"Jesus: Your Suffering Savior Brother" - Hebrews 2:10-18

If you've got a Bible, you can go ahead and make your way to Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I love war documentaries.

Not so much war movies, but I like watching interviews of guys that have actually

been to those places and done those things.

The stories that always stick with me are the heroic ones. I love listening

to stories of D-Day veterans,

about really the ones that didn't come back, the ones that they tell these stories

about these men to honor their legacy and what they laid down for their friends

and people that they considered family.

And it's a word they always use every time they talk about it is they say,

well, those were my brothers, right?

Those were people that are, for many reasons, and for some of them,

closer than any family they ever had.

In the same way, this morning, Hebrews is going to talk about Jesus that way

for us. I told you it would be a challenge for some of us to think of Jesus this way.

You can intellectually know in your brain that Jesus is your brother,

but it's a much different thing to experience him as your brother,

to know that he's your brother, to know that he's beside you and he walks with

you and he cares for you and he's laid down his life for you.

It's very different to say, well, yeah, Jesus calls me his brother or his sister

versus is, man, it's wonderful to have Jesus as a brother and to have Jesus

as a sister, or sorry, to be a sister of Jesus.

So let's just jump right into Hebrews chapter two. We're going to focus mainly

on this front section because the back half, Hebrews covers in much greater

depth as it moves forward.

We're still going to talk about it, but it kind of sets up what we'll be moving forward in Hebrews.

So let me just read Hebrews two, 10 through 18.

It For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing

many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.

That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.

And just as a textual note, anytime you see the word brothers,

I mean, most Bibles will I have a footnote on this.

That's implied, brothers and sisters. It's a family word, but it's implied,

brothers and sisters, just as a point of reference in your Bibles,

saying, I will tell of your name

to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise.

And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I am the children God has given me.

Let's just stop there for a minute and cover those four verses.

The first thing I want you to hear this morning is, Jesus, your brother, suffers for you.

Jesus, your brother, suffers for you. This starts with a common refrain in Hebrews.

It says, for it is fitting for whom and by whom all things exist.

Before he moves on to Jesus's brotherhood with us and his humanity,

He wants to make perfectly clear, like he's already done multiple times in Hebrews

to this point, that Jesus is not like you.

Every single thing exists, exists because of him. It exists for him.

Colossians makes this abundantly clear.

So though he is not like you, right? He's different.

He becomes, he takes on your nature.

We've talked about this before, but this is not anything where Jesus is splitting himself in two.

He's not removing some of his godliness to take on your nature.

It's subtraction by addition, that he takes on human nature.

And in taking on human nature, he humbles himself, taking on the form of a servant.

Why? Why does he do that? He does that because he's going to suffer for his brothers and sisters.

We can't separate these two ideas because we can quickly forget that the world

and the world history is theocentric.

It's God-centric, that everything exists for God, that his plan is above every

other plan and his purpose is above every other purpose.

And we can get lost in our lives and quickly forget, right? We've got things going on.

We've got hobbies, politics, sports, news, right? I was talking to somebody

this morning. If you're a Mavericks fan, you're in shambles today.

Right? My phone is blowing up all morning, all night. If you don't know what

that is, good, good. You don't need to know, right?

But there's things in your life, there's things in my life that can so quickly

help us forget, oh, this is about God.

This is about the Lord.

More important than my own life, more important than the lives around me,

more important than America, more important than the world, my concern and the

world's concern is that God's purposes are done.

Now, it includes all those things. It includes your life and every detail of

it. It includes your family. It includes America.

It includes every single thing.

But the center of all those things is God.

Everything exists for him. But it says that that same God, that same Jesus,

that all things were created for is the founder of our salvation.

The founder. Your Bible may say the word source.

I think that's in the NIV. Some older Bibles use the word pioneer,

that he's the pioneer of their salvation.

This is the writer of Hebrews really drawing language from the Exodus.

Or in the same way that we're going to talk about this next week, we get into Moses.

Moses comes in, God raises him up to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt in a much greater way.

Jesus is the pioneer. He's the source.

He's what draws people out of slavery into life.

He's the pathfinder of salvation, right?

He's the trailblazer, if you like that word, who secures salvation for who?

For who? For his brothers and sisters.

Says he's made perfect through suffering.

This is another tough one. Does Jesus need to be made perfect?

I thought Jesus was God. How can God be made perfect?

Well, in his divinity, no, he's completely perfect.

But in taking on human nature, in taking on yours and mine and all of our issues

and struggles and strifes, including death, he's perfected through what?

