Amen. Amen. You can have a seat once again. Honestly, didn't really know if you were going to stand up or sit down or what was going to happen in that moment. But I love, I love the commitment and dedication of our people. And I love how much you want to see Jesus lifted high.

If you're just walking in for the very first time,

we are calling this season, really more than a sermon series,

it's a season as a church, even now.

And these two words come out of a section of scripture in Joel chapter 2,

where a prophet named Joel is pronouncing

really really intense judgment against the people of God for generations of sin that have occurred

and in the middle of saying all of these really difficult things to hear out of nowhere, Joel drops this line,

even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all of your heart, rend your heart and not

your garments. If you will return to me, I can reverse all that was just threatened and

bless you instead.

And you read this, little section of scripture, and you're like,

it was bad, it was worse, it was worse, it was worse,

and then all of a sudden it's like, God turned around and said,

even now, if your heart's available, the blessing is here.

That's the gospel, that even when we were dead in our sins, Christ died for us. That even when it looked like all hope was lost, everything

gets reversed. And I love those words even now because it's not just like now God has

something for you. It's like even now, God has something for you. It's like even now,

God has something for you. Because every person within the sound of my voice carried a level of baggage

from their past into this space. And so you don't need to just hear God say, hey, now I've got

something for you. You kind of need to hear God say even now because it's like he knows about the thing.

He knows about what you're carrying he knows about

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