How Can We Make This Holiday Season Different And Better?

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

There's some very expensive seats up here from front if y'all want to benefit from them.

Venture forward.

Yes.

Yes.

Um let me real quickly, I sent y'all all an email uh Thursday or Friday, I don't remember when it was.

Sometime this week.

I know it was a long.

Um I know it was long.

I don't think I've ever sent you a long email, so you can't be too mad at me, okay?

The irony is that Larry hates long emails, and so I'm the one who reads the long emails.

Yeah, I I wouldn't read it on a bet.

Uh, but um I didn't know how to condense it any more than I did.

And um the very fact that I would send you a long email communicates the importance of the email.

If you didn't get it, that means we do not have your email address.

And so I would love to have your email address, and so if you'll write it on a piece of paper clearly and give it to me after the service, uh we'll set we'll send you the email.

Um basically the email uh talked about four things, and I'm just gonna mention them, and then I would encourage you to please read the email because you'll want that information.

One is that for the next two or three weeks, we're gonna be I'm gonna encourage you to bring a Christmas card with one uh what do you call it?

Gift card.

Gift card, thank you, with a gift card in it from somewhere like Kroger or Target or Dollar General.

Don't do it to something crazy, okay?

Do it, do it to the basic things, okay?

Anyway, we're gonna what we're gonna do is we're gonna collect Christmas cards from our church family that have little gift cards in there.

And on the and in the card, the the Christmas card, please write a blessing.

And we're gonna take those to those three ladies that we helped this summer by remodeling their houses, just as a way of number one, blessing them and hopefully giving them a more Merry Christmas, but also just to let them know we didn't just blow in, do something, and then blow out, and you've forgotten.

And so if you would like to, and I I want you to like to, I want you to do it, um, get a Christmas card, put a gift card in it, and uh write a little blessing on there, and uh bring it the next couple of weeks, and we'll collect those and we'll take them to the family.

Um next Sunday night, which is December the 11th, Sunday night, December the 11th, at where are you?

Five or six.

On the front row.

Five.

At five o'clock, we're going to gather at Kim and Jerry Bowden's house and have our annual Christmas party.

It'll be there'll be lots of good music, lots of beautiful Christmas decorations, lots of yummy food, and most importantly, it'll be a time for us to gather together as a family and just enjoy each other.

And so I encourage you to be a part of that.

Children are welcome, old people are welcome, everybody's welcome.

Republicans and Democrats are welcome.

Um it makes me nervous, but y'all, y'all are even y'all are welcome, okay?

Um that's on the which is a week from tonight.

Um, here's where it gets a little confusing.

Because Christmas is on a Sunday and New Year's is on a Sunday, those two weekends, we're moving our services from Sunday to Saturday.

You with me?

So our Christmas service, if you will, that Christmas weekend will be on Saturday morning, 10 15, and it'll be at Kim and Jerry's house.

All right, because the Botanic Gardens is closed.

So why aren't we meeting where that's why?

Okay.

Um same on New Year's.

New Year's falls on a Sunday.

This place is closed.

So we're moving it to Saturday morning, the 31st, 1015.

Again, it'll be at Kim and Jerry's house.

We're gonna have some yummy food both mornings, some beautiful music.

It'll be a good time for us just to be a very laid-back, relaxed, easy-going uh gathering of our church family, and I hope that you'll come and be a part of that on the 24th at 1015 and the 31st at 1015.

Okay?

Anything about that that you would Okay.

All right.

Last thing, and uh read the email, but uh the well not on the 1st, not on January 1st, because we will have celebrated, we will have gathered and worship the Lord on the 31st.

The next weekend, which would be December the 8th, uh January the 8th, sorry, January the 8th.

If you come here, you will think the rapture took place and you got left, and some of you should ponder that.

But anyway, that's a whole nother thing.

Um uh on January the 8th, we will be moving from the Botanic Gardens where we have met for the last nine years, uh, and I've loved it.

