Kyle Fox
Dec 10, 2023 | Matt 1:21, Heb 9:11-12, Heb 9:22-28
Welcome to Red Mountain. My name is Kyle. We are in the midst of our Advent season, which is a time to simply remember the work of Jesus, his arrival, and that he came for a purpose, which is to seek and save the lost. Now, how did he save people? What actually does that mean? Well, he had to do a lot of work to accomplish our salvation. And that's what we are remembering and celebrating. Biblically, there's three titles to describe that work. The work is very broad and complex and multifaceted, the work that he did. So there are three terms that the Bible uses to describe the work that Jesus does: prophet, priest, and king. These come from the Old Testament. These were the top levels of leadership within Israel's community. These aren't specifically Jewish. Many cultures in the time of Jesus and before Jesus and even after Jesus had these three offices as leaders in their communities. It's nothing new, but we want to pay attention to Jesus' context in Israel to see what these titles mean and how they describe what Jesus did. These aren't just political titles. They are roles that were born out of a need that we have to connect with God. And so that's why these were developed.
Sin had caused a distance between humans and God. It caused separation. And these roles were meant to help overcome that sin gap, to be connected with God again. So the prophet was mainly the person in the community that brought God's word to bear in the situation. Sort of bridge that gap between us and God by bringing God's word to bear. Otherwise, we won't know it. We won't even consider it. A priest is the one who represents people to God. That's the need that we have of God to hear us, to hear our cries and to hear our our hearts. So the priest was the one who represented people to God. And then the king was the one who leads the mission. He ruled over God's people as God's representative to stay on course, to keep people in the right direction. That's what the king did. Jesus, what we're saying, did all of these. In ancient Israel and many other cultures, these were three separate people, but they ended up being fulfilled in Christ as our ultimate prophet, priest, and king. We want to today talk about how Jesus is our perfect high priest.
Listen to how the angel announces Jesus' birth to Joseph. In the book of Matthew, Joseph has just figured out that Mary is pregnant. I don't know how, but she's found to be with child. So verse 19 in Matthew 1.
[Matthew 1:19] Her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
"She's cheated on me" is what he's thinking.
[20-21] But as he thought about these things, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David. Hey, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, the angel says, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
She's true to you, but there's this miracle going on. That's the announcement that you're going to name him Jesus, which the Hebrew name is Joshua, which means Yahweh saves. Why are they going to name him that? Because he will save his people from their sins. The question is, how exactly does Jesus save his people from sins? What did he do? How does this actually work out? And that's what we want to talk about this morning. To talk about how Jesus is our savior means we have to talk about Jesus being our high priest. Now, I don't know what image comes to your mind when I say the word priest. That's not a word that we use often. You might think of a guy with a special collar or behind some grate that you talk to or whatever. I want to kind of unhinge all of our images and things that we know about priest. And let's go back to the Old Testament and kind of show how Jesus fulfills this thing, and it will draw us into some important applications. Let's pray, and then we'll dive in.
[Prayer] God, as we turn to your word, would you instruct our hearts? Would you give us a great confidence to draw near to you? And would you give us the reminder that we have this mission to be priests in this world, that we are wanting to bring people to you? God, inspire us in that way as we go through this Advent season, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
So today we're talking about how Jesus is our great high priest. The priesthood, again, had a lot of different functions to it, but it's mainly set up and described in Exodus 28 & 29. Aaron and his sons were supposed to be the priests. Aaron was going to be the high priest of the people of Israel, and Exodus 28 & 29 describe that job. But basically the high priest is the guy who represents the people before God. So we have his clothes up here. These aren't the actual clothes; this is a representation. We had the prophetic clothes last week of Moses staff and then some clothes that are the actual clothes that John the Baptist and Elijah wore. And this is the actual robe that Aaron wore.
