Okay, I'm the last one to know. I actually live with Steve and I did see him this morning. So, and he had a really good message too. So I'm almost like, hey, Steve, just did he send it to you or are you gonna do your own? Nope.

I'm doing my own.

Wow. That's impressive, don't you think? Justin's either sweating knowing that. Because I I'm telling you, Steve's was really good, and I'm like, I could just probably just do that message. He did all the work I could probably just do. But I wouldn't be sitting on a stool, you know, because that just doesn't work for me. Okay, like like Justin mentioned, I am crazy excited about what I'm gonna share with you. A few of you might might already be in on the little thing that's going on, but I'll I'll just walk through and tell you the story. Um, well, as most of you have realized, I'm being funny the hard way, ha ha ha. This is a volunteer church. Okay, we don't have like this big paid staff and all that. It's kind of like just like our households run. We whatever needs done, we say, hey, that needs done. I guess I'll do it, or somebody will do it. And and so many of you help out in in every area, and there's so many people, even on a Sunday morning, we literally need hundreds of people to help serve the rest of us, and so we all take turns and it and it works pretty well. Many of you have helped out in the nursery on occasion, because that's probably our greatest uh because you know, what's the ratio? I don't know, one for one for 50 kids. Is that about right? No, that was a joke. In the nursery, it's like one for every five kids, depending on the age. So, and we need a lot of help back there, and we are very, very grateful to everyone who has ever helped out in the nursery because the the thing about that is you miss what happens in here in the big room. And so it's it's we realize that as a huge sacrifice, and so we're very grateful. And the nursery, I would say, is great right now. I think the nursery is great, but here's something cool it's gonna be even greater, it's gonna be even greater. Um, a few months ago, um, I felt like God led me to ask Megan McTear to lead the nursery, and Steve was in total agreement with that, so we asked her. And I don't know if some of you know, you know, that guy who's getting ready to talk, it's his wife. Um, and she in a very different way, she has very different gifts than Justin, but she is like and a really impressive person. God has given her a lot of gifts. Um, she's an excellent teacher. She went to a school for teaching that was known for their excellence in teaching. She's also, interestingly enough, very creative person as well, and very can get things done type person. So she's got a lot of really cool gifts, but the most important thing is she's completely, utterly sold out to God, and she loves children. So you should have seen the look on her face when I asked her. She's like, her eyes got really big. And she's like, wow, that just seems over. I hope I'm not oversharing, Megan, but that just seems overwhelming, like a huge job, because she would take it seriously and want it to be done exactly the way that it should be done. I said, Yes. I said, I want you to go home if you choose to accept this mission, which she and Justin did, to go home and picture what a nursery would look like if it was in heaven. If it was God's nursery, no limits, no boundaries. And I even said, and don't worry about the money. I'm just kidding. I really did say that. I said, even if you if you there were literally no limits in any way, people, past structure, money, because it's heaven, okay? God has everything, so he could do it. So she went home and she prayed about it, and God gave her a very specific vision for a new nursery. And it's beautiful. And I'm just gonna share a teeny little part of part of it today just to get you guys excited. So if Chris, if you want to put that verse up, God gave her this verse. And then she drew the little picture on there too. See, she's creative. And it is from Mark 4, 30 through 32. See if I can read that far. I think I can. It's far enough away from my hand. Okay. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. And even though it is the smallest of seeds, when it is sown, it grows up, becomes the greatest of all garden plants, and grows large so that even the birds of the air can nest in its shade. Okay, so that right there is the vision for the nursery. It is a beautiful garden. And those children, this is what God showed Mangan, those children, they are the smallest of seeds. But but here's the cool thing: when they are sown, when they are poured and planted and nurtured and loved and taught and prayed for, they grow into the largest of all trees in the garden. Can you imagine that? Because you know, around here, we don't really do garden of flowers, do we? We do a garden of trees. It's the tree of life church. Okay, so back there, that was the picture Megan got was a garden, but a garden of trees. And and we knew when she shared that, I just felt the Holy Spirit all over me, and I knew this is from God, and we're gonna have a beautiful garden. So we are right in the middle of getting that entire nursery, and it's a little overwhelming that God's doing it. We're just He gave the