Who Do You Say I Am?

Well, good morning.

What a good start to the day, right?

Seeing some people go home with Jesus.

It's always exciting.

It's always fun.

Well, we are so glad that you're here this morning.

If it is your first time, thank you so much for being here at His Hands.

We're a bunch of normal people that love an extraordinary God.

And uh and we're glad that you're part of our family this morning.

We are starting a brand new series today called Questions Jesus Asked.

You get asked hundreds of questions every single day.

If you're like me and you have a child under the age of five, you get asked hundreds of questions every single day before 9.30 a.m.

Right?

Which is how it works.

But when you really think about the number of questions you have to deal with on a daily basis, it's it's pretty staggering.

And there are all these different types of questions that we have to navigate through, right?

There are standard questions.

These are questions you don't have to think about to answer.

You already know the answer.

You just have to answer them because they're on some form you're required to fill out.

How old are you?

Are you single?

Are you married?

Are you allergic to any medications?

How many times do I have to fill out the same form at the doctor's office?

I don't understand.

They're standard questions.

There are unavoidable questions.

If you've been pregnant in the last year, you have had to answer the question, when are you due?

Or is it a boy or a girl at least a thousand times?

You can't get away from answering those questions.

They're absolutely unavoidable.

They say there are no stupid questions.

But there are definitely questions that make you feel stupid, right?

We all have to deal with those.

If you call tech support, your computer's not working, and they ask if your computer's plugged in.

And it's the same experience every time.

The first thing you want to say is, is how stupid must I sound?

But then you always check to make sure it's plugged in, because that would be really embarrassing.

Sometimes it's those questions that really do need to be asked.

When I was 12 years old, my dad was mowing our lawn.

He had this big cub cadet riding lawnmower, and he loved it, unless it didn't work.

And that day it wasn't working.

And he tried to fix it.

It stopped right in the middle of the mow.

He he tried to look at it.

I don't know things about engines and wiring and all that, but he does.

So he's he's playing around with it, he's looking at it, he's got this thing like half taken apart.

And after about half an hour, he comes into the house just to vent.

He is so upset at this lawnmower.

My dad and my mom or my mom and I were, let me let me go back.

My mom, if my dad was in the kitchen and mowing the lawn, that'd be strange.

It was my mom and I in the kitchen.

We're in the kitchen hanging out.

My dad comes in to vent.

And he's saying, This lawnmower is a piece of junk.

I can't believe I bought this thing.

He goes on and on on this mini tirade.

And then my mom asks him after about five minutes of this, well, is it out of gas?

And my dad, my dad just stops.

There's this really awkward silence for about five seconds and a lot of tension.

And he looks at my mom and says, Do you think I would have spent the last half hour taking the lawn mower apart if it was out of gas?

I mean, how dumb do I look?

And he stormed out, obviously upset.

Then 10 minutes later, we saw him in the backyard with a gas can.

He finished mowing the lawn, he came back inside.

We didn't say a thing.

I mean, we said nothing.

You know?

I mean, we have to deal with pointless questions, with critical questions, life and death questions.

Sometimes we even get questions that aren't really questions at all.

They're statements or criticisms disguised as questions.

You've gotten those.

I'm sure I got one of those earlier this week.

My wife went on some errands and left me at home with both of our children, which is always a crapshoot.

Because I can do one-on-one, I can play man-to-man, but if I have to go zone, it's it's usually not good.

And so there's one of me, and there are two of them, and and ladies, we can just, as men say, you are so much better with children than we are.

We get that.

But I do want you to understand something, and I know all the dads in here can back me up.

When you leave the house, they've changed, they're not the same kids.

It's like I've seen it happen.

It's like this transformation occurs, and that's what happens when I'm at home alone, and and I made it, two hours went by, Megan got back, and she came home and recognized that the sheets were not on our bed anymore.

And she asked me why.

I said, Well, I was changing Lily, and uh things got a little out of hand.

There was there was some collateral damage, but don't worry, the sheets are uh they're in the washing machine, they're good, they're gonna be clean.

And then she said, Well, why'd you change her on the bed and not the changing table?

Huh.

That's what she said.

She said, huh.

And then walked away.

And you know, I I knew, I knew when I heard that, huh?

She was not actually interested in my thought process for changing our baby on the bed instead of the changing table.

Not that there was a thought process, there was not.

It's just that when you leave me at home alone with both children, the only thing to expect is to come home and see them both breathing.

