain a secure, stable, eternal kingdom, which we need so badly.

We need stability. We need something to stand on. As you know, this world is not looking quite like

that. We have so many rises and falls in this world. It's just almost incredible. It feels so

temporary. It feels so unstable, insecure. We rise and fall with family things, rising fall with

government. We rise and fall in business, rise and fall in life. If you don't believe me, let me remind

you with a few examples. The temperature rises, then it falls. The sun shines, and then it's

obscured. The cowboys will win the Super Bowl, then they won't. The stock market rises, then it falls.

Inflation is up, then it's down. The future is hopeful, and then it's hopeless. We're healthy,

and then we're not. We're in a pandemic, and then we're not. Yes, we are, we think. We're not sure.

Things are getting better. Things are getting worse. A new leader brings hope, and then that

same one brings disappointment. Men are men, and then they're not. Women are women, and then they're

not. We're not sure. Life seems stable, then unstable. Life is good, then life is hard. The

rise and fall of life is inseparable. It's just the way it is. It's the way earthly kingdoms

operate. Sometimes it seems like the wrong team is always winning at life or culture. We see no

righteousness. We see no justice, no hope, no integrity. This world is really messed up more

than ever. We're really reluctant to admit that. But one day all this will change. It will all

change. Your throne, O God, the Scripture says, is forever and ever. What this means is not just

that God's throne is forever and ever in sense of endurance, but it means that Messiah will bring

an unchanging eternal character to this kingdom. He'll be predictably glorious and immutable,

reliable, steady, secure, comforting, reassuringly predictable. Not boring, glorious is what it will

be. Because you can count on him. You can rely on him. He will do the right thing every single

time. This one that sits on the throne is always going to do the best thing. Now, hopefully we have

a few people in our lives that are individuals we can count on. A few people that are always the

same with their character, that always love us with a steadfast love. I was privileged to have

two parents like that growing up. They always were the same towards me no matter how I acted.

Sometimes I acted out of character or certainly out of their will, but they always loved me the

same way. They always helped me and encouraged me. They were steady in character. I could predict

what my dad would say. I could predict what my mom would say. They were boringly predictable,

but as I look back in life, it gave me such a steady path to walk on, a steady life to live on.

I love people in my life that are boringly predictable in character, and you do too.

But you're also one of God who is steadfast, immutable, unchanging. What he said yesterday

will still be true tomorrow. A God that you can count on because you can get to know him,

a God who is secure. If you read on in Hebrews chapter one, further prophecies clarify that.

It says in verse 11 and 12 of Hebrews 1, they will perish, but you remain. They all will become like

a garment and a mantle. You will roll them up like a garment. They will also be changed,

but you are the same and your years will not come to an end. The writer of Hebrews wants us to know

God is eternal and he's unchanging. Read down to Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8, and it says,

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means if he ever loves you,

he still loves you. If he ever was sacrificial in his love for you, he's still sacrificial in

his love for you. If he's ever holy, he's still holy. If he's ever true, he's still true. He is

predictable, immutable, unchanging, and that's what you need. A savior, a God like that,

when no one else can be counted on, this God can be counted on. Some of our staff members were

talking about this passage the other day, and Gloria Irving made a statement when we were

discussing this verse, and she made this statement. I'm going to quote her today like a famous author.

She said, his gift to us is that he will never change. Jesus will never ever change. That should

bring comfort in this crazy world. Close quote. I don't know if you need comfort in this crazy

world, but I need comfort in the crazy world. I need something reliable. I like that kind of

promise that God gives us. I like that kind of God who sits on that kind of throne who is forever

and ever the same, because I always know where he is. I don't have to wonder. Sometimes with people,

you have to wonder, where are they? What are they thinking? What do they think of me? I never have

to ask that question about my God, who is drawn near to reassure me he is steadfast in his love to

me. He's steadfast in his love for you. A few years ago, I was on a plane trip. I left Chattanooga to

fly to Charlotte, North Carolina. In route, we had to cross over the Smoky Mountains. This was back

in the day where you might have got a great regional jet or you might have got a prop jet.

On this particular trip, I had a prop jet. A prop jet doesn't handle a turbulence like a regional

jet does. It doesn't go as high. It doesn't go as fast. We're in this prop jet full of about a

hundred people or so. All of a sudden, we hit the worst turbulence I've ever experienced in my life.

I mean, we would go up a thousand or two thousand feet, then dive down another two or three thousand

feet. It was up and down. It was like the worst roller coaster I'd ever been in. I looked out the

window and the wings of the plane are almost flapping like a bird. I'm thinking, whatever's

going to snap off in a moment. I looked around me and I saw everybody had the paper bags out.

