The Present of our Presence

Hey, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

Welcome.

It is.

Was it December last Sunday?

It was.

I'm a little late to the game, but that's fine.

But you know what is it?

That's what I'm saying.

One of my favorite songwriters.

If you're in the Christmas period, just go check them out.

You should be in the Christmas period because it's December.

And we got kind of stuff going on.

We want to say welcome.

My name is Brandon.

Okay.

Yeah.

And we are so glad that you are here with us this morning.

If you want us for our online gathering, we're grateful.

We know you can be anywhere doing anything this morning.

And the fact that you're here, we just we're grateful.

And we believe that God has something really special for us to get our time together.

If you want to, give yourself a gift.

I thought about that one a lot.

I mean, what?

We got the kids programs are coming.

The Christmas Eve services are coming.

And January, we're getting a third service coming.

There's like so many things.

We can't even get them all in one hand.

The best way for you to stay connected is if you download the church program, it has everything that you need.

Or that is connected.

And so it's freaked in the traffic.

And so why not?

Why not?

And there's uh kind of stuff you can do on there, like how you mentioned staying connected, but you can also take an extra.

I forgot about that.

Whatever God might be calling you to this morning, you can probably take the extra on the app.

So we'd love to encourage you to do that.

Like already mentioned, we have kids programs coming up.

December 17th.

Who doesn't love good kids programs?

I love it.

I do love it.

That's why I had to think about that.

It's gonna be amazing.

You never know what's gonna happen.

I know.

That's what makes it so much easier.

So make sure you're making plans to be there December 17th.

Um kids programs at both locations.

We're doing one service at 10 a.m.

And uh for our Walnut Grove family, make sure uh to put on your calendars.

That will be at the Walnut Grove Auditorium.

So we're not gonna be meeting at our normal church location, we will be at the Walnut Grove High School Auditorium.

But that's gonna be amazing.

So 10 a.m.

kids' programs, December 17th.

And then because that's what he says.

Is it 10 a.m.

December?

Well, I know hey, but you're on it today.

You are on it.

And I love this.

Um that's happening, and then we also have our uh Christmas Eve services schedule.

Yeah, uh so make sure you're making plans for that.

We're gonna be doing a plethora of services over the Christmas Eve.

Okay, I'm working on it.

Um I don't even know what that means, but it sounded right.

Your comics.

Yeah.

So December 23rd, we're gonna offer a Christmas Eve service uh on the Eve Eve.

Uh the 23rd at 5 p.m.

I'm really excited about that.

Yeah, it's gonna be great.

That will be at both locations.

And then also for the 24th, we'll be doing a 3 p.m.

and a 5 p.m.

at both locations as well.

So man, that's three opportunities.

But if you multiply that by two, that's six.

So therefore, you have no.

Yeah.

Everybody gets a participation trophy.

But hey, come Christmas Eve.

It's gonna be amazing.

You might not get a trophy, but you can participate.

It's gonna be awesome.

We would love to have you there.

This is fine.

It works on some works on it.

We would love to have you there.

It's gonna be amazing.

Um we've been planning and just believing that God's gonna uh show up in uh in a in a really powerful way.

So make sure you make plans for those.

And then also uh we are, like Cody said, we're mentioning we're launching a third service in January.

We can mention it here.

Yeah, so we're gonna mention it now.

That uh that's happening.

We're gonna be launching a 5 p.m.

service at our Walnut Grove location, and there is a core team uh that is getting ready for that right now.

And if you would love to be a part of that core team or interested, we are having a meeting tomorrow.

Um so you can check out the website for those details, but just wanted to throw that out there because it's gonna be a really amazing opportunity for us to reach more people and we've got to do some really cool things with another gathering and a one-go location.

So we put that on your radar.

Another um amazing opportunity to help people.

Yes, last week.

Last week, yeah.

And what a cool thing.

What a cool thing.

We say it all the time.

It's the best of anything that we do all year.

We get to be a part of it, and it's just it's so life-giving, life-changing.

Um to be able to see these kids who uh may not have the resources or may not have um you know the privilege, if you will, to uh to do that.

But we get to give them a$125 gift card, they get to go with a hero, so like a police officer, a firefighter, um like a first responder, like, but also like we have some Marines, people from the army, things like that.

So just um all these people who literally put their lives online for us, um come out and shop with these less fortunate kids.

