1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,720 All right. To get us into this morning's message that will be led by Scott, we're 2 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:09,440 gonna go ahead and turn to the scriptures right now. We're gonna read 3 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:16,840 from Luke chapter 1 verse 26 through 38. And we have a tradition here at the 4 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:20,540 house just to be present with the scriptures, so however you may, some may 5 00:00:20,540 --> 00:00:26,680 stand as we read the scriptures, but we just commit to being present to God's 6 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:34,760 Word. So Luke chapter 1 verse 26 through 38. Now I'll be reading from the NIV. 7 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:41,840 In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel of 8 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:46,480 Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named 9 00:00:46,480 --> 00:00:51,760 Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to 10 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:57,160 her and said, greetings you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary 11 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:01,880 was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting 12 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:07,120 this might be. But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. You have found 13 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:12,920 favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call 14 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:18,680 him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. The Lord 15 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:22,880 God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over 16 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:28,520 Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. How will this be? Mary 17 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:33,960 asked the angel. Since I am a virgin. The angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come 18 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:38,560 on you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to 19 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:45,360 be born will be called the son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to 20 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:51,440 have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in 21 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:57,080 her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail. I am the Lord's servant, 22 00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:04,240 Mary answered. May your word to me be fulfilled. Then the angel left her. 23 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:15,640 You may be seated. Thank you so much, Chris. I enjoy to have other people read 24 00:02:15,640 --> 00:02:21,960 some of the scripture because I'm gonna be talking quite a bit. My name is Scott. 25 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:28,540 I've been coming here to the house for about three years. I use a power chair, so 26 00:02:28,540 --> 00:02:34,600 I usually stay tilted back pretty far. I take lots of drinks of water, and I stay 27 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:41,620 bundled up pretty warm, but guess what? I blend in today. Usually even when it's 28 00:02:41,620 --> 00:02:46,920 90 degrees, I'm still wearing a hoodie and have a hat on, but today I fit right 29 00:02:46,920 --> 00:02:52,060 in. So some people have been asking me how I'm doing and with the weather, and I 30 00:02:52,060 --> 00:02:56,200 said, actually I'm okay. I blend in with the crowd and I'm already prepared. I 31 00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:02,120 stay prepared year-round for the cold weather. Well it's good to have you with 32 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:07,480 us today. At first I want to go back to the two minutes for one question. What 33 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:13,960 are some of the interests that people have that you may have mentioned? 34 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:20,800 Bowling. All right, very good. Now most of us know a little bit about bowling. How 35 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:25,440 many of you, raise your hand if you would, if you know what a turkey is in bowling. 36 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:31,800 Okay, some of us, some of us probably don't. So where I'm going to go is a lot 37 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,840 of the things that we're interested in. If someone who's really into them is 38 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:41,000 talking about it, you might get lost. You might not know exactly what they're 39 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,840 talking about. So bowling has its own words, its own interests. How many of you 40 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:51,320 have your own bowling ball or your own bowling shoes? Yeah, down to just a couple 41 00:03:51,320 --> 00:04:03,800 of us, right? Used to, yes. How about another interest? Adult coloring, yes. Yeah, so you 42 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:09,480 can have certain pencils, certain shades, all of those things. There's a couple of 43 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:17,400 people here today that love to bake bread. My father-in-law Bob and his friend 44 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:22,120 Robert are back there and those guys could talk about bread for hours and 45 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:27,240 starting your sourdough and all of those things. So it's an interest that's 46 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:33,120 developed pretty far. If you look at another area of interest, a lot of people, 47 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:38,640 young people on social media, one of the acronyms on there, I want to see if 48 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:47,160 anybody over here knows it, OOTD. Outfit of the Day. So if I sent you a picture and 49 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:53,080 said, oh this is your OOTD inspo, a lot of us would have no clue and I had to look 50 00:04:53,080 --> 00:05:00,120 it up. I'm not that cool. But yes, it has its own, the whole TikTok world in that 51 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:05,640 has its own language. The last one I'll say is hair. Did you know there's four 52 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:11,120 different hair types? A lot of you may not, some of you do, and then those four 53 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:15,680 different hair types, there's three different letters. So you might be a 3B 54 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:20,640 or a 2C and the reason that becomes important is because for some people 55 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:25,960 they need to know what hair products to use, what hairstyles to use to keep your 56 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:30,440 hair healthy, depending on that. That became important for us with our daughter. 57 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:36,840 She has 4C hair, which means that we really have to be careful and smart how 58 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:47,760 we take care of it. Now does anyone know what hair type I have? Type beautiful. 59 00:05:54,960 --> 00:06:00,880 I warned my wife I was gonna use that joke and she just rolled her eyes. I could 60 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:05,280 tell, I could tell in her eyes, please don't, but she knew if she asked me if I'd just be 61 00:06:05,280 --> 00:06:11,840 even more likely. So there it is, there it is. There are lots of different areas of 62 00:06:11,840 --> 00:06:18,200 interest that we enjoy to talk about and we enjoy to read and sometimes it's in 63 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:22,680 more serious things though where people are using language, you're talking, that's 64 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:27,000 hard to follow. If you ever been in a doctor's appointment or maybe been 65 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:32,000 watching something medical on TV and you don't know what they're saying, 66 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,160 sometimes we need to see neurologists and things for our daughter too and 67 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,840 there are a lot of times I have to stop them and say, okay translate please 68 00:06:40,840 --> 00:06:45,440 because you just used a bunch of words and we need to know about the doctor's 69 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:52,000 office or some of those things, health stuff. Now another place I find that 70 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:56,720 people can be talking and some people have no real understanding of what's 71 00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:02,360 going on is church. Sometimes it's like you come in and someone's speaking a 72 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:06,200 different language that you don't know and you know they're speaking the same 73 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:11,120 language as you but they're using words and talking about places and talking 74 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:16,440 about things that even if you've been in church for a long time may not seem 75 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:21,200 familiar or may not make much sense and church is hard because you're supposed 76 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:26,240 to know all the right answers. If you ask the question you you might feel a little 77 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:31,960 bit embarrassed so it can be tricky and some of the verses that we read today 78 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:35,840 could be a little bit tricky. It's called that passage is called the 79 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:41,920 Annunciation. It's where Gabriel comes to Mary. He announces the hope of Jesus 80 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:47,440 birth. It's an exciting passage. It's so important but there's a lot of things in 81 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:53,480 there that if we really think about them we might say huh? Jesus is going to sit 82 00:07:53,480 --> 00:08:00,240 on the throne of David. That might be about as familiar as OOTD to those of us 83 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:04,760 who don't know what it means. Okay so we have a painting up here that I want you 84 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:12,560 to look at. This is from the 1440s and this was actually painted on a wall. It's 85 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:19,840 called the fresco and it's of Gabriel coming and announcing to Mary the good 86 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:27,160 news about Jesus. It's if those of you who are online you you can't see it right 87 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:32,200 now or if you'd like to look it up I should have put the name up here but I 88 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:43,000 didn't it was painted by someone called Fra Evangelico so FRA EVAN GELICO. 89 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:48,960 There's lots of cool history around it but we won't go there today. If you'd put 90 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:56,240 up the verse now please Kathy. Alright here's where we're gonna really zone in. 91 00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:00,280 This is what Gabriel said that we just read but this is the part we're gonna 92 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:06,560 focus on. It says you will conceive and give birth to a son. This is Gabriel 93 00:09:06,560 --> 00:09:13,320 speaking to Mary. He will be great and will be called the son of the 94 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:20,400 Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will 95 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:29,280 reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. Now for Mary 96 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:37,400 and for the people reading or hearing this this was really good news. This was 97 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:44,560 hope but for us there's some things in here. There's Jacob, there's a kingdom, 98 00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:52,160 there's son of the Most High, there's him having the name Jesus is important but I 99 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:57,000 want to focus in on what arguably is the most important God but the important 100 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:04,280 part the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. You could go 101 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:07,480 ahead and take that down and just put why don't we put the pretty picture back 102 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:13,080 up there. I'm gonna grab a drink. 103 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:43,040 Why not take a big drink? Now David, who was David? Now sometimes we get our 104 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:49,920 characters mixed up in the Bible and almost all of us do this. David is the 105 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:55,320 same one when you think of the story of David and Goliath. I won't ask for hands 106 00:10:55,320 --> 00:11:01,760 anymore of who knows but probably most of us have heard of David and Goliath. 107 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:09,560 David was the boy, the shepherd, who threw the rock at the big giant and won the 108 00:11:09,560 --> 00:11:15,680 battle, the underdog. A lot of times in football or in sports you'll hear this 109 00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:22,960 is a David versus Goliath. Okay so you hear that saying in different parts of 110 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:31,840 our world, of our lives. So that David later became the king which was a very 111 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:39,440 surprising thing. He did not come from a royal family. Now he became in many 112 00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:46,640 ways a very good king. He was very good at defending Israel and helping Israel 113 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:54,160 gain more land and he loved God very very much. Now he was far from a perfect 114 00:11:54,160 --> 00:12:03,200 king. He made many very very bad mistakes. He was, he dealt with lust, he committed 115 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:10,400 adultery and it had terrible consequences on his family. So we don't want to say 116 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:15,000 that David was all good and the people then knew that but they did choose to 117 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:21,080 focus on the good. The Psalms that he wrote, he was a great writer, he was a 118 00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:30,620 singer, he played instruments and so as time went on and his son Solomon, some of 119 00:12:30,620 --> 00:12:38,320 us may have heard of him, was also a good king and wrote the book of Proverbs but 120 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:45,520 after that things really went downhill. There was a war and the kingdom split 121 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:52,960 into two and they even fought each other. David, the kingdom that he'd been over, 122 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:57,640 split into two kingdoms and they fought each other and other countries fought 123 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:05,200 them and they lost a lot of battles. They also, the kings which were David's sons, 124 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:13,800 many of them, were not good kings. They chose to worship other gods and that had 125 00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:19,840 very negative consequences. So they thought of it in a lot of ways. If King 126 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:25,480 David was here, these were the good old days if you will and things went 127 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:33,160 downhill for a long period of time. Now when Mary was there and Mary's time, that 128 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:40,300 was a thousand years after David. A thousand years later they still remembered 129 00:13:40,300 --> 00:13:46,440 King David and they still remembered the good that he did. Now when we think back 130 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:53,280 a thousand years, just for fun, can anyone think of anything that happened 131 00:13:53,280 --> 00:14:01,880 between the year 800 and 1200? I'll give us a 400 year window. 400 year window 132 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:08,600 between 800 and 1200. Can anybody think of something that happened? 133 00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:16,240 Fall of the Roman Empire. Yep, maybe a little bit prior to that, maybe 700s. 134 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:22,800 Great Schism, yeah, where the church broke apart and I'm not even looking for 135 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,560 specific answers. I'm just, I was just curious what people would come up with 136 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:32,760 because we with our Google machines and our cell phones and all of those things 137 00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:36,600 would have such a hard time naming something that happened a thousand years 138 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:41,600 ago, but they still remembered King David. They'd written these things 139 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:47,880 down and they'd remembered them and at the time of Mary, it was a thing 140 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:54,960 that someday God would send a Messiah, someone to be king and be on the throne 141 00:14:54,960 --> 00:15:01,640 of David again. Someone would be that good kind of king that would put things 142 00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:07,260 back the way that they were supposed to be. That would bring hope, that would 143 00:15:07,260 --> 00:15:12,800 bring mercy, that would bring generosity. The kind of king that would help the 144 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:20,120 poor, the kind of king that would not abuse their power and so they hoped for 145 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:25,920 that. They looked forward to that and that's what we find here in the angel 146 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:35,160 Gabriel's words to Mary. Her son was going to sit on David's throne. He was 147 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:40,320 going to be the king that brought the good news and set things right. Now 148 00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:45,160 although she would have known about the throne of David and about that hope, it 149 00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:52,240 also would have been confusing to her. One, she was still a virgin and so the 150 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:58,280 idea of her being pregnant was a confusing thing to her. The idea of her 151 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:05,840 son being a king would have been confusing. She was not royalty nor 152 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:10,880 was her fiance David and so there are a lot of things in there that didn't 153 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:17,360 exactly add up but the idea that she got was that she was going to have a son who 154 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:22,880 set things right, who brought hope and I'm going to, one of the ways that we 155 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:28,000 know that is because after she went and saw her cousin Elizabeth, John the 156 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:34,440 Baptist's mom, Mary sang a song and it's one of my favorite passages of Scripture 157 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:39,600 and so I'm going to have my wife Tashiana come up and she's going to read 158 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:46,760 the song that Mary sung a short time after Gabriel made that announcement. 159 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:52,160 Let's give Tashiana a hand just because it will annoy her. 160 00:16:54,200 --> 00:17:01,920 Who's paying for marriage counseling? All right so Mary's song is found in Luke 1 161 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:09,160 46 through 55 and it says, and Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit 162 00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:14,480 rejoices in God my Savior for he has been mindful of the humble state of his 163 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:20,240 servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed for the mighty one has 164 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:26,200 done great things for me. Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear 165 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:31,840 him from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arms 166 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:36,440 he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought 167 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:42,040 down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the 168 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:48,160 hungry with good things but he has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his 169 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:52,720 servant Israel remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants 170 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:57,760 forever just as he promised our ancestors. 171 00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:05,880 Yeah let's give her more more yeah. 172 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:11,960 You may have heard of love languages. Tashiana and I's main love language is 173 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:22,160 annoying each other and we're at 16 years and going strong so 17 in March it's 174 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:28,600 working somehow some way. So there's three themes there that I want to focus 175 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:34,720 in on when Mary sings this song of what she understands that this son that she 176 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:45,520 will have will do. The first one is mercy over revenge. That this son this would 177 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:49,880 son of David who would sit on this throne who would be king would bring 178 00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:58,240 mercy over revenge. The second one humility over pride. That the humble 179 00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:04,400 would be lifted up and that those in power would be cast down. And the last 180 00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:14,560 one is generous over greed. Generosity over greed. Three things mercy, humility, 181 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:22,880 generosity. That was the hope that Jesus brought. That is what they had been 182 00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:31,200 looking forward to. Someone who would bring about those things. Now Jesus was a 183 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:38,960 different king than people expected. He didn't sit on a literal throne. He didn't 184 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:46,680 have the power of an army. He didn't use those things. He chose to win people's 185 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:53,680 hearts and he chooses to rule in people's hearts. And how does he choose to 186 00:19:53,680 --> 00:20:00,760 rule? Through mercy, through generosity, and through humility. Those are the 187 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:06,080 things that Jesus brings. And I want you to start to think for a moment which one 188 00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:13,200 of those speaks to you this morning. I want you to pick one. One thing of that 189 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:23,640 hope. The humility over pride. The mercy and forgiveness over revenge. Or the 190 00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:31,080 generosity over greed. I recently found myself facing some of these things. Some 191 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:35,160 decisions that I had made with good intentions hurt someone that I really 192 00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:43,280 cared about and loved. And so I realized that and part of me my pride kept 193 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:53,040 crept up and said yeah but you didn't mean it. You didn't mean it and it would 194 00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:59,160 be hard. Asking for forgiveness is hard. And who knows this person might choose 195 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:03,960 this opportunity for revenge or letting me have it back rather than showing 196 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:09,960 mercy. I could get my feelings hurt back. And isn't it hard when you admit that 197 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:14,360 you hurt someone's feelings? You have to deal with that awkwardness, those 198 00:21:14,360 --> 00:21:20,280 different things. But I realized in that moment what I needed to do and I needed 199 00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:26,400 to apologize. And I was so grateful even in that moment. Even as I felt some of 200 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:34,360 the sadness of how I'd hurt this person. And I felt the sadness of having to go 201 00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:41,880 and ask for an apology. Because I knew without Jesus that wouldn't be possible. 202 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:49,520 Because without Jesus I choose pride over humility. I would rather keep myself 203 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:57,400 intact. And without Jesus I'm more worried about others taking revenge 204 00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:03,640 than I am hoping for mercy. And knowing that God will have mercy on me whether 205 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:10,160 the other person does or not. But I knew I knew I was able to do it because of 206 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:16,800 Jesus. And so I went and I asked for that person's forgiveness and they were so 207 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:21,800 kind and so loving. And they knew my heart. They know they knew I didn't mean 208 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:27,120 to be hurtful. But it still meant a lot to them. That I thought about how they 209 00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:33,160 felt. And that I acknowledged that. And that what I had done could have been 210 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:40,480 hurtful to them. And it was such a sweet moment because that person loves Jesus 211 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:46,440 too. And so I knew that in that moment even though something that had been 212 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:55,440 sad in one way had happened. That Jesus was king through it. We could see Jesus 213 00:22:55,440 --> 00:23:03,680 in that moment overcoming pride, overcoming revenge. Last example I'll 214 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:11,120 give is that I think of the foster kids. That will be blessing through and I are 215 00:23:11,120 --> 00:23:14,920 you doing announcements Pastor Greg? And Pastor Greg will share a little bit more 216 00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:21,040 about that. But that our church chooses to be generous and chooses to give to 217 00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:29,600 bless kids that are in the foster care system around this time as well. If Jesus 218 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:34,840 had been a king that had sat on a normal throne his kingdom might have lasted for 219 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:43,000 who knows 30 years 40 years. But as the king that he is 2,000 years later look 220 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:52,280 what we're doing today. We still remember him. We still read the book. We still see 221 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:59,520 the art. We still remember. That's hope. And that's the power of the type of king 222 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:07,200 that he is. Now at your tables and some of you are I see some of you are solos. 223 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:11,840 Maybe you can join another table or talk to each other. We're just we're gonna do 224 00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:20,000 this very quickly. But I'm gonna pray and I would invite somebody at each table to 225 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:26,720 share one of those things that's meaningful to you and maybe why. Either 226 00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:35,480 mercy or humility or generosity. One way that that speaks to you. Everyone doesn't 227 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:39,640 have to go. If your table talks about what you're gonna have for lunch after 228 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:45,960 church no one will know. But I want to give you the opportunity to do that and 229 00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:52,120 for us to share some of that hope that Jesus gives today. Let's pray. Father I 230 00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:58,000 thank you so much for this day. I thank you for the mercy and hope and 231 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:04,400 generosity that you bring. I thank you that you're more powerful than revenge 232 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:11,200 or pride or greed. And I thank you that you help us to grow past those things as 233 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:21,120 well. I thank you that the throne of David meant making things right. Someone 234 00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:30,120 fulfilling the hope of what could be. And we still remember that throne of David 235 00:25:30,120 --> 00:25:37,680 3,000 years later as Gabriel said it to Mary. That it stood for things changing. 236 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:43,720 For things being the way that you meant for them to be. Please help us this 237 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:50,720 moment as we take a moment to share at our tables. To share just for a moment 238 00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:58,760 something that you're doing or that we connect with. In Jesus name, Amen. So maybe 239 00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:03,160 somebody at your table wrote it down or maybe they have a good memory. We have 240 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:09,560 mercy over revenge, humility over pride, and generosity over greed. And I'll just 241 00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:14,000 give about 60 seconds for somebody to share and then I'll I'll check in. So go 242 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:29,440 ahead.