Colossians And Politics

Lord Jesus we thank you for You are our Savior It is your resurrection and your ascension that we so gladly and joyfully celebrate this morning and we thank you for the forgiveness we have in Christ and We thank you for you have empowered the believer to Be conformed to the image of your son

And to live in this chaotic world the glory of your name

Bless those who are traveling and even bless those who are here today May all of us be encouraged to love and good works.

Maybe be encouraged to worship you and to Even bless one another

In Christ's name I pray amen We've been looking at living in 2017 and how it's

Not Easy how there's a lot of things distracting us how there's a lot of things Looking to bring us stress and how some of that or most of it is our own sin and I was joking with Scott Brown.

He said that next year this will change. It'll be a new set of series for 2018 How do you live in 2018?

So no, it doesn't change year by year I'm not trying to make an excuse to come up here and give you Sunday school lessons

But I wanted to start by looking at two verses from the Bible to set our mind on a

Very difficult topic the one I'm going to discuss today. It's on your bulletins if you've not seen it already, but Let's look at those two verses.

Can someone read Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 to 4? Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 to 4 and Ephesians chapter 1

Verses 3 to 10. Can you guys get the doors? Thank you Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 to 4 and Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 to 10

He's got Ephesians 3 1 to 10. All right, let me read it blessed be the God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy blameless before him in Love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ According to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace

With which he has blessed us in the beloved Ephesians 3 Ephesians 1 verse 7 in him in Christ We have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses

According to the riches of his grace Which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will

According to his purpose which he set forth in Christ Verse 10 has a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on earth

These are two good verses for us to take a look at These are two good sections of scripture to study because they exalt

Christ Because they define in our hearts and in our minds Who Christ is how exalted he is and who the believer is in Christ?

And it is good for us to keep reminding ourselves of what that is Every day here in 2017 and as we live in a world

Where there are so many opposing views and where there are so many different kinds of elements coming at us agreed

Now i've been having a good time With many of you on email, you know, you've been asking a lot of questions and we've been having very lively discussions with some of you

Uh over this over the things i've been talking about the last two weeks yoga crossfit

Colossians one and two over the supremacy of Christ before I go on Did anyone have any thoughts or anything you wanted to add or any questions

That you didn't maybe have the opportunity to ask me over the last week or even over the week All right, no problem

Let's keep let's keep moving on so last week we spoke about how the culture is really stressed and how in order to De -stress or to remove that stress people are turning to a lot of things

Including christians turning to all kinds of idols whether it's exercise which in and of itself is not wrong

Uh yoga is a very big thing in the culture Crossfit is another very big thing again.

There's nothing wrong with crossfit. You can't compare crossfit and yoga I I hope you're not confused about that. There's nothing wrong with crossfit yoga is a completely pagan thing, but Crossfit, it's just the way some of the franchises are being run are like churches.

So that's what's wrong with that Uh another big idol another big stress reliever in the culture today is politics

Yes, you may say wait a minute, but politics causes most distress And you're saying linton that it's also a stress reliever yes, because people do turn to the news and people do turn to debating with one another and people to Try to talk about it a lot in order to get away from whether it's their own problems in their own life or whether it is to de -stress from The issues that they see

There's nothing wrong with that when but when politics also becomes your identity and it's the thing you turn to Then it becomes an idol

And that's a problem How would you define politics anybody We we know this topic a lot.

We hear it a lot. What is how do you how would you define what what is politics? wesley

Very very good. That is one of the definitions in not only wikipedia, but also in miriam webster.

It is the uh, obviously you've been studying it it's it's it's it's the maintenance of power acquiring and Fighting hard to maintain and keep power good.

What else do you know about politics? How do you define it? It's in every country by the way, it's in every part of the world.

So it's not just in the united states What is politics? Any activity that is associated with governing with governing a country or governing a group of people is politics

Anything that deals with an organized and sustained way of controlling human activity human communities is politics

Whether it's involving an entire country or just a state It is essentially achieving and exercising positions of governance

It's a major process in a lot of countries it's often very dividing it's dividing because people have different views on how government should be done governing should be done and usually the

Your idea about governing is based on your world view So it's a very big dividing topic causing a lot of stress to a lot of people but like I said before it is also causing

People to turn to it as an idol and worship it and they are it's causing people to have their

Identities be be defined with what they believe politically two weeks ago.

