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God With Us Brings Love
10 Plays3 days ago
1 Jn. 4:16; Lk. 1:42-48; Jn. 13:34-35
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Transcript
Exploring the Holiday Spirit through Music
00:00:00
Speaker
A few years ago, the Muppets came out with a Christmas song many of y'all know. It's called, All I Need Is Love. It was complete with the music video and everything. it's it's If you haven't found it on YouTube, go out and find it.
00:00:12
Speaker
In true Muppets form, and I don't know how many of y'all are Muppets fans here, but if you haven't seen it, it's full of action and humor. um And all your favorites show up. Kermit, Fozzie, Miss Piggy, um Pepe, Gonzo, the chickens. everybody's Everybody's in this video. It's really funny. But believe or not, at the core of this song is the Christmas christmas message.
00:00:35
Speaker
You wouldn't think so. You probably wouldn't believe it. But right there, and I'm not here to tell you this morning that the Muppets were set out to make some grand theological statement. That's not what I'm here to say. But at the very core of this song is the Christmas christmas message.
Parade Reflections and Simplifying Christmas
00:00:50
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It's a universal truth that all we need really is love. We don't need all that stuff. All the glitz, the glamour, the lights, the shimmying.
00:01:02
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All the stuff you saw on all those other Christmas floats.
00:01:08
Speaker
We joke about that, but brothers and sisters, how telling was that? And i'm I'm not here to elevate our float, even though we did win most creative. What I am here to say is it was interesting to look at the fire trucks, right, all decked out.
00:01:28
Speaker
An 18-wheeler decked out with lights with a custom car on the back decked out in lights. and When we saw that I thought, oh Lord, we're never going to win now.
00:01:40
Speaker
There was the paddy wagon, if you weren't there. and Amongst all of the lights and the glitter and the the glam, don't get me wrong, that's all fine and dandy for a Christmas parade, but there was a float that stood out, I think.
00:01:58
Speaker
I could be the little favorite.
00:02:02
Speaker
Simple star.
00:02:05
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above a stable shining a light on the manger.
00:02:13
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And it was a focus among all this other crazy stuff going on, which by the way, Kathy Barrett, never will we be placed behind the front of the fire truck again because and like every 10 seconds they were launching that horde.
Understanding Advent: From Hope to Love
00:02:30
Speaker
In the mix of all of that, There was just a little bit of Christmas music playing, nothing fancy, really old school hymn. Aaron and I were laughing. We're like, that Latin?
00:02:44
Speaker
What was that that they were playing in there? But the focus was just on a light on the manger, and I thought it was very appropriate in the season. It was that gift that Bob just sung about.
00:02:56
Speaker
Jesus in the manger. The a human embodiment, if you will, of God's love for you and I. Emmanuel, God with us. Coming down out of heaven.
00:03:09
Speaker
God incarnate. Dare I say, love incarnate. Friends, this is what we're celebrating this week, this
A Biblical Love Story: Mary and Joseph's Journey
00:03:19
Speaker
Advent week. If you haven't been here with us last week or you're unfamiliar with a Advent in general, it is a ah period of anticipation or expectation or longing.
00:03:30
Speaker
Advent itself means the coming or the arrival. And last week we focused on hope, this week we're focusing on love. And so I thought these last couple weeks, what are, if I really want to give a love story, a biblical love story, what are five essential parts to a love story?
00:03:49
Speaker
You have to have a sympathetic heroine. You have to have a strong heroine. You have to have some emotional tension that happens.
00:04:00
Speaker
There has to be a believable plot and there has to be a happily ever after ending.
00:04:10
Speaker
It's what every Hallmark movie is made of, by the way, those same five elements. That's why they're so successful. What biblical story demonstrates this the most? Well, I'm going point out And I think it's the most unlikely love story, but it's the story of Mary and Joseph.
00:04:28
Speaker
Imagine with me, if you will, placing yourself back into the ancient dusty days of Israel under Rome. Small village called Nazareth.
