Evil & Good

Good morning. It’s good to see all of you that are gathered here today. Whether you’re joining us in person, streaming in online, or maybe joining us later on demand. My name is Tim. I get the privilege of being one of the pastors here, and today is a very significant day in the life of our church. So if this is your first Sunday with us, whether you’re here in person or you’re watching us online. Our congregation has been on a unique journey for two and a half years, going through the very first book of the Bible, Genesis. And today is your first day, but it’s the last day of our sermon series for the entire book of Genesis. Isn’t that crazy? Some of you were hesitant while you were clapping, but I will tell you, you clapped louder than the 9:00, so good job on that one. You also are going to receive a special treat after the service. And so if you are a guest this morning, I would love to meet you. Pastor Ben would love to meet you. We’re actually going to be serving the special treat. So make sure that you stick around and get in line so that you can introduce yourselves and tell us what brought you here today.

And we can just thank you for being with us. If you’re online, there are online host in there that will do the same for you. And so what’s so incredible about living in the day and age that we do? The digital age is if you haven’t been with us, if you go on our website, sgatechurch.org and you click on the tab media and you click on Watch on Demand, it takes you to this page and you’ll see there where it says books of the Bible in yellow. And we’ve been through several books of the Bible over the last eight years. And so every single one of the sermons, 59 to date, today’s sermon number 60 on the entire series is there for you, and it’ll be there until Jesus comes back. Isn’t that incredible when we give God praise for that? So go ahead. You can clap for that. But on behalf of Pastor Van and myself and the other, communicators here at Shepherds Gate, thank you for allowing us to do this as a community. God has stretched and grown us in so many ways. In fact, I would like to ask you this morning how many of you. You’ve been here since the very beginning, when we first kicked the sermon series off, which would have been January of 2023. How many of you just go ahead, raise your hands. Look at that. Look all around the room. Now, how many of you joined us? Starting with Genesis part three, which would have been January of 2024.

How many of you been here since 2024? Go ahead and raise your hands. Okay, look. Several hands. Now, how many of you you just started this this year? So 2025 Genesis part five is been what you’ve been with us for. Go ahead and raise your hand. So isn’t that cool to see church just the way that God has moved in you to invite people and people that God has brought to be part of our faith community. What do you think is the hardest part about coming to an end of a good thing? What’s that? What’s next? Jesus comes back, or we all go on a trip to Israel. And we only go to the biblical sites found in Genesis. Who wants to go with me? Oh you do. You skip all the stuff that Jesus did. We’ll just stick to the book of Genesis. I just think that would be cool, because you never hear about a trip to Israel. That’s just based on that. At the end of the service, we are going to give you an opportunity to tell us what book of the Bible you think we should preach through next. But isn’t it sometimes hard to know what to do? Some of you are readers, you’re avid readers, and my wife’s one of these, and you come to the end of your book and and you don’t know what to do. You’re like, man, there isn’t any other book, so there’s no more books in the series.

What am I going to read next? Or those of you that that love television and you watch series. And so it’s not just about a season finale, it’s a series finale. And there’s kind of this theme that permeates, throughout Hollywood and the shows that we watch. Because what usually happens when you get to the end of a of a book series or a TV series, you know, there’s a common theme. What is it? People die. And the reason the writers write that in, unless they’re planning for a spinoff, is because they don’t want anybody else to be able to come and to duplicate the work that they have done. I personally think all the writers in Hollywood got their idea from God, because God’s the author of Scripture. And in the last few verses in the last chapter of Genesis, that’s exactly what’s taking place. Pastor Ben last week walked us through how Jacob, who’s been with us all of part four and almost all of part five, passes away. I mean, this is this is the patriarch Jacob. And we have seen and we have learned every single thing about this man. Nothing has been, you know, left to to question in his life. And so here’s what happens. He dies. And one of his sons, Joseph, gets all of his brothers together. They take his body from Egypt, where they’re at.

They bring it all the way back to the promised Land in Canaan, because that’s where he said he wanted to be buried, along with some of the other family members that are already there. And so now they go back to Egypt, and they have to figure out how to do life without dad. How do you do life without grandpa? And what’s so intriguing about the passage is that it tells us this next, that when Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, like they were there, they saw him, you know, put him in the ground. They looked at each other and said to each other, what if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him? So all of a sudden, there’s this fear that comes and grips their heart. They’re looking back. Decades ago, back when Joseph was 17 and these same brothers came up with this idea that they were going to sell him into slavery. And so now they’re kind of wondering, now that dad’s gone and dad’s out of the picture, does this mean that we’re going to have to struggle? Does this mean that that we’re going to have to, like, really suffer the wrath of Joseph? Is Joseph finally going to get his revenge for what we did to him so long ago?

