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Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled, Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies, With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem, Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King, Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord, Late in time behold him come, A spring of a virgin's bloom, Felt in flesh the God and seeing, Hail incarnate deity, Pleased as man with man to come, Jesus our Emmanuel, Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King, Hail the heaven Prince of Peace, Hail the Son of righteousness, To all he brings, With revealing in his wings, While we raise his glory high, Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them a second birth, Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King, Come, please, our omation, come, Fix in us thy humble home, Light the world on green sea, Freeze in us the serpent's head, Adam's likeness now at bay, Stamp thine image in its place, Second Adam from above, Reinstall us in thy love, Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King. Amen. Good start to our singing this morning. We want to go before the Lord and ask his blessing on this service, so I've asked Brother Padokhan's Law to say a few words of prayer, please. Father in Heaven, we thank you for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and for the opportunity to lift up our voices to you in praise. We also thank you, Lord, for bringing our brothers and sisters home safe from Jamaica. We ask you, Lord, to please bless today's sermon and bless Pastor Anderson and bless every aspect of his sermon. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. 427 is next. Number 427. We three kings. Number 427. We'll begin on that verse now. We three kings of Orient are bearing gifts. We traverse afar. Number 427, lift your voice on that verse now. We three kings of Orient are bearing gifts. We traverse afar, hill and mountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright. Westward lead instead of proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Born a king in Bethlehem's play, though thy reign to crown him again, gave forever teasing, never over us all to reign. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright. Westward lead instead of proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light, break incense to offer our lives, incense owns the deity night, prayer and praising, all and praising, worshiping God on high. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright. Westward lead instead of proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light, murder and spine instead of perfume, live the life of gathering gloom. Star in sight, bleeding, dying, still in the soulful tomb. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright. Westward lead instead of proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light, glorious now beholding the Christ, king and god and sacrifice. Hallelujah, hallelujah, beauty, earth and sky. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright. Westward lead instead of proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we will be in 2 Chronicles 29. We've got the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. The Jamaica mission strip was a huge success. A big thank you to everyone who participated and who prayed and everything like that because, of course, a lot went into this trip, financially, prayer, planning, so everyone who contributed, as well as, of course, the people who were actually out there in the field doing the work. Thirty-three people went on this trip. They had a total of 902 people saved total through one-on-one soul-winning, or at least like talking to a small enough group where you can interact with each person. They had 902 people saved. And then they also were able to preach in schools. And through preaching in schools, they preached to an additional 4,900 people. So in addition to the 902 salvations that they actually were able to verify and check and dialogue with people, you know, we'll have to wait until we get to heaven to find out how many of those 4,900 people got saved that heard the gospel in that way. This time I want to have Brother Daniel Ryder come up. He was on the trip. He's going to talk a little bit about the trip right now. Who's got the microphone? He's got it. Come on up. Let's talk a few minutes about the Montego Bay trip. So this is our second time going to Jamaica as a church. And I think it was much more successful. There is 35 soul-winners, or 33 soul-winners. There is 902 salvations. And like Pastor said, we preached to about 4,900 students. So that was really exciting. One thing about this trip is it's very smooth. Me and Raymond and Ramon were very happy how smooth it was going. It was very going very well. There's sometimes usually issues on these trips, like somebody comes late or anything can happen, or you get in trouble with maybe some local authorities or whatever, but everything went smooth on this trip. Everything went well. And so this is probably, in my opinion, my favorite place to go in the Caribbean, because it's the biggest English-speaking country in the Caribbean to Central or South America. And so another thing is also we went into schools, their native language is English. So if you go to another country, like you go to Philippines or Africa or places in Africa or anywhere, English would be their second language, or sometimes third. So if you're preaching to kids, I mean, you can preach in English is great, but it's best to speak in their native tongue. You'll get more people saved. So I noticed that. And yeah, even this morning someone from steadfast called me. He's like, yeah, I'll do the next one. He wasn't on the trip, but who knew someone on the trip. So she called me this morning. He's like, yeah, I'll do the next one. And she wants to do other trips like that. So yeah, logistically it's very easy there, because it's also more of a vacation part of Jamaica. The southern Jamaica in Kingston is very dangerous compared to this part. And it's a little bit, the roads are a little bumpier, stuff like that. So it was a great trip, and everyone had a great time. Also, a week before we went, Brother Kenton, he lives in the Bahamas, and he went to Jamaica, and he just asked all the schools, or the many schools in there, and he got about four schools for us to go into. So that was wonderful. And so all he did, he just dressed up nicely, and he just said we're a group of, we have a group of missionaries, international missionaries coming to your country, and we just love to preach and talk about the word of God. And we just got in. Everyone got accepted. So it was actually plain and easy. Even I was with a crew that we stumbled upon at a high school, and as me and Eric, he's not here right now, but we went, and we just wanted to talk to the principals. They just let us right in, and we got a group, and basically all the men wearing pants, and all the ladies were allowed to go in, no shorts were allowed, because they all have school codes there, which I think they should have that in America, where they have dress