Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: God will make a way where there seems to be no way. I was going to ask you if you could sing that song to us, but I'll say the words. He works in a ways we cannot see. He will make a way for me and for you. He will be my guide, hold me closely to his side, with love and strength for each new day. He will make a way. God will make a way. Amen. I keep thinking of a young lady that I texted with this week and her husband is in jail and things just look very hopeless. He is seeking God. God loves him. He is trusting God in this situation. She said to me, "Every Sunday morning, I'm with you and I get peace. I get peace." So peace be with you today. You know who you are God will make a way. He will make a way for him. Yes.
Brian: God knows how to take care of what belongs to him.
Jacque: Yes. And just because we fall God's right there to pick us up. He is there to help us wherever we find ourselves.
Brian: Sometimes the least cared about people in our culture seem to be the ones who have failed the most and maybe have done the worst things. Yet when Jesus came on the scene, it seemed like he targeted those people as the ones that he really celebrated his coming for. When John the Baptist was in prison and kind of this grace had lifted off of him and he was now questioning. Remember when Jesus first came to him and John the Baptist said, "Behold, the lamb of God to take away the sin of the world," and now he is in prison, he is in the dungeon about ready to be executed and he is questioning art thou he, or should we look for someone else? Jesus sent back word to John the Baptist through his disciples. He said, go tell John that the blind see, and the poor are ministered to, the prisoners are reached, and if you do it unto the least of these, you do it for me, in that whole context. Sometimes we have to be reminded to not forget about the forgotten. We just have to be reminded to not forget about the forgotten.
Jacque: I think of that scripture, you know, I was in prison and you visited me. I was hungry and you fed me. I'm looking forward to when we can all be back together again, and we can get back out into the world, just thinking of every way possible we can serve others through Hope Community Church, all the ways we can touch lives and we can help meet needs, and just be praying for open doors and creative ideas to be able to really be the hands of Jesus to our community and to our whole city.
Brian: Yeah. And one person at a time; one person at a time. I remember of the story of the little boy and the starfish. All of them had been washed up on the shore by the tide, and he was throwing one out, back into the ocean at a time. This elderly man came by and he said, "Little boy, you are not having any effect on these thousands of starfish that were up on the seashore." He picked another one up and threw it in and he said, "Well, I'm making a difference to this one". That's how we are to be, just making a difference one person at a time.
I would like to share today, a message. I want to reference it from probably one of the saddest tragic portions of stories that the scripture portrays in all of the Bible. I've had this sermon kind of rolling around in my head in my heart for quite a while, and I really felt a nudge to share it today. I believe there are people maybe even here, but especially online who will watch this message today that this really will pertain to you. It'll strike a chord in your heart. The story that I want to look at is found in 2 Samuel chapter 13. We are not going to read all of this. The verses 1 through 21 kind of as the main portion of the story, but I'll just kind of give you a quick synopsis of it. But there was a son of David; his name was Amnon. David of course, had multiple wives, not as many wives as Solomon did, but—
Jacque: Poor David.
Brian: Yeah, poor David. That's right. No, not poor David. If they were all like you, they would be great.
Jacque: Good.
Brian: But he also had another son, Absalom. We remember Absalom who ultimately tried to take over the throne of David. Absalom had a sister, a daughter of David, whose name was Tamar. Some people in the Hebrew might pronounce her name, Tamar, but I just pronounced her Tamar my whole life, so that's what I'm going to call her this morning. Amnon was in love with Tamar. The best way to describe it, he was love sick over her. He just needed to have her, wanted her. He was obsessed with her. Tamar was a beautiful, very innocent, virgin girl. Amnon had a friend or an advisor. His name was Jonadab. He was it kind of a scoundrel. Jonadab dad was the son of one of David's older brothers. So you see this family dynamic coming into play here. He gave advice to Amnon and he said to Amnon, Jonadab did, he said, "Why don't you just pretend that you are sick and ask the king to have Tamar make you a meal at your home and serve you and then you can do with her whatever you want."
So he pretended to be sick. King David came to visit him to see how he was doing and he feigned as if he was sick. The king said, "What can I do for you?" He said, "Why don't you have Tamar make me a meal?" The king sent for Tamar. Obviously, she was responsible to honor the king's wishes. So Tamar did what the king ordered. She was about to serve him. She had prepared this meal and right before she was going to serve him, Amnon ordered everybody out of the house. After they all left the house, he raped her. It's a terrible story. He raped her.
