Here's what I love about getting together with people like you uh people who are coming from all different backgrounds to sing. Um What I love about that is many of us are coming from uh very chaotic lives. Uh I don't know about you but man, there are times when life just feels chaotic and what we do here as Christians is we step out of the chaos of our lives and we come Sunday morning to church and we sing and we elevate our gaze to something higher to someone more beautiful than the circumstances we're in. Amen. Amen. Uh But even in saying that I'm saying that some of our lives are actually chaotic. Uh And, and this is true for me. I, I'm a pastor, I'm starting a church but like there's totally times for me when my life feels chaotic. Uh And let me just ask you this. Uh How many of you guys work from home? Anybody in here w work from home? Oh Like a bunch of you guys have moved to North Phoenix. Everyone works from home, which they sell you on because it's like, man, you'll have so much more time there's no commute. It's awesome. Uh, but that's only true if you don't have kids also at home while you're working from home. I hear a lot of giggling because it's very true. Uh, I work from home, uh, certain days of the week while I'm studying and working on the budgetary future forecasting, stuff like that. So, I'm on my computer and I have three kids, 85 and three and I love them so much. But when I'm working, I don't like them doing gymnastics on my actual shoulders and like my daughter's screaming like my brother and then like my oldest who's homeschooled is like reading from his homeschool book, like about the 15th type of lizard that's unique to Arizona, but like over the screaming and I'm like, this is chaos, right? You guys feel like actual demons sent from the darkness to like unsafe me from Jesus right now. That's like what they feel like again, love my kids feels like chaos. And when life feels chaotic, sometimes we look up to heaven and we say this all must be meaningless. It's almost be meaningless when stuff starts falling apart in perhaps more serious ways. Like maybe you're dealing with disease, like may, maybe for you, there's, there's a corruption in your own heart of addiction. Maybe for you, it's your marriage and things are falling apart or it's other relationships or it's the economy or it's tragedy after tragedy that we see on our news abs but when life feels like chaos, sometimes we say God must not exist. That is exactly what happened in the book of Malachi. The, the book of Malachi is situated somewhere 500 years before Jesus. Malachi is believed to be this guy who was a prophet of God, which means if you're new to Christianity, he heard from God himself and he spoke against the things that the people were doing against God and proclaimed the promises of God promises like the ones we just sung. And what we find is people who are God's people, they've been under oppression, they've come out of some of that oppression, but things are just not working out. They've rebuilt the temple, they have restored public worship of Yahweh God of the Bible. But the problem is God hasn't seemed to show up and their lives are still chaotic and their rulers are still oppressing them. And they're in a situation that feels a lot like ours, isn't it? And so what they, they say at the end of the book of Malachi, see, Malachi is like these arguments back and forth between people and God, there's six of them. And this last argument is what we're gonna look at and their argument there is basically this, that if things are this chaotic and God, you haven't shown up, what's the point of living morally, right? Like, are you even there doing justice in heaven? And so they're starting to say, what is the point? Things don't make sense. I want you to open your Bibles. If you have a Bible to the book of Malachi, if you're new to the Bible, uh, the Bible is broken into New, Old Testament and New Test, old promises and new promises, which are all really one promise, but we kind of break it up that way. This is the very last book of the Old Testament. OK, Malachi. It's I can, how you can find it like two thirds of the way in your Bible. If you don't have a Bible, we'll have some of the verses on the screen. But I want you to see what takes place after the people say like, what's the point like, why would I live morally, why would I live justly if you're not even showing up in my life? Uh We jump over to uh the second part of God's response and it's kind of a repeat of the first response. We'll just focus on one. It's gonna be Malachi chapter four verse one. This is what he says. I'm kind of just look at these two or three verses here. Malachi four verse one. Malachi says, for behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven when all of the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze says, the Lord of hosts so that it will leave them, neither root nor branch, stop, right. There in your Bibles. Look right at me. That is one of the most gnarly responses of God to anyone in the whole Bible. Is it not like, were you guys paying attention as we read that he's talking about the judgment of God? But before we kind of like, evaluate how gnarly that is. I want you to zoom back out and