Now, I want you to think about this in our lives, because I believe funerals, when our loved ones pass away, can be some of the most meaningful times where family and friends gather together. And of course, there’s mourning and there’s there’s tears, and there’s just a lot of emotion. Sharing the stories and remembering the legacy that that these people had on our lives. But I can tell you almost equally, what happens is oftentimes in funerals when someone dies and families are at odds with each other, and there’s friction and there’s unforgiveness, that they can actually be some of the most miserable times. I’ve sat with families where you can sense and you can feel almost a tangible tension in the room as you’re planning the funeral service and the luncheon and you know the burial afterwards, because you you realize that people are just trying so hard to just pretend like they all get along because they know they just got to get through this last segment of their loved one’s life, and then they’ll all disperse after the funeral is over and continue to live separately. And usually it’s the result of unforgiveness.

It’s because someone has said or done something and there’s an offense that still has not been addressed. And so this kind of attitude or this kind of feeling just lingers on in way too many families. Look what happens in our text. These brothers are so fearful that they don’t actually even go and talk to Joseph themselves. I mean, they’ve had plenty of time to have conversation with him, but they’re so fearful that they actually send word to him saying, your father left these instructions before he died. In other words, hey, Joseph, just so you know, dad wanted you to know this when he was dead. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please. Please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father. And how does Joseph respond? He weeps. And this is a pattern that we’ve seen over the last several weeks. When he revealed himself to his brothers. That’s what he did. He he wept and he said, listen, it’s me. I’m your brother. I’m the one that you sold into slavery.

And he was the one that wrapped his arms around them and kissed them and and offered them forgiveness in that moment, over and over again, the way that we see Joseph extending mercy and grace that these guys did not deserve. He’s weeping because it’s still on the heels of his own father passing away. And now here he’s getting toward the end of his life, and he realizes that these guys are still having difficulty truly understanding how it works when it comes to knowing who God is, in the way that God offers his grace and mercy and forgiveness to us, and how we are then to extend it to others. Look at what the brothers do. They come and they throw themselves before him, and they utter these words. These are crazy words. We are your slaves. They said, I mean, imagine being weighed out in front of your brother and being willing to be that humble and to utter those words. But are they really repenting? Are they really understanding what this moment means? Because it’s kind of interesting that they, if you look at the scriptures, have yet to admit that what they have done is wrong. There is no recorded scripture of them confessing their sins until we get all the way to verse 18 in the last chapter of Genesis.

This is the first time that we actually see them admitting that what they did was wrong, and they’re doing it through a messenger, and they’re doing it through the back door and they’re doing it through, hey, just, you know, this is what dad wanted you to remember after he was gone. And so finally here, now, finally, there’s some level of admitting that they mistreated their brother. Which makes me wonder, is this just like a human condition that we’ve dealt with for thousands of years? Like, are any of you in here? Would you consider yourself a quick forgiver? Anybody like, you’re just like Johnny on the spot with this. Someone steals from you. Someone lies. Someone sends you a text or an email that’s inappropriate. Someone post something on social media you don’t appreciate. Someone offends you and you’re just like, oh, no big deal. Just forgive them. Anybody? There wasn’t anybody at nine either. Why does it take us so long to repent? Christ. Pride. What else? Feelings. Hurt feelings. Shame. Stubbornness. Justice. Lack of justice. And yet, that’s exactly what Jesus has called us to do as his followers. Likewise. Why does it take us so long to forgive anger? Anger? Let’s be honest.

