My Prayer for You: Ephesians 3:14 -21

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June 15, 2020

Faith Bible Church, Sacramento, CA - Farewell message from Pastor Stan Bernstein. He and his wife Laurie have been a special blessing to this church these many years. God Bless You

00:00: Good morning Great to see you here this morning What a blessing it is as we consider.
00:08: This is the day. The Lord has made and We will rejoice and be glad in it.
00:14: So we are here this morning to praise God and to remember all of his blessings and So let us be joyful this morning as we come and serve him
00:30: Let's go to Lord in prayer Dear father, we're thankful for all of your blessings upon us individually and as a church and as we
00:42: Assemble this morning and worship you May we worship you from our hearts father, and we give you all the glory this morning in Jesus name
00:53: Good morning I Bless the
00:58: Lord of my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name for forgetting on his benefits
01:05: My help comes from the Lord which made heaven and earth Jesus Christ is Lord It is
01:11: Jesus Christ who saves souls praise God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit It is in him that we are able that he
01:18: It is him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless Before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to Jesus Christ the only wise
01:27: God our Savior be glory and majesty Dominion power now Forever amen
01:35: And please stand and let's sing. The Lord is my salvation I Thank you for singing and please be seated at this time
02:42: Well, good morning First want to say see a few new faces out there. So welcome to the
02:49: Bible Church this morning We're glad to have you and we'd be giving you a hug right now, but we just can't so I hope you understand
02:56: Everybody's resisting that impulse to extend themselves physically to embrace someone else and especially as believers
03:03: And so yes, okay. There we go sign But it's not quite the same thing, but you know, our heart is so welcome
03:13: This we're grateful. This is our second week of being open Corporately in this building and praise
03:20: God for that. So amen It's another significant day and that this is
03:26: Bernstein's last Sunday with us and we're gonna share some more after the service, but Few heavy hearts today
03:38: Ladies Bible study is next or this Saturday at 10 o 'clock So meet here 10 o 'clock ladies
03:46: And if you haven't been to a lady's Bible study before you'd like to come out all visitors are welcome Come totally unprepared, but if you've been there before she's far, but expect you to come prepared
04:01: So I think it'd be a blessing to be there with the ladies I know but my wife comes home
04:06: She's just got a smile across her face and the ladies just thoroughly enjoy getting together like that.
04:12: So Thank you bar turn to your Bibles to John chapter 17
04:18: Start with verse 1 go to verse 3 These words spoke
04:28: Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour is come glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee as thou has given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him and This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true
04:51: God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent And may God bless the reading of his word
08:19: Please stand and join us in singing beautiful Savior Oh God is holy.
12:14: Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty Oh For singing, please be seated.
15:25: I handed over to pastor step What a song all the glory goes to God Praise God he is worthy, isn't he?
15:37: Let's go Lord in prayer dear Heavenly Father we
15:44: Exult in you this morning we Exalt your name on high because you are so good.
15:52: You are so holy. You are so Loving you are so worth
15:58: Serving and worth knowing and we are so blessed this morning as we come
16:05: Before you this morning and before your word We pray that you would bless us as we
16:12: Get into your word that we might hide your word in our heart and produce fruit for your glory and I ask this in Jesus name.
16:26: Amen My wife and I have received many blessings in But I would like to say perhaps one of the greatest blessings
16:42: In our lives has been serving here at Faith Bible Church With you in the gospel.
16:50: It has been an incredible privilege. It has been wonderful Blessing I couldn't imagine a greater church a more loving
17:01: Church a more Generous and caring and faithful Church than this church right here and you have been a blessing to myself and my wife all of these years and We've had to make a hard decision
17:20: To leave but we know that it's going to be for the best and that you have an incredible future ahead of you and so we are
17:33: Going with in a hard way in the sense that it's sad but we also know that God is going to be with you and in you are going to Be incredibly blessed as a church
17:50: Just as you have been an incredible blessing to us so this morning
17:57: I couldn't think of a better way to Have a
18:03: Parting sermon so to speak then to have a blessing In other words, the name of this sermon is my prayer for you
18:16: And my prayer for you is Paul's prayer for the
18:21: Ephesians and That is basically summed up in this
18:28: That Christ will be your all -in -one all
18:35: That's my prayer Let's look at Ephesians 3 14 through 21
18:47: Ephesians 3 14 through 21. It's always good to read the verses before you preach.
