Matthew 22:41-46 Not Just David's Son

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called

Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Well, welcome everybody.

I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here. And welcome to those of you who are joining on live stream.

I'm glad that you're able to participate from home this week and glad that you're here as well. A lot has happened since the last time

I was up here. I was gone for the past three weeks. We had two weeks of family vacation and then the last week

I was going to be up working at a retreat up at Camp Barrichell and that got canceled at the last minute so I didn't have time to prepare a sermon.

And so I was really glad that Rob was able to fill in for me. Really grateful for godly men who are able to bring the word of God alive to us, even in my absence.

So glad that things just continue to go forward in my absence and it's nice to know that I'm dispensable.

But I miss being here, I really did. And I mean that sincerely. I always miss being together with you, even if I have a chance to go visit another church, which

I do enjoy, I always miss you guys. I miss this, you are my church, you're my home church and I love you.

And I miss the opportunity to start off the new year with you so I'm kind of pretending that this is the first message in this new year, despite the fact that it's not.

And so it's not our first message as a church, but it is my first opportunity to address you in 2021. And so we're gonna start by jumping into God's word this morning.

Then we're gonna respond by taking communion and then we're going to sing some songs at the end just to let you know where we're going. I've been marching through the book of Matthew.

I did a lot of Matthew in 2020. We're gonna continue on in Matthew here at the start of 2021.

And I'm really grateful for the text this morning that we have an opportunity to look at. It's really cool how

God works the timing of these messages as I'm just going through the book to time it to be a good place for us to start off our time together in 2021.

It's a good message, not because I'm preaching it, because of the text that it comes from, because it comes from God's holy word.

And so our text is about the identity of Jesus Christ this morning. And I wanna start off with a question for all of you.

By the way, how many of you think that talking about Jesus is a good place to start in this year? Go ahead and raise your hand if you think that's a good idea.

I think it's a good place for us to be. And I wanna start off with a question for all of you to answer in your mind before we come to the text and read it.

Very simple but profound question. The answer to this question is gonna impact your entire lives.

And that is, who is Jesus? Want you to think that through. I want you to be thinking that during this message.

Who is Jesus? I believe that if we get the answer to that one fundamental question right, then

I believe that that's gonna have a dramatic impact on the way we live in this next year. If we believe that Jesus is our

Lord and he is the rightful king and he is the savior, then we have someone to run to in the difficult times.

We have someone stronger than us to lean on. We have a cause for rejoicing because we have a savior who loved us enough to spend his blood dying on the cross in our place.

You see, I believe that 2021 will be shaped by how much we live out the answer to the question, who is

Jesus? And so let's turn over to the Bible and see what scriptures say about the identity of Jesus and what he says about himself in Matthew 22, verses 41 through the end of the chapter.

It's 22, 41 through 46. Use your device or your own Bible to navigate over to that.

We'll read it and then we'll discuss it together. But Matthew 22, 41 through 46, recasts

God's holy and precious word. We have a privilege, we're privileged with the opportunity to read it, to let it impact and soak into our hearts in a way that transforms us.

Matthew 22, starting in verse 41. Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together,

Jesus asked them a question, saying, what do you think about the Christ?

Whose son is he? They said to him, the son of David. He said to them, how is it then that David in the spirit calls him

Lord, saying, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you that we have the opportunity to come in contact with your holy written word this morning.

I thank you for your faithfulness to put down in writing the things that Jesus said and the way that he rolled and the way that he subtly revealed his identity to us as not just merely the son of David, but really your son, the holy one sent to save us from our sins.

And so, Father, I pray that you would speak through me now with accuracy, with clarity, with a zeal and a passion that is consistent with your holy word.

And Father, that genuine communication would result from our gathering, but not just communication, that we wouldn't walk out of here with merely more information, but we would walk out of here with lives built up in faith and trust that these things are true and they are worthy of basing our life upon, that we would be transformed and changed in this week because we have gathered together in this place and encountered you through your word.

So I ask that for every individual that's here, I pray that this would not be an exercise in futility and a waste of our morning, but it would prove to be life -changing for us.

I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, just as I always say, if you need to get up at any time during the message and get more coffee or juice or donuts, you can take advantage of that back there.

So make yourself comfortable and whatever it takes to keep our focus on God's word for the remainder of our time together.

