1. "As surely as our eyes face forward, we need to know what's coming. We need to know what's ahead if we're not to stumble. We need to know about tomorrow in order to decide what to do today."

2. "If you're here with questions about Jesus today, you are in good company. There are even good guys in the Bible who had questions about Jesus. So it's okay if you have questions."

3. "It's not evidence versus faith, as it's so often wrongly put, but evidence fueling faith. Find more fuel for your faith by reading God's Word."

4. "The prophecies in the Bible are like the mountains out in Colorado. You see the mountain range and it looks like they're all just kind of standing there in a row together. But then when you go into the mountains, you see that these peaks that looked like they're almost one flat two-dimensional object are scores of miles apart from each other."

5. "If His first coming had come merely as a coming for justice, we would all be in hell. But He came to save sinners, and then finally He will come again at the end to judge."

6. "The Jewish nation may have been wanting a different Messiah than what they needed. They thought that what they most needed was one who would conquer the Romans, when what they really most needed was someone who would be crucified for their sins."

7. "The blind being given their sight pointed to the one who gave the sight, Jesus. The lame walking pointed to Jesus. The lepers cured and cleansed pointed to Jesus. The deaf hearing pointed to Jesus. The dead raised pointed to Jesus. Jesus is the point of it all."

8. "Freedom fades into begrudging tolerance before our very eyes. But then we remember that we have no continuing home here. And our churchly vagabondage, wandering from place to place over this last year, simply reminds us of the spiritual truth that this world is not our home."

9. "God calls us to trust Him even more than He calls us to always understand Him."

10. "There is as little chance of God making a mistake about you or your life as there is that you're about to be released by gravity and start falling up and hit that ceiling while I'm talking. It's just not going to happen. And God's not going to fail."

Observation Questions

1. In Luke 7:18-20, what specific question did John the Baptist send his disciples to ask Jesus, and how did they phrase it when they arrived?

2. According to Luke 7:21, what kinds of healings and deliverances did Jesus perform "in that hour" when John's disciples came to Him?

3. In Luke 7:22, what six specific evidences did Jesus tell John's disciples to report back to John about what they had "seen and heard"?

4. How does Luke 7:23 describe the person who will be blessed, and what does Jesus warn against in this verse?

5. In Luke 3:15-17, what did John the Baptist say about the one coming after him, including what this coming one would do with the "winnowing fork"?

6. According to Luke 4:18-21, what Scripture did Jesus read in the Nazareth synagogue, and what did He declare about it after He sat down?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think John the Baptist, who had previously testified that Jesus was the Son of God (John 1:34), would now send disciples to ask if Jesus was "the one who is to come"? What might his imprisonment and Jesus' ministry have to do with his question?

2. Why did Jesus respond to John's question by pointing to His miracles and preaching rather than by giving a direct "yes" answer? What was He trying to communicate about His identity and mission?

3. The sermon noted that Jesus stopped reading Isaiah 61 before the phrase "the day of vengeance of our God." What does this deliberate omission reveal about the purpose of Jesus' first coming versus His second coming?

4. What does Jesus mean by "blessed is the one who is not offended by me" (Luke 7:23)? In what ways might people in Jesus' day—and today—be "offended" or "stumble" over Him?

5. How do the two streams of Old Testament Messianic prophecy—the suffering servant and the conquering king—help explain why Jesus' ministry looked different from what many expected?

Application Questions

1. The sermon encouraged believers to write down ways God has shown Himself faithful this year, especially when expectations were unmet. What is one specific instance from this past year where God proved faithful even though circumstances didn't go as you hoped?

2. John the Baptist didn't just sit with his doubts—he sent his disciples to Jesus with his questions. What is one question or doubt about Jesus or the Christian life that you need to actively pursue answers for, and what concrete step could you take this week to investigate it?

3. Jesus pointed to His works as evidence of His identity. When someone asks you why you believe Jesus is who He claims to be, what specific evidence from Scripture or your own life could you share with them?

4. The sermon warned against being "offended" by Jesus when He doesn't meet our expectations. Is there an area of your life where you feel disappointed that God hasn't acted the way you expected? How might this passage reshape your expectations of Him?

5. The preacher gave four action steps for those tempted to be offended by Jesus: read, pray, remember, and believe. Which of these four do you most need to prioritize in the coming week, and what would that look like practically in your daily routine?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Isaiah 61:1-11 — This passage contains the prophecy Jesus read in Nazareth and shows the full scope of the Messiah's mission, including both salvation and future judgment.

2. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 — This suffering servant passage explains the redemptive purpose of the Messiah's first coming that the sermon emphasized as distinct from His role as conquering king.

