“It’s Great to Be Forgiven” - Genesis 50 - Pastor Scotty Brown

We're going to finish the book of Genesis today if we have to be here until three o'clock this afternoon.

It's actually pretty good. You know, I think I've said it before, where you're out in life is where you're out in the scriptures.

And the more you put God's word in your heart, the more applicable it seems to be to your life.

And just because of some of the heavies that I've experienced this week, just with people,

people that I know, people that I love, and the death of some people, it always puts it in

perspective, right?

When somebody leaves this world or is getting close or has got that bad news and really don't

know how it's going to finish up.

And so I titled my message, it's great to be forgiven.

And really, that forgiveness is really part of the preparation for the day that you take your last breath.

Jesus says, you don't, you do not want to die in your sins, right?

Because there is a place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

The Bible talks about that.

Had a conversation last night with a gal about heaven and hell as she's watching her brother.

possibly take his last breath and he he passed early this morning and um and we were talking about that

it's one of the other right there is there is two ways to live and die there's two ways and it's so

simple i like i was telling somebody uh in our staff meeting on there or telling all of our

staff you know the message is the same every sunday it's just that we need to be reminded of it don't we

don't we forget we just forget and we've seen Israel over and over throughout the old

testament they got in trouble with the Lord why because they forgot the Lord we just get going

doing our own things and I forgot the Lord this morning and I'm a sinful man and I can't even

believe that I'm standing behind this Pope right now but for the grace of God right

Amen. God's so good. So we're going to look at this chapter. And we've seen Jacob pulled his feet up into his bed and

breathe this last. And he was gathered to his people. And I think I shared last week that I just loved that saying,

gather to your people. Do you got a people group that you're going to be gathered to? Right? Just, you know,

that the older you get, it's just kind of bizarre. The older you get, the more people I know in

heaven than I know here, because everybody looks the same here. You know, as you get older,

it's just like, I've seen that face before, but it was like 40 years ago, and it wasn't gray.

You know, I mean, it's kind of a bizarre thing, but the older you get, you know, the Lord is,

is preparing us for that place. And here Jacob is, and he died. He died.

and so we're going to read the first 14 verses of chapter 50.

We'll take it in two chunks.

Then Joseph fell on his father's face.

It's after Jacob had died, and wept over him and kissed him.

And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.

And so the physicians embalmed Israel.

Forty days were required for him.

For such are the days required for those who are embalmed.

and the Egyptians mourned for him 70 days.

Now, when the days of his mourning were passed,

Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh saying,

If now I have found favor in your eyes,

please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh saying,

My father made me swear, saying,

Behold, I am dying in my grave,

which I dug for myself in the land of God.

Canaan, there you shall bury me. Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father and I will come back

and Pharaoh said, go up and bury your father as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father and

with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

as well as the house of Joseph, his brothers and his father's house, only their little ones,

their flocks and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen, and there went up with him,

both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering. Then they came to the threshing floor

of a Todd, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation.

He observed seven days of mourning for his father, and when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites,

saw the mourning at the threshing floor of a Todd. They said, this is deep mourning.

of the Egyptians. Therefore, its name was called Abel Mizreim, which is beyond the Jordan.

So his sons did for him, just as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land

of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamary, which Abraham

bought with the field of Ephraim the Hittite as property for a burial place. And after he had

buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who went up with him

to bury his father. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for life. Lord, thank you for hope.

Thank you that, Lord, we face death that it might drive us to the life giver. And so many,

maybe even struggling here today with the idea of death and dying. And yet it's part of this life

that we partake in, Lord, and yet you tell us that we can have a pass from it, that it can't be

the destroyer that it seems to be to those who don't have faith and don't have hope.

Lord, would you speak to our hearts today?

Would you help us to prepare ourselves and our families, Lord, for that time when it will be our

time?

