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00:00 After he describes this terribly hurtful time in his life, he says, "May it not be charged against
00:09 them." That's an amazing response.
00:15 Really an unbelievable response. After a person has experienced so much
00:21 pain and disappointment, it's impossible to respond like that,
00:28 isn't it? Humanly speaking, yes, it is. Paul was only able
00:35 to have the strength to be able to respond like that. Only able to have God's grace, God's love to respond like
00:43 that because God was helping him. God was enabling him to do this. In this
00:50 time of extreme disappointment, God gave Paul the grace he needed to
00:56 have an attitude of love, a desire, a willingness to forgive.
01:04 Paul himself had experienced God's grace. You might remember Paul had been
01:10 a persecutor of Christians, responsible for the death and the imprisonment of Christians.
01:16 He has blood on his hands. He deserves hell and damnation. And yet he received
01:23 God's grace and forgiveness. So when a person like Paul has received
01:29 God's grace and forgiveness, how can he not offer that to other people?
01:36 And when you and I have received God's love and forgiveness, how can we not
01:42 offer that to other people? Now, Paul's words, may it not be charged
01:48 against him, they were not original with him. He changed them a little bit, but
01:53 basically he probably plagiarized them from Steven. If you remember the story
01:60 in Acts chapter 6 and 7, one of the early followers of Jesus was named
02:05 Steven. He was a very articulate, articulate, eloquent proclaimer of the
02:11 gospel message. And some of the religious leaders and government leaders did not like that. They put him on
02:18 trial. And he gives an eloquent defense of Christianity, showing how from the
02:24 very beginning, the entire Old Testament is pointing to Jesus and his crucifixion
02:29 and his resurrection. And they can't refute the truth. All they can do is try
02:36 to kill the messenger. So that's what they do. And Paul was involved in the group that killed Steven. They took him
02:43 out. They stoned him to death. And as the stones were coming crashing in on
02:48 Stephen, Steven's last words were a prayer as he said, "Lord, do not hold
02:54 this sin against them." And Paul was pretty much the ring leader of the group that killed Stephen. And undoubtedly,
03:02 these words had continued to play through his mind over and over and over.
03:10 And by the way, these words were not really original with Steven either.
03:15 Probably Stephen knew the words of Jesus. As the Roman soldiers were nailing nails through his hands and
03:22 through his feet, Jesus was praying, "Father, forgive them
03:28 for they know not what they do." We all experience disappointments, hurt,
03:36 and pain. There are times when other people hurt us. Now, sometimes it's not intentional
03:43 and we might just not to we might need to just be not quite so sensitive because they're not really meaning to
03:49 hurt us. But sometimes people hurt you and they hurt you on purpose. What
03:54 they've done has been intentional. Possibly some of you have been hurt deeply by a spouse,
04:02 possibly by a child, maybe an adult child, possibly been hurt by a colleague
04:08 at work, possibly somebody was trying to scuttle what you were doing at work so
04:13 they could get the promotion, they could get the raise that you should really get, but instead, no, you don't. People
04:21 that we consider friends do things that hurt us. They might betray us and
04:28 sometimes even Christian friends do this. Matter of fact, it might even be a
04:33 fellow church member. So when disappointments come, how do you
04:39 deal with them? One common way is just to get angry,
04:45 become bitter, harbor resentment. Another way is just this desire for
04:51 revenge and we start plotting and scheming to figure out what we can do to get back at them. But remember the
04:57 unresolved anger and bitterness, it'll destroy us if we harbor it within
05:04 us. Dale Carnegie, I think, made a good observation about this. He said, "When
05:11 we hate our enemies, what we're doing is we are giving them power over us because
05:18 we are giving them power over our sleep. We can't sleep. We're giving them power
05:23 over our appetites. We can't enjoy food anymore. We're giving them power over our happiness. We can't be happy because
05:31 we're so angry." So our hate is not hurting them, Dale
05:36 Carnegie says, but rather it's turning our days and our nights into hellish
05:42 turmoil. Doctors will tell you that many people suffer physical symptoms because of
05:49 unresolved anger and bitterness that they're harboring within us.