And it's just really cool because you think they go and get a bunch of stuff for themselves, and some do, and that's fine, that's great, nothing wrong with that.

But a lot of them go and get stuff for their family, yeah.

You know?

And so it was just a really cool event, and um, I think we're gonna show some of that beautiful bean footage.

Um I don't know, is that a thing anymore?

It used to be a thing.

Yeah, they used to be a thing.

Anyways, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna roll a video.

Yeah, and then after that we're gonna roll it into worship and then the word.

And uh grab that and get the terminals ready, um, check out this video from Top of the Hero, get ready to worship, and get ready to be engaged in the sermon.

Let's go.

How are y'all doing?

Cold, rainy day.

Thank you for being here.

Especially if you're a first-time guest.

We just want to say welcome.

Thank you for joining us for worship.

My name is Jonah Faulkner.

I am the student pastor for Church of the Grove here at our Wannack Grove campus.

Us is out of town.

Our lead pastor, he's out of town this weekend playing pickleball.

Hopefully not in the rain.

So he asked me to fill in, and I'm always so honored to do that.

So again, welcome, especially first time guests.

Before we get started with the message this morning, we don't do this very often, especially kind of on a Sunday morning to the entire church.

But this past week, there have just been a lot of tragic and difficult things that have been happening in the lives of some of our family members here at Church at the Grove.

And I just kind of want to take a moment to bring you in on that, but also just ask you to be praying for all these things.

The first one, you may or may not know her.

They're typically down at our social circle campus, but her and her family have played a huge role in Church at the Grove throughout its time.

But Wendy Alleygood, she's been battling cancer for uh a year, year and a half, two years, and she passed away on Friday.

Um so we're just kind of praying for her family.

Uh, if you know Wendy, uh she doesn't want you to feel bad for her.

She was very excited, um, very extremely just full of hope and confidence that she was about to meet Jesus face to face, and we truly believe obviously that's um what she is doing right now, but just praying for peace for their family.

Um, the second um mention I want to make is Craig Calhoun.

A lot of y'all probably know that name.

Him and uh Tanya and his family, again, have been with Church at the Grove since it was planted.

Um, but Craig had a heart attack on Wednesday, um, didn't realize it until Thursday, um, decided to go to the doctor.

They told him he had a heart attack.

He's kind of been in the hospital since then.

Um he's doing good now.

We went and saw him yesterday.

He's still Craig.

Um we laughed more than anything.

Um he's he's doing great, but um, they do have to do open heart surgery on Tuesday.

So just praying for that.

It's a very successful surgery, um, but still it's obviously nervous and serious, so we're just praying for him and his family.

And then the last one that I want to mention is Sophie Bruner, which is Hannah, our worship leader's little daughter.

Um, she has a ruptured appendix.

Um, she had a set a surgery on Friday.

Um, she's recovering now, she's still at CHOA.

Um, texted Hannah this morning, she said she's still in a lot of pain.

Um, so obviously just praying for healing to continue to happen in little Sophie's body.

Um, but again, just a lot of discouraging things um happening kind of in the life of our family here at Church of the Grove.

So I want to bring you in on that so that we can cover them in prayer.

So I am gonna pray for um specifically these three families, um, and then also just pray for God to draw near to us this morning.

Father, we believe that you are a God of that is sovereign and in control of all things.

Um, we also believe that we live in a broken and sinful world where bad things happen.

Um, Father, it doesn't always make sense, but one thing that we can rest in day in and day out is that you're in control, that you're sovereign.

So we pray for um the Alley Good family that you would just bring peace to them during this time, that they would even just rejoice in Wendy's faith.

Father, that they would even see the faith, the excitement she had leading up to her death, um, and be encouraged by that and be pointed to the to the joy that's found in the salvation we have in Jesus.

Um pray for the Calhoun family and for Craig and pray for healing over his body, for wisdom from the doctors throughout this entire process, and just peace for their family.

Um, again, just such a serving um family, a family that loves people so well, um, and just ask that you would have your hand over them.

And lastly, we pray for Sophie for just healing, um for her appendix, that she would um just make a speedy recovery, that you would ease the pain and even just bring peace to that family as well.

But as we open your word this morning, we are expecting to hear your voice.