Anything else is bonus, right?

If they're alive, don't complain.

I knew it wasn't a question, it was a statement disguised as a question.

What she was really saying was, don't ever do that again.

And message received.

Now I know.

We can communicate a lot simply by asking a question.

A question can say a lot of things.

And Jesus asked a lot of questions.

And he asked some intense ones.

Questions like, Why are you afraid?

Why do you doubt me?

Do you want to be healed?

I mean, these are these are questions that if we had to put into a category, the only one I can think of is loaded questions.

They beg to be answered, but to try to unpack those questions and explore those, the things that we can discover in that can drastically change our perception of God, our perception of who Jesus is to us.

It can have amazing effects on our lives.

These are questions that demand to be answered.

So for the next five weeks, we're going to be exploring a different question every Sunday.

Questions Jesus asked.

And we're going to start with what might be the most important question Jesus has ever asked anyone.

And it's a question that he asks all of us.

It's a very important question.

Early in Jesus' ministry, he's traveling around to all these different cities, and he's setting the stage for himself to be revealed as who he really is.

At this point in time, he's been traveling around for about a year.

He's only revealed himself exactly as he is to one person.

There's a Samaritan woman at this well one day.

She would have been considered the lowest of the low in that society.

And Jesus tells her point blank, this is who I really am.

But he hasn't had that conversation, at least as far as we can tell, with anyone else.

Now he's given a lot of hints.

He's left a lot of really strong clues, a lot of evidence that, hey, this guy might be a little bit more than your average everyday person.

But he hasn't come out and said it yet.

Part of that is because he had to help people unlearn what they thought they knew about God so they could understand who he really was.

And he had to wait for the right time.

As they're traveling around and as Jesus is setting this stage, they get to this city called Caesarea Philippi.

And this is a really interesting place at this time.

It was basically a melting pot of all these different religions, these different faiths.

It was very precious to the Jews because it was believed that the Jordan River had its source in Caesarea Philippi.

The Jordan River is extremely important to the Jewish nation and their history.

It was significant to the Greeks because it was believed by the Greeks that the Greek god Pan was born in a cave near Caesarea Philippi.

It was significant to the Syrians.

They had a lot of temples to their pagan gods there.

It was extremely important to the Romans.

There was a huge, huge temple, white marble temple, dedicated to the worship of Caesar.

That's why it was called Caesarea Philippi.

And so in this place where there are all these different ideas about who God is, where no one can really agree about who God is or how many gods there are, Jesus asks his friends, his followers, this very poignant question.

It's in Matthew chapter 16, verse 13.

Matthew 16:13

It says, When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

Well, they replied.

And I love that they start with well.

Because anytime someone asks you a question and you say, Well, what that means is there are a lot of different ways to answer this question.

And they basically say, Well, it kind of depends on who you ask.

Some say you're John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.

Notice that they don't say, well, some people think you're nuts.

Some people think you're a fraud, some people think you're crazy, you're a liar, you're a heretic.

See, the people didn't think that about Jesus.

The small group of religious leaders who had a lot to lose, who felt very threatened by Jesus, they said those things about Jesus, but even then they didn't really believe it.

I mean, they said themselves, we can't deny that the things this guy is doing have to be from God.

The everyday people, they thought Jesus was amazing.

They were blown away by who Jesus was.

There's this amazing story early on in his ministry where Jesus teaches in the temple.

And it was a risky thing to do because he knew that the Pharisees were out for him.

And so the smart thing to do would be to avoid being around them, being near them, but the temple's kind of like where they lived.

And so Jesus went to the temple to teach.

And the Pharisees catch wind that Jesus is teaching in the temple, so they go to their temple guards and they say, We want you to go to where Jesus is teaching here in this temple and arrest him.

And that's pretty, pretty standard practice for a guard.

This is something that they're trained to do, it's their job description.

So they they go to where Jesus is teaching and then they come back to the Pharisees, but they don't have Jesus.

And the Pharisees need to understand why.

They gave very simple instructions, but the the guards say, look, we've never heard anyone teach like this.

It's John 7 46.

We have never heard anyone speak like this.

And that's a big slap in the face because the Pharisees were teachers.

That's what they did.

And these guys, they work at the temple, they hear thousands upon thousands of teachings every single year.

Hearing people teach about God would have been like the background music of their job.

But they see Jesus and He's different.

And they say, Look, we have never heard anything like this.

He is different.

He is special.

