Well, good morning. It is Memorial Day weekend. So I do wanna start by just thanking the brave men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom as a country. I'm grateful for them and the chance that we have to gather together and worship Jesus and consider what he has to say to us. I really do believe that he's close here at Chesterfield and at the sites. So hello to Mid Rivers, Fenton Grands Trail, everyone joining us online. Uh, it's just, it's so great and I, and I, I really do believe Jesus is here. Uh, there's this, there's this verse from Psalm 1 45 that talks about that exact thing. Um, in the psalm, the, the writer tells us that the Lord is near to those who call on him to all, who call on him in truth. So there's a lot packed into this little verse, but part of what it means is that Jesus, he longs to moving close. He longs to change us, uh, when we call on him. He's faithful to do that. And by the very nature of you being here today, I believe that Jesus has something for you. We're gonna look at an amazing story, a story that has the power to ripple into every area of our lives. And if we let it, it can spark a chain reaction that echoes into eternity. Are you ready? I hope so. Let's pray. Uh, God, I'm so thankful. I'm thankful for your faithfulness, Jesus. I'm thankful for your word, uh, and that we can gather and just consider what it has to say to us. And God, as you do every weekend, um, I'm asking that you speak to us by the power of your Holy Spirit. Draw in close God, you are the way maker. You are a light that shines in the darkness, Lord. And no matter where we are today, uh, you have the power just to transform us and then use us in the world. So, God, show us what it looks like, looks like to take a step. Um, and we're grateful. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, our Savior and king. Amen. So, have you ever been lost before? I'm talking lost, like the kind of lost, where you don't know where you are or how to get back on track. Uh, maybe you started out on the wrong path, but along the way you took a wrong turn and you really don't know what to do from there. So a couple of years ago, I was on vacation with my wife, Becca. We were in Northern California, so it was beautiful. Uh, we were getting ready to go to dinner and she and I were both planners. So we wanted to find like the absolute best way to get there. So we go down, we talked to the concierge, and this really kind man, he tells us exactly what to do. He says, all right, here's what you gotta do. It might seem counterintuitive, but drive, I don't know, 10 or so miles in the opposite direction. And then plug in the restaurant into your phone, GPS thing. That'll give you the best possible route. You'll beat the traffic. It will be great. Awesome. That's good to know. Oh, and then he says this, when you're leaving, no matter what your mat tells you to do, don't turn left. Uh, you know it, it'll probably be a quicker way back, but it's actually quite dangerous. So that's good to know. So we're at dinner. It's great. We have a lovely time. We're back in my car. We're getting ready to leave. I plug the GPS to our hotel, back into my phone. I remembered what that concierge said, but it was gonna add like an extra 45 minutes to an hour to our trip back to the hotel. I mean, who's got time for that? So like, what did I do all together? Now I turned left, like, how bad could it be? Right? Turns out, actually quite dangerous that that California hill became a California mountain really quick. And, uh, as we kept on driving, it felt like the road just got narrower and narrower. And, uh, there were like absolutely no signs or directions. There were these sharp turns, there was no light Before. You know it. Our, uh, we lose cell service. So the GPS in my phone that starts fasting out. That's not very helpful. And Becca and I were lost. She's nervous. She looks at me, I'm nervous. So I look back at her husband's in the room, you ever been there? That's not a good look. And as, as we go on this journey up this mountain together, I start going on a little emotional journey myself. I'm angry, I am embarrassed. I start to feel a little bit of shame, and we were lost. There was a period of time where I had no idea what we were gonna do. Now, um, we made it back. Obviously I'm here. Uh, Becca stuck with me, thank God. Uh, but it's no fun being lost. And now we're back to that first question, aren't we? Have you ever been lost before? Uh, maybe you took a wrong turn in a relationship and suddenly a friendship, something with your family, your marriage is hanging on by a thread. Uh, maybe you cut a corner at work and you find yourself walking down a path that you never wanted to be on, and you don't know how to get back. I know sometimes when we follow Jesus, there are these behaviors, whether it's an addiction or something like that, they start to sneak their way back into our lives. How does it feel in those moments? You wanna isolate, you feel ashamed, like whatever it is for you, you fill in the blank. What does it feel like to be lost? And maybe, maybe it's a pride thing. Like you just don't wanna give up control. You don't want to surrender. So you keep on going down that path even though you know it's the wrong one. And before you know it, you look around and all you see is brokenness with your families, with your jobs, with your relationships. What do we do in those moments? Our story for today finds Israel in one of those moments. And after, after some terrible decisions made by an even more terrible king. We read this in two kings. Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. I am gonna bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one WIPs a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. This is bleak stuff like this is not a good place for Israel to be. And I think sometimes when we read stories like this, we might think, great. Um, okay, that's a story in the Bible and that's really bad for Israel. But what does that mean for me? Like, why does that matter for me today? It's a great question to ask when you're asking scripture. And I think it's really important when answering it to consider what part of the Bible you're in. Uh, we've shown this graphic before. Some of you, you might've seen it, but the Bible, it's less of a book and it's more of a library, even even though it comes to us packaged, uh, like this, like one collection of books. It actually is different genres and different pieces of literature all put together. So when you flip through the pages of scripture, a good rule of thumb is to imagine that you're like walking around a library and you're taking different books off of the bookshelf. And a really good question to ask yourself is what section of the library am I in Now, second Kings is in the history section and events in history, they don't happen in a vacuum. There's always a backstory. And these events, they build on each other. And to consider, like, and figure out why this story matters for us, we have to ask ourselves, what were the events that led up to hear where we are now in the story? Uh, like what did Israel do that made God so upset? So when you do take a step back and you look at God's relationship with his people, he's so, so gracious and so, so merciful. He gives his people second, third, fifth thousandth chances and everything goes back to this guy named Abraham. Now, Abraham wasn't perfect. He needed God's grace. But in Genesis chapter 12, God, he enters into a special relationship with Abraham. He makes a covenant with him, and he says, Abe, here's what I want you to do. I want you to leave your father's house, abandon your father's idols, and go to the land. I'll show you, if you're new to the faith journey, there are moments in your life where Jesus, he's gonna ask you to take a step of faith. And yes, you use your reason. You think about it, you consult the truth of this book. You ask other believers for their advice and their counsel. But eventually you have to act. You have to take a step, and you do that relying on the promises of God. That's what Abraham did. He took a step trusting in God's promises. Now, what were those promises? God promised Abraham that he would bless him, that he would make a great nation out of his descendants. That, that, that, that, that he would take that nation and put them in the promised land. And then he says this, through you and through your descendants, all people on earth will be blessed. And the rest of the Old Testament shows how God was faithful to those promises. Abraham had a son, and that son had a son. And before you know it, lots of kids were born. And this great nation came into existence. The people of Israel, after a period of slavery in Egypt, God delivered them. He sent Moses, and this is the Exodus story. The 10 plagues, that whole deal, God brings them through the wilderness. He puts them in the Promised Land. Uh, and along the way he gives them the law. And the whole point of the law was that they might be different. That they might show their neighbors a different way to live. Now you probably know some of these laws, at least 10 of them, the the Ted Commandments, y'all know what I'm talking about. Worship God alone, don't make idols, don't take his name in vain. Don't steal, don't murder, don't covet or those laws. They're a part of a larger system of laws. And one of the things that we can do when we read scripture is we can look at what God commanded his people not to do. And that tells us what those other nations were doing. So in one of those law books, in the book of Deuteronomy, this is what we read. What no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or cast spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. So evidently these other nations, they were practicing witchcraft. They were looking at mediums and psychics. They sacrificed their own children to their false gods. And God looked at his people and said, enough, may it not be so with you, you are gonna be different. You're gonna model a different way to live. You're gonna show the surrounding nations what it looks like to love each other well and worship me. And that is how you're gonna bless all people. Oh, and if you obey me, if you're faithful and follow my laws, I am going to bless you. I'm gonna bless your crops. You're gonna have immense wealth and livestock. If you do what I say and listen to my voice, my blessing will follow you wherever you go. But if you disobey, judgment will come. That wealth will go away. Your crops will dwindle. If you keep on worshiping idols, if you keep on rebelling against