So we just ask you to speak, fill us with your Holy Spirit, give us eyes to see you, ears to hear you, um, hearts that are softened, um, not just hear what you have to say, but listen to it and allow it to just to begin abiding in us so that we may abide in you.

We love you and pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, now we're getting started.

Have you ever noticed um how naturally we look forward to the next season of life that we are in?

We're oftentimes we're not really focused on what we're in now, we're just looking forward to what's next.

So that starts from when we were a kid.

Um, when I was a kid, I couldn't wait until I was a teenager for the sole purpose so that I could be bigger, stronger, better at sports.

I was, I love sports and I just couldn't wait when I was a little kid to get into that middle school, early high school stage of life where I was a little bit stronger, a little bit faster, a little bit better at sports.

But then once I was a teenager, I couldn't wait until I was 16, right?

That's a huge number.

I couldn't wait till I was 16 so that I could drive, go places with my friends, things like that.

Once I was 16, I couldn't wait until I was 18 because then I officially became an adult, right?

Sometimes I still don't feel or act like an adult.

You can ask my wife about that.

But I am, once you're 18, you're an adult.

You're legally an adult.

Once I was 18, I couldn't wait until I was 21.

And we all know why people have a desire to be 21.

That's when you can book a hotel room and you can start traveling around the world, right?

Then once I was 21, I couldn't wait until I was done with college.

So I could graduate, start making some money.

That still hasn't really happened yet.

Um but then once I was out of college, had a full-time job, then I couldn't wait to get married so that I could spend the rest of my life with Miss Reese over there, who is incredible.

But once I was graduated, I couldn't wait to get married, and that's where I'm at now.

Me and Reese are married almost two years coming up in February.

It's been incredible.

Marriage is a blessing, it's a gift from God.

Um and we love where we're at in life right now, but we're not content because all of our friends are having babies.

It's baby season in our stage of life.

We are surrounded by people who are having babies, and now me and Reese want a baby.

And I'm gonna have at least 10 of y'all come up to me after the service and say, just enjoy it while it lasts.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

But I don't care, me and Reese, we now have this desire, we're looking forward to the next stage of life where we have children, and we know once we have children, the whole process is just gonna start over again.

And the point that I'm trying to make is that 99% of the time, this is our attitude with life.

We're not content with where we're at right now, and we're just constantly looking forward to the next stage, the next season of life, whatever that may look like.

However, what typically happens over a certain amount of time is that we take a second, we stop, we look back, and then we ask the question where in the world has time gone?

Where has time gone?

I get memories that pop up on my phone all the time from college and uh crazy videos from from my roommates and things like that, and it was so much fun.

And now I look back, I'm like, that that was almost some of those were like creeping up on four or five years ago.

And then I look back even further to high school when I was playing sports, it feels like so long ago, and it's where did time go?

Andy Bernard, if you know who that is from the office, he has a famous quote.

He says, I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.

That is a quote that that hits, it almost makes you tear up.

We're gonna get to happier stuff here in just a second.

But the old adage of this idea of time being a thief is so true.

Time continues to march on, whether we want it to or we don't.

Um, time has its way of just going on and on and on.

The older we get, the more we recognize that our lives are fleeting.

Um, as the book of James says, they are a vapor here one day and gone the next.

But the point I'm trying to make is that sometimes we just gotta slow down.

We gotta learn to slow down and be present in the moment, the season of life, the people we're doing life with, and just be and not look forward to what's next, but just be present.

And here's what I want to understand, want us to understand this morning, is that as we're creeping up on the Christmas season, the most precious gift, the most precious present we could give someone else is our own presence, our own kind of unhurried, intentional presence with the people around us.

So last week we began the series called Present by talking about the miracle of Christmas, why we celebrate it, the unimaginable reality that God chose to come and dwell with his people here on earth in human form.

He emptied himself from his godliness so that he could take the form of a humble servant.

We celebrate the birth of Jesus.

We talked about how the person of Jesus, the good news of the gospel, is the greatest gift we could ever or will ever be given.

As we begin to celebrate this Christmas season, the gift of Jesus is the best present, the best gift we will ever be given.

So we're gonna shift gears a little bit this morning, but before we do, I want to make sure that we don't just kind of gloss over what we talked about last week, kind of like how we typically do with sermon series.

And Russ kind of even made the point when Christmas season rolls around, we we tend to allow the Christmas story, the good news that a savior has been born to reconcile his people back to himself.