3. John 1:19-34 — This passage records John the Baptist's earlier testimony about Jesus being the Lamb of God and Son of God, providing context for why his later question from prison is so striking.

4. Malachi 3:1-4 — Referenced in the sermon as the last prophetic word before John the Baptist, this passage speaks of the Messenger of the Covenant coming to purify and refine God's people.

5. Matthew 11:1-19 — This parallel account of John's question includes Jesus' extended teaching about John the Baptist and provides additional insight into how Jesus viewed John's role and the kingdom He was bringing.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Uncertainty of Our Times and the Need to Know What's Coming

II. The Hope: Messianic Expectations in John's Day

III. The Reality: Jesus' Actual Ministry Versus Expectations

IV. The Choice: Will You Be Offended by Jesus?

Detailed Sermon Outline

Well, as surely as our eyes face forward, we need to know what's coming. We need to know what's ahead if we're not to stumble. We need to know about tomorrow in order to decide what to do today. One of the hardest things about this year just nearing its conclusion is how ironic its number has been. 2020.

Really? Clear, perfect vision? I mean, if there has been anything about this year, it is that we didn't know what was coming next. We had no clear vision of what was happening next. We are still not sure of what all the various rules mean for us when we meet inside or outside or here or in Maryland or what we can do when we meet.

So, for instance, I think right now we can have 250 people at our meeting tonight at five in our building. We'll see what changes may come in the rules even in this coming week.

In Jesus' day, people were uncertain about what was right around the corner. Rome's might seemed only to grow. Threat of internal rebellion waxed and waned in part with whether or not there was a likely leader to gather around and promote. And religiously, the people were more stirred up than they had been in centuries. And why were the people so worked up at the time When Jesus' ministry began, it's because of John the Baptist and the ministry of John the Baptist.

Many people don't realize it today, he may seem like a minor religious figure, but he was a phenom at the time. And while many people thought that he was the focus of what God was doing in a new work among the people, maybe even leading a revolt in getting rid of their foreign overlords, John himself repeatedly testified that if they thought He was something, they hadn't seen anything yet. Listen to the way Luke describes it in Luke chapter 3, beginning at verse 10.

Luke 3, beginning at verse 10. And the crowds asked Him, 'What then shall we do?' and He answered them, 'Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.' Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to Him, 'Teacher, what shall we do?' and He said to them, 'Collect no more than you are authorized to do.' Soldiers also asked Him, 'And what shall we do?' And He said to them, 'Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.' As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, the Messiah, John answered them all, saying, 'I baptize you with water; but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; He will baptize you with the Holy spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn. But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.

But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all.

That he locked up John in prison. And prison is where John sat while Jesus began his ministry. And while it grew, and what we want to consider in our time together around God's Word this morning is what the hope people then had for Jesus was the hope And what the reality was, the reality, and what choice that left them with, what choice and what choice that leaves us with today.

First let's consider the hope. John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Son of God. He had said so positively back in John chapter one. But for some number of months, perhaps years, we're not exactly sure, he had languished in Herod's prison. And while he could no longer preach to the masses, the same passages of scripture that were inflaming the hopes of the people were no doubt informing his own.

He shared with his people great hopes and expectations for the special anointed one, the Messiah that God had long promised to send to his people. The patriarch Israel himself had prophesied as he lay dying that the scepter shall not depart from Judah. 400 years later, before the conquest of Canaan by the children of Israel coming out of Egypt, Balaam prophesied from the Lord that a scepter shall rise out of Israel. There was a promise among the people of a great ruler to come. Not only that, but this ruler would be a prophet.

How is it, Moses put it? A prophet like me shall arise.

Five hundred years later, there was God's promise to King David that I will raise up your offspring, and that's in the singular, your offspring. He has one person in mind. After you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. So the people knew, as every new king disappointed them, that there was still one to come. We read in Psalm 118, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Friend, it's in this context that we should hear those prophecies that often get read around this time of year through the prophet Isaiah. God promised of this one to come that of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end. And that there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and the last prophet they had known 400 years before the time of John the Baptist, Malachi, had prophesied, the Messenger of the Covenant is coming.

Century after century, the people were told that He would come.

And century after century, the people waited and they endured in hope.

Did you notice, by the way, what was part of that hope? The scepter. The one would have a kingdom. God would evidently be with him. He would govern and rule and dispense justice like his father David.

Even the prophecy that explicitly mentioned Bethlehem as its place of birth had this kingly flavor to it. In Micah, chapter 5, O Bethlehem, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.