They have been so kind to us, and I think we've been a blessing to them.

At least we pay our rent every month, so that's I I know that's a good thing.

Um anyway, and but because they have requested that we move to a new location because they're gonna start utilizing this room, this very room, uh for some other purposes consistently on Sunday mornings.

And so they're kicking us out.

Not because of any ill will or problems, they just the they they're gonna go in a different direction, and they do not want one group meeting in this room every Sunday.

That's so we're moving out, and uh I cannot, we don't have the time for me to describe the journey that a number of our church family have been on trying to find a new location.

Um it has been a journey.

But at the end of the day, I said it last week, if you doubt that God answers prayer, I would just tell you you're not correct.

You are wrong.

Because the Lord, at the end of the day, not early, but not late, he has provided a new church home for us, and we're gonna be meeting at the Shady Grove School, which is on Shady Grove in between Yates and White Station.

Um it's right if you know where St.

Louis Church is, and St.

Louis School, just it's just a tenth of a mile up uh or west.

Uh no, sorry, east, up Shady Grove.

Uh so anyway, we'll be starting there, 1015, Sunday morning, January the 8th.

Anything else about that?

I think that's very exciting.

Okay.

I'm very sad.

I have loved this place.

And I, it was crazy how the Lord provided this place in the exact same way.

We we looked and looked and looked.

There was nothing that fit all of our needs.

And at the last minute, the Lord provided this place, and it's been wonderful for me.

Now, y'all might go, I don't like it.

Well, good for you.

But but I've loved it.

And uh, it's just been a lovely place to gather.

But uh the Lord has new plans for us, and I'm excited about that.

And uh so you'll be praying about that move, and we'll have our first service on January the 8th at 1015 at the at Shady Grove.

I I'm if you go, well, why aren't you saying Shady Grove Elementary?

And that's because they changed the name.

It is not Shady Grove Elementary, it is Shady Grove School because it's now only a preschool, it's just two, three, and four year old or three, four, and five.

It's a preschool.

There isn't it's not the elementary school anymore.

They they've stopped that.

So that's why I don't call it Shady Grove Elementary.

Okay.

You ready?

I am ready.

Okay, Lord Jesus, would you prepare our hearts and give us ears to hear, and eyes that can see, and hearts that are humble enough to consider what you are saying to us.

And I pray that you'd use it for our good and for the good of those that you have surrounded us with, uh especially during this holiday season.

And I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Um for about three years I worked for an organization when I when we came home from the mission field, uh, where what I did literally was I traveled all over the world.

And uh it was it was a very unique job, and I I created some friendships that to this very day well Cuss came and spoke here not too long ago, and he was one of those people.

And I went all over the world and I took teams all over the world.

We built wells and orphanages and playgrounds and churches and hospitals, and it was it was great.

It was very, very satisfying.

And uh I'd be gone for long periods of time.

And uh one of the things that if you if some of you know understand being gone and traveling a lot, and uh one of the things that anybody that travels a lot knows or learns, and that is that traveling light makes the trip better.

The less you take, the better, more enjoyable, more fun the trip is.

Don't overpack.

Don't overpack, because then you got to lug all that stuff, and uh it's no good.

Um yeah, the all that extra, it's funny how taking somebody on a mission trip uh that's been ten times and look at their what they bring versus somebody that's never been.

It's it's I mean, it's crazy what the difference is.

Because people that have been a lot understand that all that extra stuff, it lessens, it robs, it frustrates, it wearies.

Or like my brother who goes on a mission trip and never changes clothes the entire time.

I'm not kidding.

Yeah.

I took him on a trip to uh, and my mom was on that trip to Botswana.

We were in the desert of Botswana for seven, eight days.

He never changes clothes.

So I'm not saying it's pretty, I'm just saying it exists.

Yeah, yeah.

Now, I'm not suggesting that, but I am saying that uh traveling light, not adding a bunch of unnecessary stuff really does make the trip better.

