The Lord's Favor

Speaker:
Series
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The Lord'S Favor
11.8.20

Hey, good morning. How are you? Good. I am so thrilled to be with you. I am coming from Nashville and I have been to Colorado just a few times and every opportunity that I get to come, I get super giddy to be able to come to your state. Um, my daughter Araya turned 11 yesterday, so she got to be with me. We've been here since Thursday evening and I've had just a tremendous time being with this outstanding community.

And today I get the incredible privilege of tackling one of the most amazing stories from the life of Jesus, but it's one of those stories that is kind of confusing to understand. It's Jesus's very first synagogue sermon. Now I have been teaching the Bible for the last 15 years. I served as a teaching pastor for more than a decade. I've been running this organization for the last several years that Aaron mentioned. And I was just thinking in preparation for this morning about Jesus's first sermon. I was thinking back to my first sermon. That was when I was 25 years old. And I look back on that and I think what in the world was I thinking. Like, just so many mistakes you make and it's just, you learn as you go. Many of you probably can remember the first time you did a presentation or you spoke publicly. Like you get done with that and you go, I'm not sure I ever want to do that again. Now, here's what was my experience though, is that the audience that day was incredibly generous. They were very encouraging. They were very kind to me after that. When Jesus finishes his first sermon, the people want to kill him. And I think, okay, mine wasn't that bad. Jesus in Luke 4 is going to give a sermon in the synagogue and the people want to kill him for it. 

And it's a story that oftentimes we just miss out on what's going on because there's a lot of background information that you have to understand to recognize why the people respond the way they do. And so that's what we're going to get to do. To begin, if you have a Bible with you, we're going to be going to Luke chapter four, but just in a few moments, we're going to get there. I want to give you a little bit of the backdrop here because it's going to be taking place in a place called Nazareth. Now Nazareth is in the very Northern part of Israel, just to the Southwest of the Sea of Galilee and Nazareth today looks like this. So Nazareth is what you see in the backdrop there. It is a highly congested area because Jesus grew up in Nazareth and you can just see how just full it is with buildings and houses and all of that, today. In Jesus's day, it is a small village. Archeological evidence suggests that it was probably about two to 300 people in Jesus's day. It would have been founded most likely in the second century BC. So think maybe 150 years before the time of Jesus, Nazareth is founded. So it's a very small little rural village sitting up on the Nazareth Ridge away from everything else. It's a secluded, isolated little community. Now they named their village Nazareth and in Hebrew, it's the word natzerat. Let me hear you say natzeret.  Natzeret comes from the Hebrew word netzer. And netzer means branch. And when you go, why would they name themselves around a branch? Well, when you go back into the prophets, you see passages like Isaiah 11:1, “a shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse. From his roots, a branch will bear fruit.” A branch here is referring to the coming Messiah. It's one of the ways they talked about the Messiah who was to come. And the idea from the imagery here is that the stump of Jesse-- Jesse was David's father. And from the Davidic line, the Messiah is going to come. And so it's a picture here of an olive tree and you've got a branch coming out of the stump and they talk about that being the Messiah. Now here's why this is so interesting is that for the Jewish people in the first century world, they had a belief that when the Messiah showed up, that would usher in the end times, the Messiah would execute judgment on the nations and establish God's kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven, the coming of the Messiah comes with judgment. For those who are outside of God's fold, you could say those other people. 

And so they named themselves men from Nazareth, netzer from natzeret. Literally Branchville, which means that they probably have some belief that it's going to be from their village that the Messiah is going to come forth. Now, we don't know that for certain, but it's highly suggested from the name. Names in the ancient world are everything. One other piece of interesting archeological fact is that from Cesarea, which is on the Western coast of Israel in the third century AD there was, um, or from the third century, AD, you have a mosaic here and in this mosaic is an inscription indicating that of the 24 divisions of priests, one of those divisions was stationed in Nazareth, which means that Nazareth was a very religious village. And if they're expecting the Messiah to come from there, that's why they named themselves that way. Then that would make a lot of sense. 