remember the question we're answering here is like, does God in heaven actually do? What is right? And the prophet Malachi steps on to this question and says, listen, I have your answer for you and it is gnarlier than you think. He says, look, you guys are angry about God not showing up about your enemies, conquering you. You guys are so angry that now you are wilding out in wickedness. You are arrogant and doing whatever you want with the poor, you're doing whatever you want to women, you are doing whatever he says to a culture like that. Listen, you acting out in this way isn't proper because there is a God in heaven who will do justice you. You're angry. Malachi says, he says, well, God is even angrier. God sees the tur turmoil you've gone through and God sees your arrogance as well. And the God of heaven at the end of the age, he says, is gonna come and he's gonna do justice. Notice what he says. He says the day is coming. There's this one day, this day is coming. What he's saying is at the very end of history, there is this thing called the day of the Lord. And on the day of the Lord, there is going to be this kind of justice that feels like an oven because uh back then you would take not this way we translate oven is like it's actually this pottery you would put over a fire. And on that day, God is gonna deal with injustice. He is going to incinerate it. He is going to go after our wickedness. When all of our arrogance and our evil doing comes to an end, it will be stubble before God's judgment the day that it is coming. Uh He shall set them ablaze. There's also judgment upon evil doers says the Lord of hosts so that it will leave them neither root nor branch, which is basically saying like, you know, when a fire happens, it burns things all the way down except for the roots which are under the ground. He says, man, he's even gonna go after that. He's gonna deal with justice and bring it all the way down to the roots now. Full stop in uh western kind of progressive American 2023 culture. We look at that and we're like, that's kind of mean but can a good God actually do that? Uh There is this thinker though uh from a year by gone, an old man now uh named Mir Slav Volf and he he has seen tremendous tragedy in Croatia, his country of origins. And he, he actually argues that when we think these kinds of things, especially here in the United States or Europe or somewhere in the West, he says it actually takes the quiet of a suburban liberal home to not want this kind of justice. But when you come from somewhere else where you have seen the kinds of tragedy, the kinds of evil that comes forth from the human heart where when you have seen your family disparage your women treated awfully and abused. He says, you want justice and that's what these people want. And God from heaven says it's going to be meted out. And so I, I want you to just understand this. Maybe you're new to Christianity. We need a God of justice. We need a God who says at the end of the age, I'm not gonna be ok with the things that are uh that are unjust that betray you that do wrong towards you. But the flip side of that is what's very concerning here. And we actually have to talk about it and Malachi doesn't let up on it. He says basically that not only will God deal with their wickedness, we actually have to take regard to that. He'll deal with ours too because some of us, we say, man, I have been betrayed, I've gone through chaos because of the sins of someone else and to God. And to you. God says, man, like I'm gonna meet out justice. But he also says that for those of us who, and this is true of all of us are not just those who've been betrayed. We're not just those who've been wronged, but we are the betrayers. We are the wrong doers. We actually have to take into account the fact that like God is gonna deal with us too. This is a heavy thing in the Bible, but we need a biblical world view last night. Um, my wife and I, uh, we were doing a fire which didn't make any sense because it's like 100 and 15 degrees, uh, out. But it's summer and we felt like, you know, that's what you do. So we took the kids out, did a fire and, uh, after this fire is going, my wife brings out the marshmallows, right? Which is my, our favorite, right? We're gonna do marshmallows. My kids are all there with their little sticks and they're like melting them and then they're like flicking flames on me. And it's like the whole experience and all of that, uh, 85 and three. And I remember I just, I'd been studying Malachi. I asked them, hey, guys, does God give us what we deserve to like, raise my kids up in a, a biblical world view, like this is important for them to understand. And I remember my daughter Capri, she's three and she looks at me and she says, Daddy, Jesus gives us what we deserve and what she means is my brother takes things from me, right? Like, and I deserve that thing. But Je I trust in Jesus because I've been raised to trust in Jesus. I know Jesus will give me what I deserve. And that's partially true, right? According to a biblical world view that God cares about us. And if we're God's Children, he, he gives us things that are good. But the flip side of that uh was expressed by my oldest son, Ollie, who's eight and he is the theologian of the family. He's the reader. He just finished a book by CS Lewis that was Chronicles of Narnia. But um still a book by CS Lewis and he looks at me and he goes, oh no daddy. We don't want what we deserve. And I was like, what do you mean Ali? He's like, what we deserve is to be these marshmallows daddy. And he's like spinning it over the fire. I'm like, oh my gosh, this kid is gnarly, but he's been raised with a very accurate theological worldview that justice goes both ways because we also have done wrong, even as we consider who has betrayed us, I wanna ask you today, who have you betrayed? Malachi is talking to a people who are leaving their wives for foreign women. They were divorcing them, disparaging them and going after forbidden women and embracing false gods He was speaking to people who were not giving to Jesus who knew Jesus but said, I'm keeping it for myself out of greed. They came and brought pathetic offerings to God. They would just burn up the worst kind of animals they had, even though they should have brought their first and their best to God. And they just kind of didn't really care. They had this heart posture before God and I would just ask you, who have you betrayed? Who have you, who have I been unfaithful to you? Like God actually cares about justice. There too is, well, are we giving our first and best to God if our hearts are not, we are in a place of need for justice. That's terrifying. So what can be done about this? I don't want to proclaim to us very bad news this morning. This is very bad news. Malachi is not only gonna say the day of the Lord at the end of the age when God meets out justice is coming, he is also going to point out to us another dimension of the day of the Lord. And he's gonna say it makes a difference. So when the human heart cries out, we say what can make a difference, Malachi? Well, let me just start with this. Malachi is not gonna say certain things. What can make a difference in your life? What can make a difference in the feeling of guilt that you wrestle with what can make a difference in the fact that someone else betrayed you and you have responded poorly. Well, he's not gonna say number one politics, ok, Malachi is not gonna come in and say, hey, we just need to vote the right person into office because we've tried that and it failed. We have tried that and someone else gets voted in politics won't do it. They didn't do it, then they won't do it. Now, he's not gonna say the self help section at Barnes and Nobles, right? That we're gonna kind of willpower ourselves into a better situation, into a world that is put to, right? He's not gonna say more money. And I think most of us would probably agree that this is where we would turn. I mean, if I just could make oh gosh another five K a year, another 10-K a year, things would be different. And we know that's not true because even men like John D Rockefeller in the twenties, who, who, who was one of the richest men alive. They said John, how much more will finally be enough to satisfy? And he looked at them and he said just a little bit more money never solves our problems. And lastly, Malachi is not gonna say you need to follow your own heart that ultimately your problem is a problem of freedom of expression and identity and you just need to go after it because we know that even if we had all the freedom of the world, we still have this bondage deep down as our souls are never satisfied. We could put it like this, that Malachi is gonna say we are not the difference makers in our situation, but we in fact have to come to grips that we are the mess makers in our situation. Uh As a pastor, there's people that come to me often in uh in the, the past few years and said, look, I need to clean up my life. I need to get right with God. And so I'm, I'm kind of making changes here. What can I do to, to really clean up my life? And I love when this happens because I look at them and say, listen, here's some like worse news for you that like you can't clean up your life, you can't clean up your life. The gospel, the Bible does not come in and say you just need to make things better. This would be tantamount to me. Moving to the West Valley. I'm from Portland, Oregon, moved here in January January 7th. And I noticed that um it was very dusty here in the valley, right? Like you guys noticed this, it is like asking fish what is water? Like the fish is like what's water? You know, like, I don't know anything different. So I have nothing to compare it to. So I don't know what it's like because you grew up in Arizona, you're like, this is just dusty, but for me, this is very dusty. And so it'd be like me going outside and say, I'm gonna solve the problem of dust with a vacuum cleaner. We're gonna vacuum up, you know the North Valley and just clean, clean things up. Where can we turn to? Malachi? Is gonna say again, it's the day of the Lord. Now you need to understand this theologically when you read the day of the Lord in the Bible, it's usually referring to, it says it in a way that seems like it's referring to one thing, but it's actually broken up into two things in fulfillment. And these two things are the first coming and the second coming of Christ, the first coming and the