Yahweh Is A God Of Truth

Ah, you're a student, you're dismissed.

And if you're not a student, you can keep your seat.

Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.

Christ Community Church.

Happy that you're here with us today.

Happy to be back.

I'm happy to be back today.

Yeah, yeah.

Um see other faces that are back.

Yes.

Um, anything I'm supposed to announce?

I think Tommy made the announcement.

Yeah, okay.

All right, good.

Um, I'm gonna pray.

Lord Jesus.

Uh I ask you to please take control of our study today.

I pray that you would guide us.

I pray, God, that you would open our eyes and our ears and our hearts and our minds, and that we would be able to receive that which you have prepared for us, that we would receive it by faith, and that it would go down inside our hearts and lives and take root and change us for good.

I pray that you would remove the distractions and any competing voices, and that we would be able to recognize and trust the voice of the Holy Spirit today.

We wait upon you, we look to you, we cry out to you for fresh grace, and we sure will be grateful if you will do something real and lasting in each of our lives.

And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Um I promise this is our last week uh looking at Exodus chapter 34, verse 6.

Exodus 34:6

I can't get away from it.

I've been, I told y'all several times over the last month and a half that I've never studied anything in my entire journey with the Lord that is so just shaken me uh about who God is.

This God that I've that I came to know when I was 18 years old.

Shirley invited me to church and uh went with her and uh I heard the gospel.

Um I know it wasn't the first time, but it seemed like the first time.

And I I gave all that I knew of myself to all that I knew of Jesus that day, and um he came into my life and uh he saved me and adopted me into his family.

But since then, 45, 46 years later, I'm just amazed at how little I really know who God is.

And uh this study in Exodus 34, 6 has really helped me in some fresh and real ways.

Uh get a glimpse of some of the qualities that uh God possesses, and I've just been pondering these five qualities for weeks now.

Um you probably know them as well as I do by now, but Exodus 34, 6 says, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God of compassion, a God of grace, a God who is slow to anger, a God of covenant love, and a God of faithfulness.

And um before we go any further, which of those five, I'll ask all of you, I don't want all of you to answer, but I'd love for you to think about it with me.

Um, which one do you, there's not a right answer, but which of those five do you find the most endearing, the most important?

I don't even know the right way to ask the question, but is there one that stands that stands out of the five to you?

They're so amazingly interlinked, aren't they, that it's almost impossible to pull one out and say, oh, that one's better.

That's a better quality than the others.

Uh for me having said that, um, if I were asked here they are if you to choose, um compassion being this idea that God sees us like a mother of a newborn sees us, this idea of grace that God sees us as infinitely valuable and he moves toward us out of that belief that we have great value, slow to anger being that he is so patient, but when he sees us hurting ourselves or hurting others or being hurt by others, it angers us and angers him, just like it angers us if somebody's hurting our children, or they would hurt themselves.

God's covenant love, that God is he does us good because he's promised to do us good, but also because it is a delight to do us good.

And then this idea of faithfulness being that God is trustworthy, he is dependable, you can count on him.

Of those, which one stands out to you?

Well, we haven't had the message on faithfulness.

Faithfulness is a very wonderful quality, but I I would pick grace, grace, grace, mercy, God's graciousness.

Yeah, the the gifting of things that we did not, I mean the lavish gifting of things we didn't earn or deserve.

Yes.

Okay.

What about you?

I guess I would say that not for the same reason, which is significant.

Um, I would say that the one that I value the most or that stands out to me the most, I guess, is God's graciousness.

Yeah.

But just this idea that I've never seen before, I did this study, and that was that God actually sees us as valuable.

We're not trash that this loving God goes, oh, well, that's trash, but because I'm so loving, I'm going to reach down and do something nice for the trash.

That is not at all the way the Bible presents how God sees us and feels.

He sees us as infinitely valuable, as a treasure.

The idea that we read the parable that Jesus tells about the man who finds a treasure in the field and then sells all that he has to buy the field so he can get the treasure.

We take that to mean that God, that we go, oh, Jesus is the treasure, and I need to give all that I've got to get Jesus.

That's not at all what Jesus was doing.

What Jesus was saying was, my dad saw you as this treasure, and he gave everything that he had, me, his son, so that he could buy the land where the treasure is, and you're the treasure.

It's a completely flipped uh idea.