00:04:41
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There lives a carpenter. His name is Joseph. Joseph is of noble ancestry. He's actually distantly related to King David. But Joseph lives a humble life.
00:04:54
Speaker
He's a carpenter, he's a tradesman the Bible tells us. He probably learned that skill from his father who probably was also a tradesman, a craftsman. Most scholars believe that Joseph grew up in Bethlehem and at some point moved or relocated to Nazareth which is about 70 miles north-northwest.
00:05:15
Speaker
We don't really know because the Bible doesn't tell us why he moved. I can speculate, think perhaps he wanted to start his own carpentry business. Maybe he had relatives there.
00:05:26
Speaker
Maybe Nazareth was in need of a good carpenter. However it is, Joseph made his way there, and what we do know is that he was established, he was honorable, he was a craftsman, and most importantly, ladies, he was single.
00:05:44
Speaker
He was an eligible bachelor, about 20 years old. And he was ready to marry and establish his own family. Now, if you were a young lady in that village, you would have taken notice.
00:05:56
Speaker
More importantly, your father would have taken notice of Joseph because that's how it worked back in Jesus' time. it's It was a different courtship, if we could put it that way.
00:06:10
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Jewish tradition, marriage custom, if you will, followed a very strict and legal guideline. There was none of this texting her on Wednesday, asking her if she could go to the movies on Friday.
00:06:25
Speaker
There was a contract, there was a consummation, then there was a celebration. Those are the three elements of the Jewish wedding. A contract, a consummation, a celebration.
00:06:36
Speaker
Joseph would have likely have gone to Mary's father and said, I'm interested. And he would have sat down with Joseph and they would have arranged this marriage. And I know that's foreign to many of us here in the States.
00:06:51
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There would have been a cash exchange happening, a dowry paid by Joseph to Mary's family. And along with that, there would be this contract The Ketubah, as it's called in the Jewish tradition.
00:07:05
Speaker
It was signed, and I want you to understand, the moment it was signed, Joseph and Mary were married. They were legally married. They were contractually married, but they weren't like you and I. They weren't married.
00:07:18
Speaker
It's only after that contract was signed that the couple would then get to know each other, and they would go on dating stages, if you will. There's no dinner in a movie. It's not like that. It was often with family members.
00:07:31
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It might have included some friends at the time. Mary would still be living with her family. Joseph would likely be living with his family. He would either build onto his father's house or if they had the means, he would build his own house.
00:07:46
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with the anticipation that one day Joseph would lead a procession, a group of his friends, and they'd be making this loud ruckus as they get back to Mary's house. And then it's that point that he would take her back to his house or his parents' house and get this, where they would consummate the marriage with everybody still there in the house.
00:08:08
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Foreign, right? You're thinking to yourself, that's so strange. That stage is called the chupa.
00:08:17
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Everybody's sitting around after the consummation, ready for the celebration. This is a feast unlike any feast that you and I have ever been to. It it could be up to a week, sometimes eight, 10 days this feast would last.
00:08:32
Speaker
Very different than what you and I are used to. Very unromantic, you may say. I put in my notes this week. Probably in American culture, we would think, where's the romance in that?
00:08:44
Speaker
How is this possibly a love story Well, it wouldn't be a great love story if there wasn't some emotional tension. Right? The contract is signed. They're legally bound to each other. But before the consummation happens, Joseph gets this message, this delivery from Mary.
00:09:06
Speaker
Imagine, if you will, this emotional bombshell that's dropped. By the way, Joseph, Mary says, I'm with child.
00:09:16
Speaker
How many times have we read that story and we've and we've kind of glossed right over that
God's Love in Crisis
00:09:20
Speaker
that part? Friends, this would have been traumatic, devastating for Joseph's family and for Mary's family.
00:09:30
Speaker
Think about Mary. Think about Joseph. You've got to look at both sides of this equation. Joseph's probably thinking, Mary, how could you do this to me? Don't you love me the same way I love you?