second coming of Christ a moment ago, Malachi gave us the second coming of Christ that actually there is going to be a day of judgment. But now he's gonna say what saves us from that day and from our need for judgment is the first coming of Christ. That other day of the Lord. Look at Malachi now verse five, I'm I'm sorry. Uh Malachi. Now verse two, verse two, it says, but you who fear my name? Who's that? Those are people um if who follow Jesus or who at this time follow Yahweh God. But today would be those who follow Jesus, those who know God, you who fear my name, those of us who follow God says to you, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. Now, um Look right at me. What he's talking about here is a beautiful metaphor. The prophets over and over again prove to be literary geniuses. They love to employ metaphor to talk about the hope that is coming particularly on the day of the Lord. Now, here's the hope. He says, he says what it will be like on that day of the Lord. The first coming of Christ, when the Messiah appears, it will be like the sun rising. Uh My wife has been getting up early in the morning. She's been getting up at five because we're committed to trying to read our Bibles when our kids are still asleep. OK? And so we've been getting up in the morning and here in Arizona every single morning, which is totally different from where I'm from in Portland. You can see the sunrise and it's gorgeous. You see the sun rising up and as the sun rises up, what do you see? You see the rays of the sun break forth here when Malachi says, shining like the sun with healing in its wings. He's employing kind of a double metaphor. He's saying that the rays of the sun are like these wings and they come forth and when they touch your skin, they bring healing. This is so beautiful. Now, none of you guys are like clapping or saying amen to that because you are from the valley. And what I've discovered about people from the valley is, you don't really appreciate the sun. Right. You're like, that's the thing in the sky that's turning me into a lizard slowly. Right? Like I get burned. It's like 100 and 75 degrees in the summer. Like, ever since we got here, we were like, man, it's so nice here. This is crazy. And people look at me here from, you know, from the West Valley and they're like, you just wait, bro, you just wait, they're just like you, you say that now everyone says that now. But when the summer comes, it's gonna suck so bad, you better just hide your kids because it's gonna be terrible. And, and I get what you're saying by that we came during the summer. It is a little bit difficult. You deal with the heat but what you don't understand is, is where it came from, right? So I Googled it because I've been trying to explain to people how very dark it is in Portland. And when I Googled, how many days is it cloudy in Portland? Um The first Google hit said this and you can see it on the screen 222 days on average. Ok. So sometimes that's more and sometimes that's a little less, but I can attest and test by that. It usually feels like more. 222 days. It says the Pacific Northwest is known for frequent rainfall. So it's no surprise that Portland and neighboring cities like Eugene makes it so high on our list. It feels like darkness. People act like darkness. It is a very cloudy sad place. In fact, if I go to the next slide, you'll see that the article that this pulled up from was quote, the gloomiest cities in the United States on move.org, they should call it like move away.org like get us out of the rain. This is how dark it is. And so when you arrive from that, you understand this metaphor, um I went to a restaurant the other day with our team over at the garden church and uh the, the waiter was telling us, oh, you're from Oregon. I was like, yeah, he's like, I had two customers from Oregon this week. It was so interesting. I was like, oh cool. And he's like, no, it's funny because uh they sat down and they said to me, man, don't talk to me right now. I'm just gonna sit here in the sun, get me a drink. And he's like, he's like, what, why, why are you saying that? And he's there? He said, they said, um because I've hasn't seen the sun in like three weeks here and I just need to thaw out the two different people said that same thing. He here, here's what the metaphor is telling us here that when you come from a world of darkness when you have lived in a, in a gloomy, spiritually gloomy climate. When you have not experienced the sun, all of a sudden when the sun rays hit your soul, so to speak, it brings healing, it brings a freshness. And some of you guys have walked with Jesus so long. You've forgotten the beauty of the healing in its wings. You forgot what it was like to live in a world of darkness and hear the prophet Malachi says, it's like that. It's like that it brings this healing. And here is why it brings healing, this metaphor of Jesus coming. He is God in the flesh. And when you and I deserved judgment with the message of the Bible, with the message of the sun rising coming with healing in his wings. Talking about it's saying that the Son of God came to bring healing to you and me, but not just healing to our bodies, healing much deeper healing for the ache of our souls