Scripture referenced 11 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Psalm 92:1-2 quoted at the opening to lead into worship
1 It is a good thing to give thanks to Yahweh, to sing praises to your name, Most High;
2 to proclaim your loving kindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night,
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Keep this verse
1 John 4:9-11
read before a song about God's love being the first move toward us
9 By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
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Psalm 19
referenced in prayer about creation pouring forth speech every day
1 The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork.
2 Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5 which is as a bridegroom coming out of his room, like a strong man rejoicing to run his course.
6 His going out is from the end of the heavens, his circuit to its ends; There is nothing hidden from its heat.
7 Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s testimony is sure, making wise the simple.
8 Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes.
9 The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. Yahweh’s ordinances are true, and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them is your servant warned. In keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can discern his errors? Forgive me from hidden errors.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Yahweh, my rock, and my redeemer.
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John 5
referenced as the story of Jesus asking the man at the Pool of Bethesda if he wanted to be made well, used to illustrate step six
1 After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;
4 for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
5 A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”
9 Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
10 So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.”
11 He answered them, “He who made me well, the same said to me, ‘Take up your mat, and walk.’”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat, and walk’?”
13 But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 For this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.
20 For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires.
22 For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son,
23 that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.
24 “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
25 Most certainly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.
27 He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.
28 Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice,
29 and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
30 I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.
31 “If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid.
32 It is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony which he testifies about me is true.
33 You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.
34 But the testimony which I receive is not from man. However, I say these things that you may be saved.
35 He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36 But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John, for the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me.
37 The Father himself, who sent me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.
38 You don’t have his word living in you; because you don’t believe him whom he sent.
39 “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
40 Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.
41 I don’t receive glory from men.
42 But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves.
43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 “Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.
47 But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
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Lamentations 3
cited for the truth that God's mercies are new every morning
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3 Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
7 He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
11 He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14 I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
17 You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
18 I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.”
19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
20 My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21 This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
22 It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
23 They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
24 “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
37 Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
38 Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42 “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
43 “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
46 “All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47 Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
50 until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven.
51 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52 They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54 Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
55 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
56 You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
57 You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58 Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
59 Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
61 You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me,
62 the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
63 You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
64 You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
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Galatians 2:20
quoted by Paul about being crucified with Christ, used to illustrate reckoning oneself co-crucified with Christ
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
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Matthew 26
Jesus telling Peter, James and John to keep watching and praying so they would not come into temptation, used to illustrate the continual nature of step ten
1 When Jesus had finished all these words, he said to his disciples,
2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
3 Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.
4 They took counsel together that they might take Jesus by deceit, and kill him.
5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest a riot occur among the people.”
6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
7 a woman came to him having an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.
8 But when his disciples saw this, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?
9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.”
10 However, knowing this, Jesus said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has done a good work for me.
11 For you always have the poor with you; but you don’t always have me.
12 For in pouring this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.
13 Most certainly I tell you, wherever this Good News is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of as a memorial of her.”
14 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests,
15 and said, “What are you willing to give me, that I should deliver him to you?” They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.
16 From that time he sought opportunity to betray him.
17 Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’”
19 The disciples did as Jesus commanded them, and they prepared the Passover.
20 Now when evening had come, he was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples.
21 As they were eating, he said, “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”
22 They were exceedingly sorrowful, and each began to ask him, “It isn’t me, is it, Lord?”
23 He answered, “He who dipped his hand with me in the dish, the same will betray me.
24 The Son of Man goes, even as it is written of him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had not been born.”
25 Judas, who betrayed him, answered, “It isn’t me, is it, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You said it.”
26 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it. He gave to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
27 He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, “All of you drink it,
28 for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.
29 But I tell you that I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on, until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”
30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
31 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of me tonight, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee.”
33 But Peter answered him, “Even if all will be made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble.”
34 Jesus said to him, “Most certainly I tell you that tonight, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”
35 Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.” All of the disciples also said likewise.
36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go there and pray.”
37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled.
38 Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.”
39 He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.”
40 He came to the disciples, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What, couldn’t you watch with me for one hour?
41 Watch and pray, that you don’t enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 Again, a second time he went away, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cup can’t pass away from me unless I drink it, your desire be done.”
43 He came again and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.
44 He left them again, went away, and prayed a third time, saying the same words.
45 Then he came to his disciples, and said to them, “Sleep on now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
46 Arise, let’s be going. Behold, he who betrays me is at hand.”
47 While he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
48 Now he who betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, “Whoever I kiss, he is the one. Seize him.”
49 Immediately he came to Jesus, and said, “Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed him.
50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, why are you here?” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.
51 Behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest, and struck off his ear.
52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place, for all those who take the sword will die by the sword.
53 Or do you think that I couldn’t ask my Father, and he would even now send me more than twelve legions of angels?
54 How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?”
55 In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, “Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to…
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John 16
upper room discourse promise that the Holy Spirit will guide believers into all truth and disclose what is to come
1 “I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble.
2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.
