0:00
Hey, good morning everyone. How are we?
0:04
Fantastic. All right. Thank you.
0:06
I'd like to hear a response once in a It's a call and response. Anyway, we're glad to have you. Can I share a verse from you from Colossians, I think, that kinda sets the tone? And it's from Colossians one. It says, for by him, God, all things were created, both the heavens and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers, authority.
0:28
Catch this. All things have been created through him and for him, and that's why we're here. Everything has been created through God, for God, by God, and, we're here to worship him. So what do you say we stand up and sing glory to God for every. Amen.
0:52
Alright. Before the world. Before the world was made, before you spoke it to me, you were the king of kings. Yeah. You were.
1:04
Yeah. You were. And now, reigning still enthroned above all things. Angels and saints cry out. We join them as we sing glory to God.
1:19
Glory to God. Glory to God forever. Sing that again. We sing glory to God. Glory to God.
1:32
Glory to God forever. Creator God, you gave me breath so I could praise. Let's sing. Creator God, you gave me breath so I could praise your great and matchless name. All my days, all my deeds.
2:00
So let my whole life be a busy offering. Let the chouts and sings the greatness of our king. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever.
2:19
Let's sing that again. Glory to We sing glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever.
2:51
Is this thing? Oh, yes. A few announcements this morning and they are like this. Something like this. Connect hours happening usually between services.
3:03
Today, we're going to connect in this room because it is the annual congregational meeting today. So, Monday nights is still on. Monday nights is serious business. True. True.
3:13
Yeah.
3:14
That was Renzi and I this morning wearing the same thing. So I went home and I changed my shirt. I want you to know that Monday night, is on and, tomorrow, meal music message. Great me great message from Roman seven about a Roman officer's faith. There's a lot to glean there.
3:31
Know that the door is open. You're invited. It's potluck, and so bring a little something to share if you come.
3:36
Story of the Roman centurion from Luke seven. Alright. Serious business. February 11, speaking of serious business.
3:44
Serious business. Yes. The moment you've all waited for is finally upon us this weekend. The First Baptist Talent Show twenty seventeen next Saturday or this Saturday, I guess, coming up 6PM. So we'll just go until all of the talent has been done.
4:01
So, if you have a talent and you'd like to share it with this group of people, the checklist or the checklist, the sign up sheet is in. It'll be back at the sound table. So, you can do that. There's also one hanging on the youth board right outside the fellowship hall. You can sign up as well.
4:18
We've got things like your name, maybe some contact information. And then the important thing, if you have something you need that I can provide like a microphone maybe, an amplifier if you're going to play the guitar or a flute or something like that. We just wanna make sure that I know that to have those things ready to go. So, the sign up sheets are ready for you. It's going to be a good time.
4:38
Ray is going to do something really cool. Carl, that's not even a question. And so, anyway, if you would like to sign up, come to the back or see me anytime or text me or email me and we'll make sure. Or you can sign up the day of. So, there's plenty of opportunity to sign up and show what you can do.
4:59
This Saturday, 06:00. Thank you very much. Alright. Men's retreat is happening February 24 through the twenty sixth. Kyle Knutson, would you stand up for a second or wave?
5:08
That's Kyle. If you'd like to go on the men's retreat, twenty fourth through the February 26. It's $100 for the stay and then cost of snowmobiles on top of that if you want to ride, not everybody rides. So, there's cross country skiing and other stuff that happens up there too. That's fun.
5:24
Truth Project is starting February 8. That's this Wednesday night. We did bump the time back to 06:45 so that people could have time to get here. So, Truth Project starts 06:45 this Wednesday night and it'll go for the next 12 Wednesdays. I'm going to skip that.
5:41
It's 06:45, not 06:30 and then, next week and the next week, are we doing this today too? So, Nick is had a a great idea. Bring your smartphone to church and we're going to use this to update the photo board and the directory all at one time. So, if all of y'all would send it to Nick, Email, not text at assistant at First B. I think it's up here.
6:07
Yeah. Assistant@FirstBJackson. I'm giving you this this week. You want to say something? Good.
6:26
So, try to have on your phone a picture that you like of yourself and your family and then send them to us with as much information as you will. We'll put this up again next week, explain it again but for the next couple weeks, we're going to try to update our directory and our membership pictures on the wall out there. There is a congregational meeting this week in between services and beyond that, I think that that is all the announcing that I have to do. Gary Geek, do I see him? Here he is.
7:04
So, are you ready?