19:11: I Remember once I didn't do it I used to always do it then one of the brothers came up to me after the service said pastor
19:19: You know, there would be a good thing to do when you preach and that would be to read the verses beforehand
19:25: And it's always stuck with me. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good thing to do. So that's why I do it
19:32: Verse 14 For this reason I bow my knees to the father of our
19:39: Lord Jesus Christ From whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named
19:49: That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory
19:54: To be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man
20:00: That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith That you being rooted and grounded in love
20:10: May be able to comprehend With all the Saints What is the width and the length and depth and height?
20:22: To know the love of Christ which passes Knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God Now to him who is able to do exceedingly
20:38: Abundantly above all we ask or think According to the power that works in us to him
20:48: Be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen
20:56: You know what those verses are so glorious. I feel like I can just stop and go home now
21:02: I hope you sense the glory in those verses
21:11: First of all when I consider what my prayer would be for you this morning first thing is
21:19: I Pray that you will find God's strength verses 14 and 15
21:29: We see true prayer now in this
21:37: Prayer in these verses as Is the case with Paul's prayers for the believers
21:46: He always prays that God's people
21:54: Will know Christ in a deep and personal way and know his blessings and the blessings they have in Christ and That's what we see in this prayer
22:10: Now Paul's prayer for the Saints is God's heart
22:18: It's his desire for us So my prayer for you this morning is
22:25: Paul's prayer that you may grow deep in Christ and find the riches of his love and Be able to extend that to other people not only individually
22:44: But as a church, that's my prayer for all of us now verse 14
22:53: Really goes back to chapter 3 verse number 1 in chapter 3 verse number 1
23:02: Paul had been talking about the glory of the church Where he took
23:09: Jews and Gentiles and he saved them through Jesus Christ He redeemed them and he made them the
23:20: Blessed Church God's spiritual Church his body which is called one new man.
23:31: And so after chapter 3 verse 1
23:37: Paul Goes into what we call a parentheses, which means that he goes into He goes off the beaten path a little ways and he talks about the mystery of Christ Which is the glory of the church the one new man that God has made by saving
24:00: Jews and Gentiles What a what a glory it is when when we not only have a high view of God, but have a correct
24:11: Biblical and high view of the church, even though we do see a lot of problems in the church.
24:17: It's God's Church, right? and it's made up of Jews and Gentiles that are saved and what a wonderful privilege it is
24:30: To be a member of God's Church and to serve God through his church and again,
24:39: I Just want to thank you For all the years of support that you have given my wife and I My heart can't tell you how much
24:50: I appreciate that the love and support That you have given us
24:58: It has been Wonderful and God has done great things and God will continue to do great things at Faith Bible Church and So Paul says for this reason
25:16: I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Now When he says
25:24: I bow my knees He's not saying that when you pray every time you pray you have to bow your knees.
25:31: That's not what he's saying here but that expression
25:36: I bow my knees is What should be our posture in prayer?
25:44: true prayer is Humility and reverence When we come to God in prayer
25:53: We come humbly don't we through Jesus Christ? Knowing who we are that we're sinners saved by grace and we come with sweet reverence before God our
26:07: Father and that's the idea and Paul Bows his knees before the father of our
26:18: Lord Jesus Christ Now that term in expression the father of our
26:24: Lord Jesus Christ basically means the true God the true
26:29: God is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and here what we need to Understand that so glorious here is our
26:40: Lord Jesus Christ is said to be Lord He's Lord.
