Understanding God's Mercy and Ministry

I've got to put this on, hold on a second. Going to use this because the other one always falls off. Our passage comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and I'm going to give a little plug. It's not really a plug, it's just something that I've learned is essential. Anytime you're reading the Bible, you need to understand the context, the setting, things that are going on. Just like always, Paul is trying to share with this church in Corinth a lot of things in his life. And as you know, we have two letters that Paul had written, and actually they think there was about four, but we only have these two copies. And the first letter of Corinthians, actually they think it was the second, but they had asked Paul, they'd had all these problems in their church. Imagine that, a group of people that get together to have problems. So it's a lot like any time you get people together, there's always problems and issues. And Corinth was a very metropolitan city for that time, and so it was very much like the culture that we have today. And so a lot of the things that they talk about were happening in Corinth, of course, have happened in the world all the time. And so Paul had sent these letters to help them, and in chapter 1 of 2 Corinthians, he actually says, I'm writing these letters to you, these words, so that it'll be clear to you and you'll be able to understand what I'm trying to help you with. And that's been God's purpose from the very beginning. From the time of Adam and Eve all the way to now, God wants to help us understand what this world is like from His perspective. And the context of this story, this letter that Paul is writing, we're going to start in the fourth chapter, but actually the second book of Corinthians is more about Paul and his ministry. As you well know, Paul would go start churches and get them going. He'd get some people trained up, disciples, and then he would go and leave it to them to do God's work. And that's the same that's here. And I know Doyle is very valuable to us as the pastor, and he's got so much spiritual insight and wisdom. And sometimes when he says things to me and I don't really understand it, I almost go to the default mode anymore and say, I better do what Doyle says. But God wants us to be that way with Him. And generally when we get in trouble, when I get in trouble, it's when I start thinking, I've got this figured out. I think I can do this. And God wants us to be that way, but He wants us to be that way with His instructions. So the book of 2 Corinthians is Paul saying to the Corinthians, you know, in the first letter, if you remember, there was a guy that was making some bad decisions and Paul was telling them they needed to kind of discipline him and let him know that that's not acceptable. And then in the second letter, they think it's the same guy. It may not be, but Paul's telling them, whoa, whoa, whoa, I think you've disciplined him enough. Don't be too hard on him. You've got to always make sure that they know you love them and that this is loving discipline. And so then he gets into the second chapter and the third chapter. And one of the things that we're always doing and they're always doing is all they had was the Old Testament. And if you've read the Old Testament, sometimes there's so much history and so many things going on, sometimes it's hard to understand. But the principles are the same. God got with Abraham and said, if you believe in me and have faith in me, I'm going to count that as righteousness, that you're standing with me as good. But you have to believe in me and believe in what I tell you. And so Moses went up to the mountain, as you remember, and Paul was kind of hype. You know, we're talking about the story and learning the Bible story chronologically. And our Old Testament didn't always like that. But it is helpful to be able to know the big picture of the Bible and put it in context. And what Paul's talking about here earlier in 2 Corinthians is how Moses in chapters 32 and 34 of Exodus, as you know, God tells him, come up to the mountain. I'm going to be there, so don't wear your shoes. It's going to be a special place. And Moses goes to get the Ten Commandments or the Ten Words. He gets up there and God gives him these commandments. And Moses says, I want to see you, God. He loved God so much and he cared for him. You know, to have a personal relationship with somebody, it helps to get to see him once in a while. But God is a different person. And he told Moses, you can't see me because if you do, it'll be the end of you. But he said, if you'll hide in the cleft of this rock, I'll pass by and you'll know I was there. And so God did that. And Moses got to feel his presence in his life. And it changed his whole complexion. If you remember the story, Moses' face, they said it was like it glowed. And the people were scared of him. And they said, Moses, you've got to do something about that. So they decided to put a veil over his face when he wasn't speaking to him. And so Moses was the hero of the Jewish people in the Old Testament. And so Jesus, for a long time, was compared to Moses. Paul was always working with the Jewish people and explaining to them, this is how we did it before Jesus. And it's all the same, except now that Jesus has come, we do things and apply them just a little bit differently. And so Paul starts here in chapter 4. He had just explained to them about Moses and the veil and a new way that we have this ministry since Christ has come. Moses' time, the Jews knew they had to follow these rules, regulations. And that was what they understood. And then they had the Passover, which we're going to celebrate that next week. That's what we have in place, the Passover, because Jesus was the Lamb that was slain for our sins. And so all that context of the Old Testament is helpful to understand the New Testament. And that's what we're going to be learning when we go through this storied class. And so sometimes it's not in chronological order, it's kind of hard to understand. But the more you understand about the Old Testament, the more you understand in the New Testament. And that's part of the veiled thing that he's talking about here and he'll talk about in these verses. So, with all that said, let me read our passage. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. I'm going to get my watch off here so I can make sure I keep track of our time. I apologize, my body has decided to try to have a cold here, not knowing that I was going to be up here talking. But this is a story of Paul's ministry. The first book in Corinthians was addressing problems. And Paul was always facing criticism and people were challenging him and wondering, why in the world should we follow this guy? And so Paul was giving him some examples of here's what I've found that God uses in my life to help me be the kind of person He wants me to be, but also help the people around me. And like we talked about in our preparation for worship, Jesus gave His disciples one big thing at the end. He said, All power and authority is given to me in heaven and earth. And that's what's accessed in us, and we see that in the resurrection. But Paul brings it down to the everyday, common, what's happening, how we live our lives, and he's trying to explain to these people in Corinth, this is how I've found that it works. And as you know, as well as I do, if you've been a follower very long, it does take some time to figure things out sometimes. And so what Paul is telling them, here's what I've found has allowed God to make me useful. Verse 1, it starts with therefore, and anytime you see that, you need to go back and look about what he's talking about. And what he's talking about is this new agreement that God has kind of updated with believers because of what Jesus did on the cross. He fulfilled all those things from the Old Testament. That's why we don't have to follow all the rules and regulations. There's like 612 of them. That the Jews thought if every Jewish person could keep those, for one day the Messiah would come. And that was never God's intent. And as far as having a lot of rules, that's not really what makes you successful. If you think all the way back to Adam and Eve, how many rules did they have? That was pretty simple and they still didn't get it right. So after they didn't get that right, that's why God gives us more rules and tries to help us with the problems that we have. And so that's what he's talking about to help people understand there's a new way that God wants us to live. He goes on to say, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, do not lose heart. If you've been working with people or in ministry or as a believer, it doesn't take very long to get discouraged. How many of you have done your best to do what God tells you and then you get discouraged and you want to lose heart? How many? You can raise your hand. That's normal. And that's what Paul is telling us. You don't have to lose heart. It's not because of what we do that we have this ministry. It's through God's mercy. And we're going to celebrate next week Easter and what Jesus Christ has done for us, but that's the greatest example of mercy. When Jesus went to the cross and died for our sins, that's why we can be part of God's plan. That's why we can be part of this ministry. And that's what he's talking about. And so, he wants them to understand that discouragement and losing heart is part of the deal. It happens to all of us because of the world we live in. But he gives them some ways to overcome that. That's what happens in this next verse. He says, Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. If you go back to Adam and Eve, that's what Satan did. That's one of Satan's great tools. He'll take God's Word, he'll twist it, he'll distort it, and he'll only give you half the truth. And as I was thinking about it this morning, we always have access to God. If you get in those situations, God gives us a lot of remedies. But you have to have a good understanding of Scripture. And that's why it's important that you spend time reading your Bible, praying, asking God to help you understand it. Because just knowing the Scripture, just reading the instructions of how to drive your car is helpful, but you need to know how it applies to your life. When things go wrong, you go to the troubleshooting section. The Bible is just like that. And so Paul says the number one thing that helps him in his ministry is make sure you get the instructions right. Make sure you know what God's talking about. And then he says, here's some ways that Satan changes that. In God's secret and shameful ways, we do not use deception. Just like he was saying earlier, he was writing this letter to him, open, honest words to help them. And that's all God asks for all of us, to just be open and honest, not trying to deceive anyone. That's Satan's job. And I was wondering this morning, God had told Adam and Eve the instructions, and then Satan comes and distorts it. The easiest thing if you get in that situation is just to ask God, God, I'm a little confused here. I'm starting to have some questions. What if Adam and Eve had done that? I think I'm a lot like Adam and Eve though. I think, this just doesn't sound right to me. How can this be that God's not letting me eat of that tree? Or, why can't I drive a Hummer? Or whatever it is I have in my life that I really, really want. God puts those desires in us, and He gives us all those things for us to enjoy the world. That's why God created the world. He put Adam and Eve and us in it to enjoy the world He created. The beauty and love that He shows for all of us, the provision. What happens is things get distorted, they get twisted, they get changed. And that's one of Satan's number one tools. And as I was, I'm an assistant principal sometimes, I'm a principal sometimes. The cheerleading sponsor called me and said, hey, what should we do in this situation? And I'm like, what are the guidelines you sit down, what are the rules? And she read them off and I said, you probably should follow the