But you see this breastplate had 12 stones on it. And above each of those stones is written a name of a tribe of Israel. And on his shoulders there are these stones that were inscribed on the stones, the 12 tribes of Israel. What Exodus 28 & 29 describe is that is all true and there's all kinds of symbolism so that the high priest remembers and realizes that he is representing the people of Israel before Yahweh. And as he goes in and does his work of making sacrifices, which was his key work, he was to make sacrifices on behalf of the people before God. All of that was to facilitate a meeting with God. That was the whole point was to overcome that sin gap so people and God could actually meet. And the high priest was the go-between. He represented the people and took the blood of goats and calves and made atonement for the people in the Holy of Holies. He would do that once a year. And it was all to establish a meeting with God. In other words, the high priest helped bring salvation to the people, to overcome the sins so that they could actually meet with God and hear from him for all of life. So the priest facilitated all of that and all of his duties. He was the representative, meaning he made sacrifices.
He also went before God and prayed for the people. He heard the requests of people and brought those to God in that meeting time. And so he represented the needs of the people and the desires of the people and the heart of the people. So that was the goal of the priesthood. And it very quickly failed. Aaron failed himself. He didn't quite follow all the instructions. His sons were big failures. And we get basically generation after generation of high priests that failed at their office. They failed to take that meeting with God seriously. They failed to take their sins seriously. They failed to represent people. It was one failure after another. We're basically left with the question of Man, can any high priests do this because humans stink at it? Not only can they not remember the needs of the people, but they die. And even if they were pretty good, they died and their son had to take over or next guy had to take over and he wasn't as good. And there's all this up and down in the story of Israel. And then we get to this announcement from the angel in Matthew 21 that he—this baby—will save people from their sins! That's priest language. In Luke 2 when the angel announces to the shepherds, it says, Unto you this day is born a savior. This idea that this baby is going to save people from their sins. That's priest language. If all the high priests throughout history couldn't do that, they could not save people no matter who it was, how is Jesus able to? What did he actually do to accomplish salvation?
That's where we need to go to the book of Hebrews. If you have your Bible let's open to Hebrews chapter nine. This is a very important text that talks about Jesus being the high priest. [In] the book of Hebrews, that's one of the key points of the entire book. All 13 chapters are really geared towards helping people understand that Jesus is a great high priest. So rather than reading the whole book of Hebrews this morning, we're just going to focus in on chapter nine, which is basically the conclusions of everything that he's been saying. So it's a very dense little section of scripture that we're going to go through. Hang with me, and I promise you it will be worth it. It's a great articulation of the work that Christ has done as our high priest.
[Hebrews 9:11-12] But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Then he goes on to talk about the blood and why that was necessary. And then you get the conclusion in verse 22. So let's skip down to verse 22. And he concludes by saying this:
[22] Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
So there's this sin problem, there's this gap, and the only way there can be real forgiveness of sin is there has to be justice. That sin has to be paid for, there has to be blood poured out. And so the high priest would come bring the blood of goats on behalf of the people. And that was supposed to pacify God's wrath and satisfy this justice, because without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins.
So that was the routine. The high priest would go in every year and get this forgiveness activated. But what's Jesus do as the great high priest?
[23-28] Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the actual heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than just these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, Jesus has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
There is a dense passage that no one reads around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. I've put up a sentence to summarize this and broke it down into five key points that this passage is making that summarize the work of Christ as our great High Priest. Again, when we understand this, we understand the work that God has done in our lives, and we understand our purpose for life on this earth. So let's break this down. First of all... or let me just say this statement, and then we'll break it down. Jesus as our high priest means that he entered heaven by means of his own blood, on our behalf, once and for all, to put away sin.
