It's a beautiful day out here. It's a beautiful day out here. so so It's okay. so It's so hard. You're welcome. You're welcome. We are the children of God, we are the children of God. so so Well, good morning. Good to have you with us today. I know sometimes it's hard to pry away from all the goodies downstairs, but maybe all that coffee will keep you perking, huh? All right, so we got some more Christmas carols. We're actually singing Christmas carols throughout the whole month. There's a lot of them. So we got five weeks, and we'll be singing them throughout those five weeks. So Chris is going to come and lead us. The first one here is number 151. 151, good Christian men rejoice. 151. Well, good morning, everyone, and put on your best Christmas face and please rise. We'll sing verses one and two of hymn number 151, Good Christian Men Rejoice. When Christian men rejoice, heart and soul and voice, give ye to what we say. News, news, Jesus Christ is born today. Ox and ass before Him bow. He is in the manger now. Christ is born today. Christ is born today! Good Christian men, rejoice! Heart and soul and voice, Thou, ye hero men, is this joy, joy! Jesus Christ was born this day. And if you'd like to turn ahead to hymn number 166, and we'll sing verses 1 and 2. We Three Kings of Oriadar. We three kings of Aurilla, bearing gifts we traverse afar. Feeling founded, o'er a mountain, following yonder star. Star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to the perfect light. Born a king of Bethlehem's flame, Gold I bring to crown him again, Sing forever, sing, never over us ought to reign. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us with thy perfect light. Good thinking, you may be seated. Okay, not a lot of announcements here, but I figure most of you guys got busy schedules. But just a kind of reminder for those that join us for Wednesday night Bible study, you get two weeks off for good behavior since one of them's on Christmas Day and the other one's on New Year's Day. But we'll pick it up after that. And then looking forward to the 19th of January, we'll have our annual business meeting and election officers and we Do have our regular services in the morning, have a potluck, and then the annual meeting after that. So, something there to be thinking about. Okay? All right. Most of you probably already picked those up, but if you weren't here, I don't know if it was last week when they handed them out, but those offering envelopes, for you, if you weren't here, we put them in your mailboxes so you can pick those up. That's for the new year. Okay? All right. Good enough. Alley, Houston's. heading home from Michigan here today. And I don't know exactly what time she left, but let's pray for her. She's probably going through Chicago about now. Stay in your lane, get behind a big truck, and just stay there. Yeah, not too close. Right. All right. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness to us today. We thank you for the way that you do meet our needs day by day, week after year, week and year after year. Thank you that Tom's able to be with us here today with his new knee. Pray you'll continue to ease the pain there and help him as he gets used to moving around with that. We do pray for Allie as she's heading home from college and give her safe journeys through Chicago and on home here. Coming up on Wednesday has tonsils taken out. Pray that that would be successful. You'd give the doctors the skill to do that, help her on her recovery from that as well. Thank you for the way that you do, again, meet our needs. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, ready to sing again. How about If they are up on the screen here, I forgot to say something about it out of routine here But if you want to use a hymnal 136 the first know well, we'll be singing one three and six Well if you still have your Christmas smiles on please stand and we'll sing verses 1 3 & 6 of the first know well The first Noel the angels did say, But to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay, In fields where they lay keeping their sheep, On a cold winter's night that was so deep, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel. And by the light of that same star Three wise men from country far To seek for a king was their intent And to follow the star, wherever it winds, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel. born is the King of Israel. Six is the last. And let us all, with one accord, sing praises to our heavenly Lord. And heaven and earth, and earth of God, And with His blood mankind hath fought. Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel. And if you'd like to turn ahead to hymn number 144, and we'll just sing the first two verses of How Great Our Joy. Oh, by the sheep we've offset night, Glad tidings calling angels bright, That in our joy, in our joy, Joy, joy, joy. Joy, joy, joy. Praise the Lord in heaven on high. Praise the Lord in heaven on high. Verse two. There shall we most surely be safe in Bethlehem, my child, today. to gain our joy, to gain our joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy, And all of God's people said, you may be seated. Okay. th th Thank you. Okay. Today we'd like to share a few thoughts with you about that Christmas God kept his promises. And one of the characteristics that we like in any person is that of honesty. trustworthiness, somebody that's dependable. And though we, I trust, don't doubt the character of God, there might be times, even as we sang or heard that little story here during the Christmas program, there are times in our lives when maybe we're wondering if God's hearing what we're praying about. We might not be seeing the answers quite as quick as we had hoped. But again, God does promise to meet our needs and we can depend on that. So today, a couple of things. We want to talk a little bit about the fact that God's word is dependable. And we could look at a number of different topics to demonstrate that, but with it being Christmas, we're going to zero in on some of the prophecy. So I know I've heard somebody tell me sometime a while back, I think it was when I was talking about 4th of July and some of the history behind that. They didn't like history. Well, we better learn from history or we make the same mistakes again, right? But this is not a history lesson, but we're looking at the Old Testament to see some of the prophecies about the Lord Jesus. And then we look at the New Testament and see how that prophecy came to be. So, I trust you'll learn, you probably know most of what I'm sharing here today anyway, but it's a good reminder, again, to remind us of how truthful God's word is. It's there, it's dependable. You know, there's a lot of people out there, we've experienced that through the last four years that will, I guess there's no real delicate way to say they've lied to us about a number of different things. And I don't know about you, but I struggle when people lie to me. I can put up with a lot of stuff, but when people lie to me, it doesn't go over real big. And if it doesn't go over real big with us, imagine what it does with God. We tell him, oh, I'm going to do this, that, and the other thing, and then we don't follow through with it. Well, anyway, we want to look here at scripture today, and we want to see, again, the prophecy and then the fulfillment of that. And so we'll do a little bit of looking there at things that relates to Christmas and the birth of the Lord Jesus. The first prophecy you want to look at is in Isaiah. There is an outline in your bulletins if you want to use that to follow along. And for those visiting with us, if nothing else, it gives you an idea of when this guy's going to quit. But just remember, we started late. So, you know, it's all right. Isaiah 7.14. tells us that the Savior was born of a virgin and He says therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign and behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel So it wasn't just enough to be born of a woman and I was looking at that and there's some translation I think it's a revised standard version or something like that that that talks about Instead of mentioning of a virgin just as a young woman. Well, that's not so out of character, a lot of young women have babies, but not too many, well, in fact, only one virgin had a baby. And so God said it was going to be that way. Well, can we count on that? Well, as we look to Matthew chapter one, and you might get paper cuts looking at all these, some of the verses are in your bulletin there, but, In Matthew 1, verse 23 to 25, it tells us how that prophecy was fulfilled. It says there, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. that Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took him his wife and knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn son and called his name Jesus. So here we have Jesus was, just like been prophesied, a virgin born. And the thing was Isaiah, the Lord moved on Isaiah to write this down and predicted this some 700 years before Christ was born. Now, we can't accurately predict what's going to happen in the next five minutes, or next week, or next month, okay? Let alone 700 years. But God did, and it came out just like God said it was going to. And it was designed to be a sign to the unbelieving Jews that the Messiah was going to be born of a virgin. And the thing is, we see that God's word can be dependent upon what he says he will do. He will follow through with that. We see another prediction as to the place where the Messiah was to be born. And it tells us there in Micah 5.2, and It says, but thou Bethlehem Ephrathah. Now that doesn't mean an awful lot to us, but it was very specific because most of us probably aren't aware there's more than one Bethlehem. in Israel. There was another one up in Galilee, and there didn't want any getting that mixed up, so he zeroed in on it. It was kind of like, I thought, what other town around here has, there are some that I think have them in every state, but just down the road here, Burlington. Well, there's a Burlington, Iowa, too. Well, we don't want to It makes a difference which one it is. Well, here he says, but thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come unto me that which is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, notice from everlasting, okay? Jesus is the only one who has an everlasting, okay, ruler. He come from eternity past, He's going to be continuing to be there in eternity future. And he is the one who is going to be born there in Bethlehem. And so we see too that the chief priests and Jesus Day were aware of that passage. And so they knew where the child was going to be born. So when the Magi came, or as we refer to them as the wise men, and just, I think most of you know that the wise men didn't show up at at the manger scene, they're coming in a year or so later, okay? And we say three because what? We got three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. There might have been more, less, but there were wise men that came. I'm not trying to mess up with your Christmas story, but just so we kind of got it straight. And they come into Jerusalem and they're asking Herod, you know, hey, we've seen the star. We understand that there is a king that is to be born of the Jews. And, you know, Herod's kind of going, what? But they were looking for directions. GPS wasn't working