The Son of Man // The Surprising Miracles of Jesus [Luke 5:12-26] (Billy Hanna)

Father, we thank. You for your word.

We thank you for its sufficiency, for everything,

salvation and godly living. And we pray as we come to it

this morning that our hearts would be prepared to listen,

that we would be attentive to your word and what Billy has to

say through it. Well, we thank you for his

faithfulness throughout the week and however long he's been

preparing us for. And we pray that we would now be

faithful listeners as we come in here and help us to then be

faithful doors as we go and just name, we pray, Amen.

Hi, would you open with me to the book of Luke?

We will be in Luke chapter 5 this morning.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Nice to be back in our series and Luke, we're picking up.

We were running through probably the second-half of last year.

Thanks as well to the guys who lead us and our summer and the

sums. That was a real encouragement.

And for a lot of those guys, that was some of their first

time preaching and I just thought they did an awesome job.

And that's such an encouragement for us as a church that we've

got guys and that's their first sermon.

That's pretty encouraging to see.

So Luke chapter 5 and we will be focusing on versus 12 through

Luke 5 · chapter mention

26. We'll read those to start.

This is God's word. Luke 5 verse 12, while he was in

Luke 5:12

one of the cities, became a man full of leprosy, and when he saw

Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him.

Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will

be clean. And immediately the leprosy left

him any charged him to tell no one.

But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for

your cleansing, as Moses commanded for a proof to them.

But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great

crowds gathered together to hear him, and to be healed of their

infirmities. But he would withdraw to

desolate places and pray. On one of those days, as He was

teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the Law were sitting there

who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from

Jerusalem in the power of the Lord was with him to heal.

And behold, some men were bringing on a bit a man who was

paralysed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him

before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in because of the

crowd, they went up onto the roof and led him down with his

bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.

And when he saw their faith, he said, Man, your sins are

forgiven you. And the scribes and Pharisees

began to question, saying, who is this?

Who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God

alone? When Jesus perceived their

thoughts, He answered them. Why do you Christian in your

hearts? Which is easier, to say your

sins are forgiven, or to say rise and walk, but that you may

know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive

sins, he said to the man who was paralysed.

I say to you, rise, pick up your beard and go home.

And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what

he'd been lying on and went home glorifying God.

An amazement sees them all and they glorify God and were filled

with awe saying we have seen extraordinary things today.

And then well as I said, we're picking up our series through

the book of Luke. So we're gonna dust off the

cobwebs a little bit cause it's been a few months since we've

opened Luke. But essentially the book of Luke

has written, we see in chapter 1 it's written to a Greek man

named Theophilus by a doctor named Luke.

And the purpose of him writing this is to give the Orpheus

certainty about what had been taught about the person of Jesus

Christ. And so Luke wants to retell the

life of Christ. And as he retells the life of

Christ, he is explaining to Theophilus and showing to

Theophilus the identity and the mission of Jesus Christ.

And so really Luke is here. The purpose of Luke is so that

we might be certain as we read Luke and we examine the person

of Jesus Christ has mission, has identity, what he came to do

that we might read it and be certain, hey, we've got the

right guy, we're on the right team.

Jesus is is the one that we should trust in.

Jesus is the one that we should put our hope in.

Jesus is the only one that is worthy of us committing our life

to. Luke is here to give us

certainty about who Jesus is. And so so far Luke has done that

through the birth narrative of Jesus Christ and through his

early ministry. And in this he's shown us that

Jesus is the one who has come down from God.

Jesus is the one true Messiah, the promised Saviour.

And as Jesus has started his ministry, we've seen these

extravagant signs, these incredible miracles that have

come from Jesus. And we're going to see two more

of these incredible healings today.

And this is really the account, as Luke is continuing to unpack

to us, the identity of Jesus Christ.

We have two healings, one of Elijah and one of a paralytic,

and each of them has a lot to tell us about the type of

healing that Jesus has come to offer.

But in each of them is a very unique surprise, which has a lot

to tell us about the healings that Jesus has come to bring.

And I think all of us can see as, as we consider our own lives

and we consider the world around us that we are in need of some

form of healing. If it's maybe you're feeling

just the aches and groans of your body, of your mind, of

physical, emotional, mental pain, or we just, we just look

at the world, we understand that something's not quite right.