We tend to just kind of gloss over that.

We allow the good news of the gospel to become mundane, something that's just ordinary and kind of boring in our lives, but we cannot allow that to happen.

A verse that's kind of been, that I've just kind of been um resting and thinking about throughout this week is Romans 6.23 because it magnifies, it brings so much glory and and depth to what the gift of Christ truly is.

And it says, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I said this verse, it brings depth to the to the gift of God because it ultimately brings depth to how desperately we needed him.

So often we view the gospel as a story of how we just kind of needed help and God decided to help us.

But it's so much deeper than that.

An illustration that I kind of like to use every once in a while is that that I think it explains the depth of the gospel, um, is that we typically view the gospel as if um we're in the middle of the ocean, we might be treading water, we might begin to kind of start dipping below the surface a little bit, start drowning a little bit, and God comes and he throws this life preserver named Jesus, and it kind of saves us and pulls us away from that.

But the gospel is so much deeper than that.

That is a shallow understanding of how desperately we needed Jesus.

In reality, the gospel is closer to the idea that we were we weren't just treading water or starting to drown, but that we were stone cold dead at the bottom of the ocean.

We had no life in us, much less no hope in ourselves at all.

But then God, being rich in mercy, he reached down, saved us, breathed life into our lungs through the person of Jesus.

That's what Ephesians 2 tells us that we were dead in our sin.

You weren't just hurt, you didn't just need help, but you were dead and you needed life, and that's what God gave us through the person of Jesus.

This is the free gift of God.

This is why the gospel, the person of Jesus, is so glorious, and he should never become mundane throughout this Christmas then as we go through all of our traditions, but he should be the forefront of everything.

And as we said, Jesus is the greatest gift we have ever and will ever be given.

However, it doesn't end there.

It doesn't end at the gift of Jesus, it doesn't end at the gift of salvation, it doesn't end when we're baptized.

That is the starting line of our life with Christ.

Now, as people who have received the free gift of eternal life, who have been given life through Christ, we are now to live in a way that reflects his glory for all to see.

We are to follow in his footsteps.

So this morning, we um we're gonna talk about one of the characteristics of Jesus that would be wise for us as followers of Christ, especially through this Christmas season, to follow.

And it's this Jesus is always fully present with the people around him.

Jesus is always fully present with the people around him.

As you read through the biographies of Jesus or the gospels, um, you'll see Jesus do all these incredible things.

He has incredible sermons.

He tells these incredible parables that you could think about for days and days and still not find the bottom of what they mean.

However, above all those things, he was present.

He was with people, he was for the people.

Yes, he taught powerful message and all these parables, but what always jumps out as we read through the gospels is that he was fully present.

Jesus had the most significant life of anyone who has ever lived on this earth.

He was the most significant person.

He was the most important person, the most valuable person, and yet he never seemed too busy for people.

As you read through his life, you recognize that he truly sees the people that are right in front of him.

So this morning, we're gonna be reading from Mark 5, just kind of one chapter in the Gospels, and it and it's a chapter that kind of encompasses and shows how present Jesus actually was with the people around him and how he, three different ways, so to speak, that he gave the gift of his presence to the people he encountered.

So we're gonna be in Mark 5, but it's important to note at the end of Mark 4, um, Jesus had just finished teaching, kind of uh through some parables, and then more intentionally teaching his disciples, and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, it's what I want to point out is he tells his disciples, let's get in the boat and we're gonna go to the other side of the sea.

So he has it has this idea to get in the boat, to go to the other side of the sea.

And you might know the story when they're on the sea, um, the winds and the rains come piling down, the disciples are terrified, and he says, Where is your faith?

Calms the storm, um, which is just an incredible story, and then they arrive on the other side of the lake, and that's where we're gonna pick up um right now.

So Mark 5, 1 through 5.

It says, So they arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of the garrisons.

When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him.

This man lived in the in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain.

Whenever he was put into chains and shackles, as often as he was, he snapped the chains from his wrist and smashed the shackles.

No one was strong enough to subdue him.

Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones.

So in these verses we see that Jesus crosses the sea, and the first person that he comes into contact with is this demon-possessed man.

As soon as he gets off the boat, this is who he meets.

The painted picture that we're kind of given is not very pleasant of this man's condition.

