I'm thankful. Father, as I listened at 8 and now at 9:30, those two songs should probably always be sung together: How Great Thou Art and The Goodness of God. Because it is those two equally powerful, undeniable truths together that enable us to not only know You, but to know who You are.

For if You were just great and not good, well then we could be overwhelmed by Your power, but never really experience Your presence. And if You were just good, but not also great, then I guess You'd be like us. We could have a lot of hopes and dreams that never become a reality.

But You're both. You're both perfectly good and unbelievably powerful. And it's in those two equally present truths that we find our hope in You. It's in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, that we pray this day. Amen.

You may be seated.

Well, welcome to Crossland Community Church. We're a community of refuge and hope for all people. We're so glad you're here with us on the final Sunday of this calendar year in 2025. You're in the right place at the right time. If you're a guest or a visitor, we're especially thankful that you're here. And we would love to be able to acknowledge that before God, not necessarily before anybody else. We don't want to harass you. We want to celebrate you. We want to thank God this week for you. And if you would just let us know you were here, that'll give us an opportunity to thank God that He trusted us with your worship experience on this Sunday. Any Sunday is an honor, but we certainly are glad it's this Sunday that you're in this room.

You can let us know you're here in one of two ways. You can use the QR code if you're on the floor. It's at your feet. Just look right down and put your camera on it. Click and you'll get the little yellow thing. If you click that, that will take you to our website and you can fill out one of our guest cards. It's the I Am Here card. The first tab is Give. The second one is Guest. Just hit it and fill it out and then send.

If you prefer to do it the good old-fashioned way, there's a card beneath you and a card holder underneath your seat, right or left side. You can pull that out, fill that out, but then you take that out with you, okay? There are four mailboxes at all of the exits. There's a mailbox. There's two at the main one. What I would highly recommend is that you take that with you. You go out the center door and make a quick right and go to our guest services table. There you'll meet some staff and some of our guest services folks who would love to meet you, answer any questions. We have a gift bag there for you. We're not trying to bribe you. We're trying to thank you. We would love for you to come back again. There's a great coffee cup in there and the world's greatest shortbread cookie. So if you'll do that—if you do it digitally, that bag will already be waiting for you with your name on it. So you definitely want to go out that door and grab that bag, okay?

Now when it comes to giving to God the gift that you brought into His house today, you can do it both those ways as well. You can do it digitally. It's on the floor. It's on the screen. It's on the front and back of every program. Do the same thing. Just hit the Give instead of Guest and you can do it digitally very quickly. Also, there are envelopes right in the same place where the guest cards are underneath your seat. Pop it out. Fill it out. Take it out and drop it off in any of the mailboxes. We would absolutely love to collect your gift from you today.

Great passage for today's giving time: Paul, 2 Corinthians chapter 9 says, remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness endures forever. Now, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You're going to be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Paul is writing to a very wealthy city with wealthy Christians in a very new but very prosperous church. Corinth would be much like Manhattan. It was a very metropolitan city with great economy and great commerce. At the time of this writing, when Paul was writing to them, there was a severe famine in the Macedonian area and as well as in Jerusalem. And Paul had come through the first time, right? And then he wrote 1 Corinthians and he told them about it and said, please try and commit to an offering—not your normal weekly offering, but an offering above and beyond what you normally do.

A lot of people have taken this passage to teach about weekly giving. Well, there's some truths in there about that. This is ultimately about a gift that's above and beyond your normal giving. It's what Paul's talking about. He's not talking about tithing. He's talking about a generous gift to help offset the needs of fellow Christians in Jerusalem. But Paul gives us some really great principles about when we take that extra step, God goes the extra mile. God begins to prepare us and provide things for us that are far greater, because it's on every occasion, in every way. God blesses us so that we're capable of doing whatever we need to do. And that is a great opportunity for you and I.

So as we, once again, consider a year-end gift above and beyond your normal giving, just do what's in your heart. You know, you don't have to do it reluctantly like, "Oh, God, Greg's asking—no, I never look at giving, so I have no idea." Don't do it reluctantly. Just set a number in your heart. If the number is zero, then it's zero. That's okay. But if you're in a position above and beyond your normal giving, give that. Because you've seen this month that God is doing incredibly wonderful, powerful things in our midst. And a lot of that is in response to what you're doing for Him.