Healing is needed. And and so the good news that

Luke is saying is Jesus has come to bring healing.

And I think these miracles here that we're going to look at,

they have a lot to tell us about the type of healing that Jesus

has come to offer. But in in each of these

healings, there is a unique and clear surprise.

There was a profound surprise that Jesus is healing here in

ways that were not expected. And so as we go through these, I

just want to consider the healing that Jesus offers.

What does this passage have to tell us about the healing that

Jesus offers? And firstly, it's going to tell

us this. The healing that Jesus offers is

not reserved for the elite. The healing that Jesus offers is

not reserved for the elite. Our first account begins with

this man coming up to Jesus, and it sees that this man was full

of leprosy. Literacy is essentially in the

Bible. It's an umbrella term for what

could be a variety of different skin diseases.

Usually when you're Speaking of leprosy, you're Speaking of

something that once contracted, it is lifelong.

You'd get painful lesions across your skin, kind of oil like

things sores and serious cases. Literacy would attack the

nervous system. It would be incredibly painful,

horrible, and and often the kind of thing that once you've got

it, it doesn't go away. And we get the idea that this is

no minor case because Luke says this man was full of leprosy.

So you kind of picture here from head to toe, this man is full of

sores. He's full of lesions of, of

boils. And if you've had any sort of

of, I guess, skin problem, even if like eczema, serious eczema,

you might have an idea of what this might have been like.

It was a horrible disease to have, but the effects of

literacy went far, far deeper than just physical here.

Essentially, A lipper would be a complete social outcast in the

Old Testament Israelites who contracted leprosy, they were

actually commanded to live outside of the camp where the

Israelites lived. And the reason was it was an

incredibly contagious disease. And so if flippers were allowed

to dwell within everyone else, pretty soon everyone within the

Israelite camp would be infected with leprosy.

So the lipper was outcast. They had to live outside the

camp. They were deemed ceremonially

unclean. They were to dress in torn

clothes. And whenever someone was around

them or they were walking around, they were to shout

unclean, unclean. So people know, hey, AA, Lipa's

coming. I need to stay out of the way

and actually to touch Oliver yourself would to become

ceremonially unclean yourself for seven days.

And so you know, 1 commentator puts it this way.

Leprosy was a sentence of social ostracism.

The disease deprived victims not only of health, but of their

names, occupations, social habits, families, fellowship and

worshipping communities. So put simply, we have a guy, a

man coming before Jesus who is living a living death.

He was cut off from society. He's an outcast.

As he walks down the street, people would, would, would hop

over to the other side of the street because they don't want

to be anywhere near him. And I think there was even this

this assumption that leprosy was a punishment from God for sin.

There were a couple of isolated examples in the Old Testament

where because of someone's continual sin, God cast someone

down with literacy. He gave them literacy.

And so it was that I idea within the Jewish community, well, if

someone's got leprosy, they must have done something to deserve

it. We we see that kind of attitude.

And John Chapter 9, Jesus is with his disciples and they see

John 9 · chapter mention

a blind man, and the disciples say to Jesus, who sinned this

man or his parents, that he was born blind.

You know, he's got this disease. He must have done something to

deserve it. And Jesus is actually neither.

But I think there was this understanding within the Jewish

community. They brought it on themselves.

They could have done something to get themselves out of it.

They've brought it upon themselves.

And so here we have this lipper, this this social outcast, this

man is suffering physically, socially and always he comes to

Christ and he comes down before Christ's feet and he says, Lord,

if you will, you can make me clean.

And he's recognising here really my only hope for my situation

stands at the feet of this man. You'd assume he had heard of the

miracles that had happened already in Jesus ministry where

he had exercised a demon and it healed many people of their

diseases. And so he comes and he says, if

you will, you can make me clean. But notice here he comes with a

full faith, meaning the only factor here he's not saying,

Lord, if you can, maybe you can make me clean.

The only factor here is if Jesus is willing, if you will, you can

make me clean. But this leaper is bringing

nothing to the table. He's only bringing faith that

Jesus alone can heal him of his leprosy.

And so how does Jesus respond? How does Jesus respond to this

leaper, this outcast, this unclean man who's now thrown

himself down in his feet? In many other places in the

Gospels, we see Jesus heal with a word very simply, and we're

actually going to see it in the healing of the paralytic.