And what is true for travel is also true for relationships.

Uh so often we fill our relationships up with a bunch of unnecessary stuff, I'm gonna be nice, stuff that just it diminishes, it robs, it frustrates, it wearies.

And uh if we can learn, and my prayer for you and for me this holiday season, is to really consider what are some things that we might could get rid of from our relationships, from our lives, and make our journey together more enjoyable.

I was born in a country called the United States of America.

What I didn't realize over the last ten years or so is that the name of that country has changed.

It's no longer the United States of America.

In my opinion, it's the United States of Blame.

We live in a country now that has almost deified this idea of blame.

All of the problems in my life are really the result of somebody else's fault.

Somebody else has made my life what it is, and if I don't like what it is, then I'm gonna blame them for that.

We blame our situations, our actions, our choices, our reactions on other people.

Um, sometimes we're blaming our lives and our problems on people that have been dead 500 years.

Sometimes we're blaming our lives and our problems on people that have been dead a few years.

And sometimes we're blaming our problems and needs and situations on people that are still walking around.

They're not dead.

Um but the message that, in my opinion, really drives our country today is that I would be different if you were different.

If you weren't the way you are, if you hadn't have acted the way you acted, if you hadn't have done what you done, then I would be a different person.

Who I am and what I am, it's been determined by who you are and what you've done.

Um those of you that have been here at this church long enough, you know my dad was a pistol, by anybody's definition.

And my dad, like all of us, uh was sort of a package of good stuff and not great stuff, right?

But one of the things that my dad, if he had raised you, uh you would need a lot of counseling.

But beside that, if my dad had raised you, one of the things that you would learn from him is that this idea, well, let me just say it this way, he did not, and I when I tell you he did not, I mean he did not accept blame or excuses.

And you learned very quickly that if you did something, do not put that on somebody else, don't make excuses, don't blame people.

And at times that was very frustrating and discouraging, but now that I'm a grown man and I look back on it, it was one of the greatest gifts my dad ever gave me.

He just would not accept excuses.

You you did that, you live with the consequences.

And don't you dare bring up somebody else that they caused that.

No, you did that, or you didn't do that, you live with that.

So it was again when I was that child, that age, that was very frustrating at times.

But dad, mm-mm.

Mm-mm.

You did that or you didn't do that, you live with that, you own that.

Because my dad instinctively knew what many of us don't know, and that is that blame and excuses never make things better.

It never makes things better.

I have couples that chat with me almost every day.

And um, you know, one of the things about couples that are having trouble, unless they are top drawer couples, they will come in, sit on my couch, and they will spend as much time as I'll give them blaming the other one for why things aren't great, why their marriage stinks, why they're not fulfilled, why they're not.

They will spend as much time as I'll give them trying to convince me that it's somebody else's fault, and they try to give me excuses for that.

Um I've read I don't know how many, I'm not exaggerating, a hundred relational books, marriage books, family books.

And one of the things that is consistent in relational books, books that try to teach us to have A-team-type relationships and families, is that people that are experts on relationships understand and know that one of the keys to experiencing great success in relationships is learning to focus on solutions to problems rather than causes of problems.

I'm gonna say it one more time.

This is not me.

Okay, I'm telling you what smart people, people that understand and know and have spent tens of thousands of hours working with people, experts in relationships will consistently in their books, in their whatever, they will teach you and me that A-team top drawer sharp couples, bless you, understand that one of the keys to relational success is learning to focus on solutions to problems rather than reasons for problems.

Why did that happen and who's to blame?

Really, the reason we even ask why is because we're trying to find out who.

But people that have the best relationships do not ask why or who they ask what now.

What do we need to do to the problem has happened.

There's not one blessed thing we can do about that.

So what are we gonna do about it now?

Eighteen couples, eighteen families, they recognize that life's journey is better if blame has been excluded and uh a desire, an intentionality to focus on what now?

What do we need?

And I'll tell you, I I uh if you don't believe in the sovereignty of God, you just see who I'm married to, then you will.

