Well, I was talking to a friend of mine as he was walking through the door this morning, and uh it kind of hit me that that phrase hindsight is 2020. You guys all familiar with that phrase? That is like a whole new meaning now. You know, hindsight's 2020. Guys, 2020 is behind us now, officially behind us. It's the first Sunday of 2021. I began last year with a series called 2020 Vision, and I regret it so much. I I even knew when I did that series, like, oh, I should probably, it's 2020. I mean, when's the next opportunity we're gonna have for that kind of thing? And 2020 vision means like seeing clearly what's lying ahead. And nope, not even close. But now hindsight is 2020. I can say that for the rest of my life, and that's all gonna be fine. I am so glad it's 2021. I want to ask you a question, rhetorical, just let this kind of run around in your mind for a minute. What are you expecting out of this year? What do you expect out of 2021? Now, some of us are like, nothing. I'm expecting nothing. Last year taught me that no expectations, I'm making no plans, I'm going one day at a time, and honestly, there's like a biblical case for that. It's important to live each day as the day that it is. But what are you expecting in 2021? That word expectation, it's a it's a really important word. It's a word that we're gonna lean into a lot over the next month because here's the reality of life. What you experience in life is greatly tied to what you expect out of life. Your experience in life, your experience this year is very tied to your expectations. And we all know that because we all know what it feels like to misplace our expectations, right? We've all suffered from misplaced or or maybe oversized expectations. We put a lot of hope and faith in something and it led us down. About a decade ago, there was a three-word phrase that would fill my heart with expectation. When I heard these three words, I heard it about once a week for a portion of the year, it would like make my mind flood with expectation. And I thought my mind was about to be blown, and I was so eager and so excited about what was gonna come next. And some of you were like, Oh, you're gonna talk about your wife, and those three words were I love you, and no, not at all, not even close. Um, the three words, and some of you are gonna relate to this. Some of you are like, what? But just those of you that will relate to this, you'll you'll love it. Here's the three words. Previously on lost. How many of you guys were into the show Lost about a decade ago? Okay, all right, a few of you. Some of you aren't raising your hands because you're like, nope, I was burned and I'm not gonna go there. I don't, why are you reminding me of this? So, you know, about 10 years ago or so, there was this show on ABC called Lost, and it was a big, big deal. And to be honest, I didn't have kids, so I had free time, and I got very emotionally invested in this TV show. Like, like back in the day, and this is this is uh this makes me feel so weird. I I joke all the time that my back in the day is so much weaker than my parents back in the day. Because my back in the days are like back in the day when we wanted to binge watch a show, we had to go get a DVD set. That's how we binge watch shows back in my day. We didn't have Netflix, and that just doesn't, that doesn't hit the same way that back in my day we had to walk to school. Like it's not the same thing. But back in the day, we had to binge watch DVD sets. And and Megan and I were given season one of Lost. It was about three years into the show. We watched it in like a week and a half. Again, no children. And I'm just, you know what, we have children, we still binge watch shows. What am I saying? I'm a hypocrite, so still do it. All right, so then we were like, we gotta find season two, we gotta find season three, and we made sure to watch all of it before the the season was current. And then from that point on, we had some friends that hosted a lost party. And uh, that might sound like a church thing for people that don't go to church. No, it was just a party to watch the show Lost. And so we started going to that, and we were all talking, we had all these theories, and if you watched that show, it was just like mystery layered upon mystery, and there was so much hype. JJ Abrams was the mind behind Lost, and those of you familiar with him, those of you who are like movie buffs, he's never built up our expectations only to let us down since then. Not one time. That was a big dig at Star Wars, but whatever. So, like I was so in. And and by the time the last season came around, the promise of resolution to all the mysteries in the show, I didn't just want Lost to end well, like I needed it to. Some of us are saying to ourselves, maybe I don't I don't want 2021 to go well. I need 2021 to go well, right? I didn't want Lost to end well. I was so emotionally invested, I spent so much time talking to people about it, having all these theories and conversations and arguments sometimes that I like needed it to be amazing, and it was not. Um and I don't know if you've ever experienced the kind of disappointment that you can't even like process at first, where you have to convince yourself, no, no, it was great. It was great. Like right after the finale was done, I was