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Thanks for listening. This podcast is a ministry of Mariners Church and everything we do to serve you, our communities and our global family happens because of your generosity. Your financial support in the month of December is vital as we prepare for the next year of ministry. Everything you give equips us to reach our world with the hope of Jesus and serve those around us in his name. To give now and partner with us, visit marinerschurch.org give or click the link in the show notes. Thanks for your generosity and God bless you. Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast. Inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes. I am so fired up to be with our church family today, both here and at our outdoor worship centre. Now this is the 11:30am which is, without exception, the most highly spiritual of all of our services. You have already prayed through all of the other services of the week and then you just humbly sit here for the final service yourselves. I can't wait. Because God always saves the best till last. You know that. So this is going to be an amazing service. I grew up. Anyone see my big fat Greek wedding in the room here? Yes. Okay. And I'm sure outside too. Now, if you know I grew up in a very staunch Greek household. Greek is my first language. I didn't speak English till I was five. And so to be Greek is to be Orthodox. If you give me a word to this day, any word, I will tell you the origin of that word is Greek. And Nick and I still have Windex in every room of our house to this day. That still happens. We, you know, growing up in a Greek church, for us it was more cultural than religious. But when, especially when you're an immigrant community, you kind of, you know, gather around the Greek Orthodox church, which we had to go to every Sunday from the time I was born for three hour church services, all in Ancient Greek, which I'm sure is good if someone could speak that language. But we couldn't. We could only speak modern Greek. So you could imagine as a kid, you ought to thank God that we're here at Mariners and it's in English and it's only one hour. Anyway, so the thing is that I loved this time of the year because so our parents would keep us, like happy in church. It was Advent. I didn't know what Advent meant, but I did love that we got Advent calendars and every Sunday, for four Sundays, we got a full Advent calendar and we could spend the three hours eating the 25 chocolates that were in the Advent calendar. So that's why I love Advent. I also like it for the more serious reason. But it always goes down and reminds me of growing up for so long, so many years, and having my Advent calendars. And of course, this is a season we're waiting with expectation, with hope, with joy. And of course, the 14 services that we're going to have is waiting for the hope of Jesus who was born in Bethlehem. And of course, because we're living between two Advents, we also are waiting. That has already happened. Jesus has come, but we long for the day when he's going to come again and renew all things. And we are excited for that because when that happens, church, there will no longer be any more war or crime or violence or injustice or sickness or death, but all things will be made new to the glory of God. That's what we're longing for. We're longing for it. I'm not good at waiting. Generally, you know, patience is like the spiritual gift that as I go into eternity, it'll be, I mean, the spiritual fruit that I will be still developing. I'm sure I am the person that will be on the 405 in a traffic jam on my way to LA and I will be so frustrated that I'm gonna take the first exit I can off going to anywhere and I'll drive down to San Diego and go round just so that I can actually keep the car moving because I don't want to wait in traffic. And you and I are living in a culture, really, that has trained us to be impatient. We're being trained for impatience. I mean, we don't just have Amazon or Amazon prime, but we have Amazon now. And if that package is not out the door now by the time I've pressed you order, then we start to get a little bit antsy. You look at it, you know, if the doordash person doesn't bring our food, like on in five seconds, we're already freaking out. We are just being trained in impatience. You know, we think ChatGPT is like, you know, quick, give me the answer now. I'm not even going to check if it's right, but this sounds great. We're just used to stuff straight away. I have in pastoral counseling, it is amazing how many friendships, like have split up because someone sends someone a text and they've seen the bubbles come up, but no answer comes. And so, like, they're like freaking out and people are like, why you didn't Answer me quick enough. We are just trained to do that. But this is what I've discovered after 37 years of following Jesus is that God really is not into microwaves. He's more like of a crock pot kind of God. Like most things are going to take way longer than we think that they should. And it is just we live so much in angst of waiting, waiting, God, are you going to come through? And we could be facing the end of this year and we're at the end of 2025, going into 2026, and some of you thinking, God, have you even heard my prayer? I was waiting for that kid. I thought they'd come back to the Lord by now, but they're still away from the Lord. I thought that business thing was going to open up and it doesn't seem to have happened yet. I thought that marriage was going to reconcile and that relationship was, but it just doesn't seem to be going that way. There's so many things