He heals with the word is an account.

We he heal someone who's not even in the same area as him, as

a servant who was very ill. Jesus heals with the word.

Yet in this moment, here, with this leaper down before him,

Jesus leans down and touches him.

He says I will be clean. You can almost hear his new

disciples in the background as Jesus is reaching out, being

like, ohh, no, don't do that. You're gonna become unclean.

You can't touch this letter. Even more than that, you're

Jesus you. You shouldn't be touching this

lowly leaper. And if you think about this,

this is likely the first physical contact that this

leaper had felt since they contracted this disease.

And as humans, you know, we're we're we're physical beings.

You know, we walk in the door, we see people, we know, we give

them a handshake, we give them a hug.

You know, that's how we express and feel love amongst one

another as a community. This slip ahead had none of

that. And and so the first touch that

he feels, since he contracts this disease as the loving touch

of Jesus Christ, who reaches out, crossing all of the

boundaries, crossing all of the rules in touching this leaper.

And in that moment, Jesus doesn't become unclean.

The slipper becomes clean. It's a complete reversal and I

think we need to understand what Jesus is showing here, what

Jesus is trying to show us in this moment when he reaches down

to completely unnecessarily touch the slipper and heal him.

What does this telling us about the healing of Christ?

It's telling us it is not reserved for the elite Jesus

Christ. He's got a deep love, a deep

care for the outcast. His touch here communicates it

to those who come to Jesus Christ.

Jesus offers healing. It is not reserved for those who

have it altogether. It's not reserved for those who

fit the bill. It's not reserved for those who

seem to look on the outside as appearing to be religious.

It's not reserved to those who look like us.

It's reserved to all who come to Him in faith.

So imagine right now is while I'm speaking through the

auditorium doors walks a man. As clothes are, they're old and

and they're dirty and they're bit torn.

They're baggy is here is kind of coming over his face.

You can already smell he, he, he smells horrible of, of Bo and,

and and cigarettes and he's got beer feet and he's hacking away.

He's got this big heavy flemy cough and he's walking in and

he's looking around and he's just finding somewhere to sit to

listen, but there's only one seat left in the whole

auditorium and it's next to you. What's your gut reaction in that

moment? Is it like, just don't make eye

contact if I look the other way? Hope he doesn't look over to me.

Or or maybe, you know, you'd shuffle your Bible onto the seat

next to you. Maybe he'll think that someone's

just in the toilet and the seats taken.

Maybe there's a part of you. Maybe there's a part of you that

thinks, well, what's he done to get himself in this position?

What bad choices has he made? Surely if you made some better

decisions, he he wouldn't be looking like that.

He wouldn't be smelling like that.

He he wouldn't be in that sort of position.

Does our attitude towards the outcast line up with Christs?

That does our attitude towards the outsider and our community

and our workplaces and our neighborhoods and our

supermarkets when we're doing the shopping, does our attitude

toward the people that we see who are not like us, who are

social outsiders, does that line up with the attitude that Jesus

Christ had toward this complete outcast who came to him?

How would Jesus have responded to to to this man who walks

through our doors? And I have to think when I when

I look at this example and all through the Gospels, every

interaction Jesus Christ has with someone in the Gospels, his

initial reaction, his heart response is that of love.

Now this doesn't mean that Jesus excuses all bad behaviour, but

what it does mean is that his offer of healing, his offer of

forgiveness, his offer of salvation is equally legitimate

towards the social outcast as it is towards a social insider.

It's equally available to the Uchiha, the mouldy, the Asian,

the African, the American, to to to the rich, the middle class

and the poor. Does our heart towards other

people made in the image of God? Does it reflect the heart of

Jesus Christ? Maybe this morning you came in

feeling a little bit like that lipper.

Maybe it looks like it on the outside, maybe it didn't.

I don't know, maybe even in your heart you, you know that there

is a secret sin, there's a secret struggle.

You go, God can't exit me. Or, or if if the people in my

community actually knew the kind of stuff I was wrestling with,

they would reject me. And I just want you to see from

this the radical love of Christ, the healing of Christ that is

offered not to those who have it altogether, but as an offer to

those who would come to Him by faith.

The healing of Christ is not reserved for the elite, and

that's the first surprise that we see in this passage.