00:09:43
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I thought we were doing this the right way. we were honoring God. We went through all the right steps. We got our families involved. I built this house for you.
00:09:53
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Can you imagine the betrayal? And now you're with child? If you've ever experienced something like that, that type of betrayal, of friends, it's something visceral, something you feel physically like your stomach is ready to explode.
00:10:14
Speaker
And you have to think Mary. Mary says this to Joseph. Joseph, I know this may sound crazy. Follow me. An angel visited me.
00:10:24
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He visited me and he told me going have a baby. And he says that we will name this baby Jesus and he will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. Think about that if you're Joseph.
00:10:35
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What do you do with that? wait a second, you were a virgin and were contractually married. i haven't been with you, but now you're with child and now the story that you're coming up with is there was some divine intervention?
00:10:54
Speaker
Nothing like a good crisis to destroy a great love story.
00:10:59
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But we all know how the story ends, don't we? Because we have this. Real love prevails. Joseph stays He doesn't divorce Mary. He keeps Mary as his wife.
00:11:13
Speaker
Jesus is born. And we have this fantastic human love story, but with some supernatural love sprinkled into it. Friends, God was at the center of all of this, by the way.
00:11:28
Speaker
I kept coming back to this all week long. Quite often I think we get in this season and we forget that he's been here January through November. And for some of us, December shows up and we change the the decor in here and we start playing the Christmas music and we go, oh yes, Jesus in the manger. i'm Friends, he's been here all along.
00:11:50
Speaker
He's still here all along.
00:11:54
Speaker
Theologian J.W. Trowell says this. He says, God is and always has been at work, I love this, behind the scenes. Love at work behind the scenes.
00:12:06
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You might be here today going, where is God? I don't see his hand at work in my life. Maybe you're struggling in your relationship this morning and you're thinking to yourself, I sure don't see Jesus showing up in my life.
00:12:19
Speaker
It's the holiday season. I'm without a job. This gentleman was so kind to come knock on the parsonage door the other day lay out for me how he's brand new here in Cameron and how just these devastating events one after another after another happened to him.
00:12:34
Speaker
And he said to me, I don't really think God's in the picture. I said, well, you should show up Sunday morning, 1045. You'll see him here. Brothers sisters, God is at work behind the scenes in your life and in my life. And sometimes we just need to simply pause.
00:12:50
Speaker
the apostle The Apostle John says it most appropriately here in 1 John 4.16. Do we have 1 John 4.16? He simply says God is love. How many how many of y'all have heard this?
00:13:02
Speaker
I will be very transparent this morning. Every time I hear somebody say this, it's ah it's always... um as a trump card that's played.
00:13:13
Speaker
It's whenever they don't necessarily agree biblically with what the Bible says about God's love and what they just want to do is kind of wipe the slate clean and say, oh yeah, God's love. And that's like, that isn't supposed to end all conversation. I don't really need to follow what God's word says about love. I just, God is love and period.
00:13:30
Speaker
End of story. Every time I hear that I'm a little measured. But I want you to know 1 John 4, 16, listen, he says, we know how much God loves us, that's you and i and we have put our trust in his love.
00:13:44
Speaker
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. This is the very nature of who God is. Love in its purest form. It's one of his attributes. If you got that God attributes page I handed out last week, you can flip that over. I bet you love is one of those attributes.
00:14:05
Speaker
What does that mean for you and I? It means God doesn't have to try to love. God doesn't wake up in the morning and think, well, ah Kim and Patrick, they're the most unloving couple, but I'm really going to work hard at loving them today.
00:14:19
Speaker
God is love. He doesn't have to try to love. it's It's his character. It's his nature.
00:14:29
Speaker
I put...
Interpreting Scripture through Love
00:14:30
Speaker
just as ah as a practice to myself this week. If it's really one of his attributes, we should rightly be able to substitute the word God and love in some of our passages today.