3 They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.
4 But I have told you these things, so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
6 But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment;
9 about sin, because they don’t believe in me;
10 about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more;
11 about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
12 “I have yet many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.
13 However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.
14 He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you.
15 All things whatever the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine, and will declare it to you.
16 A little while, and you will not see me. Again a little while, and you will see me.”
17 Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;’ and, ‘Because I go to the Father’?”
18 They said therefore, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he is saying.”
19 Therefore Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask him, and he said to them, “Do you inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me?’
20 Most certainly I tell you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
21 A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow, because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world.
22 Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
23 “In that day you will ask me no questions. Most certainly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
24 Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.
25 I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. But the time is coming when I will no more speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
26 In that day you will ask in my name; and I don’t say to you, that I will pray to the Father for you,
27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God.
28 I came from the Father, and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.”
29 His disciples said to him, “Behold, now you are speaking plainly, and using no figures of speech.
30 Now we know that you know all things, and don’t need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
32 Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
33 I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
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Colossians 1
quoted about being previously alienated and hostile but now reconciled, with a call to continue in the faith firmly established
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the saints,
5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News,
6 which has come to you; even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and growing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;
7 even as you learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,
8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
9 For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy;
12 giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;
13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;
14 in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins;
15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.
17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;
20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
21 You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,
22 yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,
23 if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly;
25 of which I was made a servant, according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you, to fulfill the word of God,
26 the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints,
27 to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;
28 whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;
29 for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.
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James 1:12-25
referenced about being not just a hearer but a doer, and the warning about looking in a mirror and walking away unchanged
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, produces death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
18 Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;
20 for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
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Philippians 1:6
quoted that he who began a good work in you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus
6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This sermon was the tenth installment in Pastor Carl's series walking through the twelve steps as a framework for understanding sin, repentance, and restoration. Step 10 is the practice of continuing personal inventory and promptly admitting when we are wrong. The service also included communion, which Pastor Carl tied directly to that same call to honest self-examination.
What was said
Pastor Carl opened by playing through the lyrics of a song from an Alan Levi album, a letter-in-song set in the church of a fictional Pastor Leonard J. Jerome. The preacher in the song asks his congregation to stand if they have loved everyone perfectly, helped every person they could, and remained without fault since last they met. Nobody stands. Then he works through a longer list of ordinary failures, and pretty soon the whole room is on its feet. The point landing before any teaching began: all of us are needy, all of us are the same, and the good news is specifically for sinners.
From there Pastor Carl briefly walked back through steps one through nine for the congregation, noting that by now many of them could fill in the blanks themselves. He did this to set up the first time he has introduced step 10: "We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, we promptly admitted it." The word "promptly" got particular attention. He described a friend who, mid-conversation the day before, caught himself judging someone else's motives and stopped to say so immediately. That, Pastor Carl said, is the step in action.
He used the image of a person who dumps a trash bag of receipts on an accountant once a year versus someone who files things in a folder every week. Keeping a short account with God works the same way. Checking in rarely means build-up and forgetting. The practice the step points toward is morning reflection, awareness during the day, and an evening review that brings both failures and successes before God.
Pastor Carl moved through several passages to fill out what that daily corrective action looks like in scripture. He pointed to Lamentations on mercies being new every morning, and to Jesus telling Peter, James, and John in the garden to keep watching and keep praying so they would not come into temptation. The disciples fell asleep anyway, and Luke's explanation was that they were worn out from anguish. The call to keep on watching and praying is, Pastor Carl said, exactly what the early recovery literature calls "continuance."
He spent time in Galatians 2, where Paul says he has been crucified with Christ. Pastor Carl noted that the Greek word carries the sense of being crucified in tandem, co-crucified alongside Christ. He connected this to the idea of reckoning our own will as the thing that got us into trouble, and choosing instead to be linked to Christ's way. We cannot die for others' sin, he said, but we can lay down our own will and follow after Christ.
Colossians and Philippians closed the scriptural portion. Colossians reminded the congregation that people who were previously hostile and engaged in evil deeds have been reconciled through Christ's death, and that the continuing action is to remain firmly established and not shift from the hope of the gospel. Philippians 1:6 was Pastor Carl's closing word: God, who began a good work, will complete it. The effort to force transformation through willpower misses the point. It is God's work, and humility is what allows Him to do it.
With that, Pastor Carl moved directly into communion, tying the warning not to take the bread and cup unworthily to the very practice step 10 describes. Self-examination before the table is not a formality but the same searching honesty the whole series has been about. He noted that the only way any of us come to the table worthy is through humility and the cleansing God himself provides, and he prayed that everyone present would feel what it is to be free of guilt before they partook.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Carl opened with a song where Pastor Leonard J. Jerome asked his congregation to stand if certain sins applied to them, and eventually the whole room was standing. What does it do to you personally when you are reminded that every person in the room is in the same boat as a sinner who needs saving?
- Step four calls for a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, and Pastor Carl noted how much easier it is to turn that inventory toward everyone else. What makes it so hard to turn that honest look inward, and what would help you do it?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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