05:55 And if your goal is, well, I'll get revenge and if I really get them, that will release the anger within me. Well,
06:02 usually revenge leads to counter revenge to it's just a cycle that doesn't end.
06:10 An example in current day history, just look over at Palestine between the Israelis and the Palestinians. One side
06:17 does something, the other side gets revenge, so then the other side gets revenge, so the other side gets revenge. And it's an unceasing cycle, spiral of
06:25 violence. God wants something better for us.
06:30 God wants to give us his grace during times of disappointment and hurt. God
06:36 wants us to experience his mercy so that we can have an attitude of love and a
06:42 desire from within to forgive those who have sinned against us or who have hurt
06:49 us. Now I don't have time to go into a lot of details on this but let me mention a
06:54 few points before I go ahead. When we say that we need to be willing to
06:60 forgive people, I am not saying there will never be any more consequences.
07:07 We can forgive somebody and there still might be serious consequences that don't go away. I mean, an obvious example
07:14 would be if somebody commits murder, the family of those the family of the
07:20 man who was murdered might be willing to forgive the criminal. And if the criminal repents, they could even have
07:25 reconciliation. And we have occasionally seen that type of thing happen, but the consequence is
07:31 still there. Whoever was killed is still dead. Or if you have a couple, married
07:36 couple, and one of the spouses cheats on the other and they go and are involved with somebody and they come back and
07:42 bring HIV or AIDS into their marriage relationship.
07:47 Well, the offended spouse might be willing to forgive and the errant spouse might be willing to repent and the
07:54 relationship is restored. but you still got a fatal disease to deal with. So
07:59 just saying forgive, that doesn't mean all of the consequences will automatically go away. And another
08:05 thing, it does not mean it does not mean that, oh well, I'm going to forgive, so I just won't even mention anything about
08:12 the sin that took place. I'll just allow anything and everything and not get out out of shape about it
08:19 because I'm supposed to forgive. Well, Paul, in addition to showing the forgiveness in this passage, we see in
08:25 other passages, he confronts sin headon. The Old Testament prophets confronted
08:31 sin. John the Baptist preparing people to hear Jesus message of God's good news
08:37 confronted sin. Jesus confronted sin. Paul in writing to the church in Corinth at one time even said there's a man
08:44 that's involved in such serious immorality in your church you need to throw him out
08:49 not in revenge or vengeance but to help the man come to his senses so he would repent and also to protect the honor of
08:57 God's name in the body of Christ in that city. So we want to forgive but still sin does
09:06 need to be confronted. And also when it comes to forgiveness,
09:12 one goal of forgiveness is reconciliation. And to have reconciliation, you've got
09:18 to have both parties. And frequently, even if you're willing to forgive and
09:24 the other person does not want reconciliation, there will be no reconciliation. And that's probably the situation like
09:31 Paul found himself in in this passage. He has been hurt. He has been offended.
09:36 He is praying willing to forgive them. But the people have deserted him. They
09:43 have no idea that he wrote this text. They have no idea that he's willing to forgive them. There will never be
09:50 reconciliation because Paul is going to be killed, executed just a few days later.
09:55 But on Paul's part, there was that desire, that willingness to offer God's
10:00 grace to the parties that who had offended him. And that's what we want to
10:06 also be able to experience. That's how God wants to help us when we experience
10:13 hurt and pain. It's not that we ignore and say, "Ah, it's no big deal." It might be a big deal, but rather than
10:21 responding in the with anger or revenge, we respond with mercy.
10:30 So ask yourself, when disappointments come, how are you going to deal with them? You going to get even? You're
10:37 going to get angry and bitter, or are you going to respond like Paul did?