Let's pray. Father, we love You and thank You. And giving is not a have-to, it's a get-to. It's an opportunity far more than it is an obligation. And Father, we know that we can't outgive You. So generosity is always a catalyst that links us closer and closer to You. In fact, it's our giving that obligates You to us because You're the one who made the promises. And I know You will not fail. So Father, we give in faith. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So end-of-year giving, if you want to do it, obviously you can do it digitally. If you leave and you don't have a QR code, you can always text the name of our church, Crossland, to 779-777-779-777, or just go to our website. There's a giving portal on there. If you'd like before the end of the year to give cash or check, just reach out to us. The offices are closed this week, but we're still available. Okay, we're definitely available. Most likely you'll catch somebody on their way in or on their way out. We'll make arrangements for it. Just reach out. We'll find a way.

Many people, believe it or not, at this time of year will roll over stock, cash out stock, and make a giving—a dividend giving—something because there's a lot of required disbursements in some of these 401(k)s, 403(b)s, or other market funds that you have. Morgan Stanley here in Bowling Green is the one that we deal through. Ben Tomlinson, you can always just call Morgan Stanley and give them your broker's name or whatever organization you work through, and they'll get that taken care of as well. Okay, we'll make sure your gift gets in before the end of the year. And believe it or not, January—like the first week of January—everything starts again. Okay, so Wednesday nights, the call, everything kicks off early January. I know it's hard to believe and jumpstart, but we don't wait. All right, we're ready to go, so make sure you get all those things back on your calendar and ready to go, okay?

Today is week five, the final week in a series. Did you hear what he heard? We're studying the first three chapters of the Gospel of Luke, and next week we start with Luke chapter four, because everything changes when Christ goes public. That starts next week. It's called Going Public. But today, we're going to focus on the end of the prologue and Luke's final lesson for you and I who are in between the two fulfillments and what God is asking us to do or showing us how to live between two fulfillments. Let's get our hearts ready.

I do believe Spencer should probably cough up a little money for all that advertisement. I'm going to go this week and ask them for their year-end gift.

A reading from the book of Isaiah chapter 40: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, and that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling, "In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up. Every mountain and hill shall be made low. The rough ground shall become level, and the rugged places shall become a plain." And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Let's pray together. Father, Luke's primary purpose and focus we learned early in his incredible gospel was to give Theophilus and all other readers a confidence and a certainty because of fulfillment. And today we are going to look one more time, as we have, Father, at the fulfillments that Luke certainly has upon his mind and many, many others. Because the way that we can live between the two fulfillments, the first and second coming, is we can live with confidence and certainty because of how You've already performed according to Your promises. And that which has been fulfilled, which is so wonderful and so much, yet there's still so much to be fulfilled. And so if we know You did what You've done, we can live confidently right now that You're going to do what You said You're going to do. And that is the hope of this incredible gospel. Father, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Well, somebody wanted to push my TV way back. They didn't want me in the room. Well, at the end of 2025 we'll all take an evaluation of some sort of where we're at and what we've been through. And I wanted— I was wondering if you really stopped to think about it and you ask yourself, you know, especially if you've been, like, you're in a better place now than you were last year. Let's put it that way. Or if you're not in a better place than you were last year, and in fact maybe the best option is that you're pretty much in the same orbit of where you were this time last year, okay? Depending on what that orbit is.

But do we just chalk things up to being in the right place at the right time? Like if you just experienced something, you just like, I was just in the right place at the right time. Now, what has God's sovereignty got to say about that though? Were you in the right place at the right time when God was getting to do the right thing? Is it more of God's sovereignty that put you in the right place at the right time? Or did you make certain choices that had you in the right place at the right time?