And Lord, it's a great thing, Lord, that you've taken away the fear.

you've gobbled it up the sting the victory is all gone that death has Lord so we are victors

and we fight this battle from a place of victory in our king in our God and it's in your name

Jesus we pray amen so um it it was um his day they embalmed him just a quick side note on embalming

there? Well, not on embalming, but some people, you know, cremation is so popular today. But it's a

newer thing. We don't see creation or excuse me, cremation throughout the scriptures, but we do,

we see burial. And so people have a question all the time, well, should I be buried or should I be

cremated? Well, I don't care.

Now, the proof text for cremation is ashes to ashes, dust to dust, right?

From dust you came and to dust you shall return.

Cremation is a very fast process.

But in the scriptures we see mainly people were buried.

And so whether that changes your money,

I'm not dogmatic either way.

Although I have been talking to my wife,

I always thought I was going to be cremated about that.

No, if I die, I want to, I want a really cheap one by 12 pine box.

That's what I want.

And then you decide where you want to be buried, right?

And so they embalm him.

Now, his only request was that don't bury me in Egypt.

don't leave me here, but take me back to the promised land. And I think there's a beautiful picture

there that we'll look at a little bit later. But there's two ways to live and die. And that's kind of

what I want to talk about here. I'm going to reference the text. I might do a little bit of astronaut

preaching today. You guys know what astronaut preaching is? Astronaut preaching is you read the text,

depart from the text, never to return to the text.

I'm not going to do that totally, but a little bit maybe.

But it's really about life and death.

And it appears that where I'm at in my life, it's a lot about life and death.

I do a lot of funerals.

Probably going to get called in the next few days to do a couple more.

I do two this week.

And it's just always right in your face.

And that's a good thing because that's what the Lord

told Moses, right, back in the Old Testament, today, I set before you life and death.

Choose life. Right? It's like every day you and I have a choice to make, how we're going to live.

Now, the three thoughts that I'm going to share with you is to be prepared to die or not to be.

Oh, doesn't that's kind of Shakespearean? Well, that makes me sound smart.

To prepare to die or not to prepare to die.

That is the question.

What's Shakespeare straight?

Oh, to be or not to be.

That is the question.

Well, it's one or the other, right?

There's like there's no, there's one of the other.

So you can either be prepared to die.

Now, what's fascinating is,

is I know people who think they are prepared to die,

they're not prepared to die, right?

And so I think Jacob was, he was prepared, right?

He called his grandsons, he's put his hands on him, he talked to him, he blessed him, he worshipped before them.

They got to see their grandpa worship.

The sons came and he blessed and prophesied over their lives.

And so he was, he was, Jacob was prepared.

And I've been to enough deathbeds to recognize.

people who are prepared to die. And often you see people, I mean, the absolute sheer terror of death,

it's disturbing. And maybe rightly so. In Amos chapter 4, verse 12, the Lord speaking to Israel because they

Amos 4:12

had forsaken the Lord. They weren't prepared. And the Lord talks to me, he says,

therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel, because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God.

Right? And God was going to kill some of them.

What if you knew God was going to kill you?

I think I would say, oh, Lord, have mercy. Right? Because he should. If all of us are honest, God should kill us.

and yet he seems to be so gracious and so forgiving and so long suffering.

You know, Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27, and it is appointed for men to die once,

Hebrews 9:27

but after this the judgment, people think, well, I'll get a second chance.

You know, talking to some Mormon friends, they think that you get a second chance.

Well, I'll just do your work for you.

I'll get baptized for you.

like baptism's going to save me from hell.

You being baptized from me.

I think that's a change in my heart that needs to take place even before I go under the water, correct?

Right?

Baptism saves no one.

But just know there's a judgment coming.

When you take your last breath, when you step out of time and into eternity, there's a judgment coming.

Are you ready?

Are you prepared?

See, death has no hold on those who are prepared for.

for it. It really does. For those who are really prepared for it, it has no hold. And that's why

Paul talks about that in 1st Corinthians 15. Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory?

And that's why it's so awesome to go to a funeral and share the gospel, right? Because death has been

conquered. The very thing that the friends and family of this person are experiencing, it's been

overcome. It's been defeated. It's been abolished. Death has. It has no hold. Listen, Jacob dug his own grave.

