Sunday, April 6
2025-04-06
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J5wqLxpIjU

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Good morning. We are glad to be able to gather to worship together this morning. We are going to begin with a word of prayer. Father in heaven, I thank you for your people. I thank you for your church. I thank you for your word. I just ask that as we gather for worship this morning that you would bless our time together, that you would direct us to your goodness and to your grace, that we would be encouraged and strengthened and transformed. So be with us as we sing. Be with us as we pray together. Be with us as we gather together around the table. May you remind us of our anchor that holds us in the midst of the strongest storms. Be with us as we open your word and study it together and as we fellowship together that we would be encouraged in the good news of the gospel and that we would encourage one another with the hope that we have in you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

We're going to begin this morning by reading from the 96th Psalm. So if you would go ahead and be standing with me as we read this together.

This is the word of the Lord. And so as we sing, we sing to declare God's goodness, to declare our thankfulness and our joy and what he has done. So we're going to begin by singing, "This is our God." Remember those walls that we caught sin and shame? They were like prisons that we couldn't escape. But he came, and he died, and he rose. Those walls are rubble now. Remember those giants we call death and grave? They were like mountains that stood in our way. But he came, and he died, and he rose. Those giants are dead now. This is our God. This is who he is. He loves us. This is our God. This is what he does. He saves us. He bore the cross, beat the grave. Let heaven and earth proclaim. This is our God, King Jesus.

Remember that fear that took our breath away? Faith so weak that we could barely pray. But he heard every word, every whisper. Now those altars in the wilderness tell the story of his faithfulness. Never once did he fail, and he never will. This is our God, who he is, he loves us. This is our God, this is what he does, he saves us. He bore the cross, beat the grave, let heaven and earth proclaim. This is our God, King Jesus. Who pulled me out of that pit? He did, he did. Who paid for all of our sin? Nobody but Jesus. Who pulled me out of that pit? He did, he did. Who paid for all of our sin? Nobody but Jesus. Who rescued me from that grave? Yahweh, Yahweh. Who gets the glory and praise? Nobody but Jesus. Who rescued me from that grave? Yahweh, Yahweh. Who gets the glory and praise? Nobody but Him.

This is our God. This is who He is. He loves us. This is our God. This is what He does. He saves us. He bore the cross, beat the grave. Let heaven and earth proclaim. This is our God, King Jesus. He bore the cross, beat the grave. Let heaven and earth proclaim. This is our God, King Jesus.

The work on which I stand when everything around me is shaken. I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus, 'cause He's never let me down. He's faithful through generations. So why would He fail now? He won't. He won't. I've still got joy in chaos. I've got people that make no sense. So I won't be going under. I'm not held by my own strength, 'cause I've built my life on Jesus. He's never let me down. He's faithful in every season. So why would He fail now? He won't. He won't. He won't fail. He won't fail. Rain came, wind blew, but my house was built on you. I'm safe with you. I'm gonna make it through. Rain came, wind blew, but my house was built on you. I'm safe with you. I'm gonna make it through. Yeah, I'm gonna make it through.

Cause I'm standing strong on you. Oh, I'm gonna make it through. Cause my house is built on you. Christ is my firm foundation. The rock on which I stand. When everything around me is shaken. I've never been more glad. I put my faith in Jesus. Cause He's never let me down. He's faithful through generations. So why would He fail now? He won't. He won't. He won't fail. He won't fail. He won't. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you, God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

We are continually implanting in your minds by playing it right before our service starts for the last several Sundays. And at the end of Hebrews chapter 6, there is this beautiful promise. We'll talk about it a little bit more in a minute, but it says this, "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain." And so, if this song is new to us, you're welcome to sort of listen and pick it up as you go, to sing along, just meditate on the words. However, we all learn songs differently, but we're going to go ahead and sing together, "Christ, Our Sure and Steady Anchor."

"Christ, Our Sure and Steady Anchor" "In the fury of the storm, the winds of love double through me, and my sins have all been torn." "In the suffering, in the sorrow, when my singing hopes are few, I will hold this to you." "I'll never be alone."

It's a sure and steady anchor, while the tempest rages on. When temptation claims the battle, and it seems the night is warm. Deeper still then goes the anchor, though I justly stand accused. I will hold her to the anger, it shall never be revealed.

