Matthew 23:37-39 Independent Chicks

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

Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Good morning.

At your chair, you should have found a worship folder. Inside this is information on what's going on here at Recast.

Inside the worship folder, you're going to see a connection card and an offering envelope.

We don't pass an offering plate here at Recast, but if you do feel led to give, you can drop this off in the slot at the welcome table.

Secondly, if you're a guest here, we're so glad that you're here. Super excited about that, and we'd love to learn a little bit more about you.

You can help us out in that learning process by filling out the connection card and also dropping it off in that same slot out at the welcome table in the lobby.

I pointed at Jason's face, but it's more that way based on where we're sitting in the church right now. Have you defined a relationship with Recast?

If not, today is Valentine's Day, so that is the perfect day to do that. If you're interested in becoming a member, go to the recastchurch .com

and fill out an application there. There's also applications in the lobby. Recast has an awesome property opportunity that we're hoping to take advantage of.

Do you know what they call that? A proppertunity. Members can currently vote on whether or not we want to purchase one of the houses that sits out right in front of Recast.

It's a really awesome place. It's one acre of land, three bedroom, one and a half bath. It has a really big storage barn.

It has a lot of green space for things outside too. For more questions, feel free to contact the office.

We support Jim and Rachel Bennett who are missionaries and are on staff at Camp Barakel.

Speaking of Camp Barakel, summer registration for camps is now open. Camp Barakel is an awesome place.

I've gotten to go up once, going again here soon, but definitely check out those opportunities to get your kids involved up there and hear the gospel and do really, really fun stuff.

Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell for notifications. Thanks for watching. Jay and David in the morning.

Fun stuff. Again, I reiterate, if you have any questions about the proppertunity, you can direct those questions to me or to Rob.

Go ahead and wave your hand, Rob, real quick. He's the chairman of the board and so you can direct questions to him as well, but just encourage that that opportunity is available to us.

I'm Don Felsick. I'm the lead pastor here. I encourage you to make yourself comfortable. A special welcome to those of you that are joining us on the live stream.

Glad that you're able to be a part of this. I know that some of you are participating live. Some of you are going to be checking this out later.

I'm glad for technology in that way. Recast is a strange name for a church. How many of you just, when you first came to Recast, you were like, what in the world is this name?

Anybody just being honest? You were like, what is that about? It's good. I'd like to reemphasize kind of what that means every once in a while.

Over the years, I've had some funny misunderstandings. I was sitting at a coffee shop and had somebody talking about Recast.

They didn't know I was the pastor here. They didn't even know I go here. And they were explaining to somebody else how Recast means that once you give your life to Christ, you're recasting a new role and it's kind of a new church in the area.

I was like, that's cool. I've never heard that before, but that's kind of unique and different. I had somebody on the phone trying to sell me something one time in the office, and they kept calling it

Recash Church, like as in money. And I assured them that we are not a church brazenly named for our hunger for money.

That's not really where the name comes from, and it is not Recash. That's one you want to correct, by the way, if you hear Recast Church, Recast Church.

But it does have a double meaning. There's two kind of meanings, two kind of directions that it goes. It's an acronym, but it also comes from the account in the gospels where the disciples were fishing all night and they got blanked.

Now they're professional fishermen. Their livelihood was tied to their fishing trade on the Sea of Galilee. They caught no fish that night.

How many of you think you might be a little bit disappointed that morning? So they're up by the shore, pulling in for the day, mending the nets, fixing them, getting ready to turn in, probably take a long nap for the day, and try to start again, get a running start at it the next night.

When Jesus comes along the shore, tells them to push the boats out a little bit further into the water and recast the nets to the other side, that idea of recasting, doing things differently for Jesus is the idea.

They obeyed him and they caught a huge haul of fish. Now that sounds like a great thing if we're a fisherman's club, but he then said to them, you will no longer be catching fish, but you will be catching men for my cause and for my kingdom.

That catching men for him shows up in the second meaning of recast, which is an acronym for our core values.

Each letter standing for something. We have replication, community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth. You can see that back there above the donuts as well, and we try to keep that in front of people.