King David is mentioned in the text. Do you see him there? The son of David. Who is this David? King David was the whole package to the

Jews. He was a Renaissance man of sorts. Chiseled and ruddy, he was a poet, shepherd, king.

He conquered giants, defeated the enemies of Israel in battle, carrying his own sword and shield.

He wrote songs and played songs for the people. And many of the songs of Israel were recorded and written by this

Renaissance man. He led with kindness and with nobility, refusing to avenge those who treated him poorly.

Now it's recorded for us in scripture that he was imperfect and significantly imperfect and yet even in his sin, he modeled for us repentance and turning back to God in Psalm 51, for example.

So then we get to 2 Samuel chapter nine and we come to understand that Old Testament prophecy, that the

Messiah, the chosen one, who would save the world would come from the line of King David.

He would be the chosen one, a descendant of David. And that sets the stage for the discussion in these six short verses here at the end of Matthew chapter 22.

At this point, you need to understand because it's been several weeks since we were in Matthew and to understand the context of what's happened here, really almost all of chapter 22 and some of chapter 21, it was taken up with conversations and teaching that Jesus was giving his last week of his life in the temple courtyard.

So he's in Jerusalem, in that temple and the place where all the Jews would come to worship and a crowd is gathered around him and he's been there teaching them when the religious leaders approached him.

And the religious leaders approached him with a challenge, basically saying, dude, you're the carpenter's son, right?

What gives you the right to be here talking to all these people? What gives you the authority to teach everyone?

You see, they were the seminary graduates. They were the educated ones. He was uneducated. He was from a backwater place in Israel, kind of up north in a kind of back hill country and he was trained as a carpenter, as a home builder, not as a religious authority.

And so we're here in the last week of his life, what we're reading here and he was teaching them there and those pompous religious leaders came to him with three questions and it said in the text earlier, with the intention of tripping him up.

They want to see Jesus lose face in front of the crowds. They want to see him marginalize people.

They want to see him answer poorly. And yet he passed those tests, according to the scriptures, with flying colors.

And now, after their questioning is done and they've exhausted themselves in trying to challenge him and put him to the test, now he turns to them and asks them a question.

You see, they want to know and they ask the basic fundamental question. On what authority are you teaching these crowds?

And Jesus, in characteristic fashion, is gonna answer them by asking them a question. How many of you encounter

Jesus that way? He's very quick to answer your questions of him with a question of you.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Very quick to do that. Why? Well, in part because he's a master teacher.

In part because he loves to see us wrestle with the questions. He loves to see us come to conclusions and he wants us to have our thinking caps on.

He wants to work our brains in the process of understanding and coming to know who he is.

And so, in verse 42, we see the question that he poses back to them. Who do you, what do you think about the

Christ? And that's not just a generic question. Like, how many of you know that when you think about the Messiah, there's a lot of things you could talk about about the

Messiah from the Old Testament. A lot of different nuances in discussion. So, the generic question, what do you think about the

Christ, is just really grabbing their attention to think about the Messiah. And there's an irony in this. He's asking them a question about the

Messiah. Who is he? The Messiah. The Messiah asking the religious leaders a question about the identity of the

Messiah. Who do you think he is? What do you think about him? What do you think about me? And then he narrows that question to the fundamental question that we're gonna pay attention to in the rest of the text.

And that's, whose son is he? And they had, by the way, as religious scholars, they had a ready answer.

I know this one. I know this one. You know, you can picture a couple of Pharisees. They're jumping up and down. Come on, come on, pick me, Jesus. I know the answer to this.

The Messiah will be the son of David, as the Scriptures say. You know, it's very clear. By the way, the interesting thing about this title here, the religious leaders are saying the

Messiah will be the son of David, but the crowds had given that title, that very title, son of David, to Jesus just several verses before this.

Maybe a chapter before this. I think it's in chapter 21. But as Jesus was entering Jerusalem, what were the crowds screaming and crying out as he was riding the donkey into Jerusalem?

Hosanna to the son of David. Hosanna being translated as save now.

Save now, son of David. Save now, son of David. They were shouting as he came into Jerusalem.

The crowds were identifying him as the Messiah, as the chosen one.

And here the religious leaders are caught up in the question and every good Jewish student would know that the

Messiah, that is the Christ, would be a descendant of mighty King David.

But it seems like Jesus begins to disagree with them about that assessment in verse 43.

Look at verse 43 with me for a second and your Bibles are on your device there. Verse 43, he said to them, how is it then that David in the

Spirit calls him Lord, saying, and then he goes on to quote an Old Testament psalm. But he begins to put a question in their minds.

He challenges their thinking about the Messiah as being merely the son of David.

Is that all that can be said of him? Is that the best that can be said of him, is that he is the son of David, is that it?

Or is there something more that can be said of Jesus than he is merely the son of David?

Are you getting the heart of the question? Who is the Messiah? What is the

Messiah? Oh, he's gonna be a descendant of a great king. Is that it? Or is there more?

And so he quotes from there a well -known psalm, Psalm 110, verse one. If you're taking notes, you can jot that down, read that psalm later.

Psalm 110, one, by the way, that verse is the most often quoted verse in the

New Testament that's found in the Old. So it's the most common passage that we find in the

New Testament that comes straight from the Old Testament. And in that psalm, in that verse in that psalm,

David, David is writing, David is speaking, his voice, and David guided, it says in the text,

Jesus saying, David was led by the Holy Spirit on this. David didn't get this wrong. The Holy Spirit secured this and made sure that what he was saying was true when he wrote this.

And David said, the Lord, that is, God the Father, the Lord said to my

Lord, who is David's Lord? Well, according to Jesus' interpretation here,

David's Lord is the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus Christ himself. And David is speaking of Jesus, who's actually quoting this verse.

And he says, the Lord, David's speaking, the Lord, God the Father, said to my

Lord, the Son of God, the Messiah, and then look at what God said to David's Lord, the

Son. Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. Well, Jesus is quoting this well -known psalm to call attention to the authority positions of David and the

Messiah. Where are they at in ranking? Where are they at in order? Where are they at in preeminence?

You see, David had a Lord, and Jesus says that Lord over David is the

Messiah. Jesus is over David.

That's what he's saying. So how can one person be both David's Lord and David's Son?

There's a chronology issue here. How can a person who's a descendant of a man be his

Lord? He hasn't even been born yet. How could David say that he's my Lord when he hasn't even been born?

And so Jesus is drawing out that distinction. This line of reasoning calls into focus the very nature of Messiah.

He was David's Lord before he was even born, demonstrating the preeminence of the

Messiah. He's been around before his birth. He also has been granted supreme authority, according to the text, being called up to the throne at the right hand of the

Almighty. Where is Jesus right now? At the right hand of God, in the place of greatest authority.

And then further, the text goes on to declare openly that God will secure victory for him over his enemies. God will put his enemies under his feet.

And further, the Messiah is much more than just David's Son. For those of you that are in Christ and those of you who have a relationship with him and those of you that have been around the

Bible for a little bit, when you think about Jesus and who his Father is, who do you most often think about?

He is the Son of God. And he's certainly, certainly implying that in this passage.

I preexisted, David. I am his Lord and I always have been.

So let's consider for a moment what happens, though. Let's just backtrack for a second and think, what if the

Pharisees are right? What are they missing? If these religious leaders are correct in their assessment of Jesus and his, or the

Messiah and his identity, what if the highest thing that can be said of Jesus is that he is

David's Son? What if that's the best thing that you could muster about the

Messiah, the greatest thing you could say about him? Well, we would know he comes from good stock. He's from the line of the greatest king of Israel.

He has the right to rule an earthly kingdom with royal blood. And it would be reasonable to assume that he intends to come with human power, he comes with human authority, and he likely comes with the purpose of human conquest.

And that's the very nature of what the people were shouting outside the walls of Jerusalem when he was coming in. Hosanna, save now,

Son of David. Who did they wanna be saved from? The Romans. They weren't so concerned about their own sin.

They weren't so concerned about their own depravity and their own broken relationship with God. They were much more concerned with the

Roman occupiers. So their implications of save now, Son of David, and in calling him

Son of David, they had an expectation on him. He's gonna come with a mighty sword like David. He's gonna come and slay the giants like David.

He's gonna come and rule and reign like David. And they had expectations on him about this.

There's no question in the minds of the Pharisees by their response to Jesus here that he is declaring himself to be more than merely

David's son. By challenging their thinking, he is saying, in essence,

I am higher than David. I preexisted my birth.

I am David's Lord. Even the master and king over that greatest of Israel's kings.

Well, I believe that their response demonstrates their understanding because they couldn't answer him.