It is really about the the breadth of Christ's healing.

It's available to more than we might think.

And now we're going to see a surprise as we turn to this

account of the paralytic. And this is about really the

nature of Christ's healing. It's about what Christ has come

to heal, and that is this, that the healing of Christ is not

merely physical. It is not merely physical we see

after Jesus heals the sleeper in verse 15, the crowds are now

beginning to grow, and it's understandable why these crowds

are beginning to grow. If you had some sort of physical

problem at your sickness or someone you know had a sickness

or an injury, and you hear of what this man Jesus is doing,

you're going to flock to be where He is.

You want to get close to him. You want the opportunity to be

healed, but there's also another kind of crowd that's been

growing. You see in verse 17, we've got

the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who are sitting there

on this day while Jesus is teaching.

These are the religious elites of Israel.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, they were

the ones who they held tightly to the Old Testament law.

And and what they wanted to see was that an Israel people held

to the law. They want to make sure it was

upheld. And so these teachers, the

Pharisees and the teachers of the law, they were very suss of

Jesus. And, and so I would imagine that

as Jesus is teaching, they're kind of, they're not necessarily

like in the front row, Bible's open, like right, what have we

got? They're probably more like

sitting in the corner, arms folded, just going like, I'm not

too happy about what I'm hearing coming from Jesus.

And spoiler alert, they're about to get a little bit more upset.

And so Jesus is teaching and he's got this crowd, a mixed of

people who want to be healed and these religious leaders and

income and verse 18, some men who were bringing on a beard, a

man who was paralysed and there was seeking to bring him in and

lay him before Jesus. And so I mean, the reason that

they're bringing him before Jesus is relatively, relatively

obvious. They've heard of what's going on

with Jesus. They've heard of these healings

and they want their friends to be healed.

But there's no way in the crowd is so big, they can't get the

stretcher in and around that that this mass of people.

And so they go up to the roof. And if you thinking in terms of

the houses we live in, you go, man, that's quite the feet.

This is probably roughly what a house would have looked like in

this time, more or less. It's not a real photo, but you'd

have two stories and steers on the side, which there was

relatively easy access to the roof.

And so they they want to find a way.

So they climb up onto the roof of this house and it says that

they broke apart the tiles and, and probably the mud that was

holding it together on the roof to to lower this man down before

Jesus. We're not told how the homeowner

responds. I'm sure he was on the phone

with tower insurance. He was insured, but we do see

how Jesus responds. Season 4 is 20 years.

This man is lowered down that you know, he he's he's teaching

and you're hearing this, this rumbling and things falling down

and now this man has lowered down before Jesus.

How's he going to respond? Season verse 20 as he is when he

saw via faith. This is Speaking of both the

paralytic and his friends. Jesus firstly saw through the

actions, the drastic actions they took to get this man before

Jesus. They were an act of genuine

faith that he could heal them. This was faith that showed

itself in action, and in a sense, that's where I guess this

account of the paralytic is very similar to the account of the

leper. You see the pattern here.

You've got someone in a dire condition, they see that Jesus

is the one who could heal him, and they take a step of action

to come before him to be healed. There's a recognition of Jesus

and then is an act of faith to come before Jesus.

So okay, we've seen this before, right?

So Jesus says to him, rise, pick up your mat and go home.

Not yet. What does Jesus say to him?

He looks down at this paralytic lying on the ground in front of

her. Man He sees.

Man, your sins are forgiven. Both.

He's a paralytic in front of him and he says your sins are

forgiven. Why would Jesus say to this man

your sins are forgiven? That's pretty clear.

That's not what he came to hear. Why would Jesus say this?

Two reasons. Firstly, and saying man, your

sins are forgiven, Jesus is showing us that physical healing

is not our deepest need. Physical healing is not our

deepest need because Jesus has before him a a paralytic.

I think that this is one of the greatest, most obvious examples

we could have of a physical ailment.

He's not gonna be asking this paralytic.

OK, So what did you want? You know, you go to the doctor's

office and they go, you know. OK, so what's the problem today?

What would you like done? A paralytic comes before you.

You don't need to ask that. It's pretty clear what you want.

I want to be able to walk this man's life.

He was lying on a bed. He's only able to move at the

mercy of others. He couldn't walk, he couldn't

run, he couldn't kick a ball. He couldn't do any of those

things and yet Jesus sees this paralytic laying before him and

he recognises that his paralysis is not his biggest problem.