Now, one of the things that you find is that in the gospel of John, someone comes to Nathaniel and says, Hey, Philip comes to Daniel, Nathaniel. He says, Hey, we have found the one that Moses was talking about Jesus of Nazareth and the Daniel's response is this, “Nazareth -- can anything good come from there. “ So there is something about Nazareth. Now we don't know if Nathaniel is talking about that Nazareth was just kind of like, you know, had a negative reputation because it was really small maybe because it was rural or maybe there was something about the ethos of Nazareth. We just know that when Nathanial hears that Jesus of Nazareth, he's like, Oh man, can anything good come from there? So there's a little bit of our backdrop. Now, one passage from the Hebrew scriptures that is going to factor into our story today is from Deuteronomy 19:15. It reads this way. “One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. On account of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed.” Now, when it comes to this idea of a matter shall be confirmed, what we have going on here is that this is in connection to witnessing a crime, but by the time of Jesus's day, and actually even earlier than that, you have this phrase on account of two or three witnesses being applied in a regular everyday sense that if you wanted to confirm something, then you would give two or three examples to affirm a point. So Jesus will make a point. The people are wrestling with what is he doing here? And then he typically tells two or three parables because those are the witnesses affirming his case. And you see this being played out. 

Now the story again, today, is going to be taking place in Nazareth. As I mentioned before, it is highly congested today. No synagogue has been found, but there have been other synagogues found from the time of Jesus. And this is what one will look like or looks like. And an artist's rendering here shows that this is the middle part of the synagogue. And you can kind of see this cutaway. This is where they held -- in Christian terms, we would call it a church service for the Jewish people. It is a synagogue service. Jesus is going to be coming into the synagogue and it's his turn to lead the service. So as was the custom in Jesus's day, one person was responsible for leading the synagogue service. It changed every Saturday for every synagogue service, a new leader would become the leader for that particular day.  You would stand to read from the Torah, one of the first five books of the Bible. And for some, from some other archeological evidence, we know that there was a reading schedule already in place in Jesus's day. So, it was a set schedule, Jesus read from there. But then the one who was leading also then would read a portion from the prophets and you got to choose what portion you are going to read from. And so, it's from that context that we pick up our story here in Luke chapter four, and here is how it begins in verse 17. Verse 16 says, “then Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet, Isaiah was given to him.” So he's already read from the Torah and everybody would have known this in the first century world.  And Luke just passes right by that. He's already stood up. Everybody knows he's read from the Torah. And it says, the prophet of Isaiah is handed to him. Jesus has requested it. And Isaiah is one of the most important books in the entire Bible for the Jewish people in the first century world. It's one of the three most quoted books in the new Testament. And it was why it was so popular is because the first 39 chapters talked about judgment. But then from 40 to 66, it was all about how God was going to bring hope and restoration to the people of Israel. And in the first century world, they are under the boot of the Roman empire. And so it was a hopeful book for the people to know that God was not done with them. God was still working. 

Now, Jesus is going to ask for this scroll from Isaiah, and he's going to read from Isaiah 61. This is the great Isaiah scroll that was found in the dead sea scrolls. And Jesus didn't read from this scroll, but if he was, it's actually this section right here, that Jesus is going to be reading from. And when he's back in the synagogue here, picking up now in verse 17, it says, “and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim Liberty, to the captives and recovery of sight, to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,” Verse 20, “and Jesus rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.” And he began to say to them today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, the shortest sermon in recorded history. It's one line it's called the Doris Shaw. So Jesus is reading from the Isaiah scroll. He is in the synagogue. He gets done and it says the eyes of everyone fastened on him. They are going, what are you going to say next? And Jesus says, today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing, and let's not forget they're going to kill him by the end of the story, which begs you to just go, okay, what in the world did just Jesus, just do there. We know how the story is going to end. What is going on here? Is this a favorable moment or an unfavorable moment when Jesus says it has been fulfilled in your hearing? Well, I need to show you something that Jesus has done because Jesus is so brilliant. 

Speaker 1: (12:30)
Okay? But as you dig deeper into some of the things Jesus does with the text, you see Jesus's brilliance at like the highest level. And he has done something in the reading of the Isaiah scroll that you can only do with people who know their Bibles forwards and backwards, and the Jewish people in the first century world, especially the religious ones. They know their Hebrew scriptures, especially the book of Isaiah, one of the most popular books of the day. So here's what I love. I am in love with Ledzilla by the way. All right. We've had so much fun being able to utilize such an amazing screen. Cause you can see clearly put things up what is going on in the text. So let me show you what we just read. This is from Luke four. And I mentioned that it is from Isaiah 61, one and two.  And when you go to Isaiah 61:1-2 and you compare it with what Jesus read, you see some interesting things like first of all, the first part is identical. The next part is very similar, but there is one very interesting statement. We'll come back to in a moment. And then as you go down, Isaiah 61:1-2, you go, Oh, it ends with the, you know, the year of the Lord's favor. But if you actually read carefully, you go, well, actually it doesn't, there's one more line. And the line is, I'm not sure where that came from is this and the day of vengeance of our God, in which God brings judgment on the nations -- brings judgment on the people who are outside of the fold. And according to the Jewish people, the Messiah is the one who's instigating that. And when you look at this, you go, okay, Isaiah 6:1-2. And by the way, we don't get chapters and verses until the middle of the 16th century, AD they don't have chapters and verses you just got to know the sections. And it says, “and the day of vengeance of our God.” But then you look at what Jesus has said, and you go up, Jesus stopped reading “at the day of the Lord's favor or the year of the Lord's favor”, because this is what Jesus is focusing on. And you go, well, is this just accidental? Did Luke just not record it? Well, before we get to answering that, what in the world is the Lord's favor? 

Because from the Hebrew back in Isaiah 61:1-2, which is what Jesus is reading from, we find that the Lord's favor in Hebrew is Ratzon la Adonai. Let me hear you say Ratzon la Adonai -- means favor of the Lord or the Lord's favor. It's literally God's intimate personal covenantal name, but the Jewish people in the first century world did not use God's intimate, personal name. They would substitute the word Adonai, Lord. So we're just going to say Ratzon la Adonai -- it comes off the tongue much better as well. All right. So Jesus is saying, okay, I'm I'm I'm reading from Isaiah. It's about the Lord's favor and you go, well, what is the Lord's favor? What would this event for the people in Jesus's day? Here's what the definition is. It's the divine goodwill that reaches out to others in mercy, compassion and blessing. It's extending God's grace, God's mercy, God's love, God's compassion, God's blessing to people and Jesus and his reading of Isaiah 61, with that statement, not the one that says and the day of vengeance of our God, that's his point. Now you go, well, is this again, just happenstance or is Jesus doing something very intentional here? And the answer comes in the middle section because when you go to Isaiah 6:1-2, you recognize Jesus has added in a statement that is not found in Isaiah 61. It's “to set the oppressed free”. And when Jesus does this, you go, okay, what in the world is he up to? And by the way, this was not uncommon for a brilliant rabbi or Sage to do in the first century world. When you are doing something different with the texts, you are bringing everybody's attention to it. And Jesus does this time and time again when he is teaching and preaching. And whenever you see a statement that feels a bit off, you always want to ask yourself the question, does this statement show up anywhere else in the Bible? And when you look back in the prophet Isaiah, you find to set the oppressed free. Only shows up once, not just in Isaiah, only once in the entire Hebrew scriptures, what we call the older Testament. It's Isaiah 58:5-6 that reads “will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord is not this, the fast that I choose to loose the bonds of wickedness to undo the straps of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and to break every yoke.” There is our phrase ‘to set the oppressed free’. Only time it shows up in the Bible, outside of eyes, outside of what Jesus does in Luke four. And so you go, okay, what in the world is going on here? Why does Jesus add this in? If it's not an Isaiah 61, it's to send your attention to Isaiah 58. Because once again, this is something that the people would have understood what Jesus was doing, because they know their Bible forwards and backwards. And what Jesus is doing here is he's engaging in something called Gezerah Shavah. Gezerah Shavah was a rabbinic practice in the first century world, where if you have a key word or phrase in one part of the scriptures and that same exact word or phrase in another part, then you can pull them from their context, insert them together, and now understand them in light of one another, meaning you have connected those two passages together. And so when Jesus does to set the oppressed free and he sends you to Isaiah 58, you go, why is he drawing your attention there? Because notice this first line, “will you call this a fast and a day of the Lord's favor”? It says a day of acceptance, but it's actually in the Hebrew Ratzon la Adonai. It is the only other place where the words ‘God's favor’ is found in the older Testament as well. And what you find here in this moment is that when Jesus stops with the Lord's favor in his reading of Isaiah and everybody goes, that's not how it ends. It ends with the vengeance of our God. That's what we believe the Messiah is going to do. This is our village. We believe the Messiah is going to do that. And Jesus, we believe you're that Messiah. And Jesus goes “to set the oppressed free because on account of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed.” And Jesus has pulled the two passages together that have the Lord's favor to make it profoundly clear that Jesus is saying, this is what I'm about. 

