Immanuel Means God With Us

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A sermon by Adam Barcott

December 22, 2019

Welcome! let’s Pray. Dear Heavenly Father we are your creatures, you love your creatures and you really love us and we thank you for that. We pray that you would be lifted up and we would praise your son, Jesus Christ, and that in praising you we would feel whole. We would start to feel and see the way you created us to feel and see and thank as your children. So bless us now as we worship you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

All right, so the question, just a question to talk amongst yourself. What are some expectations you have for the next two weeks? What are some Christmas expectations? Something good you’re expecting. Oh good. So yeah, or I mean if it’s negative, we can talk about negative expectations, but what are you expecting either in gifts or another way to put it as, what are you hoping for for the next two weeks over Christmas and the new year. And you can talk amongst yourselves for a second.

Okay. What are you hoping for?

Now that you’ve, now that you’ve spent all your time, tell him what you expect. Now you know how to pray for one another and you say, God, I hope they, they get peace or they get time with people they love or they get time alone. Whatever you’re hoping to get out of this next week as we celebrate Christmas, now you know how to pray for one another and we pray, we pray that you’d be able to enjoy all the good gifts of God. Let’s stand. It’s Christmas time. So we’re going to sing. That’s fun.

Want to take some time, as we enter into the fourth week of advent, again, we light a candle in expectation, in waiting. There’s peace, there’s love, there’s joy, there’s Christ. Today is about love. And as we do come before God waiting, the whole thing begins with a spirit of repentance. It’s a spirit of saying, God, I need you and you are where life is. And so I want to give us just 30 seconds before we confessed together to ask the Lord, where you are? Maybe ask God, is there anger? Is there a resentment? Is there fear? And this is a chance altogether, quietly before we confess together to just repent and say, God, I don’t want to hold anger. I don’t want to hold fear. So let’s ask the Lord to reveal whatever’s going on so that we can repent and say, I give it to you.

Thank you Lord.

If we can turn to page D, we’ll then do it together. It’s part of the benefit. The reason God puts us together in a family,

we all get washed and cleansed and on page D we can pray this prayer of confession and having admitted some of the things we need to turn from God will speak directly to you. Let’s pray together saying most merciful God, we confess, we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against you in thought word and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ. Have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your Holy name. Amen. And all mighty God in his mercy has given his son to die for you and for his sake forgives you all your sins and as a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority, God knows you need to just hear it through a person. So I announced you are forgiven for your sins in the name of the father, son and Holy spirit. God forgives. You.

Take a deep breath and now let’s worship him. Let’s sing one more Christmas song. Today’s readings are along the Christmas story and I’ll just read them today. I forgot to ask someone to read. Would you like to read something? I’ll read the Isaiah one. You read Matthew one verses 18 through 25

okay,

great. So I’ll read this one first. So first we’ll read from Isaiah chapter seven verse 10 through 17 it’s found on page 330 if you’re following along in our tiny print Bibles. So Isaiah chapter seven it’s a famous passage. You might recognize it

Isaiah 7:10-17again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz and said ask a sign of the Lord your God. Let it be deep as sheol or highest heaven. But Ahaz has said, I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the test. And he, Isaiah said here, then, Oh, house of David. Is it too little for you to weary men that weary in my God also. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good for before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good the land whose two Kings you dread will be destroyed. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house. Such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the King of Assyria.

It’s the reading of God’s word. Thanks be to God.

And now our gospel reading grace. If you could stand and read nice and loud, this is found in Matthew chapter one verse 18 through 25 page 471 if you’re using the small print Bible, it’s the reading of God’s word.

Matthew 1:18-2518 Now the birth of Jesus Christ[a] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed[b] to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Thanks Lord for your word. So today is all about one simple idea. Emmanuel, God with us. Emmanuel means God with us, which means you are not alone. You’re not alone for good or bad. You are not alone. Let’s think about what that means.