As he was in this process of, in a sense, physically overpowering her, she even— get this, she even says, "Please don't do this and dishonor me. All you need to do is ask my dad for my hand in marriage and he'll grant it to you." Now, can you imagine a woman above to be raped saying, why don't you just marry me? This was the level of honor that she was trying to preserve. And of course, he refused to listen to her and he completed as bastardly deed. When he had finished raping her, the scripture says that he despised her more than he had desired her. After he had used her, he despised now more than he had a desired her. He told her to get out of his home and to leave. At that time, she then, once again, pleaded to him to not cast her out, but actually take her as his own. Can you imagine that again, just being raped and asking for that? That's just unimaginable to me. But he refused and he basically kicked her out of his home and locked the door behind her.
She was wearing a specific garment. The Bible calls it a robe. We are not really sure if it was like a robe, but it was a special garment that the virgins would wear and present to their husbands on their wedding nights. It was very similar to when you and I gave our boys rings at theirs under 16th birthday. We gave them a special ring to present to their wives on their wedding night as a symbol of their chastity and that they had saved themselves for their wives. This is what this garment represented. Obviously, when she was cast out of this home, she ripped this garment up. She put ashes on her head and she left weeping. I can't imagine a sadder story in all of scripture. I really can't. It's one of the saddest stories in all the Bible. It shows what people will do to one another and can do to one another without God in their lives, the horrificness of what we as a culture and we as a society will do to each other when God is not a part of what we are doing.
Amnon was a wicked man. He brutally raped his sister and he virtually slashed her self-esteem. He broke her femininity like a dry twig when it's stepped on. That's what he did to her. This poor young gal went into his room a virgin with a future and when it was all over, she was a trembling, crying, massive pain. Amnon virtually assassinated her when she left that day. When they were left alone, he assassinated her. Her body basically survived, but her self-esteem and her future in her mind was destroyed. She felt as though she would never be the woman that she would have been had this thing not happened. That's what went through her mind, that she will never be the woman, she will never have the future that she had planned for herself that she felt God had for her had this thing not happened. She was never going to be able to achieve that.
I just want to ask the question of us today, have you ever had something happened to you that changed you forever? Have you ever had something happened to you that changed your forever in your life? You survived, but that inner voice inside of you said you will never be the same. You will never be the same after this incident, after this tragedy, after this circumstance. Maybe perhaps since that day, you have been bowed over, in a sense. I think of the beach we walked on in Mazatlan and there is one section down as we go to the south on the beach. There are palm trees there, but they are really bent over low. They are almost growing this way. It's because they've been under so much weight and so much wind and so much pressure. They are bent low.
Maybe you are bent over, perhaps since that day that whatever happened, maybe you can sing at times. Maybe you can shout. Maybe once in a while, you can even skip or dance, but when no one is looking and when the crowd is gone and the lights are out, you are still that crying, trembling, massive pain that is bowed over like this palm tree that I was just describing. It survived the storm, but it's now bent low. Tamar was in a very bad way when she left that home that day. In her mind, she had nothing left to live for. To make this very horrific situation worse after Amnon had abused her and used her, he didn't even want her anymore. I wonder how many of us at times have felt that way after being used, maybe even abused, and not necessarily sexually, but just used and abused or cast aside after you gave the very best that you had. He had completely really messed up her life and he had spoiled what she was proud of. He had changed her countenance forever. It changed her continents forever. Why don't you read 2 Samuel 13:16. This is one of the things that describes her.
Jacque:" No," she said to him. "Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me."
Brian: She was pleading for just a little bit of a strand as it were of her self-esteem. When someone feels unwanted, it absolutely destroys their sense of esteem and value, doesn't it? When someone doesn't feel wanted and when someone makes it really clear and plain, I don't want you, especially when there is more of a personal relationship involved, it can even happen in the business world, but especially even in personal relationships, what happens is it destroys our esteem and our sense of value. An abuse injures something within us and about us that changes how we actually relate to everybody. The change that happens in us when we have been on the receiving end of abuse, we actually carry that into all of our other relationships with each other.