in our life where we seem to be waiting and we're like, God, when are you going to show up? God, do you even hear my prayer? And you know, the Lord, his timeline is very, very different to ours. And that's one thing that I have very much discovered now. I know, you know, we sing songs, it's like God isn't on. And I know theologically we believe that. But I do think that God misses many opportunities to come early. There are just some times he could come just a little bit earlier. It would be awesome. I know that it comes perfectly. So today we are going to go to the Gospel of Luke and we're going to just see what happens. Because I really, really, with great intentionality, want to speak faith into our hearts today. And if God has made a promise over your life, the scripture tells us that the promises of God are in Christ Jesus. Yes, and Amen. And sometimes because of disappointment or because of just extended waiting, we tend to pull back. We tend to stop having hope. And we're going into 2026, kind of going through our religious routine, but not really hoping and longing for God to come through. And I want to show you today that God is a God of miracles and God is the God that does the impossible. We're going to go to the Gospel of Luke, chapter one. We're going to read verses one to 25 because some of you have fallen behind in your one year Bible reading plan. About to catch you up now so that you can finish the year and get your checkbox. It says in Luke chapter 1, verses 1 to 25. Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the Word handed them down to us. So it also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first. To write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed. In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah's division named Zechariah. His wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in God's sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord. But they had no children because Elizabeth could not conceive, and both of them were well along. In years, when his division was on duty and he was serving as priests before God, it happened that he was chosen by Lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. At the hour of incense, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified and overcome with fear. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. There will be joy and delight for you, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord and will never drink wine or beer. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb. He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people. How can I know this? Zechariah asked the angel. For I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. And I just wanna pause here for a moment because if you're married, if you're a married man in this room, I just wanna encourage you. Perhaps this is not a way that you should speak about your wife to anybody, not even the angel of the Lord. We'll go back to the word of the Lord now. The angel answered him. I am Gabriel, who said, stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and Tell you this good news. Now listen, you will become silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time. Everyone say proper time. Come on, you sound a bit of America there. Proper time. Everyone say proper time. Now you sound like an Aussie. Aussie. Aussie. Oh, I got a few of you out there. Okay. Meanwhile the people. Where am I going? Meanwhile, the people were waiting for. You're distracting me. I told you, this is the most spiritual service. Back to the word of the Lord. Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. When he did come out, he could not speak to them. Then they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was making signs to them and remained speechless. When the days of his ministry were completed, he went back home. After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived and kept herself in seclusion for five months. She said, the Lord has done this for me. He has looked with favor in these days to take away my disgrace among the people. So, so powerful church. Here we are, the opening of the New Testament. Dr. Luke is writing to us. After 400 years of the silence of God, suddenly God appears on the pages of Scripture and there's this huge supernatural thing happening. I mean, here is Zechariah in the holy of holies. I mean, he is a priest of the Lord. And the fact is that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not every priest got to go into the holy of holies. You got it once in your life. If you were ever going to be chosen by lot to go in. This was his moment. I'm doubting that he was imagining he was going to see an angel in this moment. But as scripture opens, God turns up again. We had Malachi, we had 400 years of silence. Now here we are in the holy of holies. It is all supernatural. I mean, it is dramatic. You've got a priest that becomes mute. You've got an angelic visitation, You've got an old lady that has a baby that is pregnant. I mean, it is all happening in the first chapter of Luke. You're like, where is this going? And of course we know that both Zechariah and Elizabeth were from a priestly line, from Aaron's line. And so you've got. Scripture tells us that they were blameless, they were holy, they were righteous, they served the Lord wholeheartedly, they served the Lord faithfully. And yet there was an angst that was with them for their Whole married life, because they'd been waiting for a child that just had never come. And now she was past the age, you know, I'm gonna be 60 next year. Please send presents all year. And so I. And let me just say