Through suffering. Through suffering.

We don't like to think that way. We don't like to think that what would actually

make me a better person is suffering a little bit. it.

I like to think that what would make me a better person is a couple million

dollars and maybe some extra vacations.

I'm convinced that if I had my way, if things would go my way,

if I would get what I wanted, that I would be sanctified, that I would be a

better person tomorrow,

that everything would happen and I would do everything I was supposed to do,

if I just got my way, I would never sin again.

I would never be mean to anyone ever again.

I would never treat anyone poorly.

I would give most of my money away to the poor. Like I would do everything right if I got my way.

And yet the Bible over and over again reminds us that you are not made perfect

through your glories, but through your suffering.

And the example that Hebrews gives is the man, Christ Jesus,

the baby we just celebrated a couple months ago, right?

Born in a manger who we love thinking about that baby grows up to be a man that

the Bible says is a man acquainted with grief,

a man of constant sorrow, a man who knows grief on a level that maybe none of

us can fathom because he actually knows what perfection is.

Each and every one of us compares our sufferings to our glories, right?

You can think back to a time where you thought everything was perfect.

You thought everything was right in the world, right? We can romanticize that.

We can go back and we forget all of the things that may not have been perfect,

but for us, that's the bar. That's the standard.

We think that if we could just get back to this, or we've made up something

in our mind that says, this is what perfection would be for me.

Jesus is the only human who has ever lived that actually knew what perfection

was, that actually knew what it was like to live in a place with no sickness,

no mental disease, no struggle, no strife, no death, no problems, nothing.

He knew what it was like to live that way. And so every single day he lived

on this earth was light years away from what that was.

He suffered and he was acquainted with it.

Again, we don't love thinking about that, but as a man, Jesus suffered and yet he remained sinless.

As a man, he suffered and he remained spotless. He always did the Father's will.

He always glorified God in everything he did.

And that's our brother, right? He says that that's our brother, the perfect one.

So I think a good question to ask is, well, yeah, that's him, but I'm me.

I'm glad Jesus was perfect, and I'm glad Jesus did all those things, but I'm me.

I've got all kinds of things that I don't like about me or my life.

I've got all kinds of issues and struggles, some of them my own fault,

some of them not my fault.

Some of them are things I could change tomorrow. Some of them are things I could do nothing to change.

Jesus, the man, it says, is sanctified by the same source that you and I are

sanctified. Listen to verse 11 again.

For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. Let me rephrase.

I know that some of the phrasing in Hebrews can get a little difficult.

It says, Jesus sanctifies, we are sanctified, and we all have the same source of our sanctification.

In other words, the man Christ Jesus was sanctified by God. He didn't need to be.

There was no sanctification that needed to take place in his divinity.

But as a man, his source of sanctification, his source came from the Father.

In the same way, the writer of Hebrews says, we have the same source.

Our sanctification that we absolutely need comes from the Father.

And listen, this is what I don't want you to miss. Second half of verse 11,

that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

Jesus, your brother, is not ashamed to claim you as a brother or a sister.

He knows, again, your frame. He knows your issues. He knows your struggles.

He knows everything there is to know about you.

The writer of Hebrews says, Your sanctification is sure because it has the exact

same source as the man Jesus Christ had.

And that source is your common father.

That God is your father and Jesus is your brother and they claim you gladly.

Not only has he come down to purchase your salvation, to cleanse you from sin,

but ultimately to bring you to glory with him forever. And he is not ashamed

to call you his brothers and sisters.

If that doesn't floor you a little bit, let me just be completely honest and say, that's a problem.

If you've gotten to a place in your Christian walk where the idea that God would

call you a son or a daughter, that Jesus would call you a brother or a sister,

and you kind of go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard that before,

but let me get to something deeper than that.

There's nothing deeper in the Bible than you being called a son or daughter

of God or a brother or sister of Christ Jesus. There's nothing deeper than that.

It doesn't matter how much you learn or how long you've gone to church or what

you've accomplished or the things that you can teach other people.

None of it, none of it matters.

It pales in comparison to being called a son and a daughter and a brother and

a sister of God, the father and Christ, his son.

Nothing else matters. And so many people get to a place where this doesn't wow them anymore.

And they look down at some people who would look at that and say,

man, I don't understand how God could do that.

I don't understand how God could accept me as his own. I don't understand how

Jesus could be proud of me as a brother or a sister, because let's be honest,

there's just times in our lives where we think,

I know exactly why Jesus would be proud to call me a brother.