Christ ensured and steady anger through the floods of unbelief. Hopeless somehow, O my soul, now lift your eyes to Calvary. This my ballast of assurance sees love forever. I will hold fast to the anger, and it shall never be removed. Christ is sure and steady anger as we face the weight of death. When these trials give way to glory as we draw our final breath. We will cross that late horizon, clouds behind and life's secure. And the calm will be the bed for the storms that we reveal. Christ is sure of our salvation, ever faithful, ever true. He will hold fast to the anchor. It shall never be removed.

The book of Hebrews, for us, is a wonderful book that, in its heart, directs us to an encouragement in the hope that is in Christ. It's written to a group of people who were struggling with external difficulties, people who were persecuting them, people who were causing them harm and struggle. And as a result, they were beginning to waver, and they were beginning to question their hope in Jesus. And they're saying, "Wouldn't it be easier just to act the way things used to be?" And so the writer of Hebrews writes this encouragement, and at the center of this is that we would look to Jesus, who is the word that comes better than the angels, better than Abraham, better than Moses. He's the better priest, the better king, the better sacrifice. He serves in a better temple, and the purpose of this epistle is to drive us to the anchor that is in Christ.

And at the end of Hebrews chapter 6, as the writer is trying to instill in us this hope, he brings three parts of this anchor to our minds: God's word, that God has promised these things, brings to us God's character, that it is impossible for God to lie, and then he brings to us God's Son. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place, behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And our hope and our encouragement is based on the work of Christ, who as our high priest, he has entered into a greater and more perfect tabernacle with his own blood, not with the blood of bulls and goats and

calves, and he secures our redemption forever. And so the anchor throughout the history of the church has been a symbol of hope among Christians. And it is this metaphor that pictures both stability and security rooted in Christ as our hope. And if you look at different translations of this verse, it's very interesting because it rounds out the picture for us. In the NIV, this anchor is firm and secure. And in the English standard version, it's sure and steadfast. And in the New Living translation, it's strong and trustworthy. And this anchor allows us to remain fixed and unmoving regardless of the conditions of the sea that surround us. And this anchor keeps us from being what James says, like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. And so just as the anchor stops a ship from drifting with the winds and the currents,

keeping our eyes on Jesus prevents our souls from wavering and wandering in times of pressure and turmoil. In 1 Peter, Peter says this, "God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials." Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, as we come to this bread and to this cup, remind us that our anchor is sure and it is solid, and it is found in your Son, who came as a man, who lived and who died and who rose again, who gave his body in our place for us. As we drink of this cup,

may you remind us and encourage us and nourish us with this blood of the new covenant that takes away our sins and brings us to hope. So this morning, if we're struggling and we're storm-tossed, may you anchor us firmly. If we're proud and we're doing our goodness, may you direct us to Christ. May you encourage our hearts. May you convict us of sin. May you strengthen us for the work that you have for us. But most of all, may you nourish us through the death, burial, and resurrection of your Son. I ask that you bless this bread and this cup. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, take the bread with me, as Jesus shared with his disciples, saying to them, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

In the same way, as they finish supper, Jesus takes the cup and says, "This is the new covenant in my blood. Let's partake together." Father in heaven, I'm so thankful that you feed us so deeply and so wonderfully in a way that is beyond anything we could have asked or ever imagined. So root us and ground us and anchor us in your Son this morning. It's in his name we pray. Amen. We're going to be in the Gospel of John, chapter 12. I'm going to go ahead and read through our text to sort of help us get a view of what is happening, and then we'll spend just a little bit of time unpacking where we're going. And so let's begin with reading through this text together. "Six days before the Passover, Jesus, therefore, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

So they gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table. Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, "Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?" But he said, and he said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charged the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. And Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." This is God's Word. Let's pray, and we'll dive right into it. Father in heaven, be with us this morning in this text that is surprisingly wonderful. It points us to such a wonderful promise, but it also calls our hearts to evaluate our worship. And so this morning, help us to see that there is one place to hope, and that is in you. Be with us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we're going to walk through sort of the details of this text, leading us to what this teaches us and how this changes us and transforms us. And in John chapter 12, in verse 1, it says, "Six days before Passover." Now, Passover for God's people is a very sacred time, and it's very, very important.