me, eventually I'm gonna send your enemies to defeat you and bring you into exile and carry you off into the land or carry you off away from the land. And the sad truth of Israel's story is that they didn't listen. Now, they had a couple of good, uh, good kings, king David being one of those kings. Uh, and David was good, but he wasn't perfect. He, he still needed God's grace and he still needed God's forgiveness. But he was committed to following God. He was committed to doing what God said and obeying his laws. But David and those handful of good kings, they were the exception. Most of the kings were bad dudes. Most of those kings led Israel into wickedness and idolatry. Because of that, some fighting happened. A civil war broke out. And before you know it, the one people of God was split into two. You had the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. Now, the northern kingdom, bad kings, bad stuff, idolatry, God's judgment did come. And the Assyrians came exiled them in 7 22 BC they were never heard from again. But the southern kingdom, they lasted a little while longer, but still bad kings, wicked practices, a lot of idol worship. And now, now we're back to where we started. That's why God was ready to wipe out Jerusalem. And everything culminated with the most evil, most vile king in Israelite history. A man named Manasses. Now Manasses, he worshiped false gods. He worshiped idols, but he had the audacity to place altars to those false gods in the temple of the Lord, in God's house, in the place where his presence dwelled, the very place that his people were gonna go to experience grace and mercy had become a house of darkness, and it got dark. Manasses sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord. If you're keeping score, Manasseh did every single thing that God commanded his people not to do. And this, this is one of the worst verses in the Old Testament, honestly, I can barely read it. Child sacrifices, disgusting and despicable and inexcusable. And it was happening in the temple, in God's house. No wonder God was ready to wipe his people away like a dirty dish. And the Hebrew there in that, in, in, in that section, it's, it's pretty graphic stuff. It implies a total removal of the people from the land and complete destruction. And it all goes back to these wicked kings. Kings like Manasses and Amen. They took Israel way off course. I don't think they could have been in worse shape. This was a nation in need of a total rebuild. And right now you might be thinking, gee, Ben, thanks for the uplifting history lesson on this holiday weekend. Like, where's the hope? We talk a lot about grace at this church. So where is it? The Lord is near to those who call on him, who call on him. In truth, if you want grace, that's where you find it. You go to God, you call on his name, you remember his truth. God can rebuild anything. And no matter what ruin your life may be in right now, there is a God who's faithful to bring healing and, and, and reconciliation and get this restoration. And God does it. It's not by our own power. It's not by self-help gurus or the hottest trends. It's God who does this. But it's easy to think from time to time that we can rebuild our own lives. Like, is anyone here good at building stuff? Maybe you love carpentry and woodworking or painting or, or that sort of thing. Like is anybody handy? Like you're, you're in like, you love going to Ikea, that's your favorite thing. Or does anyone like watching those home remodeling shows on HGTV, like Fixer Upper and that sort of thing. If you're like me, you watch those shows and you think, I wonder if I could do that. That is awesome. So tell you what, turn to the people around you on the scale from one to 10, how handy are you? And, and like one is like you can barely hold a hammer. 10, you're practically chip gains himself. Talk to each other. All right, who are my people on the lower end of the spectrum? Like keep building things away from you. You don't even know what shiplap is. Like who, who are those people? Yeah, sites. You too. Make sure you're raising your hand also, but okay, who are my people in the middle? Alright, where am I Bob, the builders at like, you can build anything. You love it. Come on, raise your hand high. Be proud. I am so jealous of you people. I am, I am I I look at you and I wish I could do that. I I have so much respect for my friends who can build stuff. People like Chris Mitchell or Tim Bounds, or Mark Munzer, Randall Littleton, Joel Burke. You guys can build Randall. I bet for you going to Ikea is like Christmas morning. Like you love it. Like for me, I go to Ikea for the cinnamon rolls. Uh, it's true. And my, my friends who can build stuff, they are just, they're always so encouraging and they're so nice and they look at me and they say, Ben, you are overestimating how hard this is. Just watch YouTube. There's so much margin for air. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the encouragement, but I think they're underestimating just how much damage I can do with a hammer. And it's even like more interesting when you consider that I have basically hung out with the royal family of home improvement. And I don't mean like Tim Allen and that whole crew, I mean these guys, chip and Joanna Gates. So I was a Baylor student, uh, for a while and for a handful of years there before the TV show and before the fame Chip and Joanna, they were my landlords. Like I, I know it's pretty cool. I I even have, I even have chip's phone number saved in my phone as Chip home. 