As humans, sometimes it feels really good to hold a grudge, doesn’t it? Sometimes it feels good. And this is one of my many sins to get mad at people that tailgate I cannot stand and likewise, I equally am upset with people that are on a freeway and they pump their brakes constantly because they’re tailgating the person in front of them. And if they just left more distance, I wouldn’t have to look at their lights going off and on and off and on and off and on on a freeway. And sometimes I say things that then I then have to apologize to my family for saying, and then I have to apologize to my God because I thought it and then, oops, it came out of my mouth. What about the deeper issues? What about when someone cuts you to the core, or you perceived that they cut you to the core, and so you hold onto this thing? Or think about it like this. Forgiveness is for the advantage of who is. The person that’s been offended. And the quicker that you can forgive, the quicker that you can work through a process of forgiveness. Even if the person is completely 100% at fault and even them. What they did is so awful that it doesn’t actually deserve what we would think should be forgiven. God says no, you’re going to forgive them anyways. Look what Joseph does. He says to them, don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

This is unbelievable that once again, here he is communicating to them and communicating to his entire family the way that he sees his life on this earth. I am not God. I’m the second ruler of all of Egypt. I can do it any whatever I want. I can snap my fingers and throw all of you in prison right now. I could make your life miserable. I could make your life a living hell. But I’m not going to do that because I’m not God. God knows what you did. I know what you did. And I’ve already forgiven you for that. And so you need to remember who God is and live your life in view of what it is that he has called you to do on this earth. God also says these words to us in Romans do not take revenge. That’s not our place. We’re supposed to leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written. It is mine to avenge. I will repay God’s the one that will figure out the punishment. God’s the one that will figure out what’s coming to the person that did the thing to our job is to four give. And now I want to show you one of the most incredible verses in Genesis. This is so cool what he says next. Because imagine if we lived our lives the way Joseph did. He looks at them and he says these words again, you intended to harm me, but God, oh, man.

God turned around that awful situation and he turned it around and made it for his good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many souls. First, you thought you were going to murder me. Then you thought it would be a better idea to sell me into slavery. And look at what Almighty God did in this situation. What if we had that same posture with whatever hurt that has been done to us? What if we said, hey, this thing is in is in my life, and this thing has come at me and attacked me, and I am angry and I do not want to forgive and I want to take this other person out, I want retribution, I want justice, and God says, wait a second. First of all, let me handle that situation and pray in the way that I will ultimately bring justice to that situation. And likewise, I am the only one that can take whatever that situation is, even if it’s in the worst, awful circumstance and I can somehow make it good, I can somehow claim it for my glory and honor. And that’s exactly what God does with us. He says it again. Second time guys, stop living in fear. Stop being afraid. And he hits the heart of really what’s at stake here. Their lives, their livelihood and their families. I will provide for you. I’m going to take care of you. And oh, by the way, I’m going to make sure that your families, your children are taken care of as well. And then he reassures them.

He goes on to give them more words of affirmation. And then he spoke kindly to them. Man, this was his chance. Do you see this? Dad’s dead. This was his chance to get back. This was his chance to lash out at them and to give them what we as humans think. They deserve. And here comes Joel once again, doing the right thing and doing exactly the opposite of what our fallen, sinful nature wants us to do. And isn’t it so intriguing that that’s exactly what God does for us? And God is the one that looked down on this world and realized we were screwed up, going all the way back to the beginning of Genesis, when men were so evil, they thought about wickedness all the time. And he looks down and he realizes there’s a situation that has to be addressed. And so we get to Noah and his family, and he saves them and he covenants with them. And now all of a sudden, the earth begins to repopulate. And we get to where we’re at now in Genesis because of all of the lineage that God had planned from the very beginning of time, God over and over again, knowing that one day he would send His Son Jesus to this earth, that he’s the one that we’re about to celebrate next week as we kick off Holy Week, that Jesus is the one that would walk the earth, and he would deal with disciples that were always confused and always thought he should have a different agenda than what he actually had. A Savior who hangs on a cross and looks over humanity. And then he looks up at his Heavenly Father and he says, you have to forgive them.

Forgive them, God, because they don’t even realize what they’re doing. So much so that the early church fathers caught up on this. And so God inspired them to write these words that we were dead in our sins when we were dead. That’s when Christ died for us. He did what we could never do for ourselves. We don’t get the privilege of holding on to unforgiveness. Did you know that? That’s not what he has for us. It’s not what he wants for us. And I realize some of you are in here, and maybe you’re dealing with this and you’re like, man, I wish that I wouldn’t have come to church this morning. I didn’t realize that this was going to be the end of Genesis. Some of you might be streaming it online and the temptations that turn it off. I just met with a member who was in tears after this service and what he told me, and the way that God orchestrated that he be at this service today, directly impacting what is going on in real time in his family’s life. And I believe there’s probably more that we hear at nine and more of you that are here at 11, because God knew that you needed to hear this. God orchestrated this sermon series, that I would end this way. Think of this message that God wants for us. Not holding on to that, especially as we approach Holy Week. What better time of the year to lean into this, to stop holding onto grudges, to actually forgive the person that we despise, that we hate? And maybe if we would be willing to admit it, maybe we even want them off planet Earth. So I’m going to tell you how you can do this. You ready?