And people would have traveled from all over the world to come to Jerusalem and to be and to celebrate Passover. And Passover, just in its simplest definition, is a Jewish feast that celebrates the reminder of God bringing his people out of slavery in Egypt. And in very specific ways, it reminds God's people of how God accomplished that salvation. As you go through plagues one through nine, Passover, and the heart of it pictures the tenth plague. Where God comes through the land and strikes down all of the firstborn children, with the exception of the Israelites, who have sacrificed a lamb, have painted the doorpost of their house with the blood of the lamb. And anywhere there was the blood of the lamb, the angel of the Lord passes over those places. And so it is a Jewish feast that remembers the salvation of God. And what I love about the Passover meal is that it is designed to be very participatory.

It's designed to teach and designed to help. And if you've ever joined us in the past where we've done sort of a symbolic Passover meal and walked through some of the Old Testament pictures and how they find their hope in Jesus in the New Testament, one of the things you do is you dip some leaves into salt water to remind yourself of the saltiness of the tears and the slavery. And you dip some stuff into some horseradish, the bitter herbs to remind yourself of the bitterness of slavery. And then with the apples and the cinnamon and the honey, you replace that with the sweetness and the joy of freedom. And so the Passover meal for God's people was not just sort of something they went through as a special meal, but it's really a taking a journey through participation of God's deliverance.

And there are four promises that are at the heart of Passover. And I'm going to read from Exodus chapter 6, 6 and 7. And when you hear these words, "I will," they symbolize the promises of God. "Say therefore to the people of Israel, 'I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians.' And I will deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. And I will take you to be my people, and I will be my God. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burden of the Egyptians." And during Passover, you would drink from your cup four times, one each to remember these promises of God.

And in fact, the Lord's Supper, which finds its beginning in Passover, was with the cup that was after supper, remembering that promise, "I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment." Now, not to spoil the rest of the Bible for you if you haven't read the story, but the Passover isn't just about looking back to Egypt, right? It's about us, in the same situation, crushed under the burden of our sins, in slavery to that sin, nowhere to go and nowhere to run. And then God sends another lamb, a true and better lamb, and He stretches out His arms, and He faces the great act of judgment. And because of this lamb, we can be the people of God through the sacrifice of Jesus. You're brought out, delivered from slavery, redeemed, and taken to be His people.

And I want you just to think for a minute, as Jesus, on that Thursday before He goes to the cross on Friday, celebrates and institutes the Lord's Supper with His people, and they drink of that cup that says, "I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment." Jesus is about to fulfill that redemption by stretching out His arms and becoming the object of judgment in our place. And so the Passover lamb, Paul tells us, is Jesus. And it is this specific Passover, the one before the cross, the Passover that Jesus is six days from in our text, that all of the Old Testament is leading up to. When the Passover is introduced in Exodus, it's all ultimately pointing to the Passover that Jesus is about to celebrate. Everything from then moves forward. And so, six days before the Passover,

Jesus arrives in Bethany, and our text directs us to the day that He arrives. So, either He arrives immediately six days, which would have been Friday night, and they immediately have this feast, or He gets there Friday night, they have this feast on Saturday night, because John will say the next day He enters into Jerusalem. But this is the days before the triumphal entry. And this is a dangerous time for Jesus. Opposition has been growing. People are jealous to His popularity. He's recently made a quick trip to this area, and when He told His disciples He was going to Bethany, Thomas goes, "Well, let's go with Him so we can die too." Right? There's not a positive outlook for what will happen with Jesus. But the time in this text is also so important because it is in this moment that Judas decides to betray Jesus.