I asked you this question. I don't know if you remember it There's a big thing called the big sort taking in across taking place across america.

Does anybody remember what I had defined it as? Gary Yes Yes, thank you

So the the big sort is actually a book that was released I think a few Years ago, I think probably two years ago, but it's actually a real movement

Where people in america are moving to geographic locations based on their political views

So they're moving to certain parts of the country or certain neighborhoods based on what their neighbors believe

About politics or about how government should be run and As everything else in the culture it's affecting churches, too

If you look at mark devers website on nine on nine marks You'll see that one of the new things that has come up there is how people are now picking churches based on the pastors and the elders political views

So churches are being affected by this whether it's a good for good or for bad and it's also affecting fellowship

I don't know if you've seen this but i've seen some of this although not here at bbc to be very frank

Christians on one end of the political spectrum Are asking the question question.

How can this person who is of of the opposing spectrum be saved? Okay They're asking

You're conservative. How can you be saved or you're liberal? How can you be saved?

And what's happening in churches today as much as it's happening in in throughout the country Is fellowship is being is being?

Affected It's no longer based on love for christ the love for one another it is now being solely based on a person's political view or a group's political view

So, let me give you an example i'm going to connect what I taught last week with yoga and politics and try to bring it in Okay I don't know if you're familiar with what's happening right now in cop county, georgia.

It's uh, it's a georgia It's a it's a sorry. It's a county in suburban atlanta And I don't know if you're following the story.

It's a big political issue right now What started off as a small thing is now a big political issue A school administrator introduced yoga to her students.

I don't know if you've seen if you've seen this and Uh, she did it because she could not control her students and she wanted to calm the students down So she introduced yoga into her classes

Christian parents got Very alarmed and asked the administrator to be removed

And she was removed She came back and sued the school saying that this is

A major violation of religious liberty and this is a major issue but The problem is not going into too much of details because it's not what the benefit it doesn't benefit us

Because This has now risen from what is just in cop county, georgia to all over the country with schools and people suing each other and having

All kinds of issues because they're not able to think through this carefully And there is there are problems i'm not trying to defend the u .s.

Constitution religious liberty or any of those things here But the christian parents

And I and I give them a lot of credit because a lot of parents are not aware of the problems with yoga Which is why I taught about it last week

They were they were very good about bringing it up and and dealing with it correctly, but now let's say we are

Objective and impassioned and removed from the situation as many of us are How do christ's redeemed react to stories like this?

How do you react if it involves all unbelievers and how do you react if it's all believers

Does it matter does our reaction to this issue and reaction to other political issues matter?

I think they do I think the way we look at it I think the way we respond is very important and that's what

I want to focus on today for the next half an hour Now throughout the world wherever you go whether it's india kuwait or the united states you always have two differing political views

Anybody want to take a stab at what that is? It's pretty straightforward wherever you go in the world.

It's actually more or less the same Liberal conservative good.

Uh, what is it? What are the other names that they're often called? What's it called here? What are the other things they're called here? Good left and right right left and right is what is more general democratic and revolting.

Very good. It's what is it? What is uh called here now, this is a Hot topic it's a blood -boiling topic you put two men from opposing views, especially men, right?

You put them in the same room or if opposing views doesn't matter if they're christian at the end of it One of them will be dead right?

It's it's it is it is very intense Okay, it is a very hot topic

Now i'm just going to define liberal conservative and pick two topics that they believe in just to Just to get us warmed up on what the beliefs are.

I'm not going to support either one or the other Although I think it's very clear when you have a biblical world view which one

We may tend to move closer towards What a liberal what does what do liberals really believe in?

What is their main ideology if you can name it and keep it simple one word? What would you say good good,

I like it you didn't mention it by name but they like equality They're very big into that.

They they believe equal opportunity and equality for all in every single way They do believe the role of the government is to meet the needs of every single person in exactly the same way uh, they they usually

Emphasize and this is true throughout the world and even more here They usually like the idea of a big government taking care of all the needs of the people

Okay There's a lot more but that's generally the view of liberalism. Okay. What about conservatism?

What is if you can summarize in two words or one word what what would be the main, uh trust behind conservative beliefs

I like that personal responsibility, right as opposed to like a whole country, right?

That's what they believe in charlie Individualism very big very very big

They they believe in personal responsibility individual liberty the What are the things strong?

Defense a limited government free market. They believe that the role of the government should be to provide people the freedom

Necessary to pursue their own goals So that's a big that's a very big difference in thinking right there uh, they also believe that conservative policies empower the individual

To go and solve their own problems And it's very big Now there are lots of areas that they differ in and as i've been studying this over the last few months

I picked two that are the least what's the word blood boiling. I don't want us to walk into the

Yes, I don't want us to go into the uh next service with pastor harry preaching on prayer thinking about this in our mind okay, um

Stem cell, yes, I picked a less I don't think there's anything less controversial in this entire thing

But I I picked two so liberals, uh, they like the idea of stem cell research in particular embryonic stem cell research

They do not believe there is a life in the embryo. So they believe research conducted primarily with embryonic cells stem cells are

Not a problem they will assist scientists and doctors to treat all kinds of diseases with this kind of research and cure

They do believe That they don't believe that an embryo is a human Conservatives are not against stem cell research yet against embryonic stem cell research.

They are for adult what's called adult or uh umbilical cord stem cells which

They they do believe that embryos begin at conception and therefore anything you do any kind of research conducted around Embryonic stem cell can cause to the destruction of that embryo and destruction of life

So therefore conservatives believe that it is morally and ethically wrong for the government to participate in that And they instead support uh adult and umbilical cord

Stem cell research Which is based on you know, you can pull the stem cells out of the placenta the umbilical cord

Even the amniotic fluid and that has proven to work very well in many areas of research and development

Anything you want to add there? That's one hot topic. I'm trying to move quickly through these Before we have a meltdown here at bbc

Anything you wanted to add No. All right welfare. I'll give you this opportunity to make

What do what do liberal What do people in this spectrum the liberal spectrum of politics think about welfare?

It's okay. It should be available. What is the second thing you said? all who need it big long -term welfare

Extended to everybody and uh, what do what is the primary thrust behind that charlie?

There you go, yep, it's a tool of social justice. Yes Leslie same thing.

Okay. Yes it

Yes, everyone becomes a stream status, uh primarily they're trying to meet the needs of the poor that's what that's what

In every country they claim to do um, and and that it is necessary to Uh, I like what bernie saunders said.

Well, okay. I don't like what he said. That's not what I meant I'm I think it's funny what he said. He said welfare is very important and necessary to bring fairness to american

Economic life and it is a device for protecting the poor. Okay Okay, conservatism going back to personal responsibility individualism.

What does conservatives believe about? welfare Charlie excellent.

Excellent. That's that that is uh, I couldn't put it better than that. It's the idea is to Know Give the responsibility into the hand of the person

Let them go and work out make them self -reliant rather than dependent on the government It's one of the big things but if but and they don't believe in long welfare conservative

Uh people on that spectrum do not believe in long -term welfare. They do not believe in a large

Government that's dealing with all of these issues. They want to encourage people to become self -reliant

Sounds sounds sounds good, especially from a biblical worldview So those are two things and there are several issues about differences between liberalism and and conservatism

But in my opinion, nothing gets people more worked up Than these views and it bleeds into the way they converse with people all throughout the day especially since we've just changed administrations in the in the in the united states and we've moved from democrat to republican

Liberal to conservative the talk seems to be louder And more divisive than i've ever seen

And christians are are very very stressed about this and they themselves don't know how to stand

Turn with me to the book of romans chapter 3 verse 9 to 18 How do you deal with people in the opposing view

You might find this a strange place to go to But I think it's a good place for us to start

Even when we have political views that may be based on the bible on a biblical worldview, which is good

How do you still deal with people who have deferring views? especially on a hot topic like politics and government romans chapter 3 verse 9 to 18

Can someone read can somebody read roman chapter 3? It's 9 to 18.

It's a lot of verses Leslie yes through 18.

That that's good. Thank you Now we know what happens in romans 1 and 2

What is happening in romans 3 9 to 18? And why is this a good place to start when we look when we're dealing with people with opposing views?

Is this a good place to start? Do you agree with me or am I completely wrong about this? Is it a good place to start?

