Like you're in the city or something, which is cool.
All right. Hey, welcome back to service.
And if you're watching online, welcome to you all.
So grateful that you're here. Whether it is 1110 on Sunday
morning with us here live or sometime in the days to come, we
want to invite you to come be with us live in person.
Our services are at 9:00 and 10:30 on Sunday mornings, and we
meet at 115 E Main St. and the old movie theater here in
Gaylord. Our church is found to be home
for about the last 10 or so years, so come and find us in
person. We'd love to see you worshiping
with us sometime soon. All right, Notes again are
available on the back table. I think there's still some.
Still should be some back there. And then also, if you have a
Bible, please take it and turn to Romans chapter 8.
And Romans is in the New Testament after Matthew, Mark,
Luke, John, and Acts. So Romans is after Acts and
before the letters to the Corinthians and we're going to
be in chapter 8. So Romans chapter 8.
So that's probably probably about 90 something plus into
your Bible. OK, Romans chapter 8.
I'm going to start in verse one and two, and then I'm going to
skip to the last part of the chapter and I'll read some
reading the first verses and the last verses.
So it's kind of like I'm getting giving you the book ends this
morning. OK, so the apostle Paul writing
to the to the Christians in Rome and he says there is therefore
now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ
Jesus from the law of sin and death.
He says no condemnation. And then let's go to verse 38 at
the end of the chapter. And it says, for I am sure that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This morning I want to talk to you about Romans 8.
Romans 8, I'm calling it one of the most rich chapters in all of
the Bible. Romans 8, one of the most rich
chapters in all of the Scripture.
Let me pray for us. I got thank you for the letters
of Paul in the New Testament and thank you particularly for the
book of Romans. And as we look at the treasures
that are in chapter 8 specifically, we pray that
you'll stir our hearts to greater awareness and love and
trust of you and help these principles that Paul like
compacts into this one chapter. Help us to connect them well and
leave here shortly with a greater understanding of these
principles in Jesus name. And everyone said together, Amen
and Amen. The 8th chapter of Romans.
I must say, even in my high school years, I graduated high
school in 1987. OK, So what is that coming up on
40 years, I think next year. So even when I was a high school
student growing up in Northeast Texas, my favorite book in all
of the Bible, favorite, most favorite chapter, it was and is
Romans chapter 8. And I tend to mark Bibles up
and, and tear them up sometimes. So if I go back to Bibles I had
years ago, you'll see that I have Romans 8 just marked up and
highlighted. And, and I must say that I
probably memorized more verses in chapter 8 than any other
place in the Bible. I've been inspired by this
chapter for a long time. But I'm not the only one.
Many scholars and theologians that they find that Romans 8 is
like the best of Paul. OK, now the 8th chapter of
Romans is written by Paul. All of Romans is written by
Paul. And we think 5656 or 57 AD when
he was at the city of Corinth. OK, so he's there when Corinth
and he writes this letter to, again, believers in Rome who are
following Jesus. They're Gentiles and he writes
to them. And many think that that Romans
in general is like his opus. It's his best, right?
It's his greatest hits You think about like maybe a favorite book
of yours or a favorite recording recording artist.
I, I love James Taylor. I'm a big James Taylor fan.
What was I think James Taylor's opus was like 1994.
He did a double CD, live live CD event that I just loved.
I think it's just, you know, it was, it was that time.
So the best songs, the best time in the best band.
And maybe you have some favorite movies or recordings or
conscious that you've been to. Well, this is this is Paul's
best. And not only is it his best
Romans, but Romans 8, I think is the best of the best, right?
It's the best of his opus. So I'm going to lean in this
morning because you might find it surprising how many verses
are worth memorizing in this chapter.
And maybe you when I, when I get to these verses, a lot of them
you're going to go, Oh, yeah, I do know that verse this morning.
We gather and pray on the platform each Sunday around 8:00
and the band starts getting here.
Singers and those serving in in audio and tech and the Cafe and
other areas, they start strolling in around 7:30.
And often we'll pray at 8:00. And often I'll ask in the
beginning of the prayer time if people know a couple things
about the message I'm going to teach out.
So this morning I asked, you know, how many of you are
familiar with Romans chapter 8? And do you remember any verses?
