Jesus Came as a KING

Matthew 2:1-12

“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose2 and have come to worship him.”

Thanks guys. Invite you to take your Bibles to Matthew chapter two this morning, Matthew chapter two. Um, There were, um, a number of Afghan refugees that were here at the nativity last night. And I didn’t know that the, uh, all those boxes had been delivered to Mike’s house. So I was just thinking maybe we could have an extra scene at the nativity and just have them go over to his house.

Matthew chapter two, I’m going to read verses one through 12 this morning, familiar passage. If you are familiar with the Christmas story now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise, men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he? Who has been born king of the Jews for, we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people. He inquired of them, where the Christ was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea for, so it is written by the prophet and you will, Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for, from you shall come a ruler who show shepherd.

My people, Israel then Herod summoned the Wiseman secretly and ascertained from them. What time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them, until it came to rest over the place where the child was, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going into the house.

They saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures. They offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country. By another way, Lord, we ask your guidance as we open your word this morning, help us, as we look at a familiar passage to remind us of familiar and perhaps new truths as we reflect on it today in Jesus name.

Amen. As you come to this passage, I want to just paint a scenario, the scene. And of course we’ve been in a series, sort of looking at some of the classic texts of the Christmas story of Jesus being introduced to individuals. And as we continue that we’re now coming to a scene that actually has taken place close to two years after Jesus’ birth.

If you think of all the events where the shepherd. Were were, uh, directed by the angels to go and see the Christ who had been born in a manger there outside of Bethlehem. It’s two years later. And as this has taken these two years have gone by apparently Joseph and Mary have stayed in Bethlehem. They have set up his carpentry business.

It’s a new town for them. It’s a town where they are beginning their lives as a new couple. And this is life has been going on. So we’re now looking at all those events. We’ve looked at in the, in the angelic, uh, coming to Mary, coming separately to Joseph coming in Nazareth coming now in Bethlehem, the host of angels that have come to the shepherds.

It’s two years in the rear view mirror that we see those events, which actually. It’s astonishing because here they are. And this young family has settled into the town where all this took place in what appears to be absolute obscurity. And we might wonder, how is this possible? I mean, these angels, apparently the word used of host usually represents thousands of angels to have appeared in the sky.

These shepherds have come and all of this has taken place. He’s even been dedicated in the temple, uh, to Simeon where another revelation has come a few days after his birth to, to SIM in it’s happening, come to Anna, an older woman there. I mean, all of this is going on and here they are setting up carpentry shop.

Two years later in a town that most people think had a few hundred residents, five miles from Jerusalem. And as we reflect on this, we come to this passage in Matthew chapter two, two years later, and this scene inherits court affirms that Jerusalem, basically slumbers in spiritual ignorance and indifference of the fact that the Messiah just down the road is growing up and is now a toddler right nearby.

We might ask the question why, I mean, how is this possible? And I would suggest that though, there are astonishing miracles associated with Jesus’ entrance into the. It was not God’s intention to use a megaphone, to announce the birth of Jesus. He did that with individuals. He did that in astonishing, miraculous ways, but he did it selectively and uniquely, he told shepherds who actually weren’t even qualified to go into the temple because they were considered unclean.

He did it to an obscure chef, a skewer young carpenter. He did it to a woman, both born up in a town of about three to 400 people in, in the, uh, in the Northern part of Galilee that had no relationship to Jerusalem whatsoever. He did it selectively uniquely, and he did it in the same way when he told the guys that we’re going to read about here in Matthew chapter two, these guys called the Wiseman.

This is such a vital view of spiritual reality. God must move first in revealing himself. It’s not by wisdom or goodness or zeal or religiosity that people encounter. Jesus, God makes himself known to people. He does it beautifully, and it brings incredible comfort to us. First of all, if you have embraced Jesus Christ as your savior, it is because God has moved into your life by his grace.

If you hear this morning to say, well, it hasn’t happened to me and I, and I it’s, I just, I hear about this, but as far as personal relationship, well, the very fact that you’re here, the very fact that you’re under the sound of a biblical teaching is indication that God is moving into your life to one degree or another.