vision, we're just implementing it. So I know it's gonna be way more awesome than what we think, but it's a lot of work. So I'll just tell you a little bit. The structure of the garden is gonna be this. You're gonna love it. No more teachers, helpers, workers back there. Anyone want to guess who's back there? Nurturing the seeds? Gardeners! And the new motto for the nursery is I love gardening. Woo! We're gonna have an iHeart Gardening. And every all the gardeners are gonna wear little green, bright green aprons, okay? Because they're gardening. We're not back there. Helping's good, working's good, teaching is good, but I think gardening's better, especially with the vision God gave us. And the new model is gonna be a classroom model more than a daycare model. They're both good, but this was part of the vision. And so in each room, there's gonna be a room gardener. And this person is going to be responsible for spiritually leading the room. They will do the teaching, they will be praying for and with the children. And um, I mean, just as it should be. I'm just so excited about that. And then also in each room, depending on how many kids, there'll be one to two assistant gardeners, and they will be responsible for loving and nurturing and taking care of the physical needs of the children. So, so here's why I'm bringing this up. We're gonna have a sign up today afterwards. And so, if anybody's interested in gardening, this might be the time to do it. Megan's gonna have several uh people out there to help you with signups. Here's another opportunity we are gonna have a brand new, beautiful, serene baby gym back there for babies and ones. We are also gonna have a twos, threes, and fours gym for the old for a little bit older kids, and there's gonna be a dedicated gym gardener to to basically support every the teaching of the day in the spiritual things that they're learning and worshiping and all this. It's going to be um the same thing but through play in the gym. And so each group of kids will get like 20 minutes in their gym. Isn't that so awesome and cool? I'm super excited. Plus, it might make it a little more calm for the teacher when they're done, right? Okay, so so basically we've started the renovation. Every single room is getting completely renovated. The whole front. I mean, it's gonna be awesome and gorgeous, and it's gonna be beautiful, like you're walking into a garden, but also extremely functional. And each room is gonna be structured. I mean, it's it's a whole lot, that's all I'm saying. But it's gonna be, I think this is gonna last us for years and years, maybe a decade, all this stuff. It's it's gonna be um awesome. And we're kicking this off. Don't think we're crazy. Because after Christmas, a lot of people are coming at Christmas, and so we wanna be ready. We wanna be ready to love on the children and garden, garden back there. So January 6th, when we come back, is the date, is our goal. So we have been working like crazy people, but just for a time. You can't live like that, but it's okay for a season to launch things, I suppose. But but anyway, so sign up is today. So if you're interested in gardening, being a room gardener, assistant gardening, um, host a sing at the front. Um, if you're interested in the gym gardener, because that's your particular gift, like you're you're a singer or you're just a crazy person who likes to roll around with the kids on the floor, then that would be a good thing. Um sign up if you're interested in any of those things. Also, this is gonna be really fun. I don't want to promote it too much. We'll have a thousand women come to this thing. And what it is, is we are gonna have nursery night Wednesday night. Now, that may not sound that great to y'all, but I throw a really good party. That's all I'm saying. And the people that we asked to help throw the party, they're even better than me. But it's going to be dessert, free specialty coffees with dedicated barista, music, candles. I mean, it's gonna be really fun. And you'll get more info about the nursery, and you'll also get to meet other people who are gonna be helping out. So that's gonna be really fun. That's this Wednesday night at 7 o'clock, 7 to 9, in the fireplace room. So, who's excited about a new garden? Woo! Okay, Jess's like, is she ever gonna shut up? Yes, I am right now. Good luck with the message. I'll be praying for you.

All right. Well, um not to spend any more more time on that, but uh I am married to the beautiful woman that's gonna do it. And uh, and I can just I can just say personally that I don't know a single person on this planet that has as much passion uh for kids and them growing close to God as as Megan. So if you have kids that are that age, I'm telling you guys, um it's gonna be it's gonna be great. And something that um Yes. Perfect. Perfect. What Susan wants to say is if anyone is not, you're thinking, I don't know if being in the room with the kids on a weekly basis is uh is what I want to do, but uh but maybe you just want to help us set up. We need as much help as we can get. So if you can help in any capacity you feel led to, um definitely go out to those tables as soon as we're done. And you'll have you'll totally have time to do that and Christmas Angels as well.

