As soon as Rachel had born Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, send me away that I may go to my own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I've served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I've given you. But Laban said to him, if I found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Name your wages, and I'll give it. Jacob said to him, you yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock has fared with me. For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly. And the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also? He said, what shall I give you, Jacob said. You should not give me anything if you'll do this for me. I will again pasture your flock and keep it. Let me pass through all of your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and the spotted and the speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later when you come to look into my wages with you. Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen. Laban said, good, let it be as you have said. But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, everyone that had white on it and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob pastored the rest of Laban's flock. Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plain trees and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks. And so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban's flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock that they might breed among the sticks. But for the feebler of the flock, he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants, male servants, and camels and donkeys. Lord, here again we have deceit and trickery, and yet your plans are not thwarted even for a moment. There's even some strange stuff here to us, Lord. And when I think about 1 Corinthians 10, even these things were recorded for our benefit. And so, Lord, we lift up our pastor as he opens this text. Lord, help us to see the beauty even of this and how we can make application to it. And so we thank you for meeting with us in this hour. We pray you'd give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and just do a work in our hearts, Lord, make us more like Christ in this next hour. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Well, good morning. You all should be plenty of rested because you got that extra hour this morning or hour of sleep or however that works. It's good to see everybody here. When I meet somebody for the first time, one of the questions I want to get to, it's not the first question. I usually ask the name and where they're from first. But then I want to ask, what do you do? Or if I know they're retired, what did you do? I want to know work. I want to know how did you put bread on the table? Or real specifically, what are you skilled in? What are your skills? If we met Jacob and asked Jacob, what do you do? His reply would be, shepherding. I'm a shepherd. I keep the flocks. That's what I've done for Laban. Now here's the thing, as far as what Jacob's skilled in, certainly a shepherd is skilled to get the flock's water, keep them alive. There's another thing that Jacob's skilled in that he might not share. And that is trickery, deceit, shrewdness. So if we ask Jacob, what are you? And he gave a really honest answer. If he was honest, he could reply, I'm a sketchy shepherd. And sketchy, that's the word my kids would use. Sketchy, meaning that describes a person who is not honest or safe. And there's certainly some sketchy shepherding going on here. And that's a real sticky title. If you're taking notes, you might remember this message as the sketchy shepherd message. But that is not the main point. That's just a little tag for having a good title. The main idea is actually a theological one. It's not mainly about shepherding skills or sketchy skills or how do you outdo somebody who's done wrong to you because that could be a takeaway at a surface level, but that is not the main point here. The main idea is That those who are in covenant with God are lavished with His undeserved grace. That's what the story is really about. Those who are in covenant with God are lavished with His undeserved grace. And so we'll walk through that. Psalm 103 reminds us of that. That God does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities. Or none of us would be here right now. None of us would be here worshiping God. None of us would be coming to the communion table at the end of the service if God And so here we have yet another story which is kind of in the string of these stories. If you have been tracking in Genesis in the middle of the book and this epic expositional voyage we are going through. We are in the middle of the sea and it seems like each week people are messing up more and more. What is going on here? Why are there so many stories like this? Even though people keep making foolish decisions and doing that we continue to see and that is how strong and overruling God's grace is. how strong and overruling God's grace is in every step of the journey. Now, as far as the outline for the text this morning, it could be kind of complex where we went back and forth with Jacob and