that desperately need forgiveness that desperately need to be brought back into its presence. And Jesus accomplished that by dying on a cross in our place for our sins. That the justice that you and I are owed. That thing should, that should terrify us, is actually meted out not in us if you believe upon Jesus today and if you've ever believed upon Jesus, but it's meted out in his body on the cross, that's why it brings healing. The good news is that God deals justly with humanity. Yes. But that justice was poured out on Jesus in our place. This is why I love the like you guys ever sing old hymns here is do that. We love old hymns at the garden. And one of my favorite hymns comes from the Christmas carols. You guys like some good Christmas carols. They were rich in their doctrinal understanding and this, this passage will change forever. How you sing Hark, the Herald Angels. You'll see the lyrics on the screen. It says, hail the heaven born prince of peace. Hail the son of righteousness, light and life to all. He brings risen with healing in his wings mild. He lays his glory by born, that men no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born, to give us second birth. It happens to us when we encounter Jesus. When we see that the Son of God came not to destroy us, but to save us. Is it changes something deep inside of us. In fact, we respond a certain way. Look, look at the end of Malachi 42. Um This is another metaphor. It's a curious metaphor, but it's a powerful one. It says here, uh when you experience that sun rising in your life, Jesus coming into your life, recognizing his first coming. This is what happens to you. He says, you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall, you guys get it. No, this is an amazing metaphor. But because we're in North Phoenix and not in Buckeye right now. Like this metaphor is a little lost on you guys in the West Valley. Uh Folks from Buckeye come to the garden and they have chickens and horses and farms and land and you guys know nothing about that here. Uh But when I said this, some of them were like amen, right? There was a Buckeye revival on Malachi for two, the latter part of the earth. They're like, oh my gosh, we get this. Why don't we get it? He here's what happens is he's talking about a calf like a baby cow. All right. And all night, you keep them in the stall because you don't want them to be eaten by wolves and you want them to fatten up and eat the food and all of that stuff and, but they're baby calves, right? And just like human babies, what they don't understand why you're putting them in jail, right? Like why am I in my pen here when you open that pen? When the sun rises in the morning, you see the metaphor that baby calf is just so like innocent still. It's not like an old, you know, like bored cow. Them, you know, like they, they come kicking like the sunrise, they're tramping, they're jumping, they're galloping, they're full of joy. And if we were from an agricultural culture we would say, I know exactly what you're saying there. You're saying the prison doors have been opened through jesus' Cross that because of his forgiveness, I can leap for joy that there is no more judgment in my life that there is this sense of renewal. I have been set free. We could put it this way that Jesus in our life, Jesus is the difference maker that it doesn't matter what you're going through. It doesn't matter what you've done. If we would just consider what the scriptures teach about our reality in a biblical world view of where we're going and how Jesus has saved. We begin to understand the good news of the gospel and it's Jesus setting us free. He has made all the difference. I was uh talking to a police friend the other day and he was telling me this story about how it's, it's really hard to arrest people. He arrested this woman and she had been on a ton of drugs and just up to mischief and she's sitting in the cop car. You think about this when you're a police officer, if you're a police officer in here, we love you. When you're a police officer, you, you have the person now, it's not like the problems end for you. Now you're having to take them into custody and she's screaming in anger, but he's a Christian. And so he does what he does on a Sunday. And he said, Hey, I, I know you're upset but just know this is my job. I wanna talk to you just as a person, would you be willing to share your story? Like, who are you? Where did you come from? And after she calms down, she starts to tell him her story. It's like, ok, she tells him that um, this all started when her husband abandoned her and she started drinking along this path. Her daughter dies tragically, her drinking gets harder. Not only does her daughter die, but her grandson dies. She's lost everyone. Everything's firing out of control. She turns to drugs. What can heal this debate in my soul? What can remove my awareness of my betrayal in my despair? And that led her to a drug house and all of this crime and all of this insanity and it's all out there. And my friend looks at her and he says, because he's a police officer and there's certain rules. He can't just say, hey, let me preach Jesus to you. But he tries to like work it in, in a way that he won't get in trouble