Greater Than the Prophets

 Amen, okay, good morning, and welcome to The Chapel. Excited that you are here opening God's word with us. How many of you had to drive in through snow this morning? Just wondering. All right, like two. Okay, well, that's cool. I saw one car in the parking lot that was clearly coming in from the south town, so I am excited, especially that you were here this morning that you traversed the weather and got here this morning. Have you ever considered what a gift it is to have the ability to communicate? I think communication and the ability to communicate is something that we often take for granted. It's something that for as long as we can remember, we've been able to do, right? It's just something that we do. We don't even think about how amazing it is that we can communicate. It's usually something that we take for granted until we experience a time where it becomes difficult to communicate, right? Maybe you've been in a foreign country where you didn't speak the language and communication was just really difficult, and all of a sudden you realized how great it is to have the gift of the ability to communicate. Or maybe you have young kids or you had young kids, and you realize just what a gift it is to be able to communicate. We have four daughters, Marley, Myla, Lira, and Lucy, and they span from ages 11 to three, almost four. Gonna be four next month. And for each and every one of them, around the time when they're like a year old, they're getting at that point where they want something, and they know what they want, but they can't quite tell you what they want, right? If you have young kids or have had young kids in the past, you kind of know this dilemma. They might try to communicate something, but they can't say real, actual words yet. And it can become very difficult. It gets frustrating both for them and for us sometimes. And especially when it comes to dinner time, it can be really difficult, right? When they were around a year old, it was like every night when we would eat, they would have some new very important need that has to be met in order for them to actually eat the food, right? You have to meet this need, or else I'm not doing it. I'm not eating the food. That's just kind of the way it goes with little kids around a year old sometimes. Some nights they want the food in a bowl. Other nights they want the food just on the tray for the highchair, right? And you have to get it right or else they're not touching it. Some nights they refuse to eat with a bib, and other nights they refuse to eat without the bib. And whichever is your first guess is always the wrong one, right? You always have to do a little work to kind of figure it out. Some nights they want to eat with their hands. Other nights they want to eat with a spoon. Some nights they want to hold the spoon. Other nights they want me to hold the spoon. And other nights they wanna hold the spoon in one hand while they eat with the other hand, right? And, just, you have to really do the work to figure out what it is they want because they don't have the full ability to fully communicate what they want. Now, we could eventually figure it out, right? Because they had some ability to communicate. They could point, and they could cry, and they could slam the table if they weren't getting what they wanted, right? And they could refuse to eat. And that's the way they would communicate. Or they could point, and then they could smile, and they could giggle, and they could give hugs, and they would eat if you did figure out exactly what it was they wanted. And there were those little ways of communicating that they do a little bit, not great, but it was a little bit. But once they could fully communicate, we finally got a much better picture of what it was that they were wanting. Now, they still don't eat what we give 'em, but that's for other reasons. They just don't like the food, right? But at least the communication is going on. They are now able to fully communicate because full sentences are greater than pointing, and crying, and slamming the table. That's just the way that it goes. Full sentences are a greater way of communicating. And what I've come to realize is that as they grow up, communication is about much more than them just getting what they want, right? We communicate for much better reasons than just to say what it is that we want. It's not just so they can say that they want the spoon or they don't want the spoon. It's not just so they can say, I like this food or I don't like this food. But as they are communicating more and more, and they're communicating in full sentences, they are not just revealing the things they want, they are actually able to reveal who they are. You see, communication reveals who we are. It's the way that we reveal ourselves, right? It's the way that we make ourselves known to other people. And it's the way that we get to know others as they communicate with us as well. Communication reveals who you are, and, friends, the good news is we have a God who communicates with us. We have a God who communicates with us, and he doesn't just communicate with us to tell us what to do. He doesn't only communicate with us to tell us what he wants, but he communicates with us to tell us who he is and to tell us what he has done so that we can know him. And then in response, we can know him, and we can learn how to live in right relationship with him. But as God communicates with us, he's revealing to us who he is so that we can know him. And what we see today is that God has always been a God who communicates with his people. He has always been a God who communicates with his people, and his communication has always been good. But now he has communicated with us in an even greater way than he has in the past. What we see today in our passage is this, that God has revealed himself ultimately through his