Laban and their conversation and their actions, but I'll just simplify it. There are two main characters, and both characters are met with this undeserved grace of God. Both are lavished with God's undeserved grace. So we're gonna see undeserved grace come to Laban, and we're gonna see that undeserved grace also come to Jacob. So let's begin with Laban. Undeserved grace for Laban. How was Laban lavished with undeserved grace? Start in verse 25 with me. That's the master plan. Remember whenever Isaac sent Jacob away, he said, go find yourself a wife. I want you to go to this specific place and bring one woman back. Don't bring a Canaanite woman back. Bring a woman back from my own family. And he's done that. It's taken a long time. In order to get a perspective of the length of time this is taking, you need to jump into chapter 31, verse 41. And to see that this particular thing that's happening in verses 25 to 43 takes six years time. So just do the math. Remember Jacob worked seven years to get what he thought was Rachel. He was deceived. He said I'll work another seven years to get Rachel. And even though he was added a wife, so that's 14 years. Another six years here, that's 20 years. Two decades. Now, the older you get, the decades go quicker, it seems like. I remember, you know, by the time I hit 20 years old, I felt like I'd lived a really long time now, like two decades goes quick. But either way, two decades is still a long amount of time. And there is even a discipleship lesson here. When it comes to discipleship, or following God's call, it's not a microwave thing, but it's a slow-cooked thing. So I'll probably go home today and find some leftovers and throw them. It's not actually a microwave, it's an air fryer. But still, I push four, it heats it up for four minutes. But the problem with the air fryer is it starts to take a lot of the moisture out, so it can get kind of dry. Compare that to if there was a nice, you know, pork roast that had been in the slow cooker or the crock pot all night or somebody was smoking some ribs. And there's a depth, there's a richness to that. And so we see how God works in his calling and in discipleship. It's not in the microwave or air fryer method of just get it done in a couple of minutes. But for there to be a real depth and a richness in our discipleship, it's often years, decades of God working in us. Now, we're gonna see two things here in this story. There is both a contract that Laban and Jacob get into, but then there's also a contest. That's where the sketchy shepherding comes in. First of all, as far as the context, after Jacob said, give me my wives, let me go from you back to my home country, in verse 27, Laban said to him, if I have found favor in your sight, I've learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Name your wages and I will get it. There, Laban is now negotiating another contract. Now, here's the thing. Laban doesn't wanna see Jacob go. He's a real asset to him. He's valuable as a shepherd. He doesn't see all the sketchy parts yet. They haven't come out. This is what's called the proverbial golden handcuffs. Let me give you some incentive so you'll stay. But if you were Jacob and you heard those words, tell me your wages. What's that gonna take your mind back to? The first time Laban says, tell me your wages. I want your daughter. I'll serve seven years to have her. In these very words, there's a potential of being massively deceived again. Jacob's learned how to be street smart here. And so even when he hears, name your wages, Jacob says to him in verse 29, you yourself know how I've served you and how your livestock have fared with me for you had little before I came and it has increased abundantly and the Lord has blessed you wherever I've turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household? He wants to be a responsible man and provide for his own family, not be living in this servitude to Laban forever. And he said, what shall I give you? Jacob said, you shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it. So it seems like he's kind of waffling to decide whether to stay and keep pasturing his flock, but he does ask for something. It may even sound confusing. Don't give me anything yet. I do want this one thing, but it's actually a small ask. He says, let me pass through all your flock in verse 32, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and every spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. Now in the ancient world, a shepherd typically took 20% of the flock as his own wages. Now what Jacob would have asked for would have been way lower of a percent. The amount of sheep that actually had some kind of spotted blemish or were discolored was very small compared to that normal 20%. So it almost seems like Jacob is being very gracious in this. Now, the whole contract seems to be drawn up in lines of integrity in verse 33. So my honesty will answer me later. When you come and look at my wages, everyone that is not spotted and speckled among the goats and black among my lambs have found with me, shall be counted stolen. Just so you know that I'm not going to hide some of these better unblemished sheep in my folds. You