Either they they saw him and they were so captivated by what he said, they forgot what they were there for.

And so they left, and you can see, like, we're oh no, we were supposed to arrest that guy.

Or maybe they sensed an authority in Jesus that that they dared not cross.

Maybe, maybe they saw how passionate the people were and their response to what Jesus was saying, and they just had the intimidation factor of saying, look, we're not going to start a riot, we're not gonna arrest this man.

But they they look at the Pharisees and just tell them, look, he's different.

The people had this incredibly high opinion of Jesus.

And to say that he's Elijah, to say that he's a prophet, I mean, they really can't compliment him more.

At this point in history, Israel has not had a prophet in 400 years before God gave us the Holy Spirit and brought us into a relationship with himself through Jesus that allows all of us to have the same access to God.

God would select one or two people and they would be his chosen prophets.

He would talk to them, they would talk to the people.

But that was it.

It was their job to tell people what God said.

And there hasn't been a prophet in 400 years.

So the people are saying to Jesus, We think you are the first person in half a millennia to actually hear something from God.

That's an amazing compliment to pay Jesus.

But he doesn't seem flattered.

He doesn't seem offended.

But he follows that question up with another question.

And this is the real question that we're getting to this morning.

This is this first question, who do people say I am?

That was just a setup for the next question.

And we see it in Matthew 16, 15.

It says, Then he asks them, but who do you say I am?

And talk about being put on the spot.

Who do you say I am?

It's in this place, it's against the it's against the backdrop of this city that Jesus says, I want you to take a definitive stand and tell me who you say I am.

And I love to imagine what must be happening in this moment with the disciples, the silence that had to fall upon that group as they're looking around and wondering who's going to speak up first.

Reminds me of being in school.

You know, there's those questions that you're asked, and you're like, I'm not answering this question.

I'll just sit back and wait for someone else to answer.

I'll gauge the teacher's response and jump in if it sounds like they like the answer or take a different position if it seems like they don't.

Wait for someone to put their foot in their mouth.

Peter was really good at putting his foot in his mouth.

So good at it.

He did it often, and he decides to speak up.

He's the first one that breaks the silence.

And we see his response in the next verse.

It says, uh, Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

There's not really a safety net in that response.

Because you're either the Messiah or you're not.

And Peter just puts it all out there and he says, You are the Messiah, you are the Son of God.

And look at Jesus' response.

Jesus replied, You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you.

You did not learn this from any human being.

Now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock.

And upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it, and I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven.

Whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

In other words, Jesus says, You got this one right.

Here is your prize.

Right?

This is ding ding ding.

Except instead of keys to a new car, it's keys to the kingdom of heaven.

And I imagine that in this moment there were other disciples that were like, Whoa, whoa, hold on, Jesus, just I was just about to say that.

Right?

Yesterday, Peter and I at lunch, I was like, Peter, I think he's the Messiah.

And I actually brought that up.

So if you've got other keys you're giving out, like, I've got space on my chain.

Peter puts it out there, he risks it, and he just says, Look, I think you're more than a prophet.

I think you're God.

See, to call yourself the Son of God was to claim equality with God.

That's one of the things that infuriated the Pharisees when Jesus said, God is my father, I am his son.

They said, You are claiming equality with God, and he was.

Peter says, I believe you're God.

There's rarely a temptation to all out deny Jesus.

But there can be this temptation to diminish Jesus just a little bit.

And being God is a big step up from prophet.

I mean, prophet's good.

Biblical hero, come back to life.

That's a really high opinion to have of someone.

But God, that's kind of at a different level.

And it's the difference between prophet and God that changes everything.

It's the difference between having a high opinion of Jesus as a historical person and understanding Jesus as the as the living God.

It's the difference between Jesus was and Jesus is.

And it makes all the difference in the world.

The world's not that much different than it was 2,000 years ago in a lot of ways.

Obviously, things have changed.

A lot of things have gotten a lot better, but as people, we're really still the same.

And to this day, you can say that Jesus is a prophet.

We can say that Jesus was a great man, a wonderful thinker, a moral leader.

We could even say Jesus is a spiritual guide from history, and no one is going to bat an eye.

No one's going to get upset.

No one's really going to even disagree.

You'll find a few outliers who might, but even other religions include Jesus.

Islam considers Jesus a prophet.

The virgin birth of Jesus is in the Quran.

The Dalai Lama recently said Jesus is one of the few enlightened ones that have ever walked the earth.