I can list my qualifications.

I've been doing this a long time, right? We start looking at maybe some other

people around us, some other believers, some other non-believers,

and we go, well, look how much better I am than those people.

Look how much I've accomplished compared to them.

Look at my attendance record. Look at my mission trips.

Look at my giving record, and we can quickly convince ourselves that it's not weird.

It's not incredible. It's not amazing that Jesus would call us his brothers and sisters, but it is.

It always is. And it will be for eternity that you are sons and daughters and

brothers and sisters of God.

He quotes Psalm 22, 22 and verse 12.

He says, I will tell of your name

to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise.

This is a psalm that's probably familiar to some of you.

It's more widely known for its first verse.

Psalm 22, verse 1 says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Psalms 22:1

Words that Jesus cries out on the cross. So this psalm starts with that.

It starts with Jesus' suffering. It starts at the same place that Hebrew says

it starts with, that he's perfected through suffering.

It starts that way in Psalm 22, and he gets to verse 22, and he says what?

I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters.

Listen, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise.

He's not ashamed of you. No matter how much you know, no matter how much you

have grown, no matter how much knowledge you can put together,

that should be something that causes some emotion, that causes some feeling.

We should not be able to be cold-hearted and say, yeah, yeah,

yeah, I get it. I'm his brother and sister. What next?

Jesus says, these are the ones in whom God has chosen for me to bring to himself.

He says in John 6, 37 through 39, all the father gives me will come to me.

And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

In other words, all that the father draws, all that the father brings to me, I will never cast out.

The Son and the Father are one, right? We know that the Son and the Father are

one, and this verse makes that clear.

The Father draws them, the Son saves them.

Verse 38, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will,

but the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that

he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

The Father has delivered you to Christ.

Christ has redeemed you by his life, death, and resurrection,

and the Spirit has sealed and indwelled you for eternity.

And they are not ashamed to have you in the family. You're not an orphan that

crawled to their front doorstep one day that they happened upon,

that they decided to let live in the house, but that they keep in the back room

because they're just not real sure what you might do if company comes over.

Every kid has had this experience. When company comes over, your parents kind

of give you the, hey, listen, maybe just stay in your room.

Maybe just, we got a couple of pizzas.

When we were growing up, we had a game room at the first house we lived in right down here on Carla.

And I can remember my parents having people over every now and again.

And my dad would come home on a Sunday evening if they were going to have people over.

He would have two large pizzas in his hand and a couple of sodas.

And we all knew exactly what that meant. Like we would literally see my dad walk in.

We would just go to our room and they're like, where are you going?

Like we're gathering some toys because we're going to be in there for a while.

The idea was, hey, listen, we love you so much.

These people coming over probably don't love you a whole lot.

And so maybe if you stayed back in the game room for a couple hours,

we'll come get you when it's time.

For the record, I'm not saying my parents are wrong at all. That was a lot of wisdom in that.

What I am saying is that is not how God treats you.

God's not afraid to parade you in front of every single person and entity that

would be in front of them to say, these are mine.

These are mine. I have drawn them to myself. My son has redeemed them.

My spirit has indwelled them, and I am proud to call them my own.

They have been adopted into my family, and I'm proud to call them my own.

I wonder if there are times where you feel the weight of drifting from the Lord.

Again, maybe even now, like you look at the last week, you look at the last

month, and you go, man, I am just, I am a wreck.

I'm a wreck. I don't, I'm not doing anything that I know I'm supposed to be doing.

In fact, I'm doing a lot of things that I know I'm not supposed to be doing.

I'm thinking in ways I shouldn't be thinking and acting in ways I shouldn't be acting.

And you look at your life and you wonder, how in the world could God look at

me with a smile on his face?

This is how God looks at you with a smile on his face, because it's not about you.

It's not about you. It's not about you and your life and your sinfulness and

your struggles and all the things that are going on in your world.

It's about Him. All things exist for Him and by Him.

That is a pillow that you can rest your head on at night when you go to bed

and you think, I blew it today.

The next thing out of your mouth in your brain should be, thank God it's not

about me and my performance and how well I do and how awesome I am at things.

Thank God that everything exists for Him and by Him.

And thank God that he calls me a son and a daughter, that Jesus calls me his

brother and his sister, that I've been adopted into his family based on his

love, grace, and mercy, and based on nothing of my own merit.

God says, I called them, the Son purchased them, the Spirit sealed them,

and they are mine. They are mine.

