All right, again, notes are available on the back table.
If you'd like to grab those even before I teach or grab them on
your way out, I invite you to do that and hopefully they will
assist you in kind of tracking with me today as I teach.
All right, if you're watching online, welcome to North Life.
We're so glad that you're here. And we do invite you to come be
with us in person. Come experience worship together
with us at 115 E Main St. in the heart of the old part of
Gaylord. And our services are at 9:00 and
10:30 on Sunday mornings. You're invited.
Would love to see you sometime soon.
And all the church said, Amen. All right, all right, If you
have your Bibles, please take and turn them, whether it's your
device or you have a Bible, turn to first Peter chapter 3 and
it'll take you maybe a few moments to find a few seconds at
least. It's it's like man, almost to
the back of your Bible near Revelation, but it's after
James, before the letters of John, before Revelation, as I
said. So first, Peter, chapter 3,
Peter writes 2 letters that we get to glean from to these days.
And I'm going to read to you from chapter 3, verse 8, Peter
writes finally, I love him. You know, what's interesting is
he says finally, but he's in chapter 3, he's going to go for
like two or three more chapters. And then funny when pastors or
preachers say, hey, finally, it's like you feel like, oh,
they're going to end, they're going to close and then they
just keep going and going and going.
So that's kind of what he does here.
He says finally all of you have unity of mind, sympathy,
brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind, and do not
repay evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but On the
contrary bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain
a blessing for whoever desires to love life and see good days.
Let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking
deceit, and let him turn away from evil and do good.
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are
open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is
against those who do evil. This morning we're going to
continue our series in the Psalms.
We're calling it the OG, the original playlist.
And this morning I want to talk to you about songs in sorrow or
suffering, Songs in the midst of sorrow or suffering.
Let me pray for us. God, what a joy it is to be
together this morning worshipping you.
And we sense your presence, and we sense that you're near and
not far off. And now as an act of worship, we
open our our minds and our heart hearts to your truth and your
word. God show us from first Peter
here ways that we should live our lives.
And as we connect the dots between Peter and Psalms and
stories and for Samuel, let it grow our understanding of your
word and let it shape us. We pray in Jesus name and
everyone said Amen. Now we are as I mentioned in a
series and I I felt excited to get the idea for the series in
the summer months. So it was kind of building up to
the idea of the Psalms which are in the middle of your Bible.
The Psalms contain 5% of the entire Bible.
And I looked at the idea was that the Psalms are a playlist.
And nowadays you can go to Spotify or Apple Music or
YouTube and it's pretty easy now to find playlists.
But we used to have to work hard for them right when we would
make mixtapes or the likes. So we understand the idea of
like a, a list of songs that we enjoy.
I have favorites. I've been making playlists on
my, in my iTunes account since iTunes first came out and
they're valuable to me, right? Well, the Psalms are God's
playlist of songs and they're written over a period of 1500
years. Moses writes the earliest one
and then you have David and David's, you know, like those
that he mentored, they're writing songs.
And then you even have songs that are written in the post
exile period, meaning the time after Shadrach, Meshach,
Abednego, Daniel and the lion's den, Esther, the beauty queen.
If you remember those characters in the Bible and the Old
Testament, well, there are songs that are even written in that
era. So 1500 years of songs end up in
this collection of songs that we call Psalms.
And God is inspired these Psalms and they're so valuable in the
life of a believer. And my encouragement to you is
to read them often. And they're pretty short, many
of them, the Psalm 119, Islam, but most of them are fairly
short. You can read them in just
moments. But the idea of like reading
them often and using them as prayers and using them as
worship ideas is my encouragement to you.
So get the Psalms. However, if you read them or if
you listen to them, you can go to YouTube and you could just
Google Psalms of repentance. Last week I taught on that.
I taught there a group of psalms and I gave you notes to go look
at other ones. But we've mainly looked at Psalm
51 written by David where he says created me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me.
It's a great prayer when we are repenting.
So there are songs of repentance.
I looked at the essential Psalm several weeks back.
Those are like Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not once he makes me lie down.
The green pastures, the the famous psalms, we looked at
those, right? We looked at psalms that tell
about who God is. What is God like?
There are lots of psalms. If you want to find out what God
is like, the Psalms are a great place to go to get information
in these psalms, these songs about who God is.