Right? He says there that he, the grave which I have dug. If you dug your grave?

you know but death not being prepared for death destroys those who are not prepared for it

and that's what satan is called right he's called the the destroyer the one who comes to steal kill

and destroy there's a story i read in that um read a little article about

and missionaries. In the early 1900s, there was a group of missionaries. It was called one-way

missionaries, one-way missionaries, and who when they were about to embark on a mission to a foreign

land, they would not pack a suitcase as most people would. I may have shared this sometime back.

Instead, they took a coffin at which they packed with their belongings along with a one-way ticket.

and by so doing they demonstrated their intention to die sooner or later in the new land where they

were adopting. A good example of this short sort of commitment and intentionality was a missionary

named Peter Milne. And Milney is selected as his mission a tribe of headhunters in the new

I don't pronounce this right, Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific and Ophers.

the Australia's coast, every other missionary that attempted sharing Jesus with this group had been

killed. Milne had no guarantee that would not be true for himself. As well, still, he was not deterred,

so off he went with his coffin. He spent more than 50 years in the islands witnessing to the tribesmen

about Jesus Christ. When he died of natural causes, the tribe buried him in a grave,

noted with this with this on his tombstone when he came there was no light when he left there was no

darkness right powerful it's a powerful thing when somebody is is looking into the jaws of death

and and all fear is gone right so being prepared is really really important and you can do that

you know i i remember being a young man and not wanting to ever talk of dying thinking that if i speak

about it it's going to happen i'm going to jinx myself little than either though though doesn't matter

if you talk about or not you're going to die right and so so first being prepared to die or not

Secondly, to live a life of faith or not.

We walk by faith, right?

Not by sight.

In fact, this week our reading through Hebrews included chapter 11,

and it's known as the Hall of Faith, Hebrews Chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And it's all about the faith of the people of the Old Testament.

right it covers from from able the faith of able all the way to the prophets but what's really cool in that

hall of faith is you and i are in there you and i are in the hall of faith in hebrews chapter 11 in verse 1

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

it says by faith we who's that us you me by faith you me by faith

It says in verse one, we understand that the world was framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

That's something we believe by faith that God created. In the beginning, God created. Do you believe that?

Right? So many people, they come and sit their keyster in church. They don't believe that. They believe that this thing's millions and billions of years old.

But that's not what the Bible teaches. Well,

pastor. Now in the Hebrew there is a thing that we call the gap theory. Now you inserted the gap theory

right between verses one and two and Genesis one. You would never get millions and billions of years

from simply reading the truth of God's word. Right? It is an assumption. You know the first three

letters of that word? That's what it makes out of you and me.

No, it's not.

God does not need time.

God created time for you and me.

He's outside of it.

It's not binding towards him at all.

And so by faith, we show up in verse one.

of the 11th chapter of Hebrews in that hall of faith.

And in verse 39, it says,

in all these, speaking of Abel and the prophets,

and all these having attained a good testimony through faith,

did not receive the promise.

God having provided something better for us

that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

In other words, all these people were looking forward

to the coming of the Messiah.

right and they did it by faith and jacob is doing it by faith jacob's uh claim to faith here in in chapter

11 is when when he blessed the the boys of of joseph leaning on his staff worshiping god as he was dying

he was displaying faith and faith that life would come even after you take your last breath

and that's mentioned in verse 21, right, where it says,

by faith Jacob when he was dying,

blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning on his staff.

They believed not seeing, right?

Their faith.

How much greater, how much greater should our faith be because of what we did see,

what we do see?

All we have to do is look at history, right?

The evidence for us.

the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is overwhelming.

And flack, William Blackstone, who was a doctor of law who helped establish American law,

all biblically based, said there is more evidence, there is more historical evidence that

Jesus Christ came, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was crucified, buried, and rose

again, there's more evidence to prove that than there is that George Washington was our first

president. And so we have all this. It's not blind faith. It's historical fact that this person,

Christ Jesus. Now, we do put our faith in him, right? And we're looking for the second Advent. He's

coming again. That's what we're looking for. These guys were looking for the first. We're looking

for the second. Sad to say, most of the Jewish population today is still looking for the first.