codes. But so, and also another easy way to identify the students. So, but then we preached, and we just went to the cafeteria, and during that time, because it was in the middle of the day, and we preached to all the, we preached to people like skipping class, we found out later, and we just preached to them. And this guy comes up to us, and he says like, oh, these students are all skipping class, but he lets us all finish preaching. And so it was awesome. And so they're just all welcoming, even in like a supermarket, to get some water and some groceries. Some guy's like, I had the Bible in my hand, he's like, what's the word of God for today? And we had someone talk to him and preached to him a little bit. So they're very open. The culture's very different there. And this stuff is very hard to do in America. It's not impossible, I would say, but it's very hard to do, at least in this scale, to do in America, to go into schools and do that sort of thing. So, and if you know anything about soul, like if you go soul winning, like I think this is the best, one of the best forms of soul winning, I would say, if you've gone to these places. I want every soul winner to experience this, to go into a school and to do this. So that has been one of my favorite types of soul winning. And even, there's different, and in schools, there's different types. You can go to a classroom, which we did a lot of that. There's a general assembly, which I think is kind of hard to get a lot of people saved, unless they give you a lot of time, because you can't really grasp the attention as much. But when you have a classroom of 30 or so, you really can't control the attention. And also one on one, they let you go by. So we preached at, I believe it was a primary school, I believe two high schools, or maybe three high schools. One all boys, one all girls. So that was really cool. And two of the high schools were general assembly. One was classroom by classroom, and the primary school is also classroom by classroom. So it was wonderful. So everyone enjoyed it. So I think we had a great time. And actually, so we preached over 1% of all students in the country. So it was about 450,000 students in the country. And it was about 1,000 schools. So in four days, because we're, four weekdays, because we had rec day for one another weekdays, in four days of actual preaching at schools, we preached to 1, 1.2% of all the students in the entire country. And we weren't like doing the whole day just doing that. We did that for the beginning part, and for a few hours. So that's how much you can make an effect. And so Jamaica is the biggest English speaking country in the Caribbean or Central South America, where the rest of their tongue. So I think it should be a really important place to go for the future racing trips. And there's a lot of potential there. So there's that. And yeah, Jamaica is very cool, has interesting history. It was actually two years after Christopher Columbus came there. And a lot of famous story of him predicting the lunar eclipse was in Jamaica. So it was quite interesting. And so a lot of cool stuff. And I like these trips, and I think a lot of people had a great time. So I hope you all. Great work everyone with that. Very exciting. It's good to see missions going strong at Faith Ford Baptist Church. After the missions conference, we're putting things into practice and getting people saved. Very exciting. And then I actually went on my own little miniature missions trip this week, because I am banned from Jamaica. So I wasn't able to participate in that one. But I went on my own missions trip where I went to a place called Turks and Caicos. And I ended up getting like 23 people saved. And I ended up going there. Same thing. Went to like a high school with my son Steven. And we were just soul winning to the teenagers. Because when we talked to a lot of the adults, there was a little bit of a language barrier, because a lot of people spoke Haitian Creole. Which kind of surprised me, but it is close to Haiti. And so I had one funny soul winning experience though. Where I was talking to these two teenage girls. And they both spoke English, but they both like spoke broken English. Like their English wasn't that great. But they spoke pretty well. But they needed a little help. One of them spoke Spanish as a second language. The other spoke French as a second language. But the one who spoke French did not speak Spanish. The one who spoke Spanish did not speak French. So I was literally giving the gospel in English. Then like clarifying things in Spanish. And then like clarifying some stuff in French. And I was doing like this trilingual thing. And they ended up both getting saved after like 20, 30 minutes or whatever. Probably more like 30. But it was pretty funny. So yeah, the Caribbean is a great place to go soul winning. Especially the young people are really receptive. And so I'm sure we'll be doing a lot more Caribbean missions in 2025. Alright. And then below that we've got the note about the bridal shower. That is next Sunday at 2 o'clock in honor of Isabella Schneider. And so please RSVP to Denise Furbay. And the idea is for all the ladies and girls to go. As far as like teenage girls. But little kids, better to be left home with dad. But definitely bring the nurselings. That's okay. And then on the back, the Christmas caroling is coming up on December 19th. So that's a Thursday night. We'll meet here at 530. We'll quickly get you organized into big groups. So you're not going to be singing a solo. We'll put you in a group of close to 30 people. And then that way we'll make sure we have some strong singers in every group. The other kind of singer can just fade to the back if they want. And then we'll come back and have cookies and milk. And the cookie part is a potluck. So we want all the ladies to bake their best batch of cookies and bring it down. And then below that we've got a Christmas party for the ladies and teen girls. And it said it was a white elephant gift exchange. Apparently there was a miscommunication. Apparently it's not a white elephant gift exchange. This is the real thing folks. This is not a drill. So it's just a gift exchange. And that is with a limit of $30. Okay, so somebody's going to bring that white elephant gift. And hey, it is what it is. But everybody's going to have fun I'm sure. That's Saturday, December 14th, 5 to 8 right here. There will be light refreshments. Please bring an appetizer or finger food to share. That is about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right, you should find the insert with the two songs. We'll start with angels we have heard on high. If you don't have an answer, you can raise your hand. And we'll sing it on that first verse together. Angels we have heard on high. Angels we have heard on high. Sweetly singing o'er the plains, And the mountains in reply, Echoing their joyous strains. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Gloria, In excelsis Deo. Whoa! Gloria, In excelsis Deo. Shepherds, why this julily? Why your joyous strains prolong, What the glad suns tidings be, Which inspire your heavenly song. Whoa! Gloria, In excelsis Deo. Whoa! Gloria, In excelsis Deo. Come to Bethlehem and see, Him whose birth the angels sing. Come, adore, unbend the King, Christ the Lord, the newborn King. Whoa! Gloria, In excelsis Deo. Whoa! Gloria, In excelsis Deo. Seen within a manger laid, Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, Mary, Joseph, and Mary, With us sing our Savior's birth. Whoa! Gloria, In excelsis Deo. Whoa! Gloria, In excelsis Deo. Man, good singing, everybody. Flip that sheet over. We'll sing together within the crib, my Savior lay. There is a short pause in between each verse, but let's sing it out together. We'll sing together within the crib, my Savior lay. A wooded leader filled with pain, Come down for love on Christmas Day. All glory lead to Jesus. All glory lead to Jesus. Upon a cross my Savior died, To ransom sinners crucified, His loving arms still open wide, All glory lead to Jesus. A victor's crown my Savior won, His work of love and mercy done, The Father's highest and his Son, All glory lead to Jesus. All right, this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates. As the plates go around, let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter number four. As we always do, read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number one. Follow along silently with brother Corbin Brock as he reads Hebrews chapter four, beginning in verse number one. Hebrews chapter four. Let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works, and in this place again if they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Again he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today after so long a time, as it is said, Today if you will hear his voice, heart and not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is enter into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Thank you Father for the opportunity to hear your holy and precious word. I ask you to fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit. Open our hearts and our ears to receive your word. I pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Amen. This morning I'm preaching on the subject of the humanity of Jesus Christ. The Bible reads in verse number 14 there, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And that's the main phrase that I want to focus in on. We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So what the Bible is saying here is that Jesus Christ can understand what it is like to be a human being living on this earth because he was a literal human being living on this earth and he went through the experience of what a person goes through. He was tempted at all points like as we are, yet he was without sin. So he left us an example that we could follow by doing everything the right way. But the reason I want to preach this sermon this morning is that I think that many people sometimes don't think about the humanity of Christ. They're so focused on the deity of Christ, which is of course important, that they sometimes don't really think about or grasp the humanity of Christ. And sometimes people will just kind of blow past this and just kind of like, oh yeah, well, you know, Jesus never sinned. Of course he never sinned. He's God. You know, of course he's perfect. He's God. But what we need to understand is that Jesus Christ was literally a human being going through all of the day-to-day experiences and feeling and experiencing everything that we go through as human beings. And, you know, I don't want this to be taken the wrong way, but I want to say this. He's a normal human being. Obviously, there's nothing normal about God being made flesh. But what I mean by that is, and this is my first point this morning, number one is that Jesus was not omnipotent while he was on this earth. He didn't go around with superpowers like some kind of a super hero or something like that, okay? And I think this is what a lot of people misunderstand. They think it's just God in a human body or something. No, no, no. This is Jesus Christ, an actual literal human being living as a person, born as a baby, growing up, going through all the experiences that a human being goes through. He wasn't just going through the motions of being human or looking. He was 100% God and 100% man at the same time. Now let me prove this to you from the Bible. Go, if you would, in your Bible to Matthew chapter 8. But the first thing that I want to point out is that Jesus did his first miracle at around 30 years old, okay? So what I mean by that is that he lived the first 30 years of his life. He's not just using superpowers to get through life. He's going through life just like you went through life, just like I went through life. We all went through, you know, those teenage years and young adult years and everything like that. Jesus did not do his first miracle until he's about 30 years old. John chapter 2 verse 11, when he turns the water into wine, it says, this beginning of miracles did Jesus and Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him. Then a little later, it talks about the second miracle that Jesus did, showing that for the first 30 years of his life, he's not using, you know, quote, unquote, superpowers or something like that, okay? Now I went through and I looked at all of the miracles of Jesus and there are about 37 miracles that Jesus did while he was on this earth. And out of those, more than two-thirds of the miracles that Jesus did, other people in the Bible did. Specifically, Moses, Elisha, and the apostles did something similar to more than two-thirds of the miracles listed by Jesus. So I'm not going to go through every miracle that Jesus did, but I kind of just grouped these into categories. First of all, turning the water into wine, but remember, Moses turned water into blood, okay? Healing the sick is something that Elisha did, cleansing lepers, again, Elisha, raising a dead body back to life, again, Elisha, feeding the 5,000. Elisha didn't feed 5,000, but Elisha did multiply food and feed a large group of people with a small amount of food in 2 Kings chapter 4. Walking on water, of course, Peter was also one who walked on water, okay? Obviously, Jesus invited him to do so. Casting out devils is something that the apostles were all empowered to do. Healing the lame is something that the apostles did. And then calming the storm was one of Jesus' big miracles, right, when he had this wind in the seas obey him. Look at Matthew chapter 8, verse 26, where you are there. Matthew 8, 26, he saith unto them, Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? This is a pretty amazing miracle, but again, Moses parted the Red Sea, and of course, there was a wind involved and the sea involved. So it was in many ways a similar miracle. Now, if you want to turn to John chapter number 11, and as you turn to John chapter number 11, let's talk about some of the kind of unique miracles that Jesus did that other people, we don't see other people in the Bible do this. For example, he curses the fig tree and it dries up. That was a unique thing that he did. He reinstalled the servant's ear in the Garden of Gethsemane that Peter chopped off. He caused them to get an abundance of fish where they threw the net in the water. He