10:44 Will you respond like Stephen did? Will you respond like Jesus did?
10:55 God helps us by giving us grace for the disappointments in life.
11:02 A second way that we can see in this passage of how God helps us is that in times of difficulty,
11:08 God will give us strength. We see in verse 17, right after Paul
11:14 said that everybody had deserted him, then he says, "But the Lord stood by me
11:21 and he strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed
11:26 and all the Gentiles might hear it." So I was rescued from the lion's mouth.
11:34 God helps us by giving us strength to face the trials of life. And Paul was
11:42 definitely going through a difficult trial. You notice the end of that verse, he talks about being rescued from the
11:49 lion's mouth. Now, exactly what he means, we don't know. probably he did
11:55 not mean it literally. Although there were Christians in the Roman in the days of the Roman Empire
12:01 that did literally die in a lion's mouth because one form of entertainment in the
12:07 Roman world was hey let's throw the Christians to the wild animals in a big arena and let's watch watch them suffer.
12:14 Paul was a Roman citizen and this type of punishment or spectacle was usually
12:19 not made with Roman citizens. So more than likely, even though some Christians died in the mouth of lions, probably is
12:27 not what Paul was referring to. Some speculate that maybe when he said the lion's mouth, he was referring to the
12:34 evil, crazy emperor Neero, who was bent on persecuting Christians, blaming them
12:41 for the fire in Rome, trying to place blame on the Christian people for everything bad that was happening in the
12:47 Roman Empire. Possibly Paul was just referring to his most recent legal proceeding. God
12:54 delivered me from that terrible legal proceeding that my first defense that he just talked about. Possibly Paul was
13:01 quoting from the Psalms. Psalm 22 is the psalm that Jesus quoted from when he was
13:06 hanging on the cross. And in that psalm, there's one line that says, "Save me from the lion's mouth." and not
13:14 specifically talking about a real animal lion, but just from a terrible situation.
13:20 Paul could have been referring to the devil. Peter in his letter chapter 5:8
13:27 compares the devil to a roaring lion. And definitely the devil wanted to
13:32 silence Paul. The devil wanted to shut Paul's mouth. And so maybe Paul is just
13:39 saying, "God has delivered me once again out of Satan's power." So whatever he
13:45 means with the mouth of a lion, we do know that Paul was in a very difficult
13:50 time and that God helped him by standing with him and by giving him strength.
13:59 Everybody else had deserted him, but the Lord was right there at Paul's side.
14:05 Nobody else offered any support at all to Paul, but Paul received strength from
14:12 the presence of the Lord. Strength as he went through this difficult time.
14:17 Now, let's notice what this text does not say. The text does not say that the
14:24 Lord delivered Paul from the trial.
14:29 You see, some people think that, hey, if I become a Christian, everything will be great.
14:35 All my problems will go away. I'll be rich. I'll be healthy. All relationships
14:41 will instantly be healed. It doesn't work that way. Sometimes, even in our
14:47 evangelistic fervor, we're wanting to convince people about how great Jesus is, and he is, but we go a little beyond
14:54 what scripture says. all your problems will be solved
15:00 or your most pressing problem will be solved because our major problem which causes all of the other problems in life
15:08 is the fact that we are separated from the source of life. We're separated from our creator because of our sin.
15:15 Jesus brings reconciliation with God Almighty. He brings forgiveness of sin.
15:22 our biggest problem that will affect our eternity worse than anything else. That problem
15:29 is solved. But that does not mean that everything else is solved. God did not
15:35 deliver Paul from the trial. Paul went through the trial.
15:40 God delivered him in the trial. And we see that frequently in the Bible. Daniel
15:47 was cast into the lion's den, but it was in the middle of the lion's den that he was rescued.
15:53 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast into the fiery furnace. But in that fiery furnace, they were delivered.
16:01 David wrote about going through walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
16:08 We'd rather build a bypass around that valley so we don't have to walk through it.