Maybe Francis says yes Sure, he says sure. Okay All right It's a good place to start because it is good to remind ourselves

That a we're not better than anybody else because of our views even if they come from a biblical worldview

We're not saved because of our views even if those views come from a biblical worldview what this

Book what this entire book of romans even talks about is righteousness if you can summarize the book of romans is about righteousness

We see particularly in this section that there is no one who's good There's no one who meets the requirements of god no matter what their upbringing is no matter what their background is

No matter what their political view is So for us when we deal with these issues, which are hot topics and which are increasingly divisive

Even if we may be right We need to approach them cautiously understanding that there's none of us who are good.

None of us who are perfect None of us have got this correct And we need to understand that in order to be made right with god

We need a savior and that's the biggest problem in the world today sin And the sin issue has only one solution and that is imputed righteousness through the sinless lamb of god jesus christ

A person's political views cannot define who he is just like you know charlie you mentioned last week how you can walk up to a person

They ask you what are you doing? What do you do for work? And you say you're a musician That might be the only thing you define.

You're not saying that being a musician is wrong. You're not saying that is horrible No, it is it's wonderful to have a career and have a profession, but when it becomes everything above Who you are in christ when it becomes an idol, then there's a problem and I think we apply the same thing to into into politics right now and into thing into the things of christ

Romans 3 21 to 25 now, let's go to the section which says okay. How is one saved?

How do you come to salvation? Romans 3 21 to 25. Can someone read that?

Romans 3 21 to 25. Thank you This is a wonderful reminder that propitiation in verse 25

Comes by the blood of christ and the blood of christ alone god can be appeased not by our belief systems or by our views but Through christ and christ alone and that's good for us to remember

And and my favorite book which i'm in right now colossians If you look at chapter 4 verses 5 to 6

There was a lot of conflict within the church right now And because of false teaching in the book of colossi at the time of colossians but as a result of that false teaching they were starting to Mistreat unbelievers.

They were also struggling with dealing with unbelievers So in colossians chapter 4 verses 5 and 6 look what paul has to tell

Tell these uh, tell the believers Colossians chapter 4 verses 5 and 6 walk in Wisdom toward outsiders making the best use of the time let your speech always be gracious Seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person now mind you this is also

Uh, this is also talking about the outsiders who were bringing in false teaching who were bringing in pagan beliefs and who were bringing in jewish mysticism and jewish

Religious rites. This was even keeping them in mind. But watch he doesn't say

Let your speech always be gracious only to those who have the same views

He is talking particularly to outsiders Unbelievers, no matter what their views are we are to be careful and cautious with the way we talk

And the way we approach them Agreed disagreed. Is that a good thing to say?

I was sitting in the train the other day going into cambridge and Behind me were two southern seminary students.

Would you believe that? I mean, how often do you see? Christians in the train But it was it was we were having a

I was having a good time and I started chatting with them and I found out They were from southern but at one point Turns out that one is liberal and one is conservative

And they really started getting into this What's the best way to put it? I would say fight of words

Right, and these are guys who claim to know the gospel and know the words and they and they really started hitting each other literally with What I thought was difficult words to use

All because they were on different political ends of the spectrum Have you been in this situation before I know i've been tempted to be in the situation

Have you guys been in the situation before where? You may have forgotten. Wait a minute. This is a believer.

How should I behave with him or this is an unbeliever? but You know, i'm this is such a

Such an important topic right politics and stem cell research and abortion and illegal immigration, you know

How do you how do you? How do you keep calm and how do you react in such a situation?

Have anybody been in that situation? Is it just me? Am I the only sinner in this room today? Right is so you find yourself so I didn't look at these guys and say oh i'm better than them

I realize how hot Of a topic this is and how difficult it is to stay calm in the situation

But what does it tell about our identity? What does it tell you about your view of christ

Is if you're always fighting and arguing Where not there's nothing wrong with that in and of itself

But when that is your identity a political system your political view even if it's right is becomes your identity

What does that tell you about your belief or understanding of colossians 1 15 to 20 Or of ephesians 3 1 to 10

Yes, your focus is off of christ Perhaps off of the gospel a good time for us to examine ourselves in the lord

There's nothing wrong with doing there's nothing wrong with doing that agreed disagreed

Anything you want anything anybody wanted to add? or remove Charlie right and I have that as my next point, which i'll actually do it now because you you said it but Bipolarization is often there's something wrong with bipolarization