You know, it's I don't know, it's just it's a lovely idea.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, we're gonna, I promise, because I get something great for next week.

I'm so excited I can't stand it.

Um a different focus.

Um, but two weeks ago we ended this study by looking at this idea that God declares that he is a God of faithfulness.

And does anybody remember what that, what the Hebrew word for faith, trust, faithful?

Emit.

Thank you.

That's exactly right.

That God is a God of faithfulness, that God is a God of trustworthiness, dependability.

We can count on him, and that's the Hebrew word for emit.

But the Hebrew word for emmet can also, does, not can, it does also mean truth.

Or truthful, or truthfulness.

This idea that God is faithful to always tell us the truth.

I cannot get past that.

That the God of the Bible is a person who will always tell us the truth.

And what I'm gonna go ahead and jump to the very end of the lesson, and what a gift that is.

That I have in my life a relationship with someone who will only and always tell me the truth.

I want you just to think, and I'm not trying to, you'll see where I'm going with this.

I'm not trying to just stir the pot or offend anybody or poke or jab when I say these things that I'm about to say, but I want you to think about this declaration of God Himself that I am a God of Emmett.

I am a God of truth.

I am a God of truthfulness.

I am a God who will only and always tell you the truth.

I want you to think about that in light of the world that we live in today.

In the light of a culture of wokeness, my truth, your truth, Trump's truth, Biden's truth, Fox News' truth, CNN's truth, fake news truth, United States government truth, medical truth, science truth, financial truth, relational truth.

I talk to people every day, and not all the time, but the majority of the time.

Two people walk into my house and both of them, it's as they don't say it, but it's the truth.

They're both trying to get me to convince me that their perspective is the truth on their relationship or on their relational problems.

We live in a world where there's so many opinions and ideas and views and beliefs regarding what is true.

And there's so many voices, so many powerful voices, so many convincing voices, so many various voices that George Gallup's organization says that two out of every three Americans do not believe that there is any such thing as truth.

There's, you know, what you feel is true, and what you feel is true, and what you feel is true, but there is no overarching truth that everything else is under or under or held up by.

I'm not exactly the, you know, the so the question that I want us to think about today: how are we to distinguish between what is true and what is not true?

You're a teacher.

I am.

You deal with this every day.

Yes.

Your girls come into your off your room, and especially I'm sure in your uh, well, in all your classes, I'll just say it that way, y'all are struggling with this very issue.

Any any thoughts?

I'd love, because you deal with this every day.

Um I had not heard your statistic from the Gallup poll about, you know, a tr a belief or a a general belief in any kind of you know stable truth.

Um that doesn't surprise me in my experience, in my educational experience.

Um I I think that I am of the belief that things don't uh psychologically and philosophically don't change much over the decades and the years, and the I don't think people have changed all that much.

That's my my opinion.

Um but um what I experience, my students put a lot of weight on what they experience.

Yes, the experience determines truth rather than any sort of external uh I'm thinking, of course, of the Bible, but any sort of external thing.

Yeah like this is it, no matter what.

Um I will say this.

You're not expecting this, and I just thought of it, but I do think it's true.

Um some of my students from other religions outside of Christianity are more, can be um more adhered to their book or their system than maybe many outside.

Not not it's it's it's a bold statement and it's overly broad, but um No, I get yeah, you know Yeah.

It's a real thing, just trying to wrestle with what really is true.

Yeah.

Um I was just thinking about how um you know the Bible from chapter 2 through the end.

Genesis 2 through Revelation.

Um how the Bible gives us repeated examples of where God speaks to people.

And what the Bible would say is, is when God speaks, that is, well, what is truth?

Gail read where Pilate said to Jesus, what is truth?

Well, what the scripture would the consistent declaration of scripture is that when God speaks, that is truth.

Because he can't speak otherwise.

That's all he can say, that's all that he can declare is that which is true.

So the Bible gives us these repeated examples of where he speaks to people, telling them truth, and they are placed in a situation where they have to choose between believing that what God has said to them is true or not.

God never argues, he never debates, He never, He just tells them the truth, and then they have to respond to that.

And the consistent message is that when people tell God no thanks, I don't believe your truth, or I don't accept your truth, or I'm not gonna embrace your truth, that always leads to death.

When we embrace what God says, not just, and I'm using my words carefully, not just believe what he says, but embrace it.

