The sermon titled 'The Boy with Imperfect Parents' by Peter Allison focuses on the early life of Jesus as described in Luke chapter 2. It explores the adherence of Jesus' family to Jewish law, highlighting events such as his circumcision, Mary's purification, and Jesus' presentation at the temple. The speaker emphasizes Jesus' full humanity, detailing how he grew physically, mentally, and spiritually in Nazareth. Despite being divine, Jesus lived an ordinary human life, experiencing the same challenges and learning from imperfect parents. His upbringing in a godly but poor family underscores his identification with humanity. The sermon also reflects on Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem at twelve and his remarkable understanding of the scriptures. Ultimately, Jesus’ humanity and obedience under the law were vital for him to fulfill his role as Savior, capable of sympathizing with human weaknesses and offering redemption.

Luke chapter 2, I like to read beginning at verse 21, we'll read to 24 and then we'll jump to 39. The passages between verses 25 through 38 we have considered in the last year December, I looked this up December 16 and 23, are the messages that were given this past December on the verses 25 through 38. So in this move as we go through Luke now, we will be jumping over those passages. And if you're interested or weren't here for them, those messages, They are available on our church website. You can go back and listen to them.

Hear God's Word then. Luke 2, beginning at verse 21. And when Eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child. His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Now, when the days of your purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons." verse 39, So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.

And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. And When they had finished the days as they returned, the boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. Joseph and his mother did not know it, but supposing him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey and sought him among their relatives and acquaintances.

So when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. Now so it was that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And All who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. So when they saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said to him, Son, why have you done this to us? Look your father and I have sought you anxiously.

And he said to them, Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business? But they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them. But his mother kept all these things in her heart, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men." Thus far the reading of God's Word.

Almighty Heavenly Father, Almighty Heavenly Father, how beautiful is Your voice, how terrifying it is as well. Yet we ask this morning for grace to hear, to understand. We ask that you would speak to us in peace. And I pray that you would sanctify these sinful lips in this vessel of clay to proclaim what is true and holy through Jesus Christ amen Well, these Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are not biographies as we understand that word. They don't purport to explain or convey to us the life of Jesus from his birth, his lineage, his ancestors, the family in which he grew up, the experiences of his life, and so forth, as we would typically expect in a biography.

These gospels were written so that we might believe on Him and believing on Him have life, have everlasting life. Luke is the only gospel though that records anything about Jesus' life in Nazareth. Jesus would have spent close to 30 years in this city of Nazareth. He went there As our text says, as this story Luke says, after they had accomplished all things according to the law. He went there and this is where he lived for almost 30 years until he was about 30 and he entered into his public ministry.

And so, this was the bulk of his life, of his 33 plus years, 33 to 34 years. 30 of them, almost 30 of them, would have been spent in this town, living with his father and mother and brothers and sisters. As you know, the Bible says he had brothers and sisters. It names his brothers. And working, it would seem, as a carpenter with his father.

So, when they have performed all things according to the law. This is referring to Three specific things that are recounted here. First would have been the circumcision on the eighth day. Jesus would have been purified in accordance with Leviticus chapter 12. Specifies what the law, specifies what parents and mothers were to do following childbirth.

In Leviticus 12 we read, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel. If a woman has conceived and born a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days, as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are fulfilled." And this is what we read then in Luke.

"...when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed. So we know that this would have been 40 days after Jesus was born. After seven days Jesus would have been baptized as it's described in Numbers 19. And reference is made here in Leviticus 12 to that process. It's not as obvious in the English, but in the Hebrew there is a technical word that is used in Leviticus 12 and in Numbers 19 that tie those two passages together.

And Numbers 19 simply has the detailed process of how somebody is purified. It involved the ashes of the red heifer and burning them and running water and so on. It's what's referenced in the book of Hebrews. And so when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were complete, Jesus has been circumcised on the eighth day. Now 33 days later, she's coming back.

They brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. They would have been living in Bethlehem when the wise men, the Magi came. They said they were in a house, so even though he was born and initially put in that stable in the manger. They moved into a house. When the days of purification are done, they've come back to the temple, so 40 days later.

And she is completing this purification process according to the law of God. And she is to do this, she is to bring to the priest a lamb in the first year as a burnt offering and a young pigeon or turtle dove as a sin offering. Now you notice Mary doesn't bring a lamb, but it says here a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons, because that was an option. If you weren't able to bring a lamb, you could bring two turtle doves or two pigeons. That's what Mary brings.

But there's also one more event here that Luke is referring to and that is the redemption of Jesus every male who opens the womb is holy to the Lord. That's explained in Exodus chapter 13. This is right after God has delivered Israel out of Egypt. And remember the last plague, he killed the firstborn of Everyone who did not have the Passover blood The blood of the Passover lamb on their doorpost the angel of death killed the firstborn and So the Lord spoke to Moses right after this plague, Exodus 13. Exodus 12 has that plague in the Exodus.

Exodus 13, and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both man and beast, it is mine." It is mine. It belongs to the Lord. It is dedicated, it is consecrated to the Lord. And, And it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites as he swore to you and your fathers and gives to you that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is the firstborn that comes from an animal which you have, the males shall be the lords. But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with the lamb, and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck.

And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem, so it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What is this that you shall say to him? By strength of the hand, Jehovah brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. It came to pass when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go that Jehovah killed all the first born in the land of Egypt. So both the first born of man and the first born of beast, therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all males that open the womb, but all the first born of my sons I redeem. It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontless between your eyes, for by strength of hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt." God claimed a special ownership, a special propriety on the firstborn of man and beast.

And animals were sacrificed, people though weren't. People of course were redeemed. There was a redemption price that was paid to redeem. And that's also given in the scriptures, this redemption price. So when people are dedicated to the Lord, they are not sacrificed.

Animals dedicated to the Lord, animals that are owned are, but people are not. They are redeemed. And the reason is, as God told Moses there, because God had claimed ownership over all the firstborn, special ownership. And so, as it is written in the law of the Lord Luke says, every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. Mary and Joseph have gone to the temple to fulfill this law and to redeem Jesus.

Jesus who needed, Jesus who came to redeem us, to buy us, to pay the penalty for us and to ransom us, Jesus is himself redeemed in order that he might be our representative, in order that he might be made like his brethren. You see, this story here that Luke tells us was not given to simply add a human interest piece into this book that Luke is writing on the life of Jesus. It's not like the media coverage of the Olympics where they focus on some athlete and his family and his story and all the trials or adversities that he overcame to get there In order to retain people's interest in the broadcast that Luke is not just telling us a nice story He is telling us this story the purpose of this story is to convey first that Jesus was fully human and that he had a human nature just like we do. He was fully human in every respect and everything that being human entailed. He had to, he got hungry and had to eat, he got tired and had to sleep.

He was young, he was born a baby, he had to learn, He had to grow in his body, in his mind, in grace, and in wisdom. And secondly, not only was he fully human, but Jesus had to live under the law. And so Luke is emphasizing here the law under which Jesus is living. And he's illustrating not only did Jesus live under outward obedience to these laws, these what we call ceremonial laws relating to cleansing, which were required for every person in the covenant at this time, for every Christian, every Jew, was required to do these things. These were moral obligations for them.

We call them the ceremonial law because they are not moral obligations for us, but they are moral obligations for the Israelites. It would have been wrong for them not to do these, a sin not to do these things. So Jesus had to be made under the law. As Hebrews says, Hebrews 2.17, Therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren. We have a human nature and we live under the law.

Jesus had to be made like His brethren in all things, every little thing, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of his people. Jesus didn't need redeemed. He wasn't sinful. He didn't need circumcision to signify that his need to have an old nature cut off and to be regenerated. Jesus is undergoing these things so that He might be like us in all things, so that He could be the propitiation for our sins.

So that He would be able to bear our sin in our place as our representative, as fully human. Having lived under the law even as we do, having lived with a human nature just like us. Jesus is even now beginning to fulfill His calling as our prophet, priest, and king, as our Savior. This was necessary. These things were necessary so that He could be the propitiation for our sins.

And so we see then first that Jesus is fully human. He had to grow physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally. It says in verse 40, and the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. In verse 52, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. The first was said in his infancy, the second was said as he was 12 years of age.

Jesus had to grow, he had to grow In his stature, his body, he was born little, something like that. And he had to grow to be bigger. That means he had to go through all the growing pains that humans go through. His mind was born as that of an infant. He was born not knowing how to speak.

He wasn't a baby who never cried, despite everyone singing such nonsense at certain times of the year. Jesus was a human. Babies cry. They don't know how to speak. And so they express their needs by crying.

It's all they know how to do. Now, He never cried in a simple temper tantrum, but we can be sure that He cried. He was a baby. He was a human. He had to grow, Luke says, in stature in his body.

He had to go through these phases. He had to grow strong in spirit. He had to grow in wisdom. He didn't know everything. He didn't know anything as a human when he was born.

And in his divine nature, he knew all things. But in His human nature, He didn't. That's why He can say only the Father, not even the Son knows the hour of His return, but the Father only. As respects His human nature, There are things that Jesus didn't know. And as he grew as a child, he wasn't born knowing all the law and the prophets.

Jesus studied, notice, he's seen here sitting, find him here sitting in the temple engaged in a school, in a discourse. He was asking questions and giving answers to questions. He was engaged in a dialogue, he was learning. He endured the weaknesses of human flesh. His body as a little child would have gotten tired, just like little children do.

His mind would have had the capacity of a little child. And as he grew, then his mental capacity, his wisdom grew. He grew in these things, just like we do. He wasn't born knowing everything. If he had to learn the scriptures, he had to memorize them, just like we do.

He wasn't just born knowing all the scriptures. When he faced the temptation of Satan in the wilderness, He knew those scriptures because he had learned them as a child. He had studied them. Jesus came from a poor family. Mary offered a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons.

She didn't offer the lamb. What she offered was what poor people offered. They weren't destitute, but they were poor. They had their needs, but they didn't have great wealth. She didn't bring a lamb.

She wasn't able to do that. They didn't have money, you remember, to secure housing when the inn was full. I'm sure there was housing available at a price. There always is. At some price, they didn't have money for that high price.

When things get scarce, the price goes up. Just try to get a hotel when there's a big event in a city. It can be very costly, very expensive. They charge closer to the rate that they post on the back of their door. Jesus' parents didn't have great wealth, they were poor.

But Jesus did come from a godly family. God, the Father, put his son not in a wealthy family, but in a godly family. Matthew describes Joseph as being a just or upright man. This is a family that was careful to observe all of the commandments, all the law of God. They kept the law, the purification, the circumcision, the redemption of the firstborn, the purification of Mary.

This is when they had performed all things according to the law. This was a godly family. They went to Jerusalem each year, it says. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. It was only required that the males go to Jerusalem three times a year for the three feasts that God commanded them to go to Jerusalem.

But Mary went. Hannah was another, Samuel's mother, was another woman who went to Jerusalem each year. You remember she would go up and initially she would pray for a son And that was when Eli saw her, thought she was drunk, presumed wrongly. And then she came back when Samuel was weaned, and she would come and visit him, and bring him clothes each year. She was a godly woman.

She went to this feast every year, even though she wasn't required to go by the law. Mary also, it seems, was a godly woman in this respect. Careful. She was devout. Jesus was placed in a family that taught him the Word of God, that led him in the observance of all of God's commandments.

We see this care that Joseph and Mary have. These were not Jews who had become secularized, who had become syncretized with the world in which they lived. And they lived up in Galilee. Galilee was considered sort of a second-rate place by the Jews. There were differences.

You remember it being said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? That was the view that the pure Jews had of the north, Samaria even more so, but also the Galilean area. Jesus was raised in a godly family. There was devout. They taught him.

They led him in learning how to worship the Lord. See this was necessary. If Jesus was to grow up to be able to keep the law, he needed parents who were careful and devout to teach him the Word of God. Jesus' youth was fourthly, unremarkable. It was unremarkable, meaning he didn't grow up as somebody who walked around with a halo around his head.

He didn't grow up as somebody who was set up on a pedestal that was obviously special and different from everybody else. Jesus grew up as any ordinary child would have grown up in a poor family in the city of Nazareth. When Jesus began his earthly ministry, people in Nazareth, these are people that he has lived with for 30 years, were amazed at his wisdom. It says that they wondered, Many hearing him were astonished saying, where did this man get these things and what wisdom is this which is given to him that such mighty works are performed by his hands? Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon.

As far as these people knew, from his 30 years with them, he was an ordinary boy. Son of a carpenter from that poor side of town. Not destitute, but a poorer family. And so the people of Nazareth, they've known him for 30 years. And when he began his ministry and began to speak with wisdom and began to perform mighty works, they're amazed.

This was different from anything they had seen before in his years growing up. Because Jesus was a human. He was an ordinary boy. He did ordinary things that ordinary boys from the ordinary town of Nazareth did. And they went with their family to Jerusalem, the godly families did.

They learned a trade. He was known, is this not the carpenter? He was known as a carpenter. That's what he was doing for those 30 years, learning that skill and practicing that skill. He was fully human, but he was also, he lived under the law.

As we've seen, he kept these yearly feasts. He was ransomed, he was circumcised, he went to the feasts with his parents. And we see here an example of him enduring situations that are common to children. He was forgotten by his parents. He was left without his parents for three days.

Have you ever been forgotten by your parents? I remember my brother once being forgotten at church. Somebody called us days before cell phones, but somebody called us and said, your son is here. I can't remember if we ever forgot any of our children. Probably did.

They probably remember. It happens. It happened to Jesus here. His parents weren't perfect. They had gone up to Jerusalem for this feast and when Jesus was 12 years old, this probably wasn't the first time he went up.

It says that his parents went to Jerusalem every year. Jesus had probably been going to Jerusalem every year since he was born. We know he was there the year he was born, and his parents went up, it says every year. So Jesus probably went with them. This was a familiar trip.

Something he was used to. He'd done it 12 times probably before. And in their, the normalcy of life, Joseph and Mary are now becoming experienced parents. They're into their second decade of parenting. It's the 12th year of Jesus' life.

They've been together 13 years. And this is becoming an ordinary event for them. And they left. When the days of the feast were done, they left. Now they traveled in a group apparently and they forgot to check that Jesus was there.

They just took off and they assumed that he was in this big group that was traveling from Nazareth. And they went a whole day's journey. They went all day without seeing Jesus. Now thankfully they didn't have CPS back then. They would have been being investigated.

They went a whole day. This was normal. It was normal for Jesus to be busy, to be working, or otherwise engaged, and they just assumed that he was in the company Of other people of other children and so they went a whole day And it wasn't unusual for them to go a whole day without seeing him apparently They weren't worried Till they got to the first stop that night and then they sought him and they couldn't find him. And if you've been in that position as a parent, you know that awful sinking feeling that comes when you've lost your child and you have no idea where they are, and you've been traveling. Isn't that sort of the worst nightmare that you're on a trip and you leave one of your children at a rest stop and you don't realize it?

That's kind of what happened to them. They're a whole day's journey out of Jerusalem and they can't find Him. And so they have to go back the next day a whole day's journey. Meanwhile Jesus is not seeing his parents either. And then they get back a day's journey, then the next day they start looking for him and they find him in the temple, sitting in the midst of teachers both listening to them and asking them questions.

Jesus was forgotten by his parents, and he went for three days without his parents. But Jesus wasn't afraid, he didn't cower in fear. They didn't find him weeping in a puddle of tears at the city gate. They didn't find him wandering aimlessly about the streets in terror, looking for his family? Think about that if you are 12 years old and you got abandoned in a strange city for three days.

What would you do? Jesus didn't fear. He went about his business. He redeemed the time. He made good use of that time.

He probably continued staying wherever it was that the family had been staying. And he used his time to study. He wasn't down at the fair. He wasn't down skipping rocks across the river. He was in the temple studying.

He was there in a dialogue with the teachers, asking them questions. Jesus was asking questions. He was learning. He was a 12 year old boy who was growing in wisdom. He took advantage of this opportunity to get a couple, three extra days with the teachers in the temple to ask them questions.

They were apparently asking him questions because he's both listening to them teach and asking them questions. He's there as a student. He's not there teaching them, he's there as a student. But they are impressed, those people there are impressed with his ability as a student. He listened to them and he asked questions and they were astonished at his understanding and at his answers.

And that is how his parents found him. How would your parents find you, if that was you? It may seem astounding to us today, but in the history and the course of the history of the world, twelve year olds have done these sort of things all the time. There's a story That boggles my mind a little bit of a father, the mother died, the father left his children in a very primitive settlement in Kansas area while he went out to look for a place to live in probably 100 miles away or so. He left three children, I think, under 10 alone in this home.

And then, this is the amazing part, He called for them and sent for them to come to him. Three children, ten and under. Father expected them to go 50 or 75 miles or something like that to come to him. Now that was a desperate thing and even in that day there were people that were concerned and that helped them. But the point is, in the history of the world, much has been expected of 12-year-old children, much more than we often expect of our children today to their detriment.

Jesus endured common situations, situations common to children, and he didn't sin in those situations. Remember, he is without sin. And So as we look at this whole incident, keep that in the back of your mind, Jesus had imperfect parents but He Himself was without sin. And so, Jesus being under the law here, he is improperly reproached by his mother and father. He was reproached for something that wasn't his fault.

They came there and they were, and when they saw him, when Joseph and Mary saw him, they were amazed, they were astonished. And they said to him, his mother said to him, Son, why Have you done this to us?" But we know Jesus was without sin in everything that He did. His parents, although they were godly parents, were imperfect parents. Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously." We can be sure that Jesus had not failed to obey his parents. It wasn't as if they had told him, you be here at this time and this place because we're leaving.

That would have been disobedience if Jesus wasn't there at that time and that place. Apparently there was an oversight. Jesus, we know, was without sin. And he was without sin in this event too, even though his mother then reproached him improperly, wrongly. And So they are not at all negligent parents.

Her words, her tone here express their great concern for Jesus and their relief at finding Him safe. Jesus answers though that they should have known that he had to be about his father's business. They didn't understand that. They didn't understand the statement that he spoke. What business did Jesus have in the temple?

Well, Jesus had to study the law of God. He had to study with the teachers of the day, and that's what he was doing, as we said earlier. But even though Jesus was unfairly reproached by his parents for this oversight, Jesus obeys his parents. He is subject to them. He answered them, Why did you seek me?

Did you not know I must be about my father's business? But then he was subject to, He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject or was obedient to them. If ever a child had an excuse not to obey his parents, It would have been Jesus. Or if ever a child had an excuse not to honor his parents, it would have been Jesus. He's sinless and he's to obey and submit to imperfect parents.

He was more righteous than his parents. But you see, Jesus needed to be instructed by imperfect parents if he was to be made under the law, and tried in all points as we are to be able to sympathize with our weaknesses. How many of us have been unfairly reproached by our parents for things that we were not at fault for. I know it's happened to me and I know I've done it with my children. It happened to Jesus too.

But it was necessary. Hebrews 5 says that he was a son, that though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Jesus learned obedience by having to submit to imperfect parents who didn't always get it right, who messed up. And yet Jesus was still subject to them. He had to learn obedience by the things which He suffered.

And having been perfected, Jesus became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." Jesus had to be misunderstood. His own father and mother did not understand Him. It says they didn't understand the statement that he spoke to them. How many times are we misunderstood? We're not understood by those that love us the most.

That's hard, isn't it? When you feel not understood, when you feel misrepresented, when your good intentions are not understood. When we're not understood, when people don't understand us, especially children that can be very off-putting, Jesus endured that as a boy. As a son who was subject to his parents, his own parents didn't always understand him. That he had to be about his father's business.

But Jesus was still subject to them. He obeyed them. Mary pondered these things. Remember she pondered the shepherds when they came to announce His birth. And she ponders this event as well.

His mother kept all these things in her heart. She may not have understood it, but she remembered it. You see, Jesus could not in any true sense have been subject to his parents in the ordinary human way if they fully understood that he was divine. If they understood, if Joseph and Mary have fully understood that this is the creator of heaven and earth, that the son who was eating at their table was the master of the universe, was the second person of the Trinity, how could that have been a normal parent-son relationship? That kind of knowledge would have altered the parent-child relationship such that his humanity would not have been the humanity that we experience.

It would have really altered or maybe even severed that normal bond of a mother and her son. And we could not have become his brothers if he was not truly Mary's son. The mystery of the incarnation would have been fruitless had his humanity not been subject to all of these right and ordinary conditions. And we can see then, implying this more broadly, why his divinity had to be kept hidden from the world. Even during his years of ministry, Jesus told many of those he miraculously healed not to tell anyone what he had done.

And in Matthew and Mark, I think after Peter said he was the Christ and Jesus asked, who do you think I am? And Peter said, you are the Christ. Then Christ commanded them that they should tell no one that he was the Christ. His divinity needed to be shielded. See, every one of these events where Christ's messianic office is opened up or manifest to Mary, It seems like it's a surprise to her.

She's not expecting it. You would have thought that with the announcement of the angel to her, Gabriel, of what would happen and her understanding, her magnificence of that, that she would have understood and would have been expecting all these things. But this text, this incident shows that she wasn't. These things were a surprise to her. She didn't understand fully.

Because Jesus needed to live the ordinary life of a human so that he might be made like unto us in every respect. So that he might be tried, tested in all points like as we are. Points with respect to our human nature, our humanity, and points with respect to the law of God. Jesus perfectly obeyed the law of God in every one of these. He was tempted as a boy, as a son, in every area, every way that we as sons are tempted and tried, and yet He was without sin.

In order that He could be that perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, in order that He could be the propitiation of turning the wrath of God away for our sin. He needed to be fully human in every way, just like us. What a wonderful, glorious Savior is Jesus Christ, the God-man, the boy, the boy who grew to be a man. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for our salvation. We thank you for our Savior Christ, who is beautiful, precious to us, the one who has bought us by His own blood, the one who has lived and faced every situation just as we have, and yet never lost his patience, never responded sinfully, but was subject to imperfect parents, that He might be the example for us, and more than that, that He might be the sacrifice in our place, to bear your wrath in our place.

Thank you, O Father, for such love to us that you have given your only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Through Jesus, we thank you and praise you. Amen.