First of all, he entered heaven. That's a weird thing to talk about. Very rarely do we actually talk about this, but it's incredibly important, especially in the book of Hebrews. But we obviously believe that Jesus is not here right now. Jesus is not on Earth. He's in heaven right now. When did that start? Well, Hebrews is talking about the start of that. And that as our high priest, what he did is he entered the actual presence of God in heaven, verse 11, When Christ appeared, he through the greater and more perfect tent he entered once for all. That tent was not made with hands. It wasn't made by creation. Then in verse 24, Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself. And so what, what he's telling us is that when Moses and the people of Israel initially built that tabernacle, what they were doing is they were following a pattern. They got the design from God and the design was of God's presence and where he dwells, what that looked like, they were supposed to design their Tabernacle based upon that. So the author goes on in the book of Hebrews to call the earthly tabernacle kind of a shadow of the heavenly thing. So this earthly tabernacle wasn't the actual presence of God. It was a representation of the actual presence of God, which is where? In heaven! Are you with me? Jesus as our high priest did not go into the earthly temple to make his sacrifices. That's just the copy. Where did he go? Straight to the top, right to the real place in God's presence. That's the first step of him being high priest.
[Hebrews 8:1] We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent, the actual place that God set up, not man.
This is an incredible place. This place of heaven is a place we're all hoping for. It's what we talked about a couple of weeks ago. This is a great place to go to. That's where Jesus is right now, ministering on our behalf. That's where he went. He entered heaven. Not just some copy, but he went to the real place. And so Jesus secures an eternal redemption for us because the work that he did is actually in God's presence. Before Jesus, in other words, we just had priests who could go into the earthly temple and offer these annual sacrifices. But now we have a high priest who goes to the actual place. So Jesus secures an eternal redemption because he's actually in God's real actual presence.
Second, he did this by means of his own blood. Verses 12 and 26 emphasize this. Verse 12, He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, which is what the high priest normally does. Jesus did something better; he entered by the means of his own blood. So there had to still be payment for sin. There still needed to be this justice thing. And it used to be satisfied by a scapegoat. The sins were put on that goat every year. But now Jesus has offered his own blood. Verse 26, As it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So Jesus, as a great high priest, he sacrificed himself rather than just getting some goat to do it. Jesus sacrificed himself willingly. He didn't just sacrifice himself because he had to. But look what John 10:18 says he's talking, Jesus is saying, that he's a good shepherd. Why? Because he lays down his life and then he says this.
[John 10:18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord and I have the authority to lay it down. And I have the authority to take it up again.
In other words, when Jesus entered heaven, he sacrificed himself and he did it willingly. No one took his life. He laid it down. He is our great high priest, not because he was a victim of something, but because he chose to sacrifice himself. And so Jesus has secured an eternal redemption because he's entered heaven's temple and there he didn't offer the blood of goats and sheep and cows, he offered the blood of himself willingly. And that's pretty crazy because of the next phrase. He did this not just for the sake of it, he did this on our behalf. That's what verse 24 adds right there at the end says, He went into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. That's the whole point of being a high priest is not that you're going in just for yourself, but he's going in on behalf of other people! And so Jesus entered heaven to make this sacrifice of himself on our behalf. It was for us. He himself did not need to make the sacrifice because he was without sin. He had no need for it, but he did it willingly on our behalf. Listen to Hebrews 2:17. Just before this—Hebrews has just brought up this high priest term and it says this:
[Hebrews 2:17] Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Meaning he had to become human. If he's really going to represent humanity before God, he has to be human. Why? So that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. How many of you have an ornament on your tree that says propitiation? Nobody. That's a great word that describes pacifying God's wrath. And so when we talk about Jesus being a savior, at the fundamental essence of that, what it means is that Jesus is our propitiation. God has wrath towards sin. Jesus has taken that wrath on himself so that we don't have to bear that. So what are you and I saved from? What did Jesus save us from? God's wrath. He didn't just save us from hardship. He didn't save us from these things. At the fundamental core thing he saved us from God's wrath. That's what he is. He's a propitiation for the sins of people. He did this work on our behalf. That's the whole idea of the priesthood. They went into the place as a representative. Jesus enters heaven on our behalf for our salvation. The sacrifice was not for him. It was for you and I.