He was living by himself among the dead.

They had tried to lock him up and bind him up with chains, but the chains couldn't control him.

He was starting to cut himself with stone.

He was living in pain and agony.

And we're not going to read all of the story, but he comes to Jesus, this demon-possessed man, he comes to Jesus, and Jesus heals him.

He frees him from these demons.

He sends the demons into a herd of pigs, they run off a cliff.

It's a crazy story.

Encourage you maybe to go back and read it later.

Um, but the the townspeople, kind of what we're trying to get to, is the the townspeople come back out, they see all that's happened, and they become terrified.

They're terrified that Jesus could heal this man, and they ask Jesus to leave.

He just got there, he just healed this man, and now he's being asked to leave.

He took all the time to sail across the sea, he encountered this man as soon as he got off the boat, and now they're begging for him to leave.

So we see just a few verses later, it says as Jesus was getting into the boat, so he said, Okay, I'll leave.

He says the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him, but Jesus said, No, go home to your family and tell them everything that the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.

So the man started off to visit the ten towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed at what he told them.

So Jesus performs this miracle, the man's life has changed, and then Jesus immediately hops back into the boat and goes exactly where he came from.

So the point I'm trying to get, and you might pick up on it, is that Jesus did all of this for this one man.

And I I don't I would imagine it's a lot of work to sell across the sea back in Jesus' day.

It wasn't probably as easy as we have it now.

A lot of work into this, a lot of intentionality went into this, but Jesus just took a field trip with his disciples to meet this man who needed healing and to free him from what he was controlled by.

So we see here that Jesus went out of his way to meet the needs of others.

He risked his life in the wives of the disciples when a storm blew in so that he could meet the needs of a desperate man who had no hope outside of Jesus.

And again, Jesus took this special trip going completely out of his way to meet the needs of this demon-possessed man.

So the question becomes do we, do we go out of our way to meet the needs of the people around us?

Do we go out of our way with intentionality and planning and organization to meet the needs of people around us, whether we know who they are or not, do we go out of our way to help others in need?

Christmas is kind of a time where um a time where we tend to be more generous in helping people who have needs, but this is something that should be a year-long thing for us of seeking out people who have needs around us.

And we um sadly, many of us never even see these things because we aren't willing to go out of our way to actually see people and see the needs that need to be met.

So Jesus went out of his way to meet the needs of others, but the story doesn't end here.

So after Jesus did all this, he also shows us what it looks like to be present with the people that are already around you.

So the story goes on in Mark 5, um, verses 21 through 24.

It says Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore.

Then a leader of the local synagogue's name was Jairus, arrived.

When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him, My little daughter is dying, he said.

Please come and lay your hands on her, heal her so she can live.

So Jesus went with him and all the people followed.

What we can see from this kind of interaction is that Jesus was never too busy to embrace people.

Jesus was never too busy to embrace people.

He lands on the shore.

I'm sure he's got to be exhausted, right, from their short trips back and forth across this sea.

He's got to be exhausted.

You also got to remember that he's Jesus, right?

Jesus had a pretty important mission.

He had a pretty important message that he had to share, and he knew exactly when he was gonna die.

So he knew how little um his ministry was actually gonna be in terms of years.

He was probably exhausted.

He was incredibly busy, so to speak, but he was not too busy to embrace Jairus.

He could have easily told Jairus, I'm sorry, I'm too tired, I'm too busy to help you.

I have too many things that are more important than this.

And this is, if we're being honest, an excuse that we use far too often.

It's an excuse that I use far too often when I don't want to do something or when something's an inconvenience.

Typically, I kind of throw out the, well, I'm kind of busy right now, my nights are limited, things like that, or I'm too tired, I'm sorry, maybe another time.

This is an excuse that we love to use.

How often are we too busy or too exhausted to embrace the needs of the people around us?

But then at the same time, how is it possible that Jesus, the most important person to ever walk this earth, never seemed to be too busy, to be with the people that were around him?

So rather than pushing Jairus away out of convenience for himself, Jesus embraces him with his presence and then journeys along with him.

Jesus could have said, All right, your daughter's healed, that's it.

But he actually walks with this guy.

He begins to journey with this guy all the way to his house, showing his presence.

Not just his power and his authority, but his presence with his people.

And this is a way of Jesus that we can be better about following ourselves.