7:06
I'm ready. Alright. Good morning. I get the privilege to introduce new members this morning. So if they'd like to come up, we can do our covenant service with them as new members.
7:25
We had a few that were sick. Yeah. So that was Benny.
7:32
And Laura and Pat are here.
7:34
Are they?
7:35
Yes. Here they are.
7:36
Alright. Good morning. Come on. Oh, one just made it. Just it.
8:05
I wanna thank you all for coming up. I know if you're like me, it's not comfortable being in front of everybody. But but I'll tell you what, I'll let you introduce yourselves. And if you feel you'd like to share anything to the body, it'd be a you have the privilege to do so.
8:28
Hi, Patrick Daly. Thanks for having us.
8:32
Laura Daly, we're happy to be here.
8:35
I'm Lauren Fry. I wanted to thank a lot of you that I've known for a long time and have not become a member yet. But I I wanted to actually say thanks because I think this is a wonderful church body, and you guys have all spurred me on to grow quite a bit in my time here. So that's what I wanted to say.
8:54
I'm Amanda Williams. I don't have much of a voice. I'm happy to be here. I'm Katie Clark and Bowen and Mackenzie.
9:04
And I'm Wes Clark and just wanna say thanks for bringing us into your family when we moved over to Jackson. It's it's been really great to kinda have a family on this side of the hill and the other side of the hill too. So thank you.
9:15
Thank you. Let me share something in doing a membership class that I always hear. As God leads people to be a part of First Be, their very first experience that almost without a doubt they expressed to me is, one, they feel welcome. When they walk through the doors, feel very welcome as they come in. And two, they feel loved.
9:45
So I wanna thank the body for so naturally doing that. And if I could, I would run and give high fives to y'all. Thank you. We know in first Corinthians 12 that it is God that adds to the body as it pleases him, and he adds for the common good of the body. And then God also gifts those that have come to faith in him and gives them a gift.
10:25
And sometimes we think a gift is a thing, but the gift is in a person. And as we have trusted Christ as our Lord and savior, He gives us Himself. And He comes in us and His desire to live through us His purposes. And so as God has added you to this body, He has great purpose for all for each of you. And and I just hope that that desire of living out that purpose in this body is one that you would embrace.
11:06
There's only one condition to be a member at First Bee, and that is that you've trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And before this congregation, have each of you trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior? Amen. So I'm gonna try to keep this simple. Two things that we hope is that you would love this body and that you would serve this body.
11:45
If you would, please signify by saying, yes, we will. Now to the body. Will you be faithful to those that God has added to this body? And would you too love them and serve them? If so, say we will.
12:03
We will. Alright. Customary, we believe God has called us together in unity. And it's customary here that we would stand and grab your neighbor's hand, and we give thanks to God for those he's added to the body. Let us pray.
12:39
Dear Lord, you have brought us together, Lord. Lord, you see the big picture, Lord. So many times we just see little bits and parts, but you see the big picture. You see the ministry that each one of us has for one another. You see the things that are coming up that we know that we'll need the body to go through.
13:12
You see the things that you call us to be in this community and you give us the parts that we can be faithful in and those things that you call us to. Lord, we give you thanks, Lord, for those that you've added today because we know that because you've added them, we'll be more than what you call us to be, and we will be faithful to them. And I just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.
13:56
Alright. Grab. Alright. Now, if you would, grab somebody. Find one of them.
14:06
Grab somebody's hand. Shake a hand next to you. And we'll bring you back together with a song.
14:49
There's no one like you. There's none like you. It greater. I got is stronger. God, you are higher than any other.
15:10
I got is healer. Awesome and power. I got God, you are higher than any other. I got us healer. I got our God.
16:07
And if he's for us, let's sing. And if I got his for us, then it could ever stop us. And if I got his with us, what could stay in our midst? And if I got his for us, then it could ever stopped us. And what could stay on again?
16:51
Greater. Our God
17:37
Singing God's great love for us. I will not boast in anything I say.
19:53
I will not boast in anything. No doubts,
21:26
Amen. God indeed, that we receive by faith. This we know with all our heart, your wounds have paid our ransom, your perfect life for our imperfect ones so that we can be reconciled to you and have eternal life And a full and abundant life, not just in eternity, but right now. And God, that is what a what a wonderful thing that you give us full and abundant life right now. And I pray that we would receive this this joy, this by the fruit of the spirit really that you're that you're offering and that we could live it out and the world could really see that you are good.