I don't know if you've ever watched a movie and maybe it begins with a bunch of exciting events and everything's happening, there's explosions, and then all of a sudden it sort of stops and it's like, "How did we get here?" And it flashes back to the events that lead up to this point in the story. When Matthew and Mark both record this specific moment, this specific meal with Jesus, they write almost as if this, that two days before Jesus celebrates the Passover, the leaders get together and they begin to plot against Jesus, and then he flashes back. To this meal that Jesus eats in Bethany with Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Simon the leper, and where Judas gets so mad about the money, and then it talks about how Judas goes to betray. Matthew and Mark both bring to the focus that this meal, I think, is sort of the final straw for Judas. That Judas moves into a moment

that he can't take back. The next thing we see about this text is that this is a special dinner. Now, this is not the first dinner with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and it's not the first time that Jesus had dinner with them that is sort of embroiled in some kind of conflict or controversy. If you remember the last recorded meal with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, you have two sisters fighting. Mary's sitting in there listening to Jesus. I'm doing all the work, right? And just like two sisters who are mad about what the other one is doing, they began to argue and fight. And so Jesus has eaten with this family before. He loves this family. And it's interesting, over the next week leading up to the cross, Jesus is going to stay in Bethany. So I want you to think about a special dinner for us. When we talk about a special dinner, it might be

a special type of food that we like. And so you say, "Well, we're having a special dinner." And you say, "What do you mean?" And you talk about the special food we're having. So in our house, generally on Sunday night, we do what's called appetizer night, right? We get a bunch of appetizers, make them up. We go watch an old movie. Everybody sort of picks the appetizers we like, and it's a special meal because it's a special kind of food. You don't eat appetizers for dinner. But sometimes our special dinner can be we're going to a special place, or maybe we're gathering for a special purpose, right? We're going to eat spaghetti in a fire hall to raise money for a good cause or to help somebody out. This special meal is because there are two families in this text that have been deeply impacted by Jesus.

And so John 12:2 says, "They gave a dinner for him." That's Jesus there. And this is not like, "Oh, we've got to have the pastor over for dinner." This is somebody who they have a close relationship. Jesus is very close to two families, and you say, "Well, in John's account I only see Mary, Martha, and Lazarus." What's interesting, in Matthew and Mark, they record that this happens at the house of a man by the name of Simon the leper. Now, if you're going for a nickname, Simon the leper is really not the way to go. It's like introducing yourself and going, "Hi, I'm Steve Ebola." Everybody's like, "I don't want to be anywhere near you." But the fact they're at his house is telling us that he has been healed from this leprosy. So this is a guy who has gone from having no hope in his medical diagnosis, here's a guy whose life and body are literally breaking and falling apart,

who has to declare with his own voice that he's unclean and unworthy to keep people away from him, has somehow been healed. You say, "Well, how is he healed?" Well, it's probably the guy who's eating dinner in his house, Jesus. And it's likely, in fact, a lot of commentators think that there's a time Jesus heals a leper very near to Bethany. After he finishes the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 8, he heals a man with leprosy. A lot of people think, "Hey, it's the right area, right time, right place." So he comes to this house where, if we don't know if it's the guy, but Jesus has transformed this man's life. The second family we see consists of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and we've seen Jesus with them before. Controversial sibling rivalry, but more recently he's been to town, and John reminds us of this.

"Six days before Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead." So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served. Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table. And it was one of the most heartbreaking moments for this family, Mary and Martha. Jesus arrives, makes this declaration that he is the resurrection and the life, and then confirms it by raising Lazarus from the dead. And so these are two families: the family of Simon the leper, and the family of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Jesus has profoundly impacted them, but he is also a close friend with them. He's going to stay in their town until he is crucified. And so it's not just at this time of Passover, declaring Jesus the Passover lamb, but it's the one that reminds us that Jesus is the one who brings salvation.

We've seen Jesus do that in the lives of these families. So let's pick up with this gift in John chapter 3. It's an expensive gift. "Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." Now, this is an expensive bottle of perfume, and the way it was made, Matthew and Mark both record that it's an alabaster jar, which is a jar that is carved out of stone, filled with this perfumed ointment made with a plant that is harvested in India. Then it has to travel across to get to Israel, right? Not an easy or simple trip in the first century. It's placed in this insanely expensive alabaster jar, and the jar is sealed in such a way

that it can only be opened by breaking the jar. That's right, you've got to use this all at once. And that's exactly what Mary does. And this would be worth close to a year's salary for an average person in this time. So imagine pouring out some perfume on someone at dinner, and it's not just like, "Oh, hey, that was 20 bucks at the checkout aisle at Kohl's." But we're talking literally thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. And we'll get to the why in just a moment. And this precipitates an angry reaction. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, that's one of Jesus' disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, "Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?" And he said this not because he cared about the poor,

