0:07 Dear brothers and sisters and children If you have your Bible, I want you to take it. If you know how to read and have your Bible, you can take it. We're going to turn to Psalm 24:3. All of you probably heard about the 0:25 church. You've heard about the church. But the church is very special. I want you to all know that the church is something very special to to Jesus. Jesus died for the world. For God so loved the world, he died for the world. 0:41 But he gave himself for who? For the church. He gave himself for the church. And the church is a very special place for Jesus. And so let's turn to Psalm 24 is Well, the church the church is for everyone. God has opened up the church for 1:00 everyone. But not everyone comes to the to the church. Read with me Psalm 24:3. It says, "Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?" Well, the hill of the Lord is available for all. Who are those who are going to 1:19 ascend up, who are going to walk up that hill to the mount of of God? "And who may stand in his holy presence?" That means among those who found their way up the hill to the mount of God, who are those who are going to remain there 1:38 till the end? And today I wanted to speak on that. In Zechariah, it talks about God being a wall of fire around the church. And he's the glory in the midst. He's in the glory in the midst of 1:57 it. If you went to a firefighter and you asked him, "Are you going to go into this building? There's a big fire. Are you going to run into this building?" What's he going to ask? What's he going to ask before he goes 2:17 into that building? Does he just run into the building just because there's a fire? Only if there's someone inside, he's going to run in there. Because there's someone there that needs to be saved, so he's running in there. 2:36 He doesn't go into the fire just for the fun of going into the fire. There's a reason why he goes into that fire. And for us also in the church, everybody they they see the wall of fire around the church, and they have to make a choice. Do I 2:50 want to go in? Or do I want to stay outside and watch? Those who've seen the glory in the middle of the church, they've seen the glory of Jesus. They'll say, "You know what, this fire? I'm going to It doesn't matter what the 3:05 fire is around it. I'm going to go through this fire to stay in the presence of the Lord." There's others who'd look at the fire and say, "Oh, that's I don't see anything in there. It's not worth going in suffering so much. 3:19 I'm okay where I'm at." But for each one of us, we have to decide today, from youngest to oldest, is there any price that's too much to pay to experience the glory of God? It's God will not force us. He will not force us. 3:39 It's something that we have to decide for us. Some people say, "Oh, that price is too high." Some people say, "Oh, no. That price There's no price too high." So, how we For who is Who are the people who are going to go 3:58 through that fire into the midst of the church? It's those who see Jesus as precious. If you haven't seen Jesus as precious, you're not going to go in. You're going to look at the fire and say, "Oh, that's too much." But if Jesus is precious, this this 4:17 verse is He talks about for you who believe He is precious. Is Jesus precious to you? You might remember that parable in Matthew 13. When that man who was looking for precious pearls, what did he do? When he saw the precious pearl, what did he do? 4:35 He sold everything he had because it was worth everything to him. For each one of us, if Jesus means everything to us, then we will go into the midst where He is. Is He altogether lovely? This is a 4:53 beautiful verse in Song Song of Solomon 5:16. In the New King James, it reads like this, "He's altogether lovely." This is my beloved. This is my friend. Is He a beloved to you today for you 5:11 today? Is He your beloved? If He's your beloved, you're going to go. You're going to go where He is. He's in the midst of the church. Is He your friend? And He can be your friend from the youngest to oldest. He can be your friend. 5:27 Is He your friend today? If He's not, you can make him your friend. You can make him your beloved. You can ask God, "God, show me your loveliness." I think about Mary Magdalene. We can turn to uh John 20. 5:47 Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus on that morning and she was asking around, "Where is he?" She says in verse 14, or actually verse 13. She said to them, "Because they have 6:07 taken my Lord and I don't know where they have laid him." Verse 14, "When she had said this, she turned around and Jesus is standing there and did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?'" 