can come check me. This is going to be done in total honestness. Well, That leads to now the contest. Starting in verse 35, there's going to be a contest in sketchiness. They're going to try to out-sketch each other. I'm just making up words as I go along here for today. Notice in verse 34, first of all, Laban says, good. I'm down with this. Let's shake hands. Let's do the deal here. Look at verse 35. That's not how this was supposed to go. So Laban has his hand in sketchy shepherding. He has his sons take all the sheep that Jacob should have had. And to take those, set them apart, a three days herding distance between them so that those couldn't mix or mingle at all. Again, this was not part of the plan. The plan in verse 32 is that Jacob does this, but Laban decides he's going to do this, not Jacob, and have his sons oversee these sheep. Laban's a shrewd man, a guy who can outmaneuver you in a business deal. And here's another thing, when you live in deception, your constant fear is that somebody else is gonna get you. So I think that's behind what Laban is doing, is that this may come back at me. I may be the victim of something here. The wisdom of Proverbs gives those type of warnings. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts rolling it, starts a rolling. In other words, Laban knows that he has been working in deception, that he's been sketchy. And so he's putting a safe distance to make sure that this doesn't hurt him at all. Proverbs 28.10, also, whoever misleads the upright into an evil way will fall into his own pit. In Laman's terms, again, if you're sketchy, eventually someone else who's sketchy is going to get one on you. People who live like Laban have this lingering fear, it's going to come back to me. I can't imagine living like that. Maybe it's even somebody here today. You've been in some type of deception or lie or there's something that you're living in that you are fearing you're going to be found out or somebody is going to get you. But looking at the outside of this, what does Laban deserve? Well, again, think of how this all came about. First of all, how does Laban seek his guidance? Jump up back to verse 27. But Laban said, if I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination. Divination. That is not the godly way to seek revelation from God. This is essentially a pagan way, the way of witchcraft, the way of finding omens. So just imagine somebody starting out a sentence like this, you know, I've been dabbling in the occult. I've been playing with a Ouija board. They're setting it up like that. They don't deserve to have the true and living God reveal truth to them, do they? You are trying to seek through witchcraft and pagan means of finding the Lord's will. He's also a shrewd man who behind the kindness of his words, the flattery, he's a slave driver. That's what Laban is, a slave driver. It's flattery and he does it in a way that you think he's friendly towards you. Laban is something of a foil to Pharaoh. This whole scene has something of a foreshadowing of the Israelites when they're in Egypt. It's sort of a mini Exodus story. Here's Jacob saying, let me go. We know that the Israelites would eventually say, Pharaoh would be told, let my people go, that they may worship me. But he doesn't want to let them go. He wants to keep them. You can kind of see there's this building up that plot there. Yet, here's the strange thing. Laban is lavished upon, isn't he? He sees it comes through one way. Notice both in verse 27. Even though he's seeking this answer through divination, it's the Lord has blessed him. The Lord. Just to mention, whenever you see Lord in all capital letters in your Bibles, that is Yahweh. It's the covenant name of God. Later, Jacob affirms it too. You didn't have much before I came, but when I came, you all of a sudden started prospering. There's been all this stuff lavished on you. Why? Because the Lord has lavished it on you. The Lord has blessed you wherever I turn. It's the Lord. Now, in a technical sense, Laban is not in covenant with God. Jacob is. So again, the point here is that those in covenant with God are an instrument of grace to others. By being around those who are in covenant with God, God ends up blessing. Again, this isn't making a statement on Laban's salvation. It's just saying that he was blessed materially. He prospered because he was around one who was in covenant with God. How do we apply that? What does that look like? Well, think about it. In one sense, the principle remains true today. Those who are in covenant with God, in the new covenant in Christ, are an instrument of grace to others. In other words, God has put people in your direct circle to be a salt and light, to be an instrument of gospel witness, even at the prayer level. We were having a dinner conversation one day. It's a great time to do family devotions and have spiritual conversations. And we were talking about some of the kids that my kids go to school with. probably grow up and live in some really rough circumstances and hard homes. And I just made the comment, you know, some of those kids probably have never had somebody pray for them. Think about that even as you maybe pass strangers