When we embrace what God says is truth, that always leads to life.

And when we reject what God says, that always leads to death.

Let me give you some examples.

No one in this room, I bet, think or uh is shocked that my first example is Adam and Eve.

Adam, God created the garden, he placed Adam and Eve in the garden, and in the middle of this garden was a tree, and God said, You can eat of every fruit of every tree in this garden but one.

And I don't want you to eat of this fruit, because if you do, you will experience death.

God spoke truth.

Was that the truth?

Yes.

God spoke the truth, they heard the truth, they rejected the truth, and they experienced death.

And I've got, I mean, the list goes on and on and on.

Where I want to give you a couple of more examples, but where my mind's going on this thing is in John, I think it's 1 John, the Apostle John says, um, in the world there is a spirit of truth, and there's a spirit of error.

And these two spirits are operating.

And you see it, Justin, you hear that ringing?

Okay, Lord bless you.

Just want to make sure you're hearing Abraham home.

Okay.

Um, and so from Adam and Eve to the day when Jesus returns to establish his kingdom, you've got these two spirits, one of truth and one of error or deception or non-truth, false truth, whatever the right word is, and they're both operating in the world.

They're both operating in your life and in my life.

Now, I don't mean a little good angel, bad angel deal.

That's not what I'm saying, okay, at all.

But I'm just saying that there's these two spirits of truth and error that are operating, and we are regularly confronted with the opportunity to choose which one we're gonna listen to.

By example, Job.

Job knew what God had taught him about himself.

Job knew what God had revealed to Job about his character, his person.

How he dealt with it.

Job knew because he's giving back to God what God had taught him.

So he had this spirit of truth being spoken to him, but he also had the voices of his wife and the voices of his friends who were speaking words of error.

And Job had to decide which voice he was going to embrace as truth.

Noah and humanity when the flood.

God said, Noah, I want you to tell everybody on the planet there's a flood coming.

And everybody that gets in the ark will be saved from the destruction of the flood, and everybody that doesn't get in the ark will be destroyed.

People had to make a choice between the voice of truth and the voice of error.

And that choice led to either them experiencing life or them experiencing death.

Same with Lot and Mrs.

Lot and Lot's daughters.

God sent two angels to Sodom, and the angels said, dude, you and your family got to get out of here right now, because if you don't, you're going to be destroyed.

And there was this voice of truth, and there was this voice of error, because the sons-in-law, they responded to this truth that they were told by Lot.

They thought Lot was only jesting.

They thought that it was not true what they were hearing.

And I could go, Pharaoh is hearing.

God sends Moses to speak truth to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh, if you let my people go, I'm going to bless you and your land.

And if you don't, you're going to experience destruction.

Pharaoh's other priests, other God representatives are saying, wrong, that's not right, that's not, don't believe that.

And you know, you know the confrontation.

Pharaoh was confronted with this spirit of truth and with this spirit of error.

And I could go on with Israel when they got bitten by snakes.

God told Moses, build this, put this bronze serpent on a pole, and if people will look at the pole, at the snake, they will not die.

They were forced to choose: am I going to look to the snake on the pole to experience healing, or am I not going to do that?

And some lived and some died.

Samson, Saul and David, what great example Saul surrounded himself with certain voices that spoke out of that spirit of error.

And David surrounded himself with certain voices that spoke out of that spirit of truth.

And Saul's life and David's life, they're billboards for us, for you, for me, who I surround myself with.

And by extension, who I listen to consistently, that is going to determine the outcome of my life.

And I could go, Jeremiah, those of you that are reading through the Bible with me right now, Lord help us.

You know, we're in a challenging little season right now with all these dead gum genealogies.

And one day we're going to find out why those were so important.

But anyway, nonetheless, if you keep reading, one of the things that you and I are going to discover is this idea that God sends Jeremiah to his people.

And he says the most unusual thing, and I'll end with this one, although I could go on and on and on.

He says, This big huge enemy army that hates your guts, their names are the Babylonians, if you will so, and they are committed to your harm, they are committed to your destruction, they are bad people.

They hate you.

But if you will submit to them and not fight against them, I personally will make sure that you experience life.

But if you fight against them, you're going to experience death.

What idiot would nobody that's not right.

That's not right.

You fight against people that are against you and you yield to people that are for you.