like, no, I thought it was really good. And I I think you know, really what they were trying to go for was pretty, if you think about it this way, it was awesome. And as time has gone on, I'm like, no, it was terrible. It was a horrible ending. And it was a thud. And if you're like, no, I loved it, you are free to be wrong. Um, but it was a thud. And and and and the disappointment that I experienced because of misplaced expectations was huge. It ruined a solid week for me, but you know, it was a TV show. I'm sure all of us have stories of misplaced expectations on things much heavier than that, and it took us a lot longer than a week to get over it. But the simple truth is that our experience in life is greatly connected to our expectations. And if you want to have the best experience in 2021, you gotta have the right expectations. So we're gonna spend our first month together talking about what we should expect this year. And the challenge is to let God be the one who shapes our expectations. Father God, like shape our expectations. Reveal to us what it is we should be anticipating this year because our experience is connected to our expectations. And we're gonna start with something really simple but really powerful, and I'm just gonna tell you what it is right out of the gate. This year, we need to expect God to be God. Expect God to be God in 2021. I want to share a story from Scripture, and it's a really classic story. If you've grown up in church, you know this, but the cool thing about scripture is that you can read something a hundred times and the Holy Spirit will like let you see things you've never seen before. And if you're someone who's new and and maybe you're watching from home and you you're not familiar with this kind of stuff, the cool thing is this story is amazing. You're probably somewhat familiar with it, just culturally, it's it's a known story, but you're gonna see a lot of new things, so that's really good. We find it in Exodus chapter three, and it's the story of a man named Moses and the experience he has with uh what's called a burning bush. And it was actually probably like a small tree. Moses was a shepherd, and so he's actually off looking for a sheep that he can't find, and he sees this bush, and it's on fire, but the bush is not being consumed. And so he he goes up to the bush. What else would you do? It says, When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, Moses, Moses, here I am, Moses replied. So not only a burning bush, a talking burning bush. This is not your typical experience with a bush. And uh and he says, Here I am. Now, by the way, small thing, side note, that phrase, here I am, in the Hebrew language, um, it's a word heneni. And it doesn't just mean like present. Moses recognized that God was speaking to him. And that word means I'm here and I'm ready. What do you have for me? It's like you're receiving a mission. And so Moses understands what's going on. And the voice says, Do not come any closer, take off your sandals, for you're standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. And the Lord told him, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I've heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I'm aware of their suffering. At this point in time, the people of Israel have been slaves in Egypt for generations, generation after generation, and they've been crying out to God for help. He says, I hear them. So I've come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, uh, Perizzites, Hivites, and let's see, the Jebuzites, all the Its live there, every single one of them. Look, the cry of the people of Israel has reached me. And I've seen how harshly the Egyptians abused them. Now go, for I'm sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people out of Egypt. But Moses protested to God. Isn't that awesome? In one moment, Moses says, Heneni, here I am, I'm ready. And then the very first chance he has to speak, he's like, Nope. Like, let's, we've we've all been there, right? Like, God, I'm ready, I'll do whatever you want me to do. Except for that. That's where he's at. It says Moses protested to God, Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? God answered, I will be with you. In other words, it's not about you, it's not about who you are, it's about who I am. He says, I will be with you. And this is the sign that I am the one who has sent you. When you've brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain. But Moses protested. If I go to the people of Israel and I tell them the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, they will ask me, Well, what is his name? And what should I tell them? God replied to Moses, I am who I am. In other words, God. I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel, I am, has sent me to you. And God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations. So, really quick recap of where we're at so far. Moses sees a bush, it's on fire, it's talking, and he says, I'm sending you. What an amazing moment in his life. God has chosen Moses to do this unbelievable thing. And this is something deeply connected to Moses' heart. If you know his story, he's an Israelite, but he was actually raised by the royal family of Egypt. But he knew where he came from and he saw the suffering of his