They missed it the first time. And he's going to show up. If you don't live your life by the

faith of the son of God today, seeing what we know is true, just from him,

historical record, right, then your hell should be the hottest part.

Your hell should be the hottest part because he's done everything he can do to present to you

life and you reject it. See, I'm convinced that God isn't the only one involved in our eternal

destination. Most of it's on us. If you go to hell,

you choose to go there.

Right? It's your choice.

And so I think my friend, even as we were talking last night, those words came out of his mouth.

You're in one place or the other. It's your choice, right? You're in one place or the other, and it's your choice.

Because we are all without excuse, right? Our excuses.

is taken away by the things that are made, the things that you and I see all around us.

All of Jacob's excuses to not have faith in Yahweh was taken away in the things that he saw.

Right? And that's what the Bible says in Romans chapter one. Starting in verse 20, read there with me.

If you have a Bible, you can turn there. Romans 1, verse 20. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are,

Romans 1:20

clearly seen. His is capitalized. That'd be God. Being understood by the things that are made,

even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God,

they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and were

foolish, and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing to be wise they became fools, and

changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and

four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts

to dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served

the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. No excuses. They're all gone.

I believe the people are going to stand before Jesus, before the Father, totally silent.

You have no excuse. You have no argument at all.

So you can walk by faith or not.

Hebrews 6.11. Excuse me. 116. I'm dyslexic.

but without faith it's impossible to please him for he who comes to god must believe that he is

and that he is a rewarder for those who diligently seek him all you got to do is seek the lord it's so simple

i was doing it on the way in this morning begging forgiveness for my sinfulness

and i'm convinced he heard me and he said okay scott i'll forgive you this time but

your mercy cup's getting little low.

Actually, it's inexhaustible, right?

2 Corinthians 5,

so we are always confident,

knowing that while we are at home in the body,

we're absent from the Lord.

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

We are confident, yes, well pleased,

rather to be absent from the body

and to be present with the Lord.

And Paul is talking about this whole mindset of just walking by faith.

He knew when he was going to die.

In fact, historians say that the old codger in his 80s trotted up the hill to put his head on the topping block.

He was going to bring it on.

Not intimidated at all.

Why?

Because he'd walked by faith of the Son of God.

He talks about it, right?

And so,

we do walk by faith, not by sight.

And so when people die in faith, it's just like, I mean, what do you do?

Do you laugh?

Do you cry?

Do you rejoice?

Sometimes you do all the above.

It's amazing.

I remember being at the grave, or the standing at the dead body of one of my family

members and and we started we started laughing and I remember my grandpa saying are we morbid

no we were laughing we were crying we were rejoicing we were right it's just it's pretty wild

when when the fear of death is taken away as it says there in Hebrews chapter two excuse me

verse 15 right that he came to release those who through the fear of death their whole life had been

shackled. And yet it's gone. And that's where Jacob's at in this moment. He's just like,

I'm out of here, boys. Just don't leave my carcass here. All these died in faith that says in

verse 13 of Hebrews 11, not having received the promises, but having seen them far off,

were assured of them, embrace them, and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

for those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

And there's that old hymn, right?

Oh, this world is not my home.

I'm just a passing through.

My treasures are stored up somewhere beyond the blue.

And so that's why I'm trying to convince my wife to live in a tent.

Come on, honey.

we've got a mansion waiting for us.

Why do we got to spend all this time on this stinking place?

It's just falling down.

It's terrible.

And I've got to do a lot of work.

Just kidding.

Not kind of.

But faith gives you an expectation,

which leads us to the next thought that I'm going to share.

right so we've got preparing to die walking by faith or not preparing to die or not and then

two resurrections you got you got a choice you can pick the first one or the second one

which one do you want absolutely right these these two resurrections that we see in the scriptures

as Daniel talks about it in Daniel chapter 12 he says and many of those who sleep in the dust of

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt

some to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting contempt so one or the other

and you can't wait till you get there right because because what we read in Hebrews

nine earlier. Now, Jesus talks about the two resurrections in John chapter five. In verse 24, he says,

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting

life and shall not come into judgment. Man, that is so cool. But has passed from death to life.

Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the

son of God and those who hear will live. And as, for as the father has life and

himself so he has granted the son to have life in himself and has given him authority to execute

judgment also because he is the son of man do not marvel at this for the hours coming in which

all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth those who have done good to the resurrection

of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation

I can of myself do nothing.

As I hear I judge and my judgment is righteous

because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.

Two resurrections.

You want the first one.

You want to be part of that first one.

That most believe includes the rapture of the church,

which we're looking for.

You know, I'm watching this whole thing.

I mean, it's kind of exciting what happened.

A week ago, Tuesday, wasn't it?

And it's just like, wow.

You know, and Jesus talked about that he comes when you least expect it.

Is it when we're saying peace and safety?

Oh, all is well!

I talked to people, my retirement went from 24,000.

thousand dollars to thirty six thousand dollars in three days they're all excited maybe that's when

the trumpet's going to sound right we don't know that's why guy shared it yesterday at it uh men's breakfast

you're never you're never idle when you're walking by faith you're always moving right because if you're not

moving forward, you're backsliding. Right? There's no middle ground. Like Jesus said, you're either

for me or against me. There's no, you can't coast. Oh, I'll as well. Oh, God. Eat, drink, and be

merry. We're fat, dumb, and happy. No, if anything, maybe we should be waxing stronger in our

faith right now and getting more serious with the Lord and drawing close because I think it's getting

closer. Isn't it every day it gets closer, right?

Duh.

Revelation 20, verse 6,

Revelation 20:6

Blessed and holy is he, check that out.

Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.

Over such, the second death has no power,

but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,

and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Really good things to look forward to, right?

But that's what we're pursuing. That's, that's being prepared, that's walking by faith, that's taking part in the first resurrection.

Okay. So they had a big old hurrah and party and a time of mourning for Jacob, and they all come back. And it was quite the entourage, right?

Lord knows how many thousands and millions of dollars was spent going and putting Jacob back in the

promised land. And it says in verse 15, we'll read through the end of the chapter.

When Joseph's brothers saw that his father was dead, they said, perhaps Joseph will hate us

and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him. So they sent messengers to

Joseph saying, before your father died, he commanded saying, thus you shall say to Joseph, I

beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.

Now, please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father, and Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, behold, we are your servants.

And Joseph said to them, do not be afraid, for I am in the, for.

Or am I in the place of God?

But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about,

as it is this day, to save many people alive.

Now, therefore, do not be afraid.

I will provide for you and your little ones.

And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

As I'm reading this, I'm thinking, man, that's just like me.

There's things in my life I just start getting way down about that I did 25 years ago,

thinking, I can't believe I did that.

Lord, you really should kill me.

And start churning it back up.

And the Lord's going, what are you talking about?

I do not.

God honestly does not know what we're talking about.

He has this ability to forget our wickedness.

The problem is, is we don't.

That's the problem.

And so these guys are just thinking, oh no, dad's gone.

he was just being gracious until dad died and then he's going to lower the boom right and notice he

he wept he just had this heart like you guys what do you've been you've been thinking about this for the last

17 years this has been chewing on yet let it go I did God has used this for good

he saved all of us with this this this thing that you guys are groveling over that's behind you

like Paul said, forgetting those things that are behind us and looking towards the mark,

towards the goal, right, to be with our king.

That's the goal.

To be prepared to die, to walk by faith, to take part in the first resurrection.

So he comforts him.

It says, and they were comforted, right?

Are you comforted today?

God's, God, he's forgiven you.

Maybe you haven't asked for it.

if you have an asport or maybe you've got something that you haven't confessed, just confess it, right?

In Act John chapter 1, verse 9, right?

John 1:9

If we confess our sin, he's faithful in just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I was driving in here this morning.