Everybody knows that.

And if you will do that, I'll make sure you experience life.

I think the interesting thing about truth is that perhaps we expect it to be easy.

That then if I am told something as truth, then then if I practice that, that that's good.

That's what we want our children to tell the truth.

We want people to obey the you know the rules and and do what's true and right.

But it's it's it's rarely easy because often it's it's it's hard.

All of those examples that you just gave, what I was thinking is that would be very hard to do.

That'd be very hard to submit to the Babylonians when they've taken all your stuff, and and then you know, a prophet comes and says the truth, and what I want to say, if I'm you know, an Israelite at that time is that's not fair.

I don't want to do that.

Um that they don't deserve that, and so because the truth is often not easy and it goes against, for me anyway, my often my preferences, uh, my opinions, and even my sense of fairness or equity sometimes, um, then the truth, of course, becomes very difficult to do.

And if you throw the teachings of Christ in there, then there's all this paradox.

Well, I do not want to turn a cheek to someone who slaps them.

I don't want to do that.

It's hard, but it doesn't negate.

I mean, if this is where we're going, the Bible, it doesn't negate the truth.

It's just I don't want to do that because it's hard.

It's harder than what I want to do, which is to poke you back right in the nose.

This isn't where I was gonna go.

And I hope we have time to come back around.

I didn't mean to get you.

No, no, no.

That's such a great, I wasn't even thinking about the hardness of embracing the truth.

And every one of those situations that I gave as examples from the Bible, surrounding, David surrounding himself, uh Moses going to Pharaoh, Pharaoh having to choose between the religions of his own land and this religion, this God, this foreign God, how hard that would have been.

Um Noah going and telling people about a flood that's gonna destroy everybody, and it's never rained, as far as we can tell.

What's a flood?

But you know, what's that all about?

We've never seen that, how difficult it would be.

As you were saying that, I was just thinking about in 1 Peter, Peter says, um, he said, no, I just told you wrong.

It's 2 Thessalonians, I've got another verse in 1 Peter, but I'll come to that later.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul says this.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

The Antichrist will come doing Satan's work with counterfeit power and signs and miracles and all kinds of deception to fool people on their way to destruction, for they refuse to love and accept the truth.

He goes on a few sentences later to say they will experience destruction because they prefer evil rather than the truth.

What stands out to me in that passage is this it's not that they didn't know the truth, they just didn't prefer it.

And in Romans chapter one, Paul says exactly the same thing.

He says this, that people will experience destruction because they suppressed the truth.

It's not that, well, I didn't know.

And you you can interpret these verses differently, but you know I read smart people, and they've all convinced me.

What Paul is saying in both of those passages is this we don't chew, we don't experience death relationally, financially, biologically, or physically, spiritually, we don't experience death because we are ignorant of the truth.

It's because we reject the truth.

Oh, Brenda wronged me, and I didn't know that I was supposed to forgive her.

No.

I know what I'm supposed to do.

I just don't want to do it.

I didn't know that I was supposed to help the poor to a to the point that it cost me sacrificially to help the poor.

I didn't know.

No, the Bible would say, you do know.

You do know, and I know.

We experience death because we suppress or reject the truth, not because we are ignorant of the truth.

And I would question those verbs for just one quick second, um, thinking about the difference between reject and suppress are not the same thing.

Reject is like, no, I'm not doing it.

Not doing that.

Suppress is something I do.

I mean, I reject too, but and that is I'm just thinking about it, you know, telling someone most of the truth, or listening and practicing most of the truth, or somebody asks me a really hard question.

This happens at school, someone asks me a really hard question, and I know the truth.

And I tell her 80% of the truth, because the other 20% I don't want to say.

So maybe they don't have to be.

Because we believe we will experience life by leaving out some of the truth, and we'll experience death by saying the whole truth.

Well, I want that student to like me.

And so what Paul is saying is it's exactly the opposite.

It's when we walk, and that's the way Paul says it most.

We don't know the truth.

Yes, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

It says that.

But Paul's favorite way of talking about truth is walking in the truth.

When I walk in the truth, that's when I experience life.

And when I reject or suppress the truth, ignore the truth, that's when I experience death.

And I just wanted us to really think today about the gift that we have been given.

That Don's been given, that Alan's been given, that Kelsey's been given, that uh Dale's been given, that Allison's been given, that Larry's been given.