back then, right? Matthew 2, verse one and following says, now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came a wise man from the east to Jerusalem saying, where is he that is king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled. Now folks, when the king gets troubled, that means there's everybody's trouble. What's he going to do now? Well, there's trouble that followed. He was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. And when he gathered all the chief priests and scribes together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, that thou Bethlehem and the land of Judah, art thou not the least among the princes of Judah? and out of thee shall come a governor and rule my people Israel. Well, Herod's not happy about this. I mean, he's an old man. but yet he's worried about some baby, you know, that's gonna be the King of the Jews. He's gonna be a governor. He's gonna take my place. Well, folks, you're gonna be dead and gone before this kid gets old enough to rule, all right? But that's the way he was. He didn't want any competition. And we'll see that the bad things that he does as a result of that. Well, the priests, again, knew about this passage. Now, why they didn't go to Bethlehem to check it out, we don't know, They didn't. And they predicted that he was going to be born in Bethlehem. And so that's where they directed these wise men. And they go to Bethlehem, they find Mary and Joseph and Jesus. And it tells us that they fell down and worshiped the child. Okay, this is not a baby anymore, it's a child. And we'll see more about how we determined that it's a little ways into the future for the child than just a baby in the manger. And they were warned afterwards not to return to Herod because they had been warned of God not to do so. And so they returned another way. Well, that made Herod mad too, because they were supposed to come back and report to him where they found the child. You know, what's the address? Go check this out. And so we see there in Matthew 2.13, when they departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt and be thou there until I bring thee word for Herod shall seek the young child to destroy him. And so we see the Lord sends an angel to speak to Joseph in a dream, get out of town fast, go to Egypt, Herod's gonna be after your son. And so they flee to Egypt where they remained until actually, till Herod died. And Hosea 11, one tells us that he was gonna be in Egypt, says, when Israel was a child, I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. Matthew 2.15 also tells us this, it says, and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord and the prophet, saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. So then we see the next episode in life here, Joseph and Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt again, because they've been warned, you know, Herod's going to be on the war path here. Well, we see what happens again, another thing that's predicted, the massacre that takes place in Bethlehem was foretold back in Jeremiah 31, verse 15 says, Thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children because they were not." They were not, they were dead, okay? Great deal of weeping that took place. And so we see here, this was Herod's attempt, I believe motivated by Satan. He's trying to rub out Jesus, you know? And this was his first attempt at this. And he fires up Herod to the point that he's ready. You know, we don't know which kid it is in Bethlehem, but he's in there somewhere. And so we're just gonna wipe them all out. And so Jesus and Mary and Joseph have left there safely in Egypt. But then we see here that he tries to kill the baby Jesus, and he doesn't know which one, so he just wipes them all out. We see here in Matthew 2, verse 16 to 18, it says, then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceedingly wrath and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under. according to the time that he had diligently inquired of the wise men." So he'd asked the wise men, when'd you see this star? How long ago was this? So he thinks it's somewhere within the last two years that this baby's been born. And so that's why he's trying to wipe out all the children, two years old and under. And it says there in Matthew 2.17, then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying in Ramah, there was a voice heard lamentation, weeping, great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not. And so again, Satan trying to remove Jesus from the scene, because he doesn't want God's plan to work out. And the best way he could do that is to wipe out Jesus. And so that's his intent. And it doesn't work, but he's doing his best to see that that takes place. Well, that brings us on up here that later on that Jesus was predicted to live in Galilee. Now he could have been anywhere in all of Israel, but the Lord said, no, he's gonna be in Galilee. And everything that Jesus does, matches up with the prophecy that scripture had foretold about him. Again, back in Isaiah, 700 years before Jesus shows up on the scene, it talks about that. It says in Isaiah 9.1, nevertheless, the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation in the first He lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards did Morgrevious afflict her by the way of the sea and beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations. And the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. Remember what the Bible describes as Jesus? He's the what of the world? He's the light of the world. He was going to bring light to their dark and spiritual lives. The people walked in darkness, okay? It wasn't that there was no moon, no sun. It's that