And that is high praise, but the difference between an enlightened one and God Himself is great.

And Peter makes that leap and he says, You are God.

And Jesus agreed.

There is power in putting Jesus in his rightful place.

Our lives can really only work when they are truly built around Jesus, when he is in our life who he actually is, and that is God.

A well-known celebrity could get on TV and say, I think Jesus was amazing.

I think Jesus was uh this incredible leader.

I love the things he said about love and turning the other cheek.

That was great.

And if they said that, everyone's gonna be like, Yeah, obviously, Jesus is the man.

But if that if that same celebrity were to say, I think, I think he's God, I think he's actually divine, that would cause headlines, that would stir the pot.

That person might be labeled as closed-minded.

There would definitely be a reaction, and that doesn't happen very often among very public people because they have a lot to lose.

But it happened really recently.

Uh Bono, the lead singer of U2, was interviewed.

And I don't know much about Bono personally.

Most people are familiar with U2, they're a pretty big band.

And uh and he was put on the spot in the same way that Peter was.

He was asked in this interview point blank, what do you think about Jesus?

And though I don't know this guy, his his answer is awesome.

And if you don't mind, I'd like to show it.

It's about two minutes long.

But it's such a perfect connection with this question that Jesus asked Peter and his other disciples, and the same question Jesus asked us that I think it's exciting to sort of witness and experience how powerful it can be just to say with certainty who Jesus is.

So we'll bring the lights down and show this video and then come back and continue.

As well as the sort of historical stuff I'm interested in.

And of course, there was a historical Jesus.

No, I'm talking about God.

Oh, right.

And do you see the person of Christ is my way to understand uh God?

Do you pray?

Yes.

To whom or what do you pray in the Christ way?

To Christ.

And and what do you pray for?

Pray to get to know um the will of God, because then the prayers have more chance of coming true.

I mean, that's the thing about prayer, isn't it?

I mean, we don't do it in a very lofty way in our family.

It's just a bunch of us on the bed, usually.

We have a very big bed in our house.

And all our we've prayed with all our kids.

We we, you know, we just we read the scriptures, we pray.

It's not even regular.

Sometimes if we go to church on a Sunday, we go and the church has ended, and we'll just go in on our own as a family for peace and quiet, for peace and quiet, and we'll pray, usually about people that we know who are struggling with something.

Um illness or whatever.

What or who was Jesus as far as you're concerned?

I think it's the it's a defining question for a Christian is who was Christ.

And and I don't think you're let off easily by saying a great thinker or a great philosopher, or you know, because actually he went round saying he was the Messiah.

That's why he was crucified.

He's crucified because he said he was the son of God.

So he either, in my view, was the son of God, or he was not.

No, no, not forget rock and roll messianic complexes.

This is like, I mean Charlie Manson type delirium.

And I find it hard to accept that all the millions and millions of lives, half the earth 2,000 years have been touched, have felt their lives touched and inspired by some nutter.

I just I don't believe it.

So therefore it follows that you believe he was divine.

Yes.

And therefore it follows that you believe that he rose physically from the dead.

Yes, yeah.

I mean I'm no problem with miracles.

Living around them.

I am one.

So so when you pray, then you pray to Jesus.

Yes.

The risen Jesus.

Yes.

And you believe that he made promises which will come true.

Yes.

I do.

It's like, well done, Bono, you know.

It's amazing, even as someone that knows Jesus, it's still powerful to hear someone say with certainty who he is, right?

I love that he answered those questions just by saying yes.

There's no background.

Peddling, no softening the blow, just yes.

Yes, I do.

And imagine if he had just said, Oh, Jesus was a great man.

See, it's the difference between a great man and God.

It is so significant for our lives, for the lives of everyone around us.

To say that Jesus is God can change the entire course of someone in your life, someone you know, it can change the entire course of their lives.

To understand who Jesus really is.

I mean, answering this question changed Peter's life.

He received an authority in that moment he had never received before, an authority he could never hope to claim.

And it is powerful for us to state and to tell this world who Jesus is, because the truth is this our world does not need more people saying that Jesus is a great man.

Our world does not need more people saying that Jesus is just this awesome guy, a great philosopher.

There are plenty of people who will carry that banner.

We have this amazing privilege to tell the world who Jesus really is.

And he's God.

Ben talked last week about the power of our words, how important the things that we actually say are.

Most of my regrets are things that I've said.

I can think something, but if I think it and then put it into words, all of a sudden it has power.