We have been given the truth if we dare accept it, dare believe it, dare embrace it.

What a gift we have been given when God tells us that He will only and always tell us the truth.

I mean, isn't that what we there's a part of us in our brokenness we don't want the truth.

Don't tell me what I don't want to hear.

But there's also a part of us, don't you want a doctor that will tell you the truth versus a doctor who really likes you and wants to affirm you and make you feel better about your circumstances?

So he doesn't tell you the truth.

Which doctor do we want?

Or we're uh uh Thursday, Shirley and I have got to go and see Brenda uh Vandersleis, who's our financial uh advisor lady, about our financial situation.

I'm scared to death.

I'm scared that I'm gonna walk in there, she's gonna go, dude, y'all better get you, you need to invest in ramen noodles big time.

That's what I'm gonna be scared to death.

That's the truth.

But don't I want her to tell me the truth?

Win, lose, or draw versus, oh, y'all need to take 10 trips a year,$10,000 per trip, have a good time.

Because that'll make us feel better.

Is that what we want?

Do we want people to affirm us or to tell us the truth?

Whether it's a teacher, whether it's a counselor, whether it's a financial advisor, whether it's a friend, don't we?

Is there not a part of us that that healthy part of us that longs for somebody to love us enough that they will tell us the truth?

Now part of it is, do they know the truth?

That's the question.

And on every one of those examples that I gave, a teacher, a financial advisor, a doctor, maybe they know the truth and maybe they don't.

But the Bible declares that Yahweh is a God of Emmet.

He is a God that knows the truth, and he's speaking the truth to us.

I just want to end today by sharing with you a couple of things that have helped me personally in my journey with this whole idea of truth.

Um, because it can get confusing and discouraging and frustrating trying to distinguish well, what is truth?

Just like Pilate.

What is truth?

Who knows what truth is?

Your opinion, my opinion?

How do you know?

I would just declare to y'all.

You know that one of my mantras that I will go to my grave nagging you about until you go to your grave.

And that, then it's too late.

Uh but but until then, I will nag you until I die.

That you and I need to read the Bible.

And we need to read the Bible from beginning to end.

And I believe that.

But I want to add something to that.

And I I mean this with all my heart.

Do not read the whole Bible until you have gotten a very strong level of comfortability, confidence of whatever the right word is, about Jesus Himself.

Stay in the gospels.

Don't read the Old Testament.

Don't read the epistles.

Don't read those parts.

Are they true?

Absolutely.

Are they the Word of God?

Absolutely.

Are they trustworthy?

Absolutely.

But before anyone should begin to expose themselves to those truths, I would appeal to you to read the Gospels.

Get to know Jesus.

I want you to hear me and I want you to remember this.

I don't believe that the rest of the Bible is true.

No, I said it wrong.

I don't believe in Jesus because the rest of the Bible tells me so.

I believe in the rest of the Bible.

Because of Jesus.

My entire Christian life I have heard people say we should believe in Jesus, in Jesus, because of the Old Testament fulfilled prophecies.

I don't agree with that.

I don't agree with that.

I think that's interesting.

I think it's worth studying.

I think it's faith-building.

But I believe in the book of Genesis because of Jesus, not the other way around.

I believe in the book of Isaiah because of Jesus, not the other way around.

And I would have, those of you that are struggling with what to believe, especially when it has to do with the Bible.

Well, do I believe this?

Do I believe that?

What about the flood?

What about creation and the seven days?

And what about the manna and the Red Sea and David and Goliath and the Noah and all this stuff, the sun standing still?

What do I believe about all these things?

What do I believe about some of the more difficult passages dealing with difficult issues, especially in our world today?

What do I believe about those things?

What I would tell you from the bottom of my heart, don't worry about them.

Leave them alone.

And spend one, two, five, ten years reading about the person of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And get to know him, get to know his values, get to know his life, get to know his words, get to know how he treated people.

How he lived his life.

Get to know how he feels about you.

Get to know how he feels about the rest of the Bible.

Get to know Jesus.

And once you get to a certain level of confidence and comfort, I know him now.

I'm getting to know him.

Then go back and start reading the rest of the Bible that Jesus referenced and addressed and utilized.

Get to know Jesus.

I believe in the Bible because of what Jesus said about the Bible.