Um it was just a deal that that worked out, and uh I will never get over it.

And uh one of my wife's amazing qualities uh that I would like to know how to do better is that she is this way.

If a problem happens, whether it's in our marriage, with our family, uh at school, whatever, sh somehow you were you were taught or you just I don't know.

But you are a solution-focused person, not a cause of the problem person.

And I'm very grateful for that.

You know, if you think about it, I haven't thought about this until right now, but if you think about this, we know how to do this medically.

We can do it medically.

So if we go to the doctor and he says or she says, you know, you you have this, but there's treatment for it.

What we're gonna say is, what's the treatment?

So it doesn't matter how we got it, maybe we need to adjust things, but but here we sit with this, this, and what we do there is look forward.

And so we know that we can do it, that we can physically and mentally do it.

Um so if we can do it medically, then we can do it uh emotionally and and and socially as well, right?

Yeah, that I'm so glad you said that.

I hadn't thought about it until I had not thought of that, and that's but isn't that what isn't that the difference in a Pilot, a commercial pilot that you'd want flying your airplane versus one that you wouldn't want flying your airplane?

Oh, one of the motors fell off our uh wing.

Well, let's talk about why that happened.

But who's to blame?

I'd like to know who's responsible for that.

No, no, no, I don't care.

I want you to be a solution-oriented person and to focus on what needs to be done to make this continue to go until we can land.

Same with a surgeon.

Oh, I had no idea that problem was gonna happen while you're laying on the operating room on the table.

Well, that doesn't, well, who caused that?

Who didn't pick that up?

But no, no, no, none of that matters.

We have a situation, a wartime situation going on here, and I'm gonna focus on a solution not on blame.

You see how in the most important areas of life we we understand, instinctively, we know that's the 18, the top door, the way to do it.

But somehow in relationships, if we're not really careful and really intentional, we will want to focus on the why this happened, how did this happen, who's to blame, rather than focusing on what are we going to do now?

What now?

And I just uh this hit me the other day as I was reading Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

I was looking at something else, had nothing to do with what we're talking about today, but uh I came across this little passage in Genesis 3.

You know the story.

God creates this incredible uh world, and at the end of it, the culmination is that he creates these two incredible people, and he places them in this incredible garden, and he says, I want to share this with you, I want to co-rule with you uh in this garden, I want to do this together, and you can enjoy any and everything in this garden.

You get all of the abundance, all of the amazement, all of the wonder.

It's yours of enjoyment.

There's one tree, dead center in the middle of the garden.

I want you to stay away from that.

Please don't eat of that tree.

Millions of trees.

Eat and you just can't eat anymore.

Don't eat of that tree.

It will not be a blessing to you.

And Adam and Eve, just like me and you, started wondering.

Wonder why God would say no?

Wonder why he would not want us to eat of that?

It's available.

It's there.

Is God trying to pull a fast one on me?

Is God trying to rob me of something wonderful?

Is God trying to keep me from self-fulfillment?

I wonder why God would say, stay away from that.

It looks great, and since it looks great, it must be great.

And so they told God, no thank you.

Now they didn't do it verbally, just like we wouldn't do it verbally.

Nobody says to God, no, thank you.

But their choices declared loud and clear, no thank you.

And they ate of that, and then the Bible says in Genesis chapter 3, God came down in the cool of the evening to spend his regular time with Adam and Eve, and it says, the Lord called to man or Adam, Where are you?

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And Adam answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.

And God said, Who told you you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree that I told you not to eat from?

Notice, right out of the gate, the man said, The woman that you put here with me gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.

Then the Lord said to the woman, What have you done?

And the woman said, The serpent.

Now, doesn't say it, but it's implied, that you created, that you put in the garden, your creation, deceived me, and I ate.

God would not put up with it immediately.

Problem occurs.

Adam blaming Eve, Eve blaming the snake.

Focus on why, how, and who.

God wouldn't put up with that for one second.

God and my dad are very similar in this regard.

God will not put up with or listen to blame or excuses for one second.

And if you look through the journey of God's heroes in the Bible, whether it's Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and all of his family, Joseph's brothers, Saul, whatever.

Oh, let me be for that one.

I'm thinking of Aaron.

Um, Aaron has been left in charge.

God's people are going crazy, they're doing all kinds of terrible things.

Moses is going up on top of this mountain to get the Ten Commandments, and uh Aaron didn't know what to do to get everybody back in control, so he says, I'm gonna build a couple of golden calves, and that'll get everybody something to focus on, and they'll stop acting terrible.

Wrong answer.

Moses comes down, and God says, Aaron, you were wrong.

But God, it's the people.

It's not my fault.

I was trying to do something good.

It's the people.

God would not listen to that for one second.

A few chapters later, Moses, he has been so good, so patient, so kind, so gracious, so forgiving.

He comes to the end of his rope.

People have been complaining and bellyaching and arguing and rebelling, you know, just the whole thing.

And finally, Abraham, Moses has had enough.

God says, I want you to speak to this rock.

And Moses gets mad because of the people.

Who could put up with people like that?

Who could live with people like that?

Nobody.

Moses takes his staff and he hits this rock instead of speaking to it.

He missed going into the promised land.

God did not listen.

But God, it's not my thought.

These people are so rebellious.

Maybe they are.

Yeah, they are.

I'm not listening to that.

You get to choose what you do.

You get to choose how you respond.

You cannot blame your wrong responses on what other people do or don't do.

You could look at King Saul with the Amalekite king who, you know, is the people that wanted to let him live.

David and Bathsheba, there's this gorgeous naked woman taking a bath.

Who could stop?

Who could resist themselves?

No.

On and on and on and on and on.

God does not listen to blame or excuses.

And the reason he won't is because it's the very same gift that he wants to give me and you that my dad gave me.

Why would God want us to live our lives operating in a realm that never helps?

It never improves.

It never heals.

It never solves.

It never moves us in good directions.

God is moving forward and he wants us to come with him.

He doesn't want us bogged down in the mire of self-pity and blame and excuses.

There's not one example.

Well, I'm not sure about this.

I'm going to go home and I'm going to read my Bible and see if you're right or wrong.

Good.

Good.

That's a good plan.

I like that.

There's not one example in all of the scriptures where God listened to people, make excuses, or blame others for what they did wrong.

Never does God tell Israel, oh, you poor little deers, yes, those mean nations around you are worshiping idols, and they tempted you to worship idols, and oh, that was so mean of him.

I give you a pass.

No.

Because God does not put up with blame or the making of excuses at all.

He holds us responsible for our choices, our responses, our actions.

It's hard for us to um I know that your mind is racing with exceptions.

Because mine did too.

I'm just challenging us to ponder, to find an example in the Bible where God accepted excuses are blame for you and I, for his people, choosing to do wrong.

I was thinking about that.

But did you want to add to that?

Did you want to say something, friend?

It's Molly.

So I teach a book called Crime and Punishment, and in it a guy has murdered, and so it's very dramatic, right?

And he's murdered, and um he's gone back to the scene of the crime because evidently people do that.

And there's a guy in there that's like a cleaner-upper, and he's cleaning up the crime scene, and um Ross Komikoff's the name of the man, the the murderer, and he goes in there, he wants to see what he see his handiwork, he wants to go back and look at what he's done.

Anyway, he kind of outs himself just a little bit because he's asking too many questions, it becomes obvious you know too much.

And anyway, the the man who's cleaning up looks at him and he realizes something is wrong.

And he says in this questioning, and he says to Roskanikov, he says, I think a very important question.

He says, What sort of man are you?

And I think that language is important, not like who are you?

That's identity, that's a different thing.

Or um what are you doing here?

That's activity, that's a different thing.

But what sort of person are you?