So each week it's just happened. So I'm going to keep this trend
up each week. I've been starting in the New
Testament. The New Testament quotes the
Psalms 100 * 100 plus times. And I showed you the first week
that Jesus quoted the Psalms. Then I showed you that Peter
quotes the Psalms on the day of Pentecost.
Then I showed you even last week that the tax collector in Jesus
is parable, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
We looked at that last week. Even the tax collector who's
like the lowest, you know that they were considered the scum of
the earth. Even the tax collector quotes
from the Psalms. When he says have mercy on me, O
God, a Sinner, Jesus quotes the psalms.
Peter does, the tax collector does this week.
Now I'm showing you on this occasion in first Peter chapter
3, Peter again is going to quote a Psalm and he's going to quote
it just just right, exactly as it is translated through the
through the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek.
But but it's the same, right? And Peter's going to take this
Psalm that's very important and relevant for those that he was
writing to, and it's relevant for us today.
There are lots of great things we could learn and how to
posture ourselves when we're in the midst of suffering or
sorrow. OK, so Peter is writing, and
he's writing to Christians that were early.
This is early church, maybe just a few decades after Jesus has
been crucified, resurrected and ascended to heaven.
Now there are those who are following Jesus outside of
Jerusalem, and he's writing to Christians that would have been
in what we call modern day Turkey.
OK. And the Christians in this
context were being persecuted. They were being reviled,
criticized, they were suffering and they were in sorrow about
it. And Peter's writing to encourage
them. And remember, Peter had had his
difficulties. He had his failures.
If you're new to the Bible and don't remember who Peter is,
well, Peter was a disciple of Jesus and he walked on water for
a little while, then he sunk, but he did walk on water for a
little while. He denied knowing Jesus The
night that Jesus was betrayed. Jesus even had said to him, you
will betray me before the rooster crows in the morning and
Peter does, but he's ashamed in that moment, but he experiences
the love and the grace of Jesus. And so he comes back to be this
great leader in the early church.
So he's writing now to these Christians that are in the midst
of difficulty and watch the greeting in his letter first
Peter 11, it says Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those
who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontius Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia and Bethenia. Now when he's saying you are the
elected exile, he's talking about these believers who are
still in the areas that they had been taken to in the era of the
Babylonians and the Assyrians. Remember, they're conquered in
the days of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel.
They they were put into exile for 70 years.
And some of the believers of God, they come back to
Jerusalem, they come back to Judah, and others stay dispersed
around that part of the world. So he's writing to these these
believers of God, followers of Jesus who'd been dispersed in
these areas that he mentions. And he says, according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of the
Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with
his blood. And then he says, may grace and
peace be multiplied to you. Peter is very aware when he's
writing to them that they are in the midst of sorrow being
they're being persecuted, they're suffering for their love
for Jesus. And this is his greeting to the
May grace and peace be multiplied to you and watch in
chapter 2, just to give you context and understanding of
what the posture of his letters like in verse 12 of chapter 2,
he says keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that
when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Watch Peter's aware that ironically they are they're
followers of Jesus. They're doing good, but the
world around them is calling them evil doers.
And this is what our culture is like today.
Christians who want to follow God's patterns and God's plans
and God's commands. Often we are criticized and and
called the evil doers. We're called the haters.
They have a whole bunch of names for Christians who disregard the
ways of the world. And we stand.
We stand outside of the culture. And the culture often will
criticize Christian beliefs, Christian morals, and we will be
called sometimes the evil doers. And that's what's happening to
the people that Peter is writing them now.
How is Peter going to encourage them in the midst of their
suffering? Is he going to say to them,
like, whoa, whoa, whoa, are you? How sad, How tragic does he sing
them? Just sad, sad, sad songs.
Now, there are occasions in the Bible where there are laments,
and I'm going to get to those in the weeks to come.
We'll talk about laments, which are sad songs that give voice to
grief. And sometimes we need that in
the midst of great sorrow and grief.
There are some Psalms that give you words in the midst of grief,
but in this occasion, in the midst of their persecution and
suffering, Peter is going to give them advice and wisdom, and
he's going to get this wisdom from Psalm chapter 34.
Now I read you his writing, but let me read you from the Old
Testament, Psalm 3412 through 16.
