Isaiah 61:1-3 Beautiful Savior

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. Good morning,

Recast. Thanks for tuning in this morning. As Spencer said,

I'm Bill Smith, and I feel privileged to be able to bring the word to you, something that's really blessed me in my walk with Christ, and I pray that it's a blessing to you all too.

I sure do miss all of you so much, and really looking forward to gathering together.

So yeah, so this morning I'm going to be speaking on a message entitled

Beautiful Savior from Isaiah 61. And I'm going to go back a few years, back into the 70s.

I was in high school, and one of the bands that I listened to was the

Doobie Brothers, and they came out with a song that really surprised me, and I really, really liked the song a lot, and it's called

Jesus Is Just All Right. I don't know, raise your hand if you remember that song.

The lyrics go this way, and I certainly won't sing it for you. That would be bad, but the lyrics go,

Jesus is just all right with me, Jesus is just all right, oh yeah.

Jesus is just all right with me, Jesus is just all right. I don't care what they may say,

I don't care what they may do, I don't care what they may say, Jesus is just all right, oh yeah.

Now I know I didn't do that justice at all, but I don't know if you remember that song, but when

I heard that, first of all, I was kind of shocked, like, the Doobie Brothers are singing about Jesus?

And I remember hearing that song, and I remember thinking, yeah, Jesus is just all right with me, too.

And you know, I didn't know Jesus at that time, but everything that I had heard about Jesus up to that point in my life, the little bits and pieces that I had gathered as a child growing up,

I didn't grow up in the church, but I thought, man, this Jesus, he must have been a pretty cool guy.

And yeah, he's all right with me, too. And yet, I didn't know Jesus. I didn't know his full story.

But at the age of 20, I learned that not only was

Jesus a cool guy, but that he was a mighty savior. Because I saw Jesus rescue my best friend and set him free from drug and alcohol addiction, and it was miraculous.

And he told me that it was Jesus in his life. And he began to help me understand the story of Jesus, and I asked

Jesus to be my savior, to come into my life, and he set me free as well.

Now, many years later, because that was back in the 70s when

I came to Christ, not only do I know that Jesus is a really cool guy, if I can put it that way, but that he is a beautiful savior.

And this morning, I would like to explore with you just how beautiful Jesus truly is.

So grab your Bible, open up your device, and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 61.

And we're gonna go verses one through three. The spirit of the

Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the

Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the

Lord, that he may be glorified, the word of the Lord. Now, this is a prophecy of Jesus, as we're gonna see as we dig deeper into this.

And it's a beautiful description of who he is and what he came to do and what he can do in our lives.

And from this text, we're gonna see how beautiful Jesus is. We'll see that he brings the good news into our lives, excuse me, that he heals our broken hearts, that he brings freedom into our lives, that he is a chain breaker, that he brings us into the favor and blessings of God, that he comforts those who mourn, that he gives beauty for ashes, he gives the oil of joy for the spirit of mourning, he gives the garment of praise and takes away the spirit of heaviness.

This is our beautiful Savior. And I pray that this encourages you this morning.

I would like to pray as we head into our worship time. Pray with me, will you?

Father, just thank you so much that you love us and thank you so much for your beautiful word.

And Lord, I thank you for our Recast family and anyone who's tuning in with us this morning.

Just pray that you would meet each one right where they're at and that you would do something special in our hearts, that you would show us your beauty and your glory.

And through our time together, in your word, Father, that it would bring some extra hope and peace and joy.

And Father, that it would cause us to want to know you,

Lord, in deeper ways. So I just pray that. All right, hey, welcome back.

I just gotta tell you straight out that this is kind of a strange experience for me.

I'm standing here in Recast Church and it's Spencer in the camera and David up in the sound booth.

So I'm trying to picture you all sitting in your living room. I've been listening to some of the services in my bathrobe.

But anyway, so again, thank you so much for tuning in.

And I would just like to say a prayer and then we're gonna dive into Isaiah chapter 61 this morning.