And only one of the team did have a verse that they
remembered. So but if I'd have, but if I'd
have said the verses, they would have went, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I do know that one. They just missed that it's all
together in Romans chapter 8. So as I go through this, you're
going to be surprised at how many are, are just right here
together. But our volunteers this morning
on our team, it didn't come to their mind.
OK, so I love that because it means I'm teaching something
that's going to be new to many of you.
OK, so the way that Paul starts chapter 8 and he didn't write it
initially and think it would be called chapter 8, but he
certainly has. He starts a movement and he ends
a movement, right? And he's using similar language.
So he's breaking it up even though the chapters and verses
we're not there yet. So he starts chapter 8 by saying
there's no condemnation. And I'm going to unpack that in
a moment, but no condemnation. And then it's secondly at the
end he says no separation from from the love of God.
So it's similar language, no condemnation and no separation.
Those are the bookends and in between is great truth.
OK, so now let's go back-to-back to verse one.
OK, where we started, there's therefore now no condemnation is
how he states it. Anytime you see the word.
Therefore, it's always important to understand what is before the
therefore, because Paul makes a big point in Chapter 7 and then
he, he, he says what? I'm going to tell you what he
said here in a moment, but then he says, OK, because of this,
because of this truth that I just unpacked, says Paul.
Now this is true. So therefore now there is no
condemnation of what is before. Therefore, well, it's let's go
back in Chapter 7 and I'll read you what Paul says.
And this is honest humility and it's kind of surprising, but
it's what's building up to there being no condemnation.
OK, So what is he stating before?
He states firmly that there is therefore now no condemnation.
Well, watch, it might surprise you what he says in verse 15 of
Chapter 7. He says for I do not understand
my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very
thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want,
I agree with the law that is good.
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within
me. Paul is aware that even though
he is saved and he is a Christian and not just a
Christian, but he's a giant Christian leader, he is aware
that there is still a battle going on inside of him with his
sinful nature. And he's saying that it's that
sin in me that that chooses these things that are contrary
to his own convictions. It's surprising that he's being
this great leader would say this for I know that's for I know in
verse 18 that nothing good dwells in me that is in my
flesh, right? So he's, he's not saying nothing
dwells in him, period. But he's like that part of me.
That is my fleshly nature, the sinful nature of me.
There's nothing good in it, right?
So what is he trying to do? Well, you're going to see the
answers in chapter 8. But he's building this, this
struggle that is very real in him and in verse 18 for then to
continue before I have the desire to do what is right, but
not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want,
but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
He says, now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who
do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So it's a, it sounds like a dilemma.
It sounds like he's stuck. OK, So how is he going to get
out of this stuck place where he doesn't feel like he's in
control of his own choices? Are the likes right?
He's aware of the sinful nature. OK, now again, he's this great
leader writes so much of the New Testament and he's being
dishonest and humble and it's going to now lead up to the
solution. What is the solution to this
inner turmoil and battle that he has?
Well, the the answer is what we would call sanctification or
growing in Christ when you become a Christian, Paul points
out earlier in Chapter 7 that he didn't know that coveting was
sinful until he saw it in the law.
Then once he sees it's like, Oh yeah, before he became a
Christian, he didn't know it. And when we become followers of
Jesus, there are many things that you might not even be aware
that are sinful, but you come to Christ and you're like, oh, the
Lord can start convicting, not condemning.
There's there's therefore no condemnation, but Paul is going
to get around to how to become more sanctified and what to
focus on and where to grow in our lives.
OK, so we're saved, but we're in a process of being sanctified
and the process is challenging and conviction becomes really
important in keeping our hearts open to the conviction of the
Holy Spirit is where you want to be.
But we are free from condemnation.
Those who are in Christ. OK, so if we get back to chapter
8, verse one, Paul's not saying that everyone is free of
condemnation. Instead, Scripture is pretty
clear that unless we've come to knowledge of relationship with
Jesus except his lordship, then yeah, then there there is
condemnation still. OK, but when you're in Christ
and you received his forgiveness, then you become
free of condemnation because you receive the forgiveness that
comes from Jesus through the cross.
So it's not that everyone is free of condemnation.