26:47: He's God Jesus Christ, he's so glorious in Here he is equal to the father you see and what a blessing it is
27:00: That we here at Faith Bible Church are not only brothers and sisters in Christ But we know and serve the true
27:11: God and what an awesome privilege that is
27:20: May I encourage you that whatever area God has you serve
27:27: Outside the church or inside the church you consider it a great privilege to serve
27:39: Isn't it true beloved we can't give him enough for what he has given us through Jesus Christ in our salvation
27:48: Isn't that true? Can we ever give him enough? And so we see verse 15
27:58: God is so glorious That he is the king over all earth the whole earth he is the creator of Everything and of you and I which gives us purpose and Dignity because we all of us no matter what background we come from no matter what?
28:26: race or culture or whatever we come from we were created in the image of God, right and God Has authority and power over all of his creation
28:44: That's what verse 15 means That's the God we serve though.
28:54: It might seem like we go, you know Three steps well one step forward put it that way and three steps backward a lot
29:08: God goes with us as his church God goes with us as His people and We serve the true
29:20: God who has all power All power to do anything and Nothing is impossible with God.
29:34: That's why I serve I serve
29:41: Because not only has God called me To serve as a pastor and gifted me by his grace
29:50: But I also serve because it is an incredible glorious privilege to serve
29:59: God and I have been one of the most
30:09: Privileged individuals may I say that? Because I have been given the great honor and privilege to serve
30:20: God in the gospel of And be a preacher of his everlasting word.
30:31: That is a great thing That is a more glorious calling beloved than being president of the
30:38: United States. I wouldn't stoop for that I'd rather be the lowliest preacher of the word than to be the president of the
30:52: United States and not know Jesus Christ and so We see in verse number 16 prayer for strength
31:10: It says that he would grant you Notice that in that verse
31:16: Where's the emphasis? Who is the emphasis on in? Verse 16 is it on us?
31:24: No, it's on God, right? It says that he God's the emphasis in other words.
31:32: It's God who gives us strength We have no strength in ourselves
31:38: We need the strength of God We need the strength of God in order to live in order to face our battles in order to serve him
31:49: And that's my prayer for you that God will strengthen you
31:56: To do what he wants you to do to serve him
32:05: He grants us strength praise God You know,
32:11: I think it's a good thing for us daily to pray God give me strength today
32:21: To face this day We all need that don't we we all need to do that Say it says here that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit you see
32:41: God strengthens us by his spirit and He strengthens us according to the riches of his glory.
32:51: My that's some strength because the power and the might and the
33:00: Strength that God gives us is out of the riches of his glory.
33:06: That's really the focus Here of the according to the riches of his glory
33:11: It's out of the riches of his glory and that means out of God's Abundance, right?
33:18: He gives us abundance to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man and Praise God for the
33:33: Spirit of God that we have When you have received Christ as your
33:39: Savior you received the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God baptized you into the body of Christ and You have the
33:51: Spirit of God and God strengthens us By his spirit in the inner man
33:59: Now that phrase inner man means the immaterial part of us inside of us
34:12: The true person he gives us inner strength, isn't that what we need?
34:20: We're all kind of rickety and failing Physically and outwardly
34:26: I like to tell people I I'm gonna go bandage to heaven But at least I'm gonna go to heaven, you know, but what we need no matter how old you are
34:40: No matter what your state is physically no matter how young you are What we need is
34:48: God strength We need inner strength How do we get inner strength we get it through God?
34:58: We get it through having a personal relationship With God through Jesus Christ and putting him first in our life and living for him and Living for his word and he strengthens us daily
35:13: It's a daily walk with Jesus, isn't it? And he gives us
35:19: Daily strength. I like the Old Testament verse according to To your days.
35:27: So shall your strength be I love it. God gives us strength for every day
35:37: He gives us enough strength for every day. That's my prayer for you as A church that you will continue to serve
35:51: God that he will strengthen you and you will serve him here at Faith Bible Church and You will be full of joy and you will enjoy it and You will continue to be a blessing and you'll serve him by the strength
36:18: That God gives you to serve him Second I pray that you will know the love of Christ That's my next prayer for you.