rules. That was a high level decision right there. So, if you get in doubt, and you know the rules, and you know the expectations, and you follow those, you're in pretty good shape. Okay, now is that going to make everybody happy? Will your life work out like it's supposed to all the time? No, because we live in a world filled with people that don't follow the rules. Not only Satan's going to try to tempt us, deceive us, distort things, people around us do. And sometimes it's for the best reasons, or they convey things that aren't really true. One of the examples I learned early in my life, I've been a Christian since like 1961. I went forward and liberal and asked God to save me from my sins. I didn't want to go to hell, and I wanted to live for Him. But I had a lot of learning to do. And I'd gone to school, didn't get to finish, my parents got a divorce. I wanted to get married to Helen, I had to go get a job. I'd been trained as a carpenter because my dad was a carpenter. This guy had a job, he meets me at the quick end there where I live. And he walks in and he's got this big belt buckle that says, Jesus is Lord. I'm like, alright, I can work for this guy. Well, so I went to work for him and we worked a lot and did a lot. Well, as in construction, it slowed down. We ran out of work. My last week, I worked Friday, no paycheck. I'm like, he said, I'll get you the money, I'll pay you. Two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, a month. He hasn't paid me. So I started doubting that he was a real, true believer in Jesus Christ. Now, I don't know if he was or not. He might have just been having a bad day. But you know, he did come up with the money as soon as my lawyer wrote him a letter. It was only $200, but when you're... It's a long story, but that's all the money I had. Needless to say, my parents had got a divorce. So I didn't have them to help me. I was on my own. The only person I had was God. And I felt like somebody told me in my church, you ought to just get a lawyer. Lawyer wrote him one letter. I got my money. So I was starting to learn. You know, everybody that says they're a believer doesn't always do exactly what they're supposed to. And I know I'm the same way. But what Paul said is we just need to be open and honest. And if this guy had just come to me and said, Rusty, you know, my company's going bankrupt. I'm about to lose my house. All those things. He just said, nope, don't have the money. And I came to realize that he did have the money. So he was just deceiving me. And he was taking care of his family. Is there anything wrong with that? There's really not. But when you project things like I'm a believer, you wear a big belt buckle or a bumper sticker on your car that says you're a follower of Jesus Christ, God expects us to put Him first and others ahead of ourselves. And so Jesus was facing that same problem as Paul is. And so he's trying to help him figure out some of those distortions that happen with the Word of God. And then he says, on the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man's conscious in the sight of God. You know we're created in God's image, right? And that's why children, as young as they are, they may not be very smart, but they can always figure out if somebody's not really trustworthy, if they're not telling the truth. Children have a good conscience and a good sense of people. All of us have that kind of innate in us. It's only when we get educated like I have been, or we start learning things that aren't in the Bible, that people say, I need to take care of my family first. Well, that's a good thing, and there's nothing wrong with that. But God has some different things of the way He perceives things. If you believe God's going to take care of you and He asks you to do something, and people in our church talk all the time about different things, how God has helped them through these situations, He's got different ways to apply Scripture to our lives that the world doesn't really understand. And that's what we get to in verse 3. It says, and even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. And that goes back to the analogy of Moses. You know, Moses wore that veil because people were threatened by him. And sometimes, I'm a principal sometimes, and so when I go to the elementary school north side, I walked in there one day, there were little boys walking down the hall, uh-oh, somebody's in trouble. And really that wasn't true, I was just there, you know, sometimes I just go. That's the way people are with God. And so you can imagine with Moses having seen God, and the effect God's presence had on his life, it was intimidating to people. And sometimes, when you have Christ living in your life, people will see you and they'll think, they'll say, they'll cuss or something, and they'll say, oh, excuse me, I didn't mean to offend you. Well, I played football and grew up in construction, and I've been around cussing all my life, it doesn't really offend me. But if they find out you're a believer, and one of the things that's interesting, sometimes I fill in for Doyle on Sunday's preaching, and people will say, hey, I heard you on the radio. I'm like, heard me on the radio? Yeah, you were preaching. And I'm like, oh man, there's people out there that are gonna hear this besides my friends and family here. So that puts some pressure on you, and then once they find that out, boy, then they really watch what they say around you, and they really try not to offend you. But needless to say, being a principal, it's hard to offend me, because I just see those things all the time, and I understand how people are. That's the way God is. God knows how we are. That's why He gave us the Bible. That's why Paul writes us these letters, is to help us. So that we can see, if you wanna have a problem in your life, and you have a job, try not following the rules. Try to do something really, most people don't lose their job because they're incompetent. Most people lose their job because they do something really outlandish. Breaking the rules. Doing something