caused all the fish to go in the net so that they could get an incredible amount of fish caught. And then another big one that Jesus did a lot that the Bible really emphasizes, healing the blind, including a man who was born blind, and healing the deaf. So we don't specifically see other people in the Bible unless I missed something, you know, healing the blind and deaf. But perhaps that falls under just the apostles were healing all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases and casting out devils. But here's the point, okay, even if you consider all of the blind people and deaf people being healed as unique, you still have two-thirds of the miracles of Jesus, arguably virtually all of them, done by other people. Now, what is my point in bringing that up? The point that I'm making here is that Jesus performed his miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit and by praying to God the Father, not because he was just walking around with superpowers, right? So, you know, that's why for the first 30 years there's no miracles, right? But then when he's doing his ministry, he's carrying out the work of God by the will of God and he's being empowered by the Holy Spirit and he's praying to God the Father just like other human beings throughout the Bible also did miracles. Obviously, Moses is imparting the Red Sea by his own power. Elisha is not raising a dead body to life by his own power, right? That's through the power of, again, the Holy Spirit praying to God and so forth. Look at John chapter 11 verse 41. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, this is when he's about to raise Lazarus, one of his greatest miracles, I thank thee that thou hast heard me and I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that thou may believe, or excuse me, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, lose him and let him go. So when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, notice he had prayed and asked God for this miracle to take place, right? And that's why he says, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me and he says, you know, I'm only saying this out loud for other people's benefit. And here's a key thing I want to point out though, okay, that would separate Jesus from other human beings who perform miracles. He said, thou hearest me always, right? He says, I knew that thou hearest me always. Now, why is that? Well, if you think about it, the thing that separates Jesus from other human beings is obviously the fact that Jesus is totally without sin. Okay, Jesus Christ did not sin. And he said in John chapter 8 verse 29, I do always those things that please him about God the Father. Okay. And what does the Bible say in 1 John 3 22? Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we do his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. So because we keep God's commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight, that allows us to get our prayers answered. While obviously Jesus Christ being totally sinless, you know, God's always hearing his prayers. Now, here's the thing I want to point out is that the fact that Jesus Christ is not walking around omnipotent with superpowers does not take away from his deity, does not take away from his divinity. Jesus Christ was 100% God. Because here's the thing, Jesus divinity isn't wrapped up in an ability that he has or doesn't have. Jesus divinity is just who he is. He's just God. He's just the son of God. He's just divine because of who he is. Now, you know, some philosopher comes along and says, well, you know, God by definition is omnipotent and so if Jesus is not omnipotent, he's like, oh, he stopped being God. This is why philosophy is stupid and we don't care. This is why theology is stupid and we don't care. We care what the Bible says, what the Bible teaches. And here's the thing, Jesus is God because Jesus is God because God eternally exists as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And so that's just who he is. So if Jesus Christ comes to this earth as a literal human being, not just going through the motions or pretending to be human, but literally being human, he doesn't stop being God because that's just who he is. He can never stop being God. You know, just like I can never stop being who I am. You can never stop being who you are. That's just who he is. He's just God. But you get these stupid ideas about, you know, Jesus laying aside his deity or divinity. That's heresy. It's garbage, okay? Or you see, you talk about the God, you know, there's the God part of Jesus and there's the human part of Jesus. There's no God part and human part. Jesus Christ is God because that's his identity. That's just who he is, okay? But not only that, Jesus Christ is 100% human and when he lived on this earth, he was born as a baby. He didn't come out of the womb just talking and knowing everything. He grew up just like every other child grows up. And so the first point that I wanted to make here is that Jesus Christ was not, while on this earth, all powerful, omnipotent, having superhuman powers. He performed miracles, of course, but so did the apostles. So did the prophets through the power of God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit. And, you know, the Bible says in John 3.34, For he whom God hath sent, and this is about Jesus, he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. So Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit to the max, okay? Now look, we could all be filled with the Holy Spirit. Prophets are filled with the Holy Spirit. The apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus was filled with the Spirit to the max more than anyone else before or after, obviously. He's always doing the things that please God. So, of course, he's going to do the most miracles, the best miracles, the coolest miracles, but that does not make him something different than being human. He was made a little lower than the angels, the Bible says, okay? And so he lived as a literal, real human being on this earth. So number one, he was not omnipotent, and this kind of leads me to my second point. Number two, he's not omniscient while he's on this earth. He did not know everything while he was on this earth, okay? And here's the proof. If you would, flip over to Mark 13, and while you're turning to Mark 13, I'm going to read for you from Luke chapter 2 verse 52. This is about Jesus as a child. It says, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Okay, now let's stop and think about this verse. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. What does an increase mean? An increase means that you have something, and then later you have more than what you had earlier. And I know that seems simple, but I just want to make sure that we're talking about the same thing here, okay? So if Jesus increased in wisdom, that means Jesus had wisdom, time went by, and he got more wisdom. So what's he doing? He's learning. He's getting smarter. He's gaining wisdom, okay? Now look, if you're already starting out knowing everything, you can't gain wisdom. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? And look, here's a specific example where Jesus talks about not knowing something. He says in Mark 13, 32, but of that day and hour, talking about the second coming of Christ, but of that day and that hour, know with no man, know not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. So in Mark chapter 13 verse 32, the Bible clearly says that Jesus himself did not know the day of the second coming. He says nobody knows the day or the hour. The angels in heaven don't know. The Son of God doesn't know. Now again, if Jesus walking on this earth knew everything, then how could he say, well, the Son doesn't know? He would have to know because by definition that's what it would be to be omniscient. So Jesus Christ, again, he's walking down the street as a human being. He's not using a bunch of superpowers to get through junior high and high school and his young adult life. He didn't do a single miracle until he's 30, approximately, probably a little more than 30, probably more like 31, okay? And then here's the thing about that is that he's also not walking around like, I don't know, some kind of like with a space helmet or something, just give him a little printout about like he just looks at every person and is just like Fidel, you know, and just giving me all the data on Fidel. He just knows everything about every person. No. He's going through life. He's living life as a human being. We can't read minds as human beings, right? And he wasn't reading minds either, okay? Now, some people will mistakenly get the idea that Jesus was reading minds or omniscient because of verses like, for example, in Matthew chapter 9. Flip over to Matthew chapter 9 and we could look at several examples of this. There are several examples, but they're all kind of the same, but Matthew chapter 9 is one of them. And while you're turning there, I'll read for you from Luke 6. It came to pass also on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him whether he would heal on the Sabbath day that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts and said to the man which had the withered hand, rise up and stand forth in the midst. And of course, he heals the man. Now, when the Bible here says Jesus knew their thoughts, it's not saying, well, he just reads everybody's minds and just knows everybody's thoughts all the time. What it's saying is that obviously Jesus is smart enough to know what's going through their head. This guy comes in withered hand. It's the Sabbath day. Jesus has been healing people. They're kind of perking out looking like, oh, what's he going to do? And he knows what they're thinking. And how many times have we said in our lives, hey, I know what you're thinking right now. And we were right. Because you can just tell what people are thinking by their face or whatever. Look at Matthew chapter 9, similar story, verse 2. Behold, they brought him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed, and Jesus seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. And behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves. So they're not saying this out loud, but they're saying it in themselves. This man blasphemeth. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? So he looks at them and sees the look on their face. He can tell what they're thinking. He doesn't need anybody to testify unto him of man because he knew what was in man in general. The Bible tells in John chapter 2, that's what that's basically saying. And so the idea here is that when we can look at another example in Luke 11, same thing. They say to him, you know, they say that Jesus is casting out devils by the prince of the devils. And it says, but he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, you know, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And so the idea here is that, yeah, Jesus knew people's thoughts because he just knows human nature. He sees the look on their face. He's smart enough to figure out what they're thinking. But even if you say, no, Pastor Anderson, I think that he supernaturally knew their thoughts. Okay, but here's the thing. Again, we could find examples of that in the Old Testament where a prophet is given knowledge by the Spirit of God to know things that he would normally have no way of knowing. Like, for example, 2 Kings chapter 1 where the king's son is sick and he sends his wife to go check with the prophet and she dresses up like someone else. And then the blind prophet who's literally blind and can't see says, oh, hey, come on in. You know, I know exactly who you are. And how did he know that? Because God had revealed that to him. Now, you say, what's the point, Pastor Anderson? Like, why are you emphasizing these things? Because, again, we don't want to take away from the realness of Jesus' experience as a human being. Right? Jesus did not live the human life on cheat mode. Right? He didn't have a cheat code entered where he's got 30 lives, where he's got unlimited power-ups. He's got unlimited XP or something. No, no, no. Jesus Christ was born as a baby just like you and I were. He went through life. He grew up. He was tempted and tested at all points like as we are, yet without sin. He didn't just go through the motions or pretend like he experienced it. He really did get the true, real experience. And, yeah, of course, Jesus Christ was the ultimate, and none of us could ever be as great as Jesus. No one before Jesus was ever as great. No one after Jesus ever is great. But here's the thing about that. Jesus said, the works that I do shall ye do and greater works because I go to my Father. So Jesus is flat out telling his followers, you can do greater works than me. OK, now, obviously, we're not talking about greater in quality, but greater in quantity because of the fact that there are more of us. Jesus is one person. He's telling 12 disciples, you're going to do greater works because they're going to have more time and there's more people to do them. They're going to do even more. But he said, the works that I do shall you do. How can we follow in Jesus steps? We don't have superpowers. How can we follow in Jesus steps? We're not a mind reader. How do we follow in Jesus steps? We're not omniscient. Guess what? You don't have to be because when Jesus was on this earth, he was a human being, and he was tempted in all points like as we are, and yet without sin, and he was not omnipotent or omniscient. And, you know, it kind of goes without saying that he wasn't omnipresent because he's physically, his body is obviously in one place at a time throughout the four gospels. That's pretty clear as we read them. And so this actually caused us to have a greater, it doesn't take away from the deity of Christ at all, but it causes us to have a greater appreciation for Christ's life and his human experience. Yes, Jesus Christ is eternally preexistent. He's the creator of the world. Jesus is literally the creator of the world. He didn't come into existence in Bethlehem's manger. He's the creator of the world. He makes appearances throughout the Old Testament, right? He was in the beginning with God, and he was God. But when he was born approximately 2,000 years ago, he was a human being in every sense of the word. And he was not just pretending or going through the motions. But not only that, and I went into great detail. I'll turn to Acts chapter 2. I went into great detail on this in my sermon on Jonah chapter 2, but also Jesus relied on God the Father to raise him from the dead, right? Jesus Christ died on the cross. He literally died. And again, that was not a facade or a sham either. He literally died on the cross. His body was buried in the tomb. His soul went down to hell for three days and three nights. And three days later, he rose again from the dead. But the Bible is crystal clear that it was God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead. He relied upon God the Father to not leave his soul in hell. For example, the Bible says in Luke 23, 46, when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Now what does command mean? To command is to entrust something to someone for safekeeping, right? And so Jesus is entrusting his spirit over to the Father for safekeeping. He's dying on the cross. He says, Into thy hands I commend my spirit. Look at Acts chapter 2, verse 23. It says, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up. Notice, God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Now, don't miss this, okay? Jesus is relying on God the Father. He's trusting him to not leave his soul in hell. Okay? And so he says, I have hope. I have set the Lord always at my right hand. I'm not going to be moved, because I know that he will not leave my soul in hell. He will not suffer his holy one to see corruption. Now, here's the thing about this, is that this is originally penned by the psalmist David. Now, this does not literally apply to David, because obviously, first of all, David did not go to hell. David also was not resurrected yet. He will be someday, right? But remember, in Acts chapter 2, Peter points out, well, David's sepulcher is with us to this day. We can go look at his bones if you want. He's still there. Jesus is resurrected. So, when David said this, it did not literally apply to him, because it's literally about Jesus Christ. But here's the thing about that, though. That psalm was still penned by David about situations that he's going through, just like Jonah is in the belly of the fish, saying, out of the belly of hell, cry out. He's not literally crying out of the belly of hell, but he's in the belly of the fish, and it's like his own personal hell, in a sense. It's a metaphor, okay? And so, here's the point that I'm trying to make, is that in the book of Psalms, we have these statements about thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption. And God's people are singing these songs for centuries. Psalms is a song book, okay? And even if they don't necessarily realize that it's about Jesus, you know, some people are going to understand that, some people are not going to understand that. The point is, it's also personally relatable, because we, in our lives, we always want to keep the Lord before us, and we want to have him at our right hand, so that we're not moved. And whatever situations we're going through, we can have hope that God is not going to leave us high and dry in whatever situation we're in. The whole point of this statement being included in the book of Psalms, which is a book, you know, of encouragement, where you're reading the book of Psalms, and it's talking about, you know, all the bad things that are happening in our lives, and why isn't God helping me, you know, my God, my God, why has he not forsaken me, and everything. Obviously, these things are pointing us to literal events in the life of Jesus, but at the same time, they're also relatable to us as we read the book of Psalms, right? Of course, we can read the book of Psalms and just be like, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and that's the right way to read it, amen. But you know what, we could also read it and say, oh, yeah, I'm going through something like this. Oh, I've been through, oh, this is what, I know a guy who's going through something like this, I'm going to text him these verses, because he's going through this thing right now, and this can encourage him right now. You say, well, it's about Jesus. Yeah, but it's also relatable for us, because just like Job went through this extreme suffering, then when we go through suffering, we can say, okay, if Job can do it, so can I. Well, guess what, we can also look at Jesus and say, hey, if Jesus can do it, so can I, as far as if Jesus was tempted, and yet he was without sin, then that means that, you know what, I need to resist temptation. I need to follow in his steps, okay, and if Jesus is trusting in the Lord to deliver him, well, then you know what, that's how we should go through life, always with the Lord in front of us, always with God at our right hand, so that we're not moved, and always having hope, and trusting that weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. And so that is what the Bible is teaching here with these Psalms, and so we need to understand that Jesus Christ actually going through literal hell for us, right. This is a picture of when we go through things in our life that, you know, we would metaphorically call hell, right. We, you know, we're going through our own quote-unquote living hell or personal hell or whatever. Obviously, we're maybe exaggerating, we're for sure exaggerating, because it's never quite that bad, but yet we can still look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, and we can endure whatever cross we've been called to bear, right. That's why the Bible used that kind of language, like if we're going to follow Christ, we have to take up our cross and follow Jesus, right. Obviously, we're not literally being crucified, but we're taking up our cross, right. We're going through something like that. It's funny, I really like language and words and things like that. I kind of geek out on these things, and it's interesting the word excruciating. You know, people will talk about going through something and they'll say, the pain was excruciating, right. But if you look at that word excruciating, look what's in there, cruse. Those who speak Spanish, this is obvious to you right away, la cruse, right. Santa cruse, right. You went to the beach boardwalk there one time. The point is that excruciating pain, you know, it's basically talking about how painful the cross is. Does everybody understand like that? That's like an example or a paradigm of extreme pain or extreme suffering is the cross, right. And this is why people will even use terms like excruciating or talk about something being hellish or something like that. They're using these things from the Bible as just kind of points of reference, and the idea here is that if Jesus Christ had hope through his ultimate ordeal and he went through something worse than any of us will ever go through, well then we can get through our ordeal, can't we? If he can go through it, so can we. If Job can do it, so can we. If Jesus can do it, so can we. Well, but yeah, but Jesus is superhuman with superpowers. No, he wasn't. He was filled with the Spirit, we can be filled with the Spirit too. He's always doing things that please the Father, we