they were in spiritual darkness. They didn't know what was going on. And everybody didn't have a Bible in those days to read it for themselves. It says, the people walked in darkness have a great light, that they dwell in the land of the shadow of death. upon them shall the light be shined. And so Galilee was identified and he speaks of these people and it's there's where Jesus begins his ministry. It's somewhat a little bit hidden here, it's not real clear, but the fact that we know Jesus went to Galilee, that's where he begins doing his first miracles. Remember what his first miracle was? Turning the water to wine, okay. And we see here, he's reaching out, he's preaching and teaching to these people. It says in Matthew 4.13, and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum. which is on the sea coast and borders Zabulon and Naphtalum, and that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying the land of Zabulon and the land of Naphtalum by the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. And the people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. And from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And we see here, it's again, Jesus is reaching people there in Galilee and his disciples believed in him. They were trusting in him at that particular point. It's at that marriage feast there in Galilee that Jesus begins to do his miracles and they see what he's able to do. And they're just really awestruck. not just in his miracles, but it was not just a wow factor, but it got people's attention. They were ready to listen to who this guy is when they see miracles taking place. We see here that he also predicted that he would be teaching and sharing with them in parables. In Psalm 78 2, it says, I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old. And we see that that's fulfilled as we look in Matthew. Again, talking in parables, he would tell a story and then he would relate that to a message that he wanted to share. It was like an illustration for him. It says there in Matthew 13, 34, and all these things beg Jesus unto the multitude in parables, and without a parable spake he not unto them, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables, and I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. And so many truths, the Lord Jesus wrapped the kind of those teaching around these parables. Another thing we see that is talked about with Jesus is his betrayal. That was prophesied. See, there's nothing left for chance. You got some people that just kind of go through life, whatever happens, happens. They don't plan for anything. I've heard people say, I don't plan for anything because it never works out anyway or whatever, you know, or maybe they even go on it. I'm one of these guys, I want to know where, if I'm going on a trip, I want to know where I'm going. I get some idea on when I'm going to get there, usually trying to make reservations for something on the other end of this thing, and maybe even along the way if that's possible. And not that we don't stop and look at other things, but I tend to want to get there. That's a guy thing. But God had it all planned out, you know. He wasn't just winging it. Well, let's just kind of see how things work out, you know. And, you know, it wasn't an accident that they didn't find, have any room at the inn, okay? Or some of these other things that happened along the way that we think of as a part of the Christmas story. All part of God's overall plan, you know? And you stop and think about that. And this is not in your outline here at all, but, okay. They come to Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph, they're doing what God wants them to do. She's about to deliver the Son of God, and you'd think that they'd have an awesome room waiting for them. And instead, there's no room at the inn, and they end up out in the stable. You know, some of us would, if it was up to us, we'd say, well, that was kind of a bad thing, wasn't it? Well, if that can happen to Jesus and it's all part of God's plan, do you think we should go through life and never end up in the stable of some kind? All right. You know, things don't always work. Just it's all greased and everything's smooth sailing. No, there's some kind of potholes and hiccups along the way, but God planned it that way. He allowed it for a reason. You know, sometimes we're kind of scratching our head thinking, why did that have to happen? You know, and we may not know this side of heaven, but God does. There's a plan behind it. And well, we see here too, next here, that he was smitten. Zechariah talked about that, another prophet there in the Old Testament. It says in Zechariah 7, or 13.7 rather, awake, O sword against my shepherd. Who's the shepherd? That's Jesus. "'O sword against my shepherd and against the man "'that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, "'smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered, "'and I will turn my hand upon the little ones.'" Well, the plan was to take out Jesus that would scatter the disciples and we won't have that problem anymore. Well, that's kind of what happened, wasn't it too? At least in part. Well, the sword is usually thought of as an instrument of death and used to strike the shepherd who's the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. And Matthew 28 or 26, 31 says Jesus is talking to his disciples about his betrayal. about his arrest that's gonna take place. And he says there in 2631, thus says Jesus unto them, all you shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered abroad. Well, when Jesus was arrested, the disciples realized that there was someplace that they needed to be. And they, for the most