The Road after (part 1).

We're going to continue reading in Luke today. And if you were here last Sunday for Easter, one of the things that I really felt like the Lord kept highlighting and putting on my heart was this idea that we don't want to dismiss the power of the resurrection and miss what God still wants to do in our lives today.

So then this week we kind of were like, you know what, I feel like there's just still more in this passage that we have to talk about that the Lord is revealing. And so we're going to spend just a couple more Sundays in Luke. And so we're going to start reading today, and it should be on the screen as well.

Now at the same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them. But they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk along? They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened here in these days? What things, he asked, about Jesus of Nazareth. They replied, He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The sheep priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who had said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said. But they did not see Jesus. He said to them, How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them that which was said in all scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, stay with us, for it is nearly evening. The day is almost over, so he went to stay with them.

Luke 24:13-29

Prayer for open hearts

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that we get to hear directly from your heart today through the power of your word that we get to come and experience the power of your Holy Spirit. God, that you are with us in the same way that you are walking alongside and you are with those men. God, that you are with us here through the power of your Holy Spirit. That you want to talk to us, you want to meet with us. And so God, we just welcome your Holy Spirit. God, I pray that none of us would leave this place without hearing directly from you. So God, we just open up our hearts to receive. We open up our ears to hear whatever it is that you have for us. And we ask God that you would speak. In your name we pray. Amen.

Okay, so again, I'm just going to kind of give you the main thing that I want you to get out of this message. And our big so what today is that Jesus came for relationship. He resurrected for relationship with you. And he is still pursuing relationship with us today. And so now what do we do with that? Well, we have to invest in our relationship with Jesus.

So like I said, it's a week from Easter, and we're kind of supposed to be done wrapping up the story, but there's just so much here. And I want us to take a minute to kind of set the scene of what was happening, and I want you to try and make sure what you would have done in this moment. So these men had heard what happened, and they're walking alongside, and they are talking about Jesus. They're asking each other these questions.

And it says things like past tense where it says we had hoped he was going to be the one to redeem Israel. Right? So that is coming up that something had shifted down in their hearts where like they didn't have that hope anymore. Because it was the third day and Jesus said by that point he was going to be raised back to life. And little do they know if they are talking about Jesus that they're actually talking to Jesus.

And he's kind of like, hey, can I be in on this conversation? And I think again, and sometimes we look at these moments and we think, well, surely they would have known that it was Jesus standing there. Surely. Well, apparently a lot of people saw him and didn't recognize him. And maybe somebody here would have been that one special person. And you're like the chosen one that would have known that it was Jesus. But so many people saw him and dismissed it and did not recognize that the one they were talking about was trying to talk to them. And instead they were so busy just going to what was ahead and what was next that they missed the Jesus that was right there in their midst, in their presence.

Undercover Jesus

Now I want to go through a couple different things here today, but as I thought of this, one of the only ways that I could try and picture what this would be like is, I know you've ever seen that show Undercover Boss before, okay? So like, it's an undercover boss, right? I think you have a clean day, I think you can kind of get what I'm trying to say here. So the boss goes in and he's undercover. And then one of the things is they start asking the employees, like, after sending time with them, they start eventually, like, there's like, oh, happy life working here. And then they get to the real questions where they're like, tell me the worst thing that's ever happened to you and what you hate about this place. And then they get the honesty, right, after time.

And I kind of love this about Jesus, that at first he didn't just say, hey guys, it's me. Hello, welcome back. But he took time to talk with them, and he had these honest conversations where they're like, we have hoped, and now we don't know anymore, and now we have these questions. And doesn't God even show us so much about our Jesus? It's that he wants to have the full version of our whole selves. He wants us to be honest with him and to know that he can handle our honest questions. He can handle our honest doubts of what we're feeling, and he wants to walk with us anyways. He didn't just say the second that they said we had hoped and now we're kind of not sure. He didn't walk away them. He continued to walk with them.

But what I love here is who Jesus came to. He first came to this man named Cleopas, which we really don't know much about. And in a way, he would look at scripture and say he wasn't a very important person. Right? He was just a common man. Then he does eventually appear to his eleven apostles, but not in some significant, again, apparent way. We talked about, well, last week that he appears to the women, and the women are some of the first to go and to preach the gospel, but we see that he just keeps appearing in these common yet unexpected ways.

A couple years ago, I went to see one of my favorite artists at the time. And I remember I was in Chicago at this big outdoor venue, and he had gone first, and so he was like the first one to open up for this other band. And I'm like sitting there with all my friends, and I'm like, this is so amazing in this moment. I'm like, he's like a celebrity, I mean he kind of is, but he's like, he's a celebrity, he's famous, like all of this stuff.

And the second that the next band starts playing, all of a sudden I look over and one of my friends just goes, oh my gosh, look. And no joke, like I'm sitting here and I'm still getting a blanket, I'm getting some sushi that night, it was real great. And all of a sudden he's like walking right next to the blanket, but just like a normal person. And I just kind of like look and I'm like, that's it, that's it, that's it, that's it, right? And I think sometimes when we see like people and places where we're not expecting them, like famous people, there's usually like one or two responses.

It's either we don't approach them because we don't recognize them, and that with like everybody else. I'm like, he's just like sitting there like grooving to the next day. I'm like, does nobody else see what is happening right here? We either got roached because we don't recognize them, or in my case, you're just scared to death. And you feel like you can't approach them, right? You feel like there's no way that I could approach that person. And I didn't because I was way too scared. The only celebrity I've ever roached is a contestant from The Bachelorette, from Rachel's season, and I think how much it should be. It was great.

But that's it. We spent a lot of time to have those responses where we're like, what do I do? And I wonder for how many people they didn't recognize him. And then how many people were wondering, oh my gosh, like, can I approach Jesus? But here's the thing. He didn't make them come together. He didn't make them react to him. He came to them. He appeared to them. He showed them, yes, you can still come to me. You can still walk with me because here the thing about Jesus. In that pre and resurrected Jesus when he came back he still the same Jesus with the same character the same quality and the same pursuit of relationship with you. And he wants to continue to show up and surprise us and to appear to us, even in moments that maybe we are not expecting it.

But we often don't see Jesus because he doesn't show up like we expect him to. Again, I want you to put yourself in that scene where all of a sudden Jesus is raised back to life. Raised back to life, and he's just kind of chilling, walking along. Isn't that Jesus? You see, so many people, they were expecting this big, like, conquering Messiah, and they get this crucified, humble man. So many people, they were expecting him to come back, even as a politician, right? And at first they didn't see him before he was crucified and raised back to life with that, but I can't help but think, we're thinking, well, once he's raised back to life, then he's going to be like the world's type of power. Then he's going to be some great politician, but still he was just this humble prophet. Right? They were waiting for this glorious lion of Judah, and instead they get this gentle lamb of God that was slain to pay the price for their sins.

You see, even when Jesus was raised back to life, there's so many ways that he could have come in, he could have established this power that the world wanted him to he still shifted the complete narrative of what it looks like. So they didn't expect it. And I can't help but wonder about how intentional Jesus still was as he was walking with them. That when Jesus appeared to them, that again, he didn't just say, hey, it's me, it's Jesus, and he took time to hear how they were feeling, he took time to listen to their questions.

I look at this as still Jesus discipling the people around him as Jesus still training them what it looks like to be with him but yet they still could not see him. See the reality that we get to live in today when it comes to the power of God who Jesus wants to be is realizing that Jesus longs to do life with us and to partner with us. Not just to sit next to us or rule above us, right? And sometimes that's so hard for us to understand in our human idea of what power looks like. But we see this demonstrated time and time again that when Jesus rose around me, it wasn't this like big switch of like, this is who I am before I'm raised back to life. He was still the same Jesus. And even so much, I think, man, if I was Jesus, I would have been running straight to Pontius Pilate himself and being like, look at me now. Look at me now.

But he doesn't. That's not who he goes to. He appears to common people. He appears to women who have been dismissed in the past. He didn't come back again as high and mighty, and it shows us that he was still concerned first about relationship and now just getting revenge. That Jesus' priority was still to go after those who were seeking him. He still wasn't after his worldly status. He didn't mean that. And he shows us that time and time again.

But I just can't help but think what it would have been like for those men if only they knew that they, as they're talking about Jesus, that they're asking each other those questions, that Jesus was just standing there waiting for them to turn to him. And how many times in our own lives do we sit around and we keep talking about Jesus? We keep asking each other these questions. When we have the written word of God, that we can sit before his Holy Spirit that is within us, that we can talk to him and we can commune with him and be with him. And so, again, if there's a very good thing that you get out of this today, know that Jesus wants to be with you. He wants to talk to you. He wants to speak to you. And he showed this next.

A table for communion

The next thing that we see that Jesus does, that we hear from these common people, is he just ate with them in this common place. And we see that once again, he's taking the common and making it divine. So we're going to keep reading the scripture today. And I'm also going to silence my computer. That is somebody's texting me right now. All right, let me keep reading the scripture. It says:

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared from their sight. That had to be a really funny moment. I just want to know sometimes, like, God, what are you thinking in these moments? Then they asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us? Well, he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven and thirty of them, assembled together, saying, it is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them, and they broke the bread. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. So now Jesus is back. He like disappears. He's back. There's a lot going on here. They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, Why are you troubled? Again, guys, I just love sometimes humor in Scripture. Jesus is like, Why are you troubled? It's like, Because you disappeared, and then you came back. That's why I'm troubled here. And he says, look at my hands and feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. When he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

Luke 24:30-40

All right, so what I love about this is that Jesus is showing us that he's kind of like the show and tell God, right? Where I think there's so many different ways that God has been chosen to save the world and to give us opportunity to have a relationship with him forever, but he does it through sending Jesus so that we can physically see God in humankind, like God in flesh, like coming in. And that's such a beautiful thing that we get to experience. And so Jesus isn't just saying, he's like, I'm not just going to stand off here and shout things at you. He's like, see. Come see my hands. Come see it. And then the next thing that I love that we see here is that he stays long enough to what it says to explain all things. He stays long enough. So he sits with them, he shows them, and he stays long enough to explain all things. You see, what I see here is that Jesus knew that experience enough wasn't going to be able to sustain them.

So he wanted to remind them of the scriptures. He wanted to remind them of all the things that he had done. But more than anything, we see that he does this once again in a common space. Do you think it's so easy for us to separate the sacred and the secular and the common and the place where we can come and meet with God? But Jesus is showing them once again, like, I want to come into all areas of your life. The ones where you show up expecting me, the ones where you show up and you have no idea that that's the place that I want to come and be.

Jesus wants to show up, not just to meet with us, but also to use us to help other people experience his glory. Now there's a few things about the way that I live my life that sometimes it finds people when I talk about it. A lot of times right? Like I speak and people hear me talk and they're like, oh, she must be really extroverted and not knowing and I am not. I need my own time. I need my quiet. And when I travel it's usually one of those times where I wish and sometimes I'm like I feel guilty because I'm like I wish I was that pastor that's like everywhere I'm at I'm like I just want to talk to everybody and I want to hear your life story. And what's funny is that like that tends to happen to me a lot, but it's usually like it just happens and I'm like, okay, here we go. We can do this.

I'm not like I'm like going after it, which again, we're working on it. The Lord's changing my life constantly. But a few weeks ago when I was traveling, I had a couple really long Uber rides, like really long. And every single one, I got their whole life story. And by like the third one, I was like, Lord, please, I just want to look out the window and around stuff. And he's like, don't tell you, Abbie. You've got a friendly one again.

And again, I'm just not like a terrible person because I love talking to people. I'm hearing their life story. But something does happen. Like, I do feel like it's hard for me to relate. I'm like, how do you hear your faith, you know, not in the church? Because it happens real quick. Someone says, what do you do for a living? I'm a pastor. They must name me for a priest. They think they're a confessional, and next thing you know, I know everything they've ever done in their life.

And we're there. The things I know about strangers. But by that, I don't even have dinner. Okay, I have dinner with some friends before my flight. And I just yoke with them. I was like, hi. I was like, I've had the most spiritual conversations. You would believe the things I've talked about with Uber drivers. I'm like, Lord bless those conversations. I was like, I just really love that I can have a nice restaurant flight before I get home late at night and have to get up for the work week on Monday. And the Lord had other plans, my friends. We get on the flight, and no jokes, of course it starts. And, you know, I said hi to the woman, and she says hi. And she's like, oh, you're flying back from Madison? Yeah, I'm flying back from Madison. She asked me what I do. I say to the pastor, and bam, there it happens. She starts telling me everything.

But it was one of those holy moments where I was like, Lord, I cannot deny that you are here. Your spirit is meeting me right here in this space. And it ended up being this beautiful conversation where this woman was never set foot in a church before and she had all these questions about the Jesus that we believe in and I find myself like stuttering to tell her like the basic gospel. She like well what about this and what about that? And I get to share with her all this stuff, and then she ends it with, like, well, why do you believe this stuff? And I got to share with this woman about how Jesus has changed my life and continues to change my life, and that I'm so in love with him that I can't look anywhere else but to following him and giving my life for him and we got to sit there and I got to tell her that, you know, about our church because she's from Madison and invite her to come and to get her number and to have this relationship all in this space where I, if I'm being honest, not only was I not expecting God to show up, but I didn't really want him to in the moment.

I wanted my peace. I wanted my quiet. And God's like, but I'm moving and I'm stirring things in people's hearts that I need you to be willing to partner with me and to participate and helping the kingdom come here to earth. Because this is the thing. The last thing we see that Jesus does is he ascended into heaven and he empowered us to partner with him in fulfilling his mission.

And Pastor Neville is going to talk about that more next week. But one of the things that we see a lot that we end up doing is sometimes if we're not here, when we get to this place, when we invite Jesus to come and to be Lord of our lives, when we surrender our lives to him, and then we just think, okay, now I'm just going to wait until someday I go to heaven. But what if Jesus wasn't raised back to life so that we could just wait until earth goes to heaven? But what if he was raised back to life so that heaven could come down to earth and that because he lived, we too can live in a way where everywhere we go, heaven is coming down to earth. What if we didn't have to just wait until we die to experience the fullness of who Jesus is, but we can believe what the Bible tells us, that he came from heaven to earth so that we can experience life and experience it to the full in the here and now and partner with him in fulfilling his mission.

We're going to keep reading this last part of Luke 24. It says:

And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, do you have anything to eat? They gave him a piece of royal fish and took it in his presence. He said to them, this is what I do believe while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. What is written? The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached and in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. I'm going to send you what my father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on.

Luke 24:41-49

So here's the thing, and sometimes we can skip over pieces like this. He's like, what is he talking about? He's explaining scriptures and the prophets and all of that. But what he's doing is he's referencing a couple different things. He's referencing in Genesis 22, which you can go back, where there's certain things that he's saying, trying to make come to life for them, that maybe brings back to life is fulfilling what the Old Testament has said. He's also referencing a time in Psalms 22.

And here's the interesting thing about these scriptures. So in Genesis 22 is the first time that love was mentioned in a sacrificial way. When Abraham sacrificed Isaac, and that was the same mountain that Jesus would later be sacrificing. In Psalm 22, it gives detailed account of the crucifixion, but at that time, that was hundreds of years before the crucifixion was even invented. So Jesus is helping them see through both experience, right? So he's showing them, like, here, see my hands. Come, you're eating with me. And even that, that he's eating, to show them, like, I'm not a ghost. I need to eat. I'm fleshed. I'm hungry. I'm human. Give me something to eat. So he's showing them. He's giving them this experience, not close and personal, but he's also telling them what scriptures have said.

Once again, pointing to that, he's like, I'm going to show you, but I'm also going to tell you the truth and the prophecies of what had happened. There were so many prophecies that Jesus came and he fulfilled. Nobody could ever, ever do anything like that. Now, a lot of people make a lot of predictions, right? A lot of predictions. But it's hard to then actually fulfill those prophecies. I mean, I can stand up here and I can predict, like, hey, one day, like, I'm going to have a child. No, like, that's pretty likely. I potentially could someday have a child. Even if not physically, I could adopt a child. There's a lot of ways that then I could kind of fit that to come together. But when Jesus is saying, and when the old husband is saying, he's going to come and he's going to be raised back to life. This one theologian, Peter Stoner, who said that the eye of someone fulfilling even eight of the prophecies of a wild side over Jesus is one in ten to the seventeenth power. And another way, if you're not a math person like me, another way you can think of this is that if you fill the state of Texas two feet thick with silver dollars and you pre-mark one of them with a dot, and you told someone blindfolded to go and to find that silver dollar the blackjack, the likelihood of them finding that is the same likelihood that Jesus could have fulfilled every single prophecy and every single prediction that was ever made about him.

So he wanted them to know and to remember that this has been prophesied that this has been told to you and that this is both something that I want you to see and I want you to hear. So why does this matter that he's explaining this stuff? Well, again, I can explain to the character God, that he's willing to sit with them with other questions, that he's willing to help them see it in all these different ways, and then it's showing us that we do need both his word and his wonder, because again, Jesus knew that these experiential moments weren't going to be enough, but they needed the power of his word, and then the power of his Holy Spirit, which he promises at the end of this to come.

See, the thing is that we see here is for us to walk by faith is to walk without sight. And so we're going to need moments where we sit with Jesus, where we experience him face to face. And we allow him to come in and continue to speak to us and to know us. But what I love is that Jesus revealed himself to them orally through the word, where he reminded them of these things. And he did that also by breaking the bread when it says that their eyes were open. Because they're reminded of his broken body. They were reminded of that last supper with him. They were reminded of the experience that they had.

And so sometimes I think we find ourselves in these places where we're just waiting for Jesus. We're waiting for him to come. We're waiting for him to speak to us, to say something. And I want to encourage you today that if you're in a place like that, maybe go back and think, when is the last time I experienced Jesus? And do I need to be reminded of them? Well, what is the scripture telling me about Jesus? And do I need to be reminded of that? Because again, way too much of our life is waiting for heaven. Waiting for Jesus to take us to heaven, to take earth to heaven when he came to bring heaven to earth. And then he wants to do that for all of us.

And so we have to be reminded that we are already victorious. That we already have access to relationship to the full. And Jesus didn't die on the cross, he gave it right for our sins. Right back to life, three days later, to say, okay, I'll see you now when you die. That's now why he came. He came to have a relationship with us that starts in the here and it starts in the now. I mean, can you imagine if you're standing there at the altar, getting ready to enter into this covenant marriage with someone, and then right after you're like, see you in 40 years when you retire? What kind of marriage or relationship is that? No, so you enter into those covenant relationships so that you can have relationships. So you can continue to partner with that person and to live life. And Jesus wants that for us. He wants us to partner with him. And there's a few things that I want to hit on as we close, and that's this.

It's remembering today that the devil cannot defeat you. Because we, through the power of Jesus Christ, are already victorious. He cannot defeat you. But here's what he can do. He can discourage you. He can call you to doubt. And he can distract you, okay? He cannot defeat you, but he can discourage you, he can cause you to doubt, and he can distract you, right? The devil can get you in a place where you can constantly discourage, and sometimes, like, let's be honest, that can happen even in spaces like this, where maybe he's going to get you to compare yourself to someone, and he's going to say, well, I'm not where they are, or I don't know my Bible like they do.

Why does it feel like I can't get over things and I can't forgive people the way that this person on the other side of the room can? And he's going to try to discourage you when what kind of person wants to be in a space like that. But Jesus came to encourage you, to lift you up, to remind you of who he created you to be. And that you are victorious. Right? And the devil can give you to doubt the character of God and the heart of God. It's going to make you not want to be in that relationship. But Jesus is saying, you can come to me with everything. He's walking alongside those people. But in order to have a relationship of depth, we're going to have to continue to remind ourselves that we are victorious. And so again I want you to write this down and remember this that when you can hear God voice and when you can recognize Him and you saying God where are you in all of this to ask yourself these questions God what did you already speak to me? What did you already speak to me?

Jesus is reminding them of the word and what he spoke to them when he appears to them. And where have I already seen you, Jesus? Where have I experienced you? When was the last time that he felt the presence of God? He reminded them of that. He reminded them of his broken body. He reminded them of the last supper of the time that they were together face to face. But so many people, and even then in this passage, you see, they ignore the fact that Jesus told them exactly what was going to happen. But although they had experienced it and they heard it, they got distracted so fast. Where in our lives are we ignoring Jesus, the things that he already told us to do, the ways that he already has appeared to us? Because he died and had a relationship with us, but it's going to take us investing into that relationship. It's going to take us stewarding that relationship.

So I'm going to invite you to stand today. And there's a few things that I want to do as we close. We're going to spend some time worshiping. I think for some of us, maybe we need to sit with the Lord today and ask him some of these questions, or just be reminded of his glory and who he is. And then the other thing that I want you to do this week because I want you to sit with the Lord and invest in your rule of life. And so if you've been here at all of you, Paul Turner, if you're new, I'll explain it. We have this thing called the rule of life, which is a set of practices that we're committed to to help us be that Jesus become like him and do what he did.

There's a welcome table there, but I want to talk about some daily practices in your life. Have you yet gotten in the rhythm of the habit of daily scripture and prayer? Because we're going to recognize Jesus' voice, we're going to need to learn his voice scripture and prayer to talk to him every day to take breaks throughout our day and then to end our days with examined gratitude. And even today, this is this in a way that is examined of saying God like what do I need to be reminded of? Where have you been moving? That I've been missing you. But to encourage you today, invest in your relationship with Jesus because someday when we get to heaven it's either going to be the reunion with the greatest friend of all time that we cannot wait to see face to face, or it's going to be getting to know Jesus for the first time. Right?

I want it to be the most incredible reunion with my best friend when I see Jesus face to face for the first time. And so that relationship starts here and now. And so to be reminded that Jesus has time to sit with you. He has time to answer your questions. And he wants to appear to you. So some of you say, maybe you're like, I need you to moment. Like, I need the Lord to repute me right now. I need you to see something. I need something to happen. I want you to worship and to pray in that type of way.

And some of you maybe are like, I don't have questions, but like, I just need to process with the Lord. Write it down. Remember it. And remember that Jesus did all of this for relationship with you, and he wants to partner with you to bring heaven to earth, starting in the here and then now. So I'm going to pray for us, and then we're going to worship.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for speaking to us today God, we would just invite your Holy Spirit to just come in this place. God, would you appear to us up close and personal in the same way that you appear to all of these people after your resurrection God, if some of us just need to feel your hands and feel your touchdown you do that today when you show up in this room. Lord, for those of us that maybe there's questions that we have God, would you help us to bring that to you to lay it down God, will you come and take even this common space and will you make it divine today? Will you show up in just this room, downtown Madison, in a mighty and a powerful way that reminds us of who you are, who you came to be, and all of your promises, Jesus? So we love you. We ask this in your name. Amen.

As I was praying, there were two things that I felt like somebody would have appeared today. The first is that if you're here and you've been waiting for Jesus to appear, to surrender expectations today of what you're looking for. Because I believe that you want to exceed those expectations and it might not look like what you're expecting. So if you're here today and you just need to hear that, just take a moment and just pray that and to believe that and say, God, I'm going to surrender the expectations and I'm waiting for you. And the second thing that I just felt in my spirit was for some of us not be discouraged if the way he's choosing to appear to us and to speak looks different than the people around us and remembering that some people heard what Jesus said and believed in others people had to see it and to feel it and to touch it. But don't be discouraged to think about speaking to you. So Jesus we thank you for your word. We thank you for your Holy Spirit that we can hear you that we can feel you that we can trust you we can put our faith in you God and that you did all of this for relationships. So I pray that we would leave here encouraged with hope that you want to speak that you want to move that you want to partner with us to continue to bring heaven to earth. So we thank you for this Jesus. Your precious name you're right. Amen. Amen.

One last thing we're going to do today. It's a bittersweet thing that we love to do at our church and that's to celebrate when God is bringing people from Madison and sending them out. So we're going to be high with them next. And so we are going to invite the Lee family up here. Pray for them. Would you go on and rush with me right now?

So I'm going to give you guys a mic in a second if you want to say anything. For those of you who don't know, Nate and Alyssa have served as high alpha missionaries, campus missionaries working with university students for many years. Specifically in Madison, the past four years. We planned it six years ago. About two years in, they were brave enough to move their family here as a couple, and soon the babies came. But Nate and Alyssa were also some of the founding members of New Culture Church. The first people that were showing up in that dingy nightclub on University. They were some of the first parents to leave their child in a wine lounge that we're going to have. We did our best to leave those floors clean.

Taylor, who is running around here somewhere downstairs, is the first baby we dedicated at New Culture Church to the Lord in that nightclub. And so they have been just such huge, huge parts of what God has been doing in Madison. And knowing that you guys are truly not being this city the same. And I am so grateful for your friendship. These past few years we have been able to walk alongside and to bring heaven to earth in this city. And I'm just forever grateful for the impact that you guys have had on all of us. Whether years from now people will know your names to know that you have been a part of building this foundation. So we love you guys.

New Culture is so special to us. From the moment that we lived here and we knew we were going to be planting a church kind of alongside. Religious music and culture was where we were meant to be. And we're so grateful for the community that we've had over the years. And so just know that you're part of a very special community. We're just really grateful that we got to be part of it for as long as you did.

Yeah, I mean, it's really very wonderful being a part of this great church. It's so cool to see something go from just an idea to something that is really ministering to people here in this area. It's so hopeless to what God can do. And I know God's going to do some amazing things through this church, in this church. It's just a really special experience. So thank you for welcoming us. Thank you for the time that we spent here.

Alright, will you guys stretch your hands forward as we pray and bless the Lee family. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for being there for Alyssa, for Taylor, for Jackson. God, for the way that you so clearly led them to be in Madison for such a time as this. Lord, those that they know just what they were going to be a part of, the legacy they were going to be a part of. God, we know that you are continuing to write an incredible, incredible story with their family. And their choosing to be obedient to you in all seasons and all situations. So God, we just pray for this move. God, we pray for smooth transition. We pray for your Holy Spirit strategy as they continue to make new friends and establish relationships with family. And God that you would just continue to use them to be your hands and feet to create your culture everywhere they go, Lord. So we thank you and we bless them and we ask all this in your precious holy name. Amen. Amen.

We'll be loving these. Make sure you give them a raise and high five and help them move on Saturday morning. We will see you guys next week. Thank you.