That replication is one we don't talk about a ton, but it is the value of seeing what God is doing in us and in our church, repeated, what he's doing in our hearts, repeated in other people's hearts.

What he's doing in our community and in our gathering, repeated in other communities and in other gatherings. With that comes the idea of evangelism and sharing what we're doing here and what

God is doing in our midst with others, and then also the goal of eventually church planting as well.

I say all of that to identify that our church is trying to tie into something that we see as a big theme in scripture, and that is simply that God has a mission's heart.

God has a desire for his kingdom to expand. He wants his kingdom to expand in us, taking over more and more of our hearts, more and more of our lives.

He wants to see his kingdom expanding among us, within the church, in the interpersonal relationships that we have here, that his kingdom is growing among us, and that it's also growing through us in terms of the impact that it's having on the world out there around us, our community, our place of employment, our families, our neighborhoods, all of that.

The passage we're looking at lays wide open that mission, and that's why I start this way. We see the heart of Jesus Christ laid bare in compassion, even as last week we saw his righteous anger on display.

Jesus is not an angry judge ready to strike down anybody who disobeys, not merely an angry judge who is ready to strike down anyone who disobeys, nor is he just merely a gracious pushover who just gives everyone a free pass.

He is the holy one who takes sin seriously. I would contend to you that he takes sin more seriously than any of us do.

He takes it very seriously. As a matter of fact, he takes it so seriously that he came down to provide a way of protection for anyone who would run to him for shelter, and that's what we're going to be looking at this morning.

In our passage, watch his compassion as I read it, and in our passage, watch the way that he, in offering compassion, is rejected by people.

I've entitled this sermon Independent Chicks, and this is not a passage about the college dating scene, but I believe that the core of this passage is the rejection of the one who has longed to gather his people under his protection.

The hen wants to protect, and the chicks want to run free. Anybody relate to that?

God desires to protect, but his people, and people in general, have a tendency to want to run free.

And so, open your Bibles if you're not already there to Matthew chapter 23. We're going to be looking at the very end paragraph of this entire chapter,

Matthew 23, verses 37 through 39. Grab your device and navigate over there. It's a short passage, but it's

God's holy and precious word, a word that desires to transform us and change us if we would just believe it and trust it and live it out.

And so, let's listen in together to Matthew 23, verses 37 through 39.

Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often would

I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

See, your house has left you desolate, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord. Let's pray. Father, I lift up this time to you and I ask that you would speak to us through this word.

I pray that my voice would fade into the background as people take in your word and come to understand what it means sentence by sentence, line by line, but this would not just merely be an academic analysis of this text, but it would be eye -opening to seeing your heart, eye -opening to seeing the way that you roll, the things that you want done and the things that you want accomplished, and most importantly, the great compassion that you have for your people, the great protection that is offered to us, and the great rebellion in our own hearts and a desire to run the other direction.

And so, Father, I pray that you would help us. Those of us, I'm convinced that most of us in this room are those who have run to you for shelter and are underneath your protective wings, and I praise you for that and I pray that that would elicit rejoicing in our hearts as we look at this passage and we think about what we've come out from underneath and the great judgment of the reign of your just wrath falling and being that wrath put on Christ instead of us and him taking that and sheltering us from it.

So, Father, I pray that you would speak through me with accuracy and with clarity and with passion and zeal this morning in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, so I encourage you to get comfortable just as I do every Sunday. If you want to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts, you can take advantage of that and keep your device or your

Bible open to Matthew 23, 37 through 39 as we dive in and dig into this.

The context of the passage is really stark. It's a really stark contrast to last week. So, some of you were here last week, some of you were not, but we go from some of the most harsh words recorded on the lips of Jesus Christ in verses 13 through 36.

We looked at those last week, those woes, those seven woes where He was indicting the religious leaders and just really leveling at them, wave after wave after wave of judgment, calling them serpents, calling them a brood of vipers, calling them hypocrites with exclamation points at the end of those sentences, right?

And now we find His compassion being expressed towards those very people. They were a part of Jerusalem and He's saying that He's speaking to Jerusalem here, the very people.

And how can that be? Well, I want to suggest to you that Jesus was not divided. It's not like we have a harsh and mean

Jesus that showed up last week and then He left and now kind and more gentle Jesus shows up this week.