If that’s you this morning and the weight of that offense is deep inside of here, this is how you do it. Number one is this you pray a prayer of blessing over that person. Amen. Let me say it again. You pray a prayer of blessing over that person and it goes something like this. Heavenly father, will you bless her? God, would you prosper? Amen. God, would you somehow wrap your loving arms around the person that I despise the most? God, I can’t do this. I need you to help me. I don’t want to pray a prayer of blessing over them. And as you continue to do that, as you continue to release that into your heart, guess who’s getting the healing you are? And if you want to take it up another notch. Ready for this? Serve them. Sometimes we forget that Jesus actually washed Judas’s feet before he looked him in the eye, and he ran out of that upper room. You want to break that heart of unforgiveness? Go through these steps because this is what Jesus did for you and for me. It says here that Joseph stayed in Egypt along with his father’s family. He lived 110 years old. Is that incredible or why all that that guy’s been through? He saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. So he’s got two kids. Ephraim in the NASA. Also, the children of, Macher, son of Manassa, were placed at, at birth on Joseph’s knees. And so this is really cool. Those of you that have had babies and you’ve been blessed in families where you can actually give your little baby to not just your grandparents, but to your great grandparents, and to be able to have those special moments. I know, a friend of mine here at Shepherd’s Gate, she’s in this moment right now as she just birthed the child, and she was able to to bless her grandma, which is her child’s great grandma, and be able to have those moments as they know that her days are coming to an end on earth.

What a blessing that God would bestow this on Joseph. So as he turns to his brothers and he says, I am about to die, but God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land. In the land he promised an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Oh, by the way guys, everything looks great right now and everything’s being taken care of right now. But you need to keep in mind that if things get worse or it isn’t as nice as it is right now, that your faith and your hope and your aid will come from God. And so he made his family, the Israelites swear on oath. God will surely come to your aid, and you must carry my bones up from this place. Swear to me that you understand what I just said about who God is in our family. Yes, we got you, Joe. And now listen, when I die, I want to make sure that I’m not here in Egypt. I want to be back with my family where my family’s buried in Canaan. And if you want to know who and when that happens, then you need to pick Exodus at the end of the sermon. Okay? If not, go read it yourself. Here’s what happens. This is really significant. Are you ready for this? There’s only one verse left. We have made it to the final verse of Genesis. And so I would like us all to read this together. So Joseph died at the age of 110. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. Can we just, like, linger in this moment for a few seconds? I this has been absolutely incredible, the way that our church has responded to this and in the way that God is. Use it as a tool to make us and form us into the image of his son. Amen. Well, I want you to grab that card that the ushers gave you on the way in, because this is what’s next.

Some of you are new. Some of you maybe you don’t realize, we’ve actually covered several books in the Bible, in just the last eight years. So our church is 45 years old, but going through a book of the Bible is something we’ve only been doing for the last eight years. And so you can see here on the screen all of the books of the Bible. And, when we were originally talking about this, Pastor Ben and I were talking about this, we said, well, maybe we should just ask the church. Which book of the Bible do you want us to preach through next? And Pastor Ben, in his wisdom, said, you can’t do that because they’ll all take revelation. Which is really cool, because the 12 tribes of Israel are actually mentioned in revelation. So here’s what we did. It’s why you have the card you can see there that it tells you all the books that have been completed. And if you flip over the card, if you haven’t done that already, you can see that we’re asking you to rank them in order one, two and three. And we kind of have a point system that we’re going to use. If you’re watching online, you can do this too. There should be a link in the live chat. If you’re not on the live chat, get on the live chat. If you want to take the card home and do it later, you can do that. But the best thing to do is just scan that QR code. It’s really quick. It’s really easy. You can do that. Or if you want to fill out the physical card today and drop it off with the ushers after the service, you can do that as well. So just out of curiosity, how many of you want to do an Old Testament book again? How many of you out there? Go ahead, raise your hand. Look around the room. Okay.