When you get a pet, you get a little animal. Does that change your life? Yes or no? Why? Because you are not alone. Now you have to leave a party early cause you’ve got to let the dog out or you got to give the cat it’s meds. Cause I’ve never met a cat owner that didn’t have a sick cat. Don’t know what’s going on. Maybe we shouldn’t put them in houses, but non the less it changes your life.

I’m just kidding. Lindsey, Your cats are wonderful, but it changes your life because now you no longer, it’s now your time and your effort is taking care of a creature. What about when someone gets in a relationship? They were single, they had single friends. Now they’re dating and then let’s say they get married. That changes things for you because now they can no longer hang out with you as late. They can’t spend money the same way because they’re not alone. They’re responsible for someone else and for their own things in a new way. Your friends, maybe you’re in a relationship, your friends are in a relationship, that’s great, but then they have a baby now they’re not alone as a couple. We’ve gotta take care of the baby. The baby can’t go to that. We’ve got the baby, right Anthony. We all went through it because now you’re not alone.

It’s not just you and your husband or your wife, it’s you, your husband, wife, the baby, the kids. We got to do this for the kids. Same thing with a job. You’ve been in a job and it’s fine, but then you get a little more responsibility. You move up and now all of a sudden, it’s not so easy to complain about the company because you have to make decisions about the company. You’re, you’re seeing things in a bigger way. Your relationship has changed. You’re no longer alone. You’re responsible for things. And so Emmanuel, God with us means you can’t live like you’re alone anymore. You can’t live like you’re alone anymore, making your own decisions, doing whatever you want. There’s someone else involved. The God of the universe is involved with you. But here’s what happens. We have to make decisions, but we make decisions as if we’re alone. In our minds. There’s always two choices. Should we sleep in today or should we go to Disney? I don’t know. Oh, it’s so hard. And then a prophet of the Lord, A mom or a dad calls and says, are you going to church? And that’s a third choice going to church. Um, well, I already decided we’re going to sleep in today. Okay, let me show you how this makes sense.

You’re making decisions as if you’re alone. Ahaz, now we got to do some context here. We have to come to understand the book of Isaiah. You have to, I’m sorry, the time of being a child and only knowing the the new Testament is over. It’s time to grow up and you’re going to grow up today. Ahaz Is the King of Judah. Okay, King of Judah. Did you ever wonder who Isaiah was talking to when he said a virgin will be born? His name will be Emmanual. He’s talking to the King of Judah. Who represents David, represents the house of David. God’s people are represented through their King Ahaz and Ahaz, has has a problem, right? Leading up to this chapter you have, we have to call it Ephraim. Ehpraim is Israel. Okay, let’s go back. Let’s go back a little bit. Remember, remember Exodus, God created a people out of slaves.

Remember Joshua, he took them into a promise land. Remember David, they became a kingdom and they were unified. Do you remember Solomon built a beautiful temple? Do you remember Solomon’s kids? Probably not because they’re shameful. That’s where Israel a civil war and most of the North went up and they became Israel and only Judah and Benjamin, like two, three tribes including the Levites kind of create Judah and that’s the worst moment in the history of the people of God was when they broke up. It’s a civil war and then after that for hundreds of years they’re fighting and as soon as they break up, the first thing the North lets go of and corrupts is the worship of God. They start worshiping all the other idols and so Judah who has the promise is like the North Ephraim, Israel, your bad God hates you and then it plays out through all the parts of the Bible.

You don’t read first Kings, second Kings, first Chronicles, second Chronicles. It’s really fascinating but its a civil war, well now we’re at a pivotal point because Ahaz the King of Judah has a choice. He has two choices. I can join Ephraim my brothers who I hate and they’re joining with some other places like Syria. It’s a Syria, Ephraim coalition and we can fight against this big threat Asyria, which is taking over the world. But Ahaz is smart and he’s like, wait, why would I want to team up with my brothers when I could maybe team up with Asyria which has taken over everything and that can save myself? Do you see his choice? I can go with the big dogs and win everything or I can go with my brothers that I have had a hard time getting along with and we can fight together against them.