'cause what 20 something saves his landlord's last name into his, into his phone. It's been so much fun to celebrate them and their success and the TV show and all that. And I think part of why we love these fixer upper shows is the before and the after. Like it's just, it's so fun to watch a space used to its fullest potential and like things are working the way that they should. And more than that, I think these shows show us what happens when the right people meet at the right time with the right resources. And that's what comes next in the story. Josiah was eight years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 31 years. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left Josiah's entrance into the story. It's like a glass of cold water on a hot summer day. It's like a breath of fresh air. And if you were an Israelite king, this is about as good of an introduction as you could hope for King Josiah followed in David's footsteps, not Manassas, that whole not turning aside to the left or to the right business. All that means is that Josiah was committed to doing things God's way to following his laws and, and, and, and worshiping him alone, which is even more exciting when you consider how old Josiah was. How old was he? Anybody catch that detail? 8, 8, 8 years old? You know, sometimes I think we can bind into the lie that you have to be old enough to make a difference for God and reach a certain age to be used by Jesus in this world. You know what? It's just not true. That's not what you see in scripture. Uh, world changers, they come in all ages. If you have questions about that, if you know someone who has questions about that, bring 'em back next week. But God can do anybody. And, uh, God can use anybody. And it often happens in ways that they don't expect. And Josiah, he was one of those world changers in the 18th year of his reign. Uh, so he's in his mid twenties here just about King Josiah sent the Secretary Chiffon son of Aliah, the son of Michel to the temple of the Lord. He said, go up to Hillah the high priest and have him get ready the money that had been brought into the temple of the Lord, which the door keepers have collected from the people, have them entrusted to the men who, uh, who were appointed to supervise the work of the temple and have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the Lord. Carpenters and builders masons also have them purchase timber dressed in stone to repair the temple By God's grace, this is the right people meeting at the right time with the right resources. And did you notice that they're working together as one this entire group of people? I I bet that was a theme throughout Josiah's life. I bet he had counselors and leaders speaking into him from a young age. You, you know that he, uh, leaned on other leaders in the room, people like Hilah or chiffon, and through them and others, God used them to spark a chain reaction. They brought about national revival to together they restored the temple. And that's something that we can't miss. We talk a lot at this church about taking steps on the journey about growing in our relationship with Jesus and becoming a disciple and then, and then being used by him to make a difference in this world. But if you'll notice, we say they, because it's not a one person doing this for Josiah, it took a whole group of people, which means this, if you wanna make progress on the spiritual journey, you do it with others. It's not something you do by yourself. It is something that we do together. And that's by the design of our brilliant God who wired us a relationship, who calls us to hold each other accountable and walk with each other and encourage each other and keep each other on the right path. And all the while as we do that, we keep taking steps of faithfulness and those steps stack on top of each other. God blesses that faithfulness. That is how this works. That's how it worked for Josiah Hilah, the high priest, said to chiffon the Secretary, I have found the book of the law and the temple of the Lord. And chiffon read from it in the presence of the king. Have you ever found a family heirloom that just stopped you in your tracks? Maybe it was a keepsake from a grandpa or great grandpapa. Uh, maybe it was a photo album or a collection of home movies. I was at my parents' house recently, and I I I found one of those photo albums and it was, it was so much fun just flipping through and, and just looking at those pictures. And I was bombarded by all of these memories. I I started to remember the stories that we've told each other over the years and, and so many, uh, ways, these stories, that collective history. That's what makes us a family. And this right here, it is a stake in the ground moment for the people of Israel. They found, uh, just these stories that made them the people of God. They, they, they, they, they found the history of how God showed up and how he was wanting them to live in the world. That's a big deal. And one of the questions that I had after reading this story, and maybe, maybe you've had this question too, is how on earth did this happen? Like these are people that at least they should have been hearing about their faithful God and how he came through for their ancestors. This was the God who parted the Red Sea. This, this was the God who brought them safely through the wilderness, who guided them at night with a pillar of fire who fed them from heaven, who, who helped them achieve victory over their enemies in Canaan. Th this was that God. So why did they forget? How come no one remembers? How was the book of the law lost? Now we don't, we don't really know for sure, but I bet at some point God's people, they stopped telling the stories of his faithfulness. They, they, they, they, they suffered from what sociologists will call collective amnesia. And they forgot, never underestimate our capacity to forget. And they stopped telling stories. And we don't know exactly why. Maybe, maybe they were distracted by other things. Maybe they focused on that like the, just that God wasn't showing up exactly how or when they wanted. And resentment crept in, uh, maybe the idea of holding an idol that they can make in their hands and worship on their own terms. Maybe that was compelling regardless of how or why it happened that people forgot. They forgot about God, they forgot about his faithfulness, they forgot about his truth and the book of the law. It was lost. No wonder Josiah tore his clothes after hearing from the book of the law. And, and all this is, is an ancient practice of repentance, of saying, God, I'm sorry, I lament. I can't believe we've made it, uh, this far off course. Now there's an in-house debate within biblical scholarship of whether, uh, they found like the entire Torah, the first five books in the Old Testament, or just the book of Deuteronomy. Either way, king Josiah, he would've heard these words. But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him. If you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul, for the Lord your God is a merciful God, he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors. Imagine your king Josiah, and you're hearing these words for the first time. You're thinking about just how far off course Israel has gotten. And you hear these words, I, these are words of second chance. These are words of hope. These are words of grace. And they mean that even when we step off the wrong, uh, off the right path, there is a God who will remember his promises and listen these words, they're comforting, they're encouraging. But these words were also convicting. And that's a point we have to remember. You see, God, he speaks to us through his word. He encourages us, he sustains us through his word, but God also uses his word to challenge us and by his spirit change us from the inside out. That's why Paul in one of his letters says that all scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching rebuking and correcting. It's why scripture is referred to as a double-edged sword that's sharp enough to cut away the broken parts of our hearts. But you gotta hear me. It is God's kindness that leads to repentance. And that word repent, it's a churchy word, but all it means is to turn back to God, to turn to him, to go to him and commit to doing things his way again. And when we do that, we allow him by his spirit to transform our hearts and our minds and give us a new way to act and live in this world. And maybe, maybe some of you grew up in situations where that word repent was shouted at you. Maybe you had a pastor or a leader or a family member weaponize guilt and shame in the name of Jesus. You got to hear me. That's not Jesus. That's not his voice. Do we honor and revere God? Absolutely. Do we give him the respect that he deserves? Of course we do. But scripture says that it is God's uh, kindness that leads to repentance and it's his perfect love that casts out all fear. And if you've received his grace, if you've accepted him as the Lord and savior of your life and surrendered to him, you can go before his throne in confidence and boldness trusting that as you go to God. He's just so kind and so loving. And yes, God convicts, but his conviction happens in the context of a relationship between us and this God who loves us more than we can comprehend. And that means that God's kindness and God's conviction walk hand in hand and together they lead us back to Jesus. They lead us back to the cross. They lead us back to the grace and the mercy that we've received. That's what Josiah learned. He heard that word read out from the book of the law, this idea that there is a God who is merciful and if you seek him with all your heart, he's faithful to meet you and get you back on the right path. And Josiah, he let that truth sink down deep into the deepest corners of his heart and it changed things. Scripture changed the world. God used it to bring about this revival that happened in Israel. And maybe, maybe you're here today and you're brand new to scripture, you don't know where to start because the Bible is a big book and it's complicated. Maybe, maybe you follow Jesus for a while, but for so many reasons along the way, you've just fallen out of habit of going to God and listening to him through this book and considering his truth. Well, no matter where you are today, hear this turning back to God, starts with hearing him clearly. And we hear him most clearly from scripture from this book. And if we let it, God will use these words not to condemn us, not to shame or belittle us. No, God will use these words to remind us of his mercy, of his grace, and then by his power transform us and bring about the greatest fixer-upper story of all time. For Josiah, it looked like cleaning house, restoring the temple, this uh, uh, cleaning out the temple, destroying the idols that were in there, uh, getting the people of Israel back on track that they might worship God alone. And because of that act of humility and repentance, God's told Josiah, you know what, buddy? Judgment's still gonna come, but it's gonna be delayed. You're gonna go to your grave in peace. Friends, HH how astounding is it that our acts of humility and repentance can move the heart of God? And just like Josiah, it goes back to surrender. It goes back to following what he wants us to do, recognizing that he knows what's best. And even in the darkest moments in your life, hope still shines through because Jesus, he's faithful and he will make a way back to the right path. So yeah, Josiah can teach us a lot about grace and second chances. And for that matter, so can Peter and Mary Magdalene and the Philippian jailer and the Grateful Leper. These stories of grace that we've been looking at in these series, they've been inspiring. And if you've missed a week, I would encourage you go back 'cause God's been at work and it has been awesome. But I think as we read stories like this, we can wonder, does God still work in that way today? Uh, maybe you're here and you're skeptical and that's your question. Like, does grace still make a difference? I want you to hear from my friend Raven. She's a woman at this church and she knows all too well what it looks like to turn to God and follow where he leads. So watch this. I did not grow up in the church and it wasn't something that was talked about very often. My family and I would pray during major holidays, but I never had that personal relationship with Jesus. I always kind of would look at my friends and their families and see them going to church and them reading their bibles. And I always kind of wondered why me and my family weren't doing that. That sparked a lot of curiosity in me and a million questions, but I didn't necessarily know who I could ask them to or where. It was a group of girls from my volleyball team that invited me to a high school ministry event. And I was a little hesitant at first just because I hadn't really experienced anything like it. Um, and it wasn't something that was talked about much growing up either. But I decided to take that chance and it ended up being one of the biggest steps in my faith. They were so lively, they were so much fun. That was one thing that really struck me about it too, is how welcoming everybody was. And I felt that that was a safe place and that I was so welcomed and loved there for people that I'd only met a couple of times. A lot of my leaders came and introduced themselves and wanted to know more about me and more about my life right off the bat. It was just so, honestly really refreshing to see them want to be a part of my life and want to pull me in. When I first started reading scripture, it was really hard for me. I didn't necessarily know where to start. I did go to some leaders just for a little bit of advice. You know, where should I start? I started doing kind of what they were saying, but I wasn't necessarily understanding it. And a lot of it was still getting very lost on me. And although I did ask them for advice, I didn't continually go back. I didn't express my challenges that I wasn't understanding and I wasn't necessarily getting what I thought I needed out of it. I've struggled having control over a lot of different areas of my life. I think in being a student, I really wanted to pave the way for my future. It was hard for me to let go of that because it was going well for a long time, but it was also causing me a lot of stress and a lot of anxiety. But I wasn't asking for help and I figured this is just something I need to get past. Life is hard. I just need to keep moving through it. But that wasn't really helping me. I got an amazing opportunity to become a camp leader for a group of students, just how I was a camper at these church related camps. And so I thought this would be an amazing opportunity. And so I took it. I remember one day during the week I was helping some of the campers with one of their activities, and I saw a couple walking up the trail and I honestly couldn't believe it, but it was one of my camp leaders from when I was a camper. And in those events that we would do weekly in high school, she was one of my mentors. I saw her and I absolutely couldn't believe it. We were in a completely different capacity in a completely different state. She had moved across the country. I hadn't seen her in years. And it was such a full circle moment because in all the times in camp where I felt that God was chasing me in this moment, I could just feel him sprinting at me, really just chasing me down. I just remember feeling this overwhelming sense of just peace and love and grace, and it was amazing. Life has definitely not been perfect after surrendering, and it has come with mistakes. But in those an overwhelming amount of freedom and peace in knowing I have surrendered it all to him. In the moments that I am struggling with control, I now go to him in the moments that I'm not sure what to do. I go to the Bible. There are so many things in life that have been really, really stressful and trying. But since that moment of surrendering, I know that he has the path for me and he's leading the way. And I've also have such a great community around me that calls me higher and pushes me in my faith. And in those times of struggle, um, of control, I know that I can go to them as a reminder that I have such a loving father that's leading the way for me. Life before Jesus was very fast paced, I think with wanting to gain control over everything, it was hard for me to keep track of things. I was trying so many things to make sure things were in order for myself. And I was paving the way and that caused a lot of stress and it caused a lot of anxiety. And I wanted to make sure that I was performing well. So these things would happen. But life after Jesus has brought me so much peace and a lot of freedom and a way to slow down and just take a step back and see the ways that he's leading me in my life. One piece of advice that I would give to somebody who is not yet surrendered to Jesus is to really lean into prayer, lean into reading the Bible so that it can feed into you. So you can hear directly from Jesus. Everybody's journey and surrendering is so different, but really leaning into your resources, even the community around you can be so helpful. So Raven ran into those uh, leaders at that camp, and that was a turning point in her relationship with Jesus. And from there she surrendered. She received his grace, uh, and she's gonna be one of the hundreds of people who are stepping into the waters of baptism this June. And that is, yeah, we can celebrate that. And isn't it something that no matter how far we drift off course, there is a God who sends people to bring us back. There are other voices, there's truth. Uh, for Raven, it looked like the community around her, those leaders, it it also looked like her going to God's word, asking questions. And did anyone else just notice the peace on her face, the relief that came with following Jesus? I love the idea that God was chasing her down and sprinting after her. That is a powerful image and that is true for each and every single person in this room. No matter where you are, God is chasing after you. And if you are still trying to figure out if it's worth it to surrender, if it's worth it to give your life to him, Raven just, she gives such a great glimpse into what this life with Jesus is like. It's not a perfect life. It's not a life without hardship, but it is a life that's good. It is a life of hope. It is a life of purpose and meaning. And it all goes back to grace. It really is grace. Grace is what gets us on the path. God's grace is what keeps us on the path. And God's grace will lead us home. And all the while Jesus is at work redeeming and restoring and reminding us of his truth. For those of us who are walking with him, he then calls us to then remind each other of that grace, do you have any idea how your legacies will echo if you're the one who goes alongside someone and just humbly and lovingly wrap your arms around them and says, buddy, I've been there. Trust me. I am not perfect, but you're drifting a little bit. Let's go back to Jesus. Let's go back to grace because I'm telling you, it's worth it. Friends God can use that. That's a chain reaction that will echo into eternity. We won't even be able to understand this side of heaven how God is using that, but he will use it to change things. That's what he did for Josiah. Josiah had no idea how his reforms would echo, but echo they did all the way into Babylon with a different foreign leader in a different land where people still told stories about God's faithfulness. They didn't forget again. And how do we know that? We don't even have time to go into it. But because of three Hebrew men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Ab Bendigo who faced a fiery furnace because they wouldn't stop worshiping the one true God. That's a chain reaction. So I'll ask again. Does anybody else want to be a part of a chain reaction that echoes into eternity? I'm telling you of God could, you could could use Josiah that way. Why not me? Why not you? So let's keep returning to his truth. Let's keep leaning into him. Uh, scripture says that if we seek our merciful God with all that we are, we will find him. And it's all grace and it's all Jesus. And no matter how far you may have drifted here, this because of Jesus. There is no such thing as too far gone in the kingdom of God. So, So as you leave here, regardless of what awaits you, whether it's fear, anxiety, grief, or yes, hopefully moments of laughter and Memorial Day barbecues, remember this, the Lord is near to those who call on Him, who call on him in truth. So let's keep calling on the Lord. Let's keep leaning into his grace. Let's keep considering his truth. We have a month until baptism. So let's keep taking steps. Let's invite our friends. Let's see how Grace continues to change us, and then we'll see how God changes the world because he is not finished. Amen. Amen.