can do things that please the Father too. He was getting prayers answered, we can get prayers answered too, okay. Now you say, oh, you're trying to make it out, he's just like us. Well, here's the thing, he was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, he was the son of man, he was a human being. Obviously, he is God in the flesh, no question about that, but at the same time, he had a real human experience. And I think a big part of that, that's highlighted by that, is the fact that he's relying on the Father to raise him from the dead. And I feel like a lot of people have forgotten that fact, that he's relying on God the Father to raise him from the dead, saying, you know, I have hope that you're not going to leave my soul in hell. You don't typically hear preaching on that verse in most churches, it seems like these verses are forgotten, the modern versions change these and things like that, so you miss out on some of this sometimes. It says in verse 32, this Jesus, are you there in Acts 2? Look at verse 32, this Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Unto you first God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. And notice, just in this one little passage from Acts 2, 23 to, or did I read the wrong verse to you? I jumped ahead, sorry. This Jesus, God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses, verse 32. I jumped to chapter 3, sorry. Chapter 3, verse 26, if you want to go there, it says unto you first, having raised up God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. So in chapter 2, we saw several times the idea that God raised up Jesus from the dead. Chapter 3, 26, same thing. Chapter 5, verse 30, if you want to just flip right over there since you're in the neighborhood anyway, it says the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Chapter 10, verse 40, him God raised up the third day and showed him openly. Acts 13, 33, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And then, you don't have to turn to these, but 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 14, God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power. You know, so again, you say, I don't know if you should be comparing us to Jesus, but that's what the Bible is constantly doing. God raised up Jesus and he's also going to raise up us. Oh, how dare you make that comparison. You know what's funny is that people will sometimes ridicule preachers for comparing themselves to Jesus. What in the world? Like this is what the Bible is doing. It's not about being a preacher or a pastor. Every Christian should be looking at Jesus as the example and saying, well, if God raised him up, God's going to raise me up. Looking at Jesus and saying, well, if he had hope, if he set Jesus, if he set the Lord at his right hand, if he was not going to be moved, if he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him, if he trusted that he would not be left in hell, then you know what? I can trust him too. Oh, how dare you compare yourself to Jesus, yet the whole Bible is written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. We're supposed to be comparing ourselves to everyone in the Bible. Right? I mean, the Bible literally says, take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Take them for an example. You've heard of the patience of Job. Elisha is an example. Moses is an example. Job is an example. And Jesus is the ultimate example. And so, of course, we're going to compare ourselves. We're not saying we're God. We're not saying we're sinless. We're not saying we're perfect. But what we are saying is that the same God who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead is the same God that's going to raise me up from the dead and raise you up from the dead. It's going to raise up all believers from the dead because whosoever, Jesus said, he that liveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. He said that if you believe in him, you'll be raised up. We'll be bodily resurrected someday in the future at the second coming of Christ. We will be bodily resurrected the way Jesus was bodily resurrected. How dare you compare yourself to Job? Look, I'm just wondering, like, if you're a Christian and you've never compared yourself to Job, have you ever even been a Christian? Have you ever even been to church? Have you ever even been to church in your entire life? Have you ever even spent five minutes thinking about the Bible in your life to say, oh, how dare you compare yourself to Job? I'm pretty sure every Christian has compared themselves to Job. Oh, you must think you're the greatest human on the planet because Job is the greatest human on the planet. No, that's not the point. The point is, if the greatest human on the planet could go through that level of suffering, then we're not the greatest human. So whatever level of suffering we're going through, we could say, okay, God's not given me something unfairly. He's not treating me worse than he treated other people because here's a guy who's better than me going through worse stuff than me. So if I'm a good guy going through bad stuff, okay, so guess what? Comparing yourself to Job is something that literally every Christian does unless you just don't even care or think about the things of God at all. Or maybe you're five or six years old or something. Maybe you're 11 and you haven't compared yourself to Job yet. But I'm pretty sure that if I ask for a raise of hands, hey, who has ever thought of your situation and looked to the book of Job and compared your situation to Job's situation and thought about your life in comparison with Job? Anybody who knows the story of Job has thought about that and talked about that. But it's unbelievable the stupidity that some people come up with. But of course we're going to compare ourselves to Moses, Aaron, Joshua. We're not saying that we're Jesus. When we compare ourselves to Jesus, here's what we're saying. Hey, Jesus is the example. All the prophets are the example. The apostles are the example. And in order for Jesus to be a real example, he has to actually be human. And this is what I think a lot of people forget and lose sight of, the humanity of Jesus, how important it is for understanding Christ as our example. It's a very practical implication, understanding the humanity of Jesus. And let me just finish reading these last few verses because I don't think I finished these. God has both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power, we just talked about. 1 Corinthians 15, 15, it says, we have testified of God that he raised up Christ. 