12-06-15

[0:00] Please be seated. Friends, this is the first week of our 2015 Advent Sermon Series.! In this series, however, we're going to change it up a little bit.

[0:33] We're going to speak a little more topically. And appropriately, it will be the Advent season or the Christmas season. The reason for this is that we want to stress a point.

[0:45] This Christmas, this holiday season. Instead of reading the Christmas story from the Gospels and focusing solely on the event of Christmas that's celebrated once a year, we want to widen our view of Christ coming to earth as a baby.

[1:00] Christ's birth is part of a much longer and majestic story. It's God's story of his relationship to mankind, starting in the garden and progressing through the present and all the way into the eternal future in God's heavenly kingdom.

[1:17] This four-part series will join Old Testament gospel references and messianic prophecies to Christ's birth and God's future kingdom. It proves that Christ's birth was perfect, timely, and necessary for God's relationship to man and states that the new King Jesus is worthy of all of our praise.

[1:39] Christ's birth is a monumental moment on God's timeline. If you're like me, the things that you say you're going to do are not always the things that you actually do.

[1:53] My wife can testify to this. For example, I think once a week I tell her, hey, I want to start reading more, right? Reading more books. I want to read every night before bed.

[2:04] I've heard several of the gentlemen from this church say something similar to that. Sorry, guys. I usually get a good head of steam and I'm ready to go and I'm pumped up for like a week and then other things happen and it kind of falls away.

[2:19] But we can learn from these things and we can learn that we invest physical and mental time and energy into the things that matter most to us.

[2:32] Whether we realize it or not, this happens. Think about your hobbies. What do you do for fun? Maybe you go rock climbing or hiking. You like the outdoors and hunting and fishing. Maybe you're into video games or computers or maybe you're into designing things or art or reading books, auto mechanics, cooking, home improvement.

[2:49] It doesn't matter what it is. How about work? Whether you stay at home or you go out to work, you'd like to keep your job and, of course, the pay is nice. The sense of success you get after working a 40-plus hour week or some of those stay-home moms, a 24 times 7 hour week.

[3:07] You put in a hard night or day with a sick child. It's always a plus. You work so hard and invest your time and energy there. And when you take time to reflect, you end up saying, all I do is work. The same principle of our time and energy is true in our relationships too.

[3:24] Schoolmates and coworkers. There's probably a group of friends at work or at school or university that you wind up talking to more than others. You invest more time and energy into them because they mean something different to you or they're worth your time and energy more than someone else seems to be.

[3:41] There's always someone you prefer to chat with before the next person or someone you try to talk to before you have to go in for an exam or to go home for the night. How about best friends? The one that you spend the most time with, probably out of many people out of the world, other than your family.

[3:55] You try hard to get to know this person or these people. These friends don't become best friends by accident. There's a lot of intentional pursuit there. What about romantic relationships?

[4:08] Boyfriend, girlfriend, a husband or wife. Those we know will fail without intentional investment and energy placed into them. So we can say this.

[4:19] When it comes to investing time and energy into relationships, we have to become selective. You could never keep in close touch with everyone. That's why your high school circle of friends or someone from your church growing up has become more like a couple people you text twice a year to say happy birthday or Merry Christmas.

[4:36] Or your relatives, aunts and uncles, that seem so distant. You see at the holidays, but you realize you don't really know them that well because you only see them a couple times a year. Because of how life is, you and I tend to just fall into these situations.

[4:51] It's not that it's bad, but that's just kind of how life winds up being. So to put it together, there's two thoughts. The activities and relationships which fail to take priority in our lives and earn our pursuit are those which we've deemed at this current juncture in life to be less worthy of time and energy.

[5:11] Whether this is intentional or subconscious, they've become filtered out. Continuing with that thought, I'd argue that that which has earned our consistent pursuit and has had an impactful role in our lives to the point where it is continually placed at the top of our priority list regardless of the season of life we're in, trials we're going through, or circumstances that are around us.

[5:34] And my question is this. What about your relationship with God? How much of your time, energy, and pursuit is directed towards the creator of the world?

[5:47] How much priority does God get in your life as much as the other important things? Does God go from back burner to front burner to back burner when situations arise in life?

[5:58] Or does He just kind of stay on the back burner? Maybe He's your best friend some of the time, but only when it's convenient or when there's a crisis or when you need prayers answered.

[6:10] Perhaps when stressful situations arise in life. Again, let me repeat myself. That which has affected our lives the most to the point where we've rearranged and reorganized our life's hierarchy priority is that which has had a significant role and impact on our lives.

[6:26] Friends, this is my desire for you and for myself today. That we would see this. This is the purpose. This is the answer of what I'm talking about. That you'd see Christ's birth in a new way.

[6:37] Not just as a once a year event that evolves the Virgin Mary as stable and a baby. But you'd see it as a cataclysmic, history-altering event through the much broader lens of God's extraordinary pursuit of man.

[6:52] That His longing to be in perfect relationship with you and I is seen through His pursuing of man and of us throughout all of time from the garden in the beginning to now to God's eternal kingdom.

[7:05] This has only been accomplished through Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. And that you would understand and act on these truths.

[7:16] There's two major divisions in our time here together. It's very simple. Number one, I want us to know the facts. Know what you mean to God.

[7:28] And then number two, choose a response. What does God mean to you? Know what you mean to God is where we get our title from today's message. Emmanuel, which means God with us.

[7:41] But friends, before we could really see what God should mean to us, to you and I, we have to first see what we mean to God. This is best seen in His relationship with man, starting at the Garden of Eden in the beginning.

[7:54] Please turn with me to Genesis chapter 2. We see at the very beginning several things that God very intentionally did and designed for man, for Adam and Eve.

[8:16] Genesis 2.7 says this, Then God, the Lord God formed a man from the dust, from the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature.

[8:31] So A, God created man in His own image and gave him life. Before creation, man was nothing. Man didn't exist. The second thing we see in Genesis 2.8-9 and 15.

[8:45] Genesis 2.8 says, The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord made to spring up, every tree that's pleasant to sight and good for food.

[9:00] Verse 15, continuing, says, The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and to keep it. What we see here is God placed man in the perfect Garden of Eden, with full responsibility and freedom to rule and tend it.

[9:15] The perfect work environment. Talk about a good job. The third thing we see is God gave man a helper. You know her as Eve.

[9:25] Genesis 2.18 and 32. 18 says, The Lord God said, It's not good that man should be alone. I'll make him a helper fit for him.

[9:37] And verse 22 says, Then the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, He made into a woman and brought him to her. Fourthly, God made man to be in relationship with Him.

[9:52] Chapter 3 of Genesis, verses 8 and 9 says this, And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man was with his wife.

[10:04] And they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The word that's used here in terms of walking is something that suggests fellowship and relationship.

[10:17] It's pretty cool. It would seem that this was also a regular occurrence with Adam and Eve walking with God. Spurgeon writes this, No doubt, when they had heard the voice of the Lord before, they had run to meet Him.

[10:32] As children do a father when he comes home in the cool of the day. So here's what we can see from these Genesis texts. Adam and Eve were in every sense set up for success.

[10:43] They were given the food, the land, the perfect work environment, the perfect jobs, really. The garden and the animals to rule over. They had everything they needed. They were given a relationship to each other that was instated by God and was perfect.

[11:00] Imagine the perfect marriage. In all of its characteristics, they were loved and cared for by the heavenly creator. And they regularly walked with Him. By seeing these things, friends, that the Bible tells us in Genesis, we can conclude this.

[11:16] God had perfect unity and perfect relationship with man in the beginning. There was no sin. There was no sadness. There was no hindrance to relationship.

[11:28] Something that you and I, in an earthly sense, have never experienced and will never experience. Perfect relationship. So let's conclude that.

[11:39] To support our main idea today, God was with us or God was with man in the garden in the beginning. The details were according to God's design and they were perfect.

[11:50] God longed that they would stay this way. That was His plan. That they would remain like this in relationship for eternity. A perfect state. How can we be sure of this? Let's fast forward and see.

[12:01] Turn with me to 1 John chapter 3. We see the following in 1 John 3.

[12:19] Reading out of the ESV. Verses 1 through 3 says this. See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God.

[12:31] And that is what we are. The reason the world doesn't know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God.

[12:42] And what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him. We shall see Him as He is.

[12:52] All who have this hope in Him purify themselves just as He is pure. I want to take away two things from this verse. From these three verses.

[13:03] The first thing is that we are God's children. Friends, forever. The greatest earthly blessing you and I can have as Christians, as believers, as followers of Jesus, is our sonship in Christ.

[13:17] Christ. It's through the Father's great love in sending Christ to earth, His Son, that we have gained Him and He has gained so many sons and daughters.

[13:30] It also paves the way to the next idea that we see in these verses. We will be like Christ. Kind of can be a confusing thought. What do you mean we'll be like Christ?

[13:43] We'll look like Christ? We'll act like Christ? We'll perform like Christ? We'll have perfect and purified bodies. Sickness and sadness and sin are gone.

[13:55] We'll be back in our intended state, in our perfect bodies, like we saw in the garden. True and completed representations of the image of God.

[14:06] That's something to be excited about. So 1 John told us who we will be in eternity in the end. But what will we do? For that, turn with me to Revelation chapter 22.

[14:19] What will we do? What will we do? In eternity? Verse 1 says this, Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.

[14:44] Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding fruit in each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

[14:56] No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship them. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more.

[15:12] They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they'll reign forever and ever. Doesn't verse 2 look a lot like what we saw in the garden?

[15:26] The middle of the street of the city, there's a river, and there's a tree with fruit. This reminds me of the garden before man had sinned.

[15:37] Talk about coming full circle. We saw it at the beginning. We see it at the end. Man will be with God in a very similar environment to what we saw in the garden, in the glory and splendor of God's original creation for man.

[15:53] Two things we want to gain from chapter 22 of Revelation. The first thing is that this concept of seeing the face of Christ, enabling us to see and know Christ in ways in which we've never been able to know Him since the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden.

[16:14] Also, we will reign as kings with Christ and God. We will be kings. Believers in Jesus have been given sonship, but also kingship. We are royalty through God's adoption of us as sons.

[16:29] A quick comment. The ESV Study Bible footnotes. This section that talks about His name will be written on their foreheads says this. The seal on their foreheads is the name of the Lamb and of His Father.

[16:41] That's Jesus and God. A token of possession and protection by God, promised to every conqueror in the spiritual war. Friends, we are possessions of Creator God.

[16:54] So to conclude this section about the end, the eternity, we see that the perfect relationship we will have with God is similar to what we've seen in the garden.

[17:05] Physically, we'll be in God's family. We'll be as children, we saw in 1 John. We will be perfect in our bodies as Christ, God's Son, is. Our bodies will be purified.

[17:16] It will be without sin and sadness and sickness. We'll exist in eternity, seeing Christ perfectly, alongside of God, reigning as kings.

[17:29] Without question, these details represent perfect fellowship and perfect relationship with our Heavenly Father. Perfect unity. We see the same relational component that we saw in the Garden of Eden.

[17:45] So that's what God with us looks like in eternity. We've seen it in the beginning. We've seen it at the end. But there's one thing missing here, right? The middle.

[17:56] What happened in the middle? What's happening now? At this point, you might be saying, all right, pal, what does this have to do with Christmas? What does this have to do with Advent? Well, before we get there, I want to cover a few key sections of the Old Testament in about one minute.

[18:14] When it comes to God's physical presence with man, we see a few really significant examples in the Old Testament. We don't have to turn there, but I just want to reference them. The first thing is the high priests of Israel.

[18:28] Throughout the Old Testament, we see God's priests, the tribe of Levi, with God's presence in the tabernacle. The second thing is in Genesis 32, there's this example of Jacob experiencing God like no man ever does.

[18:45] There's two examples in Genesis, the most familiar you've probably heard of, Moses and the burning bush. And then in 1 Kings 19, we see a story about Elijah experiencing God.

[18:56] With some of these stories in the Old Testament, though, scholars, unlike myself, are unsure of exactly how much these people are experiencing God. How much are they experiencing His presence?

[19:07] Are they seeing His face? What degree are they experiencing God? But the reality is that that's not as important with us today. But what we know is that with these examples, they're definitely lacking in their experience with God and relational component compared to what we've seen so far in the Garden of Eden and in eternity.

[19:30] We can see that the Bible tells us that God had perfect unity and fellowship with Adam and Eve and in eternity, unlike we've ever seen since the fall.

[19:43] We can support that God was with Adam and Eve in the beginning and the end. This is God's design. And since then, it has never been the same.

[19:55] We're left in some sort of a limbo, some sort of an unexplained state. So what happened? Relationally, what happened with man and God after the Garden?

[20:10] Due to Adam and Eve's sin, they're separated from their unity with God. We read in Genesis 3.23 that Adam and Eve, you may have heard the story, they sinned and God came, as we saw in 3 verses 8 and 9, into the Garden and they hurriedly grabbed leaves to cover themselves.

[20:26] They felt shame and they felt guilt for their sin for the first time ever. Ever. Their perfect relationship with God was scarred. It became imperfect and God cast them out from the Garden.

[20:40] Never to return to that perfect existence on earth. Something man had never experienced before. The next several thousand years took place and God's relationship with man was never the same.

[20:55] There was no way to replicate, because of sin, what was in the Garden, what was designed to always be. I made this statement a short time ago in our time together. The activities and relationships which fail to take priority and earn our pursuit are those which we've deemed at this current juncture to be less worthy of our time and energy, whether intentionally or subconsciously, they become filtered out.

[21:21] Short line, what if God acted the same way? What if God felt like, I don't want to pursue man anymore. I gave them what they needed.

[21:33] I gave them everything. What if when Adam and Eve sinned, God said, no, it's totally justified. I'm done. That's it. God had every right to no longer be God with us any longer.

[21:50] It was man who broke the relationship. Man matters to God. And God longs deeply to be with us, with you, with you, with me.

[22:05] How do we know this? Christ. Our final passage today is in Matthew 1, 18 through 23.

[22:16] Please turn with me there. Matthew 1, 18. This is one of the more frequently read verses in the Christmas season.

[22:35] Matthew 1, 18 reads this way. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, they came together and she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

[22:52] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife.

[23:11] For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son. You shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sin. Verse 22.

[23:23] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they'll call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

[23:39] How did Christ come? He was born in a smelly stable because the local holiday inn was full. He was born to imperfect parents in an imperfect environment.

[23:54] I would say less than desirable conditions. Certainly not the glamour of a hospital visit. The past and future God with us in the garden and in eternity God walks with perfect creation in a perfect environment in a perfect relationship with man.

[24:14] But what about Christ as God with us on earth? In the book of Matthew God with us means Christ in the flesh. Walking and interacting on earth with humans in a real personable way that we have never experienced before.

[24:32] That has never been done through eternity. It's not the garden and it's not eternity. It's an imperfect environment that we live in today which is filled with sin and sadness, pain and suffering, agony, defeat.

[24:48] This has never been seen before. And friends, this is earth shattering. The perfect God the perfect Christ came to this.

[25:02] Some think he just came to fulfill prophecy and to make himself known to a few people, to teach to the masses and perform miracles. But he came to minister to sinners.

[25:14] His life work was loving and caring for people like us. Why did he come? He came to seek and to save, to know us personally, inviting us into relationship now to set us up for his longing for perfect completion of relationship in eternity.

[25:36] How? By dying on the cross. Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin is death.

[25:51] Romans 5.8 says, but God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for you. Christ came to accomplish and to complete God's original design for relationship to redeem the lost.

[26:11] Christ ushers in an eternity of knowing God in his designed perfect state. Remember 1 John 3.16 says this, this is how we know what love is, that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

[26:33] The death that you and I should have taken. The pain and anguish that you and I should have put upon our shoulders. This is what we mean to God, friends.

[26:44] This is what we mean to God. He sent his only son to die for a world of wretched sinners. How can this not be the most impactful and significant role anyone's played in your life ever?

[26:59] To God, you are a priority. You've done nothing, but you've earned his deep, deep affection and love. And God desires to be in perfect relationship with all of us.

[27:11] He always has and he always will. He longs to reign with Christ and us, his beloved children for eternity. Sending Jesus was the only way.

[27:23] Jesus Christ, the baby born on Christmas day, is Emmanuel, is God with us. So we've talked about what it means to understand and know what God means to us, but we can't leave it there.

[27:39] Friends, we have to choose a response. We have to consider what God means to us. We've seen what we mean to God. Knowing a truth, any truth, cannot stop us there.

[27:54] We have to acknowledge and take action. Knowing the truth of what God has done to us can't be ignored. Consider a father waking up in his house in the evening hours after they've fallen asleep, his wife and children still in bed.

[28:08] he smells smoke and so he gets out of his bed, out of the comfy sheets, pillow top mattress, and he sees a fire in the oven upon entering the kitchen. And he stops and he says to himself, I'm good, I think this fire is going to put itself out.

[28:24] The walls of the oven will contain it. This will pass. Who can blame him? He's tired. It's the middle of the night. Work's been difficult. Life happens.

[28:35] He doesn't want to wake the kids him and his wife are still fighting from yesterday. He's fed up with stuff. And reality, he'll just stop thinking about it, if he can distract himself long enough, and once again, fall back to sleep.

[28:52] You and I would sit here saying, no, we know this choice isn't the right one. His acknowledgement without action is placing his family and himself in imminent danger.

[29:05] Friends, the truth we've just talked about, the same concept applies. How God cares for us, how he longs for us, how he longs to be in relationship, how he longs to be and is God with us, cannot just have acknowledgement, but it needs action.

[29:27] God has stoked a fire so bright and so hot that it cannot be denied or ignored. This fire is Jesus Christ. Christmas day, Emmanuel, God with us, the one who's come to make right the relationship between me and God, between you and God.

[29:45] Don't you see it? Don't you see what God means to you? How much attention does he get? And do you act on what we know? Remember 1 John 3, 1?

[29:57] See what great love the Father has lavished on us. do you spend time and energy reflecting on these truths? Consider again this statement from earlier.

[30:11] The activities and relationships which fail to take priority and earn our pursuit are those which we have deemed at this current juncture in life to be less worthy of our time and energy.

[30:22] Whether intentionally or subconsciously, they've become filtered out. again, that which has affected our lives the most to the point where we rearrange and reorganize our life's hierarchy of priorities is that which has placed its impactful stamp on our lives.

[30:43] Right now you might consider yourself to be one of these four people. Maybe the idea of God wanting a relationship with you is new. You've heard the Christmas story year after year.

[30:54] You do the routine. You know what's going on. But you've never seen Christ and Christmas as more than Jesus in a manger and an exchange of gifts with family and friends.

[31:09] What if God really sees who I am, you say, with all of my sin? Would he still accept me? Mark 2 17 says, Jesus said to them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

[31:25] I have come to call the righteous and not sinners. Know this, my friend, if this is you, there's a God who longs to be with you. So come and be changed by the most meaningful relationship you'll ever have.

[31:41] Enter in relationship with the one who is Emmanuel, God with us, God with you. I'd love to talk to you more about the service, if this is how you feel.

[31:52] Maybe you feel like person number two and you started a relationship with Jesus in the recent past or maybe distant past, but you've pretty much placed other things in front of him. You've pushed him down as one of your higher priorities to the bottom of the list.

[32:08] Like the popcorn tin with the cheese, caramel, and buttered popcorn, which sat in our house for about two years, sectioned off. You kind of pick at God every so often.

[32:20] When you feel like it, when it's convenient, over long stretches of times, just when it's there, you notice him. He's not really that important. He isn't as meaningful as he used to be.

[32:34] The role that he had in your life at one point really isn't what it was, what it is now. It's just different, you know, it's just not the same. Your excitement and enthusiasm for knowing Jesus has faded in your other interests, things that take your time and energy reign king.

[32:55] Ask yourself this, what do I mean to God? What did God used to mean to me? What's getting in the way of me investing in our relationship? Maybe you feel like person number three, and you have a pretty good handle on prioritizing God in your life.

[33:11] You know what he means to you, or you know what you mean to him, but you fall into the same habitual traps, the same seasons of life where you see yourself just pushing him to the side, where things become priority and things become more important than him.

[33:29] What else has placed its impactful stamp on your life? Take time to consider again this Christmas how God with us means that we're part of a relationship with almighty God, with King Jesus, and it's an open line of love and communication.

[33:49] Instead of feeling cast down and beat up, instead of beating yourself up about it, realize that God just wants you to talk to him. You've acknowledged the problem, now pursue the change.

[34:02] Pursue action. Finally, maybe you feel like person number four, and God's relationship has always been a priority. It's always been at the top. But ask yourself, are your motivations for that pure?

[34:17] Do you share the good news of Emmanuel, of Jesus, with your co-workers and family or friends who may not know him? Do others know about your relationship with God? Do they see it at work?

[34:27] Do they see it at school? Does your family see it at home? Have you shared it with them? What about fellow Christians that you know are struggling, have lost sight of the importance of giving God their time and energy?

[34:41] Are you encouraging them to pursue him? Could you be doing more? Are you Christ-like in your approach of your love for them? Shoreline, when it comes down to Christ's birth, it means that we have the opportunity to experience God with us like never before.

[35:02] It's a snapshot placed in the photo album of God's perfect plan for mankind. Celebrating Christmas, gives us hope for relationship, joy to worship, and life through Emmanuel.

[35:18] Please pray with me. God, you are good as our loving and caring Father, and we are blessed to be your children.

[35:30] Lord, I pray that you would reign as king in our hearts, Lord, and we would push aside and take action on the things which have taken over our hearts and our minds and our priorities.

[35:46] Lord, let us have hope and not condemnation because joy to the world, the Lord has come. Emmanuel, God with us, is here.

[35:59] He's here with us. He's always been Lord, and he will be forever. God, make this true in our hearts. In Christ's name, amen.

[36:22] As they were eating, Jesus took bread, after blessing, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, this is my Bible. He took a cup, and they had given thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink a bit, all of you.

[36:38] This is my blood, the covenant, which is poured out from men, the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit, the vine, till that day, when I drink it anew, with you and my fathers came back.

[36:57] God's plan for this world has always been that he would be with us, and that we would be with him. And that's how it started, that's how it will conclude, as we talked about today.

[37:12] That's where we, you know, that's why Christ came to be with us, God with us. He's left us a reminder of his love for us, of his desire to be with us.

[37:26] and it is this remembrance that we do, that where we see and we feel his love and his presence with us.

[37:43] And we know that we're broken people, we're not always, we don't always have anything to go. right? And a large part of that is because we don't have our eyes set on Christ.

[37:55] And because we live with people who don't have their eyes set on Christ. We live in a world where we are separated from time to time. So if that's you today, I encourage you to take a great amount of hope in this because this is Christ's symbol to you.

[38:18] Remember me. I will be with you in the end of the age. Because I forgot to lead us in prayer earlier, I will do that right now. Father in heaven, thank you so much that we undeserving sinners are made sons and daughters because you love us and you want to be with us.

[38:50] Lord, we abandon things in this world that we have put above you. And we run to you.

[39:03] Praise things in Christ's name. We're going to play some music. And as you feel ready, you can turn to the back, either side of the room, take one of the crackers, you can dip it, eat it right there, and come back of those.

[39:24] Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Amen. Amen.

[40:24] Amen. Amen.

[41:24] Amen. Amen.

[42:24] Amen. Amen.

[43:24] Amen. Amen.

[43:56] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, as a response to what we just heard, we're going to sing the song, Where Would We Be? It just talks about, the line of the chorus is, Where would we be without your love?

[44:11] We'd still be lost in darkness. If this Jesus, if God wasn't with us, that's where we would be. But the hope of this song is that it's not how it was, right?

[44:23] Christ came as a baby, but to save us from our sin. And so we have a hope to cling to. So, just stand with us as we respond.

[44:34] Worship. We came to search and rescue.

[44:54] We came to search and rescue. We love the Father sent you. We walked through the darkness of the night. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to save us.

[45:05] We came to liberate us. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue.

[45:16] We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. We came to search and rescue. Jesus, you heard our cross. Jesus, you heard our cross.

[45:35] Where will you be without your love? We'll still be lost in darkness. Where will we be without your cross? We made your way to save us.

[45:48] For your love, for your life. You are the eternal.

[46:00] You are the light of this world. Jesus, our rescue. We're alive to make you.

[46:14] How would we not adore you? Jesus, our rescue. Jesus, our rescue.

[46:27] Jesus, our rescue. Jesus, our rescue. Where will we be without your love? We'll still be lost in darkness.

[46:38] Where will we be without your cross? We made your way to save us. Oh, your love, for your love. We'll be safe in the altar.

[46:52] You are in peace. Breathing in your freedom. Lifting his heart in the highest place. Breathing out your hand.

[47:04] Oh, your love, for your love. You are singing in theยme. I was singing and singing Oh, oh, oh, oh I couldn't escape I was in the shade And I was around I couldn't break you I couldn't reach you You reached down I couldn't escape I was in the shade And I was around I couldn't break you I couldn't reach you You reached down Where would we be without your love To still be lost in darkness Where would we be without your cross To bring away to save us Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

[48:05] You're safe in the arms of the glory and grace Bleeding in your freedom Sending us on the highest praise Bringing up your anthem Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh singing Oh your love Oh your love Singing Oh your love Oh your love Friends, before we leave here today I just want to let you know The connection cards that are in the handouts as you came in the door Please fill those out We want to get to know you We want to connect with you Put them in item number two The giving box which is located in the back center of the space here

[49:08] If Shoreline's your home and this is your church feel free to give If not, we'd ask that you pass Finally Children's Ministry applications If you have one of those Please fill it out And if it's a Karen deal If you're not sure what Karen is You can give it to me Or you could ask We want to fill out these applications so we can get our children's church up and going And bless the children in that way Now the benediction Revelation 22 Says No longer will there be any curse The throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city His servants will serve Him They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads There will be no more night They will not need the light of the lamp or the light of the sun For the Lord God will give them light and will reign forever and ever Amen Go with me Sing Let's go Thank you.

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