36:32: That's Paul's next Prayer for the Ephesians Verses 17 through 19
36:44: Live in Christ's love verses 17 and 18 and here
36:53: Paul Basically is praying for the Saints. He's praying. I pray that you will know
36:59: Christ deeply Is there is there anything greater than that? Knowing Christ in a deep and personal way
37:09: That's what he's saying that Christ may dwell in your hearts He's not praying that you're gonna be saved
37:18: He's praying That You're since you're already saved
37:25: That Christ may make a home in your heart because that's what the word Dwell means in the
37:32: Greek to Settle down and make a home that Christ will settle down in our hearts and make his home that our whole life will be
37:54: Christ -centered as Believers Christ is our life and That we will live for him and that everything we do
38:05: Not only our thoughts but our deeds our words our actions Would be to glorify
38:11: Christ. Oh that he would dwell in Your hearts you see it's not just enough to know the
38:26: Bible and To know that Christ is Lord and he came for us
38:37: But you have to have faith in him you have to receive
38:47: Jesus Christ the Lord in your heart and Come to know him in a personal way
38:56: So that he is your personal Savior That's the most important thing.
39:04: My whole thrust as a pastor is very simple first of all It's to get the gospel out
39:11: To see people come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and after that it's to build them up In Christ and in the
39:21: Word of God So they might do the work of the ministry. That's it.
39:27: It's as simple and as complex as that That crop in Paul's praying that Christ may
39:37: Dwell In their hearts through faith and if Jesus Christ is your
39:50: Lord and he is living in you and You are abiding in him you are gonna bear fruit and That's the great thing and it comes over a period of time
40:12: Rome wasn't built in a day and a Christian doesn't mature in a day
40:22: Sanctification is a whole lifetime process isn't it coming to be more like Jesus Christ and so we see that the end effect of Knowing Christ in a deep and personal way is
40:46: That we will be rooted and grounded in love
40:54: Wow, I remember once my wife said
41:02: That her whole focus in life was to live in love to love and Personally, I think she's doing
41:15: By God's grace a great job of it and That's what we are to do.
41:24: My prayer for you is You will not only be sound in doctrine and love the
41:30: Word of God and teach and preach the Word of God but that you will live it out in love and That I would live it out in love and Paul says it this way
41:45: That you will become strong and grounded in Christ and Reflect the love of Christ and he uses a mixed metaphor
41:58: The first one is an agricultural term and the second one is an architectural term
42:05: He says being rooted Love that You know when
42:13: I think of a tree a cross tree from our house is this great big tree and I look at it
42:19: And I go wow, how great is God that tree it I look at it's a like a tower of strength
42:27: You see We need to be rooted and grounded in Christ like a tree
42:35: Whose roots go deep into the earth? Deep into the soil deep into grace
42:45: Our roots need to go deep into the grace of God So that we're strong like a tree so that when the winds and the trials of life come
42:58: It'll just make us stronger say That's what happens with a tree
43:04: It bends in the wind and it becomes stronger and we become stronger if we're rooted in Christ, right
43:13: We become stronger through the trials. They're not easy, but God uses them to make us more like Christ and then grounded in love
43:26: The word grounded in the Greek means foundation that our foundation will be in Christ My prayer for you as an individual is that the foundation of your life will be
43:43: Christ and the Word of God because Christ is the true foundation of Any life in any church and I pray as our heritage and faith
43:56: Bible Church has been so rich And it's been a biblical heritage that you will continue the wonderful heritage of Christ and The Word of God and being a biblically minded church
44:15: That preaches the Bible and lives the Bible Gives out the word that this church would would grow strong in Christ and The word because that's how we grow
44:36: Grow strong your deep your roots will go deep in the faith and deep in Christ Paul says it this way in Colossians chapter 3 verse 17
44:54: Colossians 3 17 Nope wrong.
45:01: Sorry Colossians 2 6 and 7 Colossians 2 6 and 7.
45:13: This is the same thought In these verses is telling us how we are to walk as Christians when it says walk in the
45:24: Bible It means how we are to live our lives And look what it says as you therefore have received
45:32: Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him rooted and built up in him and Established in the faith as you have been taught abounding in it with Thanksgiving first of all you have to become a
45:50: Christian you have to get saved, right? You're not a
45:55: Christian until you have received Christ as your Savior You received him by faith.