people. And it bothered him so greatly that he actually left Egypt. He had to flee Egypt because he actually murdered a slave driver who was harshly treating the slaves in Egypt. That's how much that injustice bothered him. And so he flees Egypt. This is like the cry of Moses' heart. This is the answer to Moses' prayer that the people of Israel would be free, and God's like, good news, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna use you to do it. And instead of being like, yes, me, are you serious? He's like, no, no, there's no, I can't, I can't do it. And God says, I know, but I can't. I'll be with you. I will be with you because I am who I am. What he's saying to Moses in that is I'm God. And I'm gonna do God things. We have a phrase in our vernacular where we we sometimes have a person that has a very specific personality. Like I'm a talker, shocker, I know that. Like I talk a lot. And uh sometimes when I'm talking, someone might look at me and say, or look to someone else and say, that's just Justin being Justin. And when miracles happen in Scripture, when God things happen in our lives, that's just God being God. Just what he does. And he's saying to Moses, I will be with you, I will go with you every step of the way. I'll give you all the power that you need, but Moses, he's still not convinced, and so he has some more objections. We continue in Exodus chapter 4. Moses protested again. This is the third time. What if they won't believe me or listen to me? What if they say the Lord has never appeared to you? Then the Lord asked him, What is that in your hand? A shepherd's staff, Moses replied. So Moses threw down the staff and it turned into a snake, and Moses jumped back. By the way, this implies that snakes are awful. And you should always, no, you shouldn't like snakes. Um, then the Lord told him, Reach out and grab its tail. So Moses reached out and he grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd's staff in his hand. Perform this sign, the Lord told him. Then they'll believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, really has appeared to you. Then the Lord said to Moses, Now put your hand inside your cloak. So Moses put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out again, his hand was white as snow with a severe skin disease. Now put your hand back into your cloak, the Lord said. So Moses put his hand back in, and when he took it out again, it was as healthy as the rest of his body. The Lord said to Moses, If they do not believe you and are not convinced by the first miraculous sign, they'll be convinced by the second sign. If they don't believe you or listen to you after these two signs, then take some water from the Nile River, pour it out on the ground. When you do, the water will turn to blood on the ground. But Moses pleaded with the Lord, like, come on. At this point in time, I'm not saying I'm better than Moses, none of us are better than Moses, but one of the great things about having their stories in Scripture is that we can learn from them. I mean, is anyone like Moses? Come on. Like, what else could you possibly have as an excuse now? What else does God have to do? But he says, He pleaded with the Lord, oh Lord, I'm not good with words. I never have been, and I'm not now, even though you've spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, my words are gonna get tangled. And the Lord asked Moses, Who makes a person's mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go. I will be with you as you speak, I will instruct you in what to say. God's saying, it's not about you, Moses, it's about me. I'm gonna give you everything that you need. But Moses again pleaded, and I love it. This way he's just really direct with God. Lord, send somebody else. I don't, I don't want the job. The Lord became angry with Moses. All right, he said. What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well, and look, he's on his way to meet with you now. He'll be delighted to see you. Talk to him, put the words uh in his mouth. I'll be with both of you as you speak. So God's saying, like, Moses, I'm gonna talk to you, and then you talk to Aaron and tell Aaron what I told you to tell to the people. This is unnecessarily complicated. He said, I'll be with both of you as you speak, and I'll instruct you both in what to do. Aaron will be your spokesman to the people, he'll be your mouthpiece, and you'll stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say. And take your own shepherd staff with you, use it to perform the miraculous signs that I have shown you. Like I said, I'm I'm not better than Moses. None of us are. But one of the beauties of scripture, if you're new to the whole Jesus thing and the whole Bible thing, is it's one of the things that makes Scripture really unique, is it does not it does not do the whole PR spin on the stories. It shows us the failures of the people just as much as the success, which is a reminder, something we say often at his hands, that the Bible is not the story of amazing men and women doing great things for God. It's the story of broken men and women being used by a really great God to do his work in this world. And that's awesome because we're all broken in different ways, but God can still use all of us. This is a truly incredible story. And I love the story from so many different reasons. Number one, I think it shows us how compassionate God is and how he meets us where we are. You know, so often we feel this desire to do something great. God might call us to do something great. We're like, I feel like I want to do this, but we have excuses, we have holdups, we have insecurities. Moses has many, and God accommodates those. He's not harsh, he's very patient, he's very loving, and he accommodates Moses' insecurities and says, Okay, um, what do you have in your hand? And Moses says, I have a staff. He has a stick in his hand. And God's like, cool, use that stick to do things. Here, I'll I'll I'll bless that stick, and that stick can do really cool tricks, and that'll help you. Does that make you feel better, Moses? And Moses is probably like, yeah, it's like it's tangible, it's in my hand. I like my stick. And he's like, okay, what else do you need? A spokesperson? You need a spokesperson? Someone who will talk on your behalf? Your brother Aaron, fine, I'll give you a spokesperson. Will that help? And Moses is like, yeah, and here's the thing that's really interesting. And this is not a knock on Moses, but again, we want to learn from these stories. For whatever reason, Moses was more comfortable, more comforted, more confident with a stick and a spokesperson than he was with the Spirit of God. God came to him and said, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be with you. I'll go with you everywhere you go. And it's amazing, even in the songs that we sing, we still see so many elements of the story of Moses in them. We sang a few minutes ago the lyric Light in the Darkness. That's a reference to the way that the Spirit of God would lead the people of Israel as they escaped from Egypt. He led them in the wilderness as light in the darkness. The Spirit of God was gonna go with Moses everywhere he went, and God was gonna be God, and he was gonna do God things. And he promises that to Moses, and Moses says, Ah, that sounds awesome, but could I have a stick? And maybe a spokesperson. And look, if you know the story, it ends really well. They escape from Egypt. And crazy God things happen. And you know what? Moses even gets to use his stick a few times. And Aaron says a few things, but it's not the stick or the spokesperson that do the heavy lifting. No, it's the spirit of God doing God things because that's who God is and that's what God does. And they escape from Egypt and they spend 40 years living in the wilderness, and it's a difficult journey. And there's a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but the Spirit of God is with them, and eventually they do get to enter that promised land. And it's it's it's crazy though, because there's a couple other stories in Moses' life that are low points. When they leave Egypt, and if you know a story, right? God parts the Red Sea and they cross it, and like maybe you're someone who's going, I can't really believe that, but if you can suspend disbelief for a moment and picture that and actually picture it to the point where you're walking through a sea that is parted, and God has done countless miracles, and he's taking you to the land that he's promised you, how amazing that would have been, how much faith you would have in that moment. But then after that, there's all these challenges and struggles, and Moses actually has a couple of really low points. Two in particular. Really, really low points. Moments of pain, trouble, division, anger. And interestingly enough, both of those involved the spokesperson and the stick. I won't read it, but if you ever read Exodus chapter 32, really cool story. Moses goes on like a retreat, a personal retreat with God. He goes off and he's like, hey, everybody, I'm gonna go be with God. God's gonna tell me stuff because they've escaped from Egypt, but now they have to learn how to be a society, and God's gonna help them out with that. He's like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna be with God. When I get back, I'll tell you what God says. And in the meantime, Aaron, my spokesperson, he's in charge. And so Moses goes, but he's gone for a long time. And the people get really nervous. And so they go to Aaron and they're like, hey, Moses might be dead. And Aaron is like, Yeah, you're right, he might be. Doesn't really have an answer for that. He's not a great spokesperson at this point in time. Um, and they say, Tell you what, this is what we want you to do, Aaron. We want you to make an idol for us to worship. And Aaron goes, Yeah, let's do that. And so they all give their gold and their jewelry and all this stuff that they actually took with them from Egypt. They left with like plunder, and they melt it all down, and Aaron makes a golden calf, and they start worshiping this golden cow. And we we might read that and be like, What in the world? That doesn't make any sense. But you have to understand that these people, like all ancient people in the world at that time, they had grown up worshiping statues. The idea of an invisible god made no sense to them. They had come from Egypt, and in Egypt, there's statues and paintings of the Egyptian gods. And if you've ever seen some of those like hieroglyphic type stuff, you've got Anubis, and he's like a man with a dog's head, and you