Paul's saying those who are in Christ Jesus, this is his theme
over and over again in his writings, being in Christ, this
is his encouragement. And when we're in Christ, we can
be free from condemnation. OK, now where Romans 7 stated
that the struggle is real, chapter 8 leads to again, how do
we get unstuck? OK, well here's some details,
Romans 8. Now I'm going to be in verses 6
through 9. This is what he encourages.
This is the solution to the dilemma that he's in.
In Chapter 7. He says for to set the mind on
the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life
and peace. So if you focus on your flesh
and feed your flesh, then yes, it leads to death.
But if you feed your spirit, that part of you that is
eternal, if you feed it, then you'll find yourself in life and
peace, right? So if you, if you ended with
Chapter 7, it would be like if Romans ended the Chapter 7, it'd
be pretty heavy and hopeless. He sounds somewhat hopeless, but
he's not. He's saying do not, do not get
stuck in the flesh, but instead set your mind on the Spirit of
God. For the mind that is set on the
flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law and
deed. It cannot.
But those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
If you're in the flesh, you, however, are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. And look at, look again.
He's, He is encouraging them. You're not in the flesh, you're
in the Spirit. And if in fact the Spirit of God
dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ
does not belong to him. When are you free from
condemnation and free from the system that He talks about, the
stuckness that he's talking about in Chapter 7, you're free
from it when you focus on the Spirit of God and you instead
starve, if you will, that fleshly sin nature that we're
all dealing with. OK, so then what is the
progression from there? OK, well, if I want to have
confidence that I'm growing in the Spirit, how do I do that?
When he talks about in verses 14 through 17 where he says for all
who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back
into fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons
by whom we cry ABBA father. Now here he goes from not only
is there no condemnation and we're to focus on the spirit
part of us, but now he's he's giving us the posture that we
can walk in. We're not slaves, we're not bond
servants. We here he's encouraging us to
say, listen, you, you're you're children of God.
Other places he is going to use the the the posture of like,
yes, we are, we are enslaved to Christ, but it's different
contexts here. He's promoting the idea that
again, we're adopted in we're children and we can go to father
God calling him ABBA and ABBA means like daddy or dad.
He's encouraging us to be this familiar and close to God.
This is the life that is a result of not being in
condemnation. OK, so we get to go to the
Father and cry. ABBA, the Spirit himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs
with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may
also be glorified with Him. He goes from being sounding like
the fetus light in Chapter 7, then proclaiming there's their
formal condemnation. And now he's encouraging you're
not just children adopted, but you actually you're like an
heir. You have an inheritance in the
Kingdom of God because of your salvation and your ongoing
sanctification that you get to experience in Jesus.
So the flow from Chapter 7, humble and honest and now again
adopted heirs with Christ. But now he introduces the idea.
Wow, OK, we're we're children of God adopted in but now he
introduces the idea of suffering.
Wow. How does suffering come into
play? Well, our suffering that we will
endure is going to be for the glory and honor of God and Paul
and the other apostles in the early church.
We're very much in the midst of suffering.
Paul is going to be put to death by the emperor.
We think he was beheaded, and yet he has this posture of being
a child of God and an heir. And he's going to say some other
things here too. And it might surprise you that
he says these things in the context of suffering.
OK, what is this posture towards suffering?
Verse 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time
are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to
us. Like Jesus, Paul knows that you
can endure these sufferings that you're in the midst of now
because because the glory that is set before you is going to be
so grand and so wonderful. And that's what he's deciding to
focus on, not on his suffering, but on what is to come.
And what's so funny is Paul would have never been a promoter
of like the prosperity gospel. Do you know about the prosperity
gospel that's out there? Now, the idea is that if you
come to Jesus, you give your life to Jesus, then some think
that everything about your life is going to be free of
suffering. You're going to just prosper.
And then certainly I think that God has, wants us to prevail and
I think he wants us to be victorious.
But when we measure that by total health and wealth and free
of challenges in, in, in all areas of life, so then we miss
it because the reality is suffering happens in life, it
just does. Now, I've been to Jerusalem.
I was there 15 years ago. And when I was there, I remember
people will make pilgrimages to Jerusalem and particularly at
the Church of the Resurrection, which is a Catholic site.
When I was there, people were like crawling and they were
bleeding. Their hands were bleeding, their
knees were bleeding. And they were crawling like to
the door of the Church of the Resurrection.
And it was like they were paying penance and they were suffering.
And they even would sometimes like put like, like a crown of
thorns and stuff. I saw this first hand, OK.
And I remember thinking, man, you don't really have to chase
down suffering. It just comes.
But some people, it's like they want to go find it.
Don't go to try find it. It's out there, it'll come to
you. But when it comes to you, you
have to decide what is going to be your posture.
Well, that's when you say, OK, I'm, I'm, there's no
condemnation. God's not, I'm not being
condemned by God. That's why this is happening.
I'm a child of God. I'm adopted in, I'm an heir with
Jesus. And what's coming is so grand
that these sufferings now in the present time will be worth it
all. But it's, it's your focus and
your posture. And so again, the apostle Paul,
he knows what to focus on so we have perspective like Jesus.
Then he continues verse 27. What else is so packed in the
Romans 8 that's so wonderful? And he who searches hearts knows
what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit
intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God.
So he who searches hearts, of course, is God the Father is
Spirit. And we know that for those who
love God, this is the first you're probably familiar with.
We know. And when he says, we know it's
like extra that he has a way a couple times he'll say, I'm sure
of this, therefore this I'm sure of this.
And he's when we he, when he says, and we know he's giving an
extra truth, right, That for those who love God, all things
work together for good. For those who are called
according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son in order
that he might be the first born among the many brothers.
This is probably a passage that you have heard misquoted.
Some people wrongly quote this verse to say all things work
together for good. Everything just turns out good.
Everything works together for good.
That's not even remotely what Paul is saying here.
There are a couple of prerequisites he says, for we
know that for those who love God, all things work together
for the good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
So there are two here, the issues that need to line up and
there's for people who love God and for people who are called
according to his purposes, things work for good.
God supernaturally can take terrible tragedy in your life.
And when you had the posture of saying the suffering that I'm
enduring now will be worth it. I'm a child of God, adopted in
airs, not under combination all those things.
Again, you just learn how to just think and speak this.
Then it's not just positive confession, but it's it's
learning truth. OK.
So when you get to that place, then you're able to say, yes,
all things work together for the good of those who love God and
are called according to his purposes, and that you want that
to be you. But you have to be really
careful when you stay truth like this because it's not intended
to be fed or given like like a little aspirin or a pill, right?
Sometimes Christians, if they're not careful, they can they can
come across this way. So someone's in the midst of
great sorrow. After first service, I spoke
with Frank and he was telling me about some things that his
family's going through and some sickness and other things.
And he mentioned this point that I'm at right here and how much
it meant to them in the service. Is that when someone's in the
middle, middle of great difficulty, sorrow, the last
thing I want to do is like give them the Scripture is like, hey,
this will fix you. All things work together for
good. All things work together for
good. And Christians will often do
that. They'll just throw out a passage
as if it's going to help and it doesn't help.
It hurts because when you take great grand truth and you
capsulize it and then you give it to someone like this will fix
you, then you will often hurt them instead.
So this, this truth though, so great.
All things work together for the good of those who love God and
are called according to His purpose.
It's a great truth, but don't throw it out to someone who is
in great despair. Maybe the best thing you could
do was someone in that situation is just go sit with them and
just be with them. You don't have to have a
solution. You don't have to have the
answers. Sometimes you just being with
them is the best option and the most loving thing to do so.
But you probably know Christians again who've thrown out these
verses, you know, Jeremiah 2911 for I know the plans I have for
you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
OK, So you could take Bible promises like that.
There was, and you can again, capsulize them and just throw
them out. And it's just painful to people.
So I encourage you to be sensitive about that.
Don't hand out verses in a way that makes them hurtful.
But that's not to negate that this is a huge truth that we
should lean into, founding in Romans 8.
Then he continues in verse 31. What then shall we say to these
things? Another very famous passage
here. If God is for us, who can be
against us? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He who did not spare His own
Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him
graciously give us all things? Having this posture, If God is
for me, who can be against me? OK, but this is the truth also
that needs to be understood because if if you take this
passage and you have an adversary, someone that who is a
difficult person in your life and you think God is for you and
he's not for them, then you'll miss it, right?
Because really what Paul in other places defines who our
enemy is that we're fighting against.
And it's not that difficult person, that extra grace needed
person that you might have a hard time with in your family or
your workplace often. Maybe you need to look inside
and see God. Where can I wrestle and better
myself? Watch?
Paul in Ephesians 6 defines who the enemy is, that God is for
us, but not for the enemy who is found here.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His
might. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the
devil. For we do not wrestle against
flesh and blood. It's not that difficult person
that you're wrestling with, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places.
Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be
able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand
firm. You need to be aware that we're
in a spiritual battle. And again, the enemy is not that
difficult person. Yes, sometimes it'll be
conflict, but you need to look further and say, OK, sometimes,
and it's not that they have a devil.
You can't say that sometimes, you know, we have to look
inside, but it's just knowing that if ultimately, if God is
for us, who can be against us because we're going to defeat
those spiritual principalities that Paul talks about in the
Ephesians 6. But that needs to be your focus.
Now he mentions in here that the, the, you know, against this
present darkness. Do any of you remember the books
in the 80s by Frank Peretti called this Present Darkness and
Piercing the Darkness? Anybody remember those?
I remember them, right? And I, I, it was about angels
and demons and spiritual warfare and it was fiction, but it was,
you know, super cool. I remember reading like they
were thick books, but like in a day and 1/2, right?
Because I was just like, so into it and it was marvelous, right?
But I, I, I had to make sure that I didn't succumb to the
temptation to become obsessed with spiritual warfare because I
saw some people become that where they were just like all
about it, right? To a point where they were just
strange and weird. So I don't think that's the
point that we want to get to. But you want to be aware that
you're in a spiritual battle, but you don't want to become
obsessed with it. And those pretty books were
great. It's nothing against him, they
were really great. It's just that in my own life, I
had to be careful not to become obsessed with spiritual warfare
after reading them. So my encouragement to you is
that know that you're in a battle, but don't become
obsessed with it. OK.
And then what's interesting is Paul says this.
If God is for me, who could be against me?
And yet again, the the apostles were martyred.
Paul is going to be beheaded by the emperor.
And yet he's his posture is if God is for me, who could be
against me even though he is going to die for his faith.
It's not false believing. It's just that he has a bigger
picture of what's happening in the world.
He continues verse 34, he gets back to the idea of
condemnation. He says in verse 34, who is to
condemn Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was
raised, who is at the right hand of the of God, who indeed is
interceding for us. He starts with condemnation,
verse one and he comes back around to it just to send it's a
rhetorical question again, who is to condemn us?
Nobody because we are in Christ. He's died for us.
Then we see that Jesus is not condemning and said he's
interceding for us. Now is he not condemning?
He's encouraging, cheering a son interceding for us at the throne
of God. And then finally we're getting
towards the end of the chapter. These are really my favorite
verses. I think so far as we get towards
38 and 39 verse 35. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ who can condemn us?
Nobody who can separate us from the love of Christ and watch
what he says. It's it's so like poetically
written shall tribulation or distress or persecution or
famine or nakedness or danger or sword for it is written for your
sake. We are being killed all the day
long. We regarded the sheep to be
slaughtered. Knowing all these things.
We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
This is where the saying more than conquerors comes from and
he's presenting the idea what can separate us from the love of
Christ? Nothing.
And he gives all of these examples even though he's again
quoting is like, even though we might seem like lambs going to
the slaughter, we're not being separated by the love of God.
In fact, even one of the peers where lambs going to slaughter,
we are more than conquerors. That is his posture that we get
to lean into now more than the conquerors in the face of great
tribulation and reality of pending death for their sake of
the gospel. They were they just had it.
They had the right mindset. And then here's my favorite of
all of Romans 8. This is the the pinnacle to me,
verse 38 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else, and all of
creation will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is one that I memorized in
high school and all these years later, I still go back to it
over and over and over again. Nothing can separate us from the
love of God. And when you know this and you
walk in it, it shapes the way that you follow and serve Jesus.
So just kind of reviewing these are and I would love it if you
take the hand out, put it in your Bible and just kind of
maybe look through these this week and maybe you could
paraphrase or kind of recite just roughly the flow of chapter
8 and how it comes out of Chapter 7.
OK, so it starts with there's no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus and we're navigating through
sanctification. We're dealing with our flesh.
He points it out in Chapter 7, comes back to it in chapter 8.
So yes, we are not condemned, but we are having to deal with
our sin nature and we're setting our minds on the Spirit,
bringing in life and peace. When we focus on the Spirit, we
get life and peace and not death.