6:21 "Whom are you seeking?" Supposing her to be the him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned to him and said in Rabboni, 6:38 which means teacher. And I can picture Mary falling at Jesus' feet and clinging onto his feet, "Jesus, don't leave me. Three days is enough. I could not bear it. Do not leave me again like this." 6:55 Clinging to his feet. And Jesus told her, what does Jesus tell her? "Stop clinging for I've not yet ascended to the Father." I ask each one of you, where is Jesus today? Is he here today? 7:14 Or is he ascended to the Father? He's ascended to the Father today. Yes, he's in our hearts, but he's ascended to the Father. Today, after Jesus ascended, 40 days later he ascended, I believe Mary would have done this. 7:34 Mary would have said, "Jesus, that day you told me to stop clinging to you. But today you have ascended. You cannot tell me not to cling to you anymore. I am going to cling to you for the rest of my life. I see that the Lord is looking down and 7:52 he's saying, "You know what? I told her to stop clinging to me that day because I hadn't ascended." But today I have ascended. How many people are going to cling on to me today? Lord, you've you've ascended, Lord. I can 8:06 cling on to you today. I don't want to let go of you. I believe that Mary Magdalene, the one who had seven demons in her, was forgiven. God set her free. Loved Jesus much. And I believe that she was one of the 8:25 women in Acts 1, if you read there, it says that Acts 1, it says verse 14, "These were continually with one mind." Acts 1:14, "Devoting themselves to prayer along with the women." It doesn't say which women, but if you read in Luke 8, which 8:44 is another book that Luke wrote, in Luke 8 he says the names of the women and one of the women was Mary Magdalene. She would have been there, the one who was possessed with demons. Now God had freed and would read receive the Holy Spirit. 9:01 I see that example in her. She loved much and she loved Jesus so much. She clung on to him. And then she was filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. These are the ones who will see the glory in the midst of the church. 9:17 There's no price too high for her. It's the ones who've seen the glory of Jesus. They'll pay any price to be there in the midst of the church. You've probably seen the nativity scene, 9:35 right? You've probably some people purchase the nativity scene and they go and buy it and put it put it Always in the nativity scene, you see all the animals, they're sitting quietly, they're all watching around. It's always very clean. 9:52 Everybody's as if they're going to take a picture of all of them. They're all posing, all quiet. But I wanted to take you back 2,000 years ago. Jerusalem was I mean, sorry, Bethlehem was full. 10:12 There was people from all over that were coming into Bethlehem for the census. In the midst of that, all the inns were all booked. Everything was full. Mary and Joseph probably landed up pretty late. And so there is no room in the inn. 10:33 They went and they stayed in that stable. I always used to picture there's only like two animals or something like that, all quiet. If the inns were all full and people came from all all of the places, what would have they done with 10:50 their animals? They had to put it in the stable. That stable would have been full of animals making noise and you know what do what animals do. It would have smelt and everything like that. That's the nativity scene. That's 11:07 how it really would have been. I don't think they sell nativity scenes like it how it really is. They're all so clean. It would have been so messy and I can picture Joseph and Mary you know, it says love is What was our memory 11:25 verse? Love is patient. Love is kind. That's where the patience and kindness is tested. Joseph, we should have come here sooner. Why couldn't we get in? All those things 11:43 testing. The love is tested in the true nativity scene. I can see Joseph scooping up all the and cleaning up, gathering the animals, putting them away, screaming cattle, screaming donkeys, all of that. The smell of all of that. 12:02 In the midst of that is where the first body of Christ was born. The first body of Christ was born in Mary. It was a miracle. It was a miracle of God, that first body of Christ. It is not born in convenience and 12:20 niceness. It was born in the midst of suffering and testing and trial. But that was the true body of Christ. And today also, the true body of Christ will be a place where your love is tested. It's not going to be a say cheese, everybody 12:38 stays stays still. It's going to be all this mess and all of that. In the midst of it they're going to see Jesus there. And they'll say, you know what? This