Living for the Glory to Come

We're going to continue our study in the book of 2 Corinthians. If you were here last week, Ed got us kicked off. We're kind of looking at some of the highlights of 2 Corinthians. If you've ever read through 2 Corinthians, it's kind of Paul's personal journal to the church in Corinth, basically defending himself as to why he should be considered an apostle. And so we have conceded that Paul is an apostle for a number of reasons. And so we have skipped over some of those where he just goes and drills down and tells these people, look, I am who I say I am. We're going to affirm that. And so we're going to jump in today to 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

But before we get there, let me set it up for you this way. Maybe a little story as a way of an example of where this whole day is going to go. Many, many years ago, Brooke and I had our four kids. They were all eight to four years old, kind of right in that four to eight -year -old range, about that big. And my in -laws lived over in San Diego, which was glorious, because that meant we got to go over and see them. On a number of occasions, we learned the rhythm of driving four kids under the age of eight on a long road trip was to leave around 6 o 'clock at night, stuff them full of food, put them in the car, pray to sweet Jesus that one of them

Or maybe all of them would fall asleep and we could get there by 11 and no one would know anything. It would be a perfect trip. So on one particular evening, we load the car up, our Dodge Durango, and off we go. We make our way through the beautiful city of Gila Bend, where, man, God's doing some great stuff through our Engage ministry and stuff, and good on them. We begin to roll into the darkness up through these foothills when all of a sudden, all of the lights on the dash start lighting up. It's like a disco in there. What is this? And you know that gauge on your dashboard that you never, ever look at?

It's got the little, sometimes it's got like the oil can at the bottom, and then it's got a C and an H. And every time you turn your car on, it's just like right in the middle. And you don't realize that that dial does go up higher than just the middle.

The car is beginning to overheat. So I get out. It is pitch black. There's nothing to be seen anywhere. And we open up the hood and I don't know what I'm going to do in there. I go, oh, yeah, it's that. And I just hear the faint sound of running water. Think, oh, we must be near a stream or a brook.

Only to look underneath my car and realize it looks like my car is just taking a leak all over the road. I got four kids under the age of eight. We are in the middle of nowhere. You can't see anything. So I sit there and I tell Brooke, like, I don't know what we're going to do. So she calls her brother who lives in San Diego and he gets in the car and starts making the drive out to pick us up. Car cools off just enough for me to spark it back up. And we drive maybe another half of mile when we see this bright green sign.

Says Arby Road, I thought, oh, civilization, we limp our way up the hill off of Arby Road. I put it in neutral and we cruise down the overpass to pull into a gas station. There we sit, covered around by darkness on old Arby Road. My brother -in -law shows up. We load the kids and Brooke into that thing. They take off at 2 .30 in the morning. I sit there in the back of this Dodge Durango and go, all right, well, time to go to sleep. Fall asleep for a couple of hours. I'm awoken the next morning to all sorts of ruckus. Apparently this was the local gas station that everyone would come to before they would go out.

And work in the fields. Sweet awakening when you realize, wait, where am I? Oh, wait, that's right, I'm on Arby Road. I look up, find a dealership or find a mechanic about a mile up the road. Spark the car up, limp it all the way up there, turn it in. Good news and bad news, we can fix your car.

Bad news is it's going to take us about 11 hours. Just get it done. Arby Road is not my final destination. So I go and stumble my way into a McDonald's. And there I sit. I sat I sat for 11 hours in the same McDonald's, sipping on the same cup of coffee, smelling the sweet, stale smell of old French fry oil and a filet of fish here and there, just waiting for the phone to ring to tell me, your car's done, off you could go. About seven hours into that day, I just remember sitting there thinking, God, I am so glad that this is not where I set out to be. God began to give me just this image of my kids running up and down the beach, playing in the sand, riding in the waves, my son catching everything that lives, sand crabs and all sorts of other stuff.

Get the call, it's time to go. I kick open the door of that McDonald's. I get hit in the face with 110 degree, just hot, you know, that gross wind, like you open up the oven and it hits you in the face. Stumble my way up to the mechanic, get in the car, and man, I am gone. Three and a half hours later, I was able to get there for the last 30 minutes of my family on La Jolla. We pull up, and I get out, and my kids just covered in sand. Daddy, come running over, you're here.

I just remember thinking, man, this beach, this moment, seeing the joy on my kids' faces, this was the destination we set out for. Not old Arby Road in the middle of nowhere. And yet sometimes, I feel like we do everything we can to make old Araby Road as comfortable as possible. And we forget that everything we experienced here was never meant to be our final destination.