I think they're flummoxed. I think they're flabbergasted. I think they're completely like jaw on the ground. I can't believe he just said that out loud.

They're getting the implications where we might misunderstand some of the nuances of this text. They're getting it.

I imagine that they wanted to get the words out and couldn't. And according to verse 46, nobody dared to even ask him any more questions to challenge his authority.

All the way up to him going to the cross. No more of these Jewish leaders would challenge him in this final week of his life.

You see, I picture the religious leaders at this point slowly back away. Have any of you seen the meme of Homer Simpson just kind of blending back into the wall?

Picture the religious leaders just kind of stepping back, fading away. They don't want to lose face before these crowds.

They don't want to lose their temper in front of these crowds because now they've got him. Now they've got their plan. And they're going to begin from this point on to use back channels to remove him from the picture.

They're going to begin to try to manipulate and use Rome to get him out of the stage and they're going to succeed partially at that.

You see, they understood what he was claiming himself to be that he was claiming himself to be the Messiah. He was claiming for himself to be better than David.

And in a very veiled way, Jesus has declared himself to be David's Lord. He took on himself the title

Son of David back in chapter 21, verses 15 and 17. And you can go back and look at that some other time but jot that down, chapter 21, 15 and 17, or 15 to 17.

And he really there, the kids in the temple were shouting Son of David, Hosanna, save now Son of David. And the kids are singing these songs and dancing around in the temple precincts to him, praising him, saying, you're the

Messiah, you're the Messiah, you're the Messiah, you're the Son of David, you're the Son of David. And the religious leaders at that point earlier than this had already said, shut him up.

Don't you hear what they're saying about you? Don't you hear them blaspheming and saying that you're the

Messiah and that you're the Holy One? Don't you hear that? And he doesn't silence them, but then instead says, if I were to silence them, even the rocks would cry out the truth.

What they're stating is true of me. I am the Son of David.

And now he's saying, but not just that, not just that, but even more,

David's Lord. You see, he's the subject of the question. There's no question that he's connected himself with the

Christ here in this text. There's no question that he is identifying himself as the Son of David, the one promised to come to save people.

And he's the very subject of the question that he himself is asking. Who's the Messiah gonna be? Where is he gonna come from?

Whose son is he? And this is not merely an academic exercise to try to stump the religious leaders like some kind of Jesus -led game of trivial pursuit or something.

That's not what's going on. He is intentionally answering their question, on what authority are you doing this?

On what authority? On an authority in myself. I am greater than the greatest that Israel has produced.

I am the Lord of your greatest king. That's, how many of you think that's a pretty serious statement?

Is that significant what Jesus is declaring of himself here? And I wanna just point out here as we wrap this up.

You can read this passage a lot and not come away with something to do about it. How many of you like a passage that gives you a couple commands that you can write down and put a little checkbox next to and then check it off?

How many of you enjoy that? Any of you checkbox people? I know that a lot of you are. This is not a text like that.

You can see it, you can read it. You can go, whoa, wait, what are we gonna do with this? How's this gonna change my life? How's this gonna impact me in this next week?

There aren't any commands. There are no calls to change your life. It doesn't tell us to read our

Bibles more. It doesn't tell us how to love others well. Not a single command.

So how do we go about applying this passage in the next week? And let me just say this. We are in a stage in the

Christian church, particularly in America, where we are starting to get things so backwards. We are a people of doing and not a people of believing.

Do you know what I mean by that? Go do this stuff. Who cares what motivates you?

As long as you're loving, as long as you're kind, as long as you do this. And how many of you know that civility's a good thing?

Being kind is a good thing. How many of you are training your kids to do some good things? Like you just kind of want, don't take that from your sister, share, all of that kind of stuff.

But how many of you know that's not gonna be a good measure on the final day? Where we have from Jesus himself that many will say on that day,

Lord, Lord, did we not do all of these great things in your name? And he's gonna say,

I never knew you. You never had a relationship with me.

You never believed in me. You never trusted in me. You see, the point is, of the

Christian life, it must go this way. Believe, then live.

Believe, then obey. You get that backwards, you do not have it. Or you get one or the other and you're in trouble.

Believe without doing is not salvation. Doing without believing is not salvation.

The two go together. A belief that leads to a changed life. Are you getting that?