Hebrews 2:17 declares that as many other texts declare that his death was done on our behalf. Not only was it done on our behalf, but it was a one-time thing and it was for all time. Hebrews probably spends here the most ink on this phrase. This is important for us to know in other words. Verse 12, He entered this holy place once for all. And verse 25 to 26, he goes on and on about it. This was not to offer himself repeatedly. Jesus didn't go to the high place, the highest of heavens, to offer himself repeatedly as a high priest enters the holy places every year with blood, not his own, for then he'd have to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, Jesus has appeared once for all at the end of ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews 7:24-25 says this:
[7:24-25] He holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
So Jesus doesn't have this work of repeatedly offering himself as a sacrifice every year. He did it once and for all. He's the perfect sacrifice. He doesn't have to do it anymore. So here's the simple point: The atoning work of Christ, the payment, the satisfaction of God's wrath, the payment for sin is done. There's no more payment needed for your sin and my sin. The work has been done, and that's the work that Jesus did in his death. He offered himself as a sacrifice once and for all. And Jesus himself was without sin. The very next verse in Hebrews 7, that's what it declares. He's without sin. And so he was able to actually be our representative and to take on God's wrath because he didn't deserve it. But he did it out of love for you and I, and took it on himself once and for all so we don't have to keep making sacrifices anymore. So after Jesus rose from the dead, guess what happened. His followers stopped making sacrifices. We stopped having a priesthood. Why? Because Jesus did that once and for all. And he continues as High Priest forever. And he's still up there in heaven acting as our high priest. So we don't need to go to a priest, why? Because we've got a better one. Straight to the top. His name is Jesus.
Why is his name Jesus? He saves people from their sins. We have a great high priest who has saved you and I from our sins once and for all. He has offered himself as a sacrifice once and for all. His sacrificial death satisfies the wrath of God for all eternity. That's good stuff.
Final statement. We've kind of already talked about this but this final thing is to put away sin. Very simply put there in verse 26, right at the end. The author gives the purpose for all this, all this work. He has appeared once and for all at the end of ages. Why? To put away sin. Jesus is not just doing this because it will make you and I feel good. He's not doing this because it's whatever reason. The point of his death is very clear. It is to put away sin, which is THE problem between us and God. Sin is the thing that is keeping you and I from meeting with God. And Jesus has done all of this work. Why? To put away sin and he does it justly, he does it perfectly, and he does it completely. He is our great high priest. And so Jesus as a great high priest has done something which no one else can do. He has allowed for a meeting between a person and God to happen. The sin is paid for. Sin is done away with. And so this is what Hebrews 9 declares. This is what the angel is announcing to Joseph. And the angels are announcing to the shepherds that Jesus is a high priest.
So let's conclude all this with two simple statements. Jesus is our perfect high priest. We all understand that now. We're all scholars. Here's what we mean by that. First of all, he's the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Jesus doesn't just make the sacrifices on our behalf. He IS the sacrifice on our behalf. And he does that perfectly and completely. And again, what this does is it makes ongoing moment by moment access to God possible. The priesthood has always been about facilitating a meeting with God. They could only do that once a year in the old system. But now, because of Jesus' sacrifice, that meeting doesn't just happen once a year. It can happen any time, anywhere. Are you with me? The meeting with God is possible. And so salvation in relationship with God is found in no one else and in no other process. Jesus alone is our Savior. No one else could do the work that he did. He did it. It's the hardest job that was ever needed to be done. And Jesus took it and did it. He's the only one. And so salvation is found in no one else, in no other process. Jesus alone is the perfect sacrifice. Amen.
Second, he prays for us. Did you know this? So while the work of putting away sin through the sacrifice of himself is done once and for all, the work of mediating and praying for us continues. Listen to Romans 8:34. We saw this already in Hebrews 7 but this is Romans 8:34.
[Romans 8:34] Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us.