Often it's the view somewhere in the middle. That is either the best or either to understand

Or to be what's the word i'm looking for patient with others Except when it comes to the gospel,

I do not think there's there's an end to the gospel There's just one lord one savior one way there is no bipolarization in christianity in that sense

But let's deal with evangelism even though that is my next topic. I'll go with that first uh

No matter how much we try to hide it We don't like to evangelize

True or false We we don't like to evangelize we don't like to share the gospel no matter how much we say there are times when we

We should do it Yes Because we know the bible says it because we know ultimately the end The the bottom of the issue the main issue is sin and you can't fix it by political views or by anything else

You need the gospel of jesus christ And that's the problem but we we know that We tend to pull back from evangelism as much and as often as we can.

I know I do despite Seven years ago. The excuse I made is I don't know enough about the bible

That was never a good excuse then but now I know a little bit more i'm not saying I know everything I know a little bit more but still today

I make excuses to share the gospel and the problem is when I get into a political debate, even though I can clearly

Articulate what I believe and why the other person's view is wrong I can go into that loop and never ever preach the gospel

I don't know if it has affected you But it has affected my evangelism And I think we need to be careful about that We are so disgusted with another person's view

That sometimes we may not even get close to them to share the gospel I know

I have And i'm not saying that you should admit that you have or i'm not even saying you guys have that problem But i've had to work with this through the word of god

And understand and remind myself of romans 3 9 to 18 And that the gospel is the most important thing

And that instead of spending so much of my energy debating about whether it's abortion or immigration

Or any of those issues I should spend some time at least Giving the good news

Agreed disagreed goes back into what you were saying charlie But what do you guys think? It's hard to get out of the political debate when you're in the middle of it

So what do you what do you do? Taylor excellent You're dealing with the symptom rather than the cause which is sin

And not the other way around almost always Your worldview comes from what you believe about god and what you believe about the word of god

And if you're attacking the person because the belief rather than taking that opportunity, especially with unbelievers to preach the gospel

We're missing the point and our evangelism is being affected Excellent And in order to do that you have to have a high view of christ

And remember as we see in ephesians chapter 3 towards the end of division chapter 1 towards the end of verse 10

Christ is the goal of all he will make it right perfectly in the end and no political system can fix anything

And that's what they try. That's what people are trying to do, right? They do believe the government can fix everything But the sin problem is not going to be fixed by any politician.

It is the word of christ and the person of christ alone Charlie I think it's great uh,

I think it's great because as That means there's one more person who I can work with right who

I can whether converse with happily without Thinking about you know, lord come soon kind of thing, right?

Yes. It's it's wonderful. I think it's great I think it's wonderful that they're moving away from Perhaps what's wrong and what is a dangerous view to something that is better Uh, my my my argument my argument today is is twofold one is as christians we may think

That is the way to fix Issues and that is the way to deal with this so i'm not saying you i'm not saying you are but When we see the big sword and when we look at how people are dividing based on political views even in churches

That's the thing. Okay, you're not conservative. You cannot come to this church You know, you cannot you cannot be part of the fellowship and I think that's where the problem is

So I don't disagree. I don't disagree with you. I actually have not heard of many instances where people have like You don't listen six months to an opposing view without losing your mind

So I give a lot of these users I mean a lot of these listeners a lot of credit because people don't have that kind of patience to listen to the opposing view

So my main argument is yes Okay, they will get morally better and they they definitely will

Have a better view better work view which we are definitely losing in the country no doubt about that and I would love that I I like i'm i'm leaning more and more towards I would rather attack it from the other perspective

Preach the gospel to them. I can't save them but at least show them. Hey, this is the main issue let's deal with that and then things may arise out of Out of that, although it's easier to win up in that way political argument than the gospel as wesley was saying

Does that answer your question? It's a it's a loaded agreed Yeah agreed larry absolutely

Why not? Why not? Absolutely. That is a great point That is a wonderful point and I completely agree with that.

Why not? Maybe that is the avenue through which they may listen to the gospel. Yes, that is excellent Wesley Right, it does and that's a very good point.

I think let's let's turn to colossians chapter 2 one moment while I wrap up as we as we think on these views and as we

I'm not trying to pitch one political view over the other i'm just trying to remind us as the church

We preach the gospel and we treat believers and unbelievers In certain respects as created in the image of god

And not just based on a political view Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 to 15 something.