He's not divided in that way. The things that He does, He moves forward with consistency. As a matter of fact,

I believe that the woes that He issued last week drive a large part of His compassionate sorrow this week because He sees the rebellion of their heart and He knows what that does on judgment day.

That's why He pronounces woe, that's why He pronounces doom on them last week is because out of compassion

He desires change. He desires repentance. Well, here He's showing

His heart and I don't want to minimize the fact that last week He was showing His heart too. Last week He was showing

His heart in a judgment of those who would do things opposite to the way that God desires it.

But here He shows His heart and when I say heart, well, I want to point out that He shows something of His compassion, of a sense of feeling here.

Here in our text He shows His protective mission and even somewhat speaking of His desire.

What is the desire of Christ? What is the desire of God? The text begins with an address to the entire city of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem has been okay. It's been all right for Him so far. They welcomed Him in and remember they were shouting

Hosanna and all that but the city is slowly but surely turning against Him during this final

Passover week leading up to just a couple of days, three or four days from the account of this conversation here, the things that are said here to His crucifixion.

And so He doubles up the address, Jerusalem, Jerusalem to show feeling, to show importance.

Some translations add an interjection of emotion beforehand like the English Standard Version has, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, again doubled up for emphasis.

Much like we may add an oh before attempting to comfort someone who has just had bad news or something bad happened.

Like somebody might say, Oh, Kansas City, Kansas City, Ryman, I know we've got a

Chiefs fan in our midst. But you might double that up just for emotion and like, Oh, I'm so sorry that happened.

But this is a serious address to the entire city here. Having just pronounced a woe on their leaders for being those who put to death the very prophets of God, He now indicts the entire city.

It's not just the leadership but it's the entire city. Jerusalem did not have a great track record regarding the prophets and Jesus, of course, was well aware of all of that history, all of that Old Testament and all of the problems that Jerusalem posed for the prophets and he identifies the city as the place where God's messengers go to be put down, where they go to be put to death.

I mean, nobody, if you were in the Old Testament, you wouldn't want to be a prophet to Jerusalem. That's going to go poorly for you.

And it happened consistently until you read the Old Testament, you read the prophets and they were abused, they were beaten, they were thrown into wells in Jerusalem, they were left for dead in Jerusalem.

Some of them like were literally killed in Jerusalem and you see that it did not go well. And so, then he makes a statement that has made this one of my favorite passages down through the years.

This is one that I love because, again, this gets really to the desire of Christ. Jesus claims in this text,

He claims for Himself that He has often wanted to gather this city under His protection like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.

Now, that's something that is not self -evident. That's something Jesus has to tell us Himself. He is telling us something about the way that He has responded, the things that He has done in His heart and in His desire in the past and He's longed to gather

Jerusalem like a chicken gathers its little baby chicks under its wings to protect them at night.

And this is where we dive into my outline this morning. If you're taking notes, this message is going to go relatively quick but there are four points.

The first is the hen has offered wings for shelter. The second point is the chicks were not willing to accept the shelter.

The third, the hen will vacate the coop. The fourth, the hen will return.

So those are the four points. I think those are on the screen so you can jot those down if you're taking notes.

But the first that we're going to look at is found in verse 37. Actually, both of the first one and the second one are found in verse 37.

And early on, you see the hen has offered wings for shelter. I get to play a little bit with gender pronouns this morning because hens are female and Jesus is male and He's a male who is using a female chicken as a metaphor.

He is not, by the way, identifying Himself as a female chicken, just to clarify to everybody. He is, however, saying

He is like, His response to the city of Jerusalem is likened to a hen, likened to the way that a female chicken will spread her wings out and cover her chicks at night to protect them from frost, to protect them from the cold, to protect them from foxes, to protect them.

And so He's saying that's like me. He's merely saying that He's responded in that protective way.

And this was a passage that helped me significantly when I was in college. Now how many of you would say that somewhere between the years of 18 and 22, you had a little bit of redefining in your life?

Anybody? Anybody had a series of things that maybe happened to you or some thoughts that you had to work through or some feelings or different things?

And it's probably a little bit different for each one of us. Some of you maybe went through a crisis of drinking.

Some of you went through a crisis of which fraternity to pledge. I was nerdy enough to go through a theological crisis when

I was in college. So I went to Bible college and I transferred to Cornerstone and I began to think some weird thoughts theologically.

I was literally questioning the authority of Scripture regarding the deity of Christ. And I went through this on my own.

It wasn't like somebody had brought it to my attention or something. But in my course of reading the

Bible on my own, I came to the conclusion that there were two guys who definitely were pretty sure that Jesus was

God. That would be John in his gospel. He seems to be pretty clear and pretty convinced.

And Paul, the Apostle Paul, seems to be equally pretty convinced. And aside from those two,

I was like, what if those two just got together and said, let's do this. Let's pretend that Jesus is God and let's make it out to be that way. So I began to actually go, where else in the

Bible can I see any evidence that Jesus is God? And so I went through that kind of crisis when

I, that would have been my junior year and I actually read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with an intention,

I mean Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with the intention of trying to figure out, do these guys believe that Jesus was

God? These guys who spent time with him. And I wanted to see if the gospels really held him out to be divine or not.

And so I read them to see if they were consistent, and this is the passage that lodged with me as the one that finally kind of was the straw, there were a bunch of things that I was reading through the gospels built up, but this was the one that was like, this is just an obscure passage that isn't preached on a whole lot, isn't talked about a whole lot, and yet it really, really holds out

Jesus as divine, as being the Son of God. Now this statement in verse 37 is the one that did it for me.

It's kind of a strange statement, and here's where my logic goes with this, and I think you can hopefully see it too.

The statement of verse 37 is either a statement of an egomaniac, a guy who was completely full of himself and a bit crazed, you see, because what he's saying is he thought that he had comfort to offer to the holy city of Jerusalem, and he had offered it many times in the past, and the only reason it wasn't given to them was their unwillingness.

So think about what kind of an egomaniac would make that kind of statement. This city, I would have taken care of you guys if you would have let me.

Or the other alternative is that this guy is indeed God in flesh who has routinely offered

Jerusalem his protection in his words. How often? So often is the implication. So often

I have offered you protection. Verse 37, here's the point. Verse 37 is not a good statement unless Jesus could have made true on it.

It's not a good thing to say. Can you imagine what kind of person would I be to go onto a

New York City affiliate station and get some air time and say, oh, New York City, how often

I've longed to offer you solace and peace and protection, how I've longed to clean up your streets, but you wouldn't let me.

You got to be like, that guy needs some help. Who does he think he is, coming from Michigan down over here to take care of us?

And when has he done this? When has he done this thing? How often has he done it?

All throughout history. All throughout history. All throughout the Old Testament. Jesus is identifying himself very closely with God in this statement.

Who has tried to nurture the city of Jerusalem in the

Old Testament? God himself. Who in the Old Testament is said to gather his people like a hen gathers his chicks?

God. That is spoken of God in the Old Testament. Jesus is saying, that's me.

That is me. And he says he has often desired to gather the children of Jerusalem under his protective care, under his protection.

He looks at the city, now hear me carefully, because it's not enough that he's just saying it, but you need to understand who he's saying it to.

He looks at this very city, this violent city full of murderous religious leaders that he's just indicted.

Full of those who have killed his prophets and messengers. Filled with those that just last week in the text, just a few verses before this, he predicted will in the future kill his messengers.

Full of those who will hang him on the cross just a few days from his uttering this statement.

And he says, what does he say to them? I've only ever wanted to gather you into my arms.

All I've ever wanted was to protect you. That's what

I'm guilty of. I've just wanted to love you. I've just wanted you to come under the protection of my wings.

How can I be moved from the woes of last week to the compassion of this statement this week?

And I think it's because of the next point. Oh, believe me, he did feel their rejection. The second point is the chicks were not willing to accept the shelter.

The end of verse 37, they were not willing. How I've longed to gather you, but you were not willing.

You were satisfied to run every which way except under my wings for protection.

Jesus has been rejected by the religious leaders, and he will soon be rejected by the city and by the Jews and by the

Romans of the city as well, and he will be hung up on a cross to die. Hear me carefully, church.