16:14 God didn't deliver David from going through this valley. But when he went through the valley of the shadow of
16:19 death, he said, 'I will fear no evil. Why? Because God is with me.
16:26 Scripture tells us in Isaiah, God is speaking. He says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you
16:32 and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the
16:39 flame shall not consume you. God does prevent some trials from
16:47 happening. We do see some miraculous things happening in the book of Acts, for
16:53 example, where Peter got out of jail miraculously. We see some miraculous ways where Paul earlier had been spared.
17:02 But there's no guarantee that will happen. And as a matter of fact, those are usually the exceptions.
17:09 We as Christian people go through difficulties.
17:14 Christians get sick. They get cancer. They have heart attacks.
17:21 Christians are involved in automobile accidents, plane wrecks. Christians can lose their jobs.
17:29 Christians experience heartache. Christians are sometimes the victims of
17:34 crime. There's no immunity from suffering just because you're a Christian. And as a
17:40 matter of fact, if you're faithful to Christ, you might suffer some because you are a Christian. That's why Paul was
17:47 suffering because he was obedient to the command of Christ to take the gospel to all peoples. People from a different
17:54 ethnic background, people from a different religious background. some of them did not want to hear. But he was
18:00 faithful and then he ended up suffering. And the suffering was because he was a
18:06 Christian because he wanted to follow Christ. And today we could give numerous
18:12 examples of people who are suffering because they are being faithful to Jesus
18:18 Christ. As Christians, we are not exempt from
18:23 suffering. And we don't always know why. Some people want to be very positive. Oh, I'm
18:29 sure there's a reason here. And maybe there is, but we may not ever know what it is. You can ask why. And sometimes
18:35 there is really no good answer as to why. But we do have this promise from God where God has said, "I will never
18:44 leave you nor forsake you." And we have these words of Jesus right
18:50 after he told his followers to go and make disciples of all peoples. Then he
18:55 promised, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world."
19:03 There's a story coming from the after right after World War II was over. Whether the story is
19:10 true or not, I don't know. But anyway, I've heard the story that in Europe after the world the World War was over,
19:17 there were several people who were making a pilgrimage to a site where many Catholics would gather for prayer. But
19:24 as they were going to this place to pray, there were some skeptics on the sides of the road hurling insults at the
19:31 people and you know, how can you believe in God who allowed this war to happen? And you God's not going to answer your
19:37 prayer. All of these kinds of things being yelled at the people. And there is one man who had been a soldier who had
19:43 been severely wounded in the war. He had lost a leg. And so as he's going to this side of pilgrimage, he's going along on
19:51 crutches. And one of the skeptics on the side said, 'Hey, what are you going to do?
19:57 Are you going to go pray for God to let that leg grow back? To which the soldier replied, "No, I'm
20:04 not going to pray for that. But I am going to pray that God gives me strength
20:10 to go through life and to face life with the one remaining leg that I have."
20:17 God helps us by giving us strength to face the difficulties that we face in
20:23 life. He stands with us and he provides what we need to overcome and work
20:30 through these difficulties. A third way that God helps us that we can see in this passage in times of
20:37 disillusionment, God gives us purpose. He gives our lives meaning. He gives our
20:44 life something worth living for. And we see that in verse 17 as Paul says, "But
20:50 the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be
20:56 fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it."
21:02 Now, it would have been easy for Paul to have just gotten discouraged, disillusioned, and say, "Hey, I'm
21:09 quitting. God, I've been faithful to you and now what have you done to me? You put me in
21:14 jail. I'm facing the chopping block where my head's going to be cut off.
21:20 Many of us would be willing to just throw in the towel and quit. Such a difficult time. And undoubtedly, Paul's
21:27 life was not ending the way he had hoped it would. After he had become a follower
21:32 of Jesus, he had proclaimed the gospel to countless people, large crowds of
21:37 people. He had had many successful missionary journeys, seeing churches planted all over the place. And now he's
21:44 not free to travel and do his missionary work anymore. He's not free to go out and gather a large crowd and preach.