have Ra, the sun god, who was a man with a falcon's head. There's a lot of men with animal heads in Egypt. And um, and that's who they worshiped. And they've grown up in a culture where you worship an image, you worship an animal thing. And now they're out in the wilderness and they don't have a statue to worship. But they have Moses, and he's like the physical proof to them that God is real because they're seeing the things God is doing through him. But now Moses is gone and they don't know what to do, so they're like, we we can't function without a thing to worship. Make us a calf. And and Aaron does, the spokesperson does that. And Moses comes down and he comes down with this thing called the Ten Commandments, which at that time it's not what we're under anymore. We're under God's grace and his mercy and his love, and we just have to put our faith in Jesus, we're forgetting of everything, but but God's kind of he's leading to that in the story. And so he's got these things called the Ten Commandments. And the very first one is don't worship another God but me. And the second one is don't make an idol. And Moses shows up, he's like, hey, good news, I got these ten. What are you guys doing? You've already broken the first two, and I haven't even told you what they are yet. And Moses loses his temper and he throws the tablets down and they break, and that's a big deal because God gave him those. And now he's gonna go back and do the whole thing over again, and it's this low point in his life. And the key player in the low point is the spokesperson. He swore to God, I can't do this without him. I know, God, you're saying that your presence is gonna be with me. I know your spirit's gonna be with me, and that's great, but I need the spokesperson. And the spokesperson gets him in a A lot of trouble. There's another story in Numbers chapter 20. Kind of an interesting story. And if you read the story of Moses, sometimes things happen and there's a lot in between the lines. And in this story, the people are thirsty. They're in the wilderness, the desert. And God's going to do a miracle. He does lots of miracles to keep them alive. And he says, Moses, I want you to draw water out of that rock. And I don't know if you've ever been thirsty and thought, I'm going to go find a rock. And you know, tip it over in water. Look how much water was in this rock. No, that's not really what happens. But he's like, go draw water out of this rock, and it'll feed all the it'll it'll uh quench the thirst of all the people. It'll drink from it. And Moses is really mad at the people because they're always complaining, and he has a really short fuse. That's kind of Moses' downfall. And so Moses is like, fine. And it says that he takes his staff, you know, the stick that he needed so badly, and he smacks the rock twice with it, and then water comes out. And you know, I kind of picture my oldest son and the way he tends to do things when I tell him to, and he does it, but not like the way I would ask him to do it. Where, you know, any of you who have middle school aged kids know what it's like when you say, you know, hey, can you pick up your shoes? And they're like, you know. They go boneless, that's what Megan says. They're like, pick up the shoes like that, and you're like, what are you doing? And Moses, he's like, hey, Moses, draw water. He's like, fine. And God, is that okay? Uh sorry. Maybe a little bit of parental, uh, parental. I'm just I'm gonna just pose my heart a little bit right now. Pray for me. Um but God says that wasn't good. Moses, that wasn't good. And there's a pretty big consequence for him. And he actually says to Moses, you didn't put your trust in me. And again, there's a lot of reading between the lines, but if Moses' trust wasn't in God when he did that, what was it in? Maybe it was in his stick. You know, the thing that God gave him. Quick side note, this is a temptation for all of us who follow God. Do you trust God or do you trust the stuff that he gives you? It's always tempting to trust the things that God gives you more than you actually trust the God who gave them to you. Some of us in the room have been given really great things by God. Maybe you're financially blessed. You know, maybe you're really healthy. Maybe you have an amazing spouse or girlfriend or fiance or boyfriend. Maybe you have the kids, and your relationship with your kids is really incredible, and your kids are just awesome, and you have a career maybe that's super promising, and God has given you things, and that's awesome. He loves you, he blesses you. But do not for a moment put more faith in the things that God has given you than in the God who gave them to you. Moses did not need that stick. It actually got him in a lot of trouble. And he did not need a spokesperson. The spokesperson got him in a lot of trouble. What Moses needed was the very thing that God promised in the first place. All he needed was God. He needed to have faith and trust that God is God. When he says God, who should I say has sent me? God says, tell him me. God, I am, I am who I am. God is who he is, God does what he does, God does God things. He's never stopped doing God things. We just sang a song. I've seen you move. You you've moved the mountains. I believe you do it again. Do you believe that