This is the gospel. So let's remind ourselves of this before we conclude In him in christ you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of christ

Having been buried with him in baptism In which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of god who raised him from the dead and you who were once Sorry in verse 13 and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh

God made a life together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt

That stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing it to the cross

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him

Now if you look at verse 14, which is my main focus for this section, it's it's the iou

Okay, the iou has it's a it's a document. It doesn't have any legal influence right now you have the the the equivalent of an iou that was

Back in the days of colossi. We have what is called a promissory note. Have you heard of that? It's a promissory note where in that you write

Who do you owe the debt to how much do you owe and how do you plan to play? Paid back it's a legal

Document that's binding the iou does not exist in that format anymore. It's it's an it's a non -legal document

But look at it this way what what christ is telling the colossians who are dividing? Because of false teaching and because of certain views what he's telling them is this you've been cleansed by christ and You owed an incalculable debt

And the debt was written on a chart sheet that was called a debt sheet or an iou And if you read commentaries on this this chart sheet is is

For one person is probably a million. It can go around this building a million times That's how much debt we owe to holy god and holy savior

But what christ did is cleaned that debt sheet Through the through his death on the cross.

He's nailed it to the cross No more can the christian be condemned based on anything in that sheet that sheet does not even exist for the christian

That's our identity That's who we are in christ And when we deal with these difficult situations and these opposing views we must

Start to preach the good news. We must share the good news first We must preach the gospel and even in our evangelism.

We start from that perspective Now whenever I have started any conversation

Uh beginning with creation for instance or beginning with a political view in mind

It has never gone well for me Because while I may win the argument based on logic and reasoning

I have never been able to go to the gospel I've never been able to i've never been able to approach that before then the person's already too worked up to listen to me anymore

Even though i've won the argument logically My argument is If we start with the gospel

We can't save them But we point them to the to the infallible scriptures and the un and the infallible savior

Who can save them? And he is the only one who removed our debt and he's the only one who can remove their debt

So while I love a united states of america And I love everybody to be united and makes life so much easier

I'd much rather Have us as the church preach the gospel more and start with that rather than be so So harsh with one another and even with unbelievers when it comes to politics

Does that make sense? Any more views before I wrap up?

Have you guys ever tried to evangelize with a pro -life pro trump shirt? I know it's funny.

I'm, i'm honestly asking what's why are you guys laughing? Wait, wait, wait Have you tried to evangelize with a pro hillary or a pro choice t -shirt

I'm saying whether you like it or not Your t -shirts cut off a certain section of people and people see you coming and they they run away

Because that's how charged the culture is right now and they're just going to see one set and they're going to move away I'm saying if that t -shirt is getting in the way of your evangelism

Don't wear it on saturdays when you go out with barry aliosi to evangelize Because you don't want to cut those people off The the gospel is offensive as such you don't need your t -shirt to do more

That's my point of view. I'm, not saying please have a political view We need to be part of the democratic process have a view enjoy it

My my my thrust is it can't be your identity and it can't be the it can't be the basis for all your relationships

It can't be the only basis Right any more concerns i'm back next week, so if you guys have any problems with me say it now, so So I don't have to come back next week

All right. Let's pray. Oh lord. We thank you for your word. We thank you for Uh for a book that's divinely inspired and written um two thousand years ago

It is amazingly powerful And for the believer it is our hope It is by your word that we are sanctified

And for the believer there is nothing that is more encouraging And that is even more humbling than your word

Help us to trust it to love it And lord when we fail in our conversations and in our relationships

Please help us to come to you and to remember that we have a great high priest Who is able to forgive us?

And intercede for us There's anyone here who has not repented and believed in the lord.

Jesus christ Lord I pray that you would convict them and that you would show them that they have a huge charred sheet

And I owe you against them And that in order to pay that off, they would have to spend eternity in hell

But the good news is that jesus christ saves And that he can remove that debt sheet for the glory of the father and for his own purposes and according to his own will and that that That person can be saved and be made right with god

Help us even in this politically charged climate and culture to not lose our joy to not lose our cool

But lord to be calm to trust in your sovereignty And to preach the good news That jesus christ is lord and that he saves