00:14:39
Speaker
ah I put this, just just follow with me and see if this makes sense. If God was there at the center of God's creative forces and he made the universe and formed his people in the image in relationship to him, I could rightly say love was at the center of his creative forces and made the universe and formed his people in his image to be in a relationship with him.
00:15:01
Speaker
Love was there even when the world fell into sin and rebellion. And despite the consequence of sin, love was still there. Love was shepherding Adam and Eve. Love was even there as it began in the garden to restore all that was broken and lost.
00:15:20
Speaker
Brothers and sisters, God has been at this behind the scenes, fixing things from the very beginning. He's love. God had forged a covenant with adam ah Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We could easily say love forged a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. jacob Love continually led the Israelites through the relocation and resettlement.
00:15:43
Speaker
Love guided and corrected and exhorted and showed mercy upon the very distracted and disobedient people. And in Mary and Joseph's story, love was taking the human form of a baby in our Messiah, Jesus.
00:16:00
Speaker
He is God with us. That's the beauty of the light on the parade simply shown right the manger. The focus was there.
00:16:12
Speaker
Love was in that manger. We were decorating the church, by the way. Some of the ladies who did it great didn't they do a great job decorating this, by the way. It's really beautiful in here.
00:16:23
Speaker
we We jokingly went back and forth. Did we decorate enough? Should there be more stuff? Or should this be the focus right down here?
00:16:37
Speaker
When you come in the come in the doors. You see the main focus, the reason for this season.
00:16:45
Speaker
It's the greatest love story of all time, as far as I'm concerned. Jesus in the manger. If God is love and he's... placed love in the manger in the form of Jesus. And Jesus has stepped out of heaven to fall into this broken world that you and I live in, to come and restore and redeem you and I. The story doesn't just simply end with God being love. God pours out or he gives his love. And that's our second point.
Mary's Support System during Pregnancy
00:17:14
Speaker
I just want you to think about with me this conversation between Mary and Joseph.
00:17:20
Speaker
Mary says to Joseph, I'm with child. I'm child. And he's trying to wrap his mind around this, right? The Bible tells us at this point, Mary goes off to see Elizabeth, right? Joseph doesn't.
00:17:32
Speaker
Joseph stays in Nazareth. Mary goes off to her cousin Elizabeth's house, which you know can't be an easy journey. She's with a child, it's hot, it's dusty, it's a long road.
00:17:44
Speaker
She's all by herself. And as the miles added up as she's going to Elizabeth's house, she's probably thinking in her so in her mind, how did I get myself into this? What's gonna happen?
00:17:56
Speaker
I'm pregnant. What's Joseph gonna do? What's my family gonna do? What's his family gonna do? I'm gonna be ostracized from the community.
00:18:06
Speaker
But as soon as Mary arrived at Elizabeth's house, Luke chapter 1 says this. Look at me, Luke chapter 1 verse 42 and on. It says she was greeted with love.
00:18:19
Speaker
God has blessed you, Elizabeth has told Mary, among all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of the Lord should visit me When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.
00:18:34
Speaker
You are blessed because you believe that the Lord would do what he said. Can you imagine? After being on a long journey, thinking to yourself, I'm going to be ostracized. I have a baby and Joseph's not the father. And immediately he says, when you get what she gets to Elizabeth's house, she's surrounded by love.
00:18:54
Speaker
Matter of fact, says, Elizabeth's baby jumped. Who's a Elizabeth's baby, by the way? John the Baptist. Or if you're not a Baptist, the baptizer.
00:19:07
Speaker
Not to confuse you with thinking he's a Baptist. It's John in her womb and she knew that the moment she got there, she confers to Mary.
00:19:18
Speaker
Mary, love love is here. Love is here right with you.
00:19:24
Speaker
Everything's going to be alright. And I just put a note to myself this week. The right person, the right time, the right message. The right person, the right time, the right message. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been so down and out thinking how in the world am I ever going to make it out of this particular situation? Because that's what we do. We become myopic, right? When when when the stress of the world happens, we stop thinking about all the great things that God does and and and what happens is we become myopic and we just singularly focus on that one problem.