It has the power to get me in trouble.

Megan and I had been dating for about a year, and one day hanging out, just very informally, she looked at me and said, I feel like I'm gaining weight.

So I was 19 years old.

A stupid, stupid child.

And I mean, like, in a second, these words came out of my mouth.

Well, just work out more.

See, now here's the thing.

I didn't think she had gained any weight.

But as a man, that's kind of how I think.

Like, if I look at myself and go, ooh, I feel like I'm putting on a few pounds, I should just go to the gym.

That'll help.

That'll help, or maybe I'll feel better about myself.

This was not a ding-ding-ding moment in my life.

Okay.

And what I should have done, even if that's what I thought, was say, what are what are you saying?

Never say those words to me again.

Let's go get ice cream to celebrate how skinny you are.

Like that's what I should have said, right?

That's what should have come out of my mouth.

But I say, no, you should just work out more, and uh, I still have not lived that moment down to this day.

It's been 10 years ago.

Because it's what we say that gives power to our thoughts.

And there is great significance in understanding a time not to speak and having thoughts that we just keep to ourselves.

There are also times that we have thoughts that need to be spoken.

And I have a lot of regrets in my life.

Things that I wish I would have said, things I thought, things I knew, but I didn't share.

Jesus said something really challenging in Mark chapter 8, verse 38.

Mark 8:38

He says that if anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

That's pretty intense.

And I can look back on my life and find times that I was ashamed to talk about Jesus.

When I was in high school, junior high, and I was really interested in fitting in, and Jesus didn't seem like he was part of that equation.

I had moments that I was ashamed to be associated with Jesus, but that's been a long time in my life.

I'm not ashamed to be associated with Jesus at all.

I love Jesus, but there are still times that for different reasons I don't speak up.

I mean, it's one thing to do that on a stage in front of a whole church because that's kind of expected.

In fact, if I didn't talk about Jesus this morning, something would be wrong.

But then I have people in my life that I love.

And I know that they don't know Jesus.

And I know that other people have talked to them about Jesus in a way I never would.

And they've been put down, they've been offended, they've been hurt, and I don't want to add to that, right?

So I worry that if I speak up, I'm gonna push them further away from God.

And so I use that as an excuse just not to say anything.

But Jesus did not ask his disciples, who do you think I am?

He said, Who do you say I am?

Who are you willing to tell?

Ray Bell is a great part of our church.

He passed away a few months ago.

A lot of us knew Ray, love Ray, can't wait to see Ray again one day.

He's the reason we have motorcycle parking, just so you know.

So thank Ray if you if you ride a motorcycle.

At Ray's memorial service, one of his friends shared that before he died, he wrote letters to the people that he loved that he knew did not know Jesus.

He was going into surgery, he knew this surgery was risky, he knew there was a very good chance he wouldn't make it out.

Ray said, No matter what though, I know Jesus, so I win.

No matter what.

He didn't make it out of that surgery, but he sent those letters.

And I can only imagine what it must have been like to be someone that loved Ray, that knew him, heard that he had passed away, started to mourn, and then received a letter in the mail from him after that moment.

That's intense.

And his friend shared that all those letters said were, hey, I love you.

I love Jesus.

You need to know who Jesus is.

If you want to see me again, you better know Jesus.

I don't know the result of those letters.

I doubt they'll ever be forgotten.

See, Ray understood that it's important to tell people.

It's who do you say I am?

And there are people in our lives that need to hear who Jesus is.

Because they need more than a good man, they need more than a great teacher, and they need more than the guilt and shame they may have been presented with before.

They need to know who Jesus really is, and you might be the person that needs to tell them.

And we can worry about how that'll be received.

Jesus said though in Luke 12, he said, the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said.

So trust God, He may not give you eloquent words.

Rarely do people need eloquent words.

What they really need are genuine words.

And if we love people, if we want people to have the same experience with Jesus that we maybe have had, the love, the acceptance, the forgiveness, the trust, Jesus' preferred method is that we just tell them, that we share it.

In Romans 10, Paul wrote, How can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him?

And how can they believe in him if they've never heard about him?

And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?

It's who do you say I am?

The answer to that question can change everything in the lives of our friends, our family, but it also changes everything for us, right?

I mean, who do we say Jesus is?

Is he God?

I'm not sure what tipped the scales for Peter that convinced him that Jesus really is God.

Maybe it was the miracles, maybe it was the things he taught, maybe it was the fact that Peter realized that Jesus knows us.