One last thing. I got to say this, because I'm super convicted back here. God has blessed us in a lot of different ways, to be enjoyed. Enjoy what God has given you. you. given you. This is not some sort of like monastic, don't go sell all your stuff and go live on in the RV road. Enjoy everything God has given you. Just don't put your hope in it because it's meant to stay here and we're meant to be there. That's our destination.

Service isn't over to you. Love somebody. Love somebody in this place and then go live on mission and show the world the hope of Jesus Christ. We love you guys. Have a great rest of your week. We'll see you all next weekend.

This is temporary. Paul's going to use words like, this is transient. Everything that we see is temporal. We were made to live for something far greater, something far more. You heard Todd even speak of it. The day's going to come when we're going to look face -to -face with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's going to usher us into eternity. And everything that we've ever experienced here, from a broken water heater, to the worst diagnosis you could get, is going to be very much like what Paul says here. They are light, momentary afflictions in comparison to what awaits us in eternity.

The question is this, before we even dive into the Word. I've had to wrestle with this all week. I just pose it to you. What are we living for? What are we living for? Are we living for eternity? Is our hope fixed? Or are we living on eternity?

Or do we find ourselves stuck on Arby Road, doing everything we can to make it as comfortable as possible, thinking this is all there is? And in the midst of what you heard Thomas reference, what you've heard Todd reference, what you're going to hear Paul describe as, we are perplexed at everything that we see going on around us.

We have the courage and the ability with absolute sincerity to be able to say we are perplexed, but we are not given over to despair.

Even when it doesn't make sense, we know that there's a greater hope out there. And that hope is in Jesus Christ. See, that's where Paul is going to take us today. What are we living for? What are we allowed to become the source of structure, the source of comfort, the source of stability that we stand on? If it is anything other than the gospel truth that Paul's going to share today, man, I think we're, I think we're sitting in a McDonald's settling for something far less than whatever God intended for us. Don't forget. Don't forget Don't forget where our final destination is, and that is to spend eternity

Celebrating Jesus Christ. And we get to do that together with everyone that knows Jesus. So that's where Paul is going to take us today. Let me pray for us real briefly, and then we'll dive into our time in the word. God, I thank you.

I thank you that in the midst of, God, if I'm honest, it doesn't feel like light or momentary afflictions at times.

But God, I also realize that's because I'm so fixed on the here and now. And I thank you for the nudge, for the encouragement, for the power of your Holy Spirit in my life to remind me that now is not forever. And God, to fix my eyes onto eternity.

And God, that the hope that that brings in the here and now, and though it does not relieve some of the, well, God, if I'm honest, the pain of the afflictions that we experience here, God, it certainly does give them a different perspective. And so, God, I'm thankful for that. God, I have no idea who's in this room today. You know the hearts and the souls of every one of your sons and daughters in this place. God, you know the soul of every person in this room. I pray whatever you need to do in their life, that you would do it, that your Holy Spirit would be alive and well in this place, that you would speak through your word.

And as we just got done singing, God, that you would be magnified in everything that we do. So we thank you in advance for however you choose to move. We love you, and we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let me go back a few verses because our chapter 4 starts off with a word that we need to know what the context is. And so this is what Paul is sharing in chapter 3, verse 16. It says this, But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. He's been using this veil analogy of talking about how those that don't know Christ, they have this veil over their eyes. They can't see.

He talks about when Moses would meet with God, his face would shine. He'd have to come out and put a veil over his face. Because the people of Israel, he couldn't even look at Moses. It was so impressive and fearful for them. So he put a veil over his face. And so Paul uses that same imagery to say, Look, there are some people who have a veil over their eyes or over their heart. And so they're unable to see and understand the beauty of the gospel. He'll get to that in just a moment at where we're going. But he says, But when one turns to the Lord, this veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit.

And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And so we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Therefore, so because of all of that, because of what Christ does in us, the moment we give our life to him, that veil is removed. And all of a sudden, we begin to become transformed. Formed, day by day, is another phrase he's going to use in just a moment, into the image of the Lord. It doesn't happen instantly. Some days we get three steps forward. Other days, man, we are walking the wrong way.