That's not the biggest problem he has going on.

It's His sin. Our deepest need is not our

physical healing, no matter how great our physical problems are.

Our deepest need is that our relationship with our Creator

would be restored. We were made by God to live

under His rule, to live with him as King, and to serve him.

And yet each of us in our sin, we have chosen to willingly

reject God's rule. We've said no, no, no.

I don't want to live with God as King.

I wanna be my own king. I want to run my life the way I

see fit. And in doing that, we've we've

severed our relationship with God.

We've rejected God's rule. And our problem is that we were

designed and our very being, we were designed to be in

relationship with the one who created us.

And we have rejected that. We have severed that

relationship. Our sin has broken it.

So we need our sins to be forgiven.

That's our greatest need. You imagine if your car broke

down in the middle of the country and it's a 5 kilometre

walk to the nearest gas station. It's a hot summer's day and so

you you have a Jerry can and you find $15.00 cash in your car and

you make the 5K walk down to the nearest BP and you're hot,

you're sweaty, you're hungry, you're exhausted.

And as you walk in, you decide at that moment, my greatest need

is a cold Coke. Bought a chicken pie and a

lasagna Topper. Good man I'm I'm hungry, I'm

hot. Was that your greatest need?

It probably felt like it that was the, it was the biggest

demand on your body at that point.

This is what I'm saying. I, I need this.

But if we spent our $15 on that, there would be a far greater

need that we would be rejecting. The greatest healing we need is

not physical, it is spiritual. The second reason why Jesus said

to this man, Man, your sins are forgiven is because Jesus is

showing us that He has authority to forgive sin.

He has authority to forgive sin. Because when Jesus sees this,

the people are shocked, right? These Pharisees start to say

amongst themselves, who is this speaks blasphemies?

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

And, and, and you can understand why they say this in the Old

Testament. The authority to forgive sins,

that's an authority that's reserved for God.

And the logic of this, the rationale of this is tight

because if our sin is ultimately against God, if it's a rejection

of God, God is the only one who can forgive us of our sins

because he is the one who has been sinned against.

And so for Jesus, he had to come and say your sins are forgiven.

He is claiming an authority that's reserved for God alone

and what he's doing here. And this is important when we

think about the next few chapters.

And Luke, Jesus is turning up the temperature here because

what we're going to see over the next few chapters is, is the

Pharisees and the religious leaders really coming at Jesus.

That conflict is beginning to start, and it's starting because

of this statement Jesus made. Because when Jesus sees this,

he's not saying I'm a healer, he's not saying I'm a good man,

he's not saying I'm I'm an example.

He's saying I am God in flesh. I am the true Messiah sent from

God with the authority to forgive sins.

The temperature is turning U but it's one thing to say it.

Jesus says it's one thing to say it.

I could go to say to everyone of you this morning, your sins are

forgiven and you're not going to see any tangible evidence

whether I'm right or I'm wrong. And so Jesus addresses that

because he says to them, What do you question in your hearts?

There's 23, which is easier to say your sins are forgiven.

It's a pretty easy thing to say or to say rise and walk, That's

a bit harder. The reason for this but that you

may know that the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, has authority on

earth to forgive sins. So I've told you I can forgive

sins. Now let me show you that I've

got the authority from God to do this by telling this man who was

paralysed to stand up, pick up his mat and go home.

And so Jesus says to the man, Rise, pick up your man, and go

home. And he did.

This man who was a paralytic stood up.

I mean, these people would have known him.

They would have known him as a paralytic.

And they watch him rise up, pick up his mat, and go home.

And in this Jesus shows he has the power of God to forgive

sins. No power of man can do that.

And we know, you know, people saw that this was a power from

God. This man went home glorifying

God. And it's in verse 26 amazement

sees them all and they glorified God.

They recognise that this was an act of God and ultimately Jesus

can do this. Jesus can forgive sins because

he went to the cross where he suffered, paying the price for

sin, offering healing, spiritual healing to all those who had

come to Him in faith, turning from Assen and turning to Jesus

Christ. The healing of Christ is not

merely physical. But as I close I just want to

make this point. Gonna say this yet?