Jacque: It really defines us. We let it define us.
Brian: We let it define us. We let it define us. Tamar, of course, pleaded with Amnon, please don't throw me away. That's what she was really saying. Please don't throw me away. She was fighting for the last strands of her self-esteem and her femininity, but to no avail. Let's read verses 18 here.
Jacque: So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her. She was wearing an ornate robe. For this was the kind of garment the virgin daughters of the king wore.
Brian: What do you do when you are left lying at the door? What do you do when you've been kicked out of the house, metaphorically speaking? You are lying at the door, you are trembling, you are emotionally torn up, you are sobbing. What do you do when you have a heart full of regret, a heart full of pain? What do you do when the nightmares from your own post-traumatic stress visit you every night? What do you do? I would say that in many respects, this story is rampant today. I don't just mean in the sexual abuse way, but in what it did to her, the post-traumatic stress that it created in her. We live in a time when post-traumatic stress is at an all-time high. We have more military men coming out of the militaries and committing suicide than ever before in the history of our nation. We have teenagers who have suffered some kind of abuse and lack no heart and desire and a hope for the future, junior highs and people early in high school are taking their lives at record numbers today.
What do you do when you are full of post-traumatic stress? Verse 18 here, it says that she had this ornate robe that was the kind of a garment that the daughters of the king wore and that she put ashes on her head and toward this ornate robe that she was wearing. She tore it asunder. She ripped it up because what that robe represented was destroyed in her life now. So she just destroyed it, she ripped it up and then she put her hands on her head sobbing and went away weeping aloud, and had put ashes as well on her head, a sign morning. She was basically saying this, "I have no future. I have no future. My future has been stolen from me. My esteem and my value have been ripped out of my heart." There are so many people today who have been physically and emotionally robbed and in the process, have lost an incredible amount of substantial degree of self-esteem.
Jacque: When you have been rejected, then that is the filter that you see everything through. Even when you aren't rejected by others, you experience rejection. It's just a mentality, a strong hold that comes.
Brian: There is another aspect to it because one Satan schemes is to take the circumstances of our lives, and then basically assign demonic presences that are, shall we say, trained in that arena or that area. There is such a thing as a spirit of rejection, who looks for people who have experienced this kind of rejection, and this becomes this familiar spirit that, in a sense, attaches itself to that person. I don't mean in a demon possessed type of way. Maybe a better way to say it is, in a sense, assigned to that person to expose that weakness and to keep reminding them of what has happened so that they will live in their past and not look to a future.
Jacque: To keep whispering in their thoughts.
Brian: Tamar, I wished I had a good ending to tell you about this story with Tamar, but there isn't one. There isn't one. There wasn't answer for her, but the answer was provided in an incorrect way by her brother Absalom. Absalom, two years later, went and made arrangements to murder Amnon. Two years later, Amnon was murdered by a scheme that Absalom put together to like vindicate his sister. But the problem here is that inflicting justice, even if Amnon would have been legitimately punished by the government or the king or whatever, which he actually wasn't. But even if he would have experienced real justice, which by the way, we all need to agree with that society needs to enforce laws and justice, but that was not going to heal Tamar's heart. That wasn't going to take away what was stolen from her. She needed a supernatural encounter of love and mercy and acceptance. The justice that Absalom created on behalf of her didn't do anything to heal her heart.
So many people have lost the map that directs them back to where they were before this thing happened. There is a map for us today that helps us get back to where we were before this thing happened to us. Our future at times may feel as though it's gone. All the voices in Tamar’s head were saying, “You no longer have value.” That's what these voices were saying to Tamar. You no longer have value. You will always be second rate. That's what these voices were saying. You will always be second rate. She needed to hear the call that comes from the mountain of God. She needed to hear the voice from heaven.
It was the voice of the king that says, “I want you. I want you.” No matter how many Amnons have been in your life, Tamar, I want you. No matter how many times you have been rejected, which has caused you to be bent over, and I've seen that. I've seen the after effects of spending a moment with Amnon. I've seen you, in a sense, at now your very worst depleted of hope and depleted of a future and depleted of any anticipation in your heart for anything good to come your way. I've seen you in all of that, and I want you. I want you, for I love you with an everlasting love because justice doesn't get your future back; only love does. Justice doesn't get your future back; only love does.