So with just that little taste of all of the prophecies and the Scriptures about the coming Messiah, do you understand why John the Baptist spoke of Jesus as he did? Why he prophesied about him the things that he did. Do his words make more sense when he talks about the chaff he, referring to the Messiah that would follow him, the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. John was talking about what Jesus would do. These were the expectations that John was stoking in the people.

There was about to come a great judge, a great prince, a great king. No wonder Herod had John imprisoned. John was going around preaching revolution with Jesus as the leader of it.

But friends, since Herod had imprisoned John, what had Jesus actually done?

Well, he preached in his hometown that he was here to fulfill the prophets and the people just got mad at him. They rejected Him. He called a few disciples to follow Him. He made great claims like that He was Lord of the Sabbath.

But this only seemed to alarm other leaders. Jesus taught and He taught and He taught. And at the same time there were His miracles. Jesus healed a Roman centurion's son with just a word. He raised from the dead the son of a widow.

What were the people to make of all this? No revolution seemed to be being raised. The Romans didn't seem to be preparing to leave. And yet there was a love and a power that the people had never seen before. We read in Luke, chapter 7, the two verses right before our passage for this morning, Luke chapter 7, verses 16 and 17, Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, 'A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited His people.' and this report about Him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

And that's where we come to our text this morning, Luke chapter 7.

We'll begin with verse 18. The disciples of John reported all these things to him, and John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, 'Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?' and when the men had come to him, they said, 'John the Baptist has sent us to you saying, 'Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?' you' see how John addresses the one that he's He is known as the Son of God. He uses the phrase, He's been... He's taught to His own disciples there in verse 19, and they use it when He comes to Jesus in verse... when they come to Jesus in verse 20, they ask Jesus if He is the one who is to come.

You remember all those prophecies from the Old Testament about ruling, and John's own warnings about coming justice. And then you look at what Jesus had done, miracles of compassion and redemption. And you look at what He hadn't done. Jesus had not led His people to political freedom or even simply gotten John the Baptist out of prison.

And you begin to understand why John would have the question for Jesus that he did. Friend, if you're here with questions about Jesus today, you are in good company. There are even good guys in the Bible who had questions about Jesus. So it's okay if you have questions. And if you've got them, can I make a suggestion?

Don't just be encouraged by finding the company of people with questions here in the Bible like John. But do what John did. Take steps to resolve some of your questions. What can you do to find out the truth about Jesus? Well, I do happen to have a few copies here of Greg Gilbert's book, who is Jesus?

that I'm happy to give away afterwards. If you're here visiting today, if you're not a believer or you have questions about Christianity, you're trying to understand more of who Jesus is, here's a book called who is Jesus? And this is free for you. If you will read it. These copies are up here afterwards for you to take and keep as your very own.

And do a little bit more investigating. My Christian brothers and sisters, what about you? What are you willing to put time into to study? Have you had expectations for your own Christian life that haven't been met this year?

What were you hoping to do in 2020?

That never happened. What have you done with those dashed expectations? How should you understand them?

Were any of them misplaced?

Or has God really made promises to you of what but not of when, at least not in the way you've wanted?

What reasons has He given you to trust Him and follow Him, even in dark times? Maybe taking some time this afternoon would be a good idea to lay out on a piece of paper ways that God has shown Himself faithful this year. Thank God for those. And then perhaps when you see those you'll be able to see even more. Well, these were some of the hopes that John and the people had in the early days of Jesus' ministry.

Now we turn to the reality, number two, the reality that John ran into. Look again at our text here in Luke 7, verses 21 and 22. Luke writes about Jesus, In that hour He healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits. And on many who were blind He bestowed sight. And He answered them, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

I don't think Luke meant that as soon as John's disciples asked the question, Jesus spent the next 60 minutes having brought before him a blind man to be healed, then followed by a lame man to be healed, then followed by a leper to be healed. You know, I think instead what that phrase there at the beginning of verse 21, in that hour, means is simply at that time. So it was in the days, in the period, around the time when they asked this question that Jesus had just been doing this healing that we read some specific examples of earlier in chapter 7. And by pointing to what he was in fact doing, Jesus was vividly illustrating the fulfillment of the promises that God had made long ago to His people. The Lord had promised in Isaiah 26, you, dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.

And had Jesus not just spoken to the widow of Nain's son who was dead? Young man, I say to you, arise. And had he not arisen?

The Lord had promised in Isaiah 29, In that day the deaf shall hear, and the mute shall speak. The Lord had promised the eyes of the blind shall see in Isaiah 29. And had Jesus not just touched the eyes of the blind so that their eyes were opened? The Lord had promised the lame man then shall leap like a deer in Isaiah 35. And had not Jesus said to the paralyzed man, Rise, pick up your bed and go home, and immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God.

Jesus' first sermon that we have any record of was rehearsing these promises of God to His people. It was, you may remember, from Isaiah 61:1. Luke recorded the event in Luke chapter 4 beginning in verse 16.

And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day.

And as he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendants and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' the Lord had promised one who was to come would proclaim good news to the poor and Jesus here expounded Scripture and then sits down and says, 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' And you know what's especially interesting about this sermon text from Isaiah, it's where Jesus stopped reading. Because if you go back to Isaiah chapter 61 and you start reading Isaiah 61, we find the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And that is where Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth stopped reading from the Isaiah scroll. But if He had just read the next line, He would have read, and the day of vengeance of our God.

But Jesus did not read that next line because He was not announcing that day yet.

1. Why not? Because as Jesus taught elsewhere, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Or even more succinctly in John 12, I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. Friends, Jesus spent months and years teaching about the one who was to come from the Scriptures better than anyone had ever taught about this promised coming Messiah.

And what was beginning to become clear to the people is that Jesus was the Messiah and that He had come to redeem and restore. And as He would later make clear from Isaiah 52 and 53, He had come to substitute for sinners and to suffer in our stead. The Messiah would come not only once, But he would come again. The first time he came to save, the second time he would come again to judge. I've used the illustration before of the mountains out in Colorado.

Connie's from Colorado and when I first went out there, I was coming from the east. You see the mountain range and it looks like they're all just kind of standing there in a row together. But then when you go into the mountains, you see that these peaks that looked like they're just almost one flat two-dimensional object. You see, many of these peaks are miles, scores of miles apart from each other. Friends, that's what the prophecies in the Bible are like.

That Isaiah 26 that I read to you had some things that were fulfilled immediately when the Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem, but then God delivered them. It had other things that were fulfilled in the earthly ministry of Jesus. And Isaiah 26 had still other things that will be fulfilled at the Second Coming. Jesus' own ministry was like that. He was fulfilling those parts of the Messianic prophecies that were about the restoration and the redemption, the suffering servant.

Suffering is a substitute for us. There would be another coming in which the kingly, justice-bringing, judgment-dealing streams of Messianic prophecy would be completely fulfilled. But that was not the first coming, and praise God for that. If His first coming had come merely as a coming for justice, we would all be in hell. But He came to save sinners, and then finally He will come again at the end to judge.

Once Jesus began to teach this, these two streams of Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah began to make more sense. The suffering servant and the just judge. As Jesus said near the end of his earthly ministry to his disciple Thomas, when Jesus had told Thomas that he was leaving them, but he was leaving them because he was going to prepare a place for them, he said, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself. Brothers and sisters, just a couple of observations here. Isn't it interesting that when John sent these disciples with this question about, who Jesus was, Jesus didn't meet this question with some kind of pained offense.

Cousin John, of all people, you should know who I am. But Jesus met the question with confident, specific evidence. Jesus was uniquely fulfilling ancient prophecies of the one who is to come. And so He said so. Kids, it is not wrong to ask your parents for evidence of what they believe about God.

It is not wrong to ask for reasons why.

Surely what many parents around the world believe about God is not true.

So how can you know if Jesus really is who your parents say He is? If He really is the Savior, come from God.

Some of you are old enough to read this book by Greg Gilbert, who is Jesus. I would invite you to come and take one and read it. But ask your parents questions. Let them share with you some reasons, some evidence for the faith that they have in Jesus. But also notice that Jesus implies that having been given this evidence, John and John's disciples should now believe his claims.

Having been given evidence, we're now asked for faith. Friend, as you learn more of the truth about Jesus, that doesn't remove the role of faith in Him. In fact, it becomes the basis for your trusting Him. So it's not evidence versus faith, as it's so often wrongly put, but evidence fueling faith. Find more fuel for your faith by reading God's Word.

Study what Jesus says about himself, about what he came to do, and then believe in him. Jesus taught clearly that God made this world, that he made all of us, but that all of us have sinned against him. We've separated ourselves from God by our sins, and we've in fact called down his judgment and wrath upon us. And because God is good, he will judge everyone eternally in hell for our sins. And he is merciful that he's not already begun that judgment on all of us.

And yet, God also, in his goodness, has sent his only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, incarnate in Mary's son, born of a virgin, growing up in a living a life of perfect trust in his heavenly Father, the life that we should all live, but none of us have. And he laid down his life on the cross as a sacrifice in the place of all of us who would ever turn and trust in him. And God raised him from the dead and accepted that sacrifice and calls us all now to repent of our sins and to believe in Jesus, to trust him for our salvation. If you want to know more about what that means, talk to one of the people around you today. Even in the cold, my guess is they'll stand and talk to you about that at least for a few minutes.

After this. Learn what it means that this is good news and that why we Christians celebrate this season of Christmas, remembering the birth of Christ with such joy. See, John had his hopes for a kind of nationalism then, but this was the reality that Jesus taught him that would be even better. Than John's hopes. Finally, we should notice, number three, the choice.

Look at the odd way that Jesus finishes responding to John's question. It's the last verse in our passage, Luke chapter 7, verse 23. Jesus says, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

When you read the passage this week, did you wonder what Jesus meant by that? What did He mean by being offended by Him? Well, simply, I think that Jesus had not come as so many had expected Him. Perhaps John among them. He hadn't come in obvious power and kingly vengeance to burn up the chaff right now.

And so some could be surprised and even disappointed and perhaps therefore confused. That's the way people could stumble over the Messiah or be offended or scandalized by the way Jesus had come. When baby Jesus was brought to the temple in Jerusalem, old Simeon prophesied about Him, Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed. In fact, in the chapter just before ours in our text, in Luke, Jesus had alerted His followers to this strange blessing in Luke 6:22, Blessed are you when people hate you.

On account of the Son of Man. We can begin to see why Jesus would pretty soon teach explicitly about the cross He would die on and would invite those who wanted to follow Him to take up His cross.

So, friend, what about you? Are you scandalized by Jesus? This was what Jesus was kind of asking, John the Baptist. But it's true for all of us. Don't be tripped up by your expectations.

Let Jesus define for you who He is and what He came to do. His is the identity we need to be most concerned with. The Jewish nation may have been wanting a different Messiah than what they needed. They thought that what they most needed was one who would conquer the Romans, when what they really most needed was someone who would be crucified for their sins. All of Jesus' actions were meant to point to his identity.

The blind being given their sight pointed to the one who gave the sight, Jesus. The lame walking pointed to Jesus. The lepers cured and cleansed pointed to Jesus. The deaf hearing pointed to Jesus. The dead raised pointed to Jesus.

The poor hearing the gospel pointed to Jesus. Jesus is the point of it all. The religion of John the Baptist needed to be shaped by what Jesus was doing and teaching even then.

My non-Christian friend, it's not lost on us Christians that Jesus was not just offensive to many in His own day, but that He's offensive to many today as well. In the last few months, While some U.S. Senators have lined up to join our congregation in an amicus brief in asking the court to defend our rights, other senators have denounced former members of this church and other Christians by name and to their face as bigots and un-American simply because they believe in Jesus and what Jesus had taught. Freedom fades into begrudging tolerance before our very eyes.

But then we remember that we have no continuing home here. And our churchly vagabondage, wandering from place to place over this last year, simply reminds us of the spiritual truth that this world is not our home. This world is naturally offended at Jesus. And so if you feel tempted to be offended at Jesus today, if His mission and how He is accomplishing it is liable to disappoint you, what should you do? Let me suggest four brief things before we pray and go home today.

First, read. Read what Jesus taught. Read what He did. Read the prophecies He fulfilled. Read how the apostles, filled with His Spirit, later explained what He had said and done in the letters of the New Testament.

Spend time reading and studying the Bible. Get to know it better. My non-Christian friend, remember we have some copies of Greg Gilbert's book, even with appropriate seasonal red coloring up here. For you, if you want to come and take one of these afterwards and read it. Read.

Second, pray. God really exists. He's made us in His image to know Him. Go to Him in Jesus' name. Ask Him to make clear to you who Jesus is and who He's made you to be.

Pray. Third, remember. Bring to mind some of what's happened in your own life, what you've seen. Find those times when God has blessed you and shown His care and concern. Find those evidences of His faithfulness to His promises and realize that He calls us to trust Him even more than He calls us to always understand Him.

Have you ever seen Him allow something in your life you didn't like at the time, but then later you look back and you see, oh, that's why that happened. Remember and fourth believe. There's no one in the world more worth trusting than God. There's no one you've ever met or known that you should believe as much as you should believe God. There is as little chance of God making a mistake about you or your life as there is that you're about to be released by gravity and start falling up and hit that ceiling while I'm talking.

It's just not going to happen. And God's not going to fail. Believe Him.

Don't be offended at Jesus. Instead, read, pray, remember, and believe. Jesus said to His disciples, If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself. If you know Jesus and this about Jesus, you know plenty for heading on into the new year that's fast approaching. Let's pray.

Lord God, we thank you for the promises that you give us in and through Jesus. Teach us the truth about Him and about ourselves, we pray, even today. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.