But this is also where things in the story get a little interesting.

It takes another twist.

On the way to Jairus' house, Jesus has another encounter with a Completely different person.

So Jesus went with Jairus.

This is Mark 5, 24.

Jesus went with Jairus and all the people followed, crowding around him.

And then a woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.

She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better.

In fact, she had only gotten worse.

She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.

For she thought to herself, If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.

And immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my robe?

His disciples said to him, Look at this crowd pressing around you.

How can you ask who touched me?

So in this scene, we see that Jesus is now on a mission.

He's walking with Jairus to heal his daughter, and then he encounters someone else.

He's going out of his way once again to be present with a man who's in desperate need of his healing, but then all of a sudden, Jesus feels healing power leave his body, which is how cool of a statement is that.

When you read it, that's just an incredible thing to imagine that Jesus could feel healing power leave his body, but he feels this power leave his body, and then the mission that Jesus is on is suddenly interrupted.

It comes to a halt.

You gotta imagine Jairus in this whole situation is like, hey man, like my daughter's like, she's dying, you know.

Like I appreciate you, but why don't we have to stop?

Like, she's healed, let's just keep going.

But Jesus is interrupted and he stops.

And here's what we can learn from the way that Jesus handles this interruption is that he does not view interruptions as an inconvenience.

Jesus does not view interruptions as an inconvenience.

Jesus could have easily just kept walking, bound and determined to get to Jairus' house, to heal her daughter, so that he can ultimately get back to originally what he had planned to do.

However, Jesus stops and embraces the interruption of this woman.

And rather than viewing it as an inconvenience, Jesus views it as an opportunity to not just heal someone, but to actually see someone.

Before he keeps going, he makes it a point to meet and acknowledge the person that has touched him.

And keep in mind the woman has already been healed in some capacity.

It says that she felt the bleeding stop, but it also says that Jesus felt healing powers leave his body.

So in some capacities, she has been healed.

She's good, she got what she came for.

But Jesus wants her to know that she is seen.

She's just not healed, but she is also seen by him.

It's one thing to help someone else or to offer advice to someone else, but it is an entirely different thing to make someone feel seen and heard.

Theodore Roosevelt has the famous quote that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

And there's so much value in that statement.

There's so much value in making people feel seen and heard.

And Jesus knew that.

He made it a point to make the people he encountered not just know who he is and know the power and the message that he had, but he wanted to make them feel seen and heard.

So then the question we now ask ourselves is do we see the people around us?

Do you see the people around you?

Making people feel special and seen is a lost art, so to speak, in our society.

We're so distracted by the world around us and everything we have to get done that it's so hard for us to actually see the people that are around us.

We aren't present with others that comes across our path because we're distracted by phones, work, hobbies, sports, whatever you want to call it.

A practical example of this that honestly kind of breaks my heart a lot is if you're you're out at dinner, out in public, you see a family sitting around the table, and just everyone's on their phones.

Everyone's on their tablets, and it just breaks my heart.

Not, you know, because I think it's it's necessarily wrong or anything like that, but they're just lacking in being present with one another.

They're using the time that they could use to be present and see one another by spending it on a phone or a tablet.

But we have so many things that are trying to distract us and keep us from being present and just seeing people.

And even the disciples, they tried tried to distract Jesus by saying, Jesus, you are surrounded by hundreds of people.

How can you possibly say who touched me?

So they're trying to keep him moving, but Jesus doesn't allow himself to be distracted.

He makes it a point to meet this woman.

It goes on to say, it says, but he kept on looking around to see who had done it.

Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done.

And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well.

Go in peace.

Your suffering is over.

So it had been decades, decades since someone had gotten close to this woman.

Back then, that was an unclean thing, and people didn't come around, women or anyone who struggled with that sort of disease.

It had been decades since someone had gotten close to her and talked to her in such a gentle and kind way.

But Jesus in this moment saw her.

He saw her.

Not just the healing that she needed, but he saw her.

He saw her soul, her spirit, exactly what she needed past the surface of her disease.

And while the point of this sermon is ultimately to follow the example that Jesus sets for us, maybe some of you just need to hear that part.

That Jesus sees us.

He sees you.

He sees me.

He sees the church.

He sees your family.

He sees every single need that you could possibly have.

Jesus sees you the same way He saw this woman and her need for healing.