That's just a nice way of saying it, the barf bags. They had the barf bags out. Most of them

were using them. People were green in various shades of different colors in their faces. I

find perfect strangers holding hands and praying together. In fact, I think more prayer was going

on in that plane than any other plane in the history of my time of flying. Eventually, we got

through it all and eventually we landed. When we got to the ground, I was so thankful to be on that

ground that I wanted to actually kneel down and actually kiss the earth. I really wanted to do

that. The difference between turbulence and the steady ground that we rest on day in and day out

is massive. The difference between the kingdom that you live in now and the kingdom you will one day

be in under the Lordship of Jesus Christ is like night and day. You cannot even imagine the stability

and the steadfastness and the character of this kingdom that's coming through Christ who sits on

the throne of this kingdom and what you're used to living here and now. You ought to have an

incredible degree of expectancy waiting for him to return because he's bringing all the great things

that you can't possibly find here on this planet when he comes. The comfort of a God who is a king

and God on a throne that is unchanging and eternal is encouraging. Live as faithfully as you can in

this day and time while in this kingdom, but wait for the one that's to come. Never take your eyes

off that promise of his return. Have you noticed that all the songs we sing during Christmas time

are carols that have a waiting portion to them? We're waiting for a Messiah. We're waiting for

Emmanuel to come. Of course, all those personify those waiting for the first coming of the Messiah.

Some of the songs we sing today are songs where we are waiting for the second coming of Messiah.

There's always a waiting portion of this kingdom and one day it'll come with him. When he comes,

he sits on that throne where he demonstrates the glory that we all know about and read about. That

will be the day when all of life, all of existence changes. He's coming. He's coming for you. That

kingdom, oh God, is forever and ever, Scripture says. There's a third thing about this passage

that reminds us of this coming kingdom. I call it ultimate justice. Your throne, oh God, is forever

and ever and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. That was the prophecy. This Messiah

will hold a scepter and it'll be filled with righteousness and righteous deeds and righteous

words. That righteousness will eradicate injustice. Let's think about that with me. Where else do we

find an empire or a throne or one who is like Jesus, who is forever and ever and who can bring

us righteousness and justice? The answer is nowhere. It can't be found on the earth.

If I were to find this for you, the justice of God is the attribute which makes his nature

and ways the embodiment of equity and mercy and fairness. His ways and his word will always

represent the ultimate righteousness and justice in the world. The scepter is the symbol of authority

and power and ability to bring about that righteousness and justice once for all. Now,

we talk about these in lofty terms, but we really want this in our heart. Hebrews 1 verse 9 further

Hebrews 1:9

defines the Messiah. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Now, think with me for a

moment about the righteousness versus lawlessness and the injustice and lawlessness that's in the

world today. How often do you actually think a phrase is something like this? That's just wrong.

That's just terribly unjust. There need to be things done in order to correct injustices around

us. Does anybody ever think thoughts like that? Am I the only one that looks around and says,

how can that be? I look around and I say the world's not right and it's not fair.

I think about the injustice of the hurting or the hungry or the helpless, even the homeless people

all around us. I think about the injustice of human suffering, of enslavement, the injustice

of a broken culture and broken systems, the injustice of war and suffering as we saw overseas

just the last couple of years in the Ukraine, of rape and murder. It's everywhere, everywhere.

Everywhere we look, injustice seemingly has no end. There's so much said, so much self,

so many people in the wrong way going the wrong direction. We want ultimate justice that we have

no way of bringing it about, have no idea how it can come about. And we look around and said,

all the world's systems and all the governments and all the movements that are clamoring for

justice and it's a stark testimony to the fact that we don't know what to do. We have no idea

how to make things right and we cannot bring justice and righteousness ourselves.

The Messiah is the one through whom all this will come. He's the only one. His scepter is only

righteous and it's only his scepter that's righteous. Now we use a few visual images in

our expectant logo. We'll put that up on the screen and I have a couple of interesting little

things I'm going to hold up today. One is the scepter, the other is a sword. And this is

something that would look like what we have on our graphic, but this is the type of a scepter

that a king in the Old Testament days would carry. The scepter is a sign of authority. You're given

the scepter when you become a king. I'd like to say this is solid gold, but most of you can tell

it's not solid gold, but in that day and time it would have been solid gold. A person would not be

given the permission to speak in the presence of such a king until he extended that scepter

and gave them an opportunity to speak. The other symbol is a sword. This is a little bit more real

than the scepter. It's heavy. It denotes power. But not only a king would have the authority given

to him to lead well, but he would have the power to bring it about. The sword and the scepter are

two symbols that are closely identified with this Messiah, Jesus Christ. They're closely identified

with him because he is a warrior king who comes to deliver on all of his promises, and he has all the

authority of God to bring it about. And I want you to think of these two images as you think about

your Messiah. And I want you to couple those not only with a stable and a manger and a little baby,

but I want you to couple those with Hebrews chapter 1 verse 8. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,

Hebrews 1:8

and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom or his kingdom. Here's what it means.