And you say, well, I’m only here because my family makes me come on Christmas morning. And it’s only way I get to go out to lunch. You’re still here and I would suggest God is pursuing. We certainly see that in these pictures, in these Christmas encounters, we find that God has revealed his son and his entrance into the world with different features, highlighted to some in these, in these miraculous revelations, he has been seen as the savior for sinners.

For some, he is the, the prophesied Messiah as to some, he is the one identified with broken people. I think that’s the primary focus in, in, in Matthew chapter one, where he shows the lineage of, of Jesus and he, and he, and he has some appearing to this young, um, probably late teenaged carpenter named Joseph.

Here he comes and is presented as a king. It’s not surprising in the context in which he’s presented and to whom he’s revealed. But as we look at this, I want to just think of three aspects of Jesus being received as king. And we’re going to see the first one here in verse one and two, the threat of Jesus as king.

Let me read to you again. Verse one and two of chapter two. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise, men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he? You has been born king of the Jews for, we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

Now, the interesting person. That this news gets to is a guy named Herod, who is the ruler of the juice. Now, when you come to the palace and ask, where is the king? It is going to alarm the guy sitting on the throne, especially this guy. Now I was a history major. I love history to me. I love the stories.

That’s what history is to me, but I know not everybody loves history. So I’m going to say this at the beginning. I’m going to spend a little time giving you some history. I think it’s going to be worth your while, but hang with me. Okay. Herod is actually a man who is known as Herod. The great. Herod the great has at this point of his life is about seven years old.

Actually, he’s going to die within the next year. A couple of years, actually, he’s going to die within, um, just about a year. He has been on the throne for almost 35 years as the ruler of Judea. I do Mia, some of the other areas that are along the Mediterranean sea, where he is located, he is ruling, but he is not under an independent rule because he is answerable to the, the oversight of Rome.

But he’s still he’s the ruler. Uh, here’s what took place. And 68 D the Romans reached the farthest they ever reached in their history. After four centuries, they began to reach farther eastward. They now came to the very Eastern most part of the Mediterranean sea to the land that bordered the Mediterranean sea, a land that we know as Palestine or the holy land, and along that Eastern part of the Mediterranean sea.

And if you could, if you’ve ever done Bible stuff, you know, it’s divided this at the low body of water up here, that’s called the sea of Galilee. There’s a bigger body of water down here. That’s the dead sea. And they’re both inland from the Mediterranean sea. Okay. See a Galilee dead sea. And there’s a river that goes down.

The Jordan river. Most of this area is an area called Judea. There’s an area called Samaria and Syria, all that was a part of it. But down here below the dead sea, on the Eastern side of the dead sea, there was this land called. When the Romans came in in 68 D and began to try to take over this whole region, there was a ruling party.

They were Jews. They had been ruling for 103 years at the time they were called . It was a family of Jews that, that had tremendous influence. And they basically had their own little kingdom. It’s where the, the, the Jews lived when the Roman started encroaching into this area in 60 BC, the EDA mites. Again, this group down here to the Eastern part of the dead sea, and the area was now called.

I do Mia because the Greek form of Edam is I do Mia. The ado Meehan’s supported the Romans particularly. Two prominent members of the, I do means to eat a mites, a guy named, uh, well, I won’t even, I’m not going to give it too many names, a father and a son, the son who was Harriet. Okay. You with me so far, the dad died.

Carrot became the primary mover, shaker and tie the Jewish establishment. Even though he was familiar with the Jews, he was, uh, very familiar with the Jewish traditions, the teachings, all that stuff, but he became the local supporter of the Romans coming in. Eventually the Romans completely vanquished the, the, the Israelite stronghold and, and ruling family.

And not surprisingly in 37, BC Herod sailed to Rome and was installed as the. And conferred with the title by the Senate of Rome, with this title king of the Jews hated by the religious ISTEP, the Jewish establishment for now decades.

He was a man that tried during his reign to win the Jews over. He did things like he actually rebuilt the temple and expanded it. That’s why in Jesus’ day, it was known as Herod’s temple. He did many big building establishments and port cities. He was known as Herod the great largely because of the way he expanded the influence of this part of the, the, the, the empire.

He actually, he was married, but he took a second wife who is a Jewish and she was a member of the hazmat Sonian dynasty. She was trying to, he was trying to Curry favor with the fam who had been over the juice, but basically the overwhelming priority inherits life was to protect his throne. It was his greatest ambition.

Anyone who posed a threat was removed. Anyone who’s suspected of disloyalty lost their properties and holdings, even though he is known historically as Herod the great, he was despised in Jewish records of the day. He did things like this. He had two brothers in law killed because he felt they weren’t loyal.

He killed his mother-in-law, who was one of that Jewish ruling. He also killed his Jewish wife because he thought she was being unfaithful to him over a period of years, he killed three different sons. The latest of which was the very year that the wise men showed up in Jerusalem. Okay. So here’s a guy that you don’t want to come in and say, Hey, where’s the one, that’s the rightful heir to the throne.

Where’s the real king of the Jews. It’s not surprising at all to see Harrod’s internal response to the wise men. It’s totally in character. Now. It’s interesting. If you read the text, the wise men don’t first come to the palace. That’s how we all think of the story. That’s how I think of the story. But basically the wise men are in the town of Jerusalem, about 80,000 people in the town.

And at while they’re, their word is getting out that these mucky mucks from Persia have come and they’re asking where’s he this born king of the Jews and not surprisingly, it, it says that Herod was disturbed. This may be one of the classic understatements of history. He was disturbed and the whole city’s disturb.

What is this? What is it going on? The first thing Herod do does is not bring the guys in for a conference. It says he first consulted describes, he knew enough of the scripture to know there were all kinds of old Testament. Prophecy say says, whereas the one that is supposed to be born king of the Jews, the son of David, he knew the he’ll Testament, promises of Messiah.

Where’s he going to be born? They said Bethlehem, which was just down the street from Jerusalem. Then he brings the Wiseman in and he’s, it says it’s a secret meeting. This is not a public audience. It’s a private audience. He’s meeting with them secretly. And it’s interesting that he does not do, we will, we might expect him to do, which is to take these guys and to basically put them on the rack and say, where’s he going to be born?

What do you know, where did this, what do you, how did you find out about this now? He doesn’t use power. He uses guile. He just says, oh yeah, I’m I’m in. I’m I’m excited. About what you’re telling us that, that the king, where is it going to be born? Because I want to go and worship him too. And so they promise apparently that they’ll tell they’ll come back and tell him, of course, as you know, the story of the angel says, don’t go because he’s going to try to kill the child.

So they leave. But here’s the scenario. Herod is doing everything. Why he is determined to not share his throne with anybody, no interlopers, nobody else coming. Nobody going to tell him who his, who who’s going to be his heir to the throne. Nobody’s going to threaten him. Nobody is going to come and unseat Herod from his own throne, I believe.

And remember, of course, all of the records we have of the gospels are chosen by the spirit of God, from thousands upon thousands of stories and accounts that could have been told to. I believe one of the reason God chose us this account is to just give us a picture of what goes on in our own lives.

When the king comes to the door of our lives, king Herod’s reaction to Christ is in a sense, a picture of all of us. If you want to be king and someone else comes along saying he is the king, then one of you has to give in only one person can sit on a throne. Romans chapter eight says an interesting thing about us.

It says for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. When it says the mind that is said in Romans chapter eight, it’s talking about our natural state. Uh, before we, we embrace Christ and his changing, uh, nature in our lives. He says, this is our natural state. We are hostile to God for it does not submit to God’s law.

Indeed. It cannot. Those are in the flesh. Cannot please. God. The focus on highlighting is this word hostile. The word hostile means literally that we are at war that God has an enemy, a threat he’s trying to take over at the core of the human heart is the impulse. No one tells me what to do. There is a natural enmity of the human heart against all claims of sovereignty over it.

It rises a little when minor claims are made over us, but Jesus’ claims of authority are total. He says, I come as to king. And this picture we have of Herod is, is the fact that when Jesus. Offers himself to come into a person’s life. And there is the beauty of grace and there is the beauty of, of, of, uh, forgiveness.

There is also the reality. And if I yield my life to Jesus Christ, if I say yes to Christ, I am saying yes to him as Lord of my life, there is a threat of Jesus coming in as king Tim Keller says it beautifully. I think this way, he says this, we want at all costs to remain on the throne of our lives. We may use religion to stay on that throne, trying to put God in the position of having to do our bidding because we are so righteous rather than serving him unconditionally.

Or we may flee from religion, become atheists and loudly claim that there is no God, either way. We’re expressing our natural hostility to the Lordship of the true king. Jesus comes to earth as. And it is threatening initially to our natures to say, what do you mean I’m not in charge anymore? What do you mean?

He comes in as, as Lord I’d I’d like to, I like the free bus ticket to heaven, but what do you mean? Well, it’s part of embracing Christ as savior of our lives. The offering of Jesus is interesting in this passage, he’s offered to people near to the truth. I mentioned that Herod was raised in this area of Edam or in the day it was called.

I do Mia and historical records of the time indicate that Herod came from a background that was very familiar with the Israelite teaching. As a matter of fact, Eden by this point had sort of been, even though they were a separate cultural state, they largely did practice the, the Israeli faith, at least many of them did.

He was familiar with the scriptures. He knew the religious system of the Jews.

His response to the statement, where is the one that is born king of the Jews is not what I would have expected. You know, this is a guy who has been declined. I mean, I think what he would have done, what I would’ve expected him to do is where is he? That is born king of the Jews. And he runs into his inner palace office and he brings out this plaque and he says, do you read this plaque from the Roman Senate?

We declare that Herod is the king of the Jews. What do you mean whose born king of the Jews?

But he doesn’t do that. Why? Because he knew what the term meant. He was familiar with the concept that there was a coming king on. That would be, that was air to the Davidic throne. He knew he was not that he knew there were promises. He knew truth. Inherit was aware of these things. He knew the promise. He knew the prophecies.

And when he heard the message, Herod was confronted with a choice, will I find out if this is the real one in order that I might yield my life to him, or will I view him as a threat coming after the throne that I want to sit upon both physically and in my life. There’s a second group of people where Jesus is offered as king.

It’s talking to them as, and I’m calling them the people far off. And this is verse one. And the whole section about the wise men from the east that we see a couple of things in how God moves into people’s life. That seemed far off. These are people that may not have that same level of, of spiritual awareness that a heritage would certainly have living just a few miles from.

These are the wise men from the east. And as we read this passage, we hear that what has drawn them is a star that they saw a bright light in the sky. There are different perspectives of what this is. I’ll just say that the two most prominent ones that are presented one is the fact that there actually was at this time, historically, a, uh, conjunction of planets that only happens once every 800 years, uh, Johan coupler in the 16 hundreds, saw it again.

It’s where Venus and Jupiter sort of combined. And they, they, they both doubled their light and bright light in the sky. And he pressed postulated that it was this, that happened because he looked back and saw the centuries. And he said, this was right around the time in which Jesus was born. It’s possible.

It was something like that that got used. It’s possible. Also as many have conjectured that this was another manifestation of God’s glory though, the pillar of fire by night that led the Israelites. It sort of argues for something like that, because it’s pretty localized, right? I mean, when you come and, and, and all of a sudden it disappears and it, when these guys get to Jerusalem and they don’t know where to go from there.

And then all of a sudden it shows up and it takes them right to the very place, five miles away when it reappears to Bethlehem. But whatever it was, it was something where God moved to make himself known to these men. We find also that God moved with creativity. And this is my favorite part of the sermon.

We, these wise men were called Majayang is actually what the word Wiseman is translated from the word Majayang is the word we get magic. These were prominent people. It explains why Herod was not inclined to put these guys on the rack or to try to, to try to Powerball them. These were prominent people, Matt Jai, where the individuals that studied the stars.

It’s interesting in the book of Daniel, Daniel is called a magic. He was an individual that interpreted for the Kings. They were counselors for Kings. They were individuals that, that, that focused and, uh, particularly on the stellar beings, they were in that sense. Astronomers the word astronomer, Astro stars, no Moss Wiens name.

They, they named and categorized. But they also were astrologers. They studied the stars. They tried to derive messages and meanings from it, both terms, astrology, and astronomy in the match. I were combined together. They had incredible influence in their cultures. As a matter of fact, their nickname was kingmakers.

They were the ones that would actually, uh, have to pass on the coronation of Kings in Persia and Babylon. And these men came certainly with great fanfare and regalia. And the gifts they give to Jesus are astoundingly valuable. They come as prominent individuals, but their focus of life, their language is the stars.

God speaks to them in their own language. God makes himself known in a place that most people would have had no meaning, no value. No, they wouldn’t have got it. This bright light. They recognize something there. The language of these men, the students of the heavens are where they looked where others would not Don Richardson, who has written a few books.

Stun Richardson was a missionary in, uh, uh, Erie and Jaya believe it was many years ago. And he, and he ended up becoming a mission executive. He’s written a number of books. And one of the books he calls he has written is called eternity in their hearts. It’s a book that is, uh, the title comes from Ecclesiastes three 11, where it says God has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the human heart. His argument in the book is that, and it was his experience on the mission field. And he Chronicles missions experience after missions experience of others that he talked to, that God in every culture has placed, uh, this, this language, this revelation of himself within, uh, even the most seemingly dark and pagan of religions, eternity in their hearts is basically his argument that God creatively makes himself known to people.

He uses the illustration. If any of you have read the story piece child, it’s a perfect example. He was dealing with a tribe that was that utterly had it seeming no values of biblical Christianity. As a matter of fact, the highest thing they valued was the, uh, practice of Beatrice. That the more you could win someone’s friendship, whether it was a friend or a w uh, particularly whether it was a native tribe, a neighboring tribe, and you could deceive them into thinking you were at peace and then you could kill them.

Was the highest level of, uh, merit that you could gain. B how do you, how do you try to communicate the gospel to people whose value system seems to be completely topsy turvy, to biblical Christianity and, and biblical faith. And so for four years, he was laboring there. And one day there was a great tribal conflict between tribes that had been betraying each other for generations, they were, they were going to war and in the midst of the warfare, the tribe that he was familiar with, decided to end the battle.

And what he did was he actually, the chief brought out his infants. And offered his infant son, uh, to the opposing tribe. And Don Richardson was a gas, you’d know what was going on. And then he found out as he talked to the chief and others, that the only way you could end conflict between people was with the gift of what they called the peace child.

It had to be the son and the king had to be willing to slay the sun in the presence of, or he could give it, it was up to the other. And, and Don Richardson said here was the visual that God, this redemptive analogy, as he called them, the redemptive analogy was built into the culture of these people. And he used that to present.

This is what God has done. He has provided peace with you who are at war with him through the offering of his own son. And Richards is an argues that in every culture there are these redemptive analogy. The picture that I think we’re reminded of with the Wiseman is the creativeness of God in reaching people.

It’s why God seems to be just completely unlimited in the creativity he can use. He uses dreams of some people to just awaken in them questions. He uses failure. He uses setbacks. He uses other people. He uses, uh, inner disco, disquiet. He uses all these different ways. And sometimes with wise men, he uses stars.

I remember sitting in a doctor’s office years ago, and it was a time where I was deeply burdened with some individuals in my life. I just hungered to see that. Embrace Christ. And I just didn’t see any movement. And in this doctor’s office, I picked up a magazine as those in the waiting room. And it began to read and happened to be about, uh, a doctor of philosophy.

And this doctor philosophy was talking about, um, he had as a, in his doctoral program, he was a specialist in the existentialist and the existentialist, um, Albert Kamoo, uh, John Paul, uh, Starcher these individuals. And if you’ve studied existentialism at all, I actually love existentialism. Uh, as far as, I mean, it’s totally dark.

Christ centered at all, but they’re honest. And the result of existentialism is to say basically in ourselves, life is meaningless that we can derive a purpose. That means it’s very dark and empty. If you just study honestly, existentialism, it has no answers. And it says life is like that. And it’s why the whole concept of the absurd and the theater of the absurd is all associated with existentials.

This guy was studying existentialism and as he studied it, and as he meditated on it, and as the editors, he did his paper and his, his doctoral defenses, he was struck with the emptiness of life. And it was that which caused him to go back to his Sunday school roots and to think about what he had heard there’s about, about Christ coming and, and, and the title of the article was this.

Wait a minute. I wonder, I thought I would remember it and I don’t. So I’m going to read it, the title of his article.

Oh, I know what it was. I was led to Christ by an existentialist. I love that. And I cried. I sat in the waiting room and I just felt like the Lord said, mark, I’m very creative. I’m very able to move in the lives of people in ways. I mean, who would have thought? Yeah, here’s a good evangelism plan. Read some, uh yeah.

What in the world? How can that possibly it can with a God that can take stars to bring people 1200 miles away to come and be drawn. God is so sovereignly creative in working in people’s lives. The beautiful hope for us is the answer to the question. Yeah. But what about people that have never heard, you know, that haven’t grown up in Jerusalem like Herod did?

Well, God has a way of working with his redemptive analogies and his creativity with the wise men who seemed to be living in the most steep darkness of the vestiges of the Persian empire, where nobody knows the gospel has gone to make himself known.

The result is what our responsibility is. Then the embracing of Jesus is king. It involved pursuit of him. The magi had to leave their Homeland to go to Judea, a journey of between a thousand or 1200 miles. It’s why when they first saw the star. And they actually get there. It’s somewhere between a year and two years that they’ve Herod has learned that much because that’s the age of the kids he’s going to kill in, in Bethlehem and trying to wipe out Jesus.

They were God seekers responding to the light they’d been given in Jeremiah 29, verse 13. It says this, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. This is the response that God asks, be a seeker. If God is real. God is able to make himself known if God is real and maybe you’re here today, or maybe you’re listening online.

You say, God, I don’t know. I, I grew up in the church. It didn’t work for me and it, and, and, and, but I, I do sort of wish I, you know, I would like to have a God. I would like to be a guy. I would like to be a gun. Then look for him. I challenge you to go to his word, not because, and don’t go with your Sunday school class eyes.

Just go to the scripture. I mean, if he’s real, if he’s big, if this is possibly his book, he can certainly make himself known to you. You might also be surprised to see the unusual ways he’ll show up as well. He is creative. God. He is able to make himself known, but don’t just sit back, waiting for a zap to come be a seeker.

Listen, look. Pursue God speaks in the languages of astrologists with stars. God speaks in the language of, of pagan warlike people with a, with a redemptive analogy that speaks exactly to the picture of Christ. God is creative and God can make himself known if you seek him. The other thing we find is it involved vowing to him.

It says this in verse 10, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. This is after they left Jerusalem and they’re sort of waiting for something to show a, they don’t know where to go and going into the house. They saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him again.

Maybe the greatest scene for me, the one I loved the most suit, certainly not most theologically important scene, but it’s my favorite scene is where the wise man. Kingmakers fall prostrate before Christ. They did that. Herod didn’t Harriet had more knowledge. He had more biblical truth. He had more opportunity.

He did not want to yield the throne. It’s the one constant reality in the life of anyone that ultimately rejects Christ people with great revelation that have been given to them, people with very little revelation, but there must be the willingness to, to seed the throne of our hearts to Christ. He comes as king.

Maybe, you know him and maybe this morning is challenged to you. As you know, I’m not just designed to be your, your bud and I am your friend and I am your brother. And, and, but I’m also your king. Or maybe you’ve not embraced Christ. Maybe you’ve not really gone to the other side of the glass. It’s just sort of a look in because you really haven’t been willing to say, Lord, I need you.

I want you, I’m willing to give you the throne of my life. I don’t know what it means. I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but Jesus does come as savior, but Jesus also comes as king Lord. We thank you for your willingness to creatively work in our lives. We thank you for the creative way that you pursued.

Every one of us, the names, the name of Christ as savior and king Lord keep doing that, do that in the heart of all those many, many hundreds of people that are represented in each of our lives. As people were just long to see. No, you love you bow the knee to you. Lord creatively. Pursue them. I pray today in Jesus name.

Amen.