is the true body of Christ. Yes, there's inconvenience, there's a 12:52 lot of noise and smells and all of that. But here is where my love is tested. This is the proof that all that I hear is true. There's many If you If you want to get the the clean nativity scene there's many clean nativity scenes. You 13:10 can have that one. Your love will not be tested in the clean nativity scene. But if you want the true If you want to ascend up that hill and you want to stay in that hill you want to see the glory in the midst of the church 13:26 this is one of the price you'll have to pay. Your love will be tested. If you go to 1 Corinthians 13, the verse we had for our memory verse. This is what was tested in the true body of Christ. In every other body of Christ which the 13:43 Lord himself is building. Jesus says I will build my church and if it's the church that Jesus is building there is going to be this there is going to be my lord my cross I have taken the song we've sang. I have to take my cross. It says love is 13:59 patient, love is kind, love is not jealous, love does not brag, love is not rude, love does not seek its own. So is that what we want? If that's what we want we can experience we'll see the glory in 14:18 the midst of the nativity scene. The Lord is asking us do you want to pay that price? You might remember Noah, the days of Noah. God destroyed the entire world. 14:37 But in the midst of the world God preserved Noah, his wife, his sons and his daughter-in-laws. And he did also preserve the animals. And you can turn with me to Genesis 8 verse 6. He had spared two of unclean animals and 15:00 seven pairs of the clean animals. And the raven which we read of the raven that we read of he was one of two that was saved from the flood. The flood destroyed everything else including other ravens. Other ravens also were 15:16 destroyed in the flood. God in his mercy had saved this raven and his mate. And God gave or Noah gave him a a job. Gave him a ministry. Genesis 8:6 and it then it came at the 15:38 end of 40 days. So, it had been about 11 months. They've been in this in this ark. Their life had been preserved. And finally it came to rest and uh animals and all of that are in there and he's sending out the raven and says, "Okay, I will have a 15:56 ministry for you. I want you to go and see if there's life out there. Go." He goes out there. You read here, "Then after 40 days, then Noah opened the window." And he sent out the raven. Raven, you have one ministry. Go and see if there's 16:13 life and report back. Verse 7. He sent out the raven and it flew here and flew there until the water was dried up from the earth. Did the raven come back? 16:32 No. I go and ask the raven, "Raven, why didn't you go back? You were supposed to go and find out if there's life and come back if you didn't find any life." I can imagine the raven telling me, "I've been there already 11 months. All 16:48 the other animals and noises and all of that. I've had enough. That ark, which is a picture of the church, too much. 11 months with these people, these other animals and everything, this whining and all that. No. I need my space." 17:08 "What did you find out there?" "Nothing. There was death and loneliness." "Then why didn't you come back? I'd rather stay out here and and make do with whatever is here. I don't want to go there and 17:29 spend time with the other animals and that's too much for me. Too much of a price to pay. I want to be here by myself. He did not fulfill the ministry that God or Noah gave him. He was ungrateful. He was one of two 17:48 ravens. You know, all the world that was saved. He had no gratitude for the ark or for Noah. The moment he had the opportunity to leave he And for me, I have to ask myself, "Lord, 18:07 do I have the heart of a raven? Or am I willing to stay in the ark? And then God, you know, God sent the dove. Verse 8, he sent out the dove from him to see if the water was abated 18:26 from the face of the earth. Verse 9, it's a beautiful verse. The dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot. She found no resting place. She looked at the world. She looked at the death around her. And she could not find any rest there 18:45 for her feet. She says, "You know what? I tried it. I looked out there. I tried to find something out there. I couldn't. There is no resting place for my foot." He go She goes and looks at the raven and says, "Raven, what are you doing 19:00 here? How can you find rest here?" Yeah, I'm making do with all of what I have. I'm trying to find some pleasure in this world. She goes back and the raven says to you, "Why are are you going back?" And s- the dove tells, 19:18 "I'm very thankful for the ark. The reason I live today is because of that ark. The reason I live is because of the love and life and joy I found in that ark." Is it inconvenient? Yes, it's inconvenient. There's a lot of noise and 19:34 a lot of other things happening there, but I found life there. I don't find a resting place out here. I do find a resting place there for my foot. So, she returned to him into the ark. And listen to this. 19:54 Then he put out Noah puts out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark. He brought her into the ark, but not just that. Listen to this. Brought her into the ark and to himself. Not only that did the dove experience 20:13 the love of the church, the love of the ark, but he she also experienced the love of Noah, which is a picture of the love of God. She experienced that. And she says, "I can't find any other love outside in this world. I can find 20:27 that love only inside the church and only in the Father's hand. There's no other place outside that I'd rather be." There's something else in the story of Noah. If you turn If you go down further, 20:47 it says in verse 13, in the middle of verse 13. This is about Uh it's after a year, first year, first month. It's It's a year since they've uh been in the ark. Finally, they landed. Then Then Noah removed the covering. That 21:05 means the roof. He took off the roof. And looked and behold the service surface of the ground was dried up. So the surface of the earth was dried up. The covering was taken up. I'm guessing all the family would have come up. They saw the ground. Everything 21:20 is dry. And what's the question everybody's mind now? Everything's dry outside. What should we do? We need to go out. Come on, let's go out. We've stayed in here enough. It's been a while. We have We need to go get some 21:35 fresh food. It's not until another two months almost. Verse 14, in the second month on the 27th day of the month the earth was dry again, it says. Verse 15, then God spoke to Noah. Go out of the ark. 21:52 So two months, it's dry outside. But Noah is waiting there. God hadn't told him to go out yet. I can think of it, not only the 10 months of what the conversation would have been, but for those two months his kids and his wife 22:07 Noah, it's it's it's dry out there. All the food we have is 1 year old. Let's go to plant something. We need to plant something, get some new food. Come on. Come on. Why It's dry out there. It's dry out there. But Noah did not move. He said, "I'm 22:27 sorry. You may misunderstand me, but I've not heard from the Lord yet. We can't go." Sometimes scriptures doesn't record what has happened, but on that day when we meet the meet Noah, we'll ask him, "Noah, how was that last two and a half 22:42 months in the ark? What was the conversations like?" And he says, "You know what? No matter what came about my way, I decided I would stay until the Lord asked me to go." So I learned something from Noah. Unless the Lord he Unless he heard from the 22:59 Lord, he would stay there. And so as we see and I pray that the Lord opens our eyes to see the beauty and the glory inside the midst of the church. So that we would be willing to pay that price to go up that mountain. And not only go up that mountain, for 23:19 those of us who have gone to that mountain, maybe you've seen the mountain and seen the presence of the Lord. We've seen the church and the glory in the midst of the church. To stay there, to stand in the midst of the church, to remain there till the 23:32 end. That we would not just just be there by ourselves, but we also, Jesus says, let us gather. In Mar- In Matthew 12:30, Matthew 12 12:30, verse 30, he says, "He who is not with 23:53 me is against me. He who does not gather with me scatters." So there's two types of people. One who gathers with Jesus 24:09 and one who doesn't gather with Jesus. What if I go and gather people on my own? According to this verse, he who does not gather with Jesus is what? He's scattering. So if I go and I want to gather 24:29 people and I'm not doing it with Jesus, I'm going to be scattering. And as I look back, there's a there's a example of this of one who is gathering on his own. Turn with me to 2 Samuel. 24:47 2 Samuel verse 15 uh chapter 15, sorry. 2 Samuel chapter 15. A man who wants gather without Jesus or on his own. Verse 15, verse 1. Now it came about that Absalom 25:06 provided for himself a chariot and horses and 50 men as runners before him. Verse 2. Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. So Absalom made some sacrifice. He had to wake up early and stand beside the way to the gate. 25:25 And when a man had a suit to to come to the king for judgment, Absalom would call out to him and say, "From which city are you?" And he would say, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel." And I think Absalom's like, "Oh, yeah, 25:46 you're a wonderful You're not from Tyre or Sidon. You're from one of the Israelite cities. Come, you must be a religious man." Verse 3. Absalom will say to him, "See, your claims are good and right." He'd say this to anybody who comes here. 26:06 "It's good and right." What was he doing? He's flattering them. He was flattering them to say something that they so that they would attach to him. But no one listens to you. Oh, the king does not listen to you. Nobody's caring 26:21 about you. Moreover, verse 4. Absalom would say, "Oh, that someone would appoint me as a judge in the land. And every man who has a case or cause could come to me." He wanted some reputation as a judge or 26:41 somebody who's has advice. And I would give him justice. And the man would come near to him and prostrate before him and said and would put out his hand so that so the man would come and fall down before him. And he says, "No, no, 27:00 no, don't don't fall down before me." And he'll pull him up. What is that? False humility. And then he would kiss him. What kind of kiss is that? It's all to kind of attract him and attach him to himself. Flatter him. Verse six, listen to this. In this 27:23 manner, Absalom dealt with all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So before they could come to the king with their case, he would stand at the door and say, "Hey, before you go in, let me talk to you." Flatter them. 27:37 Say that, "Oh, you know what? Don't worry. I I if I was a judge, I would have taken care of that issue for you. You have a very good cause here." All with selfish motive. And in in verse seven, you see that it happened for quite a bit of time. 27:55 For a couple of years. So read the verse verse six the end of verse six. It says, "So Absalom what?" Stole away the hearts of the men of Israel. He stole them away. He was gathering 28:13 He was gathering but he was gathering himself. He did not want to include Jesus. He didn't want to include He wanted to gather for himself. Those who follow his example, you can see that it it went through all the generations for about thousand years. 28:31 Thousand years later in the time of Acts, Acts 20 you can find the followers of Absalom. In Acts 20 verse 30 From among you 28:50 your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. There's a drawing. They're drawing away. They're not gathering with Jesus. The spirit of Absalom went through the 29:08 centuries. And you have people following his his example of drawing people to themselves. And I could think about what they would have said. They would have said the same things Absalom said, drawing people to themselves. 29:28 And I see that if we're not careful in the heart of men, it's in all of us. From the young age each person wants to be loved and the friends of everybody. They want everybody to be their friend and everybody to love them and care for 29:45 them. And then it goes up and older older. Then in the church also, hey, I want everybody to be my friend. I want everybody. So, what should we do? Not not be hospital, not care for others, not be giving, not be loving. 30:03 No, we should be. But there's a spirit. There's two spirits. One is one where we're seeking our own. And there's another spirit. We're We're seeking the gathering with Jesus. I think of in Acts 16. 30:24 In Acts 16, there's one person. She was hospitable, very hospitable. Her name is Lydia. And after she was baptized with her family she went to Paul. And this is the way she convinced that she should be hot for her hospitalities. 30:43 She was convincing, very convincing. She says to him in verse 15, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And so I can think of Paul. Paul's like, "If I don't go to her house, she's going 30:58 to think I'm not judging her faithful to the Lord." And then if I go to her house, that means I'm kind of forced into this. And then she prevailed upon us. This So he finally ended up going staying with them. And I say, "You know what? 31:14 There are people with a heart of hospitality to bring, you know, and I I feel that her motive was sincere. And we can have sincere motives and invite people hospitable that are when we see a need or help and we go and help them. 31:29 I believe Lydia's motives were real. She saw Paul and wanted to bless him. She didn't have any ulterior motive for herself drawing people to ourselves. But just a couple of chapters later, there's a different ministry. There's the ministry of stealing hearts. 31:47 And then there's the ministry of winning hearts. Guess who speaks up here, who won He won over the hearts of men. Do you know who that is? He won the hearts of men. Any guesses? It's Absalom's dad, David. 