Happy New Year to you. And, uh, man, I wanna look in our, our camera and say Happy New Year to all of our campuses. So if you're on the Gulf Coast this morning, if you're in Stone County, if you're over at the Hunt Club, or if you're in Jones County today, man, we're so glad to have you with us. And man, I want you to know, I, I kinda, I kinda love this time of year. I'm, I'm a little wired that way.

Like I look forward to change and to new. And, uh, so I've been, I've kind of been that guy this week with my family and even kind of with our staff. Like, I, I love to ask the questions. You guys see the questions on your Instagram feed that always pop up? They're like reflective questions.

Uh, ones like this, like, Hey, what moments stood out to you? Uh, over this past year? We've talked about that as a family. Uh, what's something you're proud of from this past year? Uh, I love this question.

We asked this one. Uh, who was someone this past year that made you feel seen, heard or cared for such good questions to help you kind of think about 2025. Uh, and Katie typically in, in our family, she's a little more reflective, so she kind of handles those questions and then we start looking ahead to 2026. And this is where I get excited and, uh, I'm, I'm kind of a painful optimist. Like it's, it's too much.

But I start thinking about and being hopeful and dreaming about 2026. And so we ask questions like this for 2026, what's something you're excited about going into this next year? What's something maybe you're nervous about going into this next year? And when we asked that question, what's something you're nervous about? It was like a light bulb went off in my mind that maybe there could be some difficult things that we'll face this next year.

It's weird that I have to be like that. Like that's how strangely optimistic I can be. But I started thinking about maybe there's some folks in the room or at the campuses are watching today that when you think about 2026, you're nervous. Who may get sick, who may be disappointed this year, who may be hurt. And so here's what I wanna do this morning.

God, I just wanna take just a second. And we started our experiences this way, but we really wanna be a church that prays first. And so before we go any farther, if you're there and you're just feeling the weight of that, let's pray together. Let's do this. Let's pray.

God, I thank you for all the places we could be this morning. We're in your house. Of all the ways we could start out this next year, we start with worship and God, we lift up our voice to you. And not only just our voice, but we lift up all of the weight, the things that make us nervous about this next year. And we just put them at your feet.

And God, we claim your word that you're gonna do more than we can ask or imagine that God, you're gonna work in and through us, that God we're gonna see you move this year. The wonder and the awe that comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit. That God, we are raised to walk in new life. And so God, before we get any farther, we want more of you and less of me. And so it's in your name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Well, look, I wanna give you a quick, uh, teacher story 'cause I love teacher stories and it's gonna help kind of set the tone a little bit of the pace for the vision that we've got for the next four weeks, okay? And it kinda started in me several weeks ago when one of Katie's students, she's a teacher and she works kind of one-on-one with kids. And um, one of the kids that she works with, they, their apartment had a fire.

And man, it was, it was on the news, it was the whole thing. This was like October, November, and it was a total loss. I mean, the whole apartment complex was, was burned and we got word of it just to kind of started to kind of going all through the school and all the different teachers began to get word of it. She started getting text about it and, and we did exactly what you guys would do. I mean, we, we took the need to our house church and we started in the group meeting.

We said, Hey, we got a fire over at the school and we got a kid over there and his, this is her size. Can anybody help? You know? And next thing you know, things started showing up at our door and we got all these clothes that would fit her. And it was, it was so cool to watch our church respond.

And so we gather 'em up and we called the mom, it's a single mom. And, and, and, and we said, Hey, listen, we've got some stuff we wanna bring to you from our house church, and can we meet you one day? She works nights. And so we timed it where we would be there and, and we got there to the apartment complex. This is the new one that they put her in and her family.

And she met us at the bottom of the steps. And in my mind, I'm picturing what this apartment's gonna look like. Alright? I got a single mom, total loss. They're not from here.

She's got the coolest accent. But she walks us up into the room and she opens up this apartment that they, that they're in now. And she starts saying, from the minute we walked in this room, she starts saying, imagine, imagine. Can you imagine? Can you imagine?

And she walked us into, there's two rooms and she walked us into her little girl's room and there was new bedding, there was new tv. She walked us into the closet and she just goes, Craig, can you imagine? We didn't know, we didn't have anything. We lost everything. Look what all people have done for us.