God is done doing miracles? Do you believe that God is done doing God things? Because I don't. I don't think he's done at all. Do you believe that God still has things to do? Do you believe that God still has plans for this earth? Do you believe that God still has plans for this church, for this community, for your life? Because I do. I believe God is God and He's gonna do what God does. He's gonna do God things left and right if we put our faith in him. But I've talked to so many people, so many, even Jesus followers who have this hopelessness. Like, it's just like as if it's as if God's done. He's like, I'm out, I'm out of tricks, I have no more miracles. I've done them all. 2020, I used them all in 2019. That's why 2020 was the way that it was. I was like, oh, I'm out, and like, ah, you know. And I've watched a lot of people in the last year put their faith in a spokesperson. And believe that a candidate is our is our hope. Oh my goodness. I promise you. It didn't matter how that election turned out or it still turns out, I don't even know. Neither of those guys is our hope. Our hope is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was raised to life, who lives to this day. And look, I don't care who you vote for, I don't care how passionate you were about either candidate. If you're telling me that if Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Jesus were on this stage right now, that you would look at either Joe Biden or Donald Trump and be like, I'm with that one over Jesus? Even if you're not a Jesus follower, even if you don't believe, you would choose Jesus. I gotta promise you, you would choose Jesus. I saw hope. I just saw hope. Some of us would put our faith in spokespeople. In people. That's what it's a spokesperson was just an earthly person. Some of us would put our faith in earthly things. That was just a thing. And yeah, it's a thing God can use. That wasn't his plan A with Moses. His plan A was to use Moses. But Moses didn't expect God to be God. And so he settled for lesser things and he regretted it. And here we are at the beginning of a new year, and we have an opportunity. I want us to all go back to that question I started with. What are you expecting this year? Are you expecting 2021 to be a good year? I hope you are. I hope you are. If someone asks you, why do you expect 2021 to be a good year? I hope the answer isn't a snake or a spokesperson. I hope the answer is I expect 2021. 2021 to be an amazing year because I expect God to be God this year. Because I know the God that I serve. He's a mountain. He does unbelievable things. He's so good. He's so good. And even if even if your life is in a really tough spot right now, God is good. And he's God, he's still God. He never stops being God. He never runs out of power. He never runs out of patience. He never runs out of love for you. So if you want to have an amazing experience in 2021, it starts right here. Expect God to be God. And that means when good things happen, you get to be like, Yes, I knew it! I knew it! That's just God being God. And when something really bad happens, when something tragic, when something that has you concerned happens, don't get dragged all the way down. Don't let that affect you too much because you know what? God is still God. And you can say, Man, this is this is awful. I hate this. But I know that God has something up his sleeve. I know that God is gonna do something. I know that God is going to be the one who has the final say. Expect God to be God this year, and I'm telling you, if that's your expectation, you're gonna have an amazing experience in 2021. Worship team, if you guys want to make your way out, we'll we'll wrap up. Um I want to I want to encourage us this year as a church to uh to take advantage of what we have. You know, I I got really emotionally impacted this morning. Um, those of you who know me well know that I'm not a very emotionally expressive person. Um but God's starting to change that, and I'm a little nervous about what that means because I don't, you know, so uh like tears and and things like that. It's new, it's new for me. I thought those things stopped working, but they're starting to work again. I don't really like it, but it's okay. God is God, He'll do what He wants to do. So this morning I'm in the hallway and I I turn the corner and I see these three boys walking down the hallway to their kids' area, which we haven't had open now for you know months, but they're open again, and I'm so excited their kids stuff happening. It's like, oh, we love kids. And it was my son, my oldest, you know, the that one. Um, and uh, and one of his best friends that he's literally grown up in this church with, they were in uh the one-year-old class together, and they've been part of this all the way through, and then this amazing kid named Braden, who's one of their best friends, and they've all kind of grown up together, and like they're walking down the hallway, and it just hit me this morning how important this is. You know, I I'm sorry that that our time together got interrupted in 2021, and we were like everybody else trying to figure everything out. What's the best way to do this? And and some of you were able to come back in August when we we opened up with limitations, and some of you maybe have been