but because he was a thief having charged the money bag, and he used to help himself to what was put into it. And John is not pulling any punches in regard to the character of Judas. Judas is mad because he's not getting the money that this would have been put into the apostles' treasury. And as a result, he's about to betray Jesus. But notice this, he hides his anger behind a false righteousness and goodness. And while Mary is pouring out lavish worship, he's pouring out self-centered anger because he's not getting what he wants. And there is in the heart of this a picture of the fight that goes on in all of our lives. A fight between selfishness and worship. And the reality of our lives is that everyone is a worshiper. Let me explain this, what we mean when we talk about everybody is a worshiper.

Worship, at the heart of it, is what you revere and adore at the center of our being. Another way of saying this is, what is most important to you? What do we lift up in our thoughts? What do we dream about? What is our desire? What were we willing to sacrifice for? What are we willing to evangelize about and talk to others about these things? You see, the worship of our actions flows from the worship of our heart. And what our heart reveres and adores will come out in our actions. And in this case, Mary reveres and adores Jesus above everything, and her actions demonstrate that. Her heart is visible through her choices and her behavior, but so is Judas's. He reveres and adores himself above everything, and his heart is visible through his choices and his behavior.

Everybody worships. And the question is not, "Am I a worshiper, but what do I worship?" And if we aren't worshiping God, the second most likely deity is yourself. And so the question at this meal is, "What are you worshiping? Who are you worshiping?" And even us as Christians who worship and seek to follow God, there are times when we are distracted, where our affections are pulled in a different direction. And this question of our worship is not just the difference between Christian and non-Christian. It's a call to evaluate our heart for those things that are pulling us in different directions. And here's the remarkable thing about this: that our worship fills the area around us. In verse 3 it says, "Mary therefore took this pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, anointed the feet of Jesus,

wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of her perfume." Now, that's a literal event of what happens. The whole house smelled like perfume, and probably did for quite some time. But it's also a picture of her worship filling all that surrounds us. What's interesting is that what fills the house because of Judas is different. In the parallel accounts, there were some who said among themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment wasted like this?" This ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor, and they scolded her. And we know from John that Judas is the center of this opposition, and it seems from Matthew and Mark that what Judas does is begin to grumble. And that grumbling, just like the smell of the perfume fills the room and the impact of Mary's worship, we'll see Jesus say,

fills the proclamation of the Gospel, but Judas begins to fill the hearts of grumbling and anger and frustration. So his fragrance of self-centeredness and bitterness also fills the room. And so what you worship will fill the space for you. Whether that's in true worship of Jesus, or whether that's in bitterness or frustration or anger, what you find is that worship matters. Let's talk about worship. In Mark 14, Jesus says this, "Truly I say to you, wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, in the whole world what she has been done will be told in memory of her." That her worship doesn't just fill that room, but this testimony of the One who is selflessly, without regard for her appearance, or for propriety, or for her finances, was willing to lay everything and give it all to Jesus.

It's a lasting testimony to her worship. And I want to talk about Mary for just a minute, because one of the things you find is that worship begins by listening to Jesus. And that's hard for us to listen sometimes. I find as I get older, especially when we're driving in a busy area, or where we haven't been before, or trying to find the turn, and we're not sure what's going on, and eventually I just have to say, "Hey, can everybody be quiet, right? I can't see the road, right? Because all the noise and distraction going around has caused me to be unable to see what is happening." And what do you find in this text is this picture that we live in a world full of distracting noises. There's things that are vying for our attention and for our hearts and for our hope.

And there is a moment in the life of Mary and Martha where we see this very clearly in Luke chapter 10. They went their way. Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him to her house. And she had a sister who called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And so Martha, oftentimes we kind of make fun of her, give her a bad rap. But the reality is most of us would probably be a lot like Martha. We're so busy serving, we forget the purpose of why we are serving. But here is Mary listening to Jesus. And one of the ways that we see Mary listening are found in the words of Jesus. In John 12:7, Jesus says, "Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial."

Jesus has repeated over and over to his disciples at least like six times directly, and a whole bunch more times indirectly that he's going to Jerusalem to die, and they haven't heard a thing. And Jesus says of Mary, "She's anointing me for my burial." Seems like Mary may have been the only one who truly listened to what Jesus was saying. You and I are moved to worship, not just when we listen, but when we see the true worth of our Savior. How do you see Jesus? There's two distinct answers to this question. Judas sees Jesus as a means to an end, getting more money. Mary sees Jesus as the sole object of worship. You see, Mary knows Jesus, not just in the closeness of friendship or as a good teacher, but because she has seen His power and His love, and it has moved her to worship Jesus above all else.

You see, you and I are called this morning to hear Jesus, to focus, and to see the true worth of our Savior. To look at our lives and say, "What is it that my heart is chasing after other than Him?" Next Sunday, we are going to see Jesus come down a mountain with shouts of praise. And over the next week, we see Jesus moving from these shouts of praise to the cross. And what is revealed, one of the things that is so remarkably revealed in the last week of Jesus, is that so often our hearts are fixed on what we want rather than who Jesus truly is. So the two stories, the one of Mary and the one of Jesus, end in two very different ways. Mary gives this massive and gracious gift worth almost a full year's wages.

Judas will betray Jesus, and in the result, he's going to get 30 silver coins, which in the currency of the day would have been worth about 120 days of work, about a third of what Mary has given to Jesus. But Judas doesn't even get to keep those coins, right? He throws them back into the temple and goes out and in hopelessness takes his own life. You see, what you worship truly matters. It will lead you to an overwhelming, constant fountain of worship, or it can lead you to brokenness, emptiness, and despair. And the call of this text is to hear Jesus and to fix our eyes on him, to see his goodness and his grace, to hear his teaching, not just in our minds, but in the depths of our heart, to see that he is truly the Son of God and to respond in worship.

Father in heaven, forgive us for where our hearts stray. Forgive us when we chase all of those things that are constantly tempting our affections, and may you restore to us the joy of our salvation, that we would worship as Mary does. Help us to turn our eyes to Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing "Turn Your Eyes."

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Turn your eyes to that hillside where justice and mercy embrace. The Son of God gave His life for us, and our measureless death was erased. Jesus, to You we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our Christ. Behold You, our Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. And see Christ the Lion away. What a glorious dawn. Fear of death is gone. For we carry His life in our veins. Jesus, to You we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our prize. We adore You. Behold You. Our Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Turn your eyes to the heavens. Our King will return for His own. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will shout. All glory to Jesus.

Jesus, to You He lifts our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our pride. We adore You, behold You, our Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Jesus, to You He lifts our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our pride. We adore You, behold You, our Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. All right, a few announcements. First of all, Tiffany would like the children to gather here promptly after we sing the doxology. So if we can get the kids here to practice for their Palm Sunday song, we would like them to do that, or we will bounty hunt them down right after we're done. So that's announcement number one. Secondly, our kids' church, children's church for April is the 13th and the 27th.

Also, we're working on getting ready for VBS. I have a big stack of volunteer forms. We would love to have more volunteers. And so I have some blank forms downstairs that I would be happy to give you, or if you want me to, fill them out for you, or on your behalf. So go ahead, and if you would like to volunteer and help, it can be in any way. It doesn't have to be every day. We would love to have some more help with that. Also, our Wednesday night Bible study is at 6 p.m. this week. Next week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, we're going to do Wednesday night Bible study as well. We're going to do it a little bit differently, though. We're going to have kind of a small meal and spend some time talking about how Christ and Passover in the Old Testament points us to the good news about Jesus in the New Testament.

So we'll have kind of a symbolic and partial Passover meal. And so that's on Wednesday, not this coming Wednesday, but the following Wednesday night and then the Sunday after that. Sunday is Easter. I'm going to go ahead and pray. We'll read from Jude, verse 24 and 25, and then we'll sing the doxology, and then the kids can meet up here in the front. Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your church. We ask that you would turn our eyes, both as individuals and a church, to you. That you would be our hope and that you would be the one that we worship with all of our hearts. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jude writing this to the church, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ the Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever." Amen.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Amen. Amen. Amen.