Some of you would know probably the disappointment of being in the wrong place at the right time. Sometimes it's just— you just didn't have any clue that what you were doing was going to put you in a certain place at a time that you did not need to be there. And what happened when you got there—like logically thinking, most of us wouldn't say, well, you should have seen that coming. But sometimes we don't see it coming and we're in the wrong place at the right time and something happens that we had no idea was going to happen and boom, the next thing you know, everything's changed. Well, is that God's sovereignty too? I mean, are you in the wrong place at the right time because God has ordained for you to be in the wrong place at the right time? Because if He ordained you to be in the right place at the right time, we gotta accept the reality that, well, then He must have ordained me to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. What if you're in the right place at the wrong time? Think about that one. That's really disappointing because it's kind of like you were waiting and waiting and waiting for a promotion—it never came—so you found a new job, a new opportunity. You're getting ready to give notice and you're like, hey, by the way, your promotion came through. Like, well, I already said yes. Or a relationship, you know? And you know what I mean? Like all of a sudden, a relationship knocks on the door of your life and you've agreed to move halfway across the country for an opportunity. I'm exactly where I thought I would be, but by gosh, it's the wrong time.

So it's amazing when you begin to evaluate life: what role do my choices have in these things? And what role does God's sovereignty have in this thing? And could it ultimately be the combination—being in the right place at the right time, doing the right things for the right reasons? And could doing the right things for the right reasons be the consistent pattern of our life no matter how this other side works itself out? So yes, when the role of sovereignty is certainly ordained many things in our life, my free will, I've got to cooperate with that. And what I want to do, what I can control, is making sure I do the right things for the right reasons so that when the right thing happens, I'm in the right place at the right time.

And that's what Luke is trying to tell us in this final part of the prologue, the beginning of this great gospel: he's talking about how do we live faithfully between the two fulfillments? Because he's not trying to just tell us the details. He's trying to teach us principles because he's saying to us, Did you hear what I heard? I heard the story, but there's more to the story than the details that I've been telling you. And you need to hear that. And that in our life there's going to be times that you are literally in the right place doing life and something wrong happens. Something tragically bad happens. That's just the pain of life. And other times, you're going to be in the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the right time.

What part of this whole thing do we control? And what does God control? And is the best formula of all to be in the right place at the right time doing the right things for the right reasons? The answer to that is yes, because you could be doing the right things for the right reason and still not be in the right place. And that's what religion or the religiosity of the Pharisees would do. As he ends chapter three, Luke wants us to know that our faithfulness while waiting will be the most profitable endeavor of our lives. Our faithfulness while waiting, because we are between the two fulfillments. We are between the first and second comings.

But some of you are between your first and second job. Some of you are between your first and second marriages. Some are between your first and second homes. And there's not just this epic moment that we're waiting for. There's also many, many, many, many fulfillments that await your life. Many promises that were declared by God before the foundation of the world that involve you. And you definitely want to be in the right place at the right time for that. But here's the thing: there were a lot of people in the right place at the right time, but they missed Christ because they were even doing the right things, but they weren't doing them for the right reason. And when you combine those together, you really do find yourself in the most profitable places possible.

Now, does that protect you from tragedy? No, you'll see that today very clearly. But what it does do is give you a different perspective and a different pathway while you travel on that. And you'll see that today. So our goal as we end this year is to ask the question, as you evaluate this year and move into the next year: are you in the right place at the right time doing the right things for the right reasons? Obviously, today, you certainly are.

So in Luke, as the story of the birth of Christ continues, he writes: "When the time came for the purification rites required by the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord." So it seems very dusty and kind of antiquated and not necessary language, but there's something in here that is extremely profound.

I didn't put it in our outline, but the verse just before this stated that on the eighth day Mary and Joseph had Jesus circumcised according to the rituals of Abraham. So what you see in Mary and Joseph—we must not miss—that they are adhering to ancient practices. We'll talk about circumcision. Well, that's 2,000 years old. Genesis 17. It would be the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham and then with all of the people that would follow. The great promise that there would be a people of God. In fact, there would be a people of God. And that through Abraham would come a people. From that people would come a person. And from that person, salvation would be offered to all the nations, all the tribes, and all the tongues. On the eighth day they're still faithfully practicing a covenant symbol that had been being practiced for over 2,000 years. And they're not doing it because of ritual. They're doing it because Joseph and Mary, as we have seen, have a real relationship with God.