It means that any righteousness and justice we have on this planet will come from this king,

Jesus Christ. From his words, from his principles, from his commands. All those things come from him.

Justice doesn't come from us. It doesn't come from our words or our truths or ideas. It comes from

the one who's on the throne. That's why this book is important, because it's his book. That's why his

commandments are important, because they're his commandments. That's why his design is important,

because it's his design. If you want righteousness and justice in your life in any way, align yourself

with his words, with his commandments, with his person, with his character, and you can have a

measure of it. You can bring a portion of justice and righteousness into your leadership, into your

home, into your family, into your workplace. It brings a measure of salt and light into the world,

but only an immediate and not an ultimate measure of justice and righteousness, because there are

still other things out there that need to be dealt with and will be dealt with by this king.

Let me give you an example of how you can have an immediate set of justice and righteousness.

Think about Jesus Christ when he went to the cross. Think about the perfect life he lived.

Think about the fact that he became the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

The Bible says that we were all in our sins, separated from God, totally unrighteous in every

way. God's wrath, God's justice was being demanded for our sin, but Jesus, living this perfect life,

willingly laid his life down on the cross so that his righteousness was on that cross

in place of our unrighteousness. You know what this means, of course, is that he died in our place.

The Bible says that when Jesus died in our place, that God's wrath, God's justice was satisfied

in the righteous sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Immediately, we had an immediate righteousness

and justice dealt with. Sin was dealt with, righteousness was given to us that put our faith

and trust in Jesus on the cross. It's still true. Today, you can have righteousness and justice

in your life by allowing Jesus Christ to be the king and sit on the throne of your heart and your

life. That's how it comes immediately. It begins to infect and influence your life in every

possible way while you're on the planet. That is the immediate righteousness. But the truth is,

prophecy also points to an ultimate righteousness and justice, where when Jesus Christ comes back

in his glorious return, righteousness and justice will ultimately prevail forever over all.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.

That's where we get to the place where we understand biblical prophecy that are familiar to us.

For example, Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6 and 7, where a child will be born to us,

Isaiah 9:6

a son will be given to us, and the government will rest upon his shoulders. Does that make sense

today? His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David

and over his kingdom to establish him and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on

and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this, says the Lord. That prophecy

is not just about the child, but about the king. When you see the manger and think of Jesus the

baby, remember he's also a king. Remember he's also the one that has the scepter and the sword,

and is able to bring about all the things that the Messiah promised he would bring about.

We can hope for it now. We can wait for it now. We can trust in it now. Sometimes we actually do that.

You know, one of my favorite Christmas songs is Oh Holy Night. What a song. Someone singing

that song can just absolutely send me into great moments of worship. It's a great song. It has

great words to it. But most of us aren't familiar with the third verse that I'm going to share with

you today. It was written in 1847 by a French priest, but translated by a Boston pastor

whose name was John Dwight in 1855, if you know your history. You know that in 1855, America was

about to go into a civil war over the injustice of slavery. It was a massive issue in our country.

But listen to the biblical truth in this song and the plea for justice and righteousness to come

from this Messiah when you hear these words. Truly he taught us to love one another.

His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother

and in his name all oppressions shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy and grateful chorus raise we,

let all within us praise his holy name. Christ is the Lord, oh praise his name forever.

His power and glory evermore proclaim, his power and glory evermore proclaim. You know, our hope

and true justice still remains, but we wait for it to be fully consummated for his return.

And that temporary justice and righteousness, all because of his influence on our lives here and now.

Only in that way can all the chains break.

And all be free. You know, every kingdom theme maybe has those questions that I mentioned a moment

ago. Who is right? Who is just? Who has power? Who overcomes? And you and I have answers to that

question. Who is right? Jesus. Who is just? Jesus. Help me with this. Who has power? Jesus. Who

overcomes? Jesus. In whom do you hope? Jesus. You know, this king on the throne should be your hope.

He should be who you're looking for. He should be who you're trusting in. He should be who you

listen to. Jesus Christ alone brings the greatest in power, the eternal reign and ultimate justice.

He's the one who's going to be the one who's going to be the one who's going to be the one who's going

to be the one who's going to bless Him. Jesus Christ alone brings the greatest in

power, the eternal reign and ultimate justice. Worship Him and no one else.

You know what I have several things I want to ask of you. Three things. First of all

that I will invite you to respond to. And then another thing we'll do together as a church.

to stop by our decision stations today.

If you've not put your faith and hope and trust

in this Jesus and this Messiah and this King,

oh, you owe it to yourself to have a conversation

with someone about what that means

to put your faith and trust in Christ.

Let me just say, don't leave this building today

without having a conversation with one of our Catholic,

with one of our prayer partners,

and saying, I need to know that Jesus is the throne

ring of my heart, that I've given him the lordship

of my life, that I'm trusting him for salvation

and everything else, because if you have doubts about that,

they don't have to go any further than today.

We can help you by walking you through what it means

to put your faith and trust in Jesus.

Secondly, I would ask you if you're a guest today,

that we've mentioned a gift for you.

We have that in the guest reception center.

I'd love for you to meet me there,

just outside the center exit doors across the hallway

immediately after our closing prayer,

and I'd love to give you that gift

and share a little bit about our church with you.

Thirdly, we have some great Christmas services coming up,

and I want you to invite someone to come with you.

You know, most people that first come to church

come because somebody invited them to come with them,

and I wanna encourage you to reach out

to someone around you, friends, family members,

whoever they might be, and one of our two services,

one on Christmas Eve, one on Christmas Day,

unique services that each are different,

but they're each services that I invite you to

and bring someone with you, and they can hear

the great message of Christ and the hope that he has.

I want you to respond to that in just a moment.

We do something every year about this time,

and it's called voting on the budget.

It's one of the greatest highlights of our church life

is to vote on the budget.

Now, those of you that know me well know that's really not,

really just, I mean, I'm trying to make a joke there

about it, but we do it every year,

and we do it because we want people to understand

that it takes all of us to support the church,

to move the church forward,

and God's been so good to us as a church.

We made out a budget about a month ago,

and we had a budget forum where people were invited

to ask questions, and we're really consistent

on how we plan our budget and how we spend

commencement with that.

We always spend while in the block, never in the rub,

and we always really cross the T's and dot the I's with this.

We have a great committee that works with us

on this every year.

So I'll ask you to vote on that in just a moment,

but first I wanna show you a couple of things.

One slide I'm gonna put in front of you

is a slide of a giving record in 1954.

Now that's what a giving record looked like back then.

Now think about all those years ago.

This is actually the grandfather of Shera Green,

a member of our staff and member of our church,

and this gentleman was about 30 years old at the time.

1954 was a very different church budget

and a very different economy as you can imagine,

but I want you to see regular giving every week

this gentleman came and he just gave as he could,

gave as he was led, and you really see month after month

of that with hundreds and thousands of people.

And here's what I want you to see from this.

People who gave back in 1954 were laying a foundation

for ministry today.

Think about that with me.

Those who give now lay a foundation for ministry

in the future, as many of you did.

In fact, in 2022 we had some incredible things happen

as a result of just regular budget giving,

not even counting the building,

and the things that were done with that.

Let me point out a few things.

Because you gave in 2022, more than $700,000 in missions

was sent to different missionaries

in 168 different countries of the world

with the express purpose of sharing the gospel

with people that have never heard the name of Jesus before.

We rejoice in that.

We strengthened families and individuals

through the Healthy Home Emphasis,

which was not just a conference,

but we also began a Healthy Home Ministry,

and you'll see the fruit of that in the next five years.

We saw more than 230 people join with our church

along with their families.

Now these are the moms or the dads or the adults,

and they may have family members that we don't count

in this particular thing,

but more than that number joined with our church.

We baptized 103 people over the course of this year,

saw many others come to faith in Christ.

We also welcomed more than 2,000 first-time guests

who came and tried out our church for the first time,

and were able to talk with them.

In all, more than 6,000 people on our campuses in 2022.

Now what that basically means is

that we have 6,000 active attenders in our church.

We don't all come the same week,

but we all come at some point,

and those points we know about,

and so we minister to that many people

on all of our campus all the time.

At the same time, we did support

the Generation Building Project

and finished on time under budget,

and we are debt-free.

Aren't you grateful for all of that?

I am, I'm very grateful.

God has just been so good to us,

and so what we do every year is to ask you

as a congregation to simply stand

in affirmation of the budget.

If you don't know the details of the budget,

then we certainly understand that,

that we give opportunity for it.

Some people simply don't look or don't take the time,

but it's been presented,

and we do want to ask you, if you will,

to stand in affirmation of that budget at this time,

and if you'll do that now, I would appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

That's across the room, of course,

and if you're not standing now,

go ahead and stand for the closing word of prayer.

We do this in every one of our services, by the way,

and we're able to see as we sweep across the room

those that are in alignment with that.

Would you join me in prayer?

Father, I thank you so much for this day.

Thank you for the time of worship.

Thank you so much for the promise

of a Messiah fulfilled in Jesus.

Lord, we stand on very stable ground because of Jesus.

We have great hope that we'll not be disappointed

because of Jesus.

Father, we know of eternal life,

that we possess that because of Jesus.

And Lord, today I pray that those who need

to make decisions to put their faith and trust in Jesus

will do that now,

and Lord, that we would draw near to you

and let you draw near to us in these days ahead.

Thank you for making all that possible.

I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.