So he's no longer here. He's now at the right hand of God. What is he doing? Who indeed is interceding for us. Interceding is a fancy word that means praying for us. So Jesus is continuing the relational work with us. His representation is continuing. He still acts on behalf of humanity, hearing our cries and representing our cries to God the Father. We don't just have some guy representing us who's going to fail to really listen to you or hear your heart or understand your aches and pains and everything else that's going on. We have a perfect high priest who understands exactly what you and I are going through, and he takes those requests perfectly to God the Father. And we have confidence in that because Jesus is not just some human, he's also God himself. And so we have God being our advocate to God. And the point of all that, which is hard to understand, the point of all that is to say that we know God hears us. So Jesus is our great high priest. He's interceding for us. He's praying for us. That's what we're remembering when we say that Jesus is a high priest.
Let's answer the "who cares" question. We don't want to just know this stuff, but here's how it affects our life. First of all, Draw near to God. If you believe everything that Hebrews 9 is telling us, if you believe the angel's declaration of Joseph and the shepherds and everything else that people are going to be saying about Jesus this Christmas from those passages, if you really believe that, then the simple application is to draw near to God. When we realize Jesus is our faithful, perfect high priest who advocates for us with sympathy, compassion, justice, righteousness, and power, how could we not draw near to him? How could we not? Listen to what Hebrews 4:15-16 says.
[Hebrews 4:15-16] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
And you would think, well, that's kind of—he's just bragging. Like, why is he bragging? Yeah, he's human, but he didn't sin. Great, Jesus, thanks for bragging. No, that's not the point. The point comes back to you and I. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. In other words, all this high priest stuff is so that you and I could draw near with confidence to the throne of God. And so as we talk about this, as we celebrate Jesus, we're to draw near to the throne of God.
I grew up in a pastor's home. My dad was pastor of this church for umpteen years. He started in 1990 and officially stepped down from the lead pastor role in 2018. He had the routine. Every Sunday he would stand at the door and slow y'all down as you tried to leave, grabbing hands and holding on as a way of just ministering and meeting people where they're at and just being accessible. I, of course, have continued that and that's great. So growing up, I always knew that after church I always knew where my dad was. There was always a line there after church, not because he's some great popular speaker or whatever, just because that's the nature of it. And there was always a line there. I knew that as his son, I could cut the line and I knew it wouldn't incur wrath. I knew it wouldn't incur being upset and be like "What's the matter with you? There's people!" I knew I had special access to my dad because of who I was to him and because of the safety that I felt and confidence that I felt in my relationship with him. Are you with me on this point? That is what we have in Christ. We have access, unprecedented access, with confidence to draw near to God our Father, to receive grace and mercy. Amen. This helps me so much. This helps us in our insecurities because if you're like me, we can quickly calculate why we don't deserve to be in God's throne room. The more you experience God's presence, you realize how right and good he is, the more it's going to feel like I do not belong here. I can quickly tell you all the reasons there's no way I deserve to be here. Let me just withdraw. It's where that takes us. And what does Hebrews tell us? You can draw near with confidence. Why? Because it's not rooted in your own ability. Jesus knows your weaknesses. He knows my weaknesses. And he's our high priest anyway! He understands all that stuff and is sympathetic towards that stuff and helps us draw near. And so we can draw near in confidence because we're there not on our own blood. We're there on the blood of Jesus.
We have this great confidence that also helps us in the opposite end of our insecurity, which is to puff ourselves up. I don't need God. If I just analyze all the data, if I just think this through, if I have enough self-awareness, if I have the right kind of spouse, if I have the right kind of house, if I have all this stuff, then I'll have life figured out. I don't need God. And that'll make you crash and burn. But that is also pride. And we have this "I got it taken care of" mentality and we think we can do it. And that keeps us from approaching God. We expect God to meet us on our terms. But the bottom line is we have someone far more powerful and willing to take care of the things in our lives. We have our creator who wants to help. Jesus wants to intercede. Why? Because that's why he came. In both of these things, whether it's the insecurity or in the pride of I've got it taken care of. The focus is on who? Ourselves. What Hebrews and what Christmas is all about is directing our gaze off of our lowly selves and just being consumed by thoughts of ourselves, to forget that stuff and look to Jesus, our great High Priest.