Jesus wants even them. Jesus wants them, but they don't want him.

They don't want him. And this is really the state of the human heart as a default, the independent streak that runs a mile deep into every one of our hearts gathered here.

I got this one on my own. I can protect myself. I can take care of myself. We are rebellious.

We are independent, and we are eager to come out from underneath anything that we perceive to be authoritative.

Do you see the irony in that? Come out from underneath your completely heavy -handed protection.

Does that resonate in your heart? Have you seen yourself do that? I want to do it myself, thank you.

And by the way, I want to take credit for it. Notice what

Jesus isn't saying. He could have used all kinds of animal metaphors. There's a lot in the animal kingdom that could have been possible, much beyond a chicken and a hen and her chicks.

He could have used some other illustrations. He could have said, oh, how I've longed to gather you like a tyrant gathers his subjects.

Or how I've longed to gather you like an alpha wolf gathers his pack, forcing them into submission.

Or how I've longed to gather you like a spider gathers flies. Praise God he didn't say that one, right?

Anybody glad that he didn't say that? No, what is his illustration? What is he drawing an analogy to for himself?

I've called you to my protective care. I've called you to shelter with me.

He calls them to his protective care, but they spit on him. He called them into the royal presence of the almighty king, and they will mock him with a crown of thorns.

He has called them for ages to fullness of life in him, and they will cry out crucify.

He has called them to paradise, and they will let hell itself rest on his shoulders at the cross.

They were not willing. They rejected the one who came to save them.

They rejected the one whose only intention was to protect. And so he declares openly the third point of the text, the hen will vacate the coop.

Now it might not be, I say openly, it might not be as clear. You need to understand and take verses 38 and 39 together to really get to the conclusion that he's talking about his own departure.

Now he talks about it at the beginning of 39, but 38 is about this as well. Verse 38 begins with a

Greek word meant to call our attention to what he says next, a special attention. The English Standard Version translates it see.

It can also often be translated behold. It's not just merely a placeholder word. It's a grab your attention kind of word.

In Greek it's edu. It's used to draw your attention, focus your mind.

Get with it. Pay attention to this. Check this out. Your house is left desolate.

Now he's not talking about homes. He's not talking about their apartment complex or their townhome or their nice little cottage out in the countryside.

That's not what he's talking about when he talks about their home. I imagine quite literally, I imagine a sweep of his arm toward the temple as he says this.

That was their house. This was Jerusalem's house. And he's speaking to Jerusalem and he's talking about their house.

What was the house? The very temple itself. And what he's really saying here is that the temple will be left desolate.

I believe the word desolate there, he's implying vacated by God. The prophet Ezekiel in chapter 10 talks about the glory of God departing the temple.

Interestingly, he draws this analogy and this correlation with his very last words spoken in the temple.

He himself is about to vacate the temple and he's saying it will be left desolate.

It'll be left empty. It'll be left vacant in my departure. Think about what that implies.

How many of you know that the temple is not, there's no purpose if God doesn't show up in the temple? He's saying,

I'm gone. I'm gone. The one who would have gathered his chicks, if they would have been willing, will depart this coop.

Many see here a reference to the destruction of the temple, which will indeed occur in 70 AD, but I think that's too literal an understanding here.

Next week we will see a prediction on his part that the temple will actually physically be destroyed, not a stone left on stone.

But he tells them this next week because they think he is being literal here and they don't get the metaphor.

So he says, well, yeah, it is going to be destroyed, but that's not the main point. I believe what he means by the word desolate is devoid of God and his presence because of verse 39.

Look at verse 39. He says, your house will be made desolate, verse 38, for you will not see me again.

The reason it's called desolate is because I'm gone, because I'm out. He predicts his departure.

And in this sense, what he's saying here is a very serious statement if they just had ears to hear it. I have so often wanted to gather you under my protection.

You wouldn't have it. So now I'm leaving, and when I depart, your house of worship will be desolate until I return.

He's identifying himself very closely with God in this passage and he's saying, I'm going to fly this coop.

Much like Ezekiel in chapter 10 predicted that God would depart his temple, here

I'm going. I'm out. I'm going to fly this coop. But don't worry because of the fourth point.