So again, while we're trying to learn what it looks like to care for people around us, there is a possibility that some of y'all need to be cared for.

While we're trying to learn what it looks like to be present with people around us, some of y'all might just need to have someone to be present with you.

Maybe you need the presence of God in your life.

Maybe you need healing.

Can I just encourage you after reading this story and encourage you in this moment just to run to Jesus?

Run to Jesus.

He sees you, he will meet you.

One thing that always sticks out to me kind of in this story is the way that this woman approached Jesus.

There's a few different ways that you could interpret it, and it's kind of the fact that she fell down at his feet.

That is a very common way that people respond and meet God when they meet him face to face.

But I think there's something a little different with the way that she approaches him.

It says that she was frightened and trembling at the realization of what had just happened to her, and she came and fell down at Jesus' feet.

Now, part of this could have been shocked from the fact that she was just healed from a disease she had been fighting for 12 years.

I can't imagine the relief, the overwhelming feeling that that would come with something like that.

But it also seems like she's afraid almost what Jesus is gonna say to her because she touched his robe.

You can almost sense the shame, the guilt that she might have felt.

You could almost sense that she was fearful of how Jesus was gonna handle the situation and respond to her.

But again, Jesus simply sees her, he lifts her up, he encourages her and sends her out in peace.

In the same way some of you might not have gone to Jesus for healing because of this the same reason.

You're you're afraid of what he might say to you.

You're you're afraid of how he might respond to your your begging and your pleading for healing.

You're you've allowed guilt and shame to pile up and pile up to the point where you won't hand it over to Jesus because you're afraid of how he's going to respond.

But let me just reiterate that Jesus sees you and he is ready to embrace you.

He is ready to bring healing, full healing, not just physical, not just situational healing, but full healing to your body, to your soul.

And all you have to do is run to him in faith the same way that this woman did.

All you got to do is just reach out in faith to pursue him, to chase after him, to believe that he is able to bring healing to you.

But to kind of wrap up this morning, as well as this short little Christmas series that we've done, I want us to be mindful of just two things throughout this Christmas season.

It's about to get real busy, schedules are about to pile up, it's about to move really fast.

We're gonna blink and it's gonna be 2024, which is crazy to think about.

But two things I want y'all to keep in mind throughout this Christmas season.

The first thing is what we talked about last week, that we have been given the greatest gift of all time through Jesus.

It can't be said enough, it can't be thought about and dwelled on and meditated enough that Jesus has been given to us and for us.

That is an incredible gift that God in the flesh coming to dwell among his people, meeting us in our sin and desperation, and breathing life into our stone cold dead bodies.

That is the gift, the beauty, the message of Christmas that we have a Messiah named Jesus.

First John 5, 11 through 13, just it shows the beauty of the gift of Jesus in such a simple way.

It says this is the testimony, the good news, the story, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his son.

Whoever has the son has life.

Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

That's the good news of the gospel.

That's the gift of Christmas in three verses.

That you have eternal life through Christ Jesus if you have placed your faith in him and repented from sin.

This is the gift that God has given us.

So my challenge is just enjoy it.

Enjoy it and rejoice in this gift throughout the Christmas season.

And then, second, as people who have experienced the presence of Jesus to experience the gift of God that has been given to us, we need to be present with the people around us.

Jesus will never be good news to a lost and dying world if those that follow him are too distracted to see and be present with the people around them.

As we talked about at the beginning, our lives are short.

They're here one day, gone the next.

We have no guarantee how many more days, minutes, seconds we have on this earth.

Therefore, we have got to be intentional about the way that we use our time.

Specifically, intentional about the way that we treat and encounter and live with the people around us.

Jesus was fully present and we must follow his example.

The most precious gift we can give anyone this Christmas season is our presence.

It's our time, it's our attention, it's our our our mercy and grace towards them.

So a few questions to maybe think over as our band comes back up and just leads us in a time of response.

How do you need to be present with others throughout this Christmas season?

How do you need to be present with others throughout this Christmas season?

How can you be present and intentional with your kids?

Maybe a little more intentional than just the classic Christmas stuff of Santa Claus and reindeer and gingerbread houses.

How can you be intentional and be present with your family this Christmas season?

Are you willing to go out of your way to meet the needs of other people?

Do you see those needs, or is your life too distracted and insulated to see the needs of the people around you?