It is written this way. What man is there who desires
life and loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit,
and turn away from evil, and do good and seek peace and pursue
it. The eyes of the Lord are toward
the righteous, and his ears towards their cry.
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off
memory of them from the earth. This is David Psalm, but Peter
quotes that part of it instead of Peter saying, whoa, how sad
are you? This is so terrible.
No, he's giving them godly advice that he gets from David
Psalm. Now, if you look at David Psalm
and Peter quoting him, you'll see that there are a few subtle
differences, but it's really basically the same.
He is quoting him. But understand that sometimes
when the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, it's doing so
through what we call the Greek Septuagint.
The the, the Greek Old. I'm sorry.
The Hebrew Old Testament had been translated into Greek, and
it's likely that Jesus growing up was actually reading the
Greek translation of the Old Testament, if you didn't know
that. So sometimes there's just subtle
words that might be a little bit different because it had been
translated from Hebrew into Greek, and now Peter is writing
it in Greek and now it's been translated to English.
So that's the route in which the song took to get to us.
So the Old Testament that the early Christians used was again
this Greek translation that we call the Septuagint.
And it was written between or translated at least in 100 year
period between like 250 and 150 BC.
Now when we go back to Psalm 34 where Peter quotes, he takes the
passages from it. We'll see that the heading of
this Psalm 34 has some information about who wrote it
and when he wrote it. And it's very important to to
get the Psalm, you have to know this.
So in our Bibles in the ESV, at least it says this song is of
David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech so
that he drove him out and he went away.
Now what is the what is this referencing?
OK, so before you read the Psalm, what's good to know?
I love the connection. I love the way the Bible
connects. Here you got Peter connected to
Psalm 34 and Psalm 34 is connecting to a story with
David. David wrote the song when this
was happening. OK, now what was happening?
It's referencing first Samuel chapter 21.
And last year I did a series on for Samuel, you might remember.
And so in this occasion, this is the time in David's life when
he's not yet king. Maybe, you know, if you're if
you're new to the Bible, you'll remember David is the one who
slays Goliath with the the sling in the stone.
And eventually he is going to become a king.
He's going to fail greatly with his sin with Bathsheba.
We talked about that last week. But this is the season of his
life where he's not yet king. And Saul the king has become
very jealous of David and wants to kill him.
So David is hiding and it's the lowest part of his life.
He's being persecuted, he's suffering and he's in sorrow.
And watch the story in First Samuel 21.
I won't read the whole thing to you, I'll just paraphrase it,
but I'll tell you a bit of it. First Samuel 21, verse one.
Then David came to Nob, to Hahimlek the priest.
And Hahimlek came to meet David trembling, and he said to him,
Watch the priest says to David, why are you alone?
And no one is with you. David was at a such a blow point
in his life, hiding out from Saul, running for his life.
And he finds himself alone. Now, eventually he's going to
gather men to be with him. But at this series, this point
in his life, when he's going to write Psalm 34 that Peter's
going to quote, this is the posture and the season that
David is in. He's suffering, running for his
life, and he comes to the priest of Hemlec and he's hungry and
Hemlec actually gives him the the holy bread to eat.
He's so desperate for food that he eats the holy bread that
Hemlec gives to him. David's alone.
And the story continues in verses 10 through 14.
You'll find that David is going to pretend to be insane in order
to escape some who want to put him to death.
Verse 10 of chapter 21. And David rose and he fled that
day from Saul, and he went to Akifs, the king of gas.
And the servants of Akifs said to him, is not this David the
king of the land? Did they not sing to one another
of him in dances? Saul has struck down his
thousands and David his 10 thousands.
They're looking at him in this place of defeat.
He's washed up. And they're like, is this is the
guy that they had these songs about?
He's a loser. He's all washed up and verse 12
and David took these words to heart and was much afraid of
Akif, the king of Gath, So he changed his behavior before
them, and he pretended to be insane in their hands and made
marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down on
his beard. Then Akif said to his servants,
Behold, you see, the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to
me? Now we're connecting the dots
again. First Peter quotes Psalm 34.
Psalm 34 is written when David is in this place in his life.
He's being persecuted, he's being wronged, it's unjust.
And what does David say in Psalm 34?
He doesn't just complain, he doesn't just get sad, but
instead he is going to have great wisdom for us.