So again, Jesus, our brother, suffers for us so that we would become his true

brothers and sisters, sanctified by God, redeemed by his blood and sealed with

his Spirit. He suffers for us.

We'll move a little quicker through these next two. Again, I want to deal with

the text where it's at, but I also know that coming up in the next couple of

chapters, we're going to dig a lot deeper into these concepts.

Second thing I want you to hear though, after Jesus, our brother suffers for

us, is Jesus, our brother defeats death for us.

Verse 14 says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood,

he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death,

he might destroy the one who has the power of death.

That is, the devil, and deliver all those who, through fear of death,

were subject to lifelong slavery.

It's a really interesting phrase that's put in here. It says that Jesus is going

to destroy the one who has the power of death.

Does the devil really have the power of death? That's a pretty big statement

to make, as if God's hands are tied behind his back while Satan goes out and

deals out death and destruction however he would like.

Really have that much power? I think Job gives a really good picture of how this works.

Satan surely has the power of death, but he's under God's supervision on how

and when and where he can use it.

And the real issue with this power is that it's not a power in and of itself.

In other words, for Satan to be able to have the power of death,

he has to have something on us as well.

The problem is he does have something on you and me. We're sinners.

The wages of sin is death. What does God say to Adam and Eve in the garden?

If you eat of it, you will surely die.

What does God say to Cain?

Sin is waiting for you like a lion. It's wanting to devour you.

It's wanting to kill you. That is what sin does.

And so when it says that Satan has the power of death, it doesn't mean that

Satan is able to do what he wants to do.

It means that Satan has this against every single human being who has ever lived.

They are sinners and they deserve death.

That when he stands in front of the Lord and we stand next to him,

he has the right and the ability to say, God, you cannot do any saving of these

people because they are sinners.

And you said yourself that if they're sinners, they deserve death.

And the just God always judges justly. We talked about that this morning.

And in his justice, he looks at sinners and he rightfully says they deserve death.

How does Jesus dethrone that? He becomes like us.

He becomes like us. Again, he becomes our brother. He becomes flesh.

Again, it says, the children share in flesh and blood.

That's us. He himself likewise partook of the same things that through death,

he might destroy the one who has the power of death.

In other words, in the same way that Adam, our first father,

sinned, his nature was passed down to us, our brother Jesus took on our nature,

did not sin, and defeated death for us.

Again, Hebrews teaches here that death is only undone through death.

Death dies only through the death of Jesus, or more precisely,

the one who has the power of death is dethroned through the death of Jesus.

John Owen says it this way. I like this. All of Satan's power over death was founded on sin.

The obligation of the sinner to death gave Satan his power. Let me rephrase

that so it's a little more personal.

The obligation of the sinner, that is you and me, to death gave Satan his power.

We're obligated to die. That's what we're obligated to do.

Because of our sin, that is our obligation. It is God's righteous judgment on us.

But he says, if this obligation was removed, Satan's power would also be taken

away. So how is the obligation removed?

It's removed by the man Christ Jesus.

Exactly. It's removed by the man Christ Jesus.

Jesus takes on himself a death he did not deserve so that we,

his brothers and sisters, could avoid the death that we did deserve.

Jesus did not deserve death. Again, sin is why death reigns and Jesus had no

sin. He didn't deserve to die.

Jesus, the man, could stand before God, the judge, and rightly be judged holy

and blameless and without a single fault.

And yet he takes on a death that he did not deserve so that he could make us

holy and blameless without a single fault.

And now when you stand before the just judge of the universe,

and Satan looks at you and looks at God and says, you have to condemn them to

death because of their sin, the just judge of the universe can say,

no, I don't, because their brother took their place.

Every single sin is paid for. It's either paid for by you in eternity,

away from God in hell, or it's paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross.

But they're all paid for.

Forgiveness is not free.

Someone suffers for it. Jesus has willingly suffered for your sin so that he

can make you his brother and sister.

Verse 16, real quick, he jumps back into angels, for surely it is not angels

that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

This seems like a weird place to put this, but remember he's making the case

in Hebrews chapter one and two that Jesus is greater than angels.

So he comes back to that argument real quick to say and to encourage these people,

listen, it's not the angels that he helps, he helps the offspring of Abraham.

He didn't become an angel to save fallen angels.

There is fallen angels. They are real. They exist.

But he didn't become an angel to save fallen angels. He became like you and

like me to save people like you and like me.