21:52 God, what are you doing putting me here in this jail? Paul could have easily become disillusioned and just given up.
21:60 But no, he had purpose. He had meaning. Paul realized,"I
22:05 am an ambassador from God. I'm getting to go to the most powerful
22:11 person on the face of the earth at that time, the Roman emperor. And I am going
22:16 not as an humble prisoner. I'm going as an ambassador from the King of Kings who
22:21 is so much more powerful than this Roman emperor. And I have the opportunity there to
22:27 share the gospel message in the imperial court.
22:32 You might remember back when Paul en encountered Christ on the road to
22:37 Damascus and his life was changed and he was commissioned by God to go and share
22:44 the gospel. One thing that was told him many years earlier and you will bear my
22:50 message before kings. Now, I'm sure Paul would have rather had an invitation to a royal banquet. come
22:57 and eat a nice meal, sit down and chitchat with the king or the emperor over a nice meal and then get into a
23:04 gospel presentation. Didn't work that way. He went as a
23:09 prisoner. But nevertheless, God was true to what he said. You will bear my witness to kings. And if Paul had not
23:16 been in jail appealing his case to the Caesar, he'd have probably never had that opportunity.
23:21 Nero would not have stopped on a street corner to hear a street preacher talking about some from Palestine that
23:27 supposedly was raised from the dead. Nero wouldn't have listened. But now when he's in the imperial court, the
23:32 highest officials in the land are hearing the gospel message. So rather than Paul giving up, what's the use?
23:40 Rather than being disillusioned, he realized God has a purpose for this time in my life. Yes, it's terribly difficult
23:48 for me, but I have meaning. I have purpose. And he goes on and he shares
23:55 the gospel with these people. Does your life have meaning? Does your
24:02 life have purpose? Oh, we all have some purpose in life. I
24:07 mean just the basic human instinct of trying to survive and to get by or the goal to succeed.
24:15 And it is a worthwhile purpose to want to provide for our family, to provide for our children, to earn enough living
24:22 to pay our bills. These things are of great value. But think for a moment.
24:29 Do you invest as much in the spiritual well-being of your children as you do in
24:35 seeing that they get a good education? Do you invest as much in the spiritual
24:42 support of your family as you do in providing material and financial support for your family?
24:50 Yes, you have some goals. You have some meaning, some purpose. But do the things that you that are providing meaning in
24:56 your life, do they actually have eternal value? Providing the spiritual support for your
25:02 family is going to have more lasting value than providing only the financial
25:08 support. I'm reminded of a man who lived in the
25:14 same city I used to live in in the US several years ago. I used to live in the city of Kansas
25:20 City, Missouri. And Kansas City has some professional ball teams. And their
25:26 baseball team, the Kansas City Royals, when I lived there was a top-notch team.
25:34 After I left, not because I left, but never just chronologically after I left, the team went way downhill and was at
25:40 the rock bottom for a long time. Now, recently they come back up to the top again, but back when I lived there, they
25:46 won the World Series, which is the highest you can go in baseball. So, everybody in the United States would
25:53 have known Kansas City Royals and they were either like me cheering them on or
25:58 else they were cursing them because they didn't want them to win. But everybody knew of that team and everybody on that
26:05 team was famous. If you followed baseball, you could call the names of all of the players. There was a man who
26:12 was playing catcher for the team. Later, a few years later, after this
26:20 wonderful success he had in baseball, he pretty much hit rock bottom, he came to faith in Christ.
26:27 And then he devoted his years to helping the poor and the needy, helping orphans.
26:35 And he devoted his life to sharing the gospel with other people. And in talking
26:41 about his own life, he said, "I had reached every goal I wanted. I was rich.
26:48 Everything that money could buy, I had. I was famous. Everybody knew me. I was
26:54 successful. You can't get any better than the World Series champions.
26:60 But yet, my life had no meaning. My life had no purpose beyond that. And I had re
27:06 reached all of that. And I wondered, is there not anything else? And then he went on to say, "What I'm
27:14 doing now provides so much more purpose and meaning in my life as I'm helping
27:19 underprivileged people and as I'm sharing the gospel with other people."
27:25 God wants to give our lives purpose and meaning, something that has eternal
27:32 value for the purpose. So if you're feeling disillusioned, whether because you have been so successful and you
27:38 wonder is there anything else or whether because you have not been successful and
27:43 you're disillusioned about that. Either way, God wants to show you how your life
27:49 can truly have purpose.
27:54 So we've seen so far how God helps us. In times of disappointment, he will give us his grace.
28:01 In times of difficulties, he will give us strength and his presence. In times of disillusionment, he will
28:08 give us purpose. And one final thing we can see in this passage,
28:14 in times of despair, God will give us hope. God gives us hope in this life and he
28:22 also gives us hope in death. He gives us a hope that extends into eternity. We
28:29 see that in verse 18. The Lord will rescue me from every evil
28:35 deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.
28:41 Now, it's interesting to see that he will rescue me, but how is he going to rescue him? Not by miraculously opening
28:48 the jail doors and letting him walk through. No, Paul's getting ready to be beheaded. But he can still say, "God
28:54 will rescue me because he is now bringing me into his heavenly kingdom." Other times in Paul's ministry, even
29:02 though Paul had faced and gone through difficult trials, he had always come out on the other side. He had been arrested
29:08 many times, imprisoned many times just for sharing the gospel, no crime, but nevertheless put in jail. But he'd
29:15 always been released up until this time. He had been beaten severely,
29:21 but he still was able to recover enough to continue with his goal in life of sharing the gospel with people. He had
29:28 been stoned and left for dead, but God did not let him die. Paul
29:34 survived and he was able to continue many years sharing the gospel.
29:39 Paul had been shipwrecked, but he had been saved. He had been the victim of the plots of many evil men and he'd
29:46 always come out on the other side. But this time it looks like Paul is staring
29:52 death in the face. It looks like Paul is probably going to be executed. And we
29:58 know that not only from this verse about being brought into God's heavenly kingdom, but earlier in this same
30:04 chapter, Paul has written, "For I am already being poured out as a drink
30:10 offering, and the time of my departure has come." He's not saying, "I'm getting
30:15 on the next airplane out of Rome." He's saying, "My departure is going to heaven. I have fought the good fight. I
30:23 have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for
30:29 me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to
30:34 me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his
30:40 appearing. Paul had run out of time, but he had not
30:46 run out of hope. And hope was not just wishful thinking. It's not just positive thinking, but his
30:54 hope was founded on the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus
30:60 Christ. It's the same hope that Peter was describing in First Peter chapter 1, where Peter's talking about according to
31:07 God's great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope. And this
31:13 hope is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
31:19 It's the same hope that Jesus was talking about in John chapter 11 when he's talking to Mary and Martha who had
31:25 just lost their brother in death and Jesus had told them your brother will live again and they said yeah I know at
31:33 the end time at the resurrection Jesus said no you don't understand I am the resurrection I am the life whoever
31:41 believes in me though he die yet shall he live
31:48 a living hope, a hope that lasts into eternity. And that's the hope that Paul
31:54 had. He knew that when this life comes to an end, that is not my end. Because
32:02 the end of this earthly life is just the beginning of an eternity in heaven with
32:09 God the Father, with Jesus Christ, with all who believe in Jesus.
32:15 We need to have that same kind of hope that Paul had because as well the American humorist
32:22 Will Rogers he said one thing that makes us think. He said there's only two things that are definite in life taxes
32:31 and death. And George Bernard Shaw, the British playwright, he said life's ultimate
32:39 statistic is one out of one dies.