But the idea is that the Holy Spirit is in us, convicting us all the time, making us more and more like Jesus. And so that's what Paul is saying. And so he says, Therefore, because of that, because of the ministry that he has, by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

You can underline that phrase, we do not lose heart. He's going to use it again in verse 16. The apostles, they don't lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone conscious in the sight of God. Essentially, what Paul is saying here is this. Hey, we aren't going to chase the next shiny penny. We aren't going to compromise. We aren't going to compromise God's truth to appease the world or the culture. If you want, flip just to the left to chapter 2, verse 17. He says the same thing. I've got this on my wall.

I pray this will always be said of Highlands Church. For we are not like so many peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

Plenty of people peddling the word of God. Plenty of people. Preaching maybe messages of self -help and selfish gain. Peter would tell the elders of the church he was ministering to, do not exercise your oversight, not for sordid gain. There's plenty of people that can use the word of God to manipulate and get what they want. Not so with Paul. In fact, Paul says the opposite. We don't peddle God's word to get what we want. All we do is speak Christ.

Here again, we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. That's why we will stand up here on this stage and we will teach things that many people will be like, ah, man, culturally irrelevant. I don't know. I just sit up here and talk about women should be silent in the church and head coverings.

Why? Because what God's word says and there's biblical truth there. And we are not going to tamper with nor shy away from what the word of God says. We're going to preach truth. Paul says this in verse three. And even if our gospel is veiled, even conceding to the accusation, even if our gospel, it is veiled, catch this.

It is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world, I would argue the enemy, Satan himself. He has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Well, there are some who have been blinded, blinded by the enemy of this world. This is why I would argue. I still argue this for, for all of us today. This is why I would argue this for, for all of us that This is why I would argue this for, for all of us that go, man, teach me how to share my faith, teach me how to share my faith, teach me good apologetics. I want to be able to give an answer for any question anyone ever has. Those are great things to aspire to do that. Learn that, have all of that ready to go. But if we don't spend more time on our knees praying for those people that don't know Jesus than we do loading up our arsenal to come after him with whatever it is, man, we're missing it.

Because the Holy Spirit's got to be at work. The Holy Spirit's got to do the work. God's got to go before us. And we need to pray. God, would you help them see what you helped me see all those years ago? God, would you remove the veil from their eyes or from their heart? God, would you peel it back so that they could see all that we have in you? Maybe they might see it through me and through my life and through my ministry, my opportunity with them. But God, you got to do the work.

And that's where Paul is going to continue to go. Always pointing glory back to the Lord. Verse five, for what we proclaim, it's not ourselves. But it's. It's Jesus as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Back to verse five, what does he says? For what we proclaim, it's not ourselves, it's Jesus Christ. That is why for all of us, myself included, guys, I'm the first and foremost. I'm preaching to myself every time we get there and we go, man, I, what if I screw it up? What if I say the wrong thing too

Much? I, in that statement, it's God who does the work. What does God ask me to be servant? What does God ask me to do? Just be obedient. You don't need the perfect explanation. You don't need every answer. You don't need to quote every Bible verse. The ones you need to quote, God will give them to you. That's how, that's how he operates. So that when it's all said and done, you, like so many of us would fall on our knees and go, God, I don't know how that just happened. I don't know what you just did, but man, praise you because we are servants. It is Christ at work.

So Paul pointing all glory back to the Lord. And this is why it's so important that we follow Jesus and not a personality. We follow Jesus Christ.

Now we get to verse seven. He's going to use this jars of clay imagery and it's beautiful. But we have this treasure. What is the treasure? It's the gospel. We have this beautiful thing called the gospel. And yet it's kept in jars of clay. Why to show that those are at the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. What was a jar of clay used for? It was common. Even the poorest of the poor could get a jar of clay and keep whatever they needed to in a jar of clay, but it was not meant to, you wouldn't get your finest oil. Or your greatest spices and go, where's the clay jar for us to put this in.

Clay jar was meant for stuff you could get anywhere. It was common. And yet Paul uses this imagery to say, look, we are these jars of clay, these common. And if, if we're honest, I mean, they're everywhere. And yet they are filled with this beautiful treasure. This thing called the gospel of Jesus Christ, this hope that we have that we are sinners forgiven by almighty God. And because that's in us, though. We are. We are broken jars of clay. We have this incredible, powerful thing in us. Why? So show that the surpassing power does not belong to us, but it belongs to the Lord.

And then he gives this list. Tell me if any of this has ever resonated with you during a season of your own life, Paul would say we are afflicted in every way, but the hope is we are not crushed perplexed. But not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed.

There are plenty of days in the midst of everything that's going on in the world around us where this list, I don't know, reeks of my life. You talk about perplexed. God, how many days have I spent there just praying? God, you're patient. We acknowledge it, but look around. Like, be done. We're ready. Come back.

What are you waiting for? I don't get it. And then I read a passage where I would say, oh, God's not slow in keeping his promise, but he's rather patient, not wanting anyone to perish. God has souls he still longs to save, to draw to himself. So he waits. And instead of getting frustrated or shaking a fist or giving up, I go, all right, God, I don't totally get it, but I know who you are and I know you have a plan. I know. You're gonna do that? You kind of go, uh -huh. that way and even if he ends up changing their yin that way and even if he ends up changing their yin though not sauce ah?

Are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake. Why? So that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work within us. Again, now referring back to himself and the apostles, but life in you, church of Corinth. What is he saying? He's saying, look, in the midst of being perplexed, in the midst of being afflicted, in the midst of being full of despair, we are not crushed. We are not forsaken. We are not given over to any of these things. We are not beaten down.

And when the world sees that in us, they see us endure great suffering and yet still have great hope. It's like Christ is on display in our mortal bodies. People see and they watch and they go, wait a minute. The rest of the world is running around with their hair on fire, completely lost, looking for answers. And yet there's a group of people that gather and they worship a God they don't see.

That's providing real life change in their life, in their heart, day by day, little by little, they're becoming more and more like Jesus. What is this all about? And it's like that veil is slowly being lifted as people watch how we live our life for the Lord. Because we aren't living for the here and now, we're living for eternity.

Christ at work in our life. Verse 13. Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what was written, I believe and so I spoke. Way back in Psalm 16, we also believe, so we also speak. Verse 14, knowing that he being God, who raised Lord Jesus, will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

That's what Todd speaks of. That's what we got done singing about. We're going to sing about here again in just a moment. For it is all for your sake, why? So that the grace extends to more and more people and may increase thanksgiving. To the glory of God. As more and more veils are lifted, as more and more people come to see the Lord, as more and more people observe people walking with Jesus, more and more people coming to know the Lord, God's glory is continued. We talk about it a lot here. The kingdom is advancing. Souls are being saved. Eternities are being altered. Veils are being lifted because God's at work.

But it's God at work. And he uses broken jars of clay like us to bring that about.

Just don't forget we are jars of clay. And we are in desperate need of Jesus and his work all the time. That's why, again, I say we've got to come back. We've got to spend most of our time praying for God to use us instead of going out trying to will it to be.

And then we get to the last three verses where we will spend the bulk of our time that is left. Because it's here where I think Paul puts a bookend on everything that he's been talking about. Look, this veil has been removed for those of you that know the Lord. And then he says this in verse 16, we do not lose heart. He started there. He ends here. We don't lose heart because of the gospel. We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Though outside you look around, the world around you is falling apart. Though even physically you look in the mirror. Look in your mirror now versus 10 years ago. Bible's true. It takes me five minutes to walk from my bed to the bathroom. Now in the morning, because I got to get my left ankle to relocate. Now it's just old.

Wasting away, yet inside I'm being renewed day by day. Go back to chapter three, where he talks about we are being transformed in the image of the Lord. This day by day thing is very important. I believe this speaks of an ongoing relational fellowship with the Lord. But this is a daily practice. This is something that we commit to that we would say, God, I want you to refine me. So I'm going to submit myself in a posture of humility to you day by day for you to do your greatest work.

In the seasons of my life where I feel like maybe I'm not growing quite at the same level, quite at the same degree, don't feel as close to the Lord, it is very easy for me to look and go, well, what are you doing daily to set aside, to make God a priority, to walk with the Lord? And it can be very easy for me to go, man, I've gotten busy. I've gotten busy. Too many things are a distraction. I've gotten busy. I've gotten busy. I've gotten busy. I've gotten busy. Too many things taking my mind and my eyes off of what really matters. And I find myself in a McDonald's at a menu going, oh, what can I do to fill the next hour and a half of my life?

Give me three Big Macs and a chocolate shake. That'll make the next hour and a half go by fast. And I'm so fixed on the temporal, I forget to walk daily with my Father. You want to be renewed day by day? You want to begin to see real life change? You want to begin to see real life change? You want to begin to see real life change? You want to begin to see real life change? Make a commitment every single day, though our outer self wastes away, daily we can be renewed as our fellowship with the Lord grows. What's that look like? Spend time with the Lord. I love to read this book.

I've got other friends, they love to listen to worship music. Great. I've got a buddy that loves to go hiking. I feel God when I'm hiking. I feel Jesus calling me home when I hike. Not for me. But you give me the Bible, man, I'll sit and read that all day long. Find out for yourself. Find out for yourself. Where do you encounter the Lord and then decide every day I'm just going to spend some time doing that?

Because that daily renewal, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. Tomorrow I look more like Jesus than today. And the next day, and the next day, day by day being renewed. And we begin to have that posture. We begin to see that. We begin to spend fellowship with the Lord. All of a sudden we get our eyes off of McDonald's and our mind starts drifting for where we were really meant to be for this light moment. Momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. Why? Because the things that are seen, they are transient. But the things that are unseen, they are eternal. This light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. You want to know how awesome something is? Experience something terrible.

I'm not going to lie to you. Four kids under the age of eight. If we'd have made it all the way to my in -law's house, no Arby Road disaster. That morning we would have woke up with a finger in the eye. Dad, I'm awake. All right. Yep, it's 4 a .m. Let's do it.

Sprinkle some Cheerios out for him. Eat whatever you're going to eat. We're going to get in the car. We're going to go. We'd have loaded up this thing. I would have had to carry seven different coolers and straws. I would have had to carry seven different coolers and straws. Stroller bags and everything. We would have trudged through the sand. When are we going to be there? I don't know. My feet are hot. We're going here.

Have fun. And then an hour or two later, once I finally woke up, coffee kicked in. We would have had a lot of fun. But that's how how that morning would have gone. Yet you stick me in Arby Road, smelling stinky McDonald's for 11 hours. Man, I couldn't get to La Jolla fast enough. And they come running over and it's like, yeah.

It's good that he's out of action, preparing us for an eternal weight of glory. Sometimes, I think what God does, He loves us enough to not let this place become so comfortable, so beautiful. As hard as we try, as hard as we fight and guys, we live in one of the greatest cities in the country, especially this time of year. People come in from all over the world to spend time here. Why? Because it's awesome, but this is Arby Road in comparison to eternity.

When you go to play golf, when you go eat your fine meals, when you go do all this stuff, just remember it's no different than a fillet of fish at some dirty old McDonald's in comparison to eternity. Man, we work so hard to make this awesome.

Let me say all that to say this. We're going to get to it, I think, in the very near future. Ecclesiastes talks a lot about enjoy the hard work that you've done. I'm not saying at all don't enjoy the labor and the blessings God's given you. Enjoy them. But just remember they're transient. Just remember they're temporal.

Don't forget that everything we work so hard to make great here, we're going to leave, and we're going to go spend eternity with Jesus Christ because of Jesus Christ. And so when it comes to where does our hope lie, when it comes to what are we living for, when it comes to putting Christ on display in our mortal bodies and people seeing something different in us, then it should not be a thing. It should not be a thing. It should not be a thing. a thing. It should not be a thing. It should not be a thing. It should not matter if your car breaks down or it doesn't, if the doctor gives you great news or bad news, if your bank account looks the way you want it to or it doesn't.

None of that should really matter because we have eternity awaiting us. And our hope is fixed there, not on here. That's Paul's whole argument. And yet I think sometimes if Paul were to sit down with me and we were to talk about this, he would go, Kevin, there are too many days that you lose heart.

There are too many days. There are too many days that you are perplexed to the point where you've given up to despair because you've just settled. You've settled for a fillet of fish when God's got more for you. He would not be wrong. It's been super convicting how many times I get lost in this. And so again, for me, just an incredible encouragement and reminder, man, God, help me. Help me see everything that takes place here through the lens of eternity.

Light and momentary. Momentary, I get. Light, that's a hard one. There are some heavy momentary afflictions that we walk through. But we don't walk through them alone. God is with us. Don't think for a second that Paul didn't choose his words through the power of the Holy Spirit correctly when he would say, you might be persecuted, but you will not be forsaken.

You might be afflicted, but you will not be crushed. Why? Because God is with you.

So everything we experience here is just preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

So again, back to our question before I close out our time is this. What are we living for?

Paul says that we look. We look. It's eyes fixed. It's a destination. You get in your car.

Man, for all of you that are under the age of 40, there used to be a day when you needed to learn how to go places. You couldn't just put in your phone, go. And it told you where to turn.

But now you get in your car. And if I were to give you some obscure restaurant, you would get in your car, you'd get on your phone, you'd type it in, and you would say start. And it would tell you where to go to your destination. So Paul's speaking up here.

It's not a destination. Don't settle for less. The hope of eternity awaits through the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Hard days are going to come. We're promised that. But they're not forever. We are promised eternity. Affliction is going to come. We're promised that. But it's not forever. It's light. It's momentary. It may feel like 11 hours. But in comparison, to eternity, it is quick. What are we living for? Are we living for the transient? Are we living for the temporal? Are we living our life for eternity? And are we allowing others to see the hope of Jesus Christ in us? I want to read you these lyrics, and then I want to close with this.

We're going to sing this song in just a moment. How I long to breathe the air of heaven, where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets. To look upon the one who bled, to save me, and walk with him for all eternity. That is living for the eternal.

Longing to be in the presence of Jesus. We have talked a lot. We've spoken even some of those that sit here in this room with a veil over their eyes, over their hearts. Maybe you've never come to a place where you've put your faith in Jesus Christ. Let me tell you, no matter how awesome the enemy tries to make this place look, by this moment, you're going to be in the presence of Jesus Christ. And by this place, I mean this world, this fallen world. No matter how many distractions he throws at you or how much time you can invest getting lost in whatever there is out there,

It is all temporal. At the end of it all, there is no meaning. There is no value. There is nothing that can compare to what it means to be a son or daughter of God Most High, the God of the universe that loves you. And one day, we sang about it earlier. We may sing about it again in just a moment. One day, the day is going to come when we're going to be in the presence of Jesus Christ. come where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

And then those of us that have put our faith in this life, this temporal life, into our eternal Savior Jesus Christ will be ushered off into eternity to spend eternity with God in heaven and to do everything that that song is about to speak of. And for every one of us with a hard heart that would look at it and go, yeah, I hear you're Jesus. I just don't want anything to do with him. And And we will be sent to another place far, far away from the Lord where we will endure great suffering for eternity, all

Because of what we do with Jesus Christ. But if you are here today and you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ, here's what that means. I got two minutes. This is what that means. It means that you, like me, and so many others in this room would acknowledge, God, I'm not perfect. I've made 100 mistakes.

I say dumb things. I think dumb. I think dumb things. The Bible calls it sin. You can call it whatever you want, but you are not perfect. Because of that, you need a Savior. You need to be forgiven. What God's word teaches, what we believe here at this church,

That God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die a horrific death in our place. That's what we just got done celebrating in communion. His body broken for me. He did nothing. I did everything. And that he paid the price for me so that the moment that I stop and go, God, I can't do this anymore. I'm not perfect, but I believe in your son, Jesus. In that moment, God forgives me because of what his son did.

And so I put my faith, my trust in Jesus Christ. God forgives me because of what he has done. And now I live my life day by day following the Lord. That's what it means to be a son or daughter of God. If you've never put your faith in Christ, today's your day.

Pull that veil back. See the beauty of the gospel. I'm going to pray for us, and then we're going to close out our time in worship. God, thank you so much.

God, thank you that no matter what happens here, I was never meant to be here forever. God, thank you for the promise of eternity. And God, I pray that it would grip my mind and my heart so many times throughout this next week, month, season. God, the rest of my life here, that I would live life for something far greater than what this place has to offer me. God, I pray the same for my brothers and sisters in this place. God, I would ask right now, in the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would grab any heart that is longing to find you, that any soul in this room that needs to put their faith in your son Jesus, God, that you would not let them leave this

Place until they do business with you. God, if you see so fit to use anyone in this place to come alongside those that are seeking you, God, give divine appointments. Let those opportunities take place, God, that you would connect just the right people at just the right moment. Come alongside one another.

But God, let us, let us as your sons and daughters, God, let us live life putting your son Jesus on display, that others might see, that you might receive more glory and more and more people might come to know you. God, we ask big things of you, but you are a big God. Meet us in this place. Do what only you can do, and we'll give you all the glory. We love you. We pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Let it be today that we sing the hymn of heaven.

We're going to go out into a world perplexed and in despair. We have the hope of Jesus Christ in us. Let's show him something different. Let him see everything we got done singing about in us. And then when God presides the opportunity with great courage, with great humility, would we be able to say, God, I don't know what the heck I'm doing. Amen. I'm going to be obedient to you because I'm your servant, and you do all the work anyway. And when God shows up, let's give him all the praise and glory for what he's doing because somebody has done that in our life. And now we have the opportunity to be that for a world out there, to live on mission, to show him the love of Christ.