46:03: You know that you're a sinner You know that you can't save yourself and without Jesus Christ you are doomed for an eternity of hell and that he died on the cross for your sins as your substitute and You put your faith in him and when you do he will save you in other words
46:26: He will cleanse you of all your sin. He will forgive you of all your sin, and he will make you a new creature
46:35: That's the beginning of the Christian life You can't walk in Christ and have the power of God unless you're a child of God and So as you've received
46:47: Christ Jesus the Lord walk in him. How are we to walk in him rooted and built up in him?
46:54: established in the faith That's the goal for this church.
46:59: That's the goal for each of one of us to mature in Christ To be grounded in Christ to be grounded in the
47:11: Word of God and in the glorious faith of the gospel and Abounding in Thanksgiving let's not forget that last part so important to be a thankful person and so Paul's praying
47:35: For them For the believers To know
47:43: Christ deeply to be grounded in Christ to walk in love and also verse number 18 to be able to take hold of Jesus Christ and eat the word there is
48:05: To be able to comprehend him Wow That word comprehend in the
48:13: Greek means to hold on to or to appropriate
48:19: Paul's praying that the believers would appropriate Christ in their lives
48:27: Know him Experience him the glorious thing is is
48:36: We can know Christ through faith But we can't comprehend the totality and the essence of his being and his glory.
48:48: He's so glorious But we can know him and that's what
48:54: Paul's praying that you will know Jesus that you will Appropriate it to your life that he will be the focus of your life that you will now live for God and not yourselves and you will
49:13: Comprehend with all the Saints all the truly born -again believers
49:20: The very glory of Jesus Christ that is unfathomable think of that the very glory of this person as God is beyond our knowing intellectually
49:37: It's so deep it's immeasurable Greater than any ocean and he's saying
49:49: I pray that you will Know the glory and to show
50:06: The immeasurableness of his glory and how expansive and Great -and -wonderful it is
50:19: He uses these words that you'll know the width and length and depth and height
50:29: That God will continue to show you as you walk with Jesus and you grow in Jesus the greatness and glory and the wonderful calling that you have in Christ Oh that we might understand
50:50: The glorious calling that we have in Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful thing it is to serve
50:58: Jesus Christ, right To serve him together It goes together, doesn't it?
51:05: When you know the glory of Christ, you're gonna want to serve Jesus Christ and so The first Exhortation in verses 17 and 18 is to live in Christ's love.
51:23: The next Exhortation is to let Christ's love live in you Let Christ live in you
51:32: Verse 19. I Love this verse. I love them all.
51:37: Let me tell you. I just love the Word of God. I I love everything about the
51:48: Word of God. I hope you do too. If you love God you should love his word and I know you do that's why that's one of the reasons why
51:59: I love this church Because you love God and you love the
52:04: Word of God and you can't get enough of it. That's the way to be I hope you never lose that.
52:10: I hope I never lose that He's he's praying to know the love of Christ Hey, can there be anything better than that than to know the love of Christ?
52:24: Nothing, there's nothing better than that You see it passes knowledge
52:31: It's greater than our intellect You see Jesus Christ The glory of his person has to be revealed to us
52:41: God reveals Jesus Christ to us through his spirit and his word and The love of Christ is so great
52:52: It's beyond our Knowledge that you'll know it in a deep and personal way
53:07: It's my prayer that you'll know the love of Christ So that you'll be able to as a church share the love of Christ With a world that so desperately needs it.
