The Scarlet Cord: How God’s Rescue Mission Reaches the Unreachable

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
I will be dried by fire Purified You take whatever you desire Lord, here's my life If your glory wants to come Let it fall We want it all Your fire is consuming

[00:00:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]:
In Jesus' name we pray.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Amen.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
I want to be dried by fire Purified You take whatever you desire Lord, keep my life So clean my hands

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
I wanna burn for you, only for you Take my life as a sacrifice I wanna burn for you, only for you Take my life

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
As a sacrifice I want to burn for you Only for you Clean my head Purify my heart I want to burn for you Only for you Save my life

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Let us pray.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]:
You're a refiner, a refiner, I want to be consumed You're a refiner, a refiner, I want to be consumed You're a refiner, a refiner, I want to be consumed
[00:04:09] I want to be tried.

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Purify me.
[00:04:29] Take whatever you desire.
[00:04:36] Lord is my life.
[00:04:46] I want to burn for you Only for you Take my life Take my life As a living sacrifice As a living sacrifice I want to burn for you Only for you Clean my head Clean my head

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
Thank you Jesus.
[00:05:43] Thank you Jesus.
[00:05:43] I want to bow.
[00:05:44] I want to bow.
[00:05:44] I want to bow.
[00:05:44] Clean my head.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
I want to be drunk by fire Purified You take whatever you desire Lord, You take whatever You You take whatever You desire Lord, You take whatever You

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]:
Burn me beautiful, burn me lovely, burn me righteous, burn me holy

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
I want to be dried by fire Purified You will take whatever you desire
[00:08:21] Lord, here is my life I wanna be tried by fire Purified using whatever you desire Lord, here is my life

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]:
Brand us with your name Marked forever with your signature
[00:09:30] Let me sing that one more time.
[00:09:38] Burn me beautiful.
[00:09:40] Burn me beautiful.
[00:09:44] Burn me lovely.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
Burn me righteous.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Burn me holy.
[00:09:50] Burn me beautiful.

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]:
Burn me lovely.
[00:09:51] Burn me righteous.
[00:09:51] Burn me holy.
[00:09:52] One more time.
[00:09:52] Burn me beautiful.
[00:09:53] Burn me lovely.
[00:09:55] Burn me righteous.
[00:09:58] Burn me holy, burn me beautiful Burn me lovely, burn me righteous Burn me holy for you You're a fire, the refiner I wanna be consumed You're a fire, the refiner

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
Thank you for watching!

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]:
We have suffered all kinds of grief Tasted the bitter cup of defeat Out of the bitter comes something sweet Our faith more precious than gold We have been tested by so many
[00:11:59] Our faith more precious than gold Our faith more precious than gold Though we don't see you, we love you Where we don't feel you, we still sing
[00:12:28] We've got a reason to trust Jesus in everything
[00:12:58] There is a secret.
[00:13:01] There is a secret we can only know.
[00:13:07] Walk into places we don't want to go.
[00:13:11] In the dark.
[00:13:12] Cause in the dark we learn the song of hope.

[00:13:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
Our faith more precious than gold.

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Well, good morning everybody.
[00:13:26] Welcome to Center Church.
[00:13:29] We're so excited to have you here.
[00:13:32] This is the second Sunday of Advent and we have a whole lot going on.
[00:13:36] In fact, you'll probably notice our normal service order has been shifted and rearranged because we have some special things happening after the sermon with
[00:13:44] The kids and also with Glory coming to receive communion for the first time and so we're really excited about that and I also want to tell you a little bit about some of the things that we have going on.
[00:13:56] First of all every Tuesday we have a prayer meeting at 9 a.m. and we try to pray for every person who's here and we'd love to pray for you specifically so if you would take this card out of your bulletin right now and just even write your first name on it and later after the sermon you can throw this into the offering basket
[00:14:14] as it comes around the offering bag and during the Christmas season we've got a couple of fun things coming I especially want to tell you about the lessons and carols service that is going to be on the 21st that is Sunday evening at 5 p.m. we are going to do lessons and carols and so that's a series of nine different Christmas carols with scripture readings and
[00:14:40] we want to invite you to come to that it's going to be in the fellowship hall and uh we also would love for you to bring maybe some christmas cookies uh some kind of appetizer type things so that we can have snacks kids are invited and it should be a really fun kind of family gathering uh that we'd love for you to be a part of and then of course on uh the on christmas eve we're gonna have communion because it's a wednesday like always and then we will have our candlelight service at 6 pm
[00:15:08] That's what it says, right?
[00:15:09] 6 p.m.?
[00:15:10] Okay.
[00:15:11] So we'd love for you to join us for that.
[00:15:12] And now, as we get started, we're going to light our Advent candle for this week.
[00:15:17] And so I want to invite Molly and Brooklyn to come up and lead us in that.
[00:15:22] And if you all would grab the green microphone and hold it down until the green button comes on.

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
The church calendar is a way to walk through the story of scripture each year, and Advent in particular invites us to pause, to reflect on the wonder of the promised Messiah, to be shaped by the long story of redemption.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
In his book, After Virtue, Alistair MacIntyre writes that we can only answer the question, what am I to do, if we can answer a prior question, of what story or stories do I find myself a part?
[00:16:01] Advent calls us back to who we are by retelling us the story of which we are a part.

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Advent reminds us that we are a people marked by longing, exiled in a world of tears, but we are not abandoned.
[00:16:14] We are waiting for redemption, for a wholeness that has come, yet is still coming, just over the horizon, just beyond our grasp, but rushing toward us minute by minute, day by day.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Now let's take a moment and prepare our hearts for worship.
[00:16:38] This is a good time to take stock of your own heart as you come into this place.
[00:16:44] What have you been experiencing and feeling this morning?
[00:16:49] Has it been a calm morning, a busy morning?