And this is one of those believe passages. This is one of those fundamental, you get this right, and it's going to launch you out into a new life.

It's gonna launch you out into a different perspective, even this week, even this afternoon. If you believe these things to be true of Jesus, they will change you.

Here's the things that this passage is asking us to deal with so that we can then go apply.

First, establish what you think about Jesus Christ. What do you believe about him? Do you believe that Jesus is better than David?

That he is the Lord? That he is the king? That he was sent by God to save humanity from our sins?

If you believe what the Bible says about him, yes, if you even believe what Jesus says about himself, then you will recognize

Jesus as the one who came to rescue us by dying on the cross for our sins.

What do you believe about Jesus? Second, consider where Jesus is now according to this text.

Where is he? He did not just die for our sins, but he was raised again on the third day.

He is not a dead guy who started a religion. He is a risen Lord who has ascended to the right hand of the

Almighty God. And he is there awaiting the day when all enemies will be finally subjected to him.

And further, we know what he's doing there. Jesus isn't sitting next to the father playing candy crush, biding his time until God looks at him and says, hey, go back down there, get my people.

What do you think Jesus is doing there? Romans 8 .34 tells us what he's doing there.

And it's a glorious thing that he is doing there. Here's what Romans 8 .34 says, quote,

Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised. Who is at the right hand of God.

That's, by the way, a position of authority. That's demonstrating his position in the cosmos, at the very right hand of the

Almighty God. Go on with the quote, who indeed is interceding for us.

What is interceding? Praying. The father and the son having a conversation right now about you, about me, about us.

Constantly in dialogue. An eternal dialogue between father and son.

And he is talking to the father about you. Bringing your problems, bringing your stresses, bringing your anxieties, bringing concern for you to the

Almighty God. How many find some encouragement in that? Is that encouraging to know that Jesus is speaking on your behalf?

How many of you, that just makes you wanna lean into Christ a little bit more? How many of you are grateful for his high standing and his high position? He doesn't have to travel far to talk to the father.

Why, because he's seated at his right hand. He's there right now. He both has a hand on us and a hand on the father.

And he is interceding on our behalf. Now, this is a glorious truth.

Jesus is praying for you if you belong to him. The third thing to consider, belief.

If you believe that he is seated in those heavenly places. And the third thing to consider is, is he your

Lord? Do you believe him to be Lord, Master, King? David called him

Lord in Psalm 110 .1, but do you? Do you call him

Lord? Or better yet, because words are cheap, and many will say on that day,

Lord, Lord, did we not? Do you live with him as your

Lord and your King? Do you say that he's your King and Master? If you call him Lord, then this ought to mean that you allow him to call the shots in your life.

You live to honor him. You live to worship him. You live to please him. You live with a loyalty that is shifted away from the things of this world to the things of his eternal kingdom.

And so here we go into the practical. These are the beliefs that we've just talked about. Now let's get down to brass tacks and talk about how this ought to impact our lives.

If you believe Jesus is the Christ, and you believe he is seated at the right hand of the Almighty, and you call him

Lord, then here's the first thing. Lean on him in prayer in this new year.

Make a plan, make a practical plan to maybe start a prayer journal. Maybe you have an empty journal laying around.

Maybe you need to go buy one, or maybe you need to just use the three -ring binder, and start writing down your prayers to God.

Or another practical step that you might be able to take is start a prayer group. Start one online, start one in person.

You don't need anybody's permission to start praying. Just start praying. Grab some people, and maybe there's an affinity group, a group of people with young children.

I know there's a group of ladies that get together and pray for their kids that are in school.

There's all different kinds of ways. Maybe it's in your community group that you have an opportunity to just engage a little bit more in prayer.

Maybe it's praying with your spouse more. Maybe it's we're not gonna close our eyes, and we're gonna close out every day laying on our bed praying, praying for the needs of our kids, praying for what's going on in our lives, praying for the stress of the politics, praying for whatever it might be, just lifting that up to God as you fall asleep.

I would love for 2021, Recast, to be a year of prayer, to be a year of genuinely leaning into Christ, talking to him as he intercedes to the

Father on our behalf. Second, if you believe Jesus is the Christ, and you believe he is seated at the right hand of the

Almighty, and you call him Lord, then second, tell others about your

Savior and King in this next year. Talk to others. Maybe a good place for you to start, how many of you, just if you'd be honest, maybe you don't even feel like raising your hand too high, but that's a bit intimidating to you.