And then when the time came for the purification rites—hold on one second, I'm sorry. Actually turned it on, didn't I? You're welcome. When the time came for the purification rites: so on day eight the boy is circumcised. The law says, I think it's Leviticus 7. Don't hold me to that. But then Mary had to wait 33 more days after that so that she could be purified, considered clean once again to interact with people, come to the temple. Because—and it isn't a thing against women—it's because they didn't know how to handle the discharge and Mary being exposed and making the child sick. It was more protective than it was punishment. "You just stay where you're at for the next 33 days." No, no. See, God was trying to protect situations and circumstances.

You and I, we don't even know what it's like to have a child without modern medicine and critical care. If you had this child, you had to wait 33 days after the eighth day. So this is day 41. And so on day 41, Mary and Joseph take Jesus and they go down for the time of purification so that she can tell the priest at the temple, "It's been 41 days," and they can determine her to be clean once again. And then the thing is she would then be able to participate in the sacred. She would be able to touch what is sacred. She was not allowed to touch anything that was holy or sacred. Which is really kind of interesting, and I still haven't figured the whole thing out yet, but I'm going to. But what has she been doing for the last 41 days? Holding and touching He who is sacred. There's just something beautiful in that whole thing—that there's still one thing more profound than adhering to the law, and that is experiencing the love of God. And Mary and Joseph, they don't go down because it's a ritual. They go down because to them it's real.

And this is a 1,500-year-old practice. And as it is written in the law, and what Luke was trying to tell his readers—and we should know too—that the only reason the law of God didn't work for the salvation of man is man's fault. It's not God's fault. Because we know, therefore, there's now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit that gives life has wiped out the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by sinful flesh—it's Romans 8, 1. And so even Luke is saying there's still something beautiful about doing the right thing for the right reasons. And even with the Lord, they're doing the right thing for the right reasons. And what's going to happen is sovereignty is going to intersect free will in a moment. You're going to see that there is a benefit, a massive benefit, to doing the right things for the right reasons.

Now starting, well, in a minute later this message— but next week you'll begin to see a whole group of people who have been in the right place at the right time doing the right things for the wrong reasons, and they miss the whole thing. They never catch on to who Jesus Christ really is. And here we have just two simple people. Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord, set apart for the Lord. And then they're to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the law of the Lord: a pair of doves or two young pigeons.

Now, the law says that—I think it's Leviticus 12—when you come, bring a lamb. Everybody bring a lamb. But if you can't afford a lamb, then you can bring a pair of doves or two pigeons. And if you are Mary and Joseph, and you've just given birth to the Son of Almighty God—God, if you were not sincere, you wouldn't show up with a couple pigeons. You would steal a lamb, borrow a lamb, get a lamb on your credit card. You'd find a way to show up with a lamb. So how do you know they're really showing up with hearts full of sincerity? Well, they're more than willing to let you know they're impoverished. They're more than willing to let you know they're broke. Look, they're more than willing to show up at the temple without pomp and circumstance, even though she's been told, "This is Jesus, give Him that name." He got that name on the eighth day. This is your Savior. This is the Son of God. She's a part of this—who else knows more than her that this is miraculous? And yet, with sincerity, they show up. And most likely when they came, they probably had to buy the doves or the two pigeons.

And that's what made Jesus so mad in the outer court of the temple: people would travel so far with a heart full of sincerity and they wouldn't bring the pigeons with them. Who catches pigeons? But there were people that would sell pigeons down there and two pigeons might cost 10 cents. But at the outside the temple court in the court area, they charge you a dollar. And Jesus is like, that's the most disgusting thing you can do—manipulate somebody's spiritual sincerity by charging them, if you will, higher fees because you know they've got them in a hard place. They've got to have something. And what they brought was—they brought themselves. Can you imagine? You got the Son of God and the offering that you bring is two pigeons. And that's the key here: sincerity of heart is probably the single most important thing, because you can be in the right place at the right time doing the right things for the wrong reasons. And when you pull this together—two pigeons—whoo, God's like, praise the Lord, somebody gets it. And we get to control that. We get to control the quality of our offerings, our heart. And while we're living between two fulfillments, just come to the Lord sincerely. Just come sincerely. Find yourself in the right place at the right time doing the right things because the law required it. Do it, right?

So doing what is required is evidence of truly knowing the one who requires it. You can't tell me they were trying to manipulate the situation. You can't tell me they were doing it because of ritual. We've read too much already to know this was not ritual. The reason driving it was the relationship they had with the one who required it.