32:46 Now, we don't even like to talk about death, so I'll just take that off the screen. Don't want to see that. But just because we don't like to talk about it
32:54 does not remove the reality. That doesn't change anything just
32:59 because, okay, we won't talk about that. I'll wipe that off the screen.
33:05 What hope and assurance do you have for the end of life?
33:10 And what is that hope based upon? You can have the same hope that Paul
33:17 had. I hope you don't face the same physical end that Paul did, but if you
33:23 do, I hope that we do have the same end in
33:28 heaven that Paul was looking to. We can have a secure hope based on the
33:35 crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just two days ago, we
33:40 celebrated the fact that God took on human flesh. The word of God became flesh and dwelt among men.
33:47 And we saw how Jesus, the promised Messiah, the promised deliverer, the one
33:53 who was promised to come and bring forgiveness of sins, he came into the world.
33:59 And we see that the reason that he came was to provide forgiveness of sin to
34:06 make possible reconciliation with God and through the crucifixion and the
34:12 resurrection of Christ. When we respond in repentance and we respond in faith,
34:19 it's like we're born again. That's the words the scripture uses. When we respond in faith to Christ, we're born
34:25 again of God's spirit. And that life does not end. Our earthly body will come
34:31 to an end. But if we've responded in faith to what Christ has done for us, we have received new life. And that life
34:37 will go on eternally with God. So God gives us this hope.
34:44 When we're times of despair, we know that God provides hope that's so much
34:51 more than wishful thinking, but it's grounded and founded in what Christ has
34:56 done for us. Now, this morning, we've not looked at a comprehensive list of every way that God
35:03 can and does help us, but we have seen four very important ways that God helped Paul. In these same ways, God is willing
35:12 to and wants to help us today. God wants to give us grace, a spirit of
35:19 love, a willingness to forgive when we face the pain, the hurt, the disappointments in life.
35:27 God will be with us. His presence will give us the strength we need as we go through the difficulties of life.
35:35 God gives our life an eternal meaning, eternal purpose. something much more than the world would
35:41 have to offer. And God will give us hope when we
35:47 respond in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ, accept him as our savior,
35:52 confessing our sin to him, bowing before him, acknowledging him as the rightful lord, master of our life, then we have
35:60 hope. And then as we walk in faith with him, we can begin to experience the same
36:06 type of help and other ways that God wants to help us. And when we experience
36:12 God's help like Paul experienced God's help, then we too will want to cry out
36:18 to him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
36:24 Let's pray together. Almighty God, we acknowledge
36:31 you as the creator of the world, the giver of all life, and we give you thanks that you have love for each one
36:38 of us. We give you thanks that you have taken the initiative to bring us sinful,
36:44 errant people back into a relationship with God. Father, we thank you for what
36:49 Jesus has done for us as he came into the world on that Christmas day so long ago. how he lived a pure, perfect, holy
36:56 life, showing us what real life is, showing us who you are. I thank you for
37:03 the fact that he has now made payment for our sin, that we can receive forgiveness. So, we thank you for this
37:10 way that you help us by providing forgiveness for our sin. We thank you for the help that you give to us as we
37:16 walk daily with you. And as we're facing this new year, as we continue to go into the future with you, we want to trust
37:23 you for the future, knowing that you're the one that will stand by us. You're the one that will give us the strength
37:29 that we need. You're the one that will give us the grace we need. So, I pray that we will all trust you
37:36 depending on this living hope that you give to us. And father, if there's somebody here this morning who has never
37:42 responded in faith to you, I pray that they would make that commitment of their lives to you, coming to you in
37:48 repentance and faith. And those that have made that commitment, I pray that you will help us to walk day by day in
37:54 faith, looking to you for the strength we need in life. In Jesus name we pray.
37:60 Amen. Church, just rise to our feet. Let's
38:06 sing this next song together.