If you read the gospels, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it'll take you a couple hours to read through them.

And ask yourself this question: Does Jesus get me?

Does he understand the human heart?

Does Jesus understand the human condition?

Does he know our tendencies?

Does he know our weaknesses?

Does he know our strengths?

Can he speak to the human heart in a way that only the person who made it could do?

When I read Jesus, I walk away knowing that he understands me much more than I understand myself.

And only the creator of something knows its every nuance.

And Jesus knows us.

Whatever it was that convinced Peter that Jesus was God, it's the moment that he spoke that out over his life, that his entire, his entire destiny changed.

It was the moment that he said it, not the moment that he thought it.

And there is power for us to speak, to say that Jesus is God.

Because when I'm backed into a corner, and when my life is really, really hard, and when I'm struggling, I cannot go to a great man that lived 2,000 years ago and ask for help and expect a response.

I can't do it.

I could look at that man and be inspired by him.

I could learn from the things he said, but I can't pray to that man.

I can't say, help me.

And Jesus has made us promises that only God could make.

He's promised to never leave us, to always be with us, to forgive us of everything, to give us eternal life.

A great man cannot make those promises and keep them.

But Jesus made those promises to every single one of us.

The simple truth is that Jesus being God is the best news for our lives.

Because you might be here this morning and you might be dealing with an addiction.

I know how you feel.

But the good news for you is that alcohol is not God.

Pornography is not God, drugs are not God, sex is not God, Jesus is God, and He doesn't want to share you with those things.

He loves you so much, He wants you all to Himself.

He's God.

If life and tragedy or just the stress of life has crushed us, the same good news applies to us.

Jesus is God.

He knows your heart.

He can heal it.

He can put you back together.

He knows what it's like to have a broken heart.

He understands.

So the most powerful thing you can say is not, I'm gonna feel better tomorrow.

The most powerful thing you can say is that Jesus is God and He can heal me right now.

If you're financially stressed, if you're financially crushed, the good news for you is that money is not God.

This economy is not God.

Jesus is God.

He is not limited to the economic conditions of our society.

Jesus can do what he wants.

Because he's God and he loves you and he will provide enough for you.

So you can go home tonight and look at your bills and say, Jesus is God.

And you have hope.

Whatever our hope is in, that's our God.

And Jesus says, put it all on me.

Give me all your hope.

Because there is no storm that can break me, there's no burden I cannot carry.

There is no season of life that I will not be with you through.

I am God, but I'm not just God, I'm your God.

I am yours to have.

Who do we say Jesus is?

There is power.

It's life-changing power.

In fact, in Romans, Romans, I'm going back a little bit here, what I was gonna do earlier, but it but in Romans 10-9, it says, if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you state it, if you just declare it, Jesus is God.

The worship team wants to come back.

One of the things that that I love about uh about his hands is that there aren't really any strings.

Every Sunday morning is not this carefully coordinated event.

It's not a production.

So usually when I walk up on stage, maybe this is maybe I should change this, maybe this is unexcellent, but I'm going up to Nathan, like, oh, how many songs are you guys doing today?

And like, what's the song before I go up so that I'm not out there and there's this awkward silence, or I'm running up the stage or anything like that.

And so this morning I didn't know what songs we were gonna do.

I had no idea that we were gonna do a song this morning and worship to a song that says, I call you Savior, I call you God.

And that's the Holy Spirit.

Just working things together.

If you've never called him your God, today's the day.

Today is the day.

Because here's here's what's amazing about Jesus.

He loves you so much.

If we put Jesus in his rightful place, he puts us in ours.

And our rightful place is by his side.

It is in his family, it is in his arms, it is in his will.

And it begins by saying in our lives, Jesus is my God.

We're gonna pray and worship a little bit more.

And I'd like to do that song again if that's okay.

I said we're gonna pray.

Everyone bowed their heads.

You guys are good.

If it's okay, I'd like to sing that song one more time.

A chance for us as a group, before we leave, as a family, to call him God together, to put that into practice this morning, because that's who he is.

So let's pray and let's do that this morning.

Jesus, thank you so much for being exactly who you said you are.

You are God.

You are good.

You are our healer, you are our savior.

You put us together.

You fix us when we're broken.

You created us, you love us.

You're patient with us.

You are God, and we love you.

So, Lord Jesus, give us the courage this morning just to say who you are.

We love you, Jesus.

Amen.