Now they're in the temple court, and it says, "Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout." Now, these two together are doing the right thing for the right reason. If he's righteous and devout, then we immediately know by reading the text in its original language that this is not talking about doing the right things. This is talking about being in right standing. Because if not, Luke would be repeating himself. So we know Simeon is in right standing with God. We also know that he is very, very consistent because he's devout. So we know the guy we're dealing with right now is doing the right things for the right reason. He's right there, all right? But if he wasn't in that right place at the moment he was supposed to be there, he would have probably missed his opportunity. So there's still some level, as you'll see in a second, of sovereignty that's playing there. He's a guy who was waiting. He's waiting for what I read in Isaiah 40—that is called the consolation of Israel. That's what he's waiting for.

He's an old dude, and he's doing the right things for the right reasons. He's been doing it so long it keeps him in the right place to experience God at the right time. This is like the prototypical example of the benefit of long-term doing the right thing for the right reason because it puts you in the right place at the right time. And we're all living in fulfillment. So whatever your ultimate fulfillment—the next fulfillment, the next job, the next opportunity, the next romance, the next relationship, whatever it is—when you're living in that place, you've got to—I'm so sorry. Went to the doctor Friday, so I went from that terrible virus to pneumonia. You're welcome. I'll get over it. I'm just in the right place at the right time doing the right things for the right reasons. Did I get pneumonia? What are you doing? See, I'm told you it's not always pleasant.

So he's waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. This is so cool—that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. So he's got a promise. While this promise, no doubt, is huge, right? It's an epic, mind-boggling, before-the-foundation-of-the-world promise, God drills it down to him as an individual, not just the world: "Hey, I got a word for you. You ain't going to die before you see the Lord." Wow. What a great promise. And so he didn't know. The only expiration date he knew—well, he might have to live forever, because who knows when Jesus is coming? So he's an old dude, and he is—the whole context is waiting, waiting, waiting. Just because we're waiting doesn't mean we can't wait well. Just because we're waiting on anything in life, that should not dictate us stopping doing the right thing. You know what the right thing to do is, and you know the right reason to do it. You know the disciplines of the faith.

In fact, generally, for most of you in Glasgow and Morgantown this morning, it's really making sure you're not doing the wrong things. Like, what are those things that we tend to do that keep us from doing the right things? Because the right things for the right reasons put us in the right place at the right time, right? Sometimes it's not all-out immorality. Put down the Instagram. Put your mind in the right place. Stop watching reel after reel after reel after reel after reel after reel after reel. Put yourself in the right mindset. Put yourself in the right frame of mind. Look at all of your activities, and they don't have to be epically immoral in order for them to get you dislocated from what God's longing to do in your life.

Moved by the Spirit, Simeon went into the temple courts. See that doing the right things for the right reasons led him to being in the right place at the right time. You can't deny it. And that, Luke isn't trying to get you and me impressed with Simeon—he's trying to impress upon us the principle that there is value. There is huge value in waiting well, in doing the right things for the right reasons, because you'll find yourself in the right place at the right time.

And so when the parents brought in the child, Jesus, to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace." Isn't that a beautiful way to say, "Now I can die. I can die in peace. You fulfilled your promise. This is awesome. Go ahead and dismiss me." "For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel."

The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, "This child is destined to cause the falling and the rising of many in Israel." That's what you'll see over the next seven weeks. Some would rise, some would fall. Some will rise, some will fall. Because when Christ goes public, it begins to reveal what's going on inside of individual people. You want to be one who's rising, not falling.

Next: "And it is also going to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed." See, that's what's coming when Christ goes public. But look at the next verse: "And a sword will pierce your own soul too." No, no, no—don't ruin a good story. Wipe this off here. Don't ruin a good story with pain and suffering and agony, because the place where free will and God's sovereignty intersect, there's no pain and suffering and piercing of souls with swords. And I can wipe until Jesus comes back and that reality is not leaving.

Even doing the right things for the right reasons and putting you in the right place at the right time doesn't protect us from the painful situations and circumstances that life has. And because we know God is sovereign, it doesn't protect us from extraordinarily painful situations that create terrible suffering. So Mary will be at the foot of the cross, watching her 33-year-old son be beaten to death for the sins of the world. But three days later, she'll be at the tomb. And how'd she end up at the tomb? Because she already had a pattern of doing the right things for the right reasons. And what put her and the other ladies at the tomb? Wanting to do the right things for the right reasons. "Let's go and anoint the body." They didn't get to do that. That's the right thing to do. Let's go do that. And what happens when you do the right thing for the right reasons? Amazingly, you put yourself in the right place at the right time. So that even tragedy can't triumph that principle. Because we know Sunday's coming. We know Sunday's coming, people.

And anybody who tells you there won't be moments where the sword pierces your soul is lying to you straight through their teeth. And anybody who denies Sunday is also lying right through their teeth. Because you want to be a person who's doing the right thing for the right reasons when the tragedy comes. Because then you are already way ahead of the curve. And you know why you're doing the right things for the right reasons. It's because you know the one who requires it. You're in a relationship with the one who requires it. And Luke, he's just being as honest as he can with us about the reality of being one who follows the Christ.

So with Simeon, we should not be waiting to die so we can see; we should be waiting to see so that we might finally live. See, we're on the other side of the crucifixion now. And once we see, we get to live. But it isn't just Simeon. John said to the crowds, I want to show you the opposite. Coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." See, you can be doing the right things but not doing them for the right reasons. And this whole religious group was coming out to this area where John was baptizing people in the Jordan River because they heard it was going on. But they weren't coming for the right reasons and he knew it. "You brood of vipers." Oh, you're producing fruit. Let's not deny that. Judaism produced a lot of fruit, a lot of fruit, a lot of fruit. But it never produced repentance. They were doing the right things but they never had the right reason. And the right reason to do the right things is because you're now in right standing with God. You're a Simeon. Unrighteous and devout—they had it backwards. They thought if you're devout, you will become righteous. Wrong. And John the Baptist called him on it. "You're just a brood of vipers. That's all you are. A bunch of snakes." Terrible. Way to go, John. A bug-eating prophet getting up in their face.

And don't begin to say to yourselves, "Oh, come on now, we have Abraham as our father." Well, a lot of other people had Abraham as their father. No doubt about it, right? How about Ishmael? Does that make him right with God? Not a bit. So while Abraham—he's my father, I hope he's yours. Because Romans 4 says unless we have the faith of Abraham, we cannot be saved. But if we have the faith of Abraham, we are of the tribe of Abraham—the children of Abraham now. So you definitely want to be a child of Abraham. But that doesn't come through blood anymore. It only comes through faith and new birth. So not everybody, as you can see, was doing the right things for the right reasons. A good number of them weren't.

There was also a prophet named Anna, the daughter of Penuel of the tribe of Asher. This is not very nice, Luke—she was very old. Not very nice, Luke. And she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage and then was a widow until she was 84. So there's a good chance that we're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 64 to 65 years of being widowed. Okay? Talking about a very difficult, painful, lonely situation that is heartbreaking. I know my mom—she probably went 50 years, would be my guess, as a widow before she passed. Never found companionship in that length of time. Okay? So I know how debilitating and difficult that can be. And this is Anna.

Now, Anna, you know, she was in a much different world. My mom could get up, get out, punch people in the mouth and go to work and make things happen and took really good care of herself and experienced life and just stormed the gates of any opportunity that was presented to her. I don't know if you know anybody like that. She never left the temple. Okay? Now, there's—I think, I could be wrong—but it's just my opinion: I think there's two beautiful teachings of this. Number one, the obvious one is that she was there all the time. I mean, she was there all the time. She was there all the time. But also, she never left the temple. Like, the tragic loneliness did not cause her to walk away from the place where she knew the presence of God was. She didn't get calloused. She didn't say, "Well, what kind of God are you to allow that to happen to me? I don't need a God like that," and walk away from the temple—leave the practice of being in the temple on a daily basis. But no, that's not what she did. She worshipped night and day, fasting and praying.

Now, generally speaking, there's only one reason to fast and pray, and that is because you've come face to face with a situation that you have absolutely no resolve over. You've got nothing, nothing you can bring to the table to bring about anything to make a change. Remember, the disciples came to Jesus and they couldn't cast out something. And Jesus said, "Well, these only come out by fasting and praying." I mean, if you thought you could just walk up in the name of Jesus—He said, "No, you're wrong. Some things you've got to learn. You're going to come face to face with." And fasting is just declaring to God, "I'm going to go without something in my life because I realize nothing's going to happen without You moving in my life." And you can choose a lot of things. Obviously food is one that's right up there, and every time you feel hungry is when you go back to God again. That's the whole point. When your stomach turns a little bit, you pray. You could fast football—I wouldn't do that till March—but you can, because then you can fast football all the way to the last week of August. You'd be quite a righteous person if you were to do it that way.

So you're longing for God to intervene. You're longing for God to do something that you know you can't do without His help. Coming up to them at that very moment—just so happens—is this happenstance? Is this coincidence? Is this what we're dealing with here? Why is she in the right place at the right time? Is she lucky? Is she fortunate? Or could it be doing the right things for the right reasons put her in the right place at the right time? I'm telling you it is absolutely one of the most important principles while we wait.

So she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. So now we know what she was fasting and praying about. Can't wait for the redemption of Israel. Sixty-four, sixty-five years—she's there every day, night and day—doing what she knows is right and doing it for the right reasons, which put her in the right place for a moment that is mind-boggling powerful. And that's the key here.

Okay? And you and I—and you have to understand that this spiritual principle will apply to every area of your life. If you want to make sure that you have some comfort in retirement, then you've got to do the right things for the right reasons. You've got to save well. You've got to save well. You've got to project. You've got to think. I've got to make sure that I'm doing the right things for the right reasons. Yes, and in that you've got to be generous towards God. Because you don't want to be the guy who kept storing it in his barns, in his barns, in his barns, in his barns until he decided, "I'm going to make bigger. I'm going to tear down the ones I have. I'm going to make even bigger ones." Which is the most nonsensical thing I've ever heard. Why would you tear down what you have? Why don't you just build another barn? Why would you tear down a perfectly capable barn in order to build a bigger barn? Which means you have enough real estate to do it. Just build another barn. Because you're not thinking clearly. You're not doing the right things for the right reason. You're doing the right thing—"I got a lot." And Jesus is like, you don't even know. "But tomorrow, your life will not be taken from you." What are you doing?

In relationships, you've got to be willing to do the right thing for the right reasons for as long as you have to do it. And one thing that Simeon and Anna teach us is that you can live with urgency and expectancy—I don't want you to, but you can—all the days of your life. And it's that promise, not the possibilities, not the high probabilities. What drives us is the person that made the promises is faithful. And I don't want to miss the opportunities of my own individual life because I'm not willing to do the right things for the right reasons, and then I'm not positioned when God's sovereignty begins to move. The train enters the station and I haven't even bought my ticket. Yeah, you want to avoid that. And how do you do it? Do the right things for the right reasons. And do it long enough. Because you can do it.

In fact, here's the truth: if you're in Christ, you're going to have to do that until either He comes back to ultimately fulfill that promise and He comes back for all of us or until He comes back for just you. And it's not a matter of whether or not we can wait till He comes—you have no choice. Choice is in how we wait, how well we wait. I don't know how to tell you how long you'll wait. Listen, I know that John 14 says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that? I am going

Subject: Faithful Waiting: Right Place, Right Reasons

Dear Crossland Community Church,

I hope this finds you reflecting on our message about living faithfully between the two fulfillments — being in the right place at the right time while doing the right things for the right reasons.

This week we closed Luke's prologue and leaned into Luke’s final lesson for those of us between the first and second comings: faithfulness while waiting matters. We watched Simeon and Anna remind us that steady, sincere obedience — worship, prayer, fasting, and simple acts of devotion — positions us when God moves, even if tragedy still pierces the soul. Luke is honest: doing the right things for the right reasons won’t keep suffering from coming, but it gives perspective, steadies our hearts, and makes us ready for God’s fulfillment — Sunday’s coming.

So do the work of faith this week: identify one habit that’s pulling you away — whether it’s too much scrolling, hoarding, or skipping worship — and replace it with a concrete discipline like showing up to the table, fasting and praying, or giving generously. If you need practical help (including year-end giving arrangements), reach out — we’ll walk with you so you’re standing in the right place when God shows up.

Blessings,
Crossland Community Church Team