The hen will return for his chicks. How many of you are glad for that word?

He's not left and gone forever. He will return. He says here in this text at the very end,

Jerusalem will not see the presence of the divine again until the day when Jesus reenters that city and there is finally an authentic cry of blessed is he who comes in the name of the

Lord. There is a literal day coming when Jesus will return to Jerusalem.

There's a literal day coming. That is our hope. That is our belief. That is what scripture holds out.

Jesus literally returning for his people. And until is such a beautiful word in this text because it holds out hope.

It's a hopeful word. A day is coming when Jerusalem will welcome him. The hen wanted to protect the chicks.

The chicks wouldn't have it. They wanted to go their own way. The hen will depart, but he will return and be finally recognized as coming, as the one who comes in the name of the

Lord, the name of the almighty God. He'll be recognized on that day for who he is.

We see in this passage the heart of our Lord and Savior. And when we seek the lost, when we share the good news of salvation through Jesus with our coworkers and with our friends and with our family and with our neighbors and with others, we are aligning ourselves with our

Lord who longed to gather people under his protection. Do you long to see people in your life come under the protection of Jesus?

You long for that? The reality is there's a reign of judgment and righteous wrath that is indeed coming upon anyone who goes it alone and refuses to repent.

And only those under the protective wings of the Savior will be spared in that final judgment. If you can picture it like the fire, like fire coming out of the sky, and only those under the protective wings of Christ will be spared.

So what is our role? What is our responsibility? There's plenty of room under these wings, not limited.

Plenty of room. So, I'll bring your friends, bring your family, bring your neighbors, bring anyone who will listen.

This is a, this is reality. I hope you're not wasting your time sitting here not believing a word I'm saying.

If you believe it, then bring others. If you believe it, then there is still hope while they breathe that they would come under the protective wings of Christ.

Are you, I want you to answer this question in your heart. I'm gonna need to modify it a little bit, but are you an independent chick?

Some of you guys are like, I'm not a chick. Nope, I'm out, checked out of this conversation. Let me just correct you.

You are. According to the text, you are. You are a chick. Just a little cute ball of fluff, a little snack for a red fox.

Maybe one mouthful, that's about it. Chomp, done. Are you willing to let

Jesus Christ be your protector? Are you willing to let him be your protection?

Or are you still desperately seeking your own protection? Some of us have been around the church for a long time and still think that the good news is that you can save yourself.

I am shocked at how many times I can talk to somebody who has been a part of the church and when I say, why are you gonna get to heaven?

Well, I've lived a pretty good life. I'm a pretty good person. I do the best that I can. I don't cheat on my taxes,

I don't cheat on my girl. So I'm a good guy. So yeah, I'll probably get to heaven. How many of you see a flaw in that thinking?

Because that isn't it. That is not the good news. That is not the point. That's not good news.

That's baby chick theology. A theology that says, I don't need your protection, I can do this just fine on my own, scramble in every which way, not willing to gather under the hen.

The good news is that Jesus Christ will protect anyone, anyone, anyone from any background who runs to him for shelter.

It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter where you've been. It doesn't matter the evil that you've done or the things that you've looked at or the things that you have done or the things that have been done to you or any of that.

Anyone who runs to him for shelter can receive his protection from the wrath on that final day.

And I'm not ashamed to give all of us, lump us all into one and give us all one main application point today.

Trust the protection of Jesus. That requires some action because how many of you by noon tomorrow, by noon tomorrow, by this afternoon at two o 'clock, you'll be trusting in something else.

Anybody with me on that? How many of you need constant reminders? How many of you need to have a running dialogue?

Did any of you have any crises this week? Maybe a mini crisis, anybody? Four of us, really?

Anybody have anything that you struggled with this week? It would have been good to turn to God and say, hey, I need your help. I need you in this.

And how often do we avail ourselves of that ongoing dialogue with God in prayer versus just going into that difficult business meeting alone?

Or that difficult conversation with your spouse, or that difficult conversation with your child, or whatever it might be. Do you go into that alone or do you talk to God about it?