Not the other way around.

The other thing that I would say to you is this: don't forget the purpose of the Bible.

I've said this to you before.

I believe every word of the Bible is true.

I believe every statement in the Bible is true.

I believe every event in the Bible is true.

I do.

My wife would tell you I do.

I'm not just saying that.

I do.

But the Bible was not written to give us history.

The Bible was not written to give us political systems.

The Bible was not written to give us medical advice.

The Bible was not written to give us great kids or great marriages or happy lives or financial freedom.

Does the Bible address those issues?

And if we and can we learn from the Bible about those issues?

Absolutely.

But that is not what the Bible was written.

The Bible was written so that you and I could understand and get to know who Yahweh is, the Father of Jesus, and Yahweh's Son, Jesus Christ.

That's why it was written.

And if I approach the Bible for any other reason, I'm missing the point.

We should approach the Bible.

David said it this way, in Psalm 16, thy words will show us the way of life and joy in your presence and eternal pleasures with you forevermore.

That's why the Bible was written.

To give us, to show us the way of life, to give us joy in your presence, and eternal pleasures with you forevermore.

I would also add, remember what I said about the truth?

The truth is not the same as knowledge.

Truth is to be embraced and followed.

In fact, the Bible would say, when I'm exposed to truth and I reject it, I ignore it, it turns to darkness.

It turns to deception.

When I'm exposed to the truth of God, and I know it's God speaking, I know what God, I'm going to choose to suppress it or reject it, or I'm going to embrace it.

What I do next is a matter of life and death.

Okay.

I think that's enough.

You agree?

Jesus said in John 17, Father, I've given them your word.

I'm not asking you to remove them from the world, but I am asking you to protect them from the evil one.

Make them holy by your truth.

Teach them your word, which is truth.

And then in John 18, Jesus said to Pilate, I came to testify to the world about the truth.

Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

What is truth?

Pilate asked.

And then he declared, I see nothing wrong with this man.

I told Cherley this morning, did you hear what Pilate said?

I there's nothing about this man's life that I can find fault with.

And yet he still condemned him.

What a warning to us that we can even know what's true and still let the pressure of our world cause us to choose wrongly.

The gift of truth.

Telling us the truth.

He'll never do otherwise.

And if you want to, if you want to discover, you know, if you ask the question, well, Larry, what is truth?

Truth is not information.

Truth is a person.

He's got a face and a name and a life.

And as I get to know that person with a name and a face, I will begin to understand what is true.

Not my truth or your truth or their truth, but what is the truth.

And that truth, Jesus says, as it gets into me, it will begin to set me free.

And set you free.

And isn't that what we all want?

To be set free.

Okay.

Thank you.

I realize this was a heavy lesson today, and I I just am I'm I'm overwhelmed that God would offer us such a gift.

And do I see it as a gift and am I embracing it as a gift?

We're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper.

Patty, would you and Rita come up and help me over here, please?

And um Allison, would you and Patty come over on this side?

Thanks.

Christopher led us in a song earlier that talked about how we are now welcome at the altar of God.

That means very little to us.

We sing the songs and read the words, but that for somebody in Jesus' day to be told, you're a woman, you're young, you're old, you're a Gentile, you're rich, you're poor, you've lived the life of a righteous person, or you've lived the life of a prostitute.

You can walk right in to the temple of God behind that curtain into the Holy of Holies, you can walk right into the presence of God.

In Jesus' day, that was unheard of.

That was craziness.

No one could do that.

And yet that song that we sang declares the Father's arms are open wide.

Come to the altar.

Come into the presence of God.

And that's been made possible.

The Bible says, because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and we've accepted that gift of forgiveness freely.

And because of that, we now have access to God, to the little throne room of God, the throne room of God.

And so we eat and we drink that which represents Jesus' body and blood.

Just to remind ourselves, to remind one another, to rejoice that I now have access to God.

And he sees me and treats me and feels about me just like he does his son.

Just like he does his son.

And that's good news.

That's good news.

And so if that is your hope and belief, and I invite you to come and take this bread and an open container of wine, or there's little covered containers with the bread and the wine inside.

Take and eat.

And just reflect and remember.

Both that you have a Savior that loves you enough to have died for you, but also a Savior that loves you so much that He'll never tell you anything but the truth.

And that's worth giving thanks for.

You come.