Well, God shows up through the prophet Isaiah and he says, there’s another choice. What choice is that? Go to church. Naahhh. Isaiah shows up and says, the Lord says you will be saved if you do nothing. Don’t join this team and don’t join that team. Let me protect you. And then the verse right up before this beautiful prophecy, it says, if you are firm in the faith, your feet will be firm in the land. This is a promise from God. Ahaz, I’ll protect you. Trust me. Now we get to our passage and Isaiah says Ahaz, since you represent the kingdom of and the whole thing, you can ask me for a sign, I’ll give you a miracle so that you will be established and you’ll know that I’m going to protect you. Let me give you a sign. And he says, as high as heavens and as low as sheol, basically the Hebrew says, sky’s the limit!

What miracle do you want me to give to you so that you know you’ll be safe and Ahaz says, uh, I don’t really want to test the Lord. No thanks. I don’t want to test you. Lord. See, it sounds like sounds pious. It sounds like, Oh, he doesn’t want to test the Lord. That’s a biblical idea. But like all of us, when we’re faking it and we’re trying to quote the Bible and we’re trying to quote something we don’t know, it’s easily seen through. It’s like you don’t want to test the Lord when he says ask for a sign to encourage your people. So why would Ahaz say no? He’s like, I don’t want to give a sign. I’ll tell you why. Because he has gotten used to living alone. He’s gotten used to directing his life and his kingdom apart from God.

And when God says, I’ll give you a sign to strengthen you and to encourage your faith, it’s like, well, I know what that means. That means then I have to follow you. I don’t want to follow you. I know what happens if I start dating someone and then I want to bring the Lord into it. The Lord says, be pure and wait for marriage. Nahhh,, I think living together, I think doing this or I know what this is going to mean. It’s going to mean I’m going to have to follow you and I’m not really ready for that. I’d rather be on my own. And so that’s why Isaiah says you weary your people and you weary my God. If you can look at that, it says, my God, it’s no longer your God Ahaz. And then Isaiah gives them two, two promises, two signs.

We always think of the one about the Virgin, but he gives two sons. You know why it gives two signs? Because when God shows up, it’s always two signs. It’s judgement or it’s gospel and he gives Ahaz, God showing up. It’s just like a police officer. If you need a police officer, it’s salvation. Oh, I’m so glad you’re here. I was scared. These people were doing bad things. If you’re the bad people and the police officers show up, it’s judgment. Let’s get out of here. So the cops can be savior and judge can be a cop or a pig depending on your faith. And that’s what he’s saying to Ahaz. Ahaz you have to now interactions with the God, your God. The first one is going to be a sign, a miraculous sign that I can create life out of nothing through a Virgin and it will be God with you. He has never sees this sign because he’s faithless and you will never see the signs of God or know his presence without faith.

They’ll always sound like mysteries to you. What are you talking about? It will always sound crazy cause you have no faith. So it’s always going to be judgment, which is the second sign. The second one says after the virgin birth and Emmanuel, and he’ll eat curds and honey and he’ll be growing up to be good or bad, and then it says the two kingdoms will be destroyed. It will be worse for you than it was when you guys had your civil war, when everyone left, and then it says in an exclamation point King of Assyria, so Ahaz is going to be taken over by a Syria. The place he decides will save him actually wipes out and humiliates and destroys the North and a lot of Judah [inaudible]

that’s a bummer, right? I don’t want that for my life. And you don’t have it for life. You don’t have to have it for your life because you don’t live alone. When we make those decisions, we’re saying, God, I don’t want you in my life.

but we get the first sign, the first sign that he gives to Ahaz, which is the Virgin birth is for us. God’s given you a sign today and it’s the same sign he gave Ahaz. But you get it because you have faith. Now you know what a sign is, right? Sign is a miracle. Or just a sign, when you’re driving a sign also as judgment or it’s salvation. When you’re driving somewhere and you see a sign, if you’re coming home, you’re coming back to Orlando and you see a sign that says Orlando a hundred miles. You’re like, okay, I got a little nervous. We took a side road. But I see there’s the sign for Orlando. It encourages you if you’re trying to come back to Orlando and you see a sign that says Georgia state line in two minutes and 10 miles, you get like that feeling. What? How do we, that happened to my friend Kristian and his mom, he was with his mom driving to Washington state university.

It’s in Pullman. So here’s Washington, here’s the coast. Here’s Idaho. You’re supposed to go this way to, Washington state university. And Kristian fell asleep in the car and he woke up and it said, welcome to Portland instead of Pullman. She’s like, we were just talking and you get like flushed with embarassment, that’s judgment. But God gives us signs and he says, I’ve given you a sign so that your faith is encouraged and your strengthened and you know, and so the sign is I’m going to send you a God in the flesh by miracle. So that you know for 100% God is with you. And what’s crazy about this is, do you know when Isaiah said this? Do you know the year? I’d be surprised cause I would bet I’m the only person who’s been looking this up. 722 BCE, they say now BC 722 years before Christ. Isaiah is saying there’ll be a Virgin birth and he will be God with us.

[inaudible]

and that was to encourage God’s people. It’s coming, that’s a promise. And you say, okay, that’s a nice promise. But, um, can you put some skin on that? Like how does that apply to me? And that’s where we get Joseph. And God says, let me put some skin on that promise. Let me give you something physical to touch. And the angel. Well, first Joseph finds himself in the exact same situation as Ahaz,, except he has two choices. He’s betroth, which means there’s a legal document between families and you’re just waiting for that marriage day, that day of consummation. Because throughout history, um, sexual intercourse was the wedding moment, the act was the ceremony. You are married when you did that. That might be a shocker to some of us that have checkered pasts. It’s marriage. So for Mary to be betrothed and with child, Joseph has two choices. He can follow the law in Deuteronomy and say, you get stoned, you will get killed for your sin because you’ve ruined everything by this adultery or what Joseph does. He says, I will just divorce you quietly. Two choices. But Joseph doesn’t live alone. God is with him. And God shows up. The angel says, wait, there’s a third choice. Do nothing. Trust me. Why? Lord? Well, this child is from the Holy spirit. It’s not adultery, okay, you will call him Jesus and he will save people from their sins.

Oh, okay. And Joseph says, okay, I’ll trust you. Joseph doesn’t make the decision to just go one way or the other, say, that’s cool, I could do that, but she’s really hurting my feelings. I’m going to divorce her and I’m actually the nice guy here, angel. But he trusts the Lord and he says, I trust you Lord. And because of that, we have Jesus Christ being born full of the Holy spirit. And this is perfect because well, it’s perfect because there’s no humanity. The humanity or the sinful nature of man is not passed on to Jesus. It’s conceived by the Holy spirit, but he’s 100% man because he’s born of Mary. He’s adopted into the line of David. It’s perfect and it’s absolutely miraculous and hard to believe, but to people with faith, you realize we’re talking about the God who can create something out of nothing.

So if I’m trying to have a life with God and I can’t believe in the Virgin birth, well, you’re going to have a hard time believing most of it because God’s the creator and you’re gonna have a hard time believing that he made this promise 722 years before Christ is born. And then it’s going to blow your mind when you realize in 1946 some little shepherd boy threw a rock, heard a little chink, found these perfectly preserved texts of Isaiah. It’s called the dead sea scrolls, and they did all their little tests and they’re like, these were written in 325 circa 325 a hundred BC. Wait, so you mean Mary and Joseph didn’t just go back and change the the words of Isaiah to say a Virgin birth? No, I’m saying it’s there before it ever happened. Starts to blow your mind. You’re like, thanks Lord for those things.

Those are cool, but I already believe it because I have faith. You’ve already put this amount. I already believe it because you’re the God of the universe and so you’ve put skin on this promise to save us and he’s going to save us not just from Asyria, not just from conservative politics, not just from liberal politics, not just from economies and mean people and hard things. It’s not just saving us from that. He’s saving us from sin. The root problem of all the problems is that our hearts had been corrupted and Jesus comes to save us and he says, I’m coming to you and I’m going, I’m for you. I’m coming to you and I’m going to be with you so that you’re not alone. This is what it means. We have no other God in the history of god’s. There’s no other God like ours.