because he's on recording. He says, well, let me tell you this. I am a praying person and he starts to just softly share the good news and the hope he's found in Jesus. And by the end of this, what's crazy is she is in tears, but this time a different kind of tears, she's actually crying and even thanking him for arresting her. This is crazy. He drops her off, he leaves and he gets a phone call from his buddy, another cop and the cop says to him he goes, what did you say to her? He's like, what do you mean? He's like, this lady gets arrested all the time. She's a frequent offender, like she's crazy but something's changed. He's like, what do you mean? He said, well, we've offered her treatment over and over again. She always says no, but this is the first time she's accepted treatment. It's like something's different. Here. Here's the point. Jesus is the difference maker. Amen. Jesus makes all the difference where there was chaos. Jesus brings peace where there was emptiness. Jesus brings wholeness where there was aimlessness. Jesus brings purpose. We proclaim the name of Jesus and, and then I don't want you to see uh what I want you to see rather is uh and don't want you to miss is the very end of this passage. We believe that Jesus makes all the difference. That the gospel, the good news of what he's done on that cross to forgive us and draw us to him is the one thing that can change everything and since we have that we can take it everywhere, uh Look, uh it won't be on the screen, but look at the final verse here in verse three, Malachi 43. It's a curious verse. It's written another gnarly verse. He says, and you shall tread down the wicked for, they will be ashes under the soles of your feet. On the day when I act says the Lord of hosts, OK, another gnarly verse. But you need to ask the question, how is this first fulfilled? The picture is the calf is trampling over its enemies. What does that mean? Well, in the days of Malachi, the, the Jewish people, the people of God would have heard that is like we're gonna be set free from our oppressors. We're gonna break out of this. But if you know the rest of the biblical story, that doesn't come true that they are continued to be, they're continually oppressed even by the Romans and Jesus steps on to the scene. And this kind of verse gets fulfilled in a very radically different way that we don't ultimately see that the people of God trample on their enemies, but they tramp like they're human, earthly political enemies. Instead, they trample upon their enemies of Satan sin, death, the grave and the judgment we deserve. And ultimately, this becomes a picture of trampling upon and kind of stepping into the mission of God to see the darkness pushed back everywhere. And the Kingdom of God advanced. Uh matter of fact, this is actually an echo probably of Deuteronomy 11. And you again won't see it on the screen, but I need you to hear this verse. It says uh 1124 Deuteronomy, every place on which the soul of your foot treads. Now, here I'm on this shall be yours. This is a picture of the Kingdom of God advancing in our world that if you and I have tasted the healing and saving love of Jesus, we get to join together in advancing that saving love of Jesus, that difference making power of Jesus by proclaiming Jesus everywhere. I love this. Oh This is so good that you and I get to take part in advancing the kingdom of God. Iii, I need you to see the importance of this today specifically. Uh I'm, I'm a nerd and I like to read and I read um research and studies. OK? And if you're not a nerd, bear with me for just a moment. This is a research group called Barna. OK? And on Barna, they study like religiosity in America and this is fast. You'll see it on the screen, it says overall and, and actually let me back up here. What they're going to tell us is they did research on people's uh thinking on spirituality in America after COVID. This is a 2023 study very recent. So this is telling us what our culture is like today. And they asked them like, what do you think? Is there something spiritual? And the results were staggering because what the results found is before COVID, before the pandemic, people were increasingly atheistic and moving away from spirituality and not just Christianity that has continued, but they've moved away from like there's anything spiritual at all. But ever since COVID, the moment we're in this is what they say, overall, 80% of Americans now say they think there is a spiritual or supernatural dimension to the world. 