Man, isn't that good?

Dang it.

Yeah, yeah.

And so this guy, this murderer, Ross Komikoff, flees.

He can't stand the question.

He can't he just runs out the door, can't stand it.

Um and I would add to that, what sort of person are you?

Am I?

Let me do it this way.

What sort of person am I choosing to be?

Every decision, every one.

What sort of person am I choosing to be?

That's what you're talking about.

Yes, I'm yes, and I'm just thinking about how every one of us knows someone who is angry, bitter, depressed, anxious, fearful, isolated.

And it's because years ago, something happened.

Their fault, nobody's fault, somebody else's fault, everybody's fault.

But they chose to begin a daily journey of embracing that.

They did it.

The who, why, maybe they're still on this journey of why did that happen?

Who's to blame?

Rather than choosing what now.

What am I gonna do now so that that does not define me?

Years later, years later, that does know, that is not gonna define who I am.

I think we believe, I think there's a real solid belief that if I act a certain way toward you, I can change you.

You know, we know that's not true, right?

I mean, I act a certain way, and then you decide, I decide to act a certain way, and then you decide to act the way you're going to act.

Um we choose to in a marital dispute, when I choose to blame, then I am a person blaming.

I'm a blamer.

Um and then if you choose to respond in anger, well, then you're a person choosing anger.

That's it.

I mean, that's just that's it.

It's like two kids on a playground.

It really is.

Um Because when you blame me or get angry with me because I did something wrong, your anger and your blame are powerful motivators for me to change and do good.

No.

No.

It doesn't make in fact, it makes me do the opposite.

I'm not gonna change.

Everybody do the opposite.

I'm not gonna change.

But we think that that, yeah.

I was just thinking about um the older brother in Luke 15.

The younger brother was a jerk.

He was a selfish rear-end jerk.

He dishonored his dad, wronged the family, took, you know, that which he should not have taken for years, really until after his dad's death.

Do you not say he was wrong?

He was a jerk.

But if you notice the older brother, he was using the younger brother's wrong behavior to justify his anger, his bitterness, his unforgiveness.

And the tragedy of that is, guys, who's the only one that's been left out of the party?

The younger brother, the jerk, he's back, forgiven, clean, honored, half of the party, dad's having the party, servants are having the party.

The only person that's missing the party is the blamer.

The only person that's missing the party is the one that's making excuses for his wrong behavior.

And I'll say again, he's probably out there in the field all mad, mowed up in the, you know, in the corner, thinking that everybody's thinking about him being mad, and so they're gonna change their party because he's out there fussing, and you know they're not thinking that.

In fact, they don't cancel the party.

Surely it's I never thought of that.

He's probably out there saying, well, they're gonna cancel that party because everybody knows I'm mad.

They know I'm mad.

Nobody canceled the party.

Nobody canceled the party.

They're happy you're not in there because you're all bowed up and crabby.

Yes.

I wish I had 10 minutes to go through all the examples in the Bible.

But I won't.

I would just leave you with the challenge to read your Bible and mark how many times, hundreds of times, God says, stop focusing on the wrong of others.

You step up, I indwell you, I inhabit you, I have committed every resource of eternity to you, you can do right.

And if you're not doing right, it's because you're choosing not to do right.

No one can rob me, no one can rob you of the opportunity to do what's right.

God has committed all of his resources to helping us with that.

We choose to do it or we choose not to.

That's our choice.

I was just thinking about Peter, John 21.

Peter had messed up bad, denied his Savior, bragged that he would never deny the Lord.

He loved the Lord more than all the other disciples combined.

And he would be faithful to the end.

Little old servant girl, aren't you?

Oh, I've never heard of Jesus.

Never heard of Jesus.

Denies him three times and flees.

He's so discouraged, he's so depressed, he's so ashamed that he basically leaves for his old life of fishing.

Fishes all night long, doesn't catch a thing.

Now, what you if if it was me and you that had been denied and abandoned, we'd say, good, let's focus on what you did and why you did it and the consequences of your wrong.