He’s the only God who says, I am with you. Every other God says, I’m up here and find a way. Go on your Epic journey. See if you can get here, but I’m not helping you. I’m not coming to you. You’ve got to prove it. Our God says, I will become a human and come to you and I will experience death and I’ll experience being mocked and I’ll experience hunger and I’ll experience demonic stuff. I’ll experience it because I want to be with you. I’ve promised to be with you. I’m already with you, but I’m being with you in the flesh because you need that to be strengthened. You need to know it’s real and this is a sign given for you and so that Jesus is with you, Emmanuel. And so you get to start living with him now. And that means not just in your decisions. I pray you all use the Lord. Recognize that he’s with you so that when you have decisions, you can say, Lord, what do you think? And allow the Holy spirit to bring the word of God back to you because it’s for you. It’s for your good

but he’s also there for you in good times to say thank you and to recognize that he’s in control, but really he’s with us as we walk through death, as we walked through people attacking us, God is with you. I want you to know you’re not alone. If people are attacking you right now, just not trusting you, trying to hurt you at work. God is with you. If Christmas time is a time of death, it’s a time of divorce. It’s a time of debt. It’s a time of all these things that you remember from the past. I want to tell you today, Christ is with you. Emmanuel Christ is with you. That means you’re not having to go through it alone. That means that he will come for you. He will promise you. I’ve kept a promise to come and I keeping the promise to come again.

so this is what Christmas is. It’s why we give gifts to say to somebody, you’re not alone. I’m with you. I’m for you. What do you want? That’s just a small reflection of what God says. I know what you want. Even when I ask you what you want, you don’t know, but I’m going to come to you and I’m going to be with you and you’re going to be part of my family. This is why I gather you every week to hear that. It’s the same message, but it’s different today. It’s different. It’s Christ is with you. Think about what that means. Think about what that could mean this year. How could Christ, how could you enjoy Christ being with you this year differently than you have last year or maybe you say, God, forgive me, I didn’t live my life much with you this last year, and he says, I forgive you. Of course I forgive you. He wants to be with you. He says, I’ve given you a family gather around that’s what church is. I’ve given you my word, which are my promises. I give you my body and my blood so that you might be encouraged and that all these signs, the sign of Christ coming for you is to strengthen your faith and we get to enjoy it.

I do like how Matthew sees, he sees this as a fulfillment of what Isaiah said. That’s where he as he’s writing about Mary and Joseph, he says, this is what the prophet said. Behold the Virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. You know, that’s a straight up miracle. It’s absurd, but it’s for us because God has this incredible love story and he’ll do whatever he can to get to us. And he has. And so we anchor in him. You are forgiven. Christ, the God man has been born for you. And so let’s rest as we live with him. Let’s get to know him. Let’s invite him in all the time. He’s waiting for it and he loves it and he loves you. Emmanuel, you are not alone. Let me pray. Father, thank you for your word.

thank you for being with us. Help us to grow into what that means. I know that today it encourages me..you know, and that all my expectations for this season I’ll put in you.

We love you. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. I pray that the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

So let’s respond by, confessing what it is we believe. Again, it’s an opportunity for us to recognize that we are the people of faith. We are the people that God is with. So I’m on page B. We’ll say the Apostle’s creed together, and it’s simply answering the question, what do you believe?

and actually let’s stand for this. It’s our corporate confession together. What is it you believe Christian? I believe in God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day, he Rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the father almighty. From there, he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. You may be seated. This is our chance to, uh, give back to God. We say thank you Lord for this faith. Thank you for all that you’ve provided.