back for the first time today or whatever, but I'm telling you, in 2021, as much as possible, let's be together. Let's be together, let's have fun together, let's do good together this year. Let's expect God to do God things this year. I believe he's gonna do some amazing things. And I'll tell you this, um, it all starts, it all starts by just putting our trust completely and totally in him. Not even in this experience. Like, again, I was emotionally impacted this morning seeing kids go to the kids' areas, but I have to remember that my faith isn't even in this. It's in him, it's in God. You know, if you've you've never given your life to Jesus, I just want to encourage you. It's 2021, you're only three days in. This is the right time. Do not let it be January 5th, January 4th. Don't let it be a day that is not today where you don't have a relationship with the God who made you. Because he's gonna go with you wherever you go. The promises he made to Moses, he makes to all of us, he is with us. Jesus said, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. His spirit is within us. All we have to do is put our trust in him. If you're ready to do that, just give your life to him. There's not some magical phrase you have to say, there's not some ritual you have to go through. Just in your heart, you go, I believe. And God, I want you in my life. And then the next step is to be baptized. So sign up to be baptized. In the main lobby, you can sign up to be baptized. Just stick around for two minutes when we're done. And sign up to be baptized. It's that simple. And if you're you're here and or you're watching and you have put your faith in Jesus, maybe you've allowed some of that faith to go to sticks and spokespeople. Join the club. I have as well. It's okay, we all do it. But take every little bit of that faith and put it on Jesus. Take every little bit of that faith and put it on Him. Because He's the only one who's worthy of building your life. It's the start of a new year. Expect God to be God, expect God to do big things in your life. Bank on it. And then I encourage you, be here so that we can all grow in our ability to trust them. That's really what we do on Sundays. We we don't need to be here to have a relationship with God. He doesn't live at 550 Molly Lane. In fact, I'm friends with a lot of pastors in this community, and crazy. They're pretty much all awesome. Their churches are, I said pretty much. There's one guy. I'm just joking. That sounded like a they're they're great. God is doing things all over this city, all over this world. We don't need to be here to have a relationship with God, but but I'll tell you this: I'm the pastor. I need to be here to grow in my ability to trust him. That's something we do together. So I encourage you to be here this year. Bring people with you. Let's have a really good time. Stick around after we're done. We're we've chosen to be a one-service church for a while, so that we can just stick around afterwards and have fun together and do good together. Stick around today. If you have a high school student, our high school group now meets right after church on Sunday. So stick around and drop your high school students off. And they've got pizza, they'll have lunch provided. And if you want, Madison has a bunch of like gift certificates to a restaurant that said, Yeah, let's send your people to us and we'll give them a big discount. Get a his hands discount. That's great. Stick around. If you want to help us with Guatemala stuff, stick around for just a few minutes. Help us do some good. If you're brand new, by the way, stick around. Every Sunday, once we're done, we're gonna have a little gathering in the main lobby for anyone who's new. I would love to meet you really, really quickly, kind of give you the lay of the land. You'll see a sign out there that just says, I'm new here. Stick around for a few minutes. Linger a little bit. Spend time with people. Enjoy the people that God has given you. We're gonna have fun, we're gonna do good. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so, so much for this church. God, I am just, I'm blown away. I'm so excited about this year. I know it because I'm rambling, I need to stop. But I'm serious, Lord. I I just can't wait to see what you're gonna do. I can't wait. I cannot wait to worship you with these people. I can't wait to experience your goodness and your faithfulness with these people. I can't wait to get to know all the people who are here and for some of them to get to know them all over again. This has been a while. I can't wait more to see what you're gonna do in our lives, what you're gonna do through us as a church. I can't wait. I'm so excited. I pray that we all make it a point to just be together. We have to wear masks, whatever. If we have to stand a few feet apart, whatever. If we have to do the weird elbow bump thing, whatever. I just want to be together. To be the family of God, to support each other, to love each other, to help each other through the Lord. I'm so excited about this. Continue to remind us that you are who you are, that we should expect you to be who you are every single day of the week. We expect you to be who you are, to do what you do. We love you, we praise you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.