part, all fled. You know, we've got John and Peter kind of following a ways off, but for the most part, they were scattered. And Jesus was smitten. He did die. The disciples did forsake him, as was prophesied. And we see another thing related to that, to his crucifixion, was the fact that it was prophesied he would die between two thieves. There in Isaiah 53, verse nine and 12, well, verse 12, first of all, it says, therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he has poured out his soul unto death. Notice he was numbered with the transgressors, okay? These two thieves were transgressors. They were lawbreakers. And the result of that, they were condemned to die on a cross. He was numbered with the transgressors and bear the sin of many. Your sin, my sin, the sins of the world were placed upon Jesus when he died there on that cross. And it says, and he made intercession for the transgressors. Remember, Jesus says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, for those who are seeking to have him crucified. We see there in verse nine, it says, and he made his grave with the wicked. Okay, he died with the wicked, the two thieves there on the cross. And with a rich in his death, he ends up dying and he's placed in a rich man's tomb. And because he says he had done no violence, neither was there deceit in his mouth. Well, he would have been buried with the wicked had Joseph of Arimathea not come forth and claimed the body and put Jesus' body in his own grave. And so we see here it's fulfilled of the company that he had there on Calvary. That wasn't even in question. It says in Matthew 27 verse 38, then there were two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And so this was no accident. It wasn't just lucky that it turned out that way. No, this was all part of God's plan. Not only that he died, but who he was going to die with and even where he would end up being buried. We see too that the conditions of the crucifixion were prophesied as well. Zechariah 12.10 says, and I will pour out of the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications, And they shall look upon me, notice, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his own only son and shall be in bitterness for him and one of the bitterness of his firstborn. The psalmist says in Psalm 34 20, he keepeth all his bones, not one of them broken. Well, you could easily just kind of fly by that if you didn't realize what they did in those days. They crucified these people. If they weren't dying fast enough, they'd come, because you need strong legs. And not to get too graphic, but I think most of you know how that works. He's nailed upon a cross. He's nailed in his feet. And after a while, you're getting dehydrated and everything else. You have to push yourself up to get a breath. Well, if we break your legs, you can't push yourself up anymore and you suffocate, real quick like. But that was their practice. If you weren't dying fast enough, we're gonna help you out here, we'll break your legs. And that was a common practice in those days. But it tells us there in John 19, 33 and following, but they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already and break not his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and knoweth what he saith is true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture might be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. And again, another scripture saith, they shall look upon him whom they have pierced. Okay? The fact that his bones weren't broken and that his side ultimately was pierced just to make sure that he was dead. Jesus, they didn't take his life from him. He gave up his life for you and me, but they made sure that he was dead. That was one of their responsibilities. And Jesus knew, the thing was Jesus knew when he came what he was going to have to face. You know, you and I don't know what's going to happen before the day is over. I read an article talking about a fellow, Maureen had told me last night that there was somebody that got killed on the freeway, I-94 in Grange. And I don't usually have time to look at anything on Sunday morning, but I looked quick just to see what that was all about. And it was telling about, they said there was a guy that was parked on the median. And he was sitting there. All of a sudden, he took off and crossed all the lanes, smacked into a car, hit the wall, hit the median, or the wall there, bounced back all the way across all the other lanes, and hit the median and died. In the process, though, the car that he hit, there was another lady that ended up going to the hospital. It wasn't fatal injuries, but was injured in the process. I mean, anybody, that could happen to any of us. You know, our life, we don't know what's going to happen from one minute to the next. Okay. That doesn't mean should we just stay in our home, you know, and never go out, but we need to be prepared to die. And then what? Are we ready to go to heaven? If we haven't made that decision to trust Christ alone for salvation, we're going to end up in hell. Okay. There isn't anything in between. And, but Jesus knew what was going to happen to him when he came into this world. And you stop and think about that. You know, here, Jesus is coming to seek and to save those that were lost. He knew what we needed. He knew that we needed a savior. He came to be that savior. And he had to tell people about who he was and what he could do for them. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by me. Only one way to heaven and it's through Jesus. You can't push Jesus off to the side and think you're going to make it to heaven. It doesn't work that way. There's not many ways to heaven. God is not into this, you know, all roads lead to Rome kind of thing. You know, it's one way and it's through his son, the Lord Jesus. And, but yet he's preaching and teaching to these people. And he comes to provide, going to die on the cross, provide everything that's necessary. He's dying on our place as our substitute, shedding his blood to provide forgiveness of sins for all who would believe. He's going to do all of that for us. And yet these people are saying, you know, when it comes time, do you want Barabbas or do you want Jesus? Give us Barabbas. You know, crucify Jesus, you know? And he knew what ahead of time that was going to be people's response. And yet he continued to pour out his life for them. He gave his all. He didn't come in with an attitude problem, you know, saying you guys are going to reject me. I know that, you know, so I'm going to treat you accordingly. But he did everything that he came to do, to plan. God's word tells us, and we just looked at a few, there's a whole lot more than that, as far as prophecies and fulfillment. But the thing is, Jesus Christ, We can depend on him. We can depend on his word. It's true. It's accurate. You know, it's not being constantly revised and changed. And, you know, God's saying, well, I know I said that, but what does that remind you of? I'm not going to pardon my son. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. Sorry, it's hard to go a whole hour here without saying something. But man's word isn't worth much in many cases, you know. But God's word is. When he says that he will do something, we can trust it, we can believe it. And so when his word tells us that one of these days, the rapture's gonna happen, It's going to happen like that, okay folks? 20th and Gavin I. The believers are going to be caught up to be with the Lord forever. All right. Tells us he's going to, there's going to be a seven year tribulation. Then he's going to come back and set up his kingdom and rule and reign for a thousand years. Everything that God said is going to happen because everything that he said up to this point has happened just like he said. So we have every reason to believe that what he says in the future is going to happen too. We can trust him. The thing is we have to be ready. We have to be ready. And because we don't get an email, a text saying, you know, tomorrow's the day, better get it together, folks. You know, no, we don't know. We all think we're going to grow old and die, you know, but that might not happen. Right. And so we need to be ready to trust the Lord. And it's not something hard, it's not difficult. We're not talking about joining the church and all the rest. No, we're talking about you having a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, trusting in Jesus Christ and what he did there on Calvary's cross, that it's sufficient. He did everything that was necessary to provide for your salvation. All you need to do is to believe. And I trust that that is what you've done or will soon make that decision, folks, because that's a decision that determines where you're going to spend eternity. That choice is yours. Well, we've seen that Jesus and God's word is true. It's accurate. And just kind of on a personal level, kind of a challenge to us that our word is, you know, we used to be, you didn't have to have a whole lawyer go after it and write out 10 pages of legalese that you can't understand for a contract. You know, a handshake, somebody's word was, that was it. You know, you could depend on it. Well, that needs to be true of us. Lord wants us to be men and women of our word. If we say we're going to do something, I realize things come up unplanned, but you know, sometimes people just, well, they know they're not going to follow through with it, but well, I'll make this promise anyway. No, don't do that. Don't do that to your kids or anybody else either. Let's be men and women of integrity, even as the Lord is. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. It's truth. It's accurate. We can stake our lives and eternity on it. We pray that each one here may have come to that point, or soon will, to recognize their sin in need of a savior, and to trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation, to believe that he's able to forgive their sins and give them that gift of eternal life. Lord, we pray that you'd help us to be men and women of integrity, that our word we follow through with what we say we're going to do, and that people can believe what we say. We thank you for your help now, in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like for us to sing a closing hymn, if you would, please. 137, 137, what child is this? 137, you find that when you stand with us and we'll sing this in place. 137, what child is this? Should we stand together, we'll sing the first and last. ♪ And it's true ♪ ♪ It's true, it's true ♪ ♪ It's true, it's true ♪ ♪ It's true, it's true ♪ I've been in the sun all my life. So many years I've stolen. I've been in the sun all my life. Thanks so much for coming. I don't know what the temperature is. It's supposed to be above freezing. It's cold. But you might just kind of scoot your foot to make sure that it's not ice out there. Thanks for coming. Those who brought food, you may want to Check here in the kitchen. I really don't need all those desserts laying around here. I can only say no so many times in my life. Thank you. and and and so so All right. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for coming. Oh, you're still on? Okay, good luck. Are you going to be solo today? We're counting the money. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. 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