We have a beautiful story that I want to now jump to in Luke chapter 13 of Jesus getting in trouble again for doing something good on the Sabbath. Remember you are not supposed to do anything good on Sundays, right? Or the Sabbath. Anyways, we find this in Luke chapter 13:10-17. Read that first.
Jacque: On the Sabbath. Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years.
Brian: Now, let me just stop here for a second. So obviously, this woman, there had been some kind of access that this demonic spirit had for her. This doesn't necessarily mean she did some terrible sin or witchcraft, and therefore she exposed herself to this. This could have been generational. This could have been the fact that maybe she had been abused during the course of her life, just like Tamar. But this spirit came and began to afflict her. And this affliction caused her to be bent over, bent low for 18 years, just like the palm trees, just bent low. So let's go on. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her woman, you are set free from your infirmity.
Brian: Isn't that a great word? Wouldn't that be the most wonderful words to hear that day: you are set free. Wow.
Jacque: We can read it and take it to us. Then he put his hands on her and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Brian: Wow. Immediately she straightened up and Praise God. All of her friends are celebrating. They are hugging. They've got tears of joy. And the religious leaders are indignant.
Jacque: Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. The synagogue leaders said to the people, "There are six days for work, so come and be healed on those days. Not on the Sabbath."
Brian: Can you imagine the audacity of these guys, actually?
Jacque I don't think they loved the people.
Brian: No. They needed to listen to the verse "and a child shall lead them." They needed the children to lead that synagogue that day.
Jacque: The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites, doesn't each of you, on the Sabbath, on tire or donkey from the stall and lead it out and give it water?"
Brian: Let me just stop here for that picture.
Jacque: Jesus might have said it nicer than I just did.
Brian: I don't think so. I don't think so. When a horse or donkey or a cattle are in a stall, they are what they are very confined. They are restricted. There is no freedom. They are tied in with some kind of harness. They can't turn around. They are stuck. They are right there. It's a place of confinement. Jesus uses this great illustration about how even the religious leaders would take their donkeys or their ox or whatever, even on the Sabbath and get them out of confinement to give them water to drink and something to eat. This incredible picture that he is taking this woman who has been in confinement for 18 years and releasing her, wow, what a great picture.
Jacque: Amen. "Then should not this woman," Jesus continued, "a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has kept bound for 18 long years, shouldn't she be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
Brian: Yes. And the answer to that is what? A resounding yes.
Jacque: When he said all this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
Brian: The people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. I believe there were a lot of women there that day in the synagogue. I believe there were a lot of women there that day in the synagogue and Jesus looked past them all to the bent, to the disabled, to the wounded, to the hurting, to the broken woman. He looked past them all. That's the heart of our God. That's what this picture demonstrates. That's what this story demonstrates. This story demonstrates the heart of God to those who have had their value and their self-esteem destroyed. I can guarantee you, this woman, every day, she went out of her home and every day she went to the synagogue and went to the market, I can guarantee you, she probably thought “no one will ever want me again.” I can guarantee you that. No one will ever want me again, looking like I look, what has happened to me. And yet Jesus looked past all the women that were there that day and went right to her and said, "I want you. I want you." He wants you too, and thousands of others just like this woman, just like Tamar. He wants you.
You might be a guy that has suffered severe abuse. Abuse isn't just directed to females. Now, it is probably more prevalent against females, but there are men today who are suffering with post-traumatic stress from being abused, being rejected, being neglected. They are emotional just tiny people. He wants all of us who are bent low to know he loves us. He knows all about our pain. He knows all about those people who have rejected you and left you locked out, bent over, humiliated and broken. Maybe it happened last night. Maybe it happened a lifetime ago. Maybe it happened like this lady, 18 years earlier in her life. Maybe it happened a week ago. The Lord is saying something that he wants every one of us to know. He wants us to know something that most people actually I don't know, or maybe we forgot. It's something that Amnon didn't know. It's something that may be a former boyfriend or husband or wife didn't know, that person who rejected you or abused you didn't know, and it’s this that you are the daughter or son of the king. You are a prince and princess of the king.