that you'd never think they would do. That's Satan working in your life, and that's what he's talking about here. People that don't understand who God is, they don't understand the Gospel. Adam and Eve had a choice, and they chose not to follow God's direction. And God knows how we are. He always gives us choices. But He had a plan that even if Adam and Eve don't follow, He told Satan, somebody's gonna stomp on your head and you're gonna bite him on the heel. He was talking about Jesus. He's always had a plan to be able to keep us in relationship with Him. And even when people were alive in the Bible times, before they got all these instructions about laws and everything, God always wanted to maintain a relationship with them. And that's the number one thing. Because He loves us. He cares for us. And when people don't understand that, that's the veil that Satan puts over their eyes. That was the veil that the Jews had, thinking that they had to do all these things. But God has always had a plan so that we could have a relationship with Him. And it's through His Son Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And so that veil can be over other people's faces because unfortunately, they see us usually before they see God. And we're a lot like them. We have struggles. We have trials. We don't always make the best decisions. But God understands how we are and He wants to help us. That's why the Bible and Bible study is so important. Because it not only teaches you about how God is, it teaches about how you are, how I am, and how the people around you are. And so that's what Paul's telling them is this distortion, this deception, this veiling of the Gospel. People are going to tell you that God doesn't love you. Things are going to happen in your life to make you think, God doesn't love me. Why is this happening? That's not true. God loves you so much He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross. He loves you so much He told you, but He also sent Jesus to show you how to live. He's done everything He can. But He loves us so much He still gives us choices. And that gets veiled sometimes because we don't understand how overwhelming that love is. And only when you come in contact with Jesus Christ and get to know the great price He paid and how much He loves you, that changes your life. And without that, we all struggle. Verse 5, he says, For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord, and ourselves as your servant for Christ's sake. There's always been an issue in the Bible going all the way back, whether it's Cain and Abel. I can't think of Isaac's brother. But you saw, who's going to be number one? Who's going to be the top dog? And Jesus had a different idea about this. So does God. Look at Matthew 20, verse 25. And this is in all the Gospels except John. This same story. And once we start reading it, and it has to do with all of us want to be number one. I'll read this last session, and let me tell you about the story. You'll remember it. Two of the disciples go to Jesus, or their mom goes to Jesus, and they say, hey, I want my sons, I want them to be on the right, I want them to be on the left. I want them to be your right and your left hand man. And that's the way the world is. They always want to be on top. They always want to be right. They always want to have their way. And they always want everybody to listen to them and do what they're supposed to. Listen to what Jesus tells them. Verse 25, Jesus called them together and said, Do you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them? And their high officials exercise authority over them? Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Corinth was a special place. They didn't have collateral necessarily, but a third of the people that lived there were slaves. Another third were former slaves. And of course, the other third were the people that hired the slaves. And it's different than what we understand slavery in America. If something goes wrong in your family, if your crop doesn't come in, you lose things. The only thing you had for collateral was your work and your effort. So you would sell yourself into slavery. And then you would work for however long to get that debt paid off. And then you were set free. And so, that's what the analogy is. It's a lot different. People didn't go into slavery at this time with Corinth most of the time. It was a choice that they made to help their family. Or to pay off their debts. That's the only means they had. And so Jesus was giving them that analogy. If you want to be first in God's kingdom, the greatest is the servant. The one that's willing to pay the price to do what God wants them to. And so flip back over to 2 Corinthians. And that's what he's talking about here. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Christ's sake. Because the world's going to try to convince you the best way to get what you want is to be number one. To get everything you want, the way you want it, when you want it. That's the world's way. And you can be successful and feel good about that for a long time, but that's not God's way. Never has been. Now, does that mean God's not going to make some of us successful and put us in positions? God has this, it's almost like a terrorist mentality. They try to get people in every area to spread what they want. That's what God wants. He wants somebody that's a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ, in every business, every household, every community activity, every place in this whole world, He wants to have somebody that's following Him. Serving other people and showing them how much love God has for them. And unfortunately, I know we're celebrating the holiday next weekend. We have a national holiday. But do you know there's countries that don't celebrate the holiday and that gospel is spreading faster there than here? Two, three, four times faster. So it's not necessarily the things we celebrate, it's not necessarily the holidays or what we say is important, it's what we do on a day-to-day basis. And that's what Paul is getting across to these people. That God has put you in a position just like them in this community to live out before Him who He is and how much He loves you and loves the people around you. And He wants to show that through you. This last verse kind of seemed out of place a little bit, but it adds great context and we'll get to that. It says, verse 6, For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made His light to shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That first sentence there, let light shine out of darkness, is actually quoted right out of Genesis. The first chapter, the first three verses is where it comes from. And in order to get this, you have to understand who God is. He's the Creator of the world. And sometimes, it's easy for us to just go flip on the light and we have light. You turn on your car, hit the headlights, it comes on. My dad used to tell me whenever things would start going bad, he said, don't worry, son, the sun will come up tomorrow. And that's how powerful God is. The most powerful thing in the world, God created. You know, we wouldn't have life on earth if it wasn't from the sun. We wouldn't have anything to eat. None of those things. God provides that for every single one of us. Genesis 1, verse 1, it says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. The darkness was over the surface of the deep. The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. The difference between the world and people is the world doesn't have any choice. God tells them to do something, it does it. He said, let there be a sun, let there be light. It created it. But He gives us all a choice. That we can say, I want to have that light in my life or I don't. If you see God as the creator of the world, somebody that's valuable, loving, wants to help you in every single way, it changes your perspective. What in this world can you face that's more powerful than the guy that created the sun? We're going to celebrate next week the number one and probably number two thing. People worry about, of course, being lonely and without hope. And they fear death. Jesus overcame both of those for us on the cross. And it's through His death on the cross that we can have that light in our life. Here's what He's saying. Let the light shine out of darkness. Made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. There are some things you need to know. You need to know the knowledge of Jesus Christ, first of all. You need to have that light shining in your life. Because that makes all the rest available for you. And without that light in your life, you can keep living. God sends rain on the wheat and the chaff. He sends light to everybody. You can go outside and enjoy the sunlight. He does that for all of us because He loves us all. And He loves us all unconditionally. But He has some rules. He has some things that we have to understand that He is God. That He is the creator and He is the boss. Even if we don't believe it. And that's what's confusing sometimes. How in the world can a guy wear a buckle that says Jesus is Lord and then try to cheat me out of a measly $200 that I needed to even put gas in my car? We all make poor choices. The good news is, those poor choices that we've made, Jesus went to the cross and God says, it's all on Jesus. Jesus says, it's all on Me. Sometimes when people make mistakes and do things wrong, it's refreshing for them to come in and say, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have done that. That's all God asks you to do. If you want to have a relationship with Him, just like Adam and Eve, what do most of us do? That's Satan's big trick. He wants to isolate us, get us away from God. He doesn't want us to hear from God. He doesn't want us to hear His Word. He doesn't want us to pray and talk to God. But you know what? God knows how Satan is too. What did he do with Adam and Eve? Went and tracked them down. How smart is that to try to hide from God? You know, it's like playing with little kids. Can't see me. You know, God knows how we are. He's looking for you right now. If you don't have the light in your life, He wants you to have it. He wants you to experience life in its fullest. And that's what Jesus said. He came so that we might have life in its fullest. Every one of us, whether we have a relationship with Jesus Christ or not, we just enjoy a lot of the pleasures of this world. But there's a better life. And it's through Jesus Christ. And that light changes you. It's not just the light. It shines in our hearts to give us the light. The heart is the center of your life. That's what controls your life. That's why we talk about loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. That's your everything. You have to be all in. That's the picture of baptism. You're all in. You're saying, Jesus, I accept what You've done for me. All my sins are on You, because I can't pay God for my sins. But You can. Thank You for that. I appreciate that. And I love You for that. And that's what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's that you love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. You're all in. And I gave this analogy this morning. It's not the best analogy, but it's kind of like winning the lottery. If you win the lottery, you can just go out and get whatever you want in life. God's lottery is a little different. He changes your wants. He changes your hearts so that you live your life wanting what God wants. Seeking after what God wants. And then He gives you all that other stuff. There's a lot of people in the Bible that have a lot of good things. But it doesn't matter about your situation. If you have the light of Christ and God in your heart, you'll always, no matter what the situation, have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. That's the Spirit living in your life. And we're going to talk more about that tonight. Some of that can get discouraging, but God knows how we are. Let me tell you, Paul gives this last thing to encourage us. He says, but we have this treasure, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. It's okay that you have cracks in your clay jar. That lets the light of God shine through. And sometimes that's how people see God in us. Is we make mistakes, but we go on in life. We have problems. We fall down. My parents got a divorce before my senior year in college. Didn't God know I was the captain on the football team? We're going to have a really good team? You can let things in life get you down. But I didn't have anything else in the whole world. My parents got a divorce. No place to live. I'm working for a guy who doesn't pay me any money. Who did I have to depend on? God. Never let me down once. Times when I really need Him, He's never let me down. Do I always have the money I want? Do I get to drive a Hummer? No. But when you put God first in your life, you give Him your life and say, I want to live for you, that's what Paul's talking about. That's what helps you enjoy all the things God intended you to do. And without Jesus Christ in your life, just like it talked about, the world was void, empty, without form. There's going to be a part of your life that's like that. It's the spiritual side. We're all creating God's image, which means we're spiritual. If you don't have that spiritual development in your life, if you don't have that relationship with God, you're going to have emptiness in your life. You're going to have voids. You're going to have all these things that come with deception from Satan in the world. But there's a cure for that. It's Jesus Christ. And we're going to celebrate next week, but you know what? You don't have to wait until then. If you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, or your relationship's not where you want it or God want it, you can get that straightened out right now. Because God had communication before cell phones. You can talk to Him right there. You can text Him if that's what you do. Because He's for you. And He showed you how much He loves you. He paid a price in His Son Jesus Christ so that you could have the kind of relationship that He's always intended. That you can not only enjoy this world, but you can enjoy the other part. A great relationship. Life works out the way God wants it to. We're all going to have challenges. We're all going to have problems. And that's kind of the rest of this story. So come tonight, we're going to be talking about the next few verses. God talks and has shown Paul, and I'm sure you've all experienced, it's not always a joy ride. But God tells us we won't be abandoned. We may break down, but He's always going to help fix us. We may make poor choices, but He always helps us get past them. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight. So, I'm going to close in prayer, and then we'll have our invitation at the end. So let me pray. Father, what an encouraging thing, knowing that You created this whole world for us. And as wonderful and as beautiful and the many pleasures that are in it, You have an even better way to enjoy this world. You can enjoy it as You intended it with a relationship with You as Creator. And even though we live in a world full of sin and deception and things going wrong and poor choices, and it looks like things are falling apart, You have the answer and it's Your Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us, I am the way, the truth, and the light. If you want that light in your life today, God has it for you. If that light hasn't been shining very bright in your life, and you feel like you've lost that light, it's still there. We're going to celebrate next week the great resurrection power. You can have that power in your life to help you with whatever problem it is. Because God paid a great price so that He can have a relationship with you. He wants to show you how much He loves you. Lord, we thank You for that great love. We thank You for Your great servant, Jesus Christ, who made all this available for us and is willing to share with us how we can enjoy that life with You as well. We just thank You and praise You, in Jesus' name, Amen. We'll be down here front if you feel like God wants you to come forward and share with us as a congregation. Or if that's not what God wants you to do, He'll make it clear to you if you'll just ask Him. So take this time to reflect. Would you stand please? Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments but the solid white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you walking daily by the Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Do you rest each morning in the Crucified? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments but the solid white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Well, thank you for joining us this morning. And a great week ahead of us as we get ready for the Easter and the great celebration of the resurrection. But we have that available to us every day. So I'd just be asking that you be praying this week how God can help you with whatever issues you have and that you'd be able to see and exhibit the power that He shows through His Son Jesus Christ. Let me pray as we close. Father, we do thank You for this great opportunity we have. Through Your Son Jesus Christ, we thank You for these letters and words of encouragement You give us in the Bible. We pray, Lord, that You would help us to have a better understanding of that and that our knowledge of Your Son Jesus Christ would grow daily, so that not only would we experience the power You have for us to change our lives, but that Your light would shine through us to the people around us, that they would see You as the great loving God that You are. We thank You for that great love that You exemplified through Your Son. We pray these things in His name. Amen. In closing, we'll do the third verse of In Christ alone my hope is found. There in the ground His body lay Light of the world by darkness slain Bursting forth in glorious day Up from the grave He rose again And as He stands in victory Sin's curse has lost its grip on me For I am His and He is mine Bought with the precious blood of Christ