22:07
And I think of this verse right here from from Matthew that anyone who listens to your teaching and follows it is wise. And that's true. We are wise when we follow you. We're not boasting in what we can do. We boast in what you can do and what you have done.
22:24
And when we when we trust in you, it's like building our lives on a solid foundation so that whatever comes our way, we can stand firm through it because we've got our footing on solid ground on you.
22:49
I sing my hope is built. My hope is built
25:00
Amen. Let's sing of his return. He's indeed, it is coming. He shall come God, again, I thank you for being our rock solid foundation. We get it wrong.
26:31
We're human. But, God, you are you are good. You are perfect, and, we cling really. We don't boast the righteousness of our own, but only that is through you and because of you. And, God, I thank you for every good and perfect gift.
26:50
Everything that is good, it comes from you. And I thank you God for how you supply our every need. And I thank you God for the opportunity give back to say thank you to say, we trust you to say, use this to advance your kingdom. And so I pray just that that everything given, whether it's time, talent, or treasure, that it would be used to advance your kingdom to make you known so the world can know that you truly are the savior of the world. Amen.
27:19
In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
29:43
Thank you, Florine. The children can head down to Children's Church. Great is thy faithfulness. I would jump up there and sing that but you don't have any words in front of you. It just plays from the heart by ear.
29:56
So, well, welcome in this morning. We're going to go to, not my Email from 04:14. Actually, that is where we're going to start. I came here for a vote on 04/15/2012. So, April 15, not tax day.
30:15
It was a Sunday that year. They 04/15/2012, I came here and it was a congregational meeting and y'all are going to be voting on whether I'd be the next pastor. Yeah, exactly. That's a scary, scary thought for someone who had never really done this job before. And so my email from myself to me on 04/14.
30:36
I had several encouraging emails from seminary professors that said, yeah, we're praying for you, that sort of thing but I had like five Emails that day and one of em was an Email from myself to me and it was Colossians one nine through 20 and that's the passage that we have before us today. So, it obviously meant something to me since that was like on the eve of whether I would be doing this or not and my prayer, I remember pretty distinctly is I'm scared to death, lord. I'm absolutely frightened about standing up in front of people and having the job of trying to expound on your truth and so don't ever get me far from that. That was one prayer and then the other is, what would I say? What do you say?
31:21
Well, what is what's your hope? What is it that you hope for the people and why? And this passage answers those questions. It's what is your prayer? And we covered it two weeks ago.
31:31
We covered nine through 14 is Paul's prayer. It's very pertinent for the people there at Colossi and I think it's very pertinent for everyone who seeks to follow after Christ. So, my prayer for you and Paul's prayer for the Colossians is the same prayer. We'll cover nine through 14 so you can see that but then, we'll go beyond what the prayer is to where that's grounded. And hopefully, we'll, come away feeling affirmed and encouraged, all of us, I hope.
31:57
But before we get, into that, I have this is a little picture. This is blind monks examining an elephant. It's an 1888 Ukiyo e print by Hanabusa Ichiku. Okay? This is about have you all heard this old fable?
32:16
It's an ancient fable. It's from India and it is about five or six in some cases, blind monks that are examining an elephant. And one of them who has hold of the tusk says, oh, an elephant is very much like a spear because he's got a hold of a sharp and pointed little tusk. And then the other one says, no, no, no, no, no. An elephant is not like a spear at all.
32:43
It's much like a fan because he had a hold of his ear. And then one of them said, you are both out of your mind. This thing right here is as solid as a wall because he had the broad side of an elephant that he's feeling the tough skin and the heft of. Another said, but it's round, much like a tree. And so they're arguing back and forth.
33:03
And this is typically used about perception of reality. The rope is the other. One of them had a hold of the tail. And so he said, well, no. It's much like a rope.
33:14
And then another had a hold of the trunk. He said it's like a huge snake. And so all of them were right to a point. Their perception of the reality of that elephant from their vantage point, being blind and groping for the truth of this elephant. They were reaching for it and they were coming up with what they had hold of.
33:35
And so oftentimes in Eastern religion, especially Jainism, which is this is this is, usually represented there, You'll see this. It's a hose, it's a sword, it's a fan, it's a tree, it's a wall, it's a rope. And they say, all of them are right. And they stop right there. But the problem with that is there's actually an elephant.
33:54
Right? There is a higher reality than what they have all come to see. It is like these things. And so, Jainism would say no one vantage point has. And you know, that is our modern society's way of dealing with things.
34:09
We live in a pluralistic society where no one truth is more valid than any other truth. That cannot be. Do you do you realize that that cannot be? So there is a greater truth. Not all of these things.
34:27
I think that our passage today really gets at that greater truth. Paul is claiming to know the elephant. Okay? He's he's claiming that the elephant that is in the room that is invisible can be seen in one place. So we'll go on for there.
34:44
I also so I have not traveled a lot in Nepal until the past couple years, you know, and I and I did take a trip. These are Tibetan prayer flags, all rolled up and for sale. You can buy these little flags and then you can string them up and you see more of these in Jackson than you do steeples, right? And in Nepal, they're everywhere. They're all over.
35:05
They're in the woods, they're in the quiet places, in the city, in the country, all over. That was them rolled up. This is a Buddhist temple, it's called the Monkey Temple, up at the top of a mountain in outside, right in Kathmandu kinda. And so this is the Peace Fountain, the Buddha. There there are people gathering around it.
35:33
I had to take that picture. May peace prevail on earth. And the pea has kind of fallen off the piece and the water is stagnant. There's no fountain. It's not bubbling up.
35:43
It's dead. And it's in disrepair. These are all for sale and available all over the place, but especially at the temples, you can buy these little trinkets. You see different gods and symbols of good luck or prosperity or blessing, some of which, you know, the Nazis tried to get any kind of upper hand they could. Different kinds of gods and goddesses, snakes, elephants, sun.
36:18
If you ask any one Nepali how many gods there are in Nepal, they'll say anywhere from 800,000 to 34,000,000.
36:30
Well,
36:33
if your belief is no one person can have any real concept of truth and your value your idea of reality or of the divine is no more valid than mine, then at least every single person has his own ideas. So every person, 33,000,000 of them, get their own idea plus the 800,000 named gods that are above those. So more of that. This is actually one of their oldest one of the oldest Hindu God statues. And when the Muslims came in, they knocked the heads off of them because they didn't want for the Hindu gods to stand because Islam believes in a very, very strong monotheism.
37:18
Right? It's one God. And so they knocked the heads off of all of the little trinkets that they could find. This is a set of temples. If you look from one side to the other, it looks like you're looking in a mirror bouncing back and forth and forth and forth.
37:32
It was an engineering feat to get it to look exactly like you're looking into eternity, but you're not. There are just a few temples in a row, well built alongside the river where they burn their dead. This is a picture of a monk taking a picture of a monkey. He has a cell phone, this little monk at the Buddhist Monkey Temple. And monkeys kinda run free all over that place.
37:58
Have you all ever you all remember slide shows? Do you remember actual slide shows where you had the actual turntable? There was always an upside down one for people's trips. I just wanted to throw that in there. So that's that's me riding with a couple of missionaries and a and a taxi driver who is not trusting me very much right there.
38:18
So and that's me on the top of the Buddhist monkey temple with all those Tibetan prayer flags blowing in the breeze. And that brings me again back to Colossians nine twenty. I hope that that helps a little bit. Colossians one nine through 20 is a pertinent prayer based on Christ's preeminence. It's based on the truth, the the actual capital r reality, capital t, truth of Christ, the grounding, and Paul brings it all the way back down and he does make a truth claim that Jesus is God.
38:51
He makes a truth claim that Jesus is the is the image of the invisible God, that which we have been groping in the darkness for we find in Jesus. So and so from the day we heard heard what? From the day we heard. He starts off, we're at chapter at verse nine. So, I just want to call you back.
39:11
We had Don Young here last week and he did a great job, up here and while we skipped a little bit of time, so I wanna give you a chance. What had he heard about the people at Colossae? Well, since we heard of your faith in Jesus Christ in verse four. So he had heard of the Colossians being Christian. So being actually gets ahead of everything that we're going to talk about today, the knowing and the doing, being is paramount.
39:39
Being a Christian starts off this way. Now, I was coming here and I Email myself that, I knew that this was a church. It wasn't just a gathering. It was a church. These are people who gather and call on the name of Christ and trust in him.
39:52
So, that's why these prayers line up so so well, I think. What? That they heard that the Colossians were Christians. So, that's who he's writing to and since from the day we heard, we've not ceased to pray for you and I can say that's true. For me and for Tanya, we have not ceased to pray for you and the Christians here in this valley just like Paul was speaking to them and and asking specifically for this that you may be filled, that y'all may be filled with the knowledge of God's will, his will.