son, Jesus Christ. God has revealed himself ultimately through his son, Jesus Christ. As we enter into this Christmas season and we celebrate Advent, that word Advent, it means coming. It means that Jesus has come. He has come in the flesh. God the Son has entered into the world. And we celebrate that because it is God's ultimate revelation of himself. It is God's ultimate revelation of who he is. And he has stepped into the world to show us who he is and to make a way for us to come into right relationship with him. And so that's what we're gonna see today as we dig into this passage. First of all, I want us to just dwell for a moment on the first part of that, that God has revealed himself. That's the first thing we see here. God has revealed himself. You know, a lot of people, I have heard say, "You know, if God is real, why doesn't he just show himself to us? Why doesn't he just come out here? Why doesn't he just peek his head out and say, 'Hey, here I am.' Why does God seem to hide?" That's a question that I've heard people ask, and it's always amazing to me 'cause I'm just like, "He has." He has shown himself. He has shown himself in so many times, in so many ways. Just because you refuse to believe it, doesn't mean that he hasn't revealed himself. It doesn't mean that he hasn't showed himself to be real. It just means that you've rejected it. The author of the book of Hebrews, he opens this book with a statement that should comfort us, and he opens it with a statement that should fill us with awe and wonder. In verse one, look at what he says. "In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways..." Just the first part of that alone is amazing enough, that God spoke. God spoke. Again, this is communication that we often take for granted, I think. The dusty Bibles on our bookshelves show how much we take for granted that God communicates with us. The days that we wake up and we don't spend any time in his word and filling ourselves up with his word shows how much we take that for granted sometimes. How much we just say, "Well, you know, that it just is what it is. It's always been that way and it's cool, but like, you know, I'll just kind of pass on with my day, I'll just kind of move forward with my day without it," It shows how we take for granted the fact that the God of the universe communicates with his people, that he communicates with us. We take it for granted. A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to lead a team from the church down to Costa Rica on a mission trip. And it was a great trip throughout the week. We were able to share about God's love and God's salvation, who God is, what God has done. We were able to share that with several people. And a lot of what we were doing was with various groups of kids, able to show them about God's love for them and the salvation that he offers through Jesus. And we were able to open up the Bible, and we were able to confidently tell them who God is because God has spoken and told us who he is. We could do it with confidence because the word that we were preaching was the word of God himself. And we can only confidently do that. We can only confidently tell people who God is because we have his word given to us in scripture that we can open it up, and we can say, this is who God says that he is. It's not just me. I didn't just come up with it. I didn't just make it up. I don't just say, well, I think God is like this, I think God would do that. I don't have to do that. God tells us who he is. He tells us what he has done. And we can open up his word and stand on who God is in confidence knowing that it comes from him. We were able to share with several different groups about God's love and salvation. But one day as we were getting in the van to leave the place we're at, we were heading somewhere else, outside of the van, a guy named Norman stops us. And I get to talking with Norman, and he shares a lot of his life story with me and some of the hard times that he had fallen on. And he eventually got to talking about God. You see, Norman knew and believed that there was some kind of God out there. There's some God out there. He knew that he had no doubts about that. And he had spent time really trying to figure out how to know more about this God. And by the way, when I say know more about God, I mean know about him at all, more than just that he exists. But who is he? How do I know him? What's he like? How can I be close to him? And he had tried all these different, you know, spiritual practices that he had gotten into. And he had tried meditation And he had tried all sorts of things. All these different things. And he had even gone to a church before. But when I shared with him that God has actually spoken, that God has actually given us his word so that we can know him and can know who he is and what he is like, and we can be in relationship with him, when I shared with him that God has spoken to us, and told us who he is, and what he's done, and that he has spoken to us through a book called the Bible, his mind was blown that God would give something like that to us. When's the last time that you've just sat in awe of the fact that God speaks to us. The God of the universe, who by the way, we separate ourselves from him by our sin. He has not gone distant from us, but we have sinned against him and separated ourselves from him. And yet he still speaks. He still speaks. He has given us his word. He has told us who he is. See, only God can make God known. Only God can make God known. He is the source of knowledge about himself. One of the phrases I hear people say all the time that that bothers me, "Is I think God," dot, dot, dot. "I think God," whatever. "I think God would approve of this." "I think God is okay with that." "I think God..." Whatever the following words may be, there's no need for it. There's no need to think God anything. God has told us about God, and whatever we think about God, just because we come up with it on our own, all that means is that that's who we want God to be. But that doesn't necessarily mean that's who he is. God tells us who he is. Only God can make God known. He is the source of knowledge about himself. We can't go searching for him and find him using our five senses. Our five senses help us discover things that are made of matter. God isn't made of matter. God is the God of matter, okay? We can't go and find him using our five senses. We can't point the James Webb telescope out in a certain direction and find him there. We can see a lot of things in the universe by using this powerful telescope, but we can't find God in that way. And we can't demand of God to make himself known. But the good news is we don't have to do any of those things because God has spoken. God has spoken. He's told us who he is. He's told us what he's like. He's told us what he's done. He reveals his heart, what he loves, what he hates. He's made his will known. He's made promises to his people. He speaks comfort to those who trust in him, and he speaks warning of judgment to those who do not and calls them to hear the warning. And the fact that God has told us all of these things, friends, that tells us that God wants to be known. The fact that God communicates tells us that God wants you and me to be in right relationship with him. The fact that God communicates and he reveals himself to us, tells us that he wants us to know him, and he wants us to be near to him, and he wants us to be close to him. And friend, I want you to know that your greatest need in all of this world is to know this God. Your greatest need in all of this world is to know this God, mot just to know about him, but to know him personally. You were created to know him. You were created to be in right relationship with him, and he has revealed himself so that you may know him. And he has done the work so that you may be in right relationship with him. And we'll see that in just a minute. God spoke. But when does the author of Hebrews say, when does he speak and how does he speak? Well, in the first part of this passage, we see that it was, "In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways..." He's referring to the Old Testament here, and the word of God that we have in the Old Testament, the Old Testament scripture has 39 books written down by more than 25 different men over the span of a thousand years, more than a thousand years. And what it all has in common is that it is God's word. It's God's word spoken through man. And therefore, friends, we should not ignore our Old Testament. I think that's a problem that we have in the modern church sometimes is we're just ready to get into the New Testament and completely ignore the old. Friends, we find who God is in the Old Testament. We come to know God through the Old Testament, and we come to see what he has done through the Old Testament. It is his word that he has spoken to us. It's God's word to all people written through men that he chose to be his mediators. And we should dive into the Old Testament as well. Don't ignore the Old Testament. But here's the thing, is that God still had another step in his plan of revealing himself. God still had another step in his plan of revealing himself. You see in the Old Testament, we get to know this God, and throughout the entirety of the Old Testament, he is pointing us to something that he is going to do. He is pointing us to someone that he is going to send. He is pointing us throughout the whole Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi, he is pointing us to Jesus Christ. And while the whole Old Testament is God's word to all people written through men that he chose to be his mediators, written through the prophets, the passage tells us that it gets even better. Whereas God has done something incredible by revealing himself through the prophets, now we see the second part of the passage is this, that God has revealed himself through his son. God has revealed himself through his son. The author goes on. He says this in verse two. "But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son..." See, while God spoke at many times in a many ways long ago, he was doing it through people he had chosen as his prophets. But now he spoken and revealed himself in an even better way, in the best way. He has done it by his son. It's not that the old way was bad. No, but it is that this one is even better. I'll tell you why. Any of you ever have a pen pal when you were growing up? Anybody have a pen pal growing up? Y'all remember what a pen pal is, right, even if you didn't have one growing up, maybe? A pen pal is someone that you communicate with from kind of far away. My kids have pen pals with some of our old friends from years ago. They now have kids about the same age as I our our kids. And so they kind of have pen pals with their kids, right? Alright, so they've never actually met them, but they write to them. And when you have a pen pal, you get to know someone who is kind of far away that you would probably never meet otherwise, right? It's just somebody that you write to from a distance. You communicate with them through letters and you get to know a little bit about their lives. You get to know what their interests are. Maybe you find out what they did this past week or whatever it is. All sorts of things. And while you are indeed getting to know that pen pal, while you are getting to know them, you would get to know them much better if they showed up at your door one day and invited you to come and hang out, right? Like you get to know a lot about them, but you get to know them even better if they show up at the door and introduce themselves to you. Well, the analogy isn't exactly perfect, but that's kind of like the difference we see here with the way that God once spoke to his people by the prophets, okay, and the way that he has now spoken through his son. But to understand why this communication from God is better, we have to understand who this son is. The author of Hebrews, he tells us because without understanding who the Son is, we might think that he's just another prophet. We might think that he's just another representative of God. But what do we learn about the Son? First and foremost, we learn that the Son is God. The Son is God. See, God is one being. He is one in essence. Yet he eternally exists in three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. When we see at the beginning of our passage today that God spoke, we are speaking of God the Father. And here, we turn our attention to the Son. But the author is clear that the Son is God. The author of Hebrews tells us that when we look at the Son, we see God. Look at the description that he gives us of the Son. First of all, the Father has appointed him as the "heir of all things," we see in verse 2. That means he is the one for whom all things exist. And who do all things exist for? They exist for God. They exist for God and God alone. He also tells us it's through him that the universe was made at the end of verse 2. It's through him that the universe was made. Therefore, he's the one who was before everything else, existing from eternity past. He is God. And other scripture backs all this up. Romans 11:36 says, "For from him and through him and to him are all things." Colossians 1:16, "All things were created through him and for him." The universe was made by God and for God alone. And yet we see all over the scripture that it was made through the Son and for the Son. Why? Because the Son is God. There's God the Father. There's God the Son. There's God the Holy Spirit. All are one God in three distinct persons. More than that, he says in verse three that "He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." That means that the Son shares with the Father. He shares with the Father in substance, in his attributes, in his abilities. It means that the Son is God. And what we see at the birth of Christ is that God shows up on our doorstep, that God himself enters into the world when the Son steps in and he remains fully God and yet takes on the fullness of being a man as well. He steps into the world in order to reveal himself to us and in order to save us from our sin. Without understanding who the Son is, we might think that he's just another prophet. We might think that he's just another representative of God. But what do we learn about the Son? First and foremost, we learn that the Son is God. The Son is God. See, God is one being. He is one in essence. Yet, he eternally exists in three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. When we see at the beginning of our passage today that God spoke, we are speaking of God the Father, and here we turn our attention to the Son, but the author is clear that the Son is God. The author of Hebrews tells us that when we look at the Son, we see God. Look at the description that he gives us of the Son. First of all, the Father has appointed him as "the heir of all things," we see in verse 2. That means he is the one for whom all things exist. And who do all things exist for? They exist for God. They exist for God and God alone. He also tells us it's through him that the universe was made at the end of verse two. It's through him that the universe was made. Therefore, he's the one who was before everything else, existing from eternity past. He is God, and other scripture backs all this up. Romans 11:36 says, "For from him and through him and to him are all things" Colossians 1:16, "All things were created through him and for him." The universe was made by God and for God alone. And yet we see all over the scripture that it was made through the Son and for the Son. Why? Because the Son is God. There's God the Father. There's God the Son. There's God the Holy Spirit. All are one God in three distinct persons. More than that, he says in verse three that "He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." That means that the Son shares with the Father. He shares with the Father in substance, in his attributes, in his abilities. It means that the Son is God. And what we see at the birth of Christ is that God shows up on our doorstep, that God himself enters into the world when the Son steps in and he remains fully God and yet takes on the fullness of being a man as well. He steps into the world in order to reveal himself to us and in order to save us from our sin. When I was talking to my friend Norman, it was amazing enough to him that God has spoken to us in the Bible. It absolutely blew his mind. He was amazed by it. But as I was able to go on and share with him, I was able to tell him, it doesn't end there. God has not only spoken to us through the Bible, but he has actually entered into the world. He has actually stepped into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. How do we know that God really is who he says he is in his word? Well, he showed up and he proved it. He proved it in the person of Jesus Christ who displayed every attribute of the Father, who displayed the character of the Father, who fulfilled the promises of the Father who did miracles, who stopped storms and calmed seas, who told the demons to leave and they had to obey, they had no choice, they couldn't help it, who got rid of diseases from people's bodies, who healed, who gave the blind their sight, who gave the deaf their hearing, who did all of these things that only God can do. He showed up on the scene. He showed up in the world, and he revealed himself to us in the flesh. He revealed himself to us in the flesh. So why is God speaking to us by his son better than speaking by the prophets? Well, it's because God showed up at the door. It's because he showed up in the flesh, and he showed us, in person, who he is. So first of all, the Son is God. But second, the Son has accomplished our salvation. The Son has accomplished our salvation. In verse 3 it says, "After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven." This is the Son's role in the work of salvation. The Father willed it. The Son accomplished it. And the Spirit applies it. No prophet, no mere man could do this. God says in Isaiah 43:11, "I am the Lord and besides me, there is no savior." Friends, this is why Jesus came. This is why Jesus came. When it says that God has spoken to us by his son, it doesn't mean that he just came to teach us a bunch of good stuff about God. He didn't just give us good moral teachings. He didn't just give us some good factual material about God that we can go home, and we can study, and we can have all this knowledge about God. He came with a word of salvation, and God's word is always tied to his salvation. God's word is always tied to redemption, but it also means that he has spoken both in word and in deed. God has spoken in Word, and God has spoken in deed. See, Jesus didn't just preach salvation. Jesus accomplished salvation. Jesus didn't just come to say, this is what salvation looks like. Jesus came to actually do the work of salvation, and we'll see that in a couple weeks when we look at the end of Hebrews Chapter 2, that that was the big reason why he took on human flesh, was in order that he could pay the penalty for our sin, in order that he could do the work that needed to be done in order for us to be in right relationship with God, in order that, as a man, he could pay the penalty for the sins of man. As I told Norman, my friend in Costa Rica, as I told him the story about how God stepped into the world to make himself known, I was able to tell him, it's not just that Jesus revealed who God is, but he came and he did the work of salvation. He came. He stepped into the world. He took our sin upon his shoulders. He went to the cross. He died the death that we deserved. And he rose from the dead. Friends, when we think about Jesus, when we think about God the Son, we should not only think about the things that he has said, we should think about the things that he has done because it is in what he has done that we can know God, that we can have right relationship with him, that we can have relationship at all with God, that we could spend eternity with him. You see the prophets of the old days, they could only preach salvation. You and me, we can only preach salvation. We can only tell about salvation. Jesus is the only one who could accomplish salvation. And when we are celebrating Christmas, we are celebrating the event that enabled him to accomplish it, that he took on humanity, that he took on human flesh in order to accomplish salvation for mankind, that he accomplished salvation for you and me, that we could know him, that we could have eternity with him. He has paid for our sins. He has risen from the dead, and now he sits at the right hand of the Father as Lord over all, which leads to the third thing we see about the Son. The Son is exalted to the highest place. Verse 4, he says this. "So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs." See, Jesus is the name that is above every name. As we go on through these chapters in the book of Hebrews, we see that even what the prophets received and even the law, it was given through angels, and it was given through them, and yet Jesus is even higher than they are. He has a name that is above even where they stand. Though they stand face-to-face with God, the Son is even closer at the right hand of the Father. He has been exalted to the highest place. He is the name that is above every name. Though he lowered himself for a time, he has now been exalted to the highest place, as he has accomplished the salvation of mankind. He has taken on sin, and suffering, and death, and he has conquered it all. He has conquered it all. And he has conquered it on our behalf so that one day when he returns or we go home to be with him, sin will once and for all be put away for good. All the evil, and the disasters, and the sin of this world will be put away once and for all. We will no longer have to deal with them. We have already been saved from the penalty of sin. We have already been saved from the power of sin. And one day we will be saved and completely removed even from the presence of sin, all because of what Jesus has done. Friends, that's what we celebrate. In all the things that we celebrate, that is what we celebrate, that the Son has done something great. He has accomplished salvation on our behalf, and he sits at the right hand of the Father as the Lord over all. So in the end, who is the Son? Who is Jesus? He's not just another prophet. He's not just a messenger. He's not just a great teacher. He is God in the flesh. God, the Son in the flesh. He is the one who has come to forgive us of our sin and bring us salvation. He's the one who has the name above all names and is reigning on the throne forever. And he's the one who has made God known to us. And he has made the way for us to know God personally. See, as good of a gift as it is that God communicates with us, as good of a gift as it is that God has given to us his word, that God spoke to our fathers through the prophets, the best gift that God has given to us is himself. As good of a gift as everything else was, the best gift that God has given to us is himself. He has given us himself in the Son coming to Earth, taking on humanity for our salvation, and he has given us himself in that we can spend all of eternity with him because of what the Son has done. The question is what will you do with that gift? What will you do with that gift? Lemme give you just a couple of things. First of all, if you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ, the first step, the only step for you to take today is to place your faith in him. Friend, he has come so that you may have life and salvation, so that you may know God for all of eternity, so that your sins may be forgiven, and you can have eternity with God. The first step is to place your faith in him. But if you are here today, and you've already placed your faith in him, let me give you this. First of all, commune with God. Commune with God. Commune with him on a daily basis. God has given us his word. In Hebrews Chapter 4, he says that it is alive and it is active. You see, God has spoken in his word that we have written down once for all, and yet he still speaks. He actively speaks through that word, but for you to hear him speak, you have to be in the word. I hear people all the time trying to hear from God. They wanna receive some message from God, but they don't open their Bible. This is where God speaks. This is how we commune with him. This is how we live in relationship with him. We commune with him. Open the word of God. Let it get inside of you. You get inside of the word so that the word gets inside of you. Let the Lord speak to you, and as you do, you can commune with him by praying back to him as well. We commune with God. Second of all, search scripture to learn more about him. People wanna know about God. They wanna know who he is. You don't have to say, "I think God," dot, dot, dot. You can stand on the foundation of his word. Search the scripture. Learn who he is, and love him for who he is. And then last of all, share it with others. Share it with others. The only thing to do after you have the the word of God inside of you is to let the word of God out of you. Okay? Well it up inside of you. Fill yourself up with it so that you overflow with it and speak it to others. Friends, let me tell you something. Christmas time is a time where people are just a little bit more open to the gospel. They're a little bit more open to the gospel, okay? They're open to hearing songs that speak about Christ. They're open to to hearing the story a little bit more. I know it's not everybody, but a lot of people are more open to it. This is the time to fill yourself up with the word of God, and let it out of you so that people may hear the good news of what God has done. I hope that you've gotten, today, just a little bit clearer of a picture of who Jesus is, the greater revelation of God, God in the flesh, and I hope that from that clearer picture, your heart would be wrapped up in him and that your life would become more and more about him. Friends, let me encourage you, as we enter into the season, it's easy to get our minds and our hearts set on the hustle and the bustle, and the gifts we have to buy, and the things we have to do, and all that stuff. Will you put your focus on Jesus Christ? In all of the things, will you set them aside for a while, and put your focus on Jesus Christ, and commune with God in his word? Search the scripture to learn more about him and share it with others. I would encourage you to do that today. Let your focus, your mind, your heart, be set on him. Reflect on the wonder of Jesus coming to save his people, because what we have is greater than everything else offered by this world. Let's take a few minutes to go before the Lord in prayer. Why don't you bow with me? If you're here today, and you've never put your faith in Jesus, I wanna invite you to let today be the day. God has made himself known because he wants to be in relationship with you. He has sent his son. The Father has sent the Son in order that you can be in right relationship with him, but that only comes through faith in him. We're gonna have prayer partners down alongside the front of the stage at the end here today. If that's you today, and you want to know more about what it means to put your faith in Jesus, how to know God, how to have a relationship with him, I wanna invite you to come on down after we're done and talk to one of these prayer partners. They would love to talk with you more about that. Or maybe you're here today, and you already know Jesus, but maybe you haven't been taking communing with him seriously. Maybe you haven't. Maybe you've lost the awe and the wonder of the fact that God speaks to us in his word. Maybe you've lost the awe and the wonder that God, the Father, has sent his one and only son in order that we could know him. Friend, if your here today, and you haven't been opening up God's word, you haven't been setting aside the time each day to commune with him, let me invite you to do that today. Let me invite you to do that today. If you don't know where to start, start the book of Matthew. It tells the Christmas story. It's Christmas season. It's gonna be great. You're gonna love it. I wanna invite you to open God's word and to hear from him. Let him speak to you. Let his word inside of you, and then let his word out of you as you speak it to others. God, we are so thankful that you have given us your word. We are so thankful that you have spoken. Since the beginning of time, since you have created mankind, Lord, you have been speaking to us, you have been making yourself known. Even when we have walked away from you, you still speak, Lord, and I pray that for those who may be here today who don't know you, Lord, I pray that you would be speaking into their hearts right now. And for those of us who do, Lord, I pray that you would help us to live in the awe, in the wonder that you speak. You speak in word, and you have spoken once and for all through your son. Lord, let us live in the joy that comes from that, and let us live in the joy that comes from knowing you. Lord, you are good. We trust in you. We know who you are because you have told us who you are. Help us to live in light of the truth of who you are, your goodness, your grace, your mercy, your salvation, your love. We love you Lord. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.