Who is Your True Lord?

1. 0:00 Today's scripture reading comes from 2 Corinthians 4, 1-6. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
2. 0:22 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants, for Jesus' sake.
3. 0:44 For God, who said, Let the light shine out of the darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. You know God wants you healthy.
4. 1:06 I'm talking about your money. I broke the back of poverty with a thousand dollar seed. I am blessed. I am prosperous. Your words will become your reality. When you name it and you claim it and it still doesn't happen, what am I doing wrong, God?
5. 1:22 I feel like I was walking on eggshells all the time because it felt as if at any moment I can go to hell because I'm not doing enough. Do you know what the Bible tells Christians to do? Are you coming to God for God or are you coming to God so that you can ultimately get what your heart's truly after and that's something else?
6. 1:40 You can grow up in the church, hear a gospel about freedom, and still work your tail off trying to maintain the image that you're a good person. 99.9% of people are not bad people. They may make poor choices, but deep down they've got a good heart.
7. 1:59 And my wife looked back at me and she said, why are you yelling at the television? And I said, because that's not the whole gospel. Following Christ is not about this list of things you need to go do for Him. Following Christ is about this sense of awe of what He's done for you. When you come in contact with Him, you change.
8. 2:17 When the heart changes, everything changes. Wow, like Jesus died for my sins? That's so convenient for me. I don't have to go to hell, but I'm going to go do my own thing. Which is not the gospel at all. What do you think happens when we die?
9. 2:33 We're going to be fine. If hell didn't exist, neither would this ministry. Seriously, I would be out surfing. I'd have long hair just living for myself, but I can't. You don't want to burn, do you? Right. Which, like, if that's the best message you have, that's just a crap message. The answer for being unloving is not to be over-tolerant.
10. 2:51 That's not the right answer. Welcome to real Christianity. The origins of the prosperity gospel are not Christian at all. It is cultic theology that has been wrapped in some Christian lingo. You've been accused of getting the gospel wrong. It's a damnable heresy that hurts people and sends them to hell.
11. 3:09 People ain't worried about no blood or no cross. They're worried about how they're going to make it through the day. Is this gospel, is this good news primarily about you? I am a victor, not a victim. I'm going to live a long, productive, faith-filled life. Or is this a message about God?
12. 3:24 The cross embodies both the wrath and the love of God. We see that as a contradiction, and yet God doesn't. The cost of accepting the gospel could be your family. The people you love most in the world, you must love Jesus more.
13. 3:41 But it's worth it. I opened that word, and nothing was ever the same. Go make disciples. That is the call of every believer. I've got to share this music. If I want to believe God for a $65 million plane, you cannot stop me.
14. 3:56 Christianity has been built and has carried through the generations on the blood of man. Not on the wealth. How can I just continue to live my life as if this isn't true? So I abandoned my version of the American dream, and I said, I will do what I can to take the gospel to the nations.
15. 4:18 There's a lot of messages out there. There's a lot of things biting for our attention. And sometimes in life, it's hard to know what's really real.
16. 4:36 Yesterday, I was on my phone, and I opened social media, and there I saw the most amazing things happening, only to find out none of it was real. It was all AI generated.
17. 4:51 Turns out, AI is not only making videos now, but it's creating voices and audio recordings, and that hearing and seeing is no longer believing. It's hard to know what's really real. And in a culture and a life that is really changing so fast, sometimes it seems like the only constant is change.
18. 5:11 And it's hard to know what to believe and how to build our lives on something that's not shifting sand. And that's why we need values. Values that anchor us into time-tested truths that will prevent us from drifting and ending up in places that we don't want to go and in places that we don't want to be and believing things that aren't really true.
19. 5:38 We believe, at this church, that God's Word is true. It stood the test of time, and it's something that you can build your life on. It is an anchor that is a fixed point, a north star. And we're going to begin to wrestle with, in this series, what are values that we know are true, that we know are real, that we know we can build our lives in this church on.
20. 6:06 And today, we're going to turn our attention to the greatest value of them all. Jesus is our message. We preach Christ as Lord. Now, for some of you, you're familiar with what this is.
21. 6:24 For others of you that are young, this is a radio. Radio, radios you used to have to turn, and you would have to find where the station was. And there would be static. Until you'd hit a channel, and then another channel.
22. 6:42 And eventually, you'd keep going, and you would... Oh, that'll stick. That's music that stood the test of time. You know, you keep hearing all these voices, all these messages, and a lot of static along the way.
23. 7:01 But what's interesting is that 2,000 years ago, in the midst of all the noise and all the static, there was one message that rang out true. And it was this message from the church that Christ is Lord.
24. 7:18 In their day and in our day, there was a lot of static, and there was a lot of messages. But there was only one message that really stood the test of time and changed the world as we know it. And it was this timeless message, Christ is Lord.
25. 7:35 Will you pray with me? Lord, we live in a day and age where there are so many messages. It's hard to know what is really true, what we can really believe in. But God, we know there is truth. And we know that you've revealed it.
26. 7:52 And we pray that you would help us to understand it. So give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to receive your word of truth this morning. We want to build our lives on you, the rock, not the shifting sand. And we pray these things in your name, Jesus.
27. 8:09 Amen. Well, in our passage today that Alice so beautifully read, it began with these words in verse 1, therefore. And whenever you read in the Bible the word therefore, you should ask yourself, what is it therefore?
28. 8:26 Well, in this context, the word therefore is the entire chapter 3. We're here, Paul is making a case. Remember, this is one letter. The text is inspired, the verses and chapters are not.
29. 8:42 And so he's continuing a line of thought. And so although we're going to dive into chapter 4 this morning and wrestle with what it means to have Christ as Lord in our lives, it's all built upon chapter 3. You see, here Paul is teasing out this context of the old covenant versus the new covenant.
30. 9:02 And covenant is this big term that's different than a contract. A contract is kind of 50-50. Some of you are studying law right now. You know a lot about it. Someone breaks their end of the deal and the contract's over. It's off. A covenant's a little bit different though. It's all about someone saying, in this case, in scriptures, God making his promise to his people, knowing that they will be unfaithful and break it, but it doesn't matter because he is faithful and his word will endure.
31. 9:30 And so in the context of this covenant, we see the revealing of what's known as an old covenant. And it was the covenant of the law. And it was important because God wrote it with his very hands in Moses' presence on these tablets of stone, known as the Ten Commandments.
32. 9:49 We see that in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and Exodus chapter 31. And Moses, as he stood in the presence of the Lord, grew like he was, he was, bright, literally, from being in the presence of the Lord. But what happened over time is that glory began to fade, and Moses had a veil on to hide his face, and the fact that it was fading.
33. 10:11 It was representative that the old covenant was temporary, and it would point to a greater covenant, or in this case, the new covenant, which wasn't a covenant of the law, but a covenant of the Spirit. And in Jeremiah 31 and Exodus 36, these are Old Testament prophets writing hundreds of years before these things would come to place.
34. 10:37 They basically said, God is going to bring about a new covenant, and no longer is he going to write his law on stone, but he is going to inscribe it upon our hearts, and he is going to forgive us our sins, and catch this, he's going to give us a new heart that we might abide in his truth and honor his word.
35. 10:58 And this is a new and a greater covenant. Spoiler alert, our verse today, verse 6, the last part of our text that we'll be covering, it ends with Jesus' face, contrasting to chapter 3, verse 6, Moses' face.
36. 11:15 Moses' face began to fade in glory. Jesus' face and his light never fades in glory. It gets brighter and brighter until the very end. And so Paul is building on this old covenant of the law versus the greater new covenant of the Spirit.
37. 11:35 And Jesus, at the last supper, before he went to the cross, held up the cup and said, this is the new covenant in my blood shed for the remission of your sins. And with that, Christ began this new covenant where he would be our God, and we would be his people, and he would write his law in our hearts.
38. 11:58 And more than that, he would give us the ability to live in accordance to them. It is a new and a greater covenant. And here's the catch. This terminology about veiled faces and not being able to see things as they are, all center around Jesus Christ.
39. 12:14 Because the old covenant was pointing to the fact that they needed a Savior. It was never by keeping the law that they would be saved. It was only by the law that they would be condemned. There's no power in the law. The power is from God.
40. 12:31 And that is why it is a new and a better covenant in Christ. Because that is where the law finds its fulfillment, and we find the power to change in him. Now, that's a lot of covenant language. And it's building up what we're going to see in chapter 4.
41. 12:49 And for some of you, you're just new to this whole God thing, and you're just checking out the Bible, and this is a little overwhelming. Let me try and simplify it as best I can for you. It's not about religion. It's all about relationship.
42. 13:06 It's not about what you can do. It's all about what Christ has done. That is the importance of Paul's message. And as we begin chapter 4, Paul then calls it this ministry of mercy by God.
43. 13:27 Mercy is not getting something you deserve. That's mercy. And Paul recognized that in this context, he was so unworthy to be on God's team building his church.
44. 13:47 Because he used to be a persecutor of the church. And he gave his life, almost in the sense of like an Al-Qaeda leader, to destroying his enemies and those he disagreed with. And there was so much guilt and so much shame around that.
45. 14:05 But God met him where he was. He turned his world upside down and inside out and said, it's not about you. It's about what I'm going to do through you. And Paul never forgot that. In his whole life, he tried to obtain whatever it was, the highest academic credentials, the best teachers, the most noble name.
46. 14:26 He was the first in his class at the best schools. He lived to please man. And in the end, he found that an empty and dead end. And now he had encountered the living God on the road to Dismascus. And God pulled him out from where he was. And he put him on a new trajectory.
47. 14:42 And he changed his life. And he began to use the very man who was trying to end the church to build the church. And this was a ministry of mercy. He didn't deserve it. But God gave his life such dignity and value. And he was no fear of man.
48. 15:00 I'll tell you that. He endured such hardships and trials. But he knew it was all worth it because he had taken hold of that which was the greater treasure. And he wouldn't let it go. It wasn't religion. It was a relationship with the living God who had changed his life and given him a sense of purpose and meaning.
49. 15:20 And was using him to do mighty and wonderful things. Greater things than he could ever do in his own strength. And that is why it was a gift of mercy. You know, this is Pastor Appreciation Month. I learned in seminary that eight out of ten of my fellow pastors in training would not finish their careers in full-time ministry.
50. 15:43 There's a lot of reasons for that. Morally, you have to uphold some qualifications to hold this office. It requires a lot of education. And let's just say the pay, well, it's going to be paying dividends that are out of this world.
51. 15:59 But on this side of eternity, it could be better. And sometimes as pastors, we forget that sheep bite. And we might need thicker skin if we're going to pursue this calling. So for a lot of different reasons, it burns a lot of people out. And when people like Paul, or in this case, let's just say Kent.
52. 16:20 Now, he's going to hate me for doing this. But here's a man who has given the very best years of his life, decades of faithful service to our Lord, has a first-class mind that could have done anything he wanted to do, and yet he was faithful to the call that God had given him to feed the flock and be a shepherd.
53. 16:37 We honor men like that because they recognize it's a gift of mercy that God has changed their life. And no matter what the cost, no matter what trials may come, see the end of the verse? Do not lose heart. That men like Kent, who are finishing strong, we should thank God for it because there's not many of them.
54. 16:58 And this is what Paul's exemplifying and what he's calling us to. Yeah, you can applause. He deserves it. Just a little bit, though. Just a little. Not too much. Not too much. Now, what's interesting is I want you to see it's not just about those who enter full-time ministry like Paul or Kent, but it is a priesthood of all believers.
55. 17:22 Here's the amazing thing of Scripture. God says that whatever we do, Colossians 3, 23 and 17 in particular, whatever we do, we can do it for the glory of God. And so, Tom, as an accountant, like you are serving God.
56. 17:38 Jessica and Renee, what you guys are doing, building that beautiful place, taking dominion over the earth and taking some random patch of land off the side of a highway and turning it into an oasis for families to draw closer to each other and celebrate the goodness of life and the gifts of God, that is a sacred calling.
57. 17:55 Cordell, what you're doing on the football field, dominating, is a sacred calling and gift that God has given you. Dennis, Amores, what you're doing through your dental practice, it is a sacred calling that God has given you and it is a mercy that he has chosen us to do whatever it is he's called us to do and we are to honor him with it to the very, very end.
58. 18:22 It's a priesthood of all believers. So be thankful for what God's called you to do and listen, on this side of eternity, we are tilling rocks and building amongst thorns and thistles. It's hard. It's a grind.
59. 18:38 But your labor for the Lord, no matter what you do, is worth it. Keep pressing on, building his kingdom. He is using you and in the end, it's not he who plants nor she who sows, but God who will make things grow in his time.
60. 18:56 We haven't been called to be successful. We've been called to be faithful. So keep pressing on. That is the gift of the ministry of mercy that we have here. Now, verses two through four begin teaching us about these counterfeits that we will encounter.
61. 19:14 The first one was the temptation to water down or tamper the word of God, to give people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. That's why we played that video for you leading into this because we want you to know this just wasn't Paul's battle.
62. 19:31 It's our battle today too. There are so many messages trying to get our heart and mind's attention. And what we must do is we must recognize that this is God's word. As a church, we are committed to preaching Jesus as our message because we believe this is the only message that is worth preaching.
63. 19:53 We preach Christ as Lord because he is nothing less than the King of King and the Lord of Lords. and... And... And here's the message that's so hard for us to hear. We are sinners, separated from God, unable to save ourselves, damned to an eternity, separated from God in hell, apart from his saving power at work in our lives.
64. 20:17 And we can't do it in our own strength. And our works are not going to save us. It is Christ and Christ alone. And that is why he died on the cross. Not so that we could have a life coach to help us live our best life now, but to save us from our sin and an eternity separated from him.
65. 20:40 This is not a popular message. It doesn't give you the warm fuzzies when you realize our condition apart from God. And the whole vicarious redemption, that it's through Christ's payment for us and rather than for us paying for it ourselves, is so foreign to us that I believe the word is true because I don't believe anybody in their right mind would have come up with it.
66. 21:06 It is a hard message, a hard truth. But it is a truth that has stood the test of time. And you can build your life and ministry on. Paul's temptation, like anyone else, might have been to compromise that.
67. 21:22 And so many people find this and they see, like, look at what's happening right now. Bible cells are up. Christian music is trending. More Christian apps are being downloaded than ever before. Like, there is a spiritual hunger right now in this generation, especially this younger generation that we haven't seen in decades.
68. 21:42 And there's a lot of people that want to get in on the racket and the opportunity. And in Paul's day, it's the same thing. Like, people saw the church exploding and growing. And so they wanted to get in on it. They wanted to be a part. So they're writing the Gospel of Thomas and all these other crazy things that are written hundreds of years after the time, claiming that they were a part of the original Bible.
69. 22:01 And they just want to get on it. And Paul is unbending. He will not compromise. He will not water it down. He's not trying to profit on the Gospel. Think about the 11 faithful disciples. 10 of them died as martyrs, according to church history.
70. 22:20 They gave it all, their last full measure, because they believed that this book was true and it was worth spreading to the ends of the earth. And they were just regular, ordinary men that God chose to use for His extraordinary, eternal purposes.
71. 22:38 And if He did it in their day, I know He can do it in our day, too. And then what happens next? We see in verse 3, this concept of the veil is coming back. And here, people can't see the glory of God and they can't see the forest for all the trees.
72. 22:56 Here's the very fulfillment of the law standing in front of them. Jesus says, the light is coming to the world, but people love the darkness. Jesus grew frustrated to those that He preached to that wouldn't respond to the message. And He said this, their hearts had grown dull.
73. 23:13 The veil was coming down. And they couldn't see things as they really are. And here's where it really gets interesting in verse 4. The God of this world. Jesus calls them the ruler of this world.
74. 23:28 It's Satan. And he is the one blinding the mind of the unbeliever. Remember all this static? All the noise? There's so many distractions. So many messages that are trying to get our attention.
75. 23:43 And Satan is using these things. And he's the God of this world. And whether it's through distraction or endless half-truths, he's pulling people away from the ultimate truth that can set them free. And that's what he's always been doing.
76. 23:59 And that's what he's going to continue to do. And he is a very real enemy and a very real threat to us. But greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. And Satan's power is powerless when confronted by the power of the gospel in Christ our Lord.
77. 24:18 And so that is what Paul then turns it to. It's not about the veil. It's not about Satan. It's not about compromising the message. These are all counterfeits. What is true, what has stood the test of time, what is real, is that Jesus is the message.
78. 24:34 His name above all names. Christ as Lord. Look at verse 5. We preached what? I'm asking you. We preached what? Verse 5. Christ as Lord. You see, this is huge in their context.
79. 24:53 In their day, Caesar was Lord. In other words, in Rome, people thought that Caesar was either a god himself or some sort of semi-god.
80. 25:09 And through some sort of patriotic ritual and religious practice, they would worship him and deify him and honor him as such. But the reality is that the Christians couldn't bend their knee to Caesar because they didn't believe that he was God.
81. 25:26 That's not what they believed at all. No, they had seen the risen Lord. Jesus was now reigning on high. And in the Septuagint, which was the Greek translation that they could all read of the Old Testament, which was written in Hebrew, it took the name of God, Yahweh, and translated into Curios, or Lord, capital L-O-R-D, that we see in our English Bibles today.
82. 25:54 It is a term of divinity. That Christ isn't just some good teacher. He is the Lord of Lord, the King of Kings, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one who came to save us, and the one who is coming back to redeem and rescue us.
83. 26:13 He is Lord. Politically, their allegiance was now to Christ, their King. Their true nationality was no longer just as a Roman citizen, but as a citizen of heaven.
84. 26:32 And if Christ was their Lord, then ultimately they would only bend their knee to Him and what He had to say, not just what man or culture said. It changed everything for them. And they not only believed it and professed it, but they lived in accordance to it, and it changed the world as we know it.
85. 26:54 And some of them even died for it. They could not stop confessing, Christ is Lord. That is why this is our message, and this is our prayer as a church, that we will always, as our number one and most fundamental and important value, Jesus is our message.
86. 27:14 We preach Christ as Lord. I can remember when I first heard this message. I was a 12-year-old kid, and to be honest, I was a kid looking for adventure in all the wrong places.
87. 27:32 And I had done a lot of things wrong, and my family was frustrated with some of my behavior, and my sister was coming home on honor roll, and let's just say I was coming home with detention. And it was just like, man, they were embarrassed. What are we doing wrong? And I heard the gospel, and to be honest, I knew I needed Jesus as my Savior.
88. 27:53 I knew I needed forgiveness for my sins, and I was honestly sorry for some of them. And that's the power of the gospel, is that no matter where we are when we hear it, there's a ring of truth to it because we know that we, well, we need to be forgiven. And it alone has the ring of truth that we can find forgiveness in.
89. 28:13 And I heard that, and I believed it. The problem was, it just didn't make a big difference in my life. And so people ask me, well, how'd you come to faith? And I tell them that I prayed a seven-year prayer of salvation. Because at age 19, as I was pledging a fraternity for all the wrong reasons, I was there given a big brother in the fraternity who was the chaplain of the fraternity.
90. 28:39 I was so bummed out. I was like, you gotta be kidding me. The chaplain? Please. Well, he pulled me aside, and he called me out for what I was. He said, you believe these things? I said, I do. I never doubted there was a God, and I honestly didn't have any questions that Jesus was who he said he was.
91. 28:57 It just didn't make a big difference in my life. He said, you believe those things? I said, I do. He said, you're a hypocrite. And I was like, I don't appreciate that. He had me read a book called Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray. And I'm telling you, it really convicted me to the core.
92. 29:14 And my freshman year, I got down on my knees, and I said, God, I am so sorry. Please forgive me. Take control of my life. Make me into the kind of man that you want me to be. I said, amen. I read that Jesus had a dove come down.
93. 29:30 I was hoping for at least a crow, a bat, a mosquito, nothing, nothing. I got up, but I really meant it. I feel like God had just softened my heart because I just, I knew it was true. He had opened my eyes to see. I don't know how else to say it. Two nights later, I was at a party.
94. 29:47 And there for the first time, I had a new desire. And I had the strength to walk in a new direction. Things were beginning to change. It was hard because a lot of my friends, they... experience a similar kind of change. And they were very frustrated.
95. 30:03 I never said anything against them. But they were so frustrated that I no longer participated with them. I had a lot of lonely lunches that freshman year in the calf. But the good news is, it kept my eyes looking out there for other people. And then this beautiful blonde walked by.
96. 30:19 And I said, man, who's that? And I got to know her. And she was beautiful on the inside and out. It wasn't long after that that we started dating. And we started going to church together. I started hearing this word preached for the first time.
97. 30:35 And man, I just, I couldn't get enough of it. We started working with a youth group because I was like, this changed my life and it's real. And if it's real, there's nothing more important that I want to do than share it with other people. So we started building our relationship on knowing God and making Him known. We eventually were challenged, both of us, as we were graduating her from PA school and myself from undergrad to give the first year of our careers to the Lord, kind of tithe like you would your money, your careers.
98. 31:03 And we didn't have any reason not to, so we did. And so that one year internship began to change the trajectory of our lives. Now before that, that girl of my dreams had to become my wife. And those were some fun conversations. She's like, well, how are we going to go as missionaries together if we're not?
99. 31:19 You know. And so we had some great conversations and that girl became my wife. The Lord changed my heart as a freshman and He changed the trajectory of my life as a sophomore. And it all centered around this message that Christ is Lord.
100. 31:35 But when I went out out there on the mission field with Heidi to share this good news with people, there were so many that didn't believe it. And if I could be honest with you, it led to a bit of a crisis of faith because I knew God had done a great work in my heart and life.
101. 31:51 But I was pointing to the Bible and they kept telling me, why do you believe that book? And I said, because it's true. And they said, how do you know it's true? And I said, well, because it's the Bible. And then they would point to other religious texts and I'd roll my eyes like, that's ridiculous. Why would anybody believe that?
102. 32:06 And then I saw them look at me just the way I looked at others. And it caused a little bit of crisis of faith for me. How do I know this is real? How do I know this is true? And that's where I began to understand this whole world of apologetics. That there's actually a rational defense for the Christian faith.
103. 32:23 And what that did, that didn't bring me to faith, but what that did was that was like rocket fuel on the faith. Because then I realized that, oh my gosh, you can actually make a very strong and compelling case, more probable than any other, that there is a God.
104. 32:39 Mathematically, morally, philosophically, you name it. Cosmologically. But then you wonder who that God is and has he revealed himself? And you get to this crazy claim historically that the tomb was empty, that Paul and all of the apostles are banking their lives on in their ministry, that the tomb was empty.
105. 33:00 And you can make a compelling case that not only the tomb was empty, but Jesus, in fact, rose from the dead. And I'm telling you, when that was poured on top of me, that what I believed was really true, not only did it change my life, but circumstantial evidence supported these claims, man, it rocked my world.
106. 33:19 And that one-year internship has now become a 22-year run in full-time ministry. Changed my life. Christ is Lord. I'm telling you. He's a good God. And he wants to use us.
107. 33:35 And that's what this is all about. When you see this, look at this. Christ is Lord. Ourselves as your servants. There's no greater privilege or honor than we have than serving the Lord, no matter what it is we do. But hear me clearly. This is our message.
108. 33:50 Christ is Lord. And when his, this is verse 6, when his light comes into, not your mind, not just your life, but into your heart, he takes the darkness out.
109. 34:06 And he replaces it with light. And his light not only takes the darkness out, but it shines through you to a world that desperately needs to hear it. You know, I told you growing up, I caused my family a lot of pain with some of the poor choices that I made.
110. 34:23 And when they saw me come to faith and then eventually go on the mission field, they said, this is crazy. Let's see if this sticks. And then year after year realizing, wow, it's not rubbing off. It really began to get their attention. My father, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
111. 34:39 It's a terrible disease. And as it was, it was literally taking his life from him. I remember going to one of our last walks together and he looked at me. And I've been a full-time ministry for a few years now. And again, I brought a lot of embarrassment to our family.
112. 34:57 And he looked at me and he said, son, I want you to know I love you and I'm so proud of you. It was not always that way. You see, when the light comes into the darkness, it changes things for good.
113. 35:12 And it changes a man for good. And it takes him for where he is and it puts him where he needs to be. And he gives him a mission and a purpose that is so much greater than his name and his kingdom. It's for the Lord's name and for his kingdom. And he'll do the most amazing things to the most unlikely people.
114. 35:30 And it all centers around this message that Christ is Lord. It's his light that's going to shine in our hearts and his light that's going to shine through us. We weren't just saved from hell. We were saved for eternity with our Savior.
115. 35:47 And it's important that we declare his name to the ends of the earth. This week I was at my son's middle school football game. And there I was just having a great time cheering them on. And then all the varsity players came up and I was like, oh man, the varsity team's here.
116. 36:06 We have youth group tonight. I should go talk to them. But then I was like, I don't know. I just felt intimidated. I'm a grown man, you guys. But I was intimidated by high schoolers. There's a lot of them. And I didn't want to go talk to them. And so I tried to put my calling off on my son. And I said, Isaiah, you're the quarterback. Go tell your teammates to come to youth group tonight.
117. 36:22 And he looked at me. He's like, Dad, they don't want to go to church. And I was like, ah. So I went back over and I just tried to cheer my son on. And anyways, long story short, I just couldn't shake it in my heart. I knew God wanted me to reach out to these kids. And then all of a sudden I looked up just as I was fighting.
118. 36:40 And I just, I didn't know what to do or how to interject. All of a sudden a young man walked up. He had this incredible smile on his face. And my wife Heidi had told me, I talked to one of this, the running back on the team. He's this amazing kid. His heart is so open.
119. 36:56 He's a great kid. You got to talk to him. And there he was walking in my direction. And he wasn't in a big crowd. So it wasn't intimidating. So I walked over to him. And I got to hear his story. And I got to hear his questions about life and God.
120. 37:12 And he asked me, what does the Bible say? I'm hearing it, but I don't understand it. And I want to know if God will accept me. And I told him, he'll not only accept you, he'll change you from the inside out. And he'll do a wonderful work in your heart life.
121. 37:28 And I tried to share the gospel as best I could. And in the end, I asked if he wanted to receive the Lord. And he said, I do. And there on the sideline, Cordell with me. And Bob came up not long after that. Good things happen when Bob's around. Cordell placed his faith in Christ right there on the sidelines.
122. 37:47 He said, God, I want you to be not my Savior, but my Lord. He came to church that night. He's bringing friends this morning. And Cordell, I want to say to you right now that God has not only made you an incredible athlete, a strong man in mind and body, but he is changing your life and he is going to use you to change eternity.
123. 38:07 And I'm so proud of you. And I believe in you. And I believe God has great things for you. And we are behind you as a church. We need it. Somebody asked me, they said, how are you going to grow that church? That's a big sanctuary to fill.
124. 38:23 I'll tell you. We're going to preach Christ as Lord. And he's going to change people's hearts and lives like he's always done. And like he's always going to do. And he's going to use us. But so often it just starts with an invitation for us getting uncomfortable and saying, come with me and let me share with you where I have found life and forgiveness through Christ the Lord.
125. 38:47 I was at my gym this week too. And it was one of those weeks as I was preaching this text that I was so aware of everything going on and the need to proclaim this message. I've hurt my back doing CrossFit.
126. 39:04 I go to a CrossFit gym, but I don't do it anymore because I've hurt my back so much. And my wife reminds me it's a hobby, not a job. And you have a family to provide for. So stop playing games in the gym. So I said, yes, ma'am. So I go out on my little stationary bike outside. Everybody else has fun doing the classes.
127. 39:20 But then the owner of the gym came up to me and he said, James, will you be my partner for the upcoming in-house competition? And I was like, well, I don't. And then I just stopped. And something in my heart said, you should do it. Because you can connect with the community there. Instead of being an outsider, you can become an insider.
128. 39:36 And so I said, sure, I'd love to be your partner. This guy, he's the only guy at my age that I look up to. I'll tell you that. He's that fit dude. And so I was glad to be the weak link on the team. But I knew we were going to be competing in the pro division. I thought, you know what, God, maybe we'll win it. We'll have this amazing platform to share with everybody about the great things you're doing.
129. 39:54 Anyways, this is what it looked like at the end of the workout yesterday. That's me on the floor there. We did not. not win. I got crushed by that workout. There's my wife trying to cheer me on. Great job. But let me tell you, we stepped into the world.
130. 40:13 And I got to experience what they experienced. The suffering, the life, the joy of being a fitness family. And I got to talk to so many people about this church. And I'm telling you, a lot of them are coming next week. Ralph, thank you for coming. A Navy soldier, it's good to have you in here.
131. 40:29 Man, I'm telling you, Charles is here. Alfredo is here. Like, wherever God is calling you, be the light there. Let His light shine not only in your heart, but through you.
132. 40:45 And watch how He's going to use you to change eternity. Christ is our message. It's the message we will always preach. It stood the test of time. And in the midst of a lot of noise, it's something you can anchor your life to and build on as a strong foundation.
133. 41:03 It's not just a message for our day. It's a message for all days. You see that red book in front of you? I want you to open it up there. In the very back, there's a place called the Westminster Catechism.
134. 41:19 And so, if you'll go to the back, I think it's page 870. Does that sound right? Can't go back. We're going to look at the very back of it. And it's in, it's the Westminster Shorter Chasm, question number 21. One. And there I just wanted to end the service by reading this together.
135. 41:39 This, and we're going to put it on the screens here too. But I just wanted you to see that this was written in the 1600s, page 870, in the bottom of your red hymnal. And I'm going to ask you a question. This is a question that people have been asking for hundreds of years. And I would ask that you, the congregation, respond.
136. 41:56 Westminster Catechism number 21. Who is the Redeemer? of God's elect. This is our message.
137. 42:26 We will always preach Christ as Lord. Lord, will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, thank you for this reality, that your word is true. It stood the test of time. It's something we can build our lives on.
138. 42:43 We pray that your light would shine in the darkness, that it would remove the darkness from our hearts, and that you would shine brightly through us to the world that desperately needs to hear from you. You're the God who rescues us, sustains us, and sets us free.
139. 43:00 And in a world where there's so much static, and so many messages biting for our hearts and attention, would you help us to hear your voice and to proclaim it clearly to the ends of the earth? God, I know next week we're having a fall festival.
140. 43:16 We're opening this church up and creating a space where we pray people will come and encounter you, the living God. So would you please help us as church be bold and invite many people to join us. Not so they can just enjoy a time of fun and fellowship and festivities, but so they can encounter you, the living God.
141. 43:37 And Lord, I pray for those who are in this house today that are so tired of trying to fix themselves through endless works and religion that they would rest in your finished work for them on the cross.
142. 43:54 And I pray that you would hear their prayer right now as they pray it to you in their hearts. Lord Jesus, I need you not only as my Savior, but as my Lord. I can't fix myself.
143. 44:10 I can't undo all the wrongs. And so I just ask for your forgiveness. And I pray that you would come inside and you would write your word on my heart and you would set my heart on fire for you.
144. 44:27 And you would help me to overcome in ways that I haven't been able to in my strength. But God, your word says with you, all things are possible. So would you do for me what I cannot do for myself? Would you save me and sustain me as best I know how I surrender.
145. 44:43 And all God's people said, amen and amen.

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