40:25
Knowing God's will is very very important. Being a Christian and trusting in Christ is first, and we've already covered that in verses one through eight. But nine through 14, knowing God's will comes after that. That's my prayer for you. That's Paul's prayer for the Colossians is that you would know God's will.
40:43
Knowing you'd be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. I don't want you to just have your hand on one part of the elephant. I want you to know that he is strong like a wall and he's planted like a tree. And I want you to know that he is, you know, a cooling system when you're overheating the fan. I want you to know that he is something you can hold on to.
41:07
He's strong. I want you to know that. I want it in all wisdom, spiritual wisdom, and all understanding. And then it gets to this, so as to walk. It's not just about knowing.
41:20
So as to walk it out in a manner worthy of the Lord and fully pleasing to him. So, knowing God's will is great but it needs to lead to doing God's will. That's the next natural step. If you know to do good and you do it not to you, that is sin. That's what James says.
41:38
To know to do good and do it not is sin. So, to avoid sin, knowing God's will is important and doing it is important. And if you know God's will and you do God's will, you will be bearing fruit in every good work. First of all, you'll be doing good works and those fruit will you will be bearing fruit. Jesus would say, you didn't choose me.
42:00
I chose you and I chose you to bear fruit. Fruit that will last. So, bearing fruit in every good work. Knowing God's will and doing God's will leads to fruit for the kingdom of God. Every Sunday, we pray for the gospel to advance.
42:14
The way that the gospel advances is the people who are Christians being Christians knowing God's will and doing it advances the gospel. So and increasing in the knowledge of God. So if we go knowing God's will, doing God's will, and when you do it, you see a different facet of God than you may have ever seen before, and it leads to knowing God's will. In the text, it actually says knowing the knowledge of God or increasing in the knowledge of God. So to be technically true, it's knowing God more, having a more ample understanding and picture of who he is in reality, in capital t, truth.
42:51
So that's the prayer. Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, God's glorious might, I felt completely out of my depths to be here. I still feel pretty doggone out of my depths to be up here doing this but being strengthened with all power. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that has strengthened me to be able to do this and you to be able to do what your ministry is. So it's according to his glorious might, not mine.
43:23
I can't take any credit for that. For all endurance and patience, but with joy. So I already covered this. I'm going through it kinda quickly. Giving thanks to the father, amen, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saint in light.
43:40
Amen. Great is thy faithfulness. Oh God, my father, there is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not. Man, that's good.
43:53
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness. The message version, I like Eugene Peterson. He's a great pastor. I don't like the message version generally because it is a paraphrase of the scripture but it's really really helps in some places and I like this. God rescued us from dead end alleys and dark dungeons.
44:12
The domain of darkness. He's delivered us from the domain of darkness and he transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. In whom we have redemption. So, I got up to this point the last time that I preached. Redemption.
44:32
So, if I ask you what it was, what's the church word? But Paul defines it for us. He uses a positive phrase right here. Redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He has paid the price to redeem or buy us back, buy back because we owed a debt that we could not pay.
44:50
So he paid it. Redemption equals the forgiveness of sins. That's what it the the offer that is being extended is redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And for these people, they had already believed this. So the grounding starts right there, that you have been given this forgiveness of sins.
45:10
And then it goes into the basis upon which that happened. For he, Jesus, is the the son of God. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Now firstborn has caused some theological problems throughout the years. People read that and go, born?
45:27
Jesus was born? And so they start a cult. And I'm not joking. That's happened a lot of different times. The firstborn here means preeminent.
45:37
Firstborn that word can mean the first one that's born, but it's the the one who has the lion's share of inheritance. It is the one who is foremost and first. And Jesus is the foremost and the first and the preeminent. He is the first from the dead. We'll see that in a minute.
45:55
To be reborn unto the resurrection like that. For by him, Jesus, all things were created. Remember the first 18 verses in John, the prologue of John where it's talking about the divine logos? There's nothing that was created outside of Jesus doing the creating. Ex nihilo, from nothing.
46:17
God, Jesus created. For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, where the thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things. I had a professor in seminary that said, when you're preaching, never say, I have three things to tell you because it's not specific enough. Three things. He says, come on people.
46:43
Don't just say things. I have three questions. I have three something. Not things. Something else.
46:51
Something other than things. Please. But when it's everything, you have to say things. And this is all things and he says it again. All things were created through him and for him.