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
What are you bringing with you into the room?
[00:17:02] What's going on in your life this week?

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
I want to invite us all to take a deep breath and to lay all these things before the Lord.
[00:17:27] He's invited us into this space.
[00:17:29] He can handle whatever we bring.
[00:17:34] And in this moment, he is calling us to worship him.
[00:17:39] Would you stand with me?
[00:17:41] And let's say this call to worship together.
[00:17:48] In the book of Malachi, we read, The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.
[00:18:00] Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
[00:18:05] Rejoice greatly.
[00:18:07] Shout in triumph.
[00:18:09] Our King is coming, the righteous Savior.
[00:18:13] We shall speak peace to the nations.

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
Chad, if you could pray for us.
[00:18:23] Father God, I pray that on this Sunday and in this season of Advent, you allow us to slow down, hear your voice,
[00:18:34] I pray that you just speak to them this service God and give us the courage
[00:18:59] to just challenge the shadow versions of ourselves as Logan preached last week.
[00:19:05] God, just allow us to just know ourselves and know you better this season and help our unbelief.
[00:19:13] And we praise you and worship you in your name, amen.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
We're gonna sing three songs right now, and so just feel free to stand or sit as you please and enjoy this time of worship.

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem Come and behold Him
[00:19:55] Born the King of Angels O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him Christ is the Lord
[00:20:25] In choirs of angels sing in exultation We'll sing all ye citizens of heaven
[00:20:40] Glory to God!
[00:21:05] Glory in the highest!
[00:21:06] O come, let us adore Him!
[00:21:06] O come, let us adore Him!
[00:21:07] O come, let us adore Him!
[00:21:07] Christ the Lord!
[00:21:15] Therefore we greet thee, born this happy morning, Jesus, to thee we all glory give.
[00:21:34] Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord
[00:22:02] O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him Christ the Lord O come let us adore
[00:22:29] O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him Christ the Lord We give You all the glory We give You all the glory We give You all the glory
[00:23:00] For you alone are worthy, for you alone are worthy, for you alone are worthy, Christ the Lord.

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Those in generations Falling down in worship To sing the song of ages to the Lamb And all who've gone before us And all who will believe Will sing the song of ages to the Lamb

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
Is the highest your name Is the greatest your name Stands above them all Above all thrones and dominions All powers and positions your name Stands above them all And the angels cry
[00:24:58] Holy, all creation cries Holy, you are lifted high Holy, holy forevermore
[00:25:24] And if you've been forgiven And if you've been redeemed We'll sing the song forever to the Lamb And if you walk in freedom And if you bear His name We'll sing the song forever to the Lamb
[00:25:53] We'll sing the song forever and amen And the angels cry Holy Our creation cries Holy You are lifted high Holy
[00:26:20] Holy forever Hear your people sing Holy to the King of Kings Holy, Holy You will always be Holy
[00:26:48] Holy forever Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name
[00:27:06] He stands above them all, above all throes, and amidst all clouds, and positions your name.
[00:27:32] He stands above them all, Jesus your name.
[00:27:33] He's the highest, your name.
[00:27:33] He's the greatest, your name.
[00:27:34] He stands above them all, above all foes, and dominions all powers, and positions of all names He stands above them all, and the angels cry
[00:27:57] Holy, our creation cries Holy, you are lifted high Holy, holy forever Hear your people sing, Lord Hear your people sing
[00:28:27] To the King of Kings Holy You will always be Holy Holy forever And the angels cry Holy
[00:28:56] Creation Christ Holy, keep lifted high Holy, holy forever Hear people sing
[00:29:21] Call ye to the King of Kings Call ye, you will always be Call ye, call ye forever
[00:29:46] You'll always be Holy, Holy forever You'll always be Holy, Holy forever
[00:30:20] You are Holy, Holy Are You our God, Almighty?
[00:30:44] What is the Lamb?
[00:30:45] What is the Lamb?
[00:30:45] You are Holy, Holy
[00:30:50] Are you Lord God Almighty?
[00:31:14] Praise to them, praise to them You are holy, holy Are you Lord God Almighty?
[00:31:19] Worthy is the Lamb, Worthy is the Lamb You are Holy, Holy Are You Lord God Almighty Worthy is the Lamb, Worthy is the Lamb

[00:32:16] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Thank you.

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
Oh things have passed away Your love has stayed the same Your constant grace remains the cornerstone Things that we thought were dead
[00:33:18] Breathing in life again, you caused your splendor to shine on darkest nights.
[00:33:34] For all that you've done we will pour out our love This will be our anthem song Jesus we love you Oh how we love you You are the one
[00:34:08] The whole place hath found its home The orphans now have a home All that was lost has found its place
[00:34:32] Oh you lift our weary head And you make us strong instead You took these rags and made us beautiful
[00:34:54] For all that you've done we will pour out our love This will be our anthem song For all that you've done we will pour out our love This will be our anthem song In Jesus we love you
[00:35:22] Oh how we love you, you're the one Lord, you are the one and all Our hearts adore Jesus, oh Jesus we love you
[00:35:46] Oh how we love you, you are the one of our hearts adored.
[00:36:19] Oh how we love you Lord Our affection, our devotion poured out on Thee
[00:36:43] Feet of Jesus our affection Our devotion poured out on the Feet of Jesus our affection Our devotion poured out on the Feet of Jesus our affection
[00:37:13] Our devotion poured out on the feet of Jesus Our affection Our devotion poured out on the feet of Jesus Our affection
[00:37:36] Our devotion poured out on the feet of Jesus We love you Oh how we love you You are the one and all
[00:38:07] Oh Jesus we love you Oh how we love you You are the one on our hearts adored
[00:38:48] Jesus we love you.
[00:39:07] Oh how we love you.
[00:39:07] You are the one our hearts adore.
[00:39:13] Jesus we love you.
[00:39:19] The peace of the Lord be with you.