32:09 He said, "You know what? I want to gather I want to gather all the tribes of Israel." But he did it in a very different way. He did it with the Lord. The Lord was the one who brought them in. He didn't have to go and convince anybody, flatter 32:24 anybody, or anything like that. The Lord brought those people there. And it says in the NIV, it says he translates that won the hearts of men. And we see that in if you turn with me to John chapter 4, John chapter 4, 32:42 there is a true gathering of God where we gather folks with Jesus so that they can climb up this mountain, the mountain of the hill of the Lord. So, in um John 4, it says in in in verse 35, 33:09 "Do you Behold, I say, lift up your eyes, look at the fields. They are white for harvest." So, what should we do? "Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal so that he who sows and he who reaps may 33:28 rejoice together." And so, there is So, this is John 4 verse 36, 35 and 36. And so, there is this gathering that the Lord is doing. And John did not say, "Okay, Jesus, thank you for planting in in Samaria uh through this woman at the well, all 33:47 of these people are coming to know you. I'll take some disciples for myself." And then Peter says, "Okay, I'll take some disciples for myself." No, they were gathering for the Lord. The Lord was adding on. And they were just coming alongside and 34:02 gathering with them. Read with me John chapter 6. Verse 44. John 6:44. This is a drawing. This is a gathering. But who's gathering? Verse 44. John 34:21 6:44. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." So, the Father is also drawing and gathering. And Jesus is saying, "Come. Gather with me." Don't worry. You don't have to get 34:39 friends. You don't have to try and and gather people. I will do the gathering. You just join with me. Don't worry. People might despise you. People might leave you. People might accuse you, despise you. Don't worry about that. 34:57 Turn with me to Matthew 19. This is the promise for those who are gathering. For those who are gathering, listen to this. Matthew 19 verse 29. Matthew 19:29. And everyone who has left 35:13 houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for my sake will receive many times as much. So, did fathers and brothers and relatives and friends leave you? Guess who what promise we have. God will bring. He's going to gather 35:32 those friends and brothers and sisters, anything that we've left. He's going to gather. We don't have to try and gather. And Paul not only did he want people to be one. 35:55 He wanted to hand them over to only one person. I He has a godly jealousy. I betrothed you to one husband. I don't want you to be distracted. I don't need you even to be attached to me. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1 says, "You know 36:15 what? I I kind of hesitated to baptize any of you lest you said you baptized in the name of Paul." I wanted you to be having your attraction and devotion and love for one person, and that was Jesus. Yes, I'm going to plant, Apollos is 36:31 going to water, but I want your devotion to be just for one person. It's going to be only for Jesus. Yes, we're gatherers. We come and we work with Jesus gathering, but we want your affection to be with one, and that's Jesus. 36:49 He's the one who's going to be in the midst of the church. So, Jesus shows us, how do we gather? We gather with him. And our longing, our longing is for each one of us to be attached to the head, 37:07 to have a pure devotion to Christ. If you have that devotion, if you have that love for Jesus, there will be no price too high to go in the midst of But on that mountain, not only does God God bring two from a 37:27 city two from a family, one from a city, and brings them to Zion, to that mountain, but he also takes away those who will It says they ascend to the mountain, but they stay there. They remain, they stand there. Who are the 37:42 ones who are going to stay there and remain in the church till the end? He's re- He says there in Zephaniah 3:11-12. He says, "I'm going to remove all the proud and haughty, and then you'll be left with the lowly, humble people." 37:58 That's all that's going to be left on that mountain. It's going to be humble and lowly people. From the youngest to the oldest. Those who will remain there, those who will have the privilege to have their feet find a resting place 38:14 in the church, like that dove, will be those who are humble. And God does that He humbles us in different ways. Humility is not a gift. We can't say, "Lord, give me the gift of humility." We can't say, "Lord, give me the fruit of 38:33 humility." It's not a fruit. In James he says, "Receive God's word with a humble heart. That will save your souls." Jesus says in Matthew 18, he says, "He who humbles himself." 