Psalm 34 is kind of like David's survival guide for those who are
suffering and feel all alone. So now I'm going to read you the
Psalm. I'll read you all 22 verses, and
I'll just kind of just break it down for you a little bit.
But knowing that David writes it in that season of his life is
really important because you get to say it.
Wow. What is his thinking when he's
suffering and being persecuted? The Psalm starts here.
Psalm 34, verse one, David comes out of the gate and he says, I
will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Now, maybe you're familiar with that song, maybe you've heard it
before. Wow, I will bless the Lord at
all times. But knowing that David says this
when he's in this very tragic place makes it more meaningful.
He's not a victorious season. He's defeated even in hardship.
David commits to worshiping God at all times, and then he says
this. My soul makes its boast in the
Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad
David in this tragic place is boasting about God.
When's the last time you boasted about the Lord, spoke of the
goodness of God, the love of God, the mercy of God that you
experience? It's not just to be expressed in
the times of great victory. Again, knowing that David is
expressing this in a time of great defeat makes it even more
valuable and meaningful. And then he says, oh, magnify
the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.
In this occasion, David is acting like the worship leader
on Sunday mornings. I come and worship God with me,
not because he's in this great victorious place, but because he
is determined in his heart that even in the midst of his sorrow
he's going to continue to magnify the Lord.
Come and exalt the Lord with me. And then he says this I sought
the Lord and he answered me and he delivered me from all my
fears. Now David doesn't say God
delivered me from all my difficulties.
God delivered me from my enemies.
He says God delivered me from my fears.
So in the midst of this tragic season of his life, he is
delivered from fear, which is profound.
And this is where the this recent song that we sing here at
our church, I trust in God. There's a part of the song.
In fact, you can sing it with me.
Remember this, the modern song says, I saw the Lord and he
heard and he answered. I sought the Lord and he heard
and he answered. I sought the Lord, and he heard
and he answered. That's why I trust him.
That's why I trust in God. Songwriters are getting that
phrase from Psalm 34 where David is bragging on God and saying I
sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from fear.
In verse 5, it says those who looked at him are radiant and
their faces shall never be ashamed.
David had just come out of a place where he acted insane to
escape his enemy. He could be very ashamed, but
he's not. He's alone, but he's not
ashamed. God has delivered him out of it.
And instead he's saying those who look to God end up shining
in a radiant even in the midst of suffering.
So This is why it's so important that Peter is quoting from Psalm
34 to these believers in Jesus. They're going through difficult
times. Verse 6, this poor man cried and
the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles.
David in this song is the poor man and he by faith is saying
God is going to deliver me from his troubles and my troubles.
He initially said God delivered me from my fears in the midst of
my troubles and God will eventually save me out of all my
troubles. And then watch this in verse 7,
David says the Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear
him and deliver them. He reminds himself of the
protection of God in this lonely place.
And then he's encouraging others to give God a try.
When he says in verse 80, taste and see that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
David is telling others you should try God, give him a
taste, try and try and see the goodness and the greatness, the
holiness of God. He says blessed is the man who
takes refuge. In other words, safety and
protection in God. David needed that.
And then he starts preaching a bit.
He's just again this from this place of sorrow and suffering.
He says he'll fear the Lord, you his Saints for those who fear
him have no lack. And when he's talking about fear
in this occasion, it's not saying that we're afraid of God.
When you see fear talked about this way in the Bible, it's more
about a holy reverence. David's saying have a holy
reverence for God. And then in verse 10 it says the
Young Lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the
Lord lack no good thing. We're better than Young Lions.
He's saying he's testifying in this place about God's provision
and he keeps going. And verse 11 he says, come, O
children, listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the
Lord. Even in this tragic place.
He's calling for children to come.
And I'll show you how great God is even in the midst of my
suffering and tragedy. And then we get to verse 12 and
this is where Peter quotes. So he takes the next verses 12
through 16 and he sends that to those in his letter.
He says what man is there who desires life and loves many days
that he may see good. You want to see good in the
midst of suffering. He has advice that he's going to
offer the Peter's going to quote in verse 13.
He doesn't He's not saying, hey, just be sad and suffer.
Just you know where ashes be pathetic.
No, he says keep your tongue from evil and your lips from
speaking deceit. Watch what you say in other
words, because honesty is important to God.