[00:39:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
I want to invite you to pass the peace of Christ to your neighbors at this time, and our kids are dismissed for children's church.

[00:39:55] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
I didn't know if this was going to help.
[00:40:14] .
[00:40:37] .
[00:40:37] .

[00:40:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
If you will make your way back to your seats and please join with me as we sing the doxology.

[00:40:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
[00:41:09] Our scripture reading this morning

[00:41:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
comes from Matthew chapter 1 verses 1 through the beginning of verse 5 and then Joshua chapter 2.
[00:41:45] This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
[00:41:51] Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram,
[00:42:07] Ram, the father of Amenadab.
[00:42:09] Amenadab, the father of Nashon.
[00:42:11] Nashon, the father of Salmon.
[00:42:14] Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab.
[00:42:20] And then we turn to Joshua.
[00:42:23] Joshua chapter 2.
[00:42:25] Then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent two spies from Shittim.
[00:42:31] Go look over the land, he said, especially Jericho.
[00:42:34] So they went and they entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
[00:42:41] The king of Jericho was told, Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.
[00:42:48] So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab.
[00:42:52] Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house because they have come to spy out the whole land.
[00:42:58] But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.
[00:43:01] She said, Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from.
[00:43:07] At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left.
[00:43:10] I don't know which way they went.
[00:43:12] Go after them quickly.
[00:43:13] You may catch up with them.
[00:43:15] But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax, so they laid out on the roof.
[00:43:21] So the men sent out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan.
[00:43:26] And as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
[00:43:30] Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you this land and that great fear of you has fallen on us so that all who live in this country are melting with fear because of you.
[00:43:47] We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.
[00:44:00] When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you.
[00:44:07] For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.
[00:44:12] Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because I have shown kindness to you.
[00:44:20] Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters and all who belong to them and that you will save us from death.
[00:44:30] Our lives for your lives, the men assured her.
[00:44:33] If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.
[00:44:39] So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was a part of the city wall.
[00:44:46] She said to them, Go to the hills, so the pursuers will not find you.
[00:44:50] Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go out on your way.
[00:44:54] Now the men who said to her this oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless when we enter the land you have tied this scarlet cord in your window through which you let us down and unless you have brought your father and your mother and your brothers and all your family into your house if any of them go outside of your house into the street their blood will be on their own hands we will not be responsible as for those who are in the house with you
[00:45:23] Their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them.
[00:45:26] But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made to us.
[00:45:31] Agreed, she replied.
[00:45:33] Let it be as you say.
[00:45:35] And so she sent them away, and they departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
[00:45:41] This is the word of the Lord.
[00:45:44] Would you pray with me?
[00:45:48] Lord, we come here this morning opening your word again.
[00:45:52] The second week of Advent and we turn our hearts towards you.
[00:45:57] We look expectantly towards your return.
[00:46:01] God, we see the brokenness in the world that surrounds us and we see the sin in our own hearts and we stand with the church throughout the ages this week crying, come Lord Jesus.
[00:46:13] God, I ask that you might open our eyes to see, open our ears to hear, open our souls to receive,
[00:46:23] I pray God that none of us would leave here without encountering you.
[00:46:27] We ask this in Christ's name.
[00:46:29] Amen.
[00:46:31] Well, when we lit the candle today, our Advent readers reminded us that Advent tells us about the story that we are living in.
[00:46:42] Advent reminds us of the story that we belong to.
[00:46:46] It reminds us that we live in this moment where Christ the King has already come.
[00:46:53] He has inaugurated his kingdom by conquering sin and death on the cross and by ascending and is seated at the right hand of God.
[00:47:03] But still now the fullness of that kingdom is coming.
[00:47:10] He announced it.
[00:47:12] He told us it could actually come in fullness at any moment like a thief in the night.
[00:47:17] He could be here and on that day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
[00:47:23] But for the time being, we live in the in-between.
[00:47:28] We are in a kingdom that is both already and not yet.
[00:47:33] And you might have noticed in the chapter we just read, it also ends in an already and not yet.
[00:47:41] It ends with this woman Rahab who has heard and believed the message that the God of Israel is coming to claim Jericho as his own, but it hasn't happened.
[00:47:53] and so she had to live by faith until it came to pass now today as we study her life we get first the chance to to wonder at the salvation and the mercy and the grace of our God who would come and redeem an outcast and a sinner and call her into his own kingdom but also as we do
[00:48:16] We have an opportunity to consider our own lives and our own calling and what it means for us to live for Christ right now during our time of already not yet.
[00:48:28] And so today to do that we're going to break this up into three headings.
[00:48:31] We're going to look at the God's surprising salvation, Rahab's unlikely choice, and our abundant rescue.
[00:48:43] Okay, so let's start with God's surprising salvation.
[00:48:48] Now the events we read in Joshua chapter 2, all that stuff took place at a very exciting moment in the history of Israel.
[00:48:58] If you read through the opening books of the Bible, you realize that these people have just spent 40 years wandering through the wilderness.
[00:49:07] but now finally the nation of Israel they are waiting right at the edge of Canaan they are about to claim the land that God had promised to them hundreds of years before when he spoke to Abraham but there is a question I think worth asking as you read this story which is why did they send spies into Jericho in the first place like honestly what was
[00:49:35] The point of the mission.
[00:49:38] They had been dreaming of this conquest for a very long time.
[00:49:44] Joshua, that's the name of the book.
[00:49:46] It's also the name of their leader.
[00:49:47] And Joshua had been, he'd spent his entire life preparing for this moment under Moses.
[00:49:55] In fact, in chapter 1 of Joshua, which we didn't read today, he already has declared the plan.
[00:50:01] He said,
[00:50:02] Go through the camp and tell the people, get your provisions ready.
[00:50:07] Three days from now, you will cross the Jordan and go in and take possession of the land that your Lord God is giving you.
[00:50:16] I mean, it was as good as done.
[00:50:19] What did they really need a recognizance mission for?
[00:50:24] The report that the spies eventually gave them, they said, The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands.
[00:50:33] All the people are melting with fear because of us.
[00:50:36] Great.
[00:50:38] I'm sure that was a very reassuring message.
[00:50:43] But after four decades of living as nomads in the desert, was there any report that was going to change the plan?
[00:50:54] I doubt it.
[00:50:56] And so when you step back and you look at this story, you start to realize that maybe Rahab herself was the point of the mission.
[00:51:09] The spies, of course, they didn't know to look for her.
[00:51:13] The people of Israel, they didn't know that she was in that city.
[00:51:18] But God did.
[00:51:21] And he was determined to save her.
[00:51:25] See, this wasn't actually a recon mission.
[00:51:28] It was a search and rescue.
[00:51:33] See, Rahab, when she shows up in Jesus's family line, it is this beautiful picture.
[00:51:41] because it reminds us of the essence of God's kingdom.
[00:51:44] It reminds us of who he is.
[00:51:46] It reminds us that God's kingdom is a kingdom populated by men and women who have been redeemed not because of their great resumes, not because of what they had to offer, and not even because of their future potential.
[00:52:04] They're redeemed because God loves them.
[00:52:09] Rahab, she reminds us that the values of God's kingdom are not the values of this world.
[00:52:14] That in His kingdom, the last becomes the first, and the first becomes the last.
[00:52:21] And of course, you know as you read it that her presence here means it's good news for us as well.
[00:52:30] Because nobody is beyond His reach.
[00:52:35] His story is a comfort for sinners like us.
[00:52:40] But I think it's also a challenge for the church.
[00:52:45] Her story is a reminder of our calling today.
[00:52:52] Rahab being rescued, it should remind believers that we are called to see the world through God's eyes of redeeming grace.
[00:53:04] That his message of salvation can actually change
[00:53:09] The hearts of the most unlikely people.
[00:53:13] And it can move in the most unlikely places.
[00:53:17] And so as we begin to look at Rahab's life, I think it might be worth asking before we even move on, who might the Rahabs be in your life?
[00:53:30] Who are those outcasts that you would never consider reaching out to?
[00:53:37] Rahab
[00:53:38] She checks off a lot of boxes.
[00:53:41] She was from another ethnicity, another class, another culture.
[00:53:47] She was from a foreign nation, a different religion.
[00:53:52] And of course, she was a sinner.
[00:53:53] She was a person that most would consider too far gone.
[00:53:58] And let's just be real.
[00:53:59] We live in Lake Norman, right?
[00:54:02] We live in an area where it is very easy to be isolated from need.
[00:54:08] And it's really worth us asking, I think, have we walled ourselves off from people like this?
[00:54:15] Do we tend to pursue just the people that we understand?
[00:54:20] The people who share our views, who share our values, or maybe our social class, our cultural norms, our education level?
[00:54:32] but maybe that's kind of off base because because maybe your your Rahabs might be a little different from that maybe you think about her and you have a soft spot in your heart for people like Rahab you've got no problem reaching out to the most vulnerable but there's a different kind of person that you think of as the unreachable there's another group of people when you think of them you think God just wouldn't want those folks you know maybe it's those people whoever they may be who
[00:55:02] You know, their political views are ruining this country.
[00:55:07] Or maybe it's that, you know, grouchy woman in your HOA that keeps sending you those letters.
[00:55:15] Maybe it's the educated atheist, you know, who just seems to hate God.
[00:55:21] So why bother?
[00:55:24] But see, Rahab's existence reminds us
[00:55:31] That God can work.
[00:55:33] And not just her story, actually, but the story of countless other unlikely men and women all throughout history who have found salvation in Christ.
[00:55:43] You know, maybe some of you are in the room that have been through a transformation like this.
[00:55:50] See, God's kingdom, it's not limited by our expectations.
[00:55:54] His kingdom is not limited by our values.
[00:55:57] And a thousand years ago, we see this story where God arranged everything just perfectly so that He could make Rahab His own.
[00:56:09] And His rescue mission, it didn't end in Jericho.
[00:56:14] It continues even right now in your neighborhood, in your workplace, in your school, in our town.
[00:56:24] So that's the first thing we need to see.
[00:56:26] This moment is really a call to us to go spy out the land, I don't know, to go to those unlikely places and to those unlikely people and proclaim the surprising salvation of our God.
[00:56:44] But the second thing we see here is Rahab's unlikely choice.
[00:56:51] A while back, I learned about this guy,
[00:56:53] His name's Ignaz Semmelweis.
[00:56:56] Has anybody ever heard of him?
[00:56:58] Good-looking dude, right?
[00:57:00] Well, Ignaz, he worked in a teaching hospital in the 1840s.
[00:57:05] And in that hospital where he worked, for some reason, the babies were five times more likely to die when they were delivered by doctors than when they were delivered by midwives.
[00:57:20] And it turns out that
[00:57:23] In that hospital, in that teaching hospital, the doctors actually had two jobs.
[00:57:27] In the morning, they dissected cadavers with the students, and then in the afternoon, they delivered babies.
[00:57:35] Of course, there was no germ theory back then.
[00:57:38] People didn't really understand how diseases were spread, but this guy came up with the brilliant idea that maybe, just maybe, the doctors should sanitize their hands before they started helping with these births.
[00:57:53] And guess what?
[00:57:55] It worked.
[00:57:56] It fixed the problem.
[00:57:57] Almost instantly, the mortality rate went from 18% to less than 2% with the doctors.
[00:58:04] But the crazy part about the story is even though he had solved the problem, even though he had discovered the truth, nobody else agreed with him.
[00:58:15] In fact, at that time, the whole medical world was still convinced that disease was mostly spread by bad smells.
[00:58:23] And so if they were going to go along with this idea, the doctors would basically have to admit that they were responsible for the deaths of these kids.
[00:58:32] And so instead, they fired him.
[00:58:37] And not long after that, he actually died in disgrace, alienated from the medical community.
[00:58:44] It wasn't until years after his death that he got recognized for this amazing discovery.
[00:58:51] Now his story, it reminds us of a simple fact, which is standing for the truth against the world is a difficult thing to do.
[00:58:59] Standing for the truth can be costly.
[00:59:04] Standing against the world is dangerous.
[00:59:08] And in the story of Rahab, we see her taking an enormous risk.
[00:59:16] She makes this declaration of faith in verse 11, right?
[00:59:20] When she encounters these guys, when she goes up to speak to them on the roof, she first tells them the news that everybody has heard, right?
[00:59:27] We all have heard about the God of Israel and how powerful he is.
[00:59:30] We're all quaking in our boots.
[00:59:33] But then in verse 11, she says this, The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.
[00:59:46] Now, in her culture, the Amorite culture, they had all,
[00:59:50] Many different gods.
[00:59:53] And in this moment, Rahab says, our gods are actually no gods at all.
[01:00:02] In this moment, she declares the most countercultural and surprising thing.
[01:00:09] She says, it is only the Lord your God, Yahweh el-Hikim.
[01:00:15] He rules over all.
[01:00:18] Can you imagine what that would be like?
[01:00:22] Can you imagine what it would have been like to be the only person in an entire nation to know and believe the truth?
[01:00:32] To be the only one who would say, Yahweh is the true God.
[01:00:38] All the other ones are a lie.
[01:00:42] To stand in the face of the world like that, it was incredibly dangerous.
[01:00:49] But she doesn't care.
[01:00:51] She holds the truth boldly.
[01:00:53] She fearlessly protects these guys when the king's men come looking for them.
[01:00:58] She risks her own life to protect theirs.
[01:01:02] And then she makes a pact with them.
[01:01:04] Would you rescue me when you come back?
[01:01:09] And in that moment, I hope you see in that moment her life is forever changed.
[01:01:16] From that moment on, she was no longer a citizen of Jericho.
[01:01:24] She was an Israelite.
[01:01:27] She still lived in Jericho, but that was no longer her home.
[01:01:33] That was her profession of faith.
[01:01:36] Her hope no longer rested in the kingdom of the Amorites, but in the God of Israel.
[01:01:45] and His promised kingdom to come.
[01:01:52] Living by faith in a promised redemption.
[01:01:57] Isn't her life a picture of the church today?
[01:02:02] We are a people who have received the good news of Jesus' kingdom.
[01:02:07] And none of us deserve it, just like her.
[01:02:12] But because of his great mercy, God has welcomed us in.
[01:02:16] He's made us a part of his people.
[01:02:18] And now our ultimate allegiance, it doesn't lie with the kingdoms of this world, but we are citizens of a new kingdom.
[01:02:28] And of course, it's Advent.
[01:02:29] Advent, it reminds us that one day very soon, just like Israel came to Jericho, the king will come and he's going to claim the world that is rightfully his.
[01:02:44] And so that means we should also look at this from another angle, right?
[01:02:47] Because Rahab wasn't the only person living in Jericho who heard about the power of God, was she?
[01:02:56] No, she tells us everybody's heard.
[01:02:59] Everybody knows what's about to happen.
[01:03:01] The whole nation knew that Israel was coming and they were scared.
[01:03:07] And I'm sure when that army came, they tried to resist and they tried to defend themselves.
[01:03:14] But only Rahab and her household actually turned towards God and faith.
[01:03:22] Who knows?
[01:03:22] Maybe some of those people in Jericho, they said, yeah, sure, God is powerful.
[01:03:26] He's done a lot of things, but our walls are strong.
[01:03:31] Our city is fortified.
[01:03:32] We can take it.
[01:03:36] But they were wrong.
[01:03:39] And so that means, in addition to an encouragement,
[01:03:44] This passage is also a call to repent.
[01:03:48] It's wonderful to think about how gracious God was to Rahab, but we also need to remember the reason that she needed saving was because she was a member of a nation that had earned God's wrath.
[01:04:04] Through years of rebellion and oppression and injustice, their time was up.
[01:04:14] And we're not much different.
[01:04:17] In Advent, we take time to look at this messed up world all around us and we take time to hope for its renewal.
[01:04:28] But of course, it's not just the world out there that's messed up, right?
[01:04:33] It's also our own hearts that are messed up.
[01:04:39] We sang that song a moment ago about how holy God is.
[01:04:44] We praised him for that.
[01:04:46] God is holy.
[01:04:47] That means he is defined by goodness and justice and righteousness and perfection.
[01:04:56] And that means in his kingdom there is no room for the opposite.
[01:05:01] There is no room for unfaithfulness and hatred and oppression and deception and unbelief and arrogance and self-righteousness and pride and greed and lust and envy and all the things.
[01:05:16] that swirl around in our sinful hearts.
[01:05:21] We read that verse in Malachi as our call to worship.
[01:05:26] He says, I'll send a messenger who will prepare the way before me and then suddenly the Lord your God will come into his temple
[01:05:36] The messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come says the Lord Almighty.
[01:05:42] It says suddenly the Lord will come and he will sit on his throne and he will stand as our judge.
[01:05:48] And you know that's where we stopped.
[01:05:52] But maybe we stopped too soon because the second verse, it asks the big question.
[01:06:00] Who can endure the day of his coming?
[01:06:04] Who can stand when he appears?
[01:06:08] For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.
[01:06:13] In other words, no one can stand up.
[01:06:17] No one can live up to his standards.
[01:06:20] No one will stand in the day of the Lord's judgment.
[01:06:26] But of course, that's why we're here, right?
[01:06:28] We're here because in the person of Jesus Christ, God has answered this question.
[01:06:35] In the person of Jesus Christ, God actually went himself on the greatest search and rescue mission the world has ever seen.
[01:06:46] The judge himself, he came down, and on the cross, he took the wrath that all of us deserve.
[01:06:56] And then,
[01:06:57] After he rose again, do you remember what he did?
[01:06:59] Well, he sent out his messengers into the world to proclaim the promise that if you would come to him by faith, if you would turn from your allegiance to all these powerless kings in the world, all these lifeless gods that swirl around us, he says, if you would hang the scarlet cord of my bloodshed from the window of your heart,
[01:07:26] You will dwell in my kingdom of peace forever.
[01:07:29] Amen?
[01:07:33] See, the doctors at that hospital, they heard the truth, but they rejected it.
[01:07:38] They chose to fire the messenger and let children die rather than admit that they might be wrong, rather than turn and believe the truth against the world.
[01:07:53] But Rahab did the unlikely thing.
[01:07:58] She made the unlikely choice.
[01:08:00] She believed against all odds.
[01:08:03] She turned to the Lord.
[01:08:07] She received His rescue.
[01:08:10] And so again, we need to ask ourselves, what about us?
[01:08:16] What about you?
[01:08:16] The King is coming soon.
[01:08:24] Where does your allegiance lie?
[01:08:28] Well, the third thing we also see in this passage is what it says about our rescue, our abundant rescue.
[01:08:39] I think what I love most about the story of Rahab is just thinking about how thoroughly God redeemed her life.
[01:08:50] On paper,
[01:08:52] Rahab is probably the most unlikely convert in all of the Old Testament.
[01:08:58] She was a member of a despised enemy nation that had been marked for eradication.
[01:09:07] She was an Amorite.
[01:09:09] She was a pagan.
[01:09:11] Of course, in Jewish law, she was an unclean Gentile.
[01:09:18] And in Jericho, she was a prostitute.
[01:09:24] She was dehumanized.
[01:09:27] Men didn't treat her even as a person but as a thing to be used and discarded.
[01:09:38] In the kingdom of the world, she was less than nothing.
[01:09:44] But in the kingdom of God, she was priceless and precious.
[01:09:52] Now just imagine that moment a few days later, maybe a week or so, when that army finally showed up and surrounded the city and the mighty walls of Jericho fell, all except for one small section with a window in it and a cord hanging out.
[01:10:19] As I imagine that scene, I don't think it really would have looked like a wall at all anymore, but more like a tower.
[01:10:34] And inside that tower, safe from harm, was no longer a prostitute of the Amorites,
[01:10:48] But a princess of the Israelites.
[01:10:54] See, our passage in Matthew tells us that Rahab would go on to marry Salmon from the royal line of Judah.
[01:11:02] And in her new life, in this new nation, from her would come eventually the full line of kings of Judah.
[01:11:12] God turned this woman known for her immorality into a saint.
[01:11:19] You know, she's mentioned twice in the New Testament, and both times she's mentioned for her faithfulness, for her righteousness.
[01:11:32] That's what God does for us.
[01:11:36] And of course she's mentioned a third time, right?
[01:11:38] The time that we read, the time when she's mentioned as one of the mothers of Jesus.
[01:11:45] This is her story.
[01:11:47] Matthew wanted us to see her name in the first lines of the gospel because this is what Jesus has come to do.
[01:11:56] He's come to connect our lives to the true story and the living God.
[01:12:02] He's come to unite us to his people, a people from every nation and tribe and tongue, from every ethnic group, every social class gathered across the span of the globe and all of human history.
[01:12:17] He's called us to be like Rahab and to live for Him in a hostile world.
[01:12:25] He's called us to be like the spies and to go out with the message of His kingdom.
[01:12:32] And of course, as each and every one of us live and walk with Him and as we start to experience His abundant redemption for ourselves and our own lives and our own hearts, well, He calls us to be like Christ, doing
[01:12:47] The same kind of rescuing that he does.
[01:12:50] Seeing the people the world overlooks.
[01:12:53] Caring for the abused and the broken.
[01:12:57] Reaching out to the people who the world deems unreachable.
[01:13:00] Living as agents of the kingdom that has already come and is coming soon.
[01:13:10] Would you pray with me?
[01:13:14] Let's just take a moment now
[01:13:19] And let these pictures sink in.
[01:13:28] Where do you find yourself in this story today?
[01:13:34] Maybe a Rahab at the beginning of the story.
[01:13:39] You need to hear God declaring your worth and your value.
[01:13:48] Can you hear Him?
[01:13:56] Maybe you're like those people of Jericho, living in defiance.
[01:14:07] Maybe it's time to see His holiness and bow.
[01:14:13] Can you see Him?
[01:14:23] Or maybe it's time for you to become like the spies
[01:14:29] Maybe you need to ask him, Lord, how do you want me to serve you?
[01:14:34] How can I go out into this world and be a bearer of your good news?
[01:14:43] Ask him where those opportunities are.
[01:15:06] I'm going to invite our kids to come up to the front.
[01:15:09] And as they do, let's sing this chorus together as we behold the glory of our God.

[01:15:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
O come, let us adore Him.
[01:15:32] O come, let us adore Him.
[01:15:32] O come, let us adore Him.

[01:15:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Redeemer God, in righteousness you will judge all people.
[01:15:50] Keep us from making eternal pronouncements on others lives and help us to trust that the coming day of judgment will reveal the glory of your wide mercy and firm justice.
[01:16:04] Keep us vigilant to work against evil and injustice and yet hopeful for all people, trusting that your justice never fails and that your mercy is fresh each day.
[01:16:20] Amen.
[01:16:21] Amen.
[01:16:22] Well, we have our kids up here and I'm just gonna hand it over to you all.

[01:16:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Okay, well, Center Church, we have an announcement from our kids' ministry, and it's all about Advent and the Christian mission.
[01:16:34] Glory, could you tell us what Advent is all about?
[01:16:44] Advent means prepare your hearts for Christmas.
[01:16:45] One way we can do this is by giving food to the Christian mission to feed God's children.
[01:16:46] That's awesome.
[01:16:47] Emma, tell us a little bit more about that.
[01:16:53] Now, how much peanut butter and jelly did we give to the food pantry this year?

[01:16:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
Our number is 276 pounds.

[01:17:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Wow, that's a lot of peanut butter and jelly.
[01:17:07] Can we have a round of applause for all that peanut butter and jelly?
[01:17:13] Now, Cooper, what can people bring in December?

[01:17:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
In the rest of December, we bring

[01:17:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Awesome, so guys bring your cooking oil, bring your pinto beans, we want to bring as much of that as we can.
[01:17:31] Now Maya, what's something we're doing in December for the Christian Mission?
[01:17:42] That's right, we're making candy bags for families at the food pantry.
[01:17:45] Now Vivian, what else do our church need to know?
[01:17:53] Niko, hold that up for everyone.
[01:18:01] We talked about today how not everyone has can openers, so if you can find canned beans with a pop top, that is super helpful.
[01:18:10] Now June and Niko, what do you guys want to tell everyone at church?
[01:18:18] Thank you and Merry Christmas!
[01:18:19] Alright, thank you so much kids.
[01:18:20] You can go find your parents and sit with them.

[01:18:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Let's pray for our kids while they go be seated.
[01:18:26] Lord, thank you so much for the blessing of this next generation.
[01:18:29] And we look forward with faith to what you are doing and will do through their lives.
[01:18:35] We pray this in Christ's name.
[01:18:37] Amen.
[01:18:38] Now, I want to invite our ushers to come down and collect our offering, and you can also throw your prayer cards into the bag as it comes around.
[01:18:49] While they're collecting this, I want to just tell you a little bit about what is happening next.
[01:18:53] We are going to receive communion, and you probably know that
[01:18:58] If you've been here before, usually I just go straight down and serve it at the end of the sermon.
[01:19:03] But today is a special day because we are welcoming Glory to the communion table for the first time.
[01:19:10] And I don't know where she is, but I hope she comes back.
[01:19:17] So let me just tell you about why we are doing this.
[01:19:20] Last week, we had a baptism.
[01:19:23] Who was here for that?
[01:19:25] Great clap if you saw it.
[01:19:26] yeah it was beautiful right and in that moment we talked about how the sign of baptism is a mark that we belong to the covenant family of God but also that we expect that our children will reach a day when they can profess their faith on their own when they won't just rest under the promises of their parents profession but they will come declaring that they themselves believe in the Lord and in that moment we
[01:19:53] Welcome them to the communion table because they are able to understand what it is that happens here.
[01:19:58] Now, of course, when glory comes, glory is 10 years old today.
[01:20:04] Oh my goodness.
[01:20:10] Ten years ago, the Lord added this member to our family, and a few months after that, we baptized her into this covenant.
[01:20:17] and we stood with the church that promised they would help us to raise her and share the gospel with her and God has been faithful to those promises and she comes here not with the faith of a seminary graduate but with the faith of a 10 year old saying that Jesus is her savior and we are so thrilled to be able to hear that profession and so we're going to ask her the same membership questions that we ask the adults
[01:20:43] And at this moment, she's already a member of our church, but she will be a full member receiving communion as well.
[01:20:49] And so, Glory, why don't you come here?
[01:20:51] Melissa, you want to come down as well?
[01:20:54] Stand with her.
[01:20:59] Here, stand right over here.
[01:21:03] All right, we're going to ask you these questions.
[01:21:07] We already practiced, right?
[01:21:09] So, Glory.
[01:21:13] Covenant child, do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God and without hope for your salvation except in His sovereign mercy?

[01:21:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Yes.

[01:21:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of sinners?

[01:21:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Yes.

[01:21:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Do you receive and depend upon Him alone for your salvation as He's offered in the Gospel?

[01:21:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Yes.

[01:21:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Do you promise and resolve in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?

[01:21:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Yes.

[01:21:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Do you promise to serve Christ and His Church by supporting and participating with this congregation in its service of God and its ministry to others to the best of your ability?

[01:21:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Yes.

[01:21:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
And do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church?
[01:22:03] and to the spiritual oversight of this church's session.
[01:22:07] And you promise to promote the unity, purity and peace of the church.

[01:22:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Yes.

[01:22:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Amen.
[01:22:13] Can we have a little round of applause for her?
[01:22:19] And Glory, as you've come professing your faith, we give you this Bible as a gift from Center Church.
[01:22:28] And it's pretty and it has lots of cool features in it.
[01:22:33] But what we really hope you'll do with that is read it.
[01:22:36] And we hope that over the years as you read through it, your faith will deepen and grow and that you will never remember a day where God was not faithful to you.
[01:22:48] Can we pray for Glory?
[01:22:51] Father, we thank you for your faithfulness to her and to our family and to our church.
[01:22:59] And we ask God that you would
[01:23:02] Let us deeply root your faith in her life that you would be a firm foundation for her.
[01:23:08] And we pray for all the other kids here, Lord, that we would see them in this moment as well.
[01:23:15] We look with faith to you as parents.
[01:23:19] And we ask God as a community that you would enable us to carry out these promises we've made.
[01:23:25] We pray this in Christ's name.
[01:23:27] Amen.
[01:23:28] Amen.
[01:23:33] And now, the rest of us, we have an opportunity to respond.
[01:23:39] This is the meal that the Lord has set for us today.
[01:23:46] It is a visible expression of the grace that He extends, even to those people who were the furthest away and the farthest off.
[01:23:56] This is a reminder that your Lord pursues you.
[01:24:04] He invites you to come.
[01:24:05] It's not for perfect people, but for those who know they need a Savior.
[01:24:09] And so if that is you today, then this meal is for you.
[01:24:14] If you know that Christ is your only hope, just as Glory professed, then I want you to come, and I want you to come with gratitude, joy, perhaps repentance, and receive from His abundant redemption.
[01:24:32] If you're not a believer this morning, I just want to say, first of all, I'm so glad that you're here.
[01:24:38] I would be honored if you'd let me know where you are in your journey.
[01:24:41] I'd love to talk to you more about that.
[01:24:42] But for now, if you don't believe, don't take this yet, because it is a meal with power, real power.
[01:24:48] And I want you to know exactly what you're getting yourself into.
[01:24:51] Instead, use this time to pray and listen and see if the Lord might call you to himself.
[01:24:59] Because this is a meal that as we come to it, we come with gratitude for what he's done.
[01:25:05] I want to invite you to join me in this liturgy of thanksgiving.
[01:25:08] The Lord be with you.
[01:25:12] Lift up your hearts.
[01:25:16] Let us give thanks to the Lord.
[01:25:21] It is right and good and a joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
[01:25:30] Because on the night that Jesus was betrayed, after giving thanks, he took bread, and he broke it, and he said, This is my body, given for you.
[01:25:41] Take, eat of it, all of you.
[01:25:46] Then in the same way,
[01:25:48] After the supper he took the cup and he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
[01:25:58] As often as you drink of it, do this in remembrance of me.
[01:26:04] Because as often as we eat this bread and we drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again.
[01:26:11] And yes, he is coming soon.
[01:26:13] And together we proclaim this mystery of the faith.
[01:26:18] Christ is died.
[01:26:20] Christ is risen.
[01:26:22] Christ will come again.
[01:26:25] Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us at Calvary.
[01:26:34] These are the gifts of God and they're for you, the people of God.
[01:26:39] Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your heart by faith and with thanksgiving.
[01:26:49] As we come to receive this, I want to give a couple of quick words of instruction.
[01:26:54] We'll have myself and an elder on each side of this table, so we'll try to split and go two at a time.
[01:27:01] In the center of our tray, we have juice.
[01:27:05] Here we have gluten-free wafers for any who require it.
[01:27:09] And we're going to take the elements and then go back to our seats, and in a moment, we'll all take it together.
[01:27:14] If you're hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of Christ, I want to invite you to come
[01:27:19] And could I ask, where is my, I need one elder volunteer.
[01:27:28] Don, would you help dismiss the rows to get them circling this way around?
[01:27:32] Thank you.
[01:27:40] And Glory, why don't you come on?
[01:27:44] If you're hungry and thirsty,
[01:33:20] Take and eat the body of Christ.
[01:33:37] The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.
[01:33:41] Take and drink the blood of Christ.
[01:33:58] Father, thank you for nourishing us with your grace today.
[01:34:07] Thank you, Lord, for rescuing us and making us your own.
[01:34:13] And I pray, God, that as we renew our promises to you, God, that this moment wouldn't stop here in this room, but you would send us out of this place
[01:34:28] As heralds of your good news.
[01:34:31] As men and women determined to live lives that glorify you and bring your kingdom into the most broken places.
[01:34:42] God, we pray that this cup would become a river of life overflowing out into the world.
[01:34:52] We pray this in Christ's name.
[01:34:54] Amen.
[01:34:56] Would you stand with us as we sing our closing song?

[01:35:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]:
Come thou long-expected Jesus Born to set thy people free
[01:35:24] From our fears and sins release us Let us find our rest in Thee Israel, strength and consolation Hope of all the earth Thou art
[01:35:47] Dear desire of every nation Hope of every longing heart Born thy people to deliver Born a child and yet a king
[01:36:15] Born to reign in us forever now Thy gracious kingdom bring
[01:36:26] By thine own eternal Spirit Rule in all our hearts alone By thine all-sufficient merit Raise us to thy glorious throne

[01:37:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Hear now this benediction.
[01:37:05] May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[01:37:17] He who calls you is faithful, and he will surely do it.
[01:37:21] Go in peace.

[01:37:33] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
.
[01:37:36] .
[01:37:36] .