53:22: I Know that you're in grief and sorrow over the situation
53:30: In our country right now just as I am I'm in such grief
53:39: With what's going on in this country right now the division the violence and everything
53:48: But if you know the love of Christ You can not only stand strong in a world that doesn't but you can share
54:01: The love of Christ with people who so desperately need
54:06: Christ and his love that's what the world needs now We need
54:14: Christ and his love The world needs people like you that know
54:22: Jesus Christ and Show love not hate show forgiveness
54:31: Show tolerance show acceptance That's what we need
54:39: The world needs God right now. We need to show more love don't
54:47: It really is applicable and if we know the love of Christ We will be filled filled with all the fullness of God this word filled means being like a container that's filled with something and We are filled with the fullness of God You see if you are full of the fullness of God and you are walking in the
55:34: Spirit of God You are gonna be full of the love of God You're gonna show the love of God What a prayer
55:49: That we might be filled with the fullness of God You see when you receive
55:58: Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior It says in Romans 5 5 that the
56:06: Spirit of God shed abroad the love of God in your heart
56:13: And he gave us the love of Jesus We have his love we need to live in his love
56:22: We need to live it out and we need to let Christ live in us, right? That's the essential of Being a
56:32: Christian. That's my prayer for you. I Don't know many churches with as much love as Faith Bible Church, and I'm not just saying that I'm a pastor.
56:48: I've been to as many churches But when you come to this church
56:57: You're always Welcomed you're always greeted with love and if you come for the first time
57:07: You're not a stranger But that's not the case in some churches.
57:17: I thank God For you for your love and I would say
57:25: Encourage you as I would encourage myself Let that love abound more and more
57:33: We can never be complacent, right? We can never love enough. We always have to love more
57:47: Lastly I Pray that you will glorify God What a great
57:52: I? Pray that you will glorify God verses 20 and 21
58:01: We have a big God verse number 20 You see in verses 14 through 19, this is
58:10: Paul's prayer For the Ephesians and now in verses 20 and 21
58:18: It's the doxology Now doxology is a big word that simply means praise to God.
58:26: That's what doxology is Paul is now praising God Let me say
58:34: Just like Paul our lives should be prayer and praise
58:44: We should be people of prayer and we should be people Who praise
58:50: God? That makes a Christian and that's what we see right here
58:57: Paul is also telling us he he was praying about things that the
59:02: Ephesians should be Character qualities fruits of the Spirit that they should seek to develop in their lives
59:10: He's telling us how we should live and how what we should strive for and now he is showing us
59:17: How we can do it. He's showing us that we can do it by the power of God see
59:24: He's not telling us to do something without Having the power he's now saying you can do it because you have a big
59:35: God That's what the doxology is telling us right here.
59:41: I love it Now to him who is able again
59:47: Who's the emphasis on here in the doxology God? Giving glory to God that should be the whole focus of our lives
59:56: We should give glory to God for whatever he gives us any blessings anything all glory all praise
01:00:04: Goes to him praise God Now to him who is able
01:00:11: I love that God is able that's what he's saying this word able in the
01:00:17: Greek is Dunam I What English word do you think we get from that?
01:00:24: dynamite, there you go, I Think we've got a Greek scholar here dynamite
01:00:32: God's power is dynamite God is powerful
01:00:40: He's able We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, right?
01:00:50: Amen That's the idea He is able to do more than we can imagine or think
01:01:00: Isn't that true? We limit God, but God is so big.
01:01:06: He's so much greater than we even think he is and Paul Emphasizes God's power by just piling up the adjectives
01:01:25: And here they are Exceedingly abundantly and above Showing us those words show us how great and how powerful
01:01:38: God is Not only that the word exceedingly abundantly in the
01:01:45: Greek means I kind of like this Super abundantly
01:01:52: He can do super abundantly above all that we
01:01:59: Ask or think in other words Even what we pray for and what we think
01:02:06: God can do God can do so much more. I love it because I Have seen
01:02:16: God So many times I Pray for something, but he gives me something so much greater than I ever would pray for about Can you relate to that?
01:02:33: But it's so easy to limit God, isn't it? as you know
01:02:41: My wife and I are seeking to move to, Idaho And we didn't realize what a journey of faith
01:02:49: It would be we kind of put everything all together and we've got all these stress points going on and we
01:03:00: Thought okay. We got to sell our house here in Sacramento and then we got to go and buy a house in,
01:03:07: Idaho And we thought oh It's not gonna be any problem to sell our house
01:03:15: Here in Sacramento because we have a pretty nice house. At least we thought we did We put it in the market and nobody wanted it
01:03:24: What a realtor said you're gonna sell it the first weekend. We took his word for it.