The healing of Christ is not merely physical, yet the reason

I say that is, is this. Although the Bible is is clear

that the healing that we need right now is our relationship

with God to be restored and forgiveness of our sin, it does

not disregard the reality of mental, physical, emotional pain

that we suffer through right now.

Jesus is not aloof to that. He doesn't not care.

All of this, this physical and mental suffering that that we

live in, it's the result of living in a world that is

stained by sin. Our bodies are not as they ought

to be. They're not as they designed to

be. And so our bodies decay, our

bodies get sick, our bodies breakdown, they get injured, our

minds wrestle with anxiety and depression.

And so whilst they say the healing of Christ is not merely

physical, it soon will be. It soon will be, because the

promise of the Bible is that what God is doing through Jesus

Christ is that He is making all things new.

When when Jesus returns for the second time, there will be a new

heavens, there will be a new earth.

The dead in Christ will be resurrected and we will reign

with Him in this new reality in our physical bodies.

Paul season Philippians chapter 3 verse 21.

Philippians 3:21

He says He will transform our lowly body to be like His

glorious body, and so we will reign with Him in our physical

bodies without pain, without sickness, without injury,

without aches, just as our bodies were designed to be.

And so whilst the, the, the promise of Christ actually is

ultimately physical healing, because that's, that's where

things are going, but it is for all of those who by faith seek

out a restored relationship with God, the forgiveness of sins.

And I'm sure in this room there is just everyone in some way is

going. I'm sick of living in this body.

I'm sick of living with this mind that is futile.

It's prone to anxious thoughts, my body which continues to get

sick and injury and aching. And I mean, I'm only 24 and I'm

saying this, I'm sure as I age, it's just going to get harder

and harder. And we go, yeah, OK, the gospel,

the good news of Jesus Christ. Yep, it's good news.

But what does it have to do with the the suffering, the problems

I'm going through now? And that's that's a sermon in

itself. But I want you to understand,

but God is making all things new.

We the promise of the gospel is ultimately physical healing and

we we will thrive as our bodies were designed to thrive.

And we are in this in between point, which some would describe

as the already and, and the not yet the already that Jesus

Christ has come. He has extended this offering of

forgiveness and we've put our faith in him.

But but but then there's this not yet when when he comes back

again and we are reigning with him in the new heavens and the

new earth and all is made right and, and where and, and history

of the world. We are in this in between

period. We feel the ache where we heard,

where we we suffer, but we look ahead because of our

forgiveness, because of our healing that we've had in Jesus

Christ. We have this promise of future

physical healing and we see these pictures of these healings

that Jesus performs in the Gospels and, and really these

are just tastes. This is just a a foretaste of

the ultimate healing that is to come.

Do we have that hope? Do we?

Do we cling to that hope in the midst of our sufferings, the

healing that Jesus offers? It's not reserved for the elite,

and it's not merely physical. Yet, and so we all want healing.

We feel that ache. We, we, we look at the world,

we, we know things need to be made right.

And I will just ask you as I close this morning, have you

experienced the healing that Jesus Christ offers?

It is extended to all who come to Him by faith.

You might go I I don't fit the bill.

I'm not that guy and has extended to all who had come to

him. The outsider, The insider.

And for those of us who who have received that healing, firstly,

does that root us in hope? Do we, do we cling, hold to that

hope? Does that change the way we view

life? Does that change the way we view

our sufferings, our fickle bodies, our fickle minds, this

ultimate healing that's made available in Christ?

And is this love of Christ something that we display every

day and the interactions we have and the people we speak to, to

those who are not like us? Do we display this love and this

healing of Christ to those around us?

What would it look like for us to live that out this week in

our homes and our workplaces as we interact with people on the

street, in the supermarket, wherever we go?

We have such a great Saviour and he's offered us such incredible

healing. Let's go to him and prayer

before we get U and celebrate this photo.

Team Almighty God, we thank you and we praise you for Jesus

Christ in what He has done for us on the cross.

We thank you that our hope springs eternal.

We thank you that we can know you, our relationship with you

can be restored. And so I just pray, Lord, that

we may route our hope and what Jesus Christ has done, and I

pray for those who do not know that, but they may see the

goodness and the sweetness of the healing that is available

from Jesus to all who would come to him.

Thank you Lord, we praise you in Jesus name, Amen.