on the street. That person may have never had somebody who knows the Lord actually pray for them. You know, it's easy to get annoyed and miffed at the rudeness and crudeness of people, but some people just, they've never even had that instrument of praying grace in their lives. So what does this mean? In one sense, never think of your Your family, your neighborhood, your job is just ordinary or secular. These are all spaces where God has placed you who, if you live in covenant with him, can be an instrument of grace. That does not mean that you save anybody. You don't impart grace, but you can be a channel of grace through prayer, through being a salt and light, through being a testimony, through sharing the gospel, through inviting people to church, doing stuff like that. God has kept you as an instrument of grace. And actually, after I preached the first service, a brother grabbed me real quick. He said, hey, something that you said happened almost exactly in my life this last week. And he shared a family dynamic situation where he said, yeah, this is how it worked. So God has placed you to be an instrument of grace to other undeserving people, to people who don't simply deserve it. Now, that does take a lot of things. It takes patience. It takes compassion. It takes humility. And it takes love, but we can do it for God's glory. So we do see God's lavish, undeserved grace coming to Laban, but we see it also specifically coming to Jacob. Shifting gears here, starting in verse 37. The scene moves to Jacob. Jacob's been outwitted by Laban. Now he's ready to outdo him, outmaneuver him. Now, you know, Laban has had this coming, hasn't he? If you're a person who loves to see revenge happen, if that's how you're wired, If maybe even you're just living with some burning anger and you've been wronged and you're like, yeah, this is how it should look. This guy had it coming to him finally now. You may like this story, but you'll miss the point. The point isn't that this is how you should act or treat others. Now the sketchy tactics start to come out in verse 37 to 39. Jacob takes these fresh sticks, he peels a bunch of bark off of it to reveal these streaks, puts those in front of these animals as they are getting watered, and then the expectation is that they will breed and come out spotted and speckled. In other words, you just pull the bark off, you set it in front of the sheep, and out comes what you desire. Here's the thing, if you're really confused by that, so are some scholars who've written biblical commentaries and say, what is going on? There's actually one, I think he's a rabbi who tried to back this up scientifically and said, I think this is actually what's going on, this could naturally happen. Jacob's breeding just sounds flat out superstitious, doesn't it? Like there's so much superstition built into here. Pull these branches apart, put them in front of the sheep, and out comes your speckled and spotted flock that you should have. That just sounds so superstitious. Are we really any different in some of the things that maybe we buy into? I kid you not that this was when my wife was, she was pregnant and we were having kids years ago. But I remember a Bible-believing Christian who was a good friend of ours said, you know what? There's this theory that if you keep a pair of shoes under your bed that you'll have boys. I know some of you are going to go home and check under the bed, aren't you? Okay. There's still like these superstitious things that we kind of look into and think, well, maybe there's something there. The shoes under the bed, the spotted or the branches in front of the sheep and outcomes. You know what's missing here is any faith moment where Jacob is looking to the sovereignty of God in all this. Now later he does affirm the sovereignty of God. We have to wait until next week to see that, but it just sounds like a sketchy shepherding tactic. You look again at verses 41 to 42. Jacob now separates the lambs and sets the faces of the flocks towards the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He puts his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban's flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock that they might breed among the sticks. Still doing the superstitious thing, but now he gets shrewd with it. For the feebler of the flock, he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. Now, okay, this is where he's getting his desired outcome. He wants the stronger sheep. He wants Laban to have the weaker. There's almost a little play on this with the revenge. There's this poetic justice now coming back to Laban. She was the daughter that was given to Laban who had the weak eyes. That's one of the things that Leah's name means, weaker eyes. Now what Jacob, or what Laban's gonna get is the weaker sheep. Ah, see him smiling in this. You were gonna give me something weak that I didn't desire. Now I'm giving you something weak that you didn't desire. See how this goes? Revenge. Friends, scripture is really clear. Revenge is not your work. It's not my work. It's not my job. We don't say, okay, I believe that God is gonna make my enemy fall in the pit, because that's what it says. If he's digging a pit, then he's gonna fall into it. It's not our job to try to lead the enemy to the pit, is it? You don't need to try to lead your enemy to that pit and say, now, justice is done. Romans 12, 19 says, this is the way of Christians. Beloved, never avenge yourselves. Notice it says never. It doesn't matter how deep the wrong and injustice is. It says, never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. So if you're just soothing with anger and revenge towards somebody, do you believe this? Do you believe that you can not avenge yourself, leave it to God? And God says in his word, vengeance is mine, I will repay. God will see that justice is done. Well, so my point is don't look at Jacob as a model of how you're supposed to get somebody back who's wronged you. Our hearts can easily go in that direction. So this isn't a do likewise. Instead, be like Christ. Well, there's the conclusion in verse 43. It almost sounds like a vindication for Jacob, doesn't it? Even though he was doing all these sketchy things, he's vindicated. Finally, after two decades of service, Jacob finally got him back, right? Again, the point is not vindication. That's not the way of Christ. And that would totally butcher the application if we went that way, to see how to repay swindlers or how to out sketch the sketchy. Again, to be reminded that those who are in covenant with God, are lavished with this undeserved, unmerited grace. That's what we're seeing in verse 43. A man who's in covenant with God who is lavished with unmerited, undeserved grace. That's why verse 43 is able to say that. In fact, this is God upholding his promises that he said earlier. Remember, Jacob has that great revelation. In Bethel, when he meets the Lord, and the Lord says, Behold, I am with you. I will keep you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land. I mean, these are some strong promises of God. This is a very strong call. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised to you. That's a strong revelation. Even reflecting on those words, I will be with you. Those words are also true and powerful for us who believe in Christ. Look at this amazing man who had this incredible encounter. Jesus says those same words. I referenced this earlier when we heard this but it's good to re-hear it again. I will be with you also does not mean that the path is going to be easy and the journey is going to be quick. Sometimes we think that's the way that God works. Just because God says, Christ says, I will be with you does not mean that what he calls you to do, what's gonna happen in your life and your path of discipleship is gonna be easy or quick. Jesus said just the opposite. If you're gonna be my follower, take up your cross, deny yourself daily and follow me. It's through many tribulations that we enter the kingdom of God. But the fact is, here's the story now. Jacob comes to Laban. is one lonely man, but he leaves lavished. Again, you're seeing almost a little picture of the Exodus story. The Israelites go into Egypt as a small group, they come out lavished, they come out spoiling the Egyptians with all kinds of blessings from the Lord. And so maybe there's that. Whenever this was being read by the Israelites, And they're thinking, wow, God has just treated us so well, so lavishly. We didn't deserve any of this. And then they read, this is actually your family history. This isn't the first time he's done it. Look at the patriarch. Look at Jacob, who came as one lonely man, but because he was in covenant with God, God lavished his grace on him, and it was totally undeserved. Friends, if we are lavished with blessing, it is for one reason, because the covenant God has met us. His grace comes to us and we don't deserve it at all. So give him all the thanks and glory, which leads us finally to the undeserved grace we have in Christ. There are some really sketchy characters in the Bible. We're encountering two of them today. There are quite a few others in the storyline of Scripture. These are not the only two sketchy characters in the Bible. But the Bible doesn't point us to these sketchy shepherds as our heroes, does it? In fact, you could say all of the heroes of the Bible are spotted, blemished, just like the sheep that Jacob was choosing. Instead, The Bible calls us to look at the good shepherd, the chief shepherd. Look at 1 Peter, who, you know, Peter's also one of those blemished characters, is an apostle, who denied that he knew the Lord Jesus Christ, who would kind of foolishly run into something with a lot of zeal, only to be rebuked by Jesus because he loved him. This is what Peter writes about Jesus, who'd spent several years of his life with this man. And he's able to say, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live the righteousness. Friends, when I look at that portrait of Jesus Christ, I say, after reading this story of the sketchy shepherd, that is the polar opposite of Jacob. Here, the polar opposite of Jacob. Jesus committed no sin. Jacob's sins are all over the place here. Neither was there deceit found in his mouth. He didn't need to do any sketchy shepherding, did he? When he was reviled, when he was wronged, when he suffered, even though he could have justly, like he said, I could call legions of angels right now to deal with this, he did not. But out of his love and patience, he endured. He continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. Never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God. Vengeance is mine, I will repay. Jesus lived that out. And he did that so he himself bore our sins in the body, in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. You know, friends, there's a reason why when you pull into this church property, we don't have a shrine erected that has a statue of Jacob. We don't even know what the guy looks like. But when you do pull into the church property, you see a cross that our Savior died on. Rebore our sins in His body on that cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He is our hope. So friends, this is how God's covenant and grace are lavished on you through Christ and through Christ alone, his perfect work and love. Again, just to summarize, lavished, undeserved grace, that has actually always been in the heart of God. That has always been the way he saves people. 2 Timothy 1, 9 says that God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ before the ages began. before the ages began. Wrap your mind around that, that God had a plan, had you in mind, if you're his elect, to save you, to lavish his grace on you. Again, just closing, Jacob is not our moral standard, Jesus Christ is, always. As we close, let me just give four quick takeaway applications here. Again, this is one of those passages I read at the beginning of the week, said, Lord, what do you want me to say to your people? Because this just seems outrightly confusing. But I think as we dig in, we can find some things that the Lord wants to say to us today. First of all, let this story give you hope. If you are not a Christian, if you're not a believer in Christ, if you're not a Christ follower today, you're actually in a great place. I hope you didn't come here thinking, well, there's just gonna be a bunch of people who judge me and tell me how undeserving I am. The gospel message is not make yourself more deserving. The gospel message is you are undeserving, just like every other person who's a Christian here is undeserving. The gospel message is come to Christ with your undeserving life. Bring your undeserving life to Christ. And he promises if you look to him in faith, to lavish grace on you. So if you are the non-Christian here, let this give you hope. Don't be crushed in despair, but let it give you hope. Secondly, if you're a Christian, let this humble you. Let it humble you. If for some reason you start to think that you are deserving, hopefully that message in Sunday school that you heard would cut you as well. Let's never become like the Pharisees who think by keeping traditions and stuff like that, that we're deserving. Let it humble you. Let it give you patience towards others. Sometimes in our Christian life, we can start becoming really impatient with others who maybe you're a little further along in your spiritual maturity than they are. Just remember, you're just as undeserving as they are. Just as undeserving. So this should keep us very patient. Nothing crushes a critical spirit more than knowing how undeserving you are. And finally, let it cause all of us to make much of Christ and his covenant love towards his people. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you don't treat us as our sins deserve. If we really sat and dwelled on even the sins that we can think of right now, which isn't even scratching the surface of the ones that are truly there before your holiness, oh, we are so undeserving. Even if we reflected probably on the last couple days or last week, we know how undeserving we are. But I thank you that you meet us with rich, lavish grace. Not because we deserve it. Not because of us, but because of your namesake, Father. Lord, however you choose to use this word today, please use it. Whether it was the word preached now or the word we heard from Matthew 15. Father, save, strengthen, sustain your people through your word. Through the grace of your spirit, in Jesus' name, amen. This time I'll call the men forward as we prepare our hearts to take communion together. As they're coming up, I wanna read from Psalm 103. I referenced it in the sermon at one point early on, that He does not deal with us according to our sins nor repay us according to our iniquities. That is why we can come to the table this morning in this hope that through the gospel that God does not treat us the way that we deserve. But before that, at the beginning of Psalm 103, It says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. And later on it says, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love, his covenantal love. As we prepare our hearts to take the supper together, I want to invite you if you have faith in Jesus Christ and you can hear the words of that psalm and say, I believe that's true. For me, because of what Christ has done, that he has removed my transgressions so far, that he does not count my sin against me because he laid it on Jesus, we invite you to come to the table together with us. If you