01:03:29: Why were we naive? first weekend goes By second weekend goes by the house still isn't sold three weeks later
01:03:38: It's still not sold. Well, we got it kind of coincide the sale of this house with the sale of the other house
01:03:46: We're getting worried Nervous You know what
01:03:53: I was buckling a little I gotta admit it but God never buckles
01:03:59: Even though I was buckling a little God came through he's faithful We got somebody
01:04:09: Who put an offer on the house? we thought the person was gonna buy it and the person bailed out and we
01:04:16: Were nervous we lacked Faith or let me just say
01:04:23: I did but God never Left us just like God.
01:04:30: I thought watch He's gonna open the floodgates now when we're really low because he's testing our faith, which he was and Sure enough right after that person bailed out of that buying the house
01:04:47: We got two offers on the house right after that and the very last person who looked at the house bought the house
01:04:56: God's timing is always right We limited
01:05:02: God but guess what? God is still God. He's still glorious and He's still faithful and he's still great and we can trust him and look at It says according to the power that works in that in us.
01:05:25: I love that You see as Believers we have
01:05:31: God's Power we have great power We have the Holy Spirit.
01:05:36: We know God And that's how we live that's how we face life
01:05:43: We don't face life on our own we face life with God and he empowers us
01:05:50: And it's my prayer That you will continue to trust God as a church
01:05:56: To do great things because beloved Yes, this is a hard transition
01:06:02: You guys have been so great to us and faithful to us all these years and it's hard for us to leave
01:06:10: I I say it like this. It's like leaving family, but I want to tell you something God has a great future for you in this church.
01:06:20: And this is a new beginning for you a new beginning He's gonna do great things
01:06:28: He can do great. We got a big God and that's what we have to believe
01:06:39: We don't live life on our own we live life Depending on God and trusting him even in the midst of our disappointments and our
01:06:52: Discouragements we get back up on the horse and we keep on riding you keep going
01:06:58: We keep going right? We don't give up because God is so big the gospel is so glorious His church
01:07:14: Is so glorious And it's a privilege to know
01:07:21: God and to be a part of his church and To serve him in his church, isn't it?
01:07:30: And that's what we see in verse 21. I Love it to him what be glory in where in the church
01:07:39: You See what Paul's showing again? Is that God's glory is shown in his church in the redeemed?
01:07:50: Saints in the body of Christ It shows that not only can
01:07:58: God save people he makes them his children They have forgiveness of sins and we have the
01:08:05: Spirit of God and how glorious it is to be a member of this Church, and again, of course,
01:08:12: I'm not saying the building I'm saying being his very people
01:08:18: In whom he lives You see the glory of God is seen in the church
01:08:29: If I didn't believe that I wouldn't be a pastor If I didn't believe in the
01:08:36: Word of God, I didn't believe in the gospel I would pack it up and I would sell used cars
01:08:45: We're packing and we're leaving But I'm trusting God to continue to use us in ministry in areas that he has because there's no retirement in the kingdom of God as a pastor you just transition
01:09:08: Into another area of service I'm getting older and I'm I'm tired and I can't do the work
01:09:16: I used to do and that's the big reason why I'm retiring But God has something else for me and our family
01:09:27: And he has good things in store for you because God's glory is seen in his church
01:09:36: In his church are the people to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus And it's all because of Jesus Christ It's all because we are now
01:09:55: His church we are now saved through Jesus Christ And he is risen and we he is our
01:10:03: Lord and to him be all the glory It doesn't mean it's not one person
01:10:10: Beloved it's him. He gets the glory It's his church and his church not only
01:10:29: Will stand against the gates of hell the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ and the church is the pillar and the ground of the of the truth but it also
01:10:46: Will remain and show his glory to all generations forever
01:10:52: And ever I like it when old Barry McGuire got saved some of you
01:11:00: From the 60s He was a rock -and -roll guy and He got saved and I actually saw him in concert as a
01:11:10: Christian. He was a Christian. I love what he said he said
01:11:17: I was on a Different bandwagon, but now
01:11:23: I'm on the only bandwagon and that's Jesus Christ I hope you're on the right bandwagon
01:11:35: Hope you know Jesus Christ this morning. I hope you're saved. I hope he's your
01:11:41: Lord. I Hope you that he's the foundation of your life. And my prayer is that for faith
01:11:49: Bible Church that Christ will be the foundation of this church and the
01:11:56: Word of God will continue to be the foundation of this church and And by Jesus Christ, it'll show forth the glory of God be encouraged
01:12:11: Be faithful Continue to serve God For he's able he's able and He's doing a good thing.