And I was having to confess my sin when I should be praying about this.

Right?

But before I can pray about this and before God will hear me, I've got to confess my sin and get right with God.

And most of the time that's a daily event, right?

Confessing my sin.

He who knows to do good and does not do it to him, it is sin.

So they send a message to the brother, the mother sent the message to Joseph's sin.

Hey, Jacob said you have to forgive him.

He's like, I already have, right?

They're full of fear and not faith.

Those two things cannot coexist.

If you're fearful about the stuff that is coming or even the stuff that is past, when you're fearful, your faith is neutralized.

You can't be full of fear and full of faith at the same time.

It's one and the other.

It's like light and darkness.

And so Joseph comes along and he calms their fears.

He says, listen, I'm going to provide for you.

You know, I have people come to me all the time.

They're in need.

Lord's going to provide for you.

He's going to provide for you if you'll just walk by faith, right?

So once Joseph's forgiven them, just like us, once Jesus has forgiven us, it's forgiven.

Now, if we transgress again, yes, I think it's important that we seek forgiveness.

But it's forgiven.

Leave it alone.

It's cast into the sea of forgetfulness.

As far as the east is from the west, as Greg Lorry says, he casts him into the sea of forgetfulness.

And he posts a sign there that says, no fishing.

So don't be fearful.

be faithful.

So elementary, but so true.

Verse 22.

So Joseph dwelt in Egypt.

He and his father's household.

And Joseph lived 110 years.

Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation.

The children of Makir, the son of Manasseh were also brought up on Joseph's knees.

And Joseph said to his brethren, I am dying.

But God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land to the

land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob.

And then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying,

God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here.

So Joseph died being 110 years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

So the patriarchs, if we wanted to dig somebody up,

the best looking would be Jacob and Joseph because they were embalmed.

and I mean you see people

they find mummies and stuff all the time

it's incredible how they get everything to stay on skin and hair and stuff

and so but they embalmed me but notice

what does he want to be throughout scripture

Egypt is a picture of the world

right it's a picture of the world and of sin

and Jacob and Joseph both knew it wasn't their place.

This isn't my home.

This world is not my home.

Don't you leave me in Egypt.

Yes, God have them in the world.

God has you and I in the world to be salt and light in the world, but not of the world.

Our treasure isn't here, you guys.

Now, you can build up accounts, right?

You might have a great bit of gold in your portfolio, and it's like, what, 27?

$700, $100 right now, your treasure isn't here.

Right?

These guys, their focus was the treasure,

was the promised land, what God had promised to them.

The promises of God to usward are yes and amen.

And so it is with you and it is with me.

And that needs to be our focus.

Because that is what motivates us to live this life.

Right?

To live a life.

prepared to die, to live a life, walking by faith, to live a life in the expectation of the

first resurrection. And that's the trumpet sound. And it might be sooner than we think. So we all

just got to be ready. Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for this day. Thank you for

your word. Lord, these words of hope and peace and truth and power. And Lord, you've done it all.

you've so made the way for us to be prepared.

Lord, you've given us a measure of faith

to put our faith in the one who is worthy of all praise

and adoration.

And Lord, that you truly were our example as you came

and lived this human experience.

Lord, to give us something to follow.

Lord, I pray that we would do it with all of our hearts

and with all of our lives to our very last breath.

Lord, that you would receive the glory

that is truly due.

your name. Lord, would you just minister to any heart right now that's not quite right with you,

Lord, that they would come to that place of believing in you by faith, Lord, and that you would

lift up their heads and that you would encourage those who are downtrodden. Lord, that you would

minister to those bodies that are sick and hurting and have infirmities, Lord, that you would

minister to your people. Lord, I think of so many this day, Lord, that love you, Lord, and yet their

bodies are failing, Lord. Be with them. Be with their family.

and provide according to your glory.

And so, Lord, we love you today.

We pray that you'd go before us, Lord, this week

when we have those opportunities to speak the name of Jesus,

may we do it under the power of your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen.

Let's do a song.

Thank you.