And I don't know, I am assuming that most of you are put together the same way as me, but I am not saying this at all to guilt you, but I need the word of God.

I'm telling you as your pastor, I need it. Not just so that I have a really good day,

I need it because the words that I hear in the pages of Scripture are so foreign to my daily life.

Anybody with me on that? The conversations I hear, the media that I take in, the things that are going on out in the world, you don't get these words out there.

You get all kinds of words that are contrary to this out there. How many of you know what

I'm talking about? I don't hear words of praise to God on the lips of the majority of the people in my life.

Do you know what I'm talking about? So where are you going to get those words? You going to invent them yourselves or are you going to dig into God's word and begin to build up a vocabulary of talking right things to your own heart?

How are you going to speak right in here if you don't have this? Get what

I'm saying? So why am I asking you to engage in the word in light of the protection of God?

This is shelter. This is shelter. Shelter. You come to know

Christ and you come to know God through this. Cover your life and saturate your life with this and you will be moved to come under the protection routinely of Christ.

Moved to talk to Him regularly. Jesus will protect anyone who runs to Him.

So if you've been in a relationship with Jesus Christ for decades, keep running to Jesus.

Daily run to Jesus. Remember who it is that is your shelter.

If you're a young Christian who is new in the faith, let me encourage you to stay under His wings and I think anybody who's been in the faith longer than you would give you the same warning.

The warning is that often the evil one wants to trick us over the years into wandering out from underneath those protective wings.

He wants us to forget the simplicity of the gospel. One of the biggest things he wants to do is just make it complicated in our mind.

Make it hard to figure out. And before we know it, we're trying to protect ourselves. We're thinking thoughts like, yeah,

I better get to work. It's my good works that will keep my salvation. Really at the end of the day, it's that's what's bought my salvation and all kinds of wayward thoughts can come in.

And if you're not yet under the protective wings of the Savior, ask Him to save you. His calling out to all, come, gather under my protection.

Are you willing today? Come to the Savior for His protection. Are you curious today?

Come to the Savior. Have you strayed away from His protection? And even as I've talked, you've been like, yeah,

I haven't been availing myself of the things like prayer and the word that really is putting myself back under His protective care.

I encourage you, return, return. Let thoughts of His protection run alongside of you this week and let these thoughts of being gathered under His protection occupy our minds and our thoughts during this time of coming to communion this morning.

Jesus was put to death to take on Himself the hell that we deserved so that by faith and trust in Him, our punishment, our sin, our crud is laid on Him at the cross and in exchange, the great exchange is that His righteousness is credited to us by faith.

Our sin, how many of you, did you just hear that exchange? Our sin, our mess, our crud, our brokenness laid on Him.

What do we get in return? Eternal life in His righteousness. Sound like a good deal?

How in the world? I think that's the best deal ever, the greatest exchange ever.

And He did that, why? Because like a hen, He wants to protect us.

If you believe that and you've asked Him to be your King, you've asked Him to be your protector and your

Savior, then take the cracker to remember His body that was broken for us and take the juice to remember

His blood that was shed for us during this next song. He's a compassionate Savior and let me encourage you to walk with Him this week.

Come to Him daily this week and serve Him this week.

Let's pray. Father, I thank You for this text that reveals so clearly the love and the compassion of Jesus Christ toward those who are helpless, towards those who are broken, towards, it's not just that we're broken, we're not just abused, but we are abusers.

We are those who take advantage of others to our own gain. We are sinners at our core.

You've loved us, You've protected us, You've taken our sins and thrown them as far as the east is from the west, down into the deepest of seas, never to be recovered.

So Father, I pray that You would allow that reality to sink in, that Your protective care most demonstrated through the cross of Jesus Christ, where He took the hit for us.

Not just some minor, minor thing, but He endured hell and Your rejection for us.

The very punishment that we deserved was poured out on Him. So Father, I pray that as we remember this, that we would have both somber and joyful thoughts at the same time, that You would work in our hearts a mix of, wow,

He did that for me? That's deep. And equally lifting up because we are so deeply loved and now so deeply protected by our

Savior. So Father, I pray that as we take communion, You would unite our hearts together as a church, reflecting on the need that we had that's been met in Jesus.