It matters and then he goes on. He says turn away from evil and
do good and seek peace and pursue it when he says turn
away. Last week we talked about
repentance, how repentance is a turning away from a sin.
The the not God's best. We turn away from that and we
turn towards God. He's saying turn away from evil
and do good. In verse 15, it says the eyes of
the Lord are towards the righteous and his ears towards
their cry and others. God is not distant.
He is attentive. David's alone, but he's not
really alone. God is with them.
He's testifying about it. And then the final part where
Peter quotes in the face of the Lord is against those who do
evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
He's talking about trusting in God and knowing that God is also
attentive to evil and injustice around us and God will bring
justice and that's good to know in the midst of persecution and
suffering. Verse 17, when the righteous cry
for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their
troubles. He's right in this in the midst
of trouble. The Lord hears is what he's
saying. And in verse 18, he says the
Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in
spirit. What a beautiful idea.
David was broken hearted. He was crushed in spirit, but
he's proclaiming that God is near to him.
And think of David who was broken hearted and crushed in
spirit, bringing encouragement to Peter, who's then bringing it
to those that he's writing his letter to.
In verse 19. He goes on and says many are the
afflictions of the righteous. Yeah, we follow Jesus, we still
have affliction, we still have difficulties, we still have
struggles. But then he says the Lord
delivers him out of the mall. Many afflictions, but the Lord
delivers us from the mall. And then watch here in verse 20,
it says he keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken in
this occasion. John is going to quote from this
passage when he's talking about Jesus on the cross.
Watch this John 1936 grabs this truth from Psalm 34.
John writes for these things took place.
These things meaning Jesus being crucified and and beaten.
He says for these things took place that the scripture might
be fulfilled that not one of his bones will be broken.
It's nodding at the story of Jesus to come.
Verse 21 affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate
the righteous will be condemned. In other words, God will bring
justice in his timing. Peter was writing to righteous
people who were hated by the world around them, and he's
saying, hold on because God's wisdom and his judgment, it will
come. Verse 22, the Lord redeems the
life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in
him will be condemned. He finishes reminding them that
God redeems. And when we say God redeems, it
means like God buys us back again.
God creates us, we belong to Him, but we lose our
relationship with God due to sin.
So what does Jesus do? He goes and he buys us back.
He redeems us. And David is Speaking of it in
his Psalm. Now if we go back to first
Peter, we'll see the Peter's going again quote the Psalms.
And the reason why I want to show you this is because I want
you to understand that the fact that the New Testament quotes
the Psalm so often, it means they're important.
Some Christians, they, they just disregard the Old Testament or
some of the some of the letters or some of the books in the Old
Testament. They disregard them as being
unimportant. Peter is and these other New
Testament writers who quote from the Psalms are substantiating
the value and the anointing that is in these Old Testament
passages. So watch this first Peter
chapter 4 verse 19. Peter says therefore, let those
who suffer according to God's will.
Watch that to those who suffer according to God's will.
You mean sometimes it's in God's will that we suffer according to
Peter according to God's will entrust their souls to a
faithful creator while doing good.
If you're in the midst of suffering according to God's
will, then just continue to like entrust your heart and your soul
to God. And when he's mentioned this,
he's, he's grabbing this idea from Psalm 31, verse 5, where it
says into your hand, I commit my spirit.
You have redeemed me. O Lord faithful God, he's
getting that idea. God, we entrust our hearts, our
lives, our journey to you in the midst of suffering.
Now, I would encourage you to take the notes home with you and
to like maybe look at them a couple times this week.
And my invitation to you is just to remember this connection
between first Peter quoting the Psalms.
We go back to Psalm 34. We've looked through it and we
know because of the heading that the story in which David writes
a Psalm is in First Samuel 21, when he's in this very tragic
place. So an application.
I want to ask you, what kind of suffering might you be in
because of your faith? There are occasions where in the
midst of your suffering, because of your faith, I'm not talking
about a tragedy in your life, but but suffering that is coming
along because you're living righteously, but the world
around you hates God's principles.
So sometimes you're going to be criticized because of it.
OK. So what kind of suffering might
you find yourself in? In the weeks to come, We'll talk
about some of the songs that are lamenting.
It wouldn't tragedy, OK? But for now, it's just suffering
that comes because we're following Jesus.