So Jesus, our brother, dies for us. Lastly, Jesus, our brother, sacrifices for us.

17 and 18, therefore, he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every

respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service

of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Again, in chapter five, we're going to do a deep dive on what it means for Jesus to be our high priest.

Three or four weeks on just that. But what I want you to hear this morning about

this verse is, this is the first of 17 times that high priest occurs in Hebrews.

So I'm telling you, it's coming. We're going to dig into it.

The author kind of anticipates his future discussion, but he also wants to distinguish himself.

He also wants to distinguish Jesus from the other high priest that these Hebrews would have known.

They would have known of Aaron and his line.

But what makes Jesus different that he is not just the priest,

he is the priest and the offering.

On the day of atonement, when the priest would bring in a couple of goats and

that he would slaughter them before the people, that the blood would be shed to cover their sins.

Again, not to take them away, but to cover their sins for the year.

Jesus, on the other hand, doesn't bring goats, but he himself is the lamb.

He doesn't offer other sacrifices as the Old Testament priest did,

rather as he offers himself.

No priest in the Old Testament ever imagined that he would be the priest and the offering.

The reason for that is, is no priest in the Old Testament was sinless.

God requires a sinless sacrifice and the only person, really the only life that's

ever been on earth since Adam and Eve fell that was sinless was the man Christ Jesus.

So he offers up himself and again, we have this big word propitiation that again,

we'll go into much greater detail on.

For our purposes this morning, what I need you to know is that word means to

appease, that he offers himself to make appeasement for the sins of the people. Who is he appeasing?

Who's he needing to do this for? Well, he's appeasing God.

God has just wrath against sin and against sinners.

Psalms makes this clear. It says that God abhors that he hates sinners.

That's just what the Bible says. So how do you reconcile those two ideas?

How can God hate sin and sinners? And how can we be his enemies?

And how can we be far from him? At the same time, me not contradict myself when

15 minutes ago, I was saying that he loves you and cares for you and you're

his son and his daughter and his brother and his sister.

How do we put those two ideas together? We do that at the cross of Christ.

We do that at Jesus's sacrifice.

We do that when he appeases the wrath of God on our behalf.

Makes propitiation, that he appeases the wrath of God on the cross.

I said it earlier, but there's no such thing as a sin that goes unpaid for,

that the righteousness of God pours out his wrath on sin, and he is right to do so.

But for the people of God, for his sons and daughters, for Jesus's brothers

and sisters, for the ones that, like John 6 says, that he has drawn to himself,

that Jesus has not casted out, all of that wrath gets poured out on his perfect son.

All the wrath that you and me deserve gets poured out like a cup on Jesus's head.

And we get verses like Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

So that Jesus's brothers and sisters may not ever have to say that.

If you feel forsaken by God this morning, I would caution you and remind you

to think about what Jesus has accomplished for you.

Jesus was the forsaken one, the only begotten Son, the perfect Son of God,

forsaken so that you never are forsaken.

You may feel that way. You may have seasons in life where you feel like God

is pushing you away, where you feel like God has abandoned And you,

listen, your feelings are not your God. God is your God.

And he says clearly, he has made propitiation for your sins so that the wrath

of God no longer sits on your head, but sits on your perfect,

spotless brother, Jesus Christ.

And you can know that God is for you, that he's not against you,

that he's not punishing you. He may be reproving you.

He may be disciplining you, but he's not kicking you out.

He closes with this, for because he himself has suffered when tempted,

he is able to help those who are being tempted.

In other words, whatever your temptation is, God knows.

And he doesn't just know it in theory. He knows it because he lived it.

I've heard people say all kinds of things like, well, Jesus didn't have an iPhone.

Fair enough. Okay. This isn't talking about every single type of sin.

This is talking about every single type of temptation.

If you have trouble with an iPhone, maybe something that you're looking at on

an iPhone, the issue is not the iPhone. The issue is lust.

If you have problems wanting what other people have, the issue is not that you

have an iPhone or that you have a car where you can drive around and see more

things or that you have the ability to look at more things.

The issue is you're a coveter and you want what your neighbor has.

If you have an issue with anger, it's not because you have more availability

to see something to be angry about. It's because you have an anger problem.

And technology and everything you want to say out loud, they don't change your base temptation.

They may give you more opportunity to act on that temptation,

but your temptation is your temptation. Your struggle is your struggle.

And verse 18 closes by reminding his readers, listen, you have a high priest

who has made propitiation for your sins.

But not only that, He has suffered like you have suffered.

He's been tempted the way you've been tempted.

And he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Let me go back to where I started this morning. If you view Jesus as this faraway

king sitting on a throne, who's been really nice to you, he's been really kind to you.

And he's been a benevolent king who's given you gifts and given you things.

And you're excited that he's done that, but you don't view him as your brother.

Verses like this will have no impact on your life. None.

You'll read a verse like that. He is able to help those who are being tempted

and go, yeah, I guess that's true, but it's really hard to get access to the king.

He's a busy guy and he's got a lot going on and he's probably helping some people

in Africa right now or in China.

They've got bigger problems than I do. And so I'm just going to,

I'm going to take a tab and when he gets to my number, I'll talk to him.

But that neglects the truth that this writer has been trying to get us to see

for 10 verses, that yes, Jesus is the King, but the King is also your brother

and you have access to him.

And not only can he help those who are being tempted, he is willing and able

to help those who are tempted.

To talk to you about things that you may think are silly, temptations that you

may think, you know, I don't really need to go to God for that one. You do.

You do need to go to God for whatever temptation you're facing.

Again, the writer of Hebrews wants to make clear that we understand, yes, he is a king.

All things were created for him and by him. They exist because he exists.

His plans are more important than your plans or my plans or the president's

plan or the king's plans or whoever's plans, the deep state's plans.

It doesn't matter whose plans. His plans will prevail.

That's all true, but he's your brother, but God is your father,

and he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word.

Thank you that even though that it is true that you are glorious and above all

things, God, that you sit on the throne of the universe.

Nothing happens outside of your plans.

God, even Satan himself, as powerful as he is and can be, must ask you for permission

to do anything that he would want to do.

But God, this morning, I pray that the reality that even though those things

are true of you, that you have called us your sons and daughters,

that Jesus Christ, who sits on the throne in heaven, has called us his brothers

and his sisters, that he has suffered for us, that he has defeated death for us,

that he has sacrificed for us as our great high priest, that as we are tempted,

God, will we come to you, that you are able to help us in our time of need.

In your name I pray. Amen.

Real quick, before we go into the business meeting, a few announcements.

Men's Bible study tonight at five?

Yes. Five to six.

We're very specific about that. If you need the address, just let us know. We'll get it to you.

Or Matt will get it to you. We'll get it to you somehow if you'd like to come to that.

Just a reminder, this is the men's Bible study kickoff. So we're not going to

get into judges tonight.

What we really want to do is get together, talk about what this is going to

look like, what we're trying to accomplish, be able to kind of give you some

info on what that, what we want to do in the men's Bible study.

And more than anything, they just hang out for a little bit,

get to know each other a little bit. And then we'll be off. We won't start next

week because it's the Superbowl.

And we're just assuming that that's probably not the best time to try and start

a men's Bible study. We are holy, but we are practical.

So we got that. And so the next week we'll start judges every Sunday from five to six.

And then John, do you want to announce the...

It won't a grand slam with the youth group so uh just be,

that. I know it's a little ways away from March. Yeah. It should be this Sunday

after spring break is over.

And it looks like the kids want to. Yeah.

Gives them a chance to have one last hurrah before they go back to school and complain about it.

Oh. I don't have friends where Bradley does.

Yeah. My friends are too. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Anything else before we close out? All right. Well, again,

so glad you're here this morning.

We're going to take a quick break after we close and go into a business meeting.

I think we've told a few, but if you're not a member and you'd like to just

stay and kind of listen to the conversation, please feel free to do that.

We're going to talk about kind of the future, some things we've got on the horizon.

I said in the email, super excited about some of the things we've got planned

in the near future, some of the things we want to do.

And then real, to be completely honest with you, some of the things that God's

kind of opened up the opportunity for us to do.

So if you'd like to hang out and listen to that conversation and kind of be

privy to that, we'd welcome you to do that.

But if there's no other nonsense, let me pray and we'll take a quick break and

then have a business meeting.

Father, again, thank you for today. Thank you for every single person in this room.

God, I pray that for each and every one of us who has been called by you and

saved by you and sealed by your spirit, that we would be reminded this morning

that you aren't just the King.

You aren't just our Savior, God, that you are our Father.

Jesus, that you are our brother. So God, we pray that that would be a reality

for us, that we would be able to experience that.

So we thank you for what you're doing here at Trinity Bible Church.

And in the short time that we've been together, you've blessed us in so many ways.

God, we pray for wisdom as we move forward and just pray for this business meeting.

In the name I pray, amen. Amen.