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00:01 You know, I think I told you once before that I used to box and I would think that, you know, as I do this more and
00:08 more that I would become comfortable with it. Uh the problem is that even
00:13 when I was boxing after all that training and you know, you have a few matches each year, maybe 10 or 12
00:19 matches each year, but you do a lot of training day by day, a lot of running, a
00:24 lot of sparring, you know, and that kind of thing. But never did I approach a
00:30 fight, a boxing match in which I didn't remain nervous
00:37 right up until the time of that first punch. And that kind of, you know, will jar you into the present, into the here
00:44 and now. And uh I had the uh the dubious distinction of actually having the
00:51 opportunity to box on television one time uh in a tournament. And I say it
00:56 was a dubious distinction because I was actually knocked out on television.
01:01 First and only time that ever happened. And you would know that would be the one that was televised. So I carried that
01:07 with me for a while. But uh I was very persistent and uh in my practice in my
01:13 work. We're going to see a little bit of that today uh in the reading of these verses. I do want to point out a couple
01:19 of things that uh I hope I do this correctly.
01:25 That's probably not correctly. All right.
01:44 Yep. There. Yeah. The right. Yeah.
01:49 Okay. Thank you.
01:56 Okay. So, uh my wife has read uh uh this
02:01 particular section of scripture. Uh it divides neatly into three separate parts. The first is the prayer. The
02:08 prayer. Now, I'm not going to make the same points from this sermon that you
02:13 might expect if you've heard the reading. Uh I think God has spoken to me in a couple of specific areas uh that I
02:21 want to share with you today. Nevertheless, I will read these three
02:26 different uh sections of scripture. The first is the the prayer. It's a prayer
02:32 of Paul and it really goes uh from verse one to verse 5 which is on the first
02:38 slide here. And I think uh yeah I want to go over these
02:44 main points but uh uh the points again are not what you would expect from this passage of scripture. The second section
02:51 is the pronouncement uh the pronouncement of Paul to the Thessalonian Christians. And the third
02:59 is the parting the last few verses are the parting uh words of Paul to the
03:05 church there in Thessalonica. But the main points that I want to go over today with you are that the love of
03:12 God is the animating purpose behind everything he does and directs us to do.
03:19 The love of God, there is no greater purpose in life. And we'll look at that
03:24 a bit in a moment. The second point is don't stop doing good for any reason.
03:30 It's very easy sometimes to get weary when you're trying to, as we might say,
03:36 stay by the stuff, remain faithful, to be steadfast. Sometimes we don't have
03:42 the uh the strength of the Lord uh coursing through our veins and we feel
03:48 the power of God on our lives and yet he uh admonishes us to remain faithful, to
03:54 remain steadfast. The third point is the promise of peace
03:60 through Jesus Christ our Lord. And I'll go through some various uh points along
04:05 that route. Uh and then last the conclusion is that the peace and purpose
04:12 of God were purchased at the cross. Uh so the first reading of the the uh word
04:19 here I'm going to share a few verses just a few comments and then I'm going to pull out a verse from each of those
04:24 three sections.
04:31 Okay. So the first verse finally brothers pray for us that the word of
04:37 God may speed ahead. The word of God is the power of God. And so Paul is praying
04:42 uh or asking for prayer from them and then in turn he will pray for them in this first section of scripture. But
04:49 he's praying that the word of God may be let loose, that it would not be unrestrained, that it would accomplish
04:55 the purpose uh for which God intended uh and be honored as happened among you. So
05:02 the Thessalonican Christians were dedicated, committed Christian people who love the Lord, but they were
05:08 enduring some persecution and some hardships and those were causing people to behave in ways that were unbecoming
05:15 to a Christian. Uh and he says, "And that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for
05:23 not all have faith." And that we I interpret to mean a
05:28 collective we. Not only we, Paul and his comrades, but we as believers in his
05:33 fellowship with the Thessalon Christians that uh we would be delivered from wicked and evil men. Do you know even in
05:41 our day uh as Christians as we try to exercise our faith we have people that
05:46 stand in opposition to us people that don't want to see the gospel of Jesus Christ spread and we have to have
05:54 courage uh to uh oppose that uh in a way that is uh proper and appropriate in our
06:01 context. But uh we also need to remember that it's not these evil wicked men that
06:08 we wrestle against but that we wrestle against uh uh not flesh and blood blood but principalities and powers and uh uh
06:16 in spiritual uh uh in in high places. And so we have to be conscious that we
06:22 don't focus our opposition on persons
06:28 even though it comes through uh people directly and sometimes they're very hard
06:33 to ignore but God wants us to have a bigger picture and to look at the look at the situation through the eyes of
06:40 faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you or ground you and
06:46 he will guard you against the evil one. The evil one here is Satan himself. So
06:52 once the Lord has our hearts, he's committed to guarding us uh until the day of redemption. And we have
06:59 confidence in the Lord about you. And the reason he has confidence is because he spent time with them. Uh he knows
07:05 these people just as we're uh beginning to know some of you.