Now, how many of you were like, Genesis was great, but man, we need some New Testament up in here. Go ahead, raise your hands. All right. So look like a 6040 split. There. Now, can I talk to you as one of your pastors? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Because we’re about to take a massive left turn in our service next week kicks off Holy week. And there’s a couple of things I want to say about this. First, I want to make sure that you saw that we are going from 2 to 3 services starting on Palm Sunday. So the times are nine 3011 and 1230. So there is no nine, there is 11, but there is a 1230 as well, because we know that a lot of people are going to start coming back to church on Holy Week. In fact, a lot of our friends that we haven’t seen since Christmas are going to be back in our building, and you all need to be nice to them. Amen. Okay. Just want to make sure we’re on the same page. Here’s the thing. It’s the same thing that we kind of said for Ash Wednesday. Many of you, you’ve never really entered into Holy Week. You’ve never really experienced being committed to not just one of the services or Palm Sunday and Easter because you’re here on Sundays, but being part of all of the services that we have planned for you. And I want you to think about it in this regard. There’s four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The story of Jesus birth that we celebrate at Christmas out of the four Gospels is only mentioned in two.

If you put all four of them together. The Christmas account makes up for 4% of the entire gospel. You got that? 4% is on the birth of Jesus. Two out of the four Gospels, the remaining passages of Scripture, you could split because one half of that is on the three years of Jesus’s public ministry. The other half that is in the Gospels all revolve around eight days. One week, Jesus’s last week on earth. And if God is the author of Scripture, what do you think he really is emphasizing in the Gospels? Say Holy Week? That’s the right answer. Some of you are looking out there and you’re like, I’ve never been to a Monday Thursday service. Is that a misspelling? What is that? And I can tell you, when I came to Shepherds Gate, just as I had never been to an Ash Wednesday service, I’ve never been to a Monday Thursday service. Maundy Thursday service is where we come together and we remember what Christ did for us on the night he was betrayed, specifically in the upper room. Maybe you’ve never been to a Good Friday service. I’m telling you, the team has been working hard. It’s going to be absolutely powerful if you have a neighbor or friend. That’s another incredible service to invite them to where they’re going to get a clear gospel message.

And so what I want to encourage some of you to do is to go home today to look at your calendar for the following week and maybe take some things off of your calendar, maybe move some meetings to the following week. And for the first time ever in your life, donate or donate, or dedicate eight days to really immersing yourself into Holy Week and to see what that does with your relationship with the Lord and how that affects your faith. To be part of a Palm Sunday service and come back for Maundy Thursday, and then a good Friday. And then one of our five, we got five Easter services, two on Saturday, and again three on Sunday. And push yourself, challenge yourself to experience Holy Week and Easter in 2025 like never before. What do you think? Yeah. All right. Good. A couple other things before we reveal what our big surprises today. Okay. Three weeks ago, we handed you guys these cards. Do you remember this? We’re all here for this. And we just said we believe one of the themes for 2025 for our church is that we are going to invite someone. Every single person that call Shepherd’s Gate Home is going to is going to enter in to breaking past those barriers and inviting somebody to church. And aren’t you thankful that we live in a digital age when you can send somebody a text message, you don’t even have to call them on the phone to invite them to Easter.

You can take one of our cool digital cards and just send it right to their phone. Or you can do what I did this last week. I hid behind the bushes, and I waited for my neighbor to come out and retrieve his garbage cans, and I ran across the street and give him one of those cool plastic cups that are that our communication team came up with, that had candy in it, and an invite card. And I said, man, I would love for you to join us for one of our Holy Week and especially one of our Easter services. That’s what we get to do as a church. We’re also asking some of you to step up and to serve. We have multiple services. We have services that are added. We need greeters, ushers, people that would warmly welcome people, people that are just willing to be the hands and feet of Jesus during the Holy Week. And since you’re taking things off, your calendar would be great for you to come and to serve in God’s house for Holy Week. And then this final challenge, which this one always gets a little sticky, doesn’t it? Because our church doesn’t exist without the faithfulness and the generosity of those that call this place home. And so we are committed this year like never before, to encourage those who say this is their home church, like, this is my church to help you and to equip you and to give you the ability to begin to open up and to live generously with a portion of what it is that God has placed in your hand. And you have seen this play out in Genesis. My goodness, we’ve talked about this multiple times.