And that could be decor that could be decorating, it could be you're a painter, or it could be you'd like to put these big IKEA cabinets together, that'd be great.

IKEA, yes. IKEA is great if you have tiny fingers, but you're really tall. It's a weird thing. That's how they design their stuff. Um men of you guys ever put stuff from Ikea together. The instructions, it's a seven-foot-tall man with fingers small enough to hold this tiny tool. It doesn't make any sense, but whatever. Um, one other thing about the about the the kids. There's something about, I don't know, it's just our culture or whatever that tends to treat kids' stuff as secondary. Uh it's kids. It does not, it's not as important. The level of quality doesn't need to be as high for kids as it would be for adults. And and there's there's a really famous evangelist from years ago, and I honestly I can't remember if it was like Charles Spurgeon, or it's one of those real, you know, the one of those names that if you said it to someone who knows that stuff, they'd be like, oh, I'm gonna listen to that. But he has this famous story where he was speaking at at some big thing and a bunch of people came forward to give their lives to Jesus, and someone asked him afterwards, they said, How how many people got saved? And he said something like, you know, 342 and a half. And they said, Oh, a half, is that like like kids? And he said, No, actually, I count adults as half because half their life is through. The kids, they they get a full number, they've got their whole life ahead of them. You know? And what's and that's true. That really is. And uh and I'll tell you guys on a Sunday morning, you want to think about the importance of what's gonna be happening over there? The number of years of life that are just in the nursery and his kids, when you take the age of the kids and how much life they have ahead of them, every Sunday morning is over 25,000 years of life. And so when we serve the kids, when we teach them, that is what we're we're we're pouring ourselves into. Imagine what God can do with 25,000 years of life devoted to him. It's empowered, it's powerful. All right, so all that aside, let's pray and uh definitely go sign up for that, and then we'll we'll do this. Okay. Daddy, we love you. You know, this morning, obviously, it's about being, it's about children, and we are your children. And so, even in the thought process of delivering these gifts this morning and signing up to help make the nursery and the kids stuff here incredible and all from you, uh, remind us that we are primarily children to you. That is who we are. We just pray that you would speak to our hearts this morning. We love you so much. Amen. Well, hey, I'm really glad Susan told you guys that Steve had this incredible message because no matter how the next 20 minutes goes, you can leave knowing that it could have been awesome. No matter what. You know, obviously God just wants this morning to be about kids, and so I want to ask you to help me out for a second, and and as best you can, those of you that have young children, this will be easier. Some of us will have to think a little harder, but put yourself in the mentality of being a young child. If you can right now. But no temper tantrums, please. If I say the words to you and you're in the mentality of being a child, if I say the words, Christmas is almost here. Now, this is why I asked you to get in this mentality because as an adult, when we say Christmas is almost here, there's a part of us that's like, yes, but there's another part of us that's like, what? I there's so much to do. I haven't wrapped anything, uh, we're in trouble. But as a child, Christmas is almost here. What is the mentality of a child when those words come out of someone's mouth? It is extreme excitement. Is there anything that children look forward to more than Christmas? Maybe, but you'd be hard-pressed to find something that can outrank Christmas in the mind of a child. It is something that is eagerly anticipated, it is waited for. We we tend to get frustrated when we go into stores in October and we see Christmas trees and we hear Christmas music, and we're like, already, are you serious? The people that make those decisions are smart because they know we have our children with us, and they know what happens to a child when they walk into a store and it's you know October 7th and they see a Christmas tree, and they're like, Christmas is coming, Christmas is like so exciting. There is so much anticipation, so much just joy associated with that. Our son is two and a half, and this is the first time that he has been able to express to us wanting something for Christmas. You know, he I don't know how he remembers Christmas last year. He was just a year and a half old or so, but he does. And he doesn't know what it's all about. He does not know the reason for Christmas. We've tried to tell him, but he knows that there are trees, and under those trees go presents, and those presents are his, and he is excited about it. We asked him what he wanted for Christmas this year, and his he said he wanted a Nerf gun. Actually, what he said was a big, big, big, big, big Nerf gun. That was the exact description. Get the violent stuff right out of the gate, I guess. But uh You know, there's so much anticipation he has for that that we put the Christmas tree out right after Thanksgiving or right around Thanksgiving, and he saw it, and his immediate thing, he's like, Yeah, where's my Nerf gun? And we had to tell him, no, no, no, the tree goes up first, and then