01:12:24: And as you have blessed us My prayer is that God will continue to bless you
01:12:34: So that you can continue to bless others with the
01:12:39: Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ my closing
01:12:48: Benediction is May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Be with you all
01:12:59: Please stand for a closing benediction It is a sweet sorrow in a sense for a last service and sermon
01:13:32: But it is great seeing you all you have all been Such an incredible blessing to our lives and we know
01:13:43: That you will continue to be a blessing to our lives and to Many many others.
01:13:50: This is a special church It's a very loving church That loves
01:13:57: God and loves people and it's my prayer That God will continue to bless faith
01:14:05: Bible Church for the gospel sake Let's close in prayer
01:14:15: Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for the glorious Privilege That we as a family have had serving these years with such a wonderful church and group of individuals that you have assembled and As my prayer that you will bless
01:14:39: Faith Bible Church in each and every person here That they will all use their gifts to serve you that they will move forward in unity and love and Will be a testimony for Jesus Christ in the
01:15:01: Word of God not only in this community but in the world and We ask all this in Jesus name.
01:15:12: Amen Please be seated at this time
01:15:50: We're gonna take this time we do Presentation here give you the opportunity to turn the mic around if folks would like to say some things
01:16:02: Please come forward and share your thoughts with the Bernsteins, but you would
01:16:15: Congregation and this is for you. This is a an expression of Our love for you our heart for you
01:16:35: He's got a pocket knife Okay, yeah, he's making it Just as pastor today was sharing from Ephesians Wait till it gets there
01:16:54: There he goes This is a verse that has
01:17:00: I'm sure special meaning to them It's a prayer. It's a thankfulness
01:17:06: Our thankfulness for you and I would like to read it here
01:17:12: It's a it's Philippians 1 3 through 6. I thank my
01:17:18: God in all my remembrance of you Always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy
01:17:27: Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now and I am sure of this
01:17:33: That he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
01:17:40: Amen Amen, and it's and it's on the footnote because some of you don't know that says with love and gratitude for your life of shepherding and ministry faith
01:17:52: Bible Church and You know words really can't express What you've meant to and I think some of those cards will try to attempt to do that But a lot of it's unspoken
01:19:00: Closing prayer a Gracious Heavenly Father. This is as we've shared a heavy day for us
01:19:07: But Lord, it's a it's a glorious day because we know you are upon the throne that you are
01:19:13: Lord over all That you show us love that we can demonstrate to it one another as love has been demonstrated this morning
01:19:22: God we thank you for your faithfulness Thank you for the faithfulness of the Bernstein's father
01:19:27: That you would go before them that you would help them in this move that the move would go smoothly for them
01:19:32: That you would open a door and gates for them in in Idaho that you would take them lead them to a solid church and that they would have new
01:19:43: Relationships and new friendships father that will continue to build and to uplift in and to spread your kingdom father
01:19:49: God be with us here as we remain behind, but Lord, we're not alone and We have you as our shepherd and as our guide above all things
01:19:59: So we thank you again for the Bernstein's and what a what a blessing it's been and what a privilege
01:20:05: It's been to be a part of their lives and for them to be part of ours So Lord, we are are full of gratitude this morning and we ask for your blessing on each one here today