And some of you, you still have not experienced that. And we want you to experience listen to this, the joy of what that looks like in your life. Amen. So I have some really good news for you because we did talk about this three weeks ago. And then God does what he does. He stirred hearts of the people of our church. And so wouldn’t you believe that 73 households, over 70 households responded to that message, and that God used this sermon series, and that serving in particular to speak to people’s hearts? So, can we give God praise for this? Those of you that have always given. Thank you. Those of you that are on this list, you know who you are. Thank you. You are helping us spread the gospel and tell more and more people about Jesus. Some of you I know this is the first time you’ve ever done this and you’re stepping out in faith, and we’re so proud of you for doing that. And we can’t wait to hear the testimonies of what it is that God has done in your heart and in your life. Because now I’m going to end with the story. One of the things that kind of coincides with this, and it’s something that we have not done as a church in five years, and really it’s because of Covid. And when Covid broke out and and all of the things that we dealt with and what people were comfortable doing and not doing, one of the things that we stopped doing as a community of faith was passing an offering plate. And so having an offering used to be what was part of our worship service. And the reason we did that historically, is because we believe that our giving is an act of worship, that it is part of our worship experience. Because what we give, we give to the Lord. Amen. And so we were talking earlier this year, and I specifically talking with our church council, and they were kind of the ones that were saying, Tim, it may be time to bring this back and have this be part of our worship services. And I was like, people are so funny about money. If you bring it up and you know all this and that, now there’s all these people on Instagram that are, you know, saying negative things about offerings in churches, and I’m just getting annoyed by it.

And they said, listen, we support you and we are asking you to do this. This is our church council. And so they went around the table. You can ask them if you want to do council members. I’ll tell you who they are. One by one they said, Tim, we really think that this should be part of our worship service. We think this should be part of our worship service. We think this should be part of our worship service. And it got to one of our newer council members. He’s only been on since January. His name is Tom and he’s a he’s a young dad. He’s a he’s, has three little kids married to his wife Hannah. And this is what he said. He looked at me and he said, Tim, our giving is on automatic giving. And sometimes there feels like there’s a disconnect between, you know, doing that in our worship that we do to the Lord on Sunday mornings. And he said, I want you to bring back passing the offering plates for this reason, because I want my kids to see me putting an envelope in that plate as it comes down the aisle for two reasons. Number one, that they know that our household is financially supporting and giving a portion of what it is that God has blessed us with, too, because it’ll open up conversations with my kids on the ride home and even afterwards at the kitchen table. And when he said those words, I just said, how can you not do this? So are you ready for this church? Because I have not done this in five years. As the ushers are coming forward. Now. We are going to receive our offering this morning as an act of worship to our God. Now, if you’re a guest, please don’t feel obligated to give.

We’re just so thankful that this service can be a blessing to you, and we hope you’ll come back each and every week and check us out. And so at this time, if you want to grab, you can go ahead ushers. If you guys want to grab those cards, even if you want to talk to the people next to you about what books of the Bible they’re planning to vote on, you can do that during this time as well, but let’s just dedicate these next few moments to God as we respond to him with what it is that he has placed in our hands, through our tithes and our offerings. Through. These. Will you pray with me? Heavenly father, we thank you, God, for the incredible opportunity to respond to you through what it is that you have placed in our hands. And we ask now, God, for your blessing upon these offerings, that we continue to be used to glorify you, to continue to be used to to reach more and more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. God, we thank you for this incredible journey that we’ve been on as a church these last two and a half years, and reading your sacred word and how God, you have challenged us, you have called us up. You have forgiven us and God. Now we look forward to whatever that looks like for the future, especially as next week we kick off Holy Week as we lead toward Easter. God, we pray for the people that you’re going to bring through these doors, some that are hurting, some that are angry, some that just haven’t been in church in a long time, maybe never.

And they need to hear the hope and the mercy and grace that only you can provide to them. So, God, we ask for your blessing upon our planning team, all those that are working so diligently behind the scenes for all of the services that we are going to conduct here. But God, we know that you will do your great work in calling people to faith and bringing people back into your loving arms and reminding them that you love them and that you have a purpose and plan for them. So, God, now, as we close our time together in worship to you, we pray that this would be an anthem of our heart in our lives. God, we love you, we thank you, we pray all these things in your most holy and precious name. And all God’s people said, Amen. Will you please stand with me? We have a closing song, and what’s really cool about this closing song is the words that you are about to sing, are the words that we read from Romans and from Genesis. And so the two passages of scriptures are intertwined. So let this be a declaration of our faith and trust in hope. And then afterwards make sure you stick around for our special surprise. Let’s sing this together.