Open your heart before the Lord. He's trustworthy and safe and secure. Begin the journey of discovering that if you haven't already. He really is. I know that's hard to do because he's a different kind of being than you've ever been in a relationship with before. You have your questions, you have your doubts. You have your things. Begin the journey of trusting him. If you've never taken a step to believe in Jesus, please do that after the service. You can do that right there in the quietness of your heart right now. Just quit listening to me and deal with the Lord. You can go find help from someone after the service every Sunday. There's someone at the cross ready to pray with you. And they've had their own journey of committing their life to Christ, they'd love to tell you that story or just help you on your journey. That's what we love to do. That's why we're here. Become a follower of Jesus today. Commit your life in a deeper way to trusting him and drawing near.
Second point... I don't even wanna leave point one because I love it so much, but here we go. Point number two is also good. This has instructed my life tremendously, is the roots of why I've done a lot of the work that I've tried to do for the kingdom of Christ. 1 Peter 2:9 calls us a holy priesthood, meaning that we, our role now as representatives of Jesus, is to be priests. Now, the function of priests again was to orchestrate a meeting between people and God. And so when we call ourselves a priesthood, we're priests, you don't have to go to a priest. You are one as a follower of Jesus. Did you know that? Let me just tell you today so it's clear. You are a priest. What does that mean? Bring others to Jesus. That's your role.
There's a disciple of Jesus that we don't ever talk about. His name's Andrew, and he gets hardly any ink. He's not one of the popular ones. But there's two little stories in the gospel of John about Andrew that really highlight this point. The first one is in John 1. Andrew is one of the first ones to find out who Jesus is. And you know what was the first thing he did? He goes and finds Simon Peter and says, "Bro, we just found the Messiah! Come on! Come and see!" A couple chapters later in chapter six there's a group of 5,000 men, in addition to all the women and children, and they hangry. And no one knows what to do. Jesus is being confusing. He's not solving the problem. He's just throwing it back on the disciples. Why don't you guys feed them? And they're like, What? How are we going to? And there's all this stress. Andrew finds this kid with some lunch, and what does he do? Bring that kid to Jesus. And that's just little examples of what this means to act like a priest. We don't have to solve people's problems. Did you know that? You are not a savior. When the angels came and announced to the world, they didn't say "Kyle is the savior." They say "Jesus is." Jesus is the savior. Red Mountain is not your savior. This church will let you down. Who is your savior? Jesus. Who is everybody else's savior? Jesus! Bring people to him. Be like Andrew. Jesus, I don't know what the heck you're thinking. I don't know what you're doing. Here's a kid with some food. You figure it out. It's your problem. Don't put that on me, Jesus.
Jesus is a perfect savior. He is a perfect high priest and he is everybody's high priest and he's longing to advocate for them. He's longing to help them understand who he is and how he's worked in their life. Bring people to him. So we can draw near to God and we can bring others into nearness.
We want to close our service with a couple of songs and a time of prayer together. And then Dave Emigh is going to come close our service. Let's pray and sing together.
[Ending Prayer] Jesus, you are a great high priest. We praise you and worship you. You are our great sacrifice. We trust you as the one who has pacified God's wrath, has satisfied God's justice. And you continually intercede for us now. You hear our cries. You're able to do that because not only are you fully human, but you're also fully God. You're able to be present and to know us fully. We give you praise for that Jesus. So we want to take a few moments now in December, Jesus, just to remember the great work that you've done to save us. And we want to praise you for that. Would you meet with us now and speak to us in ways that only you can? Help us to receive grace and mercy. Help us to see how you're bringing that in our lives. And we pray this in your name. Amen.
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