What kind of suffering are you experiencing for your faith?
People who think, again, they call you the evil doer even
sometimes when you're following God's principles.
And then I would say, what are these bits of wisdom that Peter
quotes and that David writes would be very helpful to you in
your life? My encouragement to you this
week is to go through Psalm 34 and read and go, wow.
In the midst of his suffering, he's offering really great
advice. He starts with, bless the Lord,
O my soul, all his days, he's going to be in that posture,
honoring God even in the midst of his suffering for doing good.
And then I would say it's valuable to know that David and
those that Peter was writing to endured and testified greatly
about the faithfulness of God in the midst of their suffering, in
the midst of you navigating through sorrow and suffering
again for your righteous stance, remembering that David endured,
Peter endured and those that Peter writes to, they endured
that mean didn't mean they didn't have any more challenges.
Peter eventually interesting enough is going to be martyred
for his faith, but yet he still is following these principles
from Psalm 34. He's able to keep in faith.
He endures in faith even in the midst of great, great suffering
and tragedy. And we can too, when we take
these principles from Psalm 34. Let me pray for us.
God, thank you for this day that you have made.
And we, God, we stand before you, and we want to be able to
grab these principles. And so our hope is that you will
make them very solid in our minds and help us to model
ourselves after Peter and the way he followed after you and
the way that David followed after you in the midst of
whatever persecution we might experience for standing up for
what's right. When we're called the evil
doers, let us not retaliate. Let us not revile those who are
reviling of us, but instead give us the heart and the posture
that David had. This is our prayer and our hope
as we continue to navigate through the Psalms.
God, I do pray that you would increase within us a love for
them and understanding for them and affection for the Psalms.
We pray this in Jesus name and everyone said Amen.
Now before we leave, I do want to give a moment in our service
where if you are a person who's never given your life to Christ,
you've never made the decision to become a Christian.
I want to give you a moment to do that.
And what does it look like? You reached a point in your life
where you understand that you're really not spiritually alive
until you give the lordship of your life over to Jesus.
We call that being born again. Jesus says that in John chapter
3. It's like you're born the first
time from your mother's womb. Then you're born spiritually
when you invite the salvation and the love of Christ to come
into your life. And that means that you turn
away from sin and you turn towards God and His ways.
And maybe you've been investigating the the claims of
Christianity. You don't have to understand all
of the doctrine and all of the Scripture, but you do need to
understand that Jesus is God and that he sacrificed himself for
us so that we can have relationship with them.
And confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord is the way to
come to salvation. And then we encourage you to
tell someone if you're making that decision.
We tell, say, tell someone. And then we encourage you to be
baptized, being baptized as an outward expression of being
washed clean and resurrected. And Jesus, and we'll have
baptisms again in the near future.
But I want to pray and I want to invite you to pray with me.
And if you've never made that decision, then you could pray
and receive Christ as your Lord this morning.
Let me pray and you can echo. You might pray.
Heavenly Father, come into my life.
Jesus, be the Lord of my life. I confess and proclaim Jesus
that you are God and that you have been drawing me and pulling
me towards you, and I want to have a relationship with you.
I want to experience your forgiveness and grace, and I
want you to put eternal life into me now.
I can receive it now, God, I receive it.
You being the Lord of my life leads me into your Kingdom and
puts eternity into me now. And I thank you for eternal life
to come, and I thank you for eternal life now.
So I give you my life. Come and reign and rule in me
Jesus be the Lord of my life and grow me in your ways.
I pray in Jesus name and everyone together said, hey man,
wonderful. It's all stand together before
we go. Thanks again for being here this
morning. I'll remember Wednesday night
7:00. We'll have the student LED night
of worship. Encourage you to be at that we
will have kids ministry that night.
So if if but you know, we want our kids in service with us
typically so as we will do like we did worship.
But if you do need to go be in the nursery, of course, you
could take advantage of that. Those of you with really young
children before you go, I do want to say a blessing over you
if you'll prepare your heart to receive this blessing.
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 made a bound to you.
And may the peace of God that passes all understanding made a
bound to you, also made 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 in your mornings to come.
And now may the Lord Jesus Christ guard your heart and your
mind. You are salt and you are light.
Go now and be salt and light unto the world.
You are blessed. We'll see you again soon.