are living in hard-hearted, unrepentant rebellion, now we all need the constant grace of Jesus. We confess our sins regularly because we know that we sin daily. But there's a difference between that and having a hard heart where you have no desire to repent, where your heart is hardened against the Lord. And it can actually be, this was very instructive as well for the Sunday school hour, it doesn't have to look like that flagrant, prodigal son. It can also be that hard-hearted self-righteousness of the Pharisees. But if that is you, then let the cup pass. There's warnings in scripture not to take this meal in an unworthy way. So we're going to pray here in a moment. We're also going to confess our faith together through the Apostles Creed, which we've done for several months now. Let me just say a few qualifying things before we do this. There are two phrases that sometimes if you haven't been, if you didn't grow up in a church that's done this, or if you're just not used to saying this creed together, you may be confused about or even uneasy with, and that is the Holy Catholic Church and that Jesus descended to hell. First of all, the Holy Catholic Church is not the Roman Catholic Church. The Holy Catholic Church is every believer who confesses this truth together. And so, you can in good conscience say this because all Christians can say it together and confess this. Jesus descended into hell. Let me also mention one thing. Starting in 2025, on some Wednesday nights, we're going to be doing part of the exhortation time is going to be an exposition on the doctrines of the Apostle's Creed. So there'll be more study and explanation of it. Jesus descending into hell, I believe, and the intent was, it simply means that Jesus, during those three days, was dead. He suffered the punishment of actual death, which was the punishment that Adam, under that covenant in the garden, that God said, if you eat the fruit of the tree, you're going to die. Jesus took that on. He actually did die. And so I think in your conscience, if you're wondering, is this saying something about where Jesus' soul was? Did he actually literally go to hell? I hope to explain more of that later on, but when I'm confessing it, I think I'm just stating Jesus, he did literally die. His body was physically dead for those three days. We'll talk about where his soul was on those three days, but that's how I'm confessing it with other Christians together. So if you can confess those in good faith in your conscience, then we'll all say it together so we can pull that up here Church let's confess our faith together as a way of showing our communion with one another I believe in God the Father Almighty creator of heaven and earth I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary and He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there, he come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Let's pray. Father, thank you. As we confess these truths together, we confess them not because of a tradition, but because they are true in scripture. Because your word has taught us these things. We thank you, Lord, that you are the creator and the redeemer through Christ. We thank you that you came to this earth And it is 1 Peter said that he lived that perfect obedient life to you. There's no spot wrinkle or blemish in him that he bore all of our sins in his body on the tree so that we may die to sin. and live to righteousness. By his wounds we are healed. We are once sheep going astray, but thank you that by your grace you have returned us to you, our chief shepherd and overseer of our souls. We thank you and praise you. May this time feasting on the benefits of Christ and what he's done on the cross, may it strengthen our souls and our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. you Let's sing that song, Behold. Behold the Lamb who bears our sins away, slain for us. And we remember the promise made that all who come in faith find forgiveness at the in this bread of life and we drink of his sacrifice as a sign of our bonds of peace around the table of the King. We get our instructions for taking the supper from the letter that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. Apostle says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took the bread, and after he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Feast, brothers and sisters, on all the saving benefits of Christ's death for you. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Drink and feast your hope on the new covenant blessings in Christ, friends. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Come, Lord Jesus. Why don't you just stand? Let's sing the last verse of the song we were just singing. That'll be our closing song. Let's sing together. And so with thankfulness and faith we rise to respond and to remember our call to follow in the steps of Christ as his mighty here on earth. As we share in His suffering We proclaim Christ will come again And we'll join in the Feast of Heaven Around the table of the King Around the table ♪ Around the table of the King ♪ I love this doxology from 1 Timothy. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. ♪ He is mighty to save ♪