you have to wait, and he, you know, in his mind, how long? Actually, like a month. That's a long time to a child, so it's kind of a cruel thing, I guess. But but it's teaching him to anticipate what's coming. And I think what makes Christmas such a joyful experience, honestly for us, in in other ways, it's harder sometimes as as adults to get into the same spirit that a child does. But for a child, what makes Christmas morning so incredible, it's not just the presence and it's not just the time with family and the time off school, it is the culmination of months of eager anticipation. It is the moment where these months of of just anticipating something amazing happening, knowing that it's coming, that's when it happens. And if you took that anticipation out of the picture, it would still be exciting. If it just randomly happened and they walk downstairs one day and there's a tree in presence, they would be they would be thrilled. But nothing compared to what they are because of those months and months of anticipation. The joy that they feel because of that is incredible. What if we could have that joy, the same joy that a child feels when Christmas Day arrives, when it's the the the culmination of all this anticipation, all this eager waiting? What if we could have that joy in our lives on a regular basis? How incredible would that be? And it's totally possible. You know, it's interesting. Jesus came to this earth at a time when when the people of God were anticipating the Messiah like they never had before. The time that Jesus came was a time of of great anticipation, and you can just see it all through the Gospels. I mean, people were talking about the Messiah, wondering who the Messiah was. John the Baptist would speak, and people would say, Is he the Messiah? Could he be the Messiah? Everyone was waiting for the Messiah to come. It was a time of great anticipation. And I don't know if that's why Jesus came exactly when he did. I just think it's interesting that he picked a time to come that happened to be a time when the world was anticipating a Savior. He showed up at that time. Not everyone believed that he was the Messiah, not everyone followed him, but those that did, the excitement that they felt was like a child at Christmas. They had been waiting for a Messiah, yearning for a Messiah, and he showed up when their anticipation for that was the greatest. It's not hard to understand why the nation of Israel was anticipating Jesus like they were. They had been in captivity for years, for centuries. They had been oppressed for years and for centuries, and they needed a savior. They wanted it so desperately. You know, first it was Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt for 400 years, and God miraculously freed them, and they had a time where they took the promised land and they fought for it, and they got it and they had independence, but it didn't last very long. They were conquered by the Assyrians, and then the Babylonians conquered the Assyrians, the Persians conquered the Babylonians, the Greeks conquered the Persians, the Romans conquered the Greeks, and every single time the nation of Israel just changed hands. They were still captive, they were still oppressed, it was just that the oppressors changed, their situation did not. In fact, in that entire 800 to a thousand year stretch of time where they were in captivity, they had only one century of real independence. So you can imagine the anticipation they had for a savior. Jesus wasn't the savior they were expecting. And he didn't save them from what they expected him to save them for. It was much more epic. They were thinking he was going to take on Rome. He just decided to take on Satan. It was a small, small twist, but way better. But he still came at a time that they expected him to. They had all kinds of things to point to Jesus. There were reasons they were expecting him. There were over 400 prophecies in the Old Testament about the Messiah. 400 prophecies that said, here's who he's going to be. And thankfully for them, they were very specific prophecies. They weren't just these general statements. They were very specific things, where he was going to be born, what family and lineage he was going to come from, events that were going to happen in his life. Things like being betrayed by a friend, being sold over for the exact amount, 30 pieces of silver. All of that was prophesied in the Old Testament. So they had these things to look at, kind of to check off their list. If someone came and said, I'm the Messiah, where were you born? I was born in Rome. No, Bethlehem. Sorry. They knew what to look for. In fact, it's kind of an interesting thing. There's a study about the probability of someone actually fulfilling the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. And he fulfills all 400 plus, every single one of them. You read it, you're like, yep, that's Jesus. He did it. The probability of just someone fulfilling eight of those 400. It's really interesting. I looked up some other probabilities to give this some context. The probability of one of us becoming president. It's exciting. One in ten million. Actually, that number is less. That's hopeful. Okay, we can do this. The probability of this is a little negative, but you'll be encouraged by the the size of the number. The probability of your home being struck by a meteor while you're here this morning. Don't worry. See, I Say that. I'm not trying to bring it down because look at that. That's a huge number. That's 180 trillion. You're good. Your house is fine.

Sorry.

The probability of one person fulfilling just eight of the 400 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. Here it is. I don't know what that number is. And Steve told me I was doing the message about 30 minutes before we started, so I didn't have time to figure out what the number was. And it doesn't matter because that is a massive number, and that's just eight of the 400, and Jesus fulfilled all eight. And you know, it's so funny to me, and this is a little bit of a tangent, and I'm really sorry, but you know, Jesus had this thing going with the Pharisees where they're always trying to stop him. And I always think it's funny that the Pharisees knew scripture. They knew it. And so like one of the prophecies was that he would be handed over for 30 pieces of silver. And had they just said, we'll give you 40 pieces of silver, wouldn't have worked. But yet, here these men were that opposed Jesus, didn't want them to fulfill the prophecies. They knew him, and you have to think they were just like, Why did we give 30 pieces of silver? We knew that. What is wrong with us? But they did. And they're like, oh, we're idiots. We keep doing this. There's no question that Jesus is the Messiah. You look at all those prophecies and the probability, it is who he is. But man, is it interesting that he came at a time when he was expected? What if all of us anticipated God showing up in our lives? The same way that a child anticipates Christmas morning, the same way that the people of Israel anticipated and waited for the Messiah. There's a few verses in Psalms where David just really transparently expresses this anticipation he feels for God in his life. It's Psalm 5, verses 1 through 3. And when it comes up on that screen, it's gonna be awesome. Oh Lord, hear me as I pray. Pay attention to my groaning. Listen to my cry for help, my king and my God, for I pray to no one but you. Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. And then this last sentence each morning I bring my request to you and wait expectantly. Each morning I bring my request to you and I wait expectantly. I am anticipating you to do what I ask. I am anticipating you to help me to show up. It's not, I bring my request to you, and you probably don't have time, and I'm not really expecting anything, so no worries. But if you can, it'd be great. That's not what he says. He says, I'm bringing my request to you, and I expect you, I'm expecting you to do something. It's the anticipation. And is God limited to doing things in our lives and blessing us based on how much we're expecting him? Absolutely not. He's God, he loves us. But what kind of joy do we feel when God not only does something in our lives and shows up, but he shows up in an area of our life or in a situation that we have been asking for his help and we have been waiting expectantly, anticipating, is this the day? Is this when he's gonna do it? I know it's gotta be today. I can't wait. It has to be soon. What if that was the mentality that we had when we go to God and ask for our needs? When it happens and he shows up and he does his thing, the joy that we experience through that, is there anything that can compare to that? I like that joy. I would love to have that joy in my life on a regular basis. And I find that often when I pray, when I ask God to help me, I don't have that spirit. I don't have that. I can't wait to see what you're gonna do. I'm expecting you to do something. It's more like if you can get around to it, and I know I don't deserve it. See, that's that's Satan. Satan has this thing where he wants to do it, he wants to always lie to us and cause us to forget that we are dearly loved by our daddy. We were actually talking about this with the high school group this last Wednesday, and one of our students, Spencer, who's just an awesome, awesome young kid, he said, you know, I feel kind of selfish praying to God like that. Like it's almost self-important to say, hey God, this is what I need, and I can't wait for you to do it. So come on. I feel kind of selfish, and I think we can all understand that mentality, right? Who are we to ask God to do those things and have that kind of spirit about it? What gives us the right? He does. He does. He gives us that right. See, we have the wrong picture of dad, of God as our dad sometimes. You know, those of us that are parents, or maybe we we were in that mentality of a child. Let's go back into the mentality of a child but a different situation. Instead of it being Christmas morning and you're anticipating it and it's coming, uh, you go to the store with your parents, and remember, you're in the mentality of, let's say, a seven-year-old child, and you see a toy that you want. And you know as a child, you've got two options. I can steal it or I can ask for it. Because you don't have any. That's it. And it's a large toy, so stealing it, it's too tough. It's not gonna work. Okay? So your only option is to ask your parents for it. And we all we've all been there, right? Where we look at our mom and dad and they're busy and they're going through the store, they're getting groceries, they've got a million things to do, and money's tight, and we say, Ah, Dad, Daddy, can I have that? And the answer that we might anticipate is no, no, son, no, maybe for your birthday, maybe for Christmas. I don't have time, we don't have the money, whatever. And sometimes that's that's the picture we have of us asking God for things. Like it's gonna be a bother to him. He doesn't have time, he's got more important things to do, or maybe we were not good in the car ride that morning. And so us even asking the audacity. I think we get the analogy there. Maybe we haven't been, you know, doing enough in our minds, or we haven't been close enough to God. So even for us to ask, the audacity of that, but that is not the mentality that God has. A couple months ago, I got really in the mood to go buy my son a toy. I don't know why, but I just was like, I knew Christmas was coming. And Megan was like, we can just give him this stuff for Christmas Eve. And I said, I don't know, I just I want to get Liam the specific toy. It was a nerf sword. Man, now I realize why he wants nerf sword. I'm I'm the problem, I'm sorry. But it was so cool because it's this uh, and kids cover ears because your parents are getting great stuff, but it was this nerf sword that like attaches together and becomes this big dog, oh, just awesome. And I was like, I need to get that for my son. And so for him. So I'm a mature adult. So we drove, we drove to Target and I told Liam. I told him, I said, son, we're going to Target to buy you a toy. I want to get you a toy. I want you to have something. That's what I want you to do. That's why we're going here. So when we got to Target, was Liam's mentality, you know, oh, I wonder if I should. No, he could have looked at anything. I mean, I had the one in mind, but if he would have looked at it, I want that one, I've been like, deal. And we're gonna get the nerve sword too. So I really want that. That is the spirit of our daddy. He has already told you that he loves you. He has already told you that he wants to bless you. He has already told you that he delights in you. His heart is to give you an abundant life, right? Jesus said, I come to give you life and life abundantly. He's already said essentially, I want to buy you a toy, I want to take you to the toy store, I want to bless you. So when you ask him for what you need, that's an easy ask. What if we expected God to show up in our everyday lives? Like a child that anticipates and expects Christmas morning. We can. And honestly, we should. Because that's what he wants. And whether or not we expect it or not, it's not going to change the fact that he loves you. It's not going to change the fact that he's going to bless you. But the joy that you're going to experience, knowing that this is what you've been waiting for, and you've been expecting it, looking forward to it, there's nothing on earth that compares to it. And that's for us. So let's let's go to God this morning. Let's pray. And whatever need you have, whatever need is on the forefront of your mind, ask him for it right now. Expectantly. In fact, if the worship team wants to come up, right now, let's just go to him now and let's ask him. In fact, let's take a minute of just silence and give all of us a moment to go to him and get out, get out of that mindset of can I ask for this? Have I, you know, do I deserve this? Whatever. He's already told you that he loves you, wants to bless you. So just take a minute and pray and ask him for that thing, but ask him eagerly expecting him to do it. Let's do that for one minute. I forgot that the worship team is not doing a last song this morning. I realized that as I prayed. I looked up and I was like, I was anticipating them being here. This is kind of the opposite of the message. But sometimes. Oh man. Well, you know, we're we're not doing a last song this morning, but we're gonna pray and and finish up. But man, what a great morning. What an opportunity for us to spend the next month expecting God to show up. And I want to encourage as many of us as can to get in your cars and line up. Um, but but even especially more if you feel it on your heart to be part of this nursery thing happening, go and sign up right off the bat. You will definitely have time to do that and do the Christmas stuff. You're not choosing one or the other. But let's pray and let's look to God to bless us. Let's anticipate that blessing and have an awesome week. Daddy, we love you so much. Thank you for being so good. Um, please bless Steve, help him get better. We just uh we just want to say that we love you and we we appreciate you. I mean, it's incredible that you love us in a way that you ask us to ask you for things. You want us to bring our needs to you, our requests to you, and you want us to have the spirit of a child anticipating Christmas, that we are so expectant of you doing what we're asking for, of you showing up and meeting our needs, that we are that excited by it. I pray for everyone in this room this morning that whatever needs we have, whatever requests we have, that you would just meet them in your way. We know that your way is better than our way, and so do it, do it however you want to. We'll trust it. And we just ask that you bless our weeks. Help us be a blessing to all these incredible kids that we're gonna be delivering these gifts to and the kids that are already here at this church. And we just ask all this in your name, Jesus. Amen. All right, guys, have a great week. Enjoy yourselves.