I heard a great story once about a prince who was kidnapped, taken, thrown in a dungeon. He was the, the focus of the anger of a bunch of people who were very jealous of him. They abused him and beat him and put them in a dis dungeon and starved him. Basically, he was at their mercy, yet he could look them in the eye and say to them, “You can do whatever you want to me, but one thing you can't take away from me is that I'm the son of that king. I'm the son of the king.” That king came and rescued him. That king came and rescued him. There has been a great rescue offered to all of us today. That rescue is that he can cause us to stand erect. He can take that bent palm and straighten it right up. He can cause us to stand up whole for the first time, maybe in years, just like Jesus did with this wonderful lady in the synagogue that day. He wants you to know how important you are to him and that you matter to him.
You and I did a video that's actually available for people to watch, a video series, actually that we have available for people to watch on how you matter to God, how you matter to God. And you know what? None of us can change where we've been. None of us can change where we've been. We can't change what has happened to us, but we can change where we are going. We can change where we are going. God has a repayment plan just for you. We find it in the book of Joel chapter two, verses 25 to 27. Read this incredible portion of scripture here.
Jacque: I will repay for you. I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.
Brian: Well, isn't that good? Because you know what, with Tamar and her future and this lady for 18 years, the locust— and by the way, this word locust, we kind of think of this locus as like grasshoppers and so forth, but in this particular passage of scripture, it's used multiple times and the translation of this word is unsure. They are not sure actually what this really means other than something that devours. So it's not necessarily— I don't want you to think that this is just talking about grasshoppers. This is talking about something that has devoured or consumed your life.
Oftentimes when this thing happens to us, like happened to Tamar and whatever happened to this lady in Luke 13, we can be consumed with thinking about it all the time. It never leaves us. It's always there in the back of our minds. The prophet, Joel wanted us to know something different, and he says this.
Jacque: I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten, the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm.
Brian: So he kind of covers it, whether it's a swarm or it's one or young or old, whatever; whatever it is that basically robbed you, stole from you, God says, “I am going to repay you for all those years that you suffered under that.”
Jacque: You will have plenty to eat until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has worked wonders for you. Never again will my people be shamed.
Brian: That was a word that Tamer needed to hear. Never again will you feel shame. Never again, will you feel shamed now. You know what? Justice doesn't take away our shame, but love does. Love heals the heart. Love heals the heart, and only the love of God can heal our hearts in such a way that we don't feel shame anymore.
Jacque: Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord, your God and that there is no other. Never again will my people be shamed.
Brian: Shame is never given by God. Shame is not a punishment from God and it's certainly not a gift from God. Shame is a tool of the enemy to keep you looking at your past instead of looking towards your future. I'm telling you today, my friends, it's not over your life is not over. It's never, ever over with Jesus as our friend and companion. It's never over with Jesus as a friend and companion. He is asking us today, how long are we going to mourn? A new day is on the horizon. It's time to begin again. It's time to begin again. So let's leave the pain. Let's leave the adversity of the past behind us and let's walk into this new life, a new hope, a new tomorrow. I love the word tomorrow. That's when I start my diets. That's one of the reasons why I like it.
Let's listen again to his words that say to us, I want you. Come away with me, my beloved. Come away with me, my beloved. You have captured my heart. That's what God wanted to say to Tamar. I'm surprised that with all that David understood about his sin and his past, when he cried out to God, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me, restore it to me, the joy of thy salvation," I'm just baffled by the fact that he didn't have something more to offer his own daughter when she went through this. The scriptures really don't say very clearly whether she ever really recovered, but we know a woman in Luke chapter 13 who were recovered. We knew many others, Mary Magdalene, and many others who suffered under demonic oppression and so forth, demonic schemes that God came and restored a future to them, gave them a reason for living again.
Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1-3, I'm just going to give you a quick synopsis of those three verses. Here is what the heart of God is for people who find themselves in a situation like Tamar or this woman, or suffering from post-traumatic stress in your life. There are policemen all over our country today that need to hear this. There are military people all over the world, in our country that need to hear what I'm saying here today. Here is what the Lord has to say to you. He has come to bind up the broken hearted. That's what he has come to do. He has come to bind up the broken hearted. He has come to comfort all who mourn. He has come also to provide for those who grieve, because there is grief with some of the things that happened to us, but he has come to provide for those who grieve.