Go ahead and raise your hand if that's just a little bit, like the idea of just going up to a coworker and talking about Jesus, I'm telling you, I'm your pastor,

I'm intimidated by that, none of the rest of you are, okay? It can be intimidating, it can be a scary thing, especially when it comes to the turn in a conversation.

Like, how many of you, just in your heart, it's like, I don't wanna wallop somebody with a Jesus two by four. Like, you just don't wanna bring, drop that bomb in the middle of a water cooler conversation in your office.

Like, you know what I'm talking about? And so there's a reality to that, but maybe a good place to start would be in that journal that we were just talking about.

If you're gonna go ahead and go in and do a prayer journal, but it doesn't need to be, so that might be overthinking it, and some of you, that's that first step you're never gonna get past that hurdle, you don't have a journal,

I'm not gonna go on Amazon and buy one, it's over. That's the end of it, this thing just fizzles. Grab a piece of scrap paper and do this exercise.

You can do this this afternoon, but I really want you to do it. Write down a list of people that you interact with in a given week that do not know

Jesus, and then pray for them. And as you pray for them, add to that prayer for them a prayer for yourself to have eyes that are open to see opportunities to share the gospel with them.

And I think you'll see them. I think you'll begin to see logical and natural opportunities.

Somebody comes to you and says, man, just totally got plastered and wasted this weekend, I don't know why, I keep doing it to myself,

I wake up in the morning, miserable, and my life is in misery right now, but I'm probably just gonna do it again this weekend.

I want you to know that that's a little bit of a hook to say, did you know there's a different way to live? Did you know there's a hope to get beyond that lifestyle?

And his name is Jesus, let's talk. Do you know what I'm saying? So looking for those and praying for those opportunities in this year, recast

I would love for 2021 to be a year of telling others about our great King Jesus.

So a year of prayer, a year of evangelism, sharing the faith with others, and then lastly, a year of celebration.

A year of celebration. If you believe Jesus is the Christ and you believe he is seated at the right hand of the

Almighty and you call him Lord, then celebrate together with your brothers and sisters. We have an opportunity to do that every week in this gathering, and I mean it, it's not a morose kind of funeral thing that we do when we take communion, it is a celebration of his sacrifice for us.

He took the suffering and punishment that we all deserved, he bore it for us on the cross.

We deserved condemnation and he accepted that separation from his Father on our behalf.

So we take a cracker every week to remember his body that was broken for us and we take the cup of juice to remember his blood that was shed for us.

And if you're still trying to figure Jesus out, we ask for you to skip communion, but please feel free to come up to me with any of your questions, you can talk with Dave, you can talk with the elder on duty, you can text me, you can email me,

I would love to interact with you and begin a discussion about how you can have salvation through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.

But before we go to communion, I've asked a couple of people, I'm gonna ask them here in a second to come up and pray for us at the start of this new year together, just do something a little bit different.

I mean, the reality is if we say that we want this to be a year of prayer, then let's begin by praying. And let's begin by praying for the church in what will likely be a pretty challenging year.

How many of you have just known, I already acknowledged that I didn't sign up for this, I broke up with 2020 and I was hoping 2021 would kind of be a new kind of gal.

And she's not, she's not. Are you getting what I'm saying on that?

Anybody with me? You're kind of like, could this have just been a more clean break than it's been, like I would have liked that a little bit better, but there's a lot of residual stuff still going on.

So I'm gonna ask Jesse Hill and my wife Linda to come up and they're gonna pray for the church, so you guys can come on up now.

And then Jesse's gonna pray, Linda's gonna pray, then I'll pray for communion and then we'll jump into the communion song.

So Jesse, you can step up here. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the countless truths that are in it.

Thank you for Don's sermon today, for Pastor Don's truth that he brought forth. We thank you how much clearer we can see

Christ, our King. Thank you that he is our

Lord, that he's our savior, that he's our King who rises above all else.

Thank you that he's the creator. Thank you that by him and for him all things exist and in him all things hold together.

We're so grateful that he loved us, that he came to this earth.

He lived the perfect life that we could not live. He died the death that we deserved.

We're so grateful. Thank you that he rose from the grave, that he conquered sin and death.

Thank you that he ascended to the right hand. You, that he rules and reigns, he intercedes and someday he's coming back and all things will be made new.