1 Peter 1 21, who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. So again, there's this verse after verse after verse about how God the Father is the one who raised up Jesus and how Jesus is trusting him, relying on him to do that. And again, I'm not going to spend a ton of time on that because I spent a big part of my Jonah chapter 2 sermon, I believe, I hope that's the right sermon, where I went into this in great debt and I proved it beyond the shadow of a doubt. I debunked all of the arguments against it and so forth. So in conclusion, back to where we started, Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15, it says, we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. So it's not that God just intellectually knows what we're going through, it's that he knows from experience what we're going through because he went through similar stuff. Obviously, everybody's life is different, nobody's going through the exact same problems or the exact same things, but Jesus went through every category of thing that we would potentially go through. So that even if Jesus didn't do the exact thing we did, he went through something similar, something comparable and yet was without sin. He was tempted by Satan, of course, in the famous episode with him asking him to turn the stones into bread and worship him and throw himself off the temple and all that. He was tempted, he was hungry, he was thirsty, he was tired, he was angry, he was sad, Jesus wept. And here's what the Bible says in Isaiah 53, you don't have to turn there, but it says he's despised and rejected of men. Right, that's something that we sometimes go through. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not, look he's not just going through life just like stone cold. Nothing affects him, no emotion, and you know we've all known people that are kind of seemingly stone cold in their demeanor, very stoic in their expression, right? But you know, you don't really know what's going on inside of that person either. But at the end of the day, Jesus Christ is not just robotically just because he's just so perfect being divine that he's just not feeling anything. No, he's going through emotions, the Bible talks about him groaning within himself. Jesus wept and he's not just like, you know, execute weeping sequence now, I mean he's like, he's actually weeping because he's feeling it. I mean when he's screaming out on the cross, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me, he's not just, oh, it's time for me to say that now. He's feeling it, he's groaning, the Bible says he groaned within himself, he's moved with compassion on the multitudes, right? Jesus wept, there are three different times that it mentions him weeping actually. The famous time is at the Lazarus funeral. But he was despised, we esteemed him not, surely he had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so he was mocked by his brothers. You remember in John chapter 7, his brothers, his half-brothers we should say, are making fun of him, mocking him, not believing him, and in fact, they're even, you could say, trying to get him killed, because they know that they're seeking to kill him in Jerusalem. They're like, hey, why don't you go up to Jerusalem, buddy, huh? They're trying to get him killed, saying, oh, why are you hiding, Jesus? Why don't you, you know, you're trying to be famous, and I'm paraphrasing, but he said, oh, you want to be famous? Then why don't you go show yourself to the world? Why don't you go down to Jerusalem? Because they know there's a warrant that he'll be put to death. And Jesus says, well, my time's not yet come. But your time's always, he said, the world can't hate you, yet you guys are so smug, of course you're not going to get arrested. There's no warrant for your arrest. The world doesn't hate you because you're of the world. They weren't saved. He said, the world hates me because I testify thereof that the works thereof are evil. I'm not going up to, you go to the feast, I'm not going, yet. And then he goes down secretly because it wasn't time for him to be killed yet. But his brethren are arguably trying to get him killed. They're making fun of him for sure. And they don't believe in him for sure. And so here's the thing. You might go through a situation where you have family members mocking you, ridiculing you, attacking you, fighting you. Jesus has been there. He went through it. He was betrayed by a close friend. And again, we have all kinds of Psalms about that. And look, yeah, the Psalms about being betrayed by a close friend. Yeah, those are about Jesus. Yeah, they're about Judas. But you know what? They're also about everybody who gets betrayed by a friend because those songs existed for centuries to comfort God's people who were going through their own betrayals and going through their own ordeals. He was arrested. He was beaten. He was spat upon. He was crucified. And the Bible says in 1 Peter 2 21, for even here unto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps who did no sin. Neither was guile found in his mouth. Right? We can follow Christ's example. And so a couple of closing thoughts is that we should love him more. We should love Jesus more realizing that he's a real person. And by that, I mean really human. And when we read the scripture, if we see him as human and going through a real, legitimate, bona fide human experience, we'll have a greater appreciation when we read the four gospels. And we're actually going to get more out of it and be more touched and moved by it when we think of Jesus as being human. And again, he's both human and divine. And if we overemphasize the one over the other or forget one or the other, we're making a mistake. You need to always remember that Christ is both 100% God and 100% man. Let's borrow this word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. And we thank you so much for the example of Christ. And Lord God, help us to always be looking unto Jesus in our lives and realizing that he is a great example for us and realizing that he really did live that perfect life. That none of us can live, but that we can all aspire to and strive for. And we definitely all have the tools to do whatever Jesus did and to live as Jesus lived. Lord God, help us to live to our fullest potential and help us to be filled with the Spirit. Help us to do those things which please you so that we can be greatly used by you in our lives. And in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, ladies and gentlemen, take your hymnals, please, if you would, go to hymn 422, hymn number 422. Thou didst leave thy throne, hymn number 422. Singing out together unto the Lord this morning, hymn number 422. Thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown, when thou gavest to earth for me. But in Bethlehem's home was there found no room for thy holy nativity. O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. Heaven's arches ring when the angels sing, proclaiming thy royal degree. But of holy birth is how come to earth and in great humility. O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. The boxes found rest and the birds their nest in the shade of the forest tree. But thy couch was the sod of the Son of God in the deserts of Galilee. O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. Thou camest the Lord with the living Word that shall set thy people free. But with mocking sword and with crown of Thor, they bore thee to Galilee. O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. When the heavens shall ring and the angels sing, at thy coming to victory. Let thy voice call behold, saying, Yet there is room, there is room at my side for thee. My heart shall rejoice for Jesus when thou comest and callest for me. O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee.