The Great Mystery

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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December 20, 2021

00:05: I think I could sing for about four hours.
00:09: I'll listen to Brother Mike pray for about four hours.
00:13: We'll take a 15-minute break, and then we'll come back in and look at the Word.
00:19: If you have any Bibles this morning, I'd ask that you would turn to Paul's epistles of Timothy, 1 Timothy, chapter 3, as we prepare to look at God's Word.
00:30: 1 Timothy, chapter 3.
00:49: This morning, I would ask us to just look at one verse, and that verse would be in 1 Timothy, chapter 3, in verse 16.
01:07: But I will read from verse 14, the third chapter, and then end at verse 16, and then we'll ask God's blessings.
01:16: Paul says to Timothy, these things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly.
01:20: But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
01:34: And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
01:40: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up to glory.
01:55: Let us just ask God's blessing.
01:59: Father, again now, as we've been prayed, we come before you and ask you to do a great work, Lord, a work that only you can do, a work in our hearts, Lord, those hearts of ours that so easily wander from the truth.
02:14: And Lord, even if we were to be honest, so often we grumble against the truth.
02:19: But Lord, we pray this morning, Holy Spirit, that you would come, you would manifest yourself, and that it would transform us more into the image of the Son of God who so loved us that he gave himself for us.
02:32: But be what your word is, only you can.
02:34: We ask in Jesus' name, amen.
02:38: So I titled it The Great Mystery.
02:43: And I want to look at this verse in that thought, and probably many ways to consider this word from the apostle Paul.
02:53: But I want us to consider this morning the great mystery as it is laid out for us in these words of the apostle.
03:02: Let me begin by saying, so I thought of the word mystery, and I went, and many times I will, and I think it's a good thing at times, I wanted to see what the word was in English.
03:12: So I went to Webster's Dictionary, looked up mystery.
03:16: And there's a number of definitions for mystery in Webster's Dictionary.
03:20: And one definition is it's something that's not understood or even beyond understanding, something that's beyond understanding.
03:30: And then another definition that they put in there for that word is that it's something that has a secretive quality to it.
03:39: And then I was amazed that I found this third definition in Webster's Dictionary of the word mystery.
03:45: And it says this, a religious truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot be fully understood.
03:56: And I thought, man, that's right on.
04:00: And that's what I want us to think about this morning, mainly in that vein of that definition that this mystery of godliness that you and I consider is a religious truth, a real truth, a God-inspired truth that we can only really know by God revealing it to us.
04:24: And this is important, that we not only would bow before him knowing that he's the one that allowed us to understand this great mystery, that even in that we can only understand it to a certain point.
04:44: And I wanna say this at the beginning, that this God that you and I serve, this great God over all in his amazing grace, in his abundant mercy, has allowed all who believe to pull the curtain back just a little and see him who is behind it all, the great God of heaven and earth.
05:21: And the reason why I say that is because, my friends, if we are going to understand this mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh and justified in the spirit and seed of angels and preached on among the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up to glory, we are only gonna be able to understand so much.
05:41: And if anyone wants to think that they understand it all, then I say to you, you are either a fool or a liar, because it's impossible to understand the height and the depth and the length and the breadth of this glorious God whom we serve.
06:04: I thought of what Jesus said when the multitudes came to him and if you remember how he often spoke to them in parables and they weren't able to understand it.
06:16: And then when he was alone and the disciples were with him, they said to him, master, why do you keep speaking to them in parables? And here's what Jesus said.
06:29: He answered and said unto them, because, you ready, it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
06:40: But to them, it has not been forgiven, has not been given for whoever has to him, more will be given and he will have abundance.
06:50: But whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from them.
06:58: I hope that we will begin to realize this morning that when we come in worship of this great and glorious God and when Paul lays these words out for us, how privileged we are.
07:09: Brother Mike said that, how privileged we are.
07:11: I really ask us to think about that as we live our lives, how privileged we are to know God, to see something of this majesty that engulfs everything in everybody.
07:34: Jesus said he had given it to disciples to know the mysteries of the kingdom.
07:45: You know what Job says about knowing God and understanding the great mysteries behind God, because God is certainly mysterious, wouldn't you agree? Job said this, it said, by his spirit he adorned the heavens and his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
08:07: Indeed, these are the mere edges of his ways.
08:12: And how small a whisper we hear of him, but the thunder of his power, who can understand? You and I realized this morning that we come as beggars in that sense and desire of God to allow us to see something of his glory, something of this great mystery, as we will look at in further detail in a moment.
08:42: Well, think what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 11, after he had spoke of great mysterious things of God's sovereignty and election and predestination and calling and justification and glorification.
08:54: And as he spoke about all the issues that had to do with Israel and the Gentiles.
08:58: And at the end of chapter 11, Paul says, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.
09:14: Now, the reason I've said all that is, is I wanted to deflate us, that when we see something of this great mystery of godliness, that we would be raised up.
09:30: Because I assure you, if you came here this morning with an attitude that you know and you understand, you will leave here with absolutely nothing.
09:39: But if you come here this morning and by this great glorious savior of ours, in his abundant mercy, if we've come here with an attitude and a desire to see something of him that we have yet to see or to see it in clear way, then I know that God will be gracious.
10:05: So let us consider this morning for a few minutes.
10:08: And I say, just consider briefly, because in truth, look at this verse.
10:13: There are six different things that are mentioned here.
10:15: Now, some will put two together and say there's three couplets of understanding.
10:21: And for me this morning, I wanna look at six specific things that are set out in verse 16.
10:26: Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
10:29: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up in glory.
10:40: And I briefly wanna touch each one of those, because I will tell you that if we were to seek to exhaust what Paul is saying in these words, we would be here for a month of Sundays times a month of Sundays.
10:55: Even his brother Keith preached on Wednesday night from third John and the little books.
11:02: And when he was done, you know what I said? Some of you were here.
11:05: I said, the little big books.
11:08: Cause there's so much truth in such few words and that's the glory of God, right? God can stoop down to our frailty and give us mysteries that are beyond our own understanding.
11:25: So consider with me for a few, these glorious truths.
11:29: The first one is that God was manifest in the flesh.
11:33: And that probably is the one that most people will say, especially around this time of the year, we sing about it and everybody knows that Christmas time is to celebrate Jesus's birthday, which I'm just not comfortable.
11:45: I'm sorry.
11:46: I'm not comfortable with Jesus birthday.
11:49: But if you are fine.
11:52: But this reality of God manifest in the flesh and Paul includes that within the mystery.
11:58: The mystery of godliness is that God was manifest in the flesh.
12:02: And if you begin to think about it, friends, why is it such a mystery? Because it's speaking of God coming in the flesh.
12:14: This one, this second person of the Trinity, this one who is co-equal with the father and the spirit.
12:28: This one who came in the flesh created all things.
12:37: This one who came in the flesh is the one who opens his hand and satisfies every living thing.
12:46: Who says that all are his servants.
12:52: That's the one who was manifested in the flesh.
13:01: That he was truly God, truly man, son of God and the son of man.
13:10: I like the way one brother put it.
13:12: He said, this Jesus who was not a mere man, yet he was a true man.
13:20: He's not a mere man, but yet he was a true man.
13:24: And we can spend a lot of time on speaking about the hypostatic union of the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ in one person.
13:33: But that's not necessarily what I wanna do except to mention it because it's such a mystery for us to understand.
13:41: How can that be? How can Jesus be fully God and fully man? That though he is boundless, yet he confined himself in time and space.
14:03: If you can explain that, please come up.
14:10: That the one who is boundless confined himself in time and space.
14:18: That the one who knew no sin took on sin in the likeness of sinful flesh while maintaining his absolute purity.
14:34: You got that one? Come on.
14:38: How can it be that one who is absolutely pure, who's a pure eyes that behold evil, who is good, only good, always good.
14:47: How can he come and be fully the son of God and the son of man and take on the likeness of sinful flesh and yet not be bound to be a sinner? That he would confine himself to the limitations of a man while maintaining his majesty.
15:08: You wanna know what I think about when I think about this mystery of God manifest in the flesh? I think about the time when they were in the boat and Jesus fell asleep in the front of the boat.
15:17: Sounds like something I would do.
15:19: Sounds like something you would do.
15:21: And the disciples wake him up and they said, Lord, Lord, do you not care that we are perishing? And he wakes and what does he do? He calms the winds.
15:31: You know what's so cool is it says that the disciples were astounded.
15:39: That's the mystery of God manifest in the flesh.
15:44: It's a great mystery indeed, isn't it friends? That he who knew the thoughts of every single man, yet when they asked him about the hour of the consummation, he said, no one knows it but the father.
16:06: Can you explain that in totality? That the one who was truly a man who had no, it says there was nothing about him that from an appearance standpoint that would attract others.
16:26: And yet at the same time, the demons know who he was.
16:38: What a mystery it is that God was manifest in the flesh.
16:41: You see friends, I say it often and I'll continue to say it.
16:45: We have too small a perception of the God that we worship.
16:52: We have whittled God down and try to make him manageable.
16:57: Friends, the mystery is beyond management.
17:06: I say to you young people this morning, grow in your knowledge of who God is.
17:20: Open your mind and look and see that this great and glorious, boundless, majestic, divine person became a man and dwelt among us.
17:33: That he would be born of a virgin by the power of the spirit.
17:42: Anybody else ever done that? I thought about the great mystery of God manifest in the flesh that even the apostle John laid on the breast of God.
18:00: He touched and they handled God.
18:03: Is that not mysterious? That those who came behind, that woman who came behind Jesus with the issue of blood, she touched the hem of the garment.
18:17: Jesus says power has gone out of me and the multitude said, what are you talking about? There's people all over.
18:27: That men and women in that sense touched God manifested in the flesh.
18:33: I say to you, my friends, that he did indeed become flesh.
18:39: I say to you that he most certainly dwelt among us.
18:44: Interesting how Paul sets this up.
18:46: Without controversy, it's without controversy.
18:50: It's not without rebellion.
18:52: It's not without rejection, but it's without controversy.
18:57: You might not believe that Jesus is God in the flesh and that Jesus, the son of God came in the flesh.
19:02: You might not believe it this morning, but it's still true.
19:06: Your belief or disbelief will not add to it nor take away from it.
19:12: Even as Job says, he says, what can we do to add unto God? Or what can we do to take away from God? Great is this mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh.
19:31: I'm gonna ask us for a few minutes to then move to what it says next.
19:36: It says justified in the spirit.
19:39: Great is the mystery of godliness.
19:40: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit.
19:46: Now I wanna take a minute here because I think there are basically two ways to consider what that means.
19:56: Matter of fact, if I'm not mistaken, in the ESV it says vindicated by the spirit.
20:05: And basically two ways to think about it.
20:07: One is, is that Jesus had the power and presence of the spirit of God like no other.
20:17: In other words, if you look at your Bibles and remember if you're not familiar where it's capitalized, it's speaking about the person of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
20:29: And I believe in most translations, it will say justified in the spirit, capital S.
20:39: And the thought behind that being that Jesus Christ, son of God, son of man manifested in the flesh, the mysterious reality of it is that he was led by the spirit of God like no one else.
20:59: You remember at his baptism, it said the spirit of God descended on him like a dove.
21:08: Now I've had pigeons do some things on my head, but I've never had a dove come over the top of my head.
21:19: That this one, this son of God, son of man, this boundless one, yet bound one would be under the submission, direction and leading of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
21:34: You remember what the apostle John says? He said of Jesus that he had the spirit.
21:39: And I believe there it means the Holy Spirit without measure, John 3, 34.
21:48: Can you explain that? Can you fathom the height and the depth and the breadth and the length of that truth? That Jesus possessed the spirit of God without measure.
22:06: That a man born of the flesh submitted to the leading of the spirit of God like no other.
22:14: I know that's a mystery for you because I know myself and there is no way that I can comprehend what it means to put myself in submission to the Holy Spirit of God without ever grieving, resisting, arguing, complaining, disagreeing and any other negative thing.
22:39: I hope you're all conscious with their witness to that.
22:42: There's never been anybody like Jesus.
22:46: And there will never be anybody like Jesus.
22:50: That's part of the mystery that God in the fullness of time was pleased to reveal that a man born of a woman was so led by the spirit of God and in such submission to the spirit of God that he never sinned.
23:09: He was led by the spirit in everything in absolute submission, from the womb to the tomb to the grave, to the resurrection, to the ascension.
23:24: That is a glorious mysteries, my friend.
23:29: So that's one way to consider what it means when it says vindicated by the spirit or justified in the spirit.
23:33: And again, you look at your own Bibles and depending on study Bible or translations, you might see capital S.
23:39: And there are some different translations in the second place where it will say, God was manifest in the flesh and justified in the spirit and it'll be a small S.
23:52: To distinguish again from the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, but rather the thought would then be that Jesus in being both divine and human vindicated himself by that very thought and that very truth that he was fully God and fully man.
24:18: That as he said that he was gonna die on a cross, he also said, I lay it down on myself.
24:42: That this one was vindicated in the spirit because of who he was.
24:50: Again, as I said to you, I don't know how I would react if someone woke and calmed the seas.
24:58: Oh, and you remember one of the gospels? When he calmed the seas, they were where they were supposed to be at the shore.
25:04: That's stupid.
25:12: Do we really know this gospel? Do we really stand that this is a mystery and that God has been pleased to reveal some of it to us? This great mystery in which Jesus being fully God, fully man was demonstrated over and over and over again.
25:46: That he was a man of human weakness.
25:49: Remember what it says when he had long fasted? He was what? He was hungry, right? And I suppose you could look at it in many different ways, but here's the reality.
26:01: He was afterward hungry yet Jesus said that he had food to eat that no man knew of.
26:11: As I said, when he slept in the boat, that as that man, he was able to take his own life and yet he laid down his own life.
26:24: So whatever way you wanna take that, here's the reality friends, it's still a mystery.
26:30: This God man, this Lord of Lord and King of Kings, this suffering servant, this obedient son, this redeemer that you and I, I trust have come to worship this morning, that we come with an expectancy that God will pull back the curtain a little.
26:54: I don't know why we were talking about there.
26:56: We were talking about the Wizard of Oz.
26:59: And we were talking, I remember when I was young that that was the big show we were allowed to watch.
27:04: This was back when all you had was channel two, channel four, and it was before the Peacock come on and everybody said good night and they played the American thing.
27:11: Some of you know what I'm talking about.
27:13: And I remember the Wizard of Oz and I remember that whole thing when they see the great and wonderful Oz.
27:21: And all of a sudden they see the dude, the little midget guy hanging out behind the curtain.
27:26: Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
27:31: Pay attention to this though, that when men looked upon Jesus, when men saw his power that flowed out of him, that he was vindicated in that he was fully God, fully man.
27:57: In the third place, says seen by angels.
28:00: I thought this was pretty interesting why this is mentioned in the mystery.
28:05: Seen of angels, to me it just furthers the mystery.
28:10: The truth is that the person and work of Jesus Christ among us was not only seen by men of this world, but was displayed before the unseen world.
28:20: Set your mind on that for a minute.
28:26: That the world beyond the veil saw the incarnation or witnesses, the world beyond the senses watched as he came among us.
28:45: Remember at his birth, what does it say? It says that the heavenly choir sang.
28:50: I don't think they were just out walking down the street of heaven, just singing songs.
28:57: What a mystery, it came out of them, this heavenly choir of God manifest in the flesh.
29:05: How can this be? You know what Peter says? Peter says that the angels in heaven, the desire to look down to the things that were seen by men and yet they were.
29:16: As I said to you, you remember, as Jesus was encountered by demons, they knew who he was.
29:25: Are you not the Holy one? Do not torment us before the time.
29:34: The mystery was revealed not only to us below, but to those beyond even at this point, our own understanding, the principalities and powers, not only to the earth, but to the world of created things.
29:58: The angels were witnesses to the resurrection.
30:01: You know what it says in the book of Hebrews? It says this in the book of Hebrews, that at the coming of Jesus, the angels are told to worship him.
30:16: In Paul says it refuses and to concerning this mystery, he says, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages have been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the church, to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus.
30:44: Oh Lord, seed of angels, witness by every living thing.
30:58: I hope we're beginning friends to understand the mystery of godliness and the privilege we have.
31:09: I will say this to you.
31:10: If I ever stop bragging on the Lord Jesus Christ and the gift of redemption, make sure you get rid of me.
31:21: I won't do you any good.
31:24: Neither will brother Keith nor will brother Mike.
31:28: That you and I will be continually amazed at the God we serve.
31:38: That when we sing these Christmas hymns, we sing them because we understand something of it.
31:48: And I promised myself I wouldn't mention Santa Claus.
31:51: So I'm not gonna mention Santa Claus.
31:55: Although I want to mention Santa Claus.
32:04: Paul says the mystery, which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints.
32:11: How wonderful, how marvelous, how great how God has been to us.
32:20: How blessed we are to know something of it, friends.
32:23: And I do hope you know something of it.
32:26: And I do hope you desire to know more of it.
32:33: I do pray that we will begin to think in the reality of all this and that we would desire to know more, not know less.
32:44: I don't know about you and I was saying, I know I'm repetitive.
32:47: My wife has told me that for almost 50 years.
32:52: But here's the truth, my friends.
32:58: We need to desire to know more and more because more and more is what God wants to give us.
33:06: Amen.
33:13: But it was seen of angels.
33:16: I keep taking you to the tomb where the angels were.
33:20: I'll take you to the resurrection and the ascension in a moment.
33:24: Seen of angels.
33:26: Then it says preached on to the Gentiles.
33:29: And I thought this was, again, so gracious of God to reveal this.
33:35: It preached unto the Gentiles.
33:38: And there's another aspect of this great mystery.
33:41: And I'll go through it very quickly, but let me say it to you this way.
33:43: Any careful student of the word of God or any student of the word of God that has even a brief understanding of the Old Testament and of what was laid out, that there is this reality that the mystery of Godliness, that this reality, that Christ would come into the world as a redeemer, as a savior, as a salvation.
34:02: And that it was known that the Gentiles in some way would enter into it.
34:11: But I would say, if you're a careful student of the word of God, you would agree with me that for the most part, it was sprinkled throughout the Old Testament.
34:23: And yet, without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness.
34:26: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen in him, preached among the Gentiles.
34:32: Who would have thought it would provoke Paul, as I said to you in Romans 11, that the Gentiles would be grafted in, that all nations and all tongues and all tribes and all kindreds and all cultures outside of the nation of Israel would come to know.
34:58: Paul says this in Romans, now to him who was able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of our everlasting God.
35:19: He also says this in Colossians, the mystery which had been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints to them God willed to make known what are the riches of his glory, of the mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
35:46: What a glorious God we serve.
35:51: Preached unto the Gentiles, preached to, as it is today, preached unto every nation and tribe.
36:00: I don't know about you, but I'm so thankful for Scott Phillips.
36:05: I'm so thankful that this man takes his family.
36:08: I don't know how many times he said he had malaria and dysentery and everything else and he's got all those little chitlins with him and they go over there in Indonesia and they go into the tribe of the Dow people and man, I love them, but I ain't going.
36:27: But is he not just unfolding that great mystery of God? Reaching out to those in darkness.
36:42: Let me just ask you for a second.
36:44: I'm gonna keep my time somewhat.
36:51: It says that he was manifest in the flesh.
36:53: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in spirit, seen in angels, preached among the Gentiles.
36:58: Now look how he distinguishes preached among the Gentiles to believed on in the world.
37:06: You wanna know what really is so glorious about this great mystery of God? Fully God, fully man, manifested in the flesh, boundless yet bound, weak and yet almighty.
37:25: Manifested, seen in angels, preached unto the Gentiles.
37:29: Here's an aspect of the mystery that it's believed.
37:37: You and I are the reality of this great mystery, aren't we? The mystery that God has been making since the Garden of Eden.
37:50: When he promised that seed that would crush the seed of sin.
37:57: This mystery that God has been changing lives one by one since the very beginning.
38:06: I hope you're here this morning because your life has been changed.
38:09: I hope you're not here this morning because you decided to change your life, but you're here this morning because God changed your life.
38:16: Because you believed on his word, because you saw him who is the one who lives forever by grace.
38:27: And you all know how we promote the sovereignty of God.
38:30: We don't promote the sovereignty of God just for the doctrine of the sovereignty of God.
38:36: We teach, preach, stand, defend the truth of the sovereignty of God because it's the reality in our lives.
38:51: God has been pleased to reveal himself to us hard-hearted people, simple people, dull of hearing, uncaring, unloving, haters of God, despises of things that are good, bound by Satan.
39:14: That God has been pleased to allow us to believe to the saving of our souls.
39:24: That this reality grows, even as Jesus said, like the mustard seed, the smallest of seeds that grows into the largest of trees.
39:34: What a mystery that we have been chosen, called.
39:40: You know what it says in the Psalms? It says, as those that were set apart by God before the foundation of the world to believe, it says, as soon as they hear of him, they will obey him.
39:52: Why? Are they smarter? No.
39:57: Are they wiser? No.
39:58: Are they richer or poorer? I don't know.
40:04: Are they trophies of grace? Amen.
40:17: Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us.
40:21: We should be called the children of God.
40:29: I told my wife, I won't cry this morning.
40:32: After she told me, don't cry this morning.
40:38: But I'm a crier, and I'm okay with it.
40:42: Because one day I'm gonna sing like never before.
40:47: And one day every tear will be wiped away.
40:51: Because I've been enabled to believe in him who loved me and gave himself for me.
40:58: Let me end these thoughts in that last set of words.
41:05: Receive the glory.
41:07: In Acts, in the very first chapter, the angels speak and Jesus ascends.
41:13: And now when he had spoken these things, when they watched, he was taken up.
41:17: And a cloud received them out of their sight.
41:19: And while they looked steadfastly towards heaven, as he went up, the whole two men stood by them in white apparel.
41:26: Now he spoke about the angels.
41:29: Who also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up to heaven? The same Jesus who was taken from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.
41:43: The great mystery is that Jesus came, was dead, and is alive forevermore.
41:58: What a mystery that he has entered into the holiest of holies for us.
42:06: That the veil was ripped, that he sits on the throne, that he wiped out the enmity, that he pleased God, that he propitiated God, that he satisfied God, that the wrath of God has been taken away, that we've been adopted as sons and daughters.
42:29: That he died and he rose again, that the heavens is now kept in place, that the accuser of the brethren, what's the last couple of words? Come on.
42:45: The accuser of the brethren has been cast because Jesus has ascended.
42:55: He's conquered death, the grave, and hell.
42:59: So as I close this morning and ask you to consider this great mystery, I also ask you to consider this.
43:05: Jesus, he's coming again.
43:11: That's one part of the mystery yet to be unfolded, isn't it? That's gonna be a revelation.
43:19: That's gonna be the final revelation, at least in my mind.
43:24: If you wanna spend another two, three hours on eschatology, I'm cool, but I don't think you want to.
43:32: But he's coming again, and when he comes at the sound of the last trump, the mystery will be fulfilled.
43:40: He will have delivered up the kingdom of God to the father.
43:43: And then it says, then God shall be all in all.
43:47: And I don't have time to.
43:51: Friends, what kind of people are we to be? I pray we all have a Merry Christmas.
43:58: I really do.
43:59: I'm gonna eat a piece of pie for you.
44:02: You have a piece of pie or even a piece of cake for me.
44:06: But friends, may the truth of the word of God may grip us.
44:14: May we live expected lives, waiting for the return of the king of kings and the Lord of lords.
44:21: Let's pray.
44:24: Our father in God, thank you so much for who you are.
44:29: This great mystery of the son of God who took on flesh and dwelt among us, who died at the hands of wicked men, was buried in another's tomb, rose from the grave, ascended on high and is coming again.
44:48: May we live as redeemed people, and may we love you with all our hearts and souls and minds.
44:55: We ask these things in Christ Jesus, our Lord, amen.