We use this time to write prayer requests. We have prayer requests on the board that we pray for during the week or give back to God. It’s just a physical way. I know many give online or at other times. So you use this time to thank God for everything you have. But this is our way of saying, Lord, we recognize you are part of our lives and for the Christian it is. Do I spend money here or here? And the Lord says give a little to me please. It’ll keep money in its right place for you. It’ll keep you from getting too connected to it. And that’s an act of faith. And we give back to the Lord because he’s given everything to us. Father, we thank you for all the good gifts. Every good and perfect gift comes from you that you are Holy. That means you are pure and you are set apart and you have created us. And so we give back to you our time, our money, all of our um, talents in thanks cause the only way we can properly enjoy all these things is, is with you. So bless our giving to you and bless our giving to one another, especially over the next a week.

We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Then as we prepare for the Lord supper, let’s, uh, let’s pray the Lord’s prayer. It’s like the prayer before the meal. That’s page a if you need to look along. But here’s the prayer that the Lord taught his disciples saying, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

And an encouragement. I know the kids in youth group, we went through the catechism, Luther’s catechism, and it goes through the Apostle’s creed and the Lord’s prayer and the 10 commandments. And uh, as you in 2020, whatever you set for yourself, if you want to grow in your relationship with God. One thing that I’ve done this last year is I pray through and I use the Apostle’s creed every day. I use the Lord’s prayer to, to help me pray. Cause sometimes when I pray without help, your mind goes, Lord, thanks for today and am I going to eat that for lunch or should I pick that up or should I call? So, Oh and so it just is a helpful guide to keep you knowing, Lord, how do we pry? So consider that as you want to grow and learn that these things we’ve said for thousands of years, so now we’re going to take the Lord’s supper.

The kids, you guys know what the Lord’s supper is, right? It’s where Jesus says, he calls together his disciples and there’s a big decision, Lord, should we escape or are we going to just take it by force? And Jesus says, well God sent me for this time. What do you mean we didn’t get our swords? We’re going to run away. No, we’re actually going to stay here and I’m going to die for you. That doesn’t feel right. Trust the Lord. And Jesus says, I’m going to die for you and what I’m going to do is I’m actually going to take the weapon out of Satan’s hand. I like thinking about like this. Sometimes Satan has one big weapon, it’s death. I can separate you from God and from all the living, and Jesus walks right up to him and just grabs his weapon and uses it on himself, uses it on himself, just lets it blow up on him and then he rises again.

He says, now, now that your weapon is out of the way, Satan, what do you want to do? So Satan ran away and said, I’m still going to lie to all of them. He’s like, I know, but I’ve taken away your weapon death. And that’s why the Lord suffers so important is that on that night, Jesus says, I’m going to take away Satan’s weapon and all the followers, all of us were like, don’t. What are you talking about? Don’t die. And he says, no, you don’t understand. I’m the God man. I can do this and I have power over death. And so he says, this is the bread which formerly represented the Passover lamb. And he says, now this bread is my body given for you. So he broke it. He gave thanks, and in the same way he took the cup and he said, formally there was blood of lambs and goats, but now my blood is going to be shed for you for the forgiveness of sins because I am perfect and I give my body and I give my blood to you and I want to put skin on the promises.

I want to give you something to hold onto the promises of God. They’re physical, they’re spiritual, and their physical. That’s Jesus. So as we take this, we take it by faith, but know that we’re tasting something or we’re feeling something because he’s real and we’re real and we’re spiritual. And at this supper he says, I’m not only with you, I’m inviting you to eat with me and to be with me and to be with all my family. That’s what’s happening here. So if you believe that, be nourished, come to the Lord’s table and receive the body and blood of Christ. Father, we set apart these things in the name of the father, son, and Holy spirit. It’s by your word that you make any of this true. It’s by your word. You make us saints when we were formerly sinners, and it’s your word that we’re trusting in the word made flesh that dwelt among us, Jesus Christ. Emmanuel, bless us now in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. You hear the beetle song? Okay. All right, so make sure, yeah, you’re right. Some prayer requests because we love to pray. All right. Receive God’s blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord shine his face upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon you with favor and give you peace now and forever. Amen.