00:19:53
Speaker
And in the midst of that problem, somebody shows up just at the right time. Hey, are you home? Hey, are you there? And it's just this special word of encouragement given just like Elizabeth does here.
00:20:10
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And look at how Mary responds. She says, or maybe she even sings this, verse 46 and 48. She says, Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he took notice on this lowly servant girl, and from now on, get this, all generations will call me blessed.
00:20:33
Speaker
In the midst of this traumatic situation, Mary realizes by the encouragement of Elizabeth, oh yeah, you're right. I trusted God, and for generations I will be known as somebody who was blessed.
00:20:46
Speaker
In the midst of Mary's human crisis, God provided just the right amount of love with just the right amount of person at just the right amount of time, and it supported her.
The Power of Presence and Divine Appointments
00:20:56
Speaker
This is how God works, my brothers and sisters. How many times have you been in a situation where somebody's come up and supported you?
00:21:02
Speaker
How many times have you been that person who's who's maybe even unexpectedly come over and just put your arm around somebody and said, hey, it's going to be okay? You'll never know.
00:21:13
Speaker
I always lean back to a story that I often tell. I'm not even sure if I've mentioned it here before. When I was at a church many, many years ago, almost 30 years ago, I was in a youth group.
00:21:24
Speaker
I was a youth leader, if you can believe that.
00:21:29
Speaker
We had... Several kids kind of come in and out of our youth group because they had a bad family life. And so oftentimes they would relocate and sometimes they would come, sometimes they wouldn't. There was this one kid, Jeremy, who came and you he was unlike any other kid. he He was pretty average. I had seen him before.
00:21:48
Speaker
But we had a time of prayer afterwards, and i and i prayed over him that night, not knowing his circumstance, not knowing. It wasn't anything fantastic. It wasn't some divine revelation that I got. The Holy Spirit didn't give me fantastic words that fixed this kid's life. But I will tell you, five years later, I was out in college, and I saw this kid somewhere who was a young man at this time.
00:22:11
Speaker
And he said, hey, do you remember me? And it took me a second. knock I go, yeah, you look real familiar. He says, Jeremy, I was at that church. Yeah, oh my gosh. He said, I was thinking of killing myself that entire week.
00:22:26
Speaker
And I just was looking for somebody to give me a little bit of encouragement. Brothers and sisters, you'll never know when you step alongside somebody, the words that that you speak over them, the power those words have.
00:22:39
Speaker
I said, brother, i said you've just given me great hope. Who knew that I could come alongside you and through that divine appointment as brother Mike so eloquently put during Bible study on Wednesday, right? God is in the business of divine appointments.
00:22:58
Speaker
He's setting up people to have a truck or a car breakdown on your country road to see if you're gonna stop and to see if you're gonna help, to see if you're gonna say, hey, it's gonna be all right.
00:23:13
Speaker
Also put, those appointments are often inconvenient, very costly, and very
Raising Jesus: Mary and Joseph's Mission
00:23:20
Speaker
messy. And that's why many of us don't want to engage. Imagine, brothers and sisters, if the love that God gives us, He's doing that on purpose so that we can go out and show somebody else that type of love this Advent season.
00:23:42
Speaker
just put to myself, are we aware of these divine appointments? Are we looking? Or are we so busy with the hectic, crazy season that we're in in Christmas? Are we looking for the guy that knocks on the door at the parsonage? Are we looking at the neighbor who who has a ah real need that maybe is constantly bringing this up to you and and you finally need to engage with them and and help them out?
00:24:08
Speaker
God's love is with us. He expects us to do something with it. All right, third and final point here. God's love flows through each one of us.
00:24:20
Speaker
Let's go back to the Mary and Joseph story. It didn't just simply end with Mary and Joseph, obviously, right? they they They reconcile. They have Jesus.
00:24:32
Speaker
Jesus grows up. They know that there's a bigger, greater purpose for him. Simeon, Anna, those ah prophets were in the temple recognized who the Savior was in this tiny baby.