Jesus's life and calling was Ratzon la Adaonai. It was the favor of the Lord. Come on now. That's brilliant. Right now you go, okay, so he's doing this. So what do we have next? Well, notice what happens after Jesus says “today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing” because this is where the story gets really interesting because it says this, verse 22 “and all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son.” And you go, they're going to kill him. Why are they praising him in this moment? Well, this is where a translation aspect is helpful to understand. So here is what we just read here, this is what they said. There is a second option, and this has been proposed by one of the most fantastic new Testament scholars in the world. It's a guy by the name of Stephen Notley, and he contends that there is actually a second reading of what this can be from the Greek, a very faithful translation, because there are two Greek verbs that are in play in this story. 
The first one is what gets translated as either spoke well or witness against. And it's this word ‘martureo,’ which can mean to give witness for or to give witness against. It depends on the structure of the sentence in the Greek. It also depends on the context. So you could say, well, all spoke well of him or all witnessed against him. The second verb that is in play here is the one that gets translated as either they marveled or they were shocked. And this is the Greek word thaumazo, which can mean to be enthusiastic about, or to be shocked at. And if you look at these two options here, they're going to kill him or at least attempt to. And so the second one seems to connect more with what's going on. As you see the rest of the story play out that as a result of Jesus saying, Hey, I am fulfilling the servants of the Lord, and I am extending grace and mercy and compassion to all people. You see, this is one of the things that's fascinating is that after Luke four, you see Jesus going about and demonstrating this enormous amount of compassion and grace and mercy to people, particularly those who are on the outside of the religious bubble, those “other people,” and you don't see Jesus going around, being judgmental towards others.

Now, he challenges the Pharisees. Yes, but Jesus always held his harshest words for the religious folks who were not loving other people. Well, because so many religious people have the idea. I have it, right? They have it wrong. I'm deserving of God's grace. They don't. And so you have this certain posture and Jesus is always challenging the religious elite when they think they have it all figured out and everybody doesn't value in the eyes of God. And so this is how then it plays out. Because once Jesus has said this, and if they are angry at him, this is why it makes sense that Jesus says this next. Jesus in verse 23 says, “And he said to them, ‘Doubtless, you will quote me this proverb. ‘So Jesus highlights a very well known proverb of the day, which is this, “physician heal yourself “ then you, okay, Jesus, what do you mean physician heal yourself .This was a common proverb that everybody knew that actually came from one of Aesop’s fables. Aesop was the sixth century BC -- Jesus quotes Aesop several times in the gospels. And it's every single time he does it, it is so brilliant. Here's the fable that he is quoting from. It's called the Fox and the frog. There was a frog who claimed to be trained in the physicians art. Acquainted with all the medicinal plants of the earth. The only creature who could cure the animals’ ailments. The Fox listened to the frog's announcement and exposed his lies by the color of his skin. How can it be said the Fox that you are able to cure others of their illness, but the signs of sickness can be still seen in your own face. And they distilled it down. They say, physician heal yourself meaning, prove yourself, because we think you are sick in the face, regardless of what you proclaim to be able to do. 

And this is why Jesus then says next. He says, Oh, and you're also going to say, what have we heard you do at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. So Jesus goes, you're going to say physician heal yourself. And then you're going to say, Hey, do you know, do here in your hometown, what you've done in Capernaum? Jesus goes, you're going to ask me for two witnesses to confirm the point that I've just made, that I am about Ratzon la Adonai for all people. And so then Jesus goes, that's what you're going to ask me to do. So let me just respond this way. Jesus goes, “truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own hometown” and you go, all right, why was Jesus saying that? Well, this phrase ‘is acceptable’ is the word dektos in Greek. It's the same word that is used in Luke 4:19 for the word favor, Jesus goes, uh, ‘truly I say to you, no prophet has favor in his own hometown “, because Jesus has come to bring the Lord's favor. It's almost as if Jesus is making this pronouncement. I have come to generously, give God's favor to all people, but that favor isn't accepted, even in my own hometown. And you're refusing the very favor I've come to bring you as well. Jesus has come to bring favor to all people, including those that he grew up with. Those who are in his village, those whom he has done life with, he wants to extend God's favor to them as well. And again, by the way, they're going to want to kill Jesus for this. And so then we read next that then Jesus goes, okay, verse 25, “but in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years in six months, and a great famine came over the whole land and Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zeraphat in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha. And none of them was cleansed, but only Naman the Syrian.” Jesus has to -- get this, just given two examples, two witnesses of how God has worked through two of the most prominent prophets in the Hebrew scriptures that actually did their ministry in the Northern part of the country, i.e., in the vicinity of Nazareth. It's so brilliant. If you go a mile South from the village of Nazareth, you will come to this location right here. So Nazareth is up there about a mile and a quarter or so. And where this photo was taken from is right on the edge that drops in to the Jezreel Valley. If you then turn around and do this, this is your view. And when you look out here, the story of Naman took place just off to the left. One of the stories of Elijah took place just off to the right. You can stand on the edge of the hill on which Nazareth was founded, and you can see all of these stories. In fact, from this vantage point, you can see about 15 prominent stories from the Bible because everything in Israel is so packed on top of each other. It's a very small space. In fact, how small is the land of Israel? You can fit six Israel's into your state of Colorado. Everything's on top of each other. And so Jesus gives these two examples, one from Elijah and one from a Elisha, again, because on account of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed. And so Jesus goes, Hey, let's just back up for a moment because the issue here is that the religious Jews don't like the fact that Jesus is going to extend grace and mercy and God's compassion to all people exposed to those Gentiles. And Jesus goes, hold up. Do you remember the great prophet, Elijah? Do you remember the great prophet Elisha? Remember in these two stories when Israel was in need, and yet God sent these profits to the Gentiles and not just to Gentiles, but Jesus has covering the spectrum because the widow and Zeraphat was a Gentile of the lowest status and Naman -- and these are all stories back in your Hebrew scriptures, you got to go visit -- is a Gentile man of the highest status. From women to men, from the low to the high, both Jews and Gentiles, Elijah and Elisha served both groups. And in Jesus's day, there was massive tension between the Jews and the Gentiles because the religious Jews believe that the problem in the world were the Gentiles, the Gentiles were the ones that had corrupted the Israelites in the Hebrew scriptures that sent them into exile. Forget the fact that when you read the prophets it's all about how God's people were not living into justice and righteousness. They were living into idolatry. There were all of these things they weren't doing, right? The Jews in the first century world believed the problem was the Gentiles, the other people, those who are outside of God's favor and Jesus's response here is “I have come for all people.”

And this is precisely why we come now to the end of our story, where we read here, back in Luke 4:28, “when they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath and they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff.” What in the world, the brow of the hill friends, is more than a mile and a quarter from the town center. And when you come to the brow of the hill again, where this photo was taken and we turn around and we start looking at this direction, it is a very swift drop. When you come to the edge of the brow of the hill, it literally drops right off, down into the valley. And here from this angle, it's right up here in the upper right-hand corner. Apparently this is where they were going to throw them off. And they're so angry and they're so irate that they want to kill him. Now in the first century world, Rome is ruling. You cannot execute capital punishment without Rome’s say so. And if you do get the say so, then according to Jewish law, you can't do it on a Sabbath day. And it is a Sabbath day. They are so angry that they want to kill him without any regard for being Sabbath, their own law or the Roman law. And then it says that Jesus just walked right through them and went on his way. And we have no idea what happened. We have no idea if on the walk to the brow of the hill, or maybe it was some other place that was called the brow of the hill, by the way, nobody left a plaque. We don't know exactly where it happened, but we know that they're trying to kill. And we don't know that since was knocked into them. God miraculously saved Jesus in this moment. We don't know what happens, but here's what we know profoundly at the end of this story is that Jesus is life and calling was Ratzon la Adonai. For the Jewish people in the first century world, they believe that when the Messiah comes, he will bring judgment. He will bring the end times. Jesus introduced this idea called the second coming. Jesus will come back and he will execute judgment. He will make everything right, all evil, all brokenness, all pain, all chaos will be purged. And in the new Jerusalem at the end of the story, all will be made right. But when Jesus came onto the scene, he said, that's not my role right now. My role right now is to embody the goodness and the mercy and the grace and the love of God and to extend that to all people, those “other people”, however you would want to define it. 