Now you can't catch any fish.

You have you have robbed yourself of the blessings of God.

That's what I do.

We're gonna teach you a lesson.

And you're gonna hurt like I've hurt.

What did Jesus do?

Jesus is the one that pursues Peter.

Jesus is the one that builds a fire so that when Peter gets out of the boat, he'll have a place to stand and dry his clothes.

Jesus is the one that makes Peter breakfast.

Because he's been working all night, he's hungry.

And Jesus is the one that comes to Peter and says, Peter, I love you, and I know down deep you love me.

I've got this incredible plan for you.

You have no idea what you're about to literally help me begin.

It'll change the world.

Come on, let's go.

Let's start.

No blame, no excuses, no punishment.

Come on.

We're gonna do something, blow your mind.

Only Jesus and those that know and follow Jesus would respond to such failure, such hypocrisy, such weakness, such that's the way Jesus relates to us.

Now Peter, bless his heart, he still doesn't get it.

Because the first thing he does when Jesus says, Come on, you follow, let's go, come on, let's go change the world.

First thing Peter does is, what about John?

What about and he his point is now John's behavior could affect my behavior.

And Jesus says, Don't you worry about John.

I've got John under control.

That's not your concern.

You follow me, I'll take care of John.

I leave you with this.

Your family wants some great Christmas presents.

I know they do because mine does.

My daughter's been sending me all kinds of hints.

Uh my grandson, he's already sent me a list, an Amazon list from here to that door.

And uh that's good.

That's the way it ought to be.

Um, and I'm gonna give it a yeoman's effort to make him happy.

Um I wonder how many of those gifts, 60 days, anybody will remember or care about.

I can tell you a gift that we can give each other, give our family, that they'll remember forever, is living with somebody that does not blame, that does not make excuses.

When problems happen, they don't focus on who, what, and why.

They focus on what now.

It happened.

I hate that it happened, but we're gonna fix it now.

Let's focus on what we can do to fix it.

I'm telling you, that's a gift.

I enjoy that gift every day, and I have enjoyed it every day for 42 years.

It's a gift that keeps, it's like the Jelly of the Month Club.

It's a gift that keeps on giving.

For us to just, when problems happen, mistakes are made, wrongs occur, rather than focusing on blame and excuses, we focus on what now?

What now?

Matthew one says Mary will give birth to a son and name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Notice Jesus didn't come for blame.

He didn't come for excuses.

Didn't come to punish or shame.

He came to save, to redeem, to restore, to heal.

He's focusing on who we can be and the journey that God has for us, not on what's happened in the past.

And that's the calling that God has placed upon you and upon me.

What now?

What now?

Anything else, friend?

No.

I'm just thinking that, you know, the the freedom of living a life where I'm not bound to what you do.

That's that's a life of freedom.

I have to, I might have to deal with it.

I might have to I might have to talk, you know.

Um but I am not controlled by what you do to me or to my group.

I think that's what a gift.

I think it's it's freedom.

We say we want freedom.

I think that's where freedom.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, that's yes.

Thank you.

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

And I would just encourage you before you come up to eat and drink.

Um what's God saying to you this morning?

Are you somebody that maybe needs God's grace to help you no longer be a who, what, why person, but now be a what now person.

What now?

I want to be that kind of person.

That's hard for me.

But God's bigger than my problems, stronger than my hard head.

And so, just as we pause, think about how you can apply this.

Not, man, I wish my aunt heard that.

Man, I wish my wife or my husband.

They needed that, you miss the whole point.

You miss the whole point.

It's me, Lord.

I'm in the I'm the one that's in need of grace.

Okay?

There's elements that are covered, and there's elements that you can take bread from me, and then uh little cups of wine that you can take if you'd rather do it that way.

But you when you're ready, when you feel like the Lord's done dealing with you, you come and celebrate with me the death and the burial and the resurrection of your Savior.