Walked us into the den. There was a new kitchen table, walked us into her bedroom. People had blessed them more than we could have imagined. Now, I say that to you to help you make the leap with me because I think that you think the life of Jesus looks one way. But I'm gonna help you today to maybe imagine, to reimagine what Scripture begins to tell us.

Were the practices, were the ways of Jesus. That's what this whole series, these next four weeks made for more is about us kinda uncovering or re-imagining the life of Jesus. Like what did he do? Like what did it really look like? I mean, what was his life like when he walked the streets?

And as we discover those things, we're gonna pick up on a practice that he did. And then we're gonna ask you, now get ready for this because this is a different series. This is one where you're involved because each one is gonna need to choose one, right? That's the vision for this series. We're gonna present to you, Hey, here's one of the practices of Jesus.

And what we want you to do is you begin to pray about, Hey, which one of these four, these next four weeks, okay, we're gonna preach on one of 'em each week. Which one of these four do you want to choose to say, I'm gonna bring this practice into my life. Alright? So this isn't like a sit and see kind of thing. This is like, Hey God, show me, open my eyes.

Give me courage to step into one of these. Let one of these be my word for these next year, for these next few weeks. Alright, so here's how we're gonna start. What did Jesus do? Like when he was walking the earth, when he was on, when he was here, village to village, what did it look like?

Well, there's a great verse that helps us this way. It says, the son of man came and it gives us three things that he came doing. These were his practices. This is the way he spent his time. Here's the first one.

The son of man came not to be served but to serve. Now if you know this verse, it goes on to say he gave his life as a ransom for many. So in two weeks, I'm gonna talk about that, that one of the practices that we see that Jesus did was man, he served people. I'm gonna challenge you and me that we would be a church that serves people. That's what he did.

Another one, it says He came to seek and to save the lost. You guys are so good at this. Like we've become that when people think about a church where maybe they could be received and loved and cared for, even if they've been unchurched or de-churched or hurt by the church, man, that's who we are. I love that about our church. Then here's another one.

What about this? He came eating and drinking. Some of you're like, I didn't know I had so much in common with Jesus. Yeah, yeah, you do. What I'm gonna help you see is Jesus's model for ministry was, it was way more simple than I think you think it may be.

In fact, in the Book of Luke, there's nine different times where Jesus is either going to a meal, he's at a meal, or he is coming for a meal. So many moments in Scripture, it's Jesus breaking bread with the people that he loved, eating fish and drinking wine. It's in the Bible now. Now, don't use that tonight, but what we're doing is we're unveiling, we're studying. These are the things that Jesus did.

These were the practices that made up his life. And so we're gonna open up God's word every August and every January we're in the gospels. Alright? Now, here's why the most people come to the church in these two months. And so we're gonna study the most important thing we could study.

It's the life of Jesus. Now, you know this about your Bible, right? You've got the Old Testament, right? Then you have the New Testament. And the New Testament really begins with the arrival of Jesus.

We celebrate that at Christmas a week and a half ago. He came, well then you get these four books. It's the first four books in the New Testament, Matthew, Martin, Luke, and John. They're all just the story of Jesus. It's what he did.

It's the eyewitnesses account of his life. It's his practices. And that's what we're pulling out and that's what we're gonna choose. Each one, choose one. So let's join in.

We're gonna join Jesus in a meal. Alright? I'm gonna get you to Luke seven, and we're gonna start in verse 36. All right, Jesus is doing what we love to do. He's just sharing a meal and we're gonna pick up on his strategy, his practice.

Start with verse 36. Here we go, Luke 7 36. Now, one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him. So he went over to the Pharisees house and he reclined at the table. Now, when a woman who had lived a sinful life in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume.

Maybe you've heard the story. And as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, and then she kissed them and she poured perfume on them. Now, I need to give you a few things because there's, there's, there's moments here that I've gotta catch you up on the culture because meals 2000 years ago, surprise, surprise, uh, they look different than meals today. The first thing you gotta know is the environment was different.

Like these homes weren't like ours, you know, it wasn't like the garage door came down and the door shut and nobody knew what was going on in the meal. Instead, this was like a gathering place. And the Pharisee got his chance to invite the rabbi, the teacher, to come to his house. And I don't know if this was like a debate, I don't know if this was like a kind of a who's who, but everybody knew that Jesus and some other leaders were gathering together for a meal. And the environment of that day, the culture, you saw them.

I mean, it was the talk of the street. Jesus is walking in and you heard them. Like you, you, you heard the excitement and the conversation and the homes were open in such a way so that the breeze and the air could get in. But so did people, and they began to gather around this room, wanting to hear, wanting to be, if you're a Hamilton fan, in the room where it happens. And, and then there's her.

And, and I think she was probably a part of the teaching that just went down before this moment where Jesus said, come to me all who were weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. And so here she is, she sees Jesus walk in. So she just navigates the room, finds herself in the back of the room, she makes it in, and then she comes up to Jesus's feet. Now, this sounds really weird because it's not like she crawled under the table and moved the dog outta the way and pushed everybody aside. No, the table was different.

Like she, they're, they're at their knees, they're reclining, they're eating kind of in front of them and their, their feet are behind them. And so that's the only way that she approaches Jesus in his feet. And, and, and don't forget because this is important, speaking of the culture, 2000 years ago, rabbis wouldn't talk to women. So all of this is going down in this moment. And, and then watch how the Pharisee watch how old Simon reacts.

This is gonna make you throat punch him, but this is what he says, 39. Now, when the Pharisees who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kinda woman she is, that she is a sinner. I told you, you wanna throw punch him. Now, here's what I wanna do. I wanna give you a couple of things, three ways that, that you and I, and I love this because this is really important because this may be different.

This is, we can, you ready show people if I, I wish I could drop show people. Jesus. Alright? These are things that me and you, these are practices that Jesus did that we're gonna take on, that we're gonna be the hands and the feet of Jesus this year. It's gonna be different because our church is gonna be mobilized to show people who Jesus.

Here's the very first thing that I see that Jesus did that we could do. He was a first class noticer of all the things going on in that meal. You've been at meals like this, like you're trying to kind of work the Pharisee a little bit. And there's other leaders that got in at the table. There's lots of noise.

It's all this movement behind you. And what does he notice? He notices this woman and everybody else is judging and pushing and fighting. Yet Jesus, he sees her. Here's, here's, here's a good way to think about this.

I want you to kind of process this. I'm more convinced than ever that it's not the flashy big stuff, but the faithful little things that God loves to bless. Process that with me for a minute because that hurts my feelings a little bit because I'm up on the stage. Like I bet it's the sermons. No, I bet it's the revivals.

I mean, I bet if we had a revival, that would be the thing that really moves everything and changes the culture. God can use a revival. But in this moment, and in so many moments, it was the small things. It was the meals. Average families in the US eat three meals together last 20 minutes.

That this isn't about shaming you and asking you to do more meals. I'm just challenging you to look for the little things, to look for the little moments when you're in car line, to look for the little moments where you're taking a walk, to look for the moments when you're sitting in a waiting room or you're waiting at practice, where you begin to be someone who notices other people. It's almost like a lost art because we've gotten so busy and we've gotten so preoccupied and we're on our phones and we've just pulled away from moments where we see people like this that are in the fringe. I mean everybody else at the table, they notice Jesus and they notice Simon, they notice the who's who. But no one else really took time in that moment to notice her.

And that's who I wanna be. I want us to be a church that begins to see people, that begins to notice people. Now I've, I've, I've hesitated to give you this yet because when I say the word, your mind's gonna jump to a meaning that I don't want it to jump to. Okay? So I'm trying to kinda reframe this as we've been walking through this.

But we're gonna give you four practices. And when you walk outta here, I'm gonna get you one of these cards like this. 'Cause you're gonna pick which one? Each one choose one. The practice this week we're talking about is hospitality.

Now here's the problem, because when you hear hospitality, some of you think miss hospitality, you think about the pageant. Maybe you were miss hospitality, no shame. Okay? Uh, maybe like me, you think big fancy house, nice big spread of food, and you think about a, a polished up, perfect environment. Nothing wrong with that.

I love that some of you have the gift of providing that for people. That's a gift. But I think hospitality, there's a new definition that we wanna practice here it is. It's simply inviting others into your life of faith. This is what Jesus did constantly.

It was like this open door where he would invite people in. You say, yeah, yeah, no, he would invite 'em to the temple, right? Come, come hear me, preach at the temple. Now, he would invite 'em to the revival because that's where if they could just get in the revival, no, he, he would invite others into your life, into your own space. Such a great verse.

Paul says that, I believe it's a first or second Thessalonians. It says, I want you to build relationships with people that can then carry the weight of truth. And that's hospitality. Uh, and one of the things that helps me is to think through this. Uh, uh, there's a really clear, I, for me, one of the things that helps develop hospitality and helps me invite people into my life and then helps me handle and navigate those moments where I'm trying to build those relationships, because that's what we're looking for is community.

Sometimes I need questions. So I'm gonna give you some questions that are kind of go-to questions for you. Because when you walk out of these doors, I'm challenging you to be hospitable, to invite people into your life and into your space. Not just back to a building, but into your space and your table. Here's something you can use.

Hey, where are you today? You're like, I'm, oh, I'm at so and so address. No, no, no, no. Bigger than that. Like I, I can tell there's a lot going on, man.

Tell me about you. Like, where are you today? I can't tell you how many times I've been through a whole meal because I've had an agenda of the conversation and I've missed a moment just to say, Hey, tell me about you. Like, where are you today? You'll be, you'll be blown away by the things you'll hear.

Hey, what made you laugh today? I love that question. That's just a fun one for me. Uh, tell, you know this one, this is age old people been doing this forever at the dinner table. Tell me about a high or a low from you today.

You see how we're just, we're opening up the waters. We're establishing communication. That what, what are you nervous or excited about this week? I want you to have some ammo. I want you to have some tools that you can use to begin to break these boundaries down.

Let me give you a big news flash. If you don't know this, our culture doesn't trust us, but they don't, they've been hurt by the church. They've been wounded by the church, they've been judged by the church. They're not coming to the big building just on a random card. It's gonna take more.

It's gonna take you and me opening up our life and discovering what it means to invite others in. It's, it's hospitality. It's what Jesus did. It was the maybe he, he ate and he drank with people. It's the very first one this year.

It's hospitality. And I'm challenging you to begin to open up your life to that, to be a first class noticer, to see the people around you. Here's the second one. I want you to begin to do this. You ready?

I want you to break boundaries. I love this because think about the woman. I mean, she walked into a room that was all men. She didn't just walk into the room and break the boundary by coming in, she left the back of the room and she walked up to Jesus's feet. The rabbi, again, men don't really talk to women.

Rabbis definitely really don't talk to women. And now she's at Jesus's feet. She didn't stop there. Most precious thing she had of this perfume, she breaks it, pours it out. It's a boundary breaker.

And she lets her hair down and she uses her hair to wipe his feet. Then you get the opposite picture. Then you get Simon. Simon didn't break any boundaries. He was a Pharisee and he was judging up Jesus.

And he definitely wasn't gonna see her in the room. And then you get Jesus the one that broke all the boundaries. And I love it because here is Simon and Jesus sees Simon's heart and he sees the woman's heart. And the one thing we know about the woman is she was a sinner. And he's drawn to the woman because he could sense he knew her heart.

Man, you talk about some boundaries that we could break. What would it be like for us to begin to live and model the life of Jesus? You know this, when you read the gospels, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John, you're gonna see Jesus and you're gonna see him coming up on a tax collector. You're gonna see Jesus. You're gonna see him coming up on a prostitute.

Of all the different pictures that the New Testament could paint of the people that Jesus were drawn to, they picked the two shadiest of shady. And that's why I've gotta ask you this. Here's the question. Have you really grasped God's grace? I mean, come on.

Like you're walking into this year and you're going, man, I I just, I really messed up this past year. You're not gonna find me in that place. God's mad at me, man, the things I've done in my life, there's no way I can recover. I want you to see this verse about God's grace because it's radical, it's uncomfortable. Like that was the thing that was so uncomfortable in that meal.

Jesus broke all the boundaries with the grace that he gave this woman. Here it is. But where sin increased grace increased all the more. You see this big leveling playing ground that just happened. Like some of you came in and you had on your Sunday best, and you're always sit in this seat and it's like, I've earned this spot.

And then others of you come in the room and you're kinda like, I don't even know if I can go in, da da. And God says, whoa, hold on. The thing that unites us, that brings us together, it's my grace. It's radical. It's it's lavish to own you.

It's uncomfortable. That's really the thing that hits me as I read through these gospels. And if you're doing the Bible reading, playing with us, you're gonna read these stories. We've just started in Matthew. It's not too late, but you're gonna read some of these stories about the way Jesus received people just like her and the way that he stands up for them and embraces them.

It's gonna make you uncomfortable. It may even make our church feel uncomfortable. If we do, like Jesus did, you may look down the road, you may start to look in your house church and go, Ooh. But if we're doing that, then we're doing the practices of Jesus, because that's what he did. I I love this because I I, we had a guy come to our church and he was from another church, uh, in Mississippi and he had lots of experience.

I mean like years, 20, 30, maybe 40 years of experience in church and being a pastor. And he began to do some things with us. And he spent some time with us. He watched online a lot and he began to meet with a lot of our people. And then I, I passed him in the hallway one day.

It was like a Thursday afternoon and he stopped me and he said, Craig, I've just gotta tell you I'm so drawn to your church. And I was like, well, well, what is it, man? Gimme some specifics. 'Cause I, I wanna know what it is that you see in venture that you feel like is different. Here's what he said.

These weren't my words. He says, what I love about venture is that you guys aren't scared to get dirty with people because doing life with people means being willing to get dirty. Just tell you, that's the reality. You, you, you never have these moments with people that are like scheduled you. You never have these moments with people that are, uh, easy or even comfortable.

But he's saying the thing that stands out about this church, it's like you're willing to receive people. Lemme give you a prayer. I wanna give you a prayer to begin to pray. This is just a simple daily prayer. You could pray.

God, open my eyes to the needs of the people that you've put in my life today. Give me courage to see past me. I think that last line is the place I struggle. Man. God, be with this.

Help me with this. I need your help with this. God gimme courage for this. No, no, no. Give me courage to just see past me and to see the needs of the people that are all around you.

Here's the third one. There's just three. You've done so good. Hang with me the first Sunday of the year, and the third thing I'm asking you to do is to be available. To be available.

I told you about the question. Remember the questions like the reflective questions? And, and my favorite one of those was, who made you feel seen? Who made you, uh, feel heard? Who made you feel cared for?

I love that question. I love to hear the answers that my kids gave me on that. And when I think about you and I think about our church, I I see this like, I, I see you doing this. Like when you go up to KXP and you and you welcome those families in, had a had a family that came this morning over at Lincoln Road. This was the first time for a fifth grader.

And I told him as soon as he asked, I said, you're in the best classroom. You're gonna get Michael and Kimberly Sterling. You're gonna love them, man. I said to the dad, Hey, go meet them. Introduce yourself.

Because these guys have such a gift at seeing these kids. I see it on Sunday nights at movement when you're putting up all the stuff and you're, you're the last one waiting with kids and you're encouraging them. And house church, the way that I watch my kids come in and, and they sit down next to other grown men and I watch my daughter sitting next to people that are speaking into her life. That's not my voice or my wife's voice. Like you're, you're caring for people that that's who we're becoming.

But here's the catch. If you wanna be someone this year that helps people feel seen, that helps people feel heard, and that allows people to be cared for, you know where it all starts. The very first thing is you have to be available. I mean, it just starts there. It starts with you and me saying like, I, I'm gonna choose in this moment.

The most spiritual thing I could do is just to be present with people, to be committed to this year. To say these next four Sundays, I'm not gonna miss one. I'm gonna be present to be willing to say. And when the calendar gets busy, I'm making a choice to put people first to be present. That's such a powerful commitment.

At some point, we stopped being available. I mean, it is true of all of us. I I do it. There's moments somebody will call, I'll hit the screen. There's moments in a conversation where everybody's talking and I'm preoccupied.

I got that tech neck and I'm down like this. There's moments at home that I'm distracted by all the different things that are running through my mind. The most powerful commitment we can make is to simply be present. Now, I want to give you a kind of a target. I wanna give you something to aim for.

That's just kinda the way I'm wired. I need practical. And so I'm gonna take this thing and kinda give you something to shoot for. So here's what this looks like. I if we're gonna practice hospitality, I'm gonna give you three little areas to think about.

Here's the very first one. You ready? This is different. The first place to practice hospitality is at your dinner table. So wait a minute.

I thought I was supposed to invite him to church. Well, yeah, we're gonna get there. We, but I've noticed in my life it's so much more effective for me to get to know you if I'm connected with you and I'm sitting at your dinner table. So I want you to first open up your life to people this year. Second one that you can do right here.

Second target is to say house church is another place to invite people. Like, in other words, house Church was never intended to be us for and no more house Church was meant to multiply. Like when it starts getting really good and people start wanting to come, next thing you realize, you're gonna have to kind of multiply. You have to start another one. And I've noticed that instead of inviting people to come all the way into this building on Sundays, if you can just invite them to come around the corner to so-and-so's house, to Zach's house, 'cause he lives right around the corner from you, it makes a lot more sense to people.

That's why they're neighborhood and geographically based, because it's just another place. It's a safe place to my people. Well, here's the third one is we've said, Hey look, we also are passionate. We did this last night. Rosie and I had a Mexican last night.

We invited the waitress to come. But I'm just telling you, there's, I think there's other moments that we may have missed in saying, just come to this building. I think culture has changed. And sometimes it's a little overwhelming to walk into a building any of our campuses without walking in with someone, without walking in, having known someone. Now, I I, there's a, there's a, there's a book, I'm gonna close with this, okay?

There's a, there's a book that I love to read and, uh, a writer, his name's Bob Goff. Uh, he came to Hattiesburg one time and spoke at like an a DP event. He's written probably 10 books, but his bestseller is a book called Love Does. And uh, it sold over a million copies. But here's the catch, the whole premise of the book was about availability.

He's like, Hey, love does, this is what it means. You gotta be present. You gotta open up your life to people. And so before you realized it was gonna print and sell over a million copies, look what he put on the last page of the book. He put his cell phone number.

Give me a call sometime if I can be helpful. The, I mean the book is in at Lincoln Road. People is here. Like, you can go see it at the coffee bar. It's a great read.

But he said, the thing I wanted people to know is that you have to be present. He says, the power of being available. This man sold a million copies. He gave a million. You can hear stories.

Look it up, Google it. People call him all the time. I had just curious if you'd answer. He's like, yeah, yeah. What's going on in your life?

So, so here's the recap and then I'm done. Alright? We're practicing hospitality now. We've changed, we've helped you reframe hospitality. It's not your grandma's China, okay?

It's opening up your life. It's inviting others where into your life. Then we said, here's how. 'Cause you're going, well, what does that look like? I'm not sure I know how to do that.

The very first thing is we're gonna notice people, and we gave you a prayer, a bold prayer to open up your day. God, help me notice the people in my life. That may be your husband, it may be your wife, and may your kids, maybe your neighbors, it may be other. Help me. Notice people.

Number two, help me break boundaries. Listen, white people quit talking to just white people, black people. Talk to a white person. Hey, if you're rich, find somebody that's poor. If you're poor, find somebody that's rich.

You see what I'm saying? We're breaking boundaries. This is all through Scripture. The next thing is to, to simply be available. I know, I know it's cool to be busy, but you remember the thing.

If God can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. Why? Because you're out of the game. You're no longer present. Final thing, practicing hospitality, inviting others into your life of faith.

Maybe that's where you start, is to say, Hey, the thing I've gotta do is I've got to develop a life of faith. I mean, I've got a lot of different goals this year. I got a lot of different things I wanna do. But maybe there's a gap right there to say, Hey, there's just, there's I, I'm not a person of faith. Listen, that's okay.

We've told you from the very first we're available to you. Hey, we love you. We see a path in Scripture that Jesus built a relationship with you. We want you to invest here, and we want you to begin this life of faith. So start there this year.

Start there with saying, Jesus, would you come into my life? And would you begin to empower me in all of these different moments? God, give me your grace. God, gimme your love for the people that are around me, God, give me energy to love these kids. God, give me eyes to see the people in my life.

I wanna be a person of faith. I'm nervous about this next year. God, give me courage. Help me be brave. Then let's pray together.

God, I thank you for the way that you see us, that you never leave us. God, I thank you for all the different stories in Scripture. These moments where we see you at meals and we see you just walk in the streets. And God, it's like you didn't spend all your time just in the temple. I mean, you, you opened up your life.

And, and more than that, God, you, you pursued people. God, my favorite story is the way that you, you came after the prodigal son. So God, I thank you that you're, you're pursuing me. So Father, we, we wanna be a church that learns what it's like to pursue others, to, to love them well, love does to, to be available, to, to listen, to notice God, to begin to break the boundaries. Why does Sunday morning have to be so black or white?

God, help us be the church that you've called us to be this year. Help us be brave. Help us be courageous. Help us break boundaries and be available. God, help us notice our communities and the people that are around us.

Father, we love you. We worship units. In your name alone we pray. Amen.