38:52 That's a choice that I have to make, that you have to make. God is not going to force us. He's going to say, "Do you want to be Do you want to humble yourself?" That's your choice. When there's a spirit of competition, which one are you going to do? Are you 39:04 going to humble yourself or are you going to be jealous? When you have to go and apologize to someone, your spouse or child or somebody, are you going to be proud or you're going to humble yourself? Which one are you going to choose? 39:19 That's a choice of your will. You can choose. Sometimes God helps people. For Paul, he gave them a thorn in the flesh to help them to be humble. For Nebuchadnezzar, 39:38 he was saying, "I I I I built this. I built that. I did all of this." In a moment of time, his mind was He lost his mind and he became like an animal. In 1 Corinthians 4 it says, "What have you received? What do you have that you've not 39:54 received from God?" And I think to myself, there is nothing that I have today. There's nothing each one of us has today that we've not received from the Lord. Then why do we boast as if we got it on our own? And so, something for us to each one to 40:10 consider. If we want to stay on that holy hill till the end, if we want to remain in the church till the end. This precious church the glory in the midst. We will name it to stay humble. I'm going to close with this. With the question 40:30 and any of you can answer this. Who is Joseph Justus? Joseph Justus It's from the New Testament. Anyone, you can shout it out. Yes. Yes. 40:56 Joseph Justus was one of those You might remember after Judas Iscariot uh uh committed suicide and there was one spot left, right? There was 12 spots, one was left. And Peter and the and the disciples said, "Okay, we need to fill that spot." 41:14 And so they looked for everybody. And they said, "This is the condition." If you turn with me Acts chapter 1 verse 21, it says, "Therefore it is necessary of the men who accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in 41:33 and out among us beginning from the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection." And so they they looked through all these people. And they found, "Okay, these are the 41:54 people who were there when Jesus ascended. Okay, so you you narrow it down to a smaller sub small group smaller group. Okay, who were there when he died? Okay, you guys weren't there when he died, so smaller group. Okay, all of you guys weren't there when 42:10 John was bap- baptizing, so you guys can't be there. So then it was a smaller group. Finally it was narrowed down to two people. Joseph, also known as Justice, and Matthias. Those two would were there. And they were like, "Okay, let's cast 42:27 lots. Who is going to have the privilege to take the spot of Judas?" And they're all like waiting. They're probably thinking this is probably one of the greatest privileges to be one among the 12 apostles. And Matthias and 42:48 Joseph are there and they're waiting to see this dice being thrown. The lot is cast. And it's Matthias. I was thinking of Joseph Justice, what he would have been thinking. I was so close. I went all the way up till there. 43:04 I was the last two. Then lost. After the meeting is over, there was a couple of people coming to Hey, that was so close. You nearly made it. You could have been one of the 12. What happened? The beautiful thing about Joseph 43:20 Justice, we don't hear about his name, we don't hear about Matthias' name, but I believe he must have been a very humble brother. Because he was one of the 120 who stayed there on the day of Pentecost. And the Holy Spirit filled him. 43:39 The Holy Spirit would fill only those The Spirit of grace will fill those who are humble and I believe he did he he probably didn't think of any You know what? Doesn't matter. I'm going to be I believe he would have been one of the 43:53 biggest blessings in that early church. Because he had no reputation, nothing. He was a humble brother in that church. And this morning I pray that each one of us would have will seek for that glory that we found in the church. 44:11 We would not despise it like the raven who went out into the world and seeking for something there that they can scavenge for. That you would see the glory of church from the youngest to the oldest. You would see the glory of the God 44:25 Jesus and that you would find it is all worth it to climb and ascend up that holy hill and plant your feet like that dove did and find a resting place and that you would remain till the end. May the Lord help us. 44:44 Amen.