47:05
So, all things ultimately should serve Christ. That includes living and inanimate. It includes everything. If we don't cry out the rocks, we'll cry out, right? All things were created through him and for him also and he is before all things.
47:24
So he was before. Anything else. This is mind bending if you get into in the beginning God. Right? In the beginning God, this is saying Christ is God.
47:37
He is before all things, and in him, all things hold together. He is the whole enchilada, the whole elephant. He is every bit of reality and truth. When he said I'm the way and the truth and the life, he meant it. He is before all things and in him, all things hold together.
47:57
And he is the head of the body, the church. Amen. He said that I will build my church and the way that he'll build it is by people who know him obediently sharing what they know of him. And I pray growing in the knowledge of him so they can share even more and better. And he is the head of the body, the church.
48:17
He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Amen. That in everything, he might be preeminent. Now, the might be there is a little bit of a problem for some people when they see it like we see in English. Well, they might be.
48:34
His that other interpretation is just as good as mine. No. No. No. No.
48:36
No. He is. He's already said he is. He is. He is.
48:40
He is. He is. But for you, is he preeminent? He might be. If you will align your will with God's will, He will be for you.
48:52
But the might there is dependent upon whether He is preeminent for you or not. Knowing God's will, doing God's will, knowing more of God so that he might be or become preeminent. For in him, all of the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. All of it. And that is an absolute, was pleased to dwell.
49:20
He's not saying he might be preeminent or he might have been pleased to dwell. No. He was. He is. Paul's making an absolute truth claim here.
49:29
For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things. Through Jesus, God was reconciling all to himself. We started out and it was good and it was good and it was good. Sinner, sin entered in through one man and every single one since. Except Jesus.
49:56
Through him, Jesus, he is reconciling to himself all things. Whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. So the peace on the Peace Fountain with the stagnant water and the pea falling off of it, and it really looked kinda hopeless, quite honestly. There are monkeys everywhere, and monkeys are not clean animals. It was pretty filthy.
50:18
And there was not a whole lot of peace, and there was a whole lot of merchandising, a whole lot of that. Just making peace by the blood of his cross. Jesus might be preeminent for you if you'll put him in that place. He will be. It is as simple as this, the message of the cross.
50:43
Now, if you stop on the whole, well, yeah, your truth is as good as my truth and every, all roads lead to heaven. They're they're all teaching the same thing, right? Don't don't they all teach you to be good people and not be ugly to your neighbor and stuff like that? No, they don't. Christianity is a little bit different.
51:00
It doesn't say that you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It says that God is reaching down from heaven through Jesus Christ to lift you up. To those who are perishing, it is mere foolishness according to the first part of first Corinthians. But to those who are being saved, it's the power of God. And people do recover.
51:25
People do get better. Life does get better for those who trust in Jesus. I had one more image and it was Jesus sitting next to all those monks saying, it's an elephant. It's an elephant. It's the whole the whole thing.
51:41
You're not getting all of it. Now, there are some cultural facets of God that we don't get as easily as other cultures might get. I agree with you. But we need to keep on with the knowledge that we have, doing what we know, and then being increasing in our knowledge so that we know may know more. Move your way around the elephant.
52:05
Find somebody who you see that you believe is a Christian who is very different from you and get to know them. Have somebody, if you're a justice person that everything is about justice, find a mercy person and get closer and closer to them. There are both. There are both and everything is a balance. Is that the last slide?
52:27
That's the last slide. Would you stand with me? We do have a congregational meeting between the services today. And I wanna say that when he brought us from the domain of darkness into marvelous light, it was not by our deserving it. And so it is by grace that we're saved through faith, but it's by grace.
52:54
He moved us, and this song is great, That he's moved us from darkness into light but it says, into that light, I'm running. Once you know that it's by grace, go for it. Go forward and run into it. So, let's go.
53:52
Your kindness waken me, waken me from my sleep. And your love, it beckons deep in a call to come and die. By grace now I will come and take this life, take your life. Sin has lost its power. Death has lost its stake from the grimy prison.
54:34
Victoriously air into marvelous night I'm on. Having darkness out of shame. By the cross you are the truth, You are the life. You are the way. Sing my dead heart now is beating.
55:04
And by did I now is beating. My deepest stinks now. Your breath fills up my lungs. Now I'm free. I'm free.
55:21
Sin is lost. Sin has lost its power, and death has lost its state way
56:08
Just wanna the Amen.
56:17
Amen.
56:21
Himself all things whether in earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Concentrate on that this week. In Jesus name, amen.