00:24:45
Speaker
They have the angelic visits. They have all these warnings that come to flee the country. ah God has been with them this entire time from the very beginning of this journey. He's guiding them along so that they can present Jesus to the world.
00:25:02
Speaker
Often I think what we do is we think Jesus in the manger... flip a couple of pages, and we have Jesus on the cross. Where did 30 some odd years go in between that? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever just paused and thought to yourself, Jesus as a 10-year-old boy?
00:25:20
Speaker
Jesus as a 17-year-old boy?
00:25:26
Speaker
Mary and Joseph, like many of you who have kids, even those of you who have grown kids, have nourished them and protected them and brought them along with God's help to where they're at right now.
00:25:40
Speaker
you realize that? It's not just some happenstance that your kids have survived this long. It's your direct hand through God's revelation and help and that divine appointment for you to be around them and to love them and it doesn't end when they're 18.
The Essence of Loving Like Jesus
00:25:54
Speaker
Boy, I wish it did sometimes.
00:26:01
Speaker
Mary and Joseph took care of Jesus. to the point where they could, if I can use this term, present him to the world so that he can step out into public ministry. and and Yes, there's the miracles. Yes, all of that happened. Yes, it's all recorded.
00:26:20
Speaker
John tells us the purpose of all that, those miracles are recorded so that we would know that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing in him we would have eternal life. None of that changes. But brothers and sisters, I have to think Mary and Joseph had this parenting style, if I can use it, of having open hands and trusting the Lord.
00:26:44
Speaker
Think about it. Joseph, as Jesus grew up, and and I'm going to be very superficial here, Jesus probably didn't look like Joseph and Mary. Have you ever thought about that?
00:26:56
Speaker
He might have looked a lot like Mary. He didn't look like Joseph. Think about the conversations that would have had been had in the in the community.
00:27:07
Speaker
Whose kid is that anyhow? ever thought about that? All through that, Mary and Joseph navigated a very difficult situation, raising Jesus, trusting God that what that angel told Mary is true, that you will have a son and he will be Jesus and he will be the Savior, the Redeemer.
00:27:35
Speaker
we What do we do with this story today? I went back to actually John Stott. Many y'all know John Stott. He did a whole exposition on John chapter 13, but I just took one part, and I'm not even going to take credit for this.
00:27:51
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John chapter 13, starting verse 34. Do we have that? Thank you.
00:27:57
Speaker
This is Jesus. Now I'm giving you, he's saying to those disciples around him, Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world, to the community, to Cameron, to Milam County, to far beyond, that you are my disciple.
00:28:21
Speaker
Not that you know about me. That's not what he's saying here. He's saying if you love this way, if you love the way I love sacrificially... The rest of the world, the rest of the unbelieving community will look at you and see me.
00:28:36
Speaker
And they'll know that you're not just somebody who knows me, but you follow me. That's what a disciple is, somebody who's actively living that out. And I put a note to myself, but more importantly to you today.
00:28:49
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We can't love like Jesus if we don't know Jesus. Let me say that again. We can't love like Jesus if we don't know jesus Meaning if we haven't experienced that love, you'll never be able to love like Jesus.
Deepening Relationship with Jesus during Advent
00:29:06
Speaker
So my prayer for you this morning,
00:29:11
Speaker
when all the glitz and the glamour of the Cameron Parade is going on, is your focus on Him?
00:29:23
Speaker
It's a Him book, by the way. You do know that, right? It's all about Him. H-I-M. If you don't know him, you can never love like him. My prayer for you this morning is if that's you, that as Judy plays, that you step out in faith.
00:29:41
Speaker
That you step out and say, I don't know what the future has for me, but I know it involves me and Jesus in this relationship. My prayer for you is that you experience it because with any real relationship, any real true love story, it involves intimacy.
00:29:58
Speaker
If you don't have an intimate relationship with Jesus' brothers and sisters, this Advent season, this Sunday, is the day to make that decision.