He has also come to bestow on them, a crown of beauty, instead of ashes to make you, if you've been the victim of abuse to feel as though you matter that you actually have self-esteem, that you are actually beautiful, not something rejected and kicked to the curb. He has come to give you joy for your mourning and praise instead of despair. That's what he has come to do. That's what Jesus provides. When all that we can hear are the voices that say we have no future, because there are many voices that say that you have no future. When all that we can hear are the voices that say we have no future, there is a God who is declaring over us, it's not over. It's not over. It's never over.
Just like the song that we sang this morning, our lives are in his hands because we don't have to worry and we don't have to be afraid because joy will come in the morning because troubles, they don't last always. For there is a friend named Jesus who will wipe your tears away. And if your heart is broken, just lift your hands to him and say I know that I can make it. I know that I can stand. No matter what may come my way, my life is in your hands. This is the word that the Lord would say to us today. Our lives are in his hands.
Some might ask the question, why didn't God stop this thing from happening to me? That's probably a two-week seminar on the sovereignty of God to talk about all that. But the fact of the matter is I can guarantee you this, whatever pain, whatever circumstance, whatever situation, whatever tragedy you may have gone through during the course of your life, that Jesus was going through heartache with you when that happened. He is here to walk with you out of that darkness into a place of wholeness. He is there to bring comfort into those areas of pain in your heart. He is there to give you a tomorrow. He is there to lift your shame. I can't imagine the shame this woman felt every time she went to the market, maybe every time she went to the synagogue and she, she heard how good God was. I'm wondering if she questioned that during those times when the scriptures were read and yet Jesus came and he calls her daughter of Abraham. I wonder if there were people who, because of her infirmity wanting to make her a second-class daughter of Abraham, only a kind of daughter of Abraham or something. What were you going to say?
Jacque: I was going to say that we have to keep remembering our true identity; we are daughters and sons of the king.
Brian: Yes we are.
Jacque: And no matter what has happened, that does not define us. This is something I have to keep working on. I am a daughter of the king. I am loved and he is for me.
Brian: That's right.
Jacque: He is for me.
Brian: And so when we have been in our dark nights, Jesus was there. When we have gone through our hardest times, Jesus is there. There is a God who will never let us go. His name is Jesus. There is no reason to stay in a crumpled, emotional quagmire when someone has locked you out of their abusive house. I encourage you today to lift up your head, lift up your countenance, take the hand of Jesus and let him escort you home. For he says, "I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you, and I want you. I want you." Not in the same way Uncle Sam points his finger and says, "I want you," but he wants us just to be with us, just to be with us. So let's allow his presence to come and touch our heart, shall we? Let's pray together, Jacque. Why don't you come up here?
I’m so thankful today for the opportunity to bring such hope for people who have suffered some of the most horrific traumas in their lives. It could be in the kind of job you've had, like a police officer military or something of that nature. It could be any kind of abuse situation. But I'm here to tell you today that there is hope in Jesus, that he loves you with a never-ending love. So father, we bring our broken hearts to you today. All those with broken hearts, I pray that we will wash the ashes off our head. We'll sew our ripped-up garment back together again. We'll dry our tears away from the hem of your garment, Lord, and that you will carry us and embrace us into your very presence. I thank you, Jesus, that there is hope.
I pray that someplace, even if the scriptures don't say it, I just hope that somehow Tamar had a touch from your grace because your heart was for her, Lord. Your heart is for all those who have suffered at the hands of an abuser. Your heart is for all those who have been kicked to the curb and have been locked out. Your heart is for them all. I pray, in the name of Jesus, that you can break through the lies of the enemy that says you have no future, there is no tomorrow for you because there is always a tomorrow with you, Jesus. There is always a future with you. There is always a reason to get up in the mornings with you. There is always a reason to have a skip in our step with you. And so we again give ourselves to you, our loving heavenly father. This, we pray, in Jesus' holy name. Let's raise our hands together, shall we?
Now may the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace and may all your shame be lifted and may your future become bright and clear and full of hope because Jesus has a love for us that will never let us go. This we pray, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Thank you all for being here today, braving the storm and the weather, and thank you for joining us on our live stream. Have a wonderful, wonderful week. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 2-28-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.