And it's one of the most challenging words that Jesus gave. Now here's what I'm not saying, that as followers of Jesus, to extend grace and mercy and love and compassion to all people is not blanket acceptance of the decisions that they are making. What I'm saying is, is that how do we live in a posture that is welcoming to those who don't believe as we do, don't think like we do, maybe in some cases don't vote like you and you go, what's your posture in those moments? I mean, what have you done over the last few days when you found out someone that, you know, voted differently than you, was it immediately a sense of, well, how could they don't they know this candidate stands for this, or they do this, or this is that rather than going, Oh, I'd like to hear more about why you did that.
And you may hear their reasoning and not necessarily like it and think that you're still right and that's okay. But what your response is, the moment you find out is an indication of the condition of your heart. And so it's not blanket acceptance. Here's the thing that absolutely mesmerizes me and challenges me more than anything about Jesus-- is that Jesus never watered down his values. And yet those who were outside of the fold, those whose life were a mess, those who are making very poor decisions and knew where Jesus stood, loved being with Jesus, they flocked to him because there was a warming, welcoming posture of grace and mercy and compassion and blessing because Jesus knew he could not condemn them into following God. He had to compel them into following God.

And one of the people that has challenges me more in this day and age to love people, well is a guy by the name of Bob Goff. Maybe some of you know, Bob Goff or know of him. He's written two really great books. One is called, Love Does. Many of you probably know that. Another one is called Everybody Always and Bob, in Everybody Always writes this that has been so helpful to me. He says, “what I've come to realize is if I really want to meet Jesus, then I have to get a lot closer to the people he created. All of them, not just some of them. Certainly, God wants us to learn about him by reading the letters and stories collected in the Bible. But he also wants us to meet him by loving the people who are difficult to get along with. It's one thing we all have in common. We're all somebody's neighbor and they're ours. This has been God's simple, yet brilliant master plan from the beginning, he made a whole world of neighbors. We call it earth, but God just calls it a really big neighborhood. And I love that because Jesus's life and calling was the Lord's favor to extend it graciously to all people. And as followers of Jesus today, we are called to do the same. It's extremely difficult to do . The religious people, wanted to kill him for it. But Jesus goes, this is the heart of God. And when you watch Jesus go forth from this moment, he extends Ratzon la Adonai to all people. And friends, I believe that we are called to do the same. Amen. Amen.

Hey, Aaron's going to come now and lead us in a time of communion. 

Thank you, Brad. Um, we're going to move into our communion time together. Uh, if this is your first time here or your first time online, we take communion together every week. It's part of what we do as a church family. And we love this as an opportunity to be reminded of this covenant that we're a part of, and especially in light of the message that we've just heard. I think it is particularly profound for us to understand Jesus did everything possible for us to be a part of this message that, that there is in fact, a day of judgment that will happen. There is no doubt about that, but in this glorious in-between time, we're called to look like our rabbi. And so this morning as we prepare our hearts for communion, I would just offer you a minute to, to wrestle internally with between you and the Lord. Is there a place in your life or a people in your life that you're like? Yeah, I don't know how to, I don't know how to portray the Lord's favor there. Well, whoever those people are, um, let's take a minute to talk with the Lord about what he would want us to do in light of the communion that we celebrate together. 

On the night Jesus was betrayed. He took bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is given for you. So whenever you eat this bread, do it in remembrance of me. After the dinner, he took a cup and he said, this cup is the blood of the covenant, which is shed for you. So whenever you drink this cup, do it in remembrance. 

Lord. I don't even know where to begin as we sit here today because of your unrelenting pursuit of the Lord's favor for all people. Jesus, we want to look more and more and more like you, I pray that you would help us to find ways to, to live out that same message, right where we live, right where we work ,with the people that we see on the street. God, thank you for your grace. Thank you for never leaving us and never forsaking us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Stand and sing one more song. Brad, hank you for being with us this whole weekend. Can you guys give Brad a round of applause?? He's invested a ton in our church family this weekend. I'm so appreciative of you being here. Hey, this morning, as you leave, if you need to pray with somebody, there's going to be some prayer partners up here to pray with you. They'd love to pray about whatever you're concerned about whatever's going on in your life. If you want to talk to somebody about what it means to start a relationship with Jesus, they're here for you for that as, as well. Um, as we leave today, I just want to speak one small blessing over all of us. May we be the kind of people who live out the favor of God in our life and, and relentlessly invite people into God's favor for their life. Thank you for coming this morning. Have a great week.