that there comes a time when the biological clock has ticked over, and she was past that age. Just imagining what it must have been like for her, praying to God. Just imagine all of the prayers month after month, and just discovering every month, well, it didn't happen this month. Zechariah. I wonder how many nights he overheard his wife crying or he himself might have wept. Because in this time and culture, if a woman could not conceive a child, it was considered to be the judgment of God and that there must be some sin in your life. Of course, we do not believe that today. But what I am saying is that in the shame, honor, culture in which they are a part and to be part of a priestly line and to be a priest in the temple of God, it was considered the blessing of God. Imagine. I'm just thinking, imagine Elizabeth going to the market, overhearing the gossip and the slander. Well, what's the sin in her life? The innuendo or the Zechariah would have had. So they're navigating that tension of serving God, being faithful to God, and yet there is this deep part of their heart, this prayer, this request, this desire that just hasn't been answered. I think it mightn't be that specific thing for us, but I think we've all got something. Something where you're like, God, oh, this part of my life is going great, but there's this thing I've been waiting. Lord, do you even hear my prayer? Does it matter to you? Do you care? They would have been right in this place. And the angel of the Lord, he comes and begins to have a dialogue with Zechariah. And I'm just thinking the disappointment that Zachariah would have had. At the same time as he's honoring the Lord, he's loving the Lord, he's serving the Lord. Because when the angel of the Lord would have said to him, your wife's going to bear a child, he would be thinking, there's no way this can happen. Because, see, there was a due date on that. There's a biological clock on that thing. And so many times in our lives, there are so many things that we think, if this hasn't happened by this date, it can't happen. So here is my career path, and it's going to Go up and to the right. And this has got to happen by this year, and this has got to happen by that year. And if it doesn't happen, then it can never happen. Or my organization's gotta grow in this certain way. And if it doesn't happen like that, then it can't happen. Or, you know, I've been in youth ministry all of my ministry life, and it's so interesting to me, young people, like, okay, God, I'll go to the young adults ministry, and I'm going to live a morally upright life. And I'm gonna honor you and put you first. But I better meet my. I better meet the woman I'm gonna marry, like, in three months. God, you've got three months. And then, you know, they'll come to all of the young adult meetings and they'll sit in every section of the church and just like, where is she? Where is she? I'm looking. And then if it doesn't happen in three months, it's like, God, I gave you three months. So now I'm gonna go to the nightclub and find someone myself. Now, that's not just young people. Anyway, that's another sermon for another time. But really, my point with all of that is it's interesting how we kind of have a due date, don't we? Like, God, you gotta do this by this. Now, we wouldn't say it out loud because we're too Christian, but in our hearts we're like, God, you've got this long. And if it doesn't happen by then, either I'm gonna jump in and take control myself, or I'm just gonna stop believing you for that. Because what's the point? What's the point? Now, it never occurs to us that maybe God wasn't the one that put the due date on it. There's a promise that was given. And scripture says all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus. Yes, and amen. But just because he doesn't do something by what we think is the due date doesn't mean that it's never going to happen at all. And most people give up in faith because it didn't happen in their timeframe. Now, when I was pregnant with Catherine, it was the first time I was pregnant, my firstborn. And, you know, I was excited. The doctor gave me a due date. And I'm thinking, this is awesome, because I'm a very planned person, and I was, this is the due date. So that's great. I'm gonna have her on that due date on the Saturday I'm gonna check myself out on the Sunday, and I can go to the conference on the Monday. I thought this was going to. Every woman in the room's laughing. I was gonna. This was gonna be my strategic plan. This fits in my plan. This is fantastic. And of course, this child will continue to just fit into my plan for the rest of my life. Anyway, I'm in church. It was a Saturday night in Sydney, and Nick and I were sitting together, and I start feeling, you know, that these contractions, and I'm timing them, and the preacher's preaching, and I'm just, like, looking at my watch and I'm going, oh, no. It's like three minutes apart. I was so excited. I'm going, nick, you know, the service is going to end. We'll have some fellowship and then drive me to the hospital. By then, I should be at least 9 cm. Dilate. Yes. Women, yes. You can laugh at me. And, you know, and then I'll be able to go in, and within an hour, I'll just pop this baby out, and then we will just be back to normal tomorrow. Anyway. How many know that's never how it ever works out? So I'm thinking this is my strategic plan. It's all going well. You know, of course, I go to the hospital. It's like, Mrs. Caine, you know, you're half a centimeter dilated. But anyway, so it didn't happen. And the doctor had given this due date, and it didn't happen on my due date, which then wrecked the whole next 23 years of plans. The due date. But Catherine, when she came, she came at the proper time. The scripture says at the appointed time. The ESV says we use language like, but she came late or she came early. Well, the baby doesn't come late or early. The baby comes at the proper time. But because we ascribed a due date to it, we think it's late or early. The promises of God have an appointed time in God's sovereignty, so they come at the proper time. But because we ascribe a due date to it, then we think God has let us down when he doesn't show up at our due date. But he's always going to show up at his appointed time. And what we see happening right there is that suddenly Zechariah would be being so confused, going, the due date's gone. That ship sailed. There is no way this can happen. And the angel of the Lord's like, no, no, no. There's an appointed time for this baby. And then Jesus himself in Luke 18:27. Just wanted to remind us what is impossible with man is possible with God. You see, a lot of us, we think God can't do something just because we can't. But God is entirely other to us. God doesn't have the same limitations as us. God is infinite. We are finite. God isn't bound by time and space. God isn't bound by fear and insecurity. God is entirely other to us. So just because it can't happen for us doesn't mean that God is unable to do it. Church impossible is where God starts. Miracles are what God does. God doesn't even need to turn up until it's impossible. Because while it's still possible, we're likely to take the credit if we are connected enough, resourced enough, educated enough, you know, we have everything. Why do we even need God? That's just a matter of good stewardship and good management. But when it gets to the point that you go, this is not possible, that the money's not there, this cannot happen. I don't have this kind of, you know, experience or I don't have this education. God goes, awesome. Because now you will always know that it always was. I remember when we were starting 821, our global anti trafficking organization. Now it's 18 years old. So this is now 19 years ago when we had government consultants, we had consultants, corporate consultants, I'm sorry, come in and they went with Nick for 45 days to Greece to do a feasibility study because that's where we felt we were supposed to start. At that time there was no other anti trafficking organizations in that region. And when I went over to greet them, there was a document that's about 100 pages, the feasibility study. Extremely comprehensive, but at least 10 different times in this document was either the phrase or a derivative of the phrase that said it will be impossible. And they listed all the reasons why it will be impossible. They said, we strongly recommend that you do not start in this place because it's going to be impossible because of the cost. There was no laws protecting the victims of trafficking because of all of the corruption. Or they just had a long list and said it will be impossible. Well, I am so glad that we listen to God and not the consultants. Although thank God for consultants because 18 years later, by the grace of God, with over 7,000 men, women and children that have been recovered and rescued with over, with hundreds and hundreds of traffickers that have been put in jail, and with hundreds of millions of people worldwide being made aware of this issue, what is impossible with man is possible. With God. With God, all things are possible and nothing is impossible. Church, I want to remind you, as we come to a close of 2025, I just want to remind you of who your God is. In Exodus chapter 14, your God is the one that parted the Red Sea. In Joshua, chapter 10, our God is the God that made the sun stand still. In Daniel, chapter six, our God is the God that shut the mouth of of lions. In Exodus 16, our God is the God that provided manna from heaven for 40 years. In 1st Samuel 17, how God enabled David to take out a giant with just a little slingshot and a few stones. In Joshua 6, he tore down the walls of Jericho. In John chapter two, he turned water into wine. In John. In Mark, chapter 6, he took five loaves and two fish and fed 20,000 people. In John 11, he raised Lazarus from the dead. In Matthew 9, he healed the woman with the issue of. In Matthew 10, he healed blind Bartimaeus. In Luke 17, he healed 10 lepers. And incidentally, in Matthew 28, he himself got up out of that grave and defeated hell and defeated death and holds the keys to hell and death. And my Bible says, the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives on the inside of you and lives on the inside of me. Therefore, Church, we could do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us. That's the God that we serve. That is the God that we serve. So he said, I love that. The angel of the Lord said, do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. All those prayers for all those decades, not one was wasted. I want you to know you never waste a prayer. Psalm 56, 8. You yourself have recorded my wanderings. Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your books? Some of you have cried yourself to sleep. Some nights this year you've wondered, God, have you even heard? And I'm here to tell you he does. And because we can't see him working does not mean he's not working. Don't ever, ever confuse the silence of God with the absence of God. He's always working. Remember, we picked up this text after what seemed to be 400 years of God's silence, certainly between the testaments that we have records of. But it doesn't mean, like God went on vacation and tapped out of the universe. During that time, God was working his eternal plan and his eternal purpose. And in fact, when the angel of the Lord spoke about John the Baptist, look. In Luke 1:17, he says, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous to make ready for the Lord a prepared people. Now, Zechariah, being a priest, would have known what we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, inside out. And he would have known this. This is the fulfillment of a prophecy in the last bit of scriptures that he would have had. Malachi, chapter four, verse five and six says, look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse. So right here we are seeing the fulfillment, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Saying John the Baptist is that fulfillment. And Zechariah is having this moment. I mean, he's having a supernatural encounter with the angel of the Lord in the holy of holies. His knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures is. Is so great that suddenly this prophetic word they're saying is gonna be fulfilled through his wife's womb, who is too old to have a baby. And all of this, you would think in that moment, with all of this sort of supernatural activity happening, you'd think, okay, well, I'm pretty sure that God could do whatever he wants to do. If there's an angel talking to me in here, like, by the time you're talking to an angel in the holy of holies, I'd be saying, God could do anything. It's kind of like, remember when Moses was talking to the burning bush and, you know, the burning bush is telling him, God is telling him that, you know, I'm gonna set my people free out of Egypt and I'm gonna use you. By the time you've stopped and had a conversation with the bush on the way to church, you can probably believe that God is doing anything. Unless you were smoking something you shouldn't have last night. The other alternative is that it really is God speaking to you. And that's something is. So I would believe God could do whatever. But what was Moses response? He's like, but, God, I am not eloquent and I'm slow of speech. And God's probably thinking that was gonna be the deal breaker on me parting the Red Sea. Whether you could speak or not, that's either gonna really help me do my miracles, because that's what we do. But God, I remember when I had this sense of starting age 21, it's like, but, God, I can't do this. I'm 40, I just had a baby. I live in Australia. I'm a woman. You know, this is like Russian and Albanian mafia. They kill people. You know, I'm like, God. And it's not like God's in heaven going, oh, Peter, did you know that Christine was 40? I mean, Bartholomew, do you know she just had a baby? I mean, John, did you know she was a woman? It's not like God's up there freaking out. He knows who he called and he knows what we can do and what we can't do. He knows what we have and what we don't have. But it's never about our limitations. It's about God's supernatural ability to do something in and through our lives. But here is Zechariah going, but I'm old. Imagine, like Gabriel going, oh, why didn't you tell me that before I came into the holy of holies? I had no idea. And my wife's even older. God, why didn't you tell me how old Elizabeth was? Did you fail biology up there? Because that's the equivalent of what we do. We think this can't happen naturally, this can't happen biologically, or this can't happen economically, or this just seems impossible for us to get favor for that deal to open or that relationship to be restored. And so we just pull back. And so what does the angel of the Lord say? Okay, the Lord says, well, this is what's going to happen to you, Zechariah. You're going to have to shutth up. If you go and look at that in the original language, he says, you're going to be mute. And you got to wonder. It's so interesting because a little bit later on in this chapter, Mary conceives Jesus. And the difference there is she said to the angel of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word. Both scenarios were impossible. A woman that was past the age Elizabeth getting pregnant was as impossible as a fertile teenager that was a virgin. Both of those are impossible. And you need the same miracle working power of God to be fertile and young or to be barren and old because only God can do the miracle. And yet one had faith and the other one had doubt. So he's like, you know what? I think we'll just zip it. Because doubt dies unborn if it's never spoken. So if it doesn't come out of your mouth, it's not going to infect the people around you with fear and doubt and Negativity. I mean, you and I are living in days. We're all over social media. There's just an infection of fear, doubt, negativity, gossip, slander, lie. It's crazy. But you frame your world with the words that you speak. So what is happening in our home? You know, sort of the big things that you just don't do in this house. You don't murmur, grumble, complain, or lie. That's, you know, everything else there's a lot of grace for. But lying, murmuring, grumbling, complaining. And poor little Sophia. You know, my kids are like, two. You're gonna think your kids are gonna need therapy. But anyway, so. So she's like. I'm like, sophia, what happened to the children of Israel? Because they murmured, grumbled, or complained. They died, Mommy. They died. I don't want to die, Mommy. But more dreams, more of the purposes of God, more of the plans of God have been thwarted out of fear, doubt, and unbelief than any other sin. So I wonder whether the Lord was like, might just zip it. So when you come out, you're not going to infect everyone in your orbit with your negativity and your fear and your doubt. So even though he was mute, apparently everything else was working okay, because Elizabeth got pregnant. And so she got pregnant. The 1130s, the naughty service. I've got to say that she gets pregnant, and then what happens? Mary, who's conceived Jesus supernaturally, she's in her first trimester, this young teenage girl. She goes to Elizabeth, who is now an older, older woman, and she's with her for her last trimester because the young need the old and the old need the young. We live in a world that loves to separate the generations, but we serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he loves to have the generations working together. And Elizabeth gets to mentor Mary in her final trimester. So Mary gets to be there and to see John the Baptist get born. Several commentators say this is entirely plausible. And she mentors her in that final trimester and sees a baby born and gets a glimpse of. Of what's going to happen ahead to her for her. Maybe made her scared, I don't know. But anyway, so she gets to see it. But here is the issue that's so, so powerful that as the two work together and one encourages the other and one affirms the other, it makes the promise come to pass. And Elizabeth could not have really gotten pregnant any earlier. Remember, it had to be the proper time. The ESV says the appointed time, because the appointed time For Jesus, what this whole season's all about is now had Elizabeth gotten pregnant years before then, it couldn't have been John the Baptist. But at this perfect time that John the Baptist would be born six months before Jesus and be the forerunner for Jesus and prophecy would the perfect eternal plan and purpose of God for all of eternity came to pass in that moment. So what am I telling you, church, as we wrap up and get ready for an awesome, awesome Christmas and going into 2026, I don't know what promises God has spoken over your life, but maybe it's time to take them off the shelf, dust them off and say, I am going to believe God. I know there might have been disappointment and there might have been disappointment, but I'm going to go into 2026 believing God again. And no matter how impossible it looks in the natural, I'm going to believe that what is impossible with man is possible with God. With God all things are possible and nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible with God. In Jesus name and in this season church we celebrate Emmanuel God with us. I love Christmas, the witness of God. But we also want to pause and remember his great sacrifice on the cross. So at all of our congregations this weekend, we're going to remember by taking communion together. And so I want you to get your communion cups. If you have not got one, please just raise your hand. We've got hosts all around the church that will put one of these in your hands and there's hands going up and our host will see you and you could take off the plastic and take out the bread. So today, church, we remember and reflect on just the unbelievable grace and mercy of Jesus who came to rescue us, to die in our place and to redeem us. Jesus is the one that satisfied the wrath of God over the sin that destroys us. And now we've got joy and we've got hope in Jesus forever. And so we are secure in him, we are secure in his grace for us. And the reason we partake in communion in gratitude is we're going to do exactly what Jesus instructed his disciples to do. And so take the bread, it says he took the bread and said, this is my body which has been given for you on the cross. Jesus took the punishment that was due for every one of us by bearing the full weight of our sin. He was beaten, he was bruised, he was battered, and he was scarred. And by his stripes we are healed. So Jesus led his disciples in the taking of the bread and he said, do this in remembrance of me. Take and Eat. So let's do that together this morning. Thank you, Lord. He then gave thanks and offered them the cup. And he said, this is my blood, which seals the covenant between God and his people. It's poured out to forgive the sins of many because Jesus shed his precious blood. Church we have the forgiveness of sins. His blood covers the sins that you and I have committed and will ever commit. He is the perfect sacrifice once and for all, now and forever. So we take this cup and we drink. And we do this in remembrance of Jesus. Let's partake. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Church the disciples, after they took communion together, the scripture says that they sang, and the longer I walk with Jesus, the longer the more of an apt response this seems to me. I mean, after we have just partaken and celebrated the fact that Jesus has died for our sins and rose again from the dead, and one day you and I are going to be in glory forever with him. But until that day, the most appropriate response for Jesus sacrificial and redemptive work on the cross is that we would praise and worship our king. So, Mariners, why don't we stand together all over the building outside and let's worship King Jesus together. All right, Extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week, that you would remind them that you are gentle and approachable and that you love them, cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week. Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message Podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the show notes or download the Mariners app at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Every Day podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners app for more information on where to find it. Sa.