And then remember, we've been adopted as sons and daughters of
ABBA Father, and we're joint heirs with Jesus.
And the sufferings of this world are temporary.
And what is to come is going to be so great for those who love
God and were called according to His purposes.
Live and remember that God is working all things together for
good. And if God is for us, who can be
against us and who shall separate us from the love of
God? We can be sure that nothing,
nothing, nothing will ever be able to separate us from His
love, and quoting these truths from chapter 8 could strengthen
your love and commitment to God in a great way.
I encourage you in it. Let me pray for us, God, Thank
you for wow, just Paul's gift to us through the power of your
Holy Spirit. Romans in general, but Romans 8
especially for me, after all these years, it's still so
inspiring and foundational to who you are in my life and what
postures I should have in my relationship and walk with you,
Jesus. So I pray that there's a church
that the the language of Romans 8 would become part of our
vernacular, part of the way that we speak about you and lean into
you. So blessed, blessed, blessed.
We pray the days to come as we kind of just even the more
focused on these passages and make them part of who we are in
Jesus name. And before we go this morning,
just quickly this morning, I want to give an opportunity.
If you're here this morning and you've never made the decision
to become a Christian, what does it take to become a Christian?
Well, the Bible says you believe in your heart and confess with
your mouth that Jesus is Lord and then you shall be saved.
And that's what it takes. Then after, yes, we grow in the
ways of God. We grow in our theology and our
study of God. But initially it's just that
it's a free gift. Salvation comes through the
sacrifice that Jesus made for us and the cross.
And so this morning, if you'd like to make that step to become
a Christian, we would. It's a great day to do it and I
would love to pray with you. And then we have a Bible for
you. If you'd like a Bible and we
have a little book talking about your new life in Christ, you can
e-mail me or catch me after service.
And I would love to encourage and be part of celebrating your
decision to become a follower of Jesus and eternity.
Yes. Now the idea is that you'll have
eternity with God, but you don't have to wait to have eternal
life. You get it now, like purpose and
meaning, Zoe type life we call it.
And you can start living and walking in that today.
So let me pray, encourage you to echo this prayer with me.
You could pray. Heavenly Father, I come in Jesus
name and I'm coming because I want to confess my faith in you.
I believe in my heart that Jesus is Lord and I confess with my
mouth. And as I do so, Jesus, I invite
you to come be the Lord of my life and then grow me in your
ways. I want, I want to chase after
you and serve you all the days of my life and then on to
eternity. Put eternity into the now.
Thank you for your forgiveness and love and salvation to me and
bring me to a church, whether it's this church or another
church that will help encourage and stir us all to greater faith
in you. In Jesus name and everyone said
Amen and Amen. Let's all stand together again.
If you received the Lord this morning that I would love to be
able to pray with you, give you a Bible and encourage you any
other way I can. Hey, someone mentioned something
in the first service and I thought, wow, that's a great
idea is that we always close the service with a blessing, right?
And so someone asked me, they said, maybe if you want this is
dumb thing you don't have to do, but I thought, wow, that's kind
of curious. This person said that when they
just kind of do this at the end of the service, just this
posture just leads them to like being more open to receiving the
blessing. So if you want to do that, I
encourage you and that, but if not, you're not comfortable.
That's cool too. But if you'll take a moment, I'm
now going to say a blessing over you before we send you back out
into the world. And now may the Lord bless you
and keep you, and may He make his face to shine upon you.
And may the joy of the Lord that is unspeakable and full of
glory, may it abound to you. And may the peace of God that
passes all understanding, may it surprise you in the midst of all
of the challenges that life brings.
And then may the mercies of the Lord, in other words, the
forgiveness of God, that's new every morning.
May it be especially new to you now and your mornings to come.
And now may the Lord Jesus Christ guard your heart and your
mind, your salt and your light. Go now and be salt and light
unto the world. But one other quick thing, Dale,
will you come in for just a second?
This is Dale. And Dale is having his 80th
birthday today. And Dale is so faithful to serve
here. He's an usher and serves like
fixing things all over. So can we sing happy birthday to
him real quick. All right.
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, dear Dale. Happy birthday to you.
All right, have a great week and we'll see you again sometime
soon.