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Foreign. Good morning, Sewer Nation. Welcome back. And I know you're thinking, oh, we never left. Where did you go? Well, I do want to thank Andrew Forrest for his leadership over the past 18 days or so. My gosh, I just so appreciate how he dove right in and just owned it. Consecration prayer. A little fast at times, but man, he had energy. He had big energy all the way through the hymn, sang the hymn and led us to the fields. That guy, I hope you got his book, the Love Goes first because it's fantastic. It is a word for our time. Yeah. It's just good to be his friend and so appreciate his leadership in the church. Both his local church, Asbury Church in Tulsa, and the broader church. He is. He's a blessing and we'll have him back. So just want to. Just want to note that. Thank you, Andrew Forrest, for jumping right in and crushing it. And now, gang, I haven't even said right. It is February 18, Wednesday, 2026. It is ash Wednesday. I'm John David Walt, and this is your wake up call. And we are, you know, we're diving in to the journey to the cross. Maybe many of us have been this way before, but we've not been this way this time. And I feel like the Lord has got a move for us, a word for us. I've been working, as you know, all last summer I wrote this work, praying for this day. Jesus asking the three transformational questions of Lent. And I hope you'll read the foreword in the book. It's the story of my long now mentorship. He's been my mentor with Maxie Dunham, stretches over 30 years. And he's the one who taught me these three questions. So I hope you'll read that foreword. I've just been very prayerful about entering in this, this Lent with you all. So how about we just dive in? Let's just. Without further ado. So let's begin with consecration, as is our joy. Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today's entry is entitled welcome to the 40 days of Lent. Our text is Galatians, chapter 4, verses 4 and 5. Hear now the word of the Lord. But when the fulness of the time came, God sent his Son born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. The word of the Lord. Now consider this. Lent. The word comes from an old Anglo Saxon word, LinkedIn, which means lengthen. It is a word that signifies springtime, when the days begin to lengthen. Seems pretty harmless and benign. It's spring again. Big deal, right? It's another lap around the sun, another walk through the cycle of seasons. Winter, spring, summer and fall. They come like clockwork, don't they? In fact, they are clockwork. This is how time moves. The Bible calls this kind of time Chronos, the Greek. The Greek root found in our English word chronological. Winter, spring, summer, fall. The Bible also speaks of another kind of time, Kairos. In short, Kairos time is God time, which is not so much about time as it is about God. In fact, God dwells outside time, in the realm of eternity. And this is precisely the amazing thing about God, time, God, time is the reality that happens when eternity breaks into time, when Kairos breaks into Kronos. This, of course, is the story of Jesus. But when the fullness of time came, Kairos God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. Chronos Time is measured by seasons and kept on a calendar. Kairos time is marked by a story and kept by a community. That means the most important timepiece we have is not a calendar or a clock, but the Bible itself, the revealed word of God. We don't need more shifting seasons. We need more movement. We don't need more religion. We need more life. We don't need more activity. We need more awakening. We don't need more answers. We actually need more questions. Jesus asking welcome. Here's the meaning of the movement of Lent. In the 33rd spring of the first millennium, Jesus of Nazareth began a descent from the Mount of Transfiguration deep into the Valley of the Cross, where he would die a death by crucifixion and rise from the dead as the ultimate act of love to reconcile the lost human race to the God who created us. Beginning today, Ash Wednesday, Lent is a journey of 40 days, ending on Holy Saturday and culminating with easter Sunday. The six intervening Sundays do not count. In the 40 days since the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on Easter Sunday, Sundays have been for feasting, never fasting. Lent is an invitation to break the predictable pace of Another trip around the sun and get in step with the movement of the story of Jesus. It is an opportunity to wake up to the reality of the real, true and living God in real, true and living time. It's why I always like to say, wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. One final note as we embark. This is not a book of answers, but one of questions. It will unfold as a journey of questions. Early on, we will touch on what I call the question of all questions. It will take a few weeks of walking together, but we will arrive at what I call the three transformational questions. And be warned, they are deep questions. And the depth at which you're willing to engage them will determine the growth you can expect on the other side. Now, one final question on this first day of the journey. Are you ready? Let's pray. Our Father, thank you for your son, Jesus. Lord Jesus, we step into these 40 days of Lent, eager to follow you, to walk in your ways, to discover your will, and to awaken to new life. In you come, Holy Spirit. Where you lead us, we will follow. We are ready. Praying in Jesus name. Amen. And now for our journal prompts. Encourage you, if you've got the book, just to use, use the book itself. Use the white space, the margins, the any gaps you can find. Use those spaces to engage in journaling. What are your intentions as we walk into these 40 days of Lent? What are your hopes? What are your questions? All right, we're embarked. It's going to be. It's going to be a significant Lent. I just know it. Well, Dad's here. I'm thankful for that. And he is going to help us sing today. He picked our opening hymn for Lent. I'll hand it over here. Well, we're back. And look who's here. It's our favorite worship leader, the great famous farmer, David Walt.