Father, again, we thank you for your word and I pray that your spirit will give us understanding, that you will speak to us through this passage and that we will see what a beautiful savior you are.

Father, I pray that you would bless every individual listening and every family. Lord, thank you that you know all of our needs.

You know right where we're at and you love us and you know how much we need you. And I just pray that you would just continue to work in all of our lives, helping us to grow in your love and to know you in deeper ways.

In Jesus' name, amen, amen. So this morning we are in Isaiah 61 and I mentioned in the introduction that this is a prophecy of Jesus and we're gonna see that there is no doubt about that as we're gonna go into Luke chapter four.

This prophecy was written 700 years before Jesus even came to this earth, being born in that manger in Bethlehem.

But let's go to Luke chapter four and the setting is

Jesus has begun his ministry. He's begun to share the good news of who he is and healing and so we find him in Luke chapter four, verse 14, and that's where we're gonna pick it up.

He's visiting his hometown of Nazareth. Follow along with me starting in verse 14.

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and a report about him went through all the surrounding country and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the

Sabbath day. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

He enrolled the scroll and found a place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the

Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

And so we have the testimony of Jesus himself on this saying that this

Isaiah chapter 61 passage was a prophecy of who he is, who

Jesus is and what he came to do. He literally said this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

So back to Isaiah 61, we know that this is speaking about Jesus.

Jesus wants to take these beautiful words and he wants to fulfill them in our lives.

This, in a nutshell, is what Jesus came to do and what he can do in our lives.

So I would like to explore with you now the work of our beautiful Savior.

And we'll start in Isaiah 61 and take this a verse at a time. The first thing that I want you to see in this passage is that he is the one who brings the good news into our world and into our lives.

Isaiah 61 .1, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the

Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

Our world needs good news right now more than ever, doesn't it? A lot of craziness going on, a lot of fear, a lot of worry, a lot of heartache, a lot of uncertainty.

Our world is ripe for good news. And what I want to say to you all is that Jesus is the good news, he is the ultimate good news.

Jesus himself said in Matthew 5 .3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It says that he came to bring good news to the poor. Who are the poor that he's speaking of in Matthew 5 .3?

Well, he's speaking in a spiritual sense and he's speaking of us, he's speaking of those who realize how empty and bankrupt they really are without him, that they are poor in spirit.

And Jesus is the one who brings us into the kingdom of God because Jesus came and sacrificed his life on the cross, we can be forgiven.

Because he came, we can become children of God. Because he came, we can be in his eternal kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.

This is the ultimate good news. Jesus is the good news and it's for all of us.

Look with me at, excuse me, 2 Corinthians, 8, 9, it says this, for you know the grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich.

With Jesus in our lives, we can experience the good news every day. We can have this ultimate hope knowing that our future is secure, that Jesus has made the way for us to know

God and to be children of God and to be in his heaven forever.

Jesus is the good news. The second thing I want you to see from Isaiah, chapter 61, verse one, is that he is the one who heals the brokenhearted.

Reading down a little bit further in verse one, it says he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.

Jesus came as the great physician. In Luke chapter 5, 31 and 32,

Jesus spoke these words. And Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick.

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Jesus is making a reference to himself as a physician, as one who can bring healing.

And specifically in our text, it's talking about Jesus healing our brokenhearts.

To bind up the brokenheart. This word bind in the Hebrew means to wrap firmly.

So it's the idea of wrapping up a wound, but it means to bind a wound so that it can heal.

In fact, this same word bind up, the Hebrew word in Isaiah chapter three, verse seven, is translated healer.

So when it talks about binding up the brokenhearted, he's talking about bringing healing to the brokenhearted.

Now this word brokenhearted in the Hebrew is actually two separate words. And the first word means to burst, to break in pieces.

And I don't know if you've ever experienced that in your heart before. This idea of a brokenheart,

I have in my lifetime. And it's a tough place to be.

And I know even now some of you who are listening to this message are experiencing that brokenheart.

And Jesus, again, he is the great physician who can bring healing.

The second part of this Hebrew word brokenhearted is simply the word for heart.

So it can mean our beating heart, but it also is used figuratively speaking of our feelings, our will, even our intellect.

And it's used for the center of anything. So it's really talking about the center of our being, our inside.

You know, we can look good on the outside, but we can really be broken on the inside.

If you feel broken on the inside, there is good news. Jesus is the healer of the brokenhearted.

Look at Psalm 147 .3 with me. It's speaking of our wonderful God, our

Father, our Lord and Savior. It says in verse three, he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

You know, when I read this, it made me think of a friend of mine. I met him 18 years ago. He had just gotten out of prison.

And he was driving by our building and he saw Youth for Christ. And he had a heart for youth and he loved

Christ. And so he came in and this is how I met my friend. He began to share his story with me.

He grew up thinking his grandparents were his mom and dad. And he had an aunt who would often come to the house.

Well, when my friend was a teenager, his grandparents sat him down and his aunt was there.

And they said, we need to tell you the truth. We are not your mom and dad.

We're your grandparents. And who you thought was your aunt is your mom. And he was devastated.

He was brokenhearted. He didn't know what to say.

He felt rejected, abandoned. Why didn't my mom want me? Why did my grandparents lie to me and tell me they were my mom and dad?

And he began to act out. He began to fight and get in trouble. He ended up committing some crimes and ended up getting arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

And he went into prison bitter and angry and brokenhearted. But while he was there, someone gave him a

Bible and he began to read the story of Jesus, our beautiful Savior. And within about five years into his prison sentence, he received this beautiful Savior into his life.

And for the next 13 years, he grew and he walked out his faith in that prison.

And his life was transformed. He came out a loving, gracious person.

And he's one of the most upbeat, happiest people I know, full of love.

And yeah, Jesus can heal any broken heart. He can heal your broken heart.

If you need this kind of healing, seek him as your healer.

The next thing I want to look at in Isaiah 60, 1 -1 is that he is a mighty deliverer.

Reading down a little bit further in our text, it says that he came to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound.

This word liberty means freedom, which is a beautiful word. We've all kind of maybe feeling like we've lost our freedom a little bit.

You know, being asked to stay at home and you know, freedom is such a beautiful thing.

And this word captive simply means prisoners. Well, who are these captives that Jesus came to set free?

All of us, human beings. We all need to be set free.

We need to be set free from sin and from evil. 1

John 3 -8 says this. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. These are strong words, but the reality is that sin can trap us and make us captives to evil.

The devil is the originator of sin. Sin brings heartache and ruin.

And we need to be set free from that. We need to be set free also from the penalty of sin.

Jesus came to free us from sin and darkness and evil. In my past experience,

I know what it is to be trapped in. Trapped in sin. Proverbs 5 -22 and 23 say this.

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

He dies for lack of discipline. Because of his great folly, he has been led astray.

Now, when I read these passages of how sin can entrap us, it reminded me of another good friend of mine,

Mike. I first met Mike about 15 years ago. He came to the juvenile home with his church who was helping with a service that night.

And I saw this brother up singing with their choir and so joyful and just beaming with God's love.

Mike and I started a friendship, and Mike was a minister in his church.

And he had such a heart to share the gospel and he was such a godly man.

But one time, we sat down for coffee and I said, Mike, share your story with me.

I don't know much about your past. And he shared with me some heartaches from his childhood, how his dad had taken his own life and how that put

Mike on a dark path and it led to drug addiction.

And he told me that he had been a crack cocaine addict for 10 years, living on the streets.

I couldn't hardly believe it. It didn't match up with who he was, that I just thought

Mike had loved the Lord his whole life. And crack cocaine is a very addictive drug.

But when he met Jesus, when he finally opened his heart to Jesus, he was set free from that addiction.

And now he loves the Lord and he's serving. If you have something in your life that seems to have you bound, know that Jesus can break those chains, that he can set you free, that he is the chain breaker.

Jesus himself said in John 8, 36, so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

He is a mighty deliverer. He's the beginning of freedom. I know for me, when he came into my life at the age of 20, he set me free from alcohol and drug addictions and many other things.

And do I still struggle with things like all of us? Yes, but I know where the freedom is.

I know where the transformation and the healing and the forgiveness, and it's all in Jesus.

Just be honest with him. He already knows all about it. He knows us inside and out and he loves us.

He shed his blood for us. And he can change and transform that in you.

He can set you free. Don't believe the devil's lie that you can never be free from what has you in its grip.

Seek him because he is a mighty deliverer. The fourth thing

I want you to see from this passage in Isaiah is that Jesus is the one who brings us into the favor and blessings of God.

Moving into verse two of Isaiah 61, it says, he came to proclaim the year of the

Lord's favor. And this word favor in the Hebrew is a beautiful word and it means delight, especially shown.

So if you really delight in someone, I know delighting in your child or now we have grandchildren and delighting in our grandchildren, you just wanna bless them, don't you?

You wanna do nice things for them. And Jesus brings us into the favor and delight of God.

He brings us into the blessing of God. When I was lost and I didn't know

Jesus, I was separated. I didn't know the blessings of God. I didn't have the hope and the peace and the joy that I now have.

But when Jesus came into my life, I began to discover his blessings. And the more

I read in his word, I began to understand more and more of the beautiful things that he wanted to do in our lives.

Ephesians 1 .3 says this, blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Isn't that beautiful? Every spiritual blessing. How do we find out what those blessings are?

By reading his word, by being in his word and knowing what his promises are.

These blessings include the blessing of forgiveness, the blessing of being his child, the blessing of God's love in our heart, the blessing of his grace, the blessing of hope, the blessing of eternal life, the blessing of heaven, the blessing of an ever -present help who will never leave us nor forsake us, the blessing of peace, the blessing of joy.

This list goes on and on. Jesus, because he paid for our sins and he bridged that gap, and through Jesus we can have a relationship with our creator, he brings us into the beautiful blessings of God.

Now, it's interesting when we read, when Jesus read this prophecy in the synagogue in Nazareth, he left out a part of verse two.

He left out this part, in the day of vengeance of our

God. Jesus left that out. He didn't read that. He skipped it and he moved down to the rest of verse three.

Why would Jesus leave that part of the scripture out? Well, it's because he came to free us from that judgment.

It says in John 3, 17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world through him might be saved.

Jesus didn't come to bring judgment. He came to bring freedom and release to us.

Beautiful promise in Romans 8, 1. You know, we all mess up, we all sin, and that stinking enemy can come along and just beat us down with it, but a beautiful promise is in Romans 8, 1.

And it says this, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

If Jesus is in your life and he is your savior, he took that judgment upon himself at the cross so that we don't have to face that judgment.

Because of Jesus, our salvation is secure and he frees us.

We don't have to dread the day that we will stand before God because we are forgiven.

He came to free us from the judgment that sin brings. The fifth thing

I want you to see from this passage of Isaiah 61 is that he is the one who brings comfort to those who mourn.

Look at verse three, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit.

This word for mourn, it means to lament. We probably wouldn't say

I'm lamenting, but it's expressing grief.

It's expressing sorrow. Wow, our world is full of grief, isn't it?

We've experienced that, all of us have. Yeah, even in our own families. We grieve over our own failures, disappointments, and regrets.

We grieve because of guilt and shame in our own lives. We grieve over broken relationships.

We grieve over loved ones who are struggling. We grieve over children who have strayed.

We grieve because of sickness, disease, and death. This list also goes on and on.

The good news, though, is that Jesus gives us beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit.

Jesus said this in Matthew 5, for blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

He knows your sorrow. He knows your heartaches. He knows your pain.

In Psalm 56, eight, it talks about him seeing every teardrop that you've ever shed.

That's how near he is. And Jesus is the great comforter.

He said this, his invitation in Matthew 11, 28 was this, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

He says, come to me just the way you are with all your struggles and all of your heartaches.

Talk to him about it. Seek him, seek his healing.

He can give you that rest, that peace. Well, wrapping this up,

I wanna think about how does Jesus bring comfort to those who mourn based on Isaiah 61, three.

We see three things here. The first thing is is that he brings us out of the ash heap and crowns us with beauty.

So it says to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes.

Well, ashes in the Old Testament were a symbol of deep grief and mourning.

After Job had lost everything, it says in Job 2, 8 that he sat in ashes.

In 2 Samuel 3, 19, Tamar had been terribly abused by her own brother.

And verse 19 of 2 Samuel 13 says this, and Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe that she wore and she laid her hand on her head and went away crying loudly as she went.

So ashes is the symbol of mourning. You know, and it wasn't that long ago that when people were in mourning, they would wear black clothing or a black armband as a symbol of mourning.

How often have we been in this ash heap in our lives this morning?

But Jesus wants us to come to him in our mourning. He wants us to come to him in our sadness.

He wants to lift us out of this ash heap. He wants to comfort and heal us.

Now, I really like the way the New King James translates this, verse three. So I wanna read it to you from the

New King James. It says, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

Jesus gives beauty for ashes. Now the ESV speaks of a beautiful headdress.

The NIV translates it this way, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.

And this is a picture of Jesus taking off, if you will, those mourning clothes.

Cleaning the ashes off us. Taking, helping us deal with our pain and our heartache and clothing us with hope and life and joy and peace.

And he can do that. He's done it in my life. He can do it in anyone's life.

Now, continuing in verse three, the second thing that he does is it says that he gives us the oil of gladness instead of mourning.

Well, Jesus is the ultimate source of joy. Oil in the scriptures is a symbol of the

Holy Spirit. In Galatians 5 .22, it talks about the fruit of the spirit is being joy.

So this joy is supernatural. It comes from God. It's not something we muster up ourselves.

It's experienced in a close connection with God, a close relationship. Psalm 16 .11

says this. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. It's in his presence as we connect with him.

Psalm 21 .6, for you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with the joy of your presence.

And again, this joy comes from a living connection with our

Father in heaven, with our Lord and Savior Jesus. So, some years ago

I met a young man in the juvenile home and he was an alcoholic, a bad alcoholic teenager.

Had been through a lot of heartache in his life and he would use the alcohol to kill the pain. He began to learn the story of Jesus while he was in the juvenile home, but he wasn't ready to open his heart to the

Savior. So he got out and the next time I heard from him was a collect phone call from the county jail.

And he had been arrested. He got out, started the juvenile home, started drinking again.

One night he was drunk. He had run out of money and he wanted more alcohol. He broke into an elderly woman's house and he robbed her to get that money for alcohol.

It snowed that night. He had walked to his cousin's house. The police tracked him in the snow and woke him up on his cousin's couch and took him to the county jail.

And I started meeting with him in the county jail and kind of walking with him through the trial process.

But while he was in the county jail, he realized that Jesus was his only hope and he opened his heart to Jesus.

Then he found out he was sentenced to 10 years. That was a tough blow. 10 years in prison for what he had done.

But he wasn't going there alone. He was going with Jesus. And so he got sent off to prison.

It was a ways from Kalamazoo. So we began to write back and forth and I sent him a card and it had different names of Jesus on that card and he wrote me a letter back and this letter just floored me.

I wanna read what he wrote in this letter to you. He said, dear

Bill, my brother in Christ and friend for life, I won't even ask how you are doing because I know you're doing great.

How can you not with God on your side? I am so glad you could find time to write me.

Your letter brought tears to my eyes and wonderful joy to my heart. Thank you. I really enjoyed the card you sent.

I was so inspired by it. I had to say a prayer using all his names. Jesus is my prince of peace, my morning star, light of my life and all the above.

Making Jesus number one in my life is the best thing I could have ever done and I thank you for that.

It may have taken me a while but I am here in God's arms never to let go. Here's the part

I really want you to hear. This is what floored me. He has brought so much peace into my mind and joy to my heart that I forget

I am in prison sometimes. When I read that, I was like, ah! I had been to the prison where he was at to visit him.

That's miraculous right there. That is the healing and joy that Jesus can bring.

He can take away that garment of mourning and give us the garment of praise as it says in Isaiah 61, three.

The garment, he gives us the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. And this

Hebrew word for garment was really interesting. In fact, it's only used, this one

Hebrew word is only used once in the Old Testament and not the normal word for clothing.

It's a word that means a vestment. So it's special clothing.

It could be the robe that a priest would wear, ornate and beautiful.

Or sometimes you look at choirs and the beautiful robes they wear or even a bride on her wedding day wearing that beautiful wedding dress.

That's a vestment. And so he can take away this mourning and he can clothe us with this special garment of praise.

And this word praise here literally means a song, a hymn of praise to God.

And he can put a new song in our heart. Psalm 40, verse three says, he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our

God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Psalm 42, eight, by day the

Lord commands his steadfast love and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the

God of my life. He can put a new song in our heart. There's so many times I have sat down grieving, feeling that broken heartedness and just poured out my heart before him and opened his word and met with him and told him what was going on.

And all of a sudden something shifts in our hearts and there's a healing and he takes that grief away and he puts this new song in our hearts.

This is our beautiful savior. He is the one who can give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of happiness.

Knowing that Jesus is the good news, knowing that he is the healer of the broken hearted, knowing that he is the one who brings true freedom, the one who brings us into the favor and blessing of God, the one who comforts those who mourn.

Come to Jesus. If you haven't opened your heart to the savior, why don't you do it today?

Tell him you need him. Ask him to come into your life. He proved his love at the cross.

He died for our sins. He loves you. He wants to be in your life. This is the beginning of healing,

Jesus coming into our lives. Won't you ask him to come into your life if that's your need today?

Come to Jesus. Make sure he's your savior. Number two, in closing, seek him daily.

Learn who he is. Learn the promises of his word. Learn more of his beauty and glory.

Seek him daily. Number three, bring him your heartaches. Bring him your fears.

Learn to be honest with him in prayer. He already knows all our struggles. And seek his healing, because he is still the great physician.

And number four, seek to walk with him in unbroken fellowship. He really wants us to be his disciples, to walk and live our lives in union with him.

And he is so worthy. He loves you. He died for you.

He lives for you. Let him be your life. Thank you so much for being part of our service this morning, and hang in there.

We are gonna be back together in the not so far near future.

And like Spencer said, you'll be hearing more about that. But we sure do miss y 'all, and I know you all miss each other.

But my prayer has been that during this time of more isolation, that we would spend more time in prayer seeking

God. And that he would do something special in our lives through this. So thank you so much for tuning in this morning to our service.

I wanna close with a prayer. And then you can go get that second, third cup of coffee or whatever it may be.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you are a beautiful savior, that you love us, that you are the ultimate good news, that you are the one who can set anyone free, that you are the one who heals the brokenhearted, that you are the one who comforts those who mourn.

You are a beautiful savior. Lord, if there's anyone even listening right now, even now,

Lord, I pray that if they're ready, they would just cry out to you, Jesus, I need you.

I open my heart to you. I ask that you would forgive my sins. I believe that you paid for them at the cross, and I receive you as my

Lord and savior into my life. I thank you.

Father, you're hearing anyone that may be crying that out to you in their hearts, and just please help that one to know that they love you.

Father, help us to realize that our true hope and peace and joy is in you, not in this world, not in our jobs, not in how much money we have or whatever it may be, that you are the true source of life and joy.

And I just thank you for giving us this beautiful picture of who you are today. We praise you and thank you in Jesus' name, amen.