07:11 And uh they have confidence because he's observed their life and their manner that you are doing and will do the
07:18 things that we command. And here's the verse I would like to pull out of this.
07:24 That is may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. I'd like for
07:32 you to consider this verse here. We have Paul saying that God would do something.
07:38 now praying that God would do something for the Thessalonians. What does he want God to do now in this
07:45 context in this place? He wants God to direct their hearts.
07:52 That's a remarkable phrase if you stop and think about it. That God would direct their hearts.
07:59 The heart has direction. It moves towards one thing or another.
08:06 It moves in the direction of that which it is set on.
08:14 It moves in regard to what it deems is attractive and valuable. And sometimes
08:20 we as Christians, we find the attractions of the world to be greater
08:26 than the attraction and value that we place on our relationship with God. And
08:31 we're led astray. and we you know sometimes lose uh ground in our walk
08:37 with the Lord. So Paul is praying that God would give the heart their hearts a sight of the
08:43 love of God as the more attractive and satisfying and valuable uh promise than
08:49 those of earthly things. And so he says, "May the Lord direct your hearts to the
08:55 love of God." What would this be other than an experience of God's love? And it must be
09:01 that even though we are Christians, this movement
09:07 from where we are into the love of God is needed. Otherwise, Paul would not
09:12 have prayed for it. Therefore, the experience of the love of God is different from time to time and from
09:18 person to person. Here we are as Christians. We have all tasted of the love of God,
09:25 the love that he has for us, and we've been drawn into trusting all that God is for us in Jesus.
09:32 But our hearts are not always steadfast. I think all of us realize uh in our own
09:38 walk where we uh come up short. They drift and they waver. They're
09:45 distracted by the uh lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of
09:51 life. to use a a verse from first John. This is why we need revival.
09:59 And actually, that's what revival is. Revival is first the answer to Paul's
10:06 prayer in Thessalonians 3:5. And he says, "May the Lord direct your
10:12 hearts into the love of God." When the Lord takes hold of the hearts of his people and directs them into the love of
10:18 God, they experience the outpouring of the love of God through the Holy Spirit.
10:25 When that happens to a lot of people in the same time, in the same place, we
10:32 call that revival. I pray that God would grant us a unique
10:39 visitation uh of his presence in our congregation in our midst. I pray that God would send
10:47 a revival right here to First Baptist Church in Sububang Jaya. Uh may I ask
10:54 how many of you have ever experienced a true revival? I'm not talking about a
10:60 series of meetings, you know, where special preachers brought in, but have
11:05 you ever observed or participated
11:10 in an experience where fellow believers in mass repented of their sins publicly,
11:17 who sought the face of God, who were broken by the consciousness of their
11:22 sin, and desired for a heart to beat after God, to follow
11:28 the truth, truth. It's been said that right doctrine meaning right behavior sets the conditions for revival.
11:35 I'd just like to know by a show of hands if you don't mind. This is the audience participation uh section of the sermon
11:41 today. But how many of you think yes there was a time very distinct I
11:47 witnessed the movement of God in the lives of a church or a group and it
11:53 produced lasting results. uh an increased love for God, an
11:58 increased sensitivity towards the uh sinfulness and wickedness of your own
12:04 heart with a desire to change, to repent, and you saw the power of God
12:10 fall. Is Is there some of you in here that have experienced that? Can I see by
12:15 a show of hands? Okay, we've got one. How tