Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning.
[00:00:06] My name is Eric Bolling. I'm part of the preaching team here. Welcome to December 1st. Right. Which means in the bowling household, Christmas music officially started the other day. And this is not an exaggeration, I made a 41 hour and 26 minute Christmas plus playlist of stuff that I want to listen to.
[00:00:31] Yeah, I don't know why I did that, but take that for what it's worth.
[00:00:38] Have you ever lost something and you know it's lost and, like, you really want to go find it? You ever had that experience?
[00:00:47] I lose my keys and my wallet constantly, and I usually recognize it when we're leaving to go somewhere.
[00:00:57] And I'm a little embarrassed every time it happens because my wife's like, why can't you get your stuff together? We've been married 30 years.
[00:01:08] I don't know, it's usually in a coat pocket or a pants pocket or something like that.
[00:01:16] But I think about seeking something, right? Like, looking intently for something. I love showing shows where people are looking for something and they devote their, like, whole life to finding it. I was watching a show last weekend about this place called Oak island, where supposedly there's pirate treasure buried and they've been trying to find it for, like, 50 years and they can't find it. And these guys literally are spending all of their time and money to find it. And I thought about, you know, when we lose something and we go looking for it, like, it's a big deal. It's all consuming. I can't imagine even, like, if someone in my family would go missing or a child would go miss. Like, if that were to happen, I would do everything I could.
[00:02:10] All my energy, all my time, all my. I would do everything I could to find that.
[00:02:17] And that's a story we're going to look at today about seeking. And we're going to be in Luke, chapter 19, verses 1 to 10. And it will be a familiar story to us.
[00:02:30] But before we get there, we want to talk about this new series we're in, which is for Advent, called God With Us, and this idea that it's God coming specifically at this time to be with his people.
[00:02:46] This phrase, God with us, comes from a prophecy from the book of Isaiah, which is repeated again in Matthew from the angel to Mary. And I'll just read it. We heard it already today, but I'll read it again. Matthew, chapter 1, 22, 23 says, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgins shall conceive and bear A son. And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.
[00:03:13] This idea of God being with us, it's great for the holidays, right? Like we talk about it, God with us, Emmanuel. We'll sing songs about it, we'll focus on it. But really what does that mean for us in our day to day?
[00:03:27] Like, what does that really mean? That God is with us as we go through our lives. And I love Christmas, but Christmas can be stressful. Christmas can be hard. Christmas can bring up a lot of stuff that we're not ready for. But yet God is with us. What does that mean?
[00:03:48] Today we're going to look specifically at Emmanuel means God seeking us.
[00:03:56] And this is going to be illustrated through the story of Zacchaeus.
[00:04:00] Now, if you grew up in church, particularly in the 80s when I grew up, you remember the song. I'm not going to sing it, but you know, all of your minds of you. He was a what? Wee little man.
[00:04:13] Okay. Climbed up sycamore tree. Why, Lord? I'm going to tell you, right? That song is completely wrong based on the text.
[00:04:22] Okay. Like, it's one of those where even as I was preparing this, I kept having that. I was like, oh, get rid of it. Right? We're going to look at Zacchaeus. So if you want to go ahead and turn to Luke 19:1 to 10, we're going to be. We're going to be focused on that. But before we get there, I want to talk about some of the background of the book of Luke, because Luke is a unique gospel in the sense that Luke spends a lot of time talking about the why behind Jesus ministry. So Luke spends an enormous amount of detail getting into why Jesus said what he said and did what he did.
[00:04:58] Luke spends a lot of time specifically focused on Jesus being the Messiah or the anointed one.
[00:05:08] When we hear that today we're on the opposite side of the New Testament. We know that Jesus is the Messiah. We know how he fulfilled all of the Messiah role.
[00:05:19] But to the original hearers of the Gospel of Luke, they would have had a very different idea of what Messiah meant to them at this time. Messiah is a Jewish king from the Davidic line who would do a couple of really specific things for Israel. Number one, he would bring in the kingdom of God and end the present age of injustice.
[00:05:41] It's a very strong theme for the Jewish people when they thought about the Messiah. The Messiah was going to stop the Roman oppression and he was going to bring in. He was going to bring in justice for his people too. He would gather the Jews back to the land of Israel.
[00:06:00] The Messiah was going to bring everybody back home, so to speak. Three, he would rebuild the temple.
[00:06:06] And four, bring everlasting peace to Israel and the world. So the Messiah to the hearers at this time really was this spiritual, political ruler.
[00:06:17] And that's why they were so focused on, is this the Messiah? Is this the guy? Imagine if you've been waiting for liberation and freedom and to have everything restored again, you'd be pretty interested in knowing, is this the Messiah or not? So Luke spends a lot of time talking about that. He specifically connects Jesus to being the Messiah through a couple of things. One, the announcement of Jesus's birth, where he connects him clearly to the line of David. Two, his baptism in genealogy connects Jesus again to David, but also Abraham.
[00:06:57] Three, Jesus's initial sermon, where he introduces himself to the world, so to speak. In Luke 4:16 to 21, Jesus goes into the synagogue and he walks up and he takes out this scroll. He opens it, he reads from the book of Isaiah, and then he goes on to interpret, and he says, blessed are you that this prophecy is fulfilled in your hearing. Like he said, I'm the Messiah, I am the one.
[00:07:25] And then lastly is miracles and teachings.
[00:07:29] So Luke spends a lot of time connecting Jesus to this Messiah. But he presents Jesus in a way that's very different than what they expected, which is why people are so confused during this time about Jesus. Because Jesus says things like, you know what? I'm going to tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days.
[00:07:48] And they're like, it took like 70 years. How are you going to do that? Or when Jesus talks about being a king, he says, I'm then a king, but not like what you think, because he's not only this political ruler, he is the Son of God.
[00:08:03] So one theme through Luke is we have this Messiah. The second theme through Luke is we have this idea of Jesus finding lost things. And Luke spends a lot of time talking about things that are lost. Here's just a couple of stories. He talks about the parable of the persistent widow, where there's a widow who keeps going to this judge and she keeps demanding justice. And he keeps brushing her off and putting her off, but she keeps coming back till finally, exasperated, he's like, fine, I'll do what you want. He talks about Jesus and the children. Now, children for us today were viewed very differently than they were back then, right? Children now have a lot of. They have a pretty central place in our lives back then. They were sort of like be seen, not heard. So when we read the story of Jesus and the children in Luke, remember Jesus are children are coming to Jesus. And the disciples are like, get out of here. Go away. Can you imagine that now? You'd be like, what are you doing? That's a child, right? They're like, get away. And Jesus says, no, let the children come to me. As a matter of fact, you can't have faith unless it's like a child.
[00:09:11] The parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd who has 99, but he goes out to look for the 1. The healing of the 10 lepers. 10 lepers are healed. Only one comes back to thank him. The healing of a blind beggar, where Jesus heals a beggar on the road. You have the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector, where Jesus contrasts like a religious leader with a tax collector. And we'll talk more about tax collectors here in a minute. And then you have the rich young ruler.
[00:09:39] And so what Luke is doing is he wants us to understand that Jesus pays a lot of attention to the poor, the lost, the overlooked, the unexpected.
[00:09:48] And when we get to the story of zacchaeus in Luke 19, this is really kind of the punctuation mark on Jesus ministry.
[00:09:58] And Luke is going to go out of his way to show that what's really important is in seeking Jesus and what it means to seek Jesus.
[00:10:07] So if you want to go to Luke 19:1 10, I want to go ahead and read the story in its entirety, because it is a story. And then I want to go back through and talk about some specific things. So Luke 19:1 10 says this. He, meaning Jesus, entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
[00:10:31] And he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried down and came and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to Him Today, salvation has come to this house since he is also a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.
[00:11:24] So the context of this story is you have Jesus, he is traveling on his way to Jerusalem where all the events are going to take place of his death and resurrection, the Last Supper, all of that, and he's passing through Jericho.
[00:11:41] And Zacchaeus is the last story we have in scripture before the triumphal entry. So this is really, like I said, this is sort of the punctuation mark on Jesus ministry before he goes into the triumphal entry. It's death and resurrection.
[00:11:57] But what do we learn About Zacchaeus? Verses 2 to 4 says, There's Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and rich, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was. So three things we pick up. Number one, he's a chief tax collector.
[00:12:14] Two, he's rich. Three, seeking Jesus because he's a Jewish tax collector. Zacchaeus is probably the richest man in Jericho.
[00:12:25] He likely was. If not, he's like right up there.
[00:12:30] But he's also the most hated guy.
[00:12:33] Well, why?
[00:12:35] Well, you have to understand something about Jewish tax collectors during this time to know why this is such an important detail.
[00:12:43] Tax collectors were hated because of a couple reasons. Number one, they were collaborators with Rome. So they worked with the Roman government. What they would do is when Rome would conquer a people group, they would then collect taxes from said people. And they needed people to get those taxes and get them to Rome. And Zacchaeus was one of these guys.
[00:13:08] He betrayed his own people in a collaboration with oppressive foreign rulers was one reason he was hated. Second reason was because tax collectors were known to be corrupt. They extorted people. See, Rome really just cared about the taxes that they wanted. And anything else you could get is above and beyond. So tax collectors would often charge more than the amount of the tax and they would skim it off the top. He extorted people.
[00:13:42] The last reason he was hated because of these two things, connection to Rome and corruption and extortion, was he was ostracized from his community. He probably would have likely been excluded from religious and community activities. So even though he's got a lot of money, he's rich, he really is an outcast to the Jewish culture.
[00:14:05] Let me think about this for a second. Imagine if we had somebody who came and took over and started collecting taxes from us, and your next door neighbor is the tax collector, and you know he's going to take your tax. That's bad enough. But he's going to charge you more, and he's going to have a better house and a better car and a better life than you. Are you. We probably would struggle to love him in that case. Same thing with Zacchaeus.
[00:14:34] See Zacchaeus in the story. He's the villain. He's the bad guy.
[00:14:39] He's the one that we would all, as the heroes of this initially be like, oh, yeah, that guy's terrible. He's awful, right? He's a criminal.
[00:14:49] And yet, something interesting in verse 3 says, Zacchaeus was seeking who Jesus was.
[00:14:56] And that's an interesting detail that turns the whole story of Zacchaeus for us when we hear this idea of seeking. Part of it is he was looking to see, like, physically, like, oh, there's Jesus. Here he comes. I don't know if you've ever been somewhere where somebody kind of famous or somebody that's a big deal comes by. Like, you try, oh, there he is. He is. Oh, there he comes. Oh, I can see him. I'm there. But if you study some of the original language, it goes a little deeper to. Even seeking can mean reflecting a deep desire to know or experience something.
[00:15:32] So even though Zacchaeus had a lot of money, he had a lot of clout, he had a lot of power, he had a lot of standing in terms of who he was, something was missing, and he's looking to see Jesus to fill that in.
[00:15:47] I think there are two groups of seeking people. One, there are people who are interested in God, but they're cold. They want to know God, but they're almost like, all right, if you're God, prove it to me. Show it to me. Like, puts the burden of proof on God himself. All right, show it to me. Can God work through that? Absolutely.
[00:16:07] Absolutely he can.
[00:16:10] We're talking about a posture of someone's heart. The second group is someone who's actively seeking, saying, if you're God, I will do anything I need to do to find out.
[00:16:22] And I think we can put Zacchaeus squarely in that second group, that he's willing to do whatever he needs to do in order to find God. How do we know that? Because there's a weird detail that he climbed up in a tree.
[00:16:36] Like, of all the things to include, why does that matter?
[00:16:42] Well, one, remember, he's a government official, right? He's a pretty important person. Even though he's the villain and he's ostracized and no one really likes him, he's important, and he climbs up in a Tree to see Jesus.
[00:16:57] This would have been probably a little bit of a. That's the right way to say, a bit of a social faux pas. Like he shouldn't need to climb in a tree to see Jesus. If he had so much money, power, he probably could have tried to pay for an audience with Jesus because he's an important person in town, but yet he can't see him. So he climbs up in this tree to see him.
[00:17:22] There's also some speculation that maybe Luke is using a play on words because the same word for tree here is the same word that Jesus uses where he says, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can say to this, go throw yourself in the ocean. There's some play on words that maybe this tree is related to having faith like a child.
[00:17:43] We're not sure. Either way, we've got Zacchaeus up in a tree.
[00:17:50] He's seeking Jesus. He wants to find him. Verses 5 and 6, Jesus comes. He looks up and said to him, zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So Zacchaeus comes down and receives him joyfully.
[00:18:08] And maybe this is the most important part of this whole story. Zacchaeus is seeking Jesus, but more importantly, Jesus is seeking Zacchaeus.
[00:18:20] We know this because Jesus singles him out despite the crowd.
[00:18:27] He finds him. Maybe he's in a tree and that makes it easier, I don't know. But he finds him and he says, I'm going to focus on him. I don't know if you've ever been in a big crowd of people where everybody sort of blends together. Largest crowd I was ever in was the Chicago Marathon.
[00:18:45] Thank you. For those of you who thought I may have run it, appreciate that.
[00:18:53] I was watching my nephew run it.
[00:18:55] There's a lot of people there. I'd never gone before. I've lived here 20 years. Never gone. I went. It was hard to even find him. And we were tracking him on an app, right? I can't imagine. Like all these people, Jesus finds Zacchaeus. And then not only does he find him, he gives him a personal invitation. He says to him, zacchaeus. He calls him by name.
[00:19:25] How did Jesus know it's Zacchaeus? I mean, obviously Jesus is God. He has that foreknowledge. But imagine that if you're Zacchaeus, you're the villain, you're the outcast, you're the bad guy. You just want to see Jesus. And Jesus comes by. He stops and says, zacchaeus. He knows his name and Then a step further, he says, get out of the tree because I'm coming to your house.
[00:19:52] That's pretty invasive of Jesus, right? That's a big social faux pas. Zacchaeus should have invited Jesus into his house. Why? Because he was the important powerful rich person. But Jesus says, I'm coming to your house.
[00:20:10] Jesus wants to engage with him on a personal level. This is a. This is a sign of fellowship. Going to somebody's house was a big deal.
[00:20:19] It signified, like a connection. And I identify with you. I'm a part of you. It's almost like welcoming in, be a part of our family. And Jesus says, I'm coming to your house.
[00:20:32] And we know Zacchaeus response is to receive him joyfully shows us the transformative impact of Jesus. Attention.
[00:20:43] So if we're hearing this for the first time, we're listening. And when he talks about Zacchaeus and Jesus coming, we're probably ready for Jesus to condemn Zacchaeus. Get him, he's the bad guy.
[00:20:56] But he doesn't. He says, come out of the tree because I'm going to your house. I'm going to fellowship with you. I'm going to connect with you.
[00:21:07] And Zacchaeus has found what he was seeking. Jesus, verse seven tells us the response of the people. Probably this would be you and me. Because when they saw it, they grumbled, he's gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.
[00:21:25] They're really upset about this.
[00:21:28] They're really bothered by this. Why? Because they. This would have been shocking, that Jesus, a respected teacher, prophet. This is right before the triumphal entry. A lot of people are interested in Jesus, that he would come through Jericho and he would pick Zacchaeus.
[00:21:46] Almost like, no, no, that's wrong. You should be here with the religious teachers. You shouldn't pick him. So they're shocked, too.
[00:21:54] There's a social stigma here. Remember, Zacchaeus was ostracized. He was removed from community.
[00:22:02] And Jesus says, no, that's the guy I want to spend time with. That's the guy I'm looking for.
[00:22:10] And then lastly, if Jesus truly was the Messiah, this political ruler that they were looking for, he wouldn't go and hang out with sinners. He would be too pure, he would be too holy, he would be too good for that. And yet that's exactly where Jesus went.
[00:22:29] And you can imagine the confusion as people heard this story. This doesn't make sense. This is all wrong. This is backwards.
[00:22:37] But Jesus is going to show. This is exactly why I have Come now, we don't know. Luke doesn't record for us what Zacchaeus and Jesus talked about. I wish he would have, right. I wonder if Jesus would have, you know, come strong and said, like, you're a sinner, repent. Or if he would have said, hey, like, change your way. We don't know. All we know is in verse 8 that there is a fundamental change in Zacchaeus says this.
[00:23:08] Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
[00:23:19] So Zacchaeus repents.
[00:23:23] He goes a complete 180 from where he was prior to Jesus corrupt, ripping people off, to now he's saying, I'm going to give to the poor and I'm going to restore anything fourfold.
[00:23:38] So Zacchaeus does a couple of things. He, like I say, he acknowledges his wrongdoing.
[00:23:44] He verbally states it. I have been wrong too. This fourfold restitution is interesting.
[00:23:52] This is more than what was generally required in the law.
[00:23:56] So Zacchaeus, growing up as a Jewish person would have understood the restitution according to the law. And he says, I'm going to give more. He's making amends for his past actions. And then the voluntary generosity, he pledges to give half of it to the poor. Again, that is above and beyond the law doesn't say you have to do that.
[00:24:19] And so when we come to Zacchaeus, we see this encounter with Jesus leaves him transformed in terms of he admits he's wrong, he gives back what he took, and he also gives half to the poor. And he does this publicly, like this is well known.
[00:24:42] And here's the results. Verses 9 and 10. Jesus says, Today salvation has come to this house since he is also a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and save the lost.
[00:24:59] By declaring that salvation has come, Jesus affirms that Zacchaeus has repented like Jesus has forgiven him.
[00:25:10] Second thing is he uses this unique phrase about inclusion as a son of Abraham. It's sort of a. A strange phrase for us. But remember, Zacchaeus is an Israelite, but he's been ostracized. So what Jesus says is despite his past, Zacchaeus is still a part of the community and God's covenant people.
[00:25:33] He's using honestly the logic of the grumbling people against him.
[00:25:37] He's saying, yes, he is a sinner, but only those who have the faith of Abraham can be called a son of Abraham.
[00:25:45] So he's reestablishing Zacchaeus back into the community.
[00:25:50] He's reestablishing him back as part of the nation of Israel. And then lastly, the Son of man came to seek and save. The lost highlights Jesus mission to seek and save. Maybe we could say the most lost. Remember, Zacchaeus is the wrong guy.
[00:26:10] Zacchaeus is the last person that we would have expected Jesus to go to.
[00:26:17] And yet he's the one that Jesus sought him. So all this time, Zacchaeus thinks, if I could just see Jesus. And Jesus says, I got something better because I'm looking for you.
[00:26:28] And he finds him.
[00:26:31] 3. So what's for us?
[00:26:34] Number one, Jesus is looking for the repentant.
[00:26:39] This idea that Jesus approaches Zacchaeus highlights his unconditional love, showing that he welcomes those who repent, no matter their past.
[00:26:50] I think sometimes if we're not careful, we fall into a trap where we look at ourselves and we think there's no way that Jesus can save. Fill in the blank.
[00:27:02] And maybe it's something that honestly has happened way in the past that we still hold on to.
[00:27:08] Maybe it's something that happened this morning. I don't know for you, but I think what the story of Zacchaeus shows us and really this whole kind of advent of God being with us is that Jesus is looking to love and forgive us. And we're not limited by our past actions.
[00:27:27] We're not limited by our past. And Jesus is seeking repentant people.
[00:27:33] With that, repentance leads to transformation.
[00:27:37] If we repent, there's a change.
[00:27:40] Some of the original language with repentance talks about. It's almost like you're going one way and there's a complete 180, and now you're going the opposite way. If we truly repent, our lives look different. How do we see this? For Zacchaeus, he was going to give half his goods to the poor, repay anyone he had defrauded fourfold. Right? Zacchaeus was losing money in this deal. Right? He was giving up his power, his money.
[00:28:08] He was truly transformed.
[00:28:11] And when we encounter Jesus, it means we have a new, genuine transformation way of living. What does that mean for us? It might mean that we have to take some concrete steps to make amends.
[00:28:26] I don't know what that looks like for everybody, but it might mean we have to apologize to somebody. It might mean we have to pay somebody back. I'm going to tell you a powerful story of this that I remember when I was back going to church in Indiana. We had a guy in our church that if you. If I were to say to you, all right, who's following Jesus here? We'd all go. That guy is. He ran a ministry to the prison completely on his own. He just said, I have a heart for these men, and I'm going to start doing it. In addition to his regular job, he would go and he would minister.
[00:29:01] Along the way, the Holy Spirit brought up to him that he had some unresolved issues in his life where he was stealing, he was shoplifting, and so he felt this. He said, look, I've got this dissonance, right? I have this in my past. And it wasn't when he was a kid either. He said, I have this in my past. He's like, I need to make amends. And so he prays on it, he gets counsel on it. He goes back to the stores he stole from, and he said, I stole from you. I'm going to give you this money back.
[00:29:38] And the stores said, thank you. We're pressing charges.
[00:29:43] And he went to jail, the very jail he was ministering to. Now, in my own righteousness, I was like, God, this is wrong, right? He said he was sorry. He shouldn't have to do it. But when I talked to him afterwards, after he got out, I said, do you ever regret taking that step? He said, absolutely not. He said, I was obedient to what God had asked me to do, and in order to really live this life, I needed to repent.
[00:30:17] And I'm telling you, it transformed his ministry. Why? Because as he ministered to these guys who he had been in, minister to, been in prison with, now he's back out again. You can imagine that credibility that he had.
[00:30:33] And so I think sometimes when we talk about transformation, we all have this idea of, yeah, I might need to give this up, or I might need to stop this, or I might need to change this. I would encourage us to be open to whatever the Holy Spirit leads.
[00:30:48] And that's. That's a. Sometimes a scary place to be.
[00:30:53] But true repentance leads to transformation. Lastly, and this may be, again, the most important thing, we can't be saved if Jesus doesn't seek and save us.
[00:31:04] There's no other way.
[00:31:07] I think sometimes when we mention that here in church, we'll get a lot. Yeah, that's true. It's. It's grace, it's mercy.
[00:31:14] But the reality of it is we live in a world that really celebrates and is built on meritocracy or meritocracy. Basically, if you do it, good for you, you earned it. If you don't.
[00:31:28] That's also on you.
[00:31:31] And it's hard for us as we think through this idea of grace that it's given not as this theological concept that's untethered from anything else, but it's given through the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:31:45] And this idea that only Jesus can save us.
[00:31:52] I think if we really spent time thinking that through, it would cause us to be, number one, incredibly humble.
[00:32:05] If we're not careful, sometimes we get to thinking that, no, I'm pretty good, right? Like, I've done some pretty good things, pretty close, working hard.
[00:32:16] I think two would make us incredibly thankful that it's not on us.
[00:32:23] I don't know about you, but I'd blow it in about 10 seconds. That was based off my righteousness and what I can do.
[00:32:31] And as we go into this Advent season, we think about God being with us. Zacchaeus, not a traditional Christmas story, but yet it teaches us foundational things about the nature of Emmanuel. God with us.
[00:32:48] And this idea that people are seeking God, people are seeking Christ, but God with us means Jesus is also seeking them.
[00:32:59] And maybe a prayer we can have during this Advent season is we can pray that those who are seeking Jesus will find him and honestly receive the best gift of all, which is salvation.
[00:33:16] And I think, as a church, if we were to pray for that, I think the Lord would honor that and that he would bring to people those that need to be to him.
[00:33:28] Well, let me pray for us, and we'll go to communion.
[00:33:36] Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the story of Zacchaeus. Lord, we're thankful for grace.
[00:33:47] We're thankful that as people are seeking, you are seeking them. And, Lord, when you come to people, you bring grace and mercy, and there's repentance, there's forgiveness, Lord, that leads to a transformation in how we think and what we do.
[00:34:12] Lord, as we go through this Advent season, help us to remember that you are God with us, not only during this time, but every moment of every day of our lives. Lord, you are with us.
[00:34:27] Thank you again for the privilege to hear from your word today.
[00:34:31] Help it to be something that changes us, that causes us in turn, to go out and to love you more and to love others more. Thank you again. We pray in your name. Amen.