Is your life too busy to don't have time, or you're unwilling to change your schedule to meet the needs and be present with others?

Are you constantly living in a distracted state?

Is your phone, your TV, your hobby, your job, is it distracting you from seeing the people around you?

How can you train yourself throughout these next few weeks and hopefully the rest of your life to be present with people?

God came to dwell with us through his creation, through Jesus.

Jesus was fully present with those he encountered.

Now we must be fully present with the people we encounter.

The best gift we could give anyone over these next few weeks is our intentional presence.

So I'm gonna pray for us.

Our team is gonna lead us in worship, and as they do, just consider how you can be present with the people around you this Christmas season.

Father, you have been so kind to us, so gracious to us.

Father, so often we allow the gospel to just become another thing that we know, or we allow it to become mundane rather than the driving force, the energy behind everything that we do in this life.

Father, forgive us for our apathy towards the gospel, towards the good news, the gift of Jesus.

Throughout this Christmas season, let us not just know the gospel, but rejoice in it, to dwell in it, to allow it to bring hope and peace and grace into every area of our life.

For those that don't know Christ, who have yet to experience the greatest gift on earth, I pray that you would meet them exactly where they're at right now, that you would pierce their heart with the good news of the gospel, that they would turn from their sin and believe in the name of Jesus, that they may have eternal life.

Father, I pray for those who have placed our faith in Christ and have received this incredible gift, that we would walk in the way of Jesus, that each and every day we would become more like him from one degree of glory to another.

Show us what it looks like to be present the same way that Jesus was present.

Let us be intentional about our the time that we spend with family and friends over these next couple weeks.

And above all, let us be a light to a lost and broken world.

And let us offer the good news of the gospel.

We love you, Father.

Meet with us as we respond, and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Hey, thank you guys so much for worshiping with us this morning, and we hope that you were just challenged, encouraged around God's word and this idea that we've been talking about over the past couple weeks of uh really presence.

Um and the gift of Christmas is that God is presence or like pr presence.

Yes.

Like presence?

Nope.

No, no, no, no, okay.

But it's this beautiful idea of just for clarification, we're talking about like like like presence as in gifts or presence as in just like being in the room?

The gift of presence, of being in the room.

So the present of presence.

Whoever's doing the serma prep, they got to go on.

Kind of clever.

Yeah, clever.

Yeah, play on words there.

Um so what we've been talking about is just really the gift of the incarnation emmanuel that God is with us.

And that's literally what scripture has been driving towards uh since the very first page.

Um, and all of history that as we know it is God moving heaven and earth to be and to dwell with his people.

And so we hope that you are just encouraged by that, that God is with you.

Um and because of that, we are supposed to live a life of presence with others.

One of the greatest gifts that we can give this holiday season, this Christmas season, is just being present with others and giving people, giving uh our time and attention to uh to others.

And so hope that you are able to walk in that this week.

If you need help in any way of taking next steps towards Jesus, we'd love to come alongside you.

If that's uh you are wanting to decide to follow Jesus for the first time, or you've been walking with Jesus for the past 70 years and know that God's calling you to the next step.

We would love to resource you for your journey because we believe that's what this is.

It's not just a one-time decision, but it is a lifelong journey of following Jesus, and we would love to partner with you in that.

And so if you would text, start to follow to 9700.

Start to follow all one word to 9700.

And again, we'd love to just come alongside you for your journey and give you some resources for that.

That's right.

Thanks so much for hanging out with us this morning.

We hope that you are encouraged, we hope that um that you do feel called into the next step because we always mean to be growing in every aspect, right?

Everything is a next step.

But I mean, look, Christmas is literally around on the horizon.

So thank you for coming with us today.

Go home where you're already home because you're watching it here.

Or if you're not watching it home, go get your PJs, get some hot cocoa, put on a Christmas movie, enjoy the time with your family, take a rest day.

You know what I mean?

Ain't nothing wrong with a rest day.

It's actually biblical.

Can't argue with it.

So we'll do that.

So if there's anything that we can do for you this week, please let us know.

Otherwise, we will see you next week.

Don't forget about peace programs on the 17th, uh 10 a.m.

and also the Christmas Eve services.

You can find all those details on the app or the website.

And yeah, we would love to see you uh this Christmas season.

Have a good week.

See ya.