11 per percent say they don't think such a dimension exists, but it is possible. Meanwhile, only 9% say they do not believe it exists at all. If you look at that, that, that um kind of chart there, the percentage is represented by colors. What it's telling you is that 80% of people as of this year have gone from like man, I think maybe there's probably nothing when we die and there's nothing spiritual. And then they saw the pandemic and they saw the chaos and they saw the political infighting and they looked to different political ideologies and they saw all the anger and the wrath and, and they came out of that and they started saying there's gotta be something spiritual and I want you to see the next graph because it zooms in on who is saying that in particular? Um let's read. It says though religious affiliation and church attendance continue to decline, it's not changed. In regards to Christianity, people are still leaving the church. But here's the hope, spiritual openness and curiosity are on the rise across every generation. In fact, we see an unprecedented desire to grow spiritually a belief in a spiritual supernatural dimension and a belief in a God or a higher power. Look at who this is happening among though I circled it. OK? Look at that circle. If you can't see on the screen, it's giving you in different colors. Each generation. Gen Z millennials, Gen X Boomers, millennials and Gen Z are those under 30 years old ish OK, like me and younger. And that circle is saying this, that the highest increase of those who are saying, I think there's probably something spiritual, you know who they are. The highest increase has happened among Gen Z and millennials. You guys. The moment we're in right now with this difference making message is this that Jesus. Jesus is the spiritual thing people are longing for and the harvest among the youngest generations right now is ripe for the for the picking that those who are 20 those who are 15, those who are 30 are the ones saying there's got to be more and listen to me. We have the more they're longing for. We know the difference maker. We know the message that sets the captives free and we need to do something about that. My question for you is this if Jesus has made a difference for you, maybe you don't feel like life is all that chaotic right now. Maybe you're like, man, I feel victorious in Christ every day. That's awesome, right? Like bottle that up and give me you know a shot of that. Like I'd, I'd love that. What we ought to be doing is turning to those who don't have that hope right now and saying, we know the difference maker. And I tell you about Jesus, we ought to be inviting them to the new building coming in three weeks from now. We ought to be inviting them into the better story. We ought to be inviting them into the hope. And let me tell you this. They want it, it's easier now than ever to share our hope in Jesus. One of the stories I heard from police, another, uh, same guy, actually police officer, another police story. He goes, um, I listen to this police podcast. I'm like, what are you learning? Like, what do they teach you in Police Podcast? He's like, well, it's really cool. There's this guy, the host of the show Police Podcast. He says this phrase that has changed my life. I was like, what is it? He said, um, when it comes to policing, you have these moments that are big says when it's game day, I want the ball in my hands. When it's game day, I want the ball in my hands. And, uh, if you at all play sports or just get fired up, that's one that fires me up that when it's game day, I want the ball in my hands, folks. It is Game day today in the United States of America. It is time to take ground and we have the hope that changes the world. What are we gonna do about it? Let's pray. Father, your word is terrifying and glorious and beautiful and saving and life changing. I pray that hearts right now are being opened and not just the hearts who didn't know Jesus that this morning, there would be those who awaken to Jesus, but there would also be those who have known Jesus and are cut to the heart af freshh that they would experience a reminder of the power that saved them then and the hope that it brings right now that we live in a dark world. But Jesus, you are the light of the world. You are the son of righteousness who has risen upon our helplessness. There was healing in your wing, Scott, maybe for those who are believers today who have maybe lost that fire. God, would you just let your spirit fall fresh on them? You've always been there, God, matter of fact, you are the same God, but God, there can be new power in the same God. There could be new experiences of the believers who have followed you for decades, pray that you would awaken them right now, pray that you would do deep gospel work in them, whatever they're going through, whatever the challenges maybe some of us are in that chaotic place. God, would you heal? Would you bring wisdom God, I have places in my life. I'm just struggling to figure out what to do. God. Would you just speak over us this morning? We gather here to hear from you. We gather here for your presence. Rise upon us today. Jesus pray for those who have not confessed Christ. They've never believed on him. Maybe they had walked away from them or they just, their heart has been hard. Would you soften it right now? Soften it to their knees. Holy Spirit come father call those? They need you to themselves, to yourself. Pray also God that we who have the hope of the world would not hide it, but we would proclaim it. God knowing the moment we're in that it is game day. Indeed. We have an opportunity to play. Father. Would you let us get in the game? Would you let us share this hope? Would you God even open our minds to practical ways? Who could we invite? Who could we minister to? Who, what neighbor do we need to engage? God speak to us? We trust in you. We know you're taking ground in this hour in Jesus name. Amen?