We're so, so grateful for that. That's our King, that's our Lord, that is our

God, that is our hope. And we pray that today and in the days coming forth that we will remember that, that you'll help us remember that.

This world and these world systems, they aren't our hope. Politics isn't our hope.

Presidents aren't our hope. Healthy bodies aren't our hope.

Bank accounts aren't our hope. Vaccines are not our hope. Our hope, our living hope is

Jesus Christ, amen. We need to be reminded of that daily, hour by hour, moment by moment.

And so Father, my prayer for myself, for my brothers and sisters here in this church, for those who are hearing my voice, is this, that you would help us to remember to bring all of our cares, all of our worries, all of our anxieties, all of our praises, our thanks, bring everything to you.

Father, help us to turn off the news and to pick up your word. Help us to open your

Bible so we can know how to walk with you and better shine as children of light in this crooked and twisted generation.

This world desperately needs the saving message of Jesus Christ. We need it daily as well.

So even though we live in this world, we are not of this world. I pray that you will help us to continue to fix our eyes upon Christ, our hope that is laid up for us in heaven.

Pray this in Jesus' name. And dear

God, we come to you this morning and we are just a mess, our nation, our state, our families, and even our church.

We don't live up to the desires that you really have and the expectations that you want for us and we need you,

God, and so we come to you now because you are able and you're able to do anything that concerns us today and you are able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine and you are worthy of everything.

You are high and lifted up, so we give you the honor and glory you deserve and we acknowledge that your love for us is real and it's deep and you are our perfect protector and provider and God, we confess to you now that we do not live as a church as you have commanded us to.

We think of ourselves more highly than we should. We consider our preferences more important than others.

We hold pride in our hearts as individuals and as a church, so help us, God, to see our sin as sin, knowing that if we confess our sins,

God, you are faithful and right to forgive them and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness because of Jesus, because of his perfect sacrifice for us.

So search us and know our hearts, God, create in us clean hearts to follow you better and we thank you for forgiveness through Christ and we thank you for this church, for this people that we love and enjoy life together with and we thank you for people who are even a little more difficult to live in community with because we know you use those relations to help us, relationships to help us grow more like you and God, you tell us to be thankful in everything, so we stand here in the midst of a pandemic and we say thank you in this difficulty.

We don't thank you for the pandemic, but we thank you in it and we see and we feel this world, your creation is groaning for the restoration of goodness and we know you've promised it to us, not here in this life necessarily, but in the new heavens and the new earth and you will return and set all things right, so help us to wait for that with hope and patience and we ask

God that you would make us one as a church, one with you, one with each other and we pray for us as individuals that we would take our relationship with you seriously this year, that your word would be alive in our hearts and minds and that you would help us to hunger and thirst for your righteousness and God, we ask for marriages here at Recast to be an accurate representation of your gospel and where the husbands love their wives with a sacrificial love and the wives respect their husbands and God, we just plead with you and ask for our children that they would be led to you by their parents and other adults and situations in their lives would cause them to come to know you in a real and a personal way and God, we are so thankful for the leadership at this church who's prayerfully guided us through this pandemic, seeking your will for your church through this time and we pray now for our staff and elders, for Don, Spencer, Eliza, for Aaron and David, Hope, Dave, pray for Rob and Zach and Brian, David, Dan and Nick, that they would be used and infused with your

Holy Spirit to lead us in wisdom and knowledge. Please give them a love for you and for the work that you've called them to and God, we especially pray for our leaders that you would protect them from evil and I pray,

God, as a church that Recast would accomplish the work you've given us to do and you said in this world, we're gonna have trouble but you've also promised that you would give us your peace and you've told us that you have overcome the world.

So I pray as a church that we would rest in that peace and that promise and serve you with joy and gladness in 2021.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Father, I thank you that we have an opportunity now to take communion together as your family.

I thank you for what this reflects and although we don't get up and stand in line anymore and look around as much,

I still thank you that as we take this cup and we take this cracker, we're testifying of not our goodness but your love and your kindness.

This is actually a testimony of our fallenness and our brokenness that we take this together. And so we rejoice, not in our fallenness, not in our brokenness but in your mighty power to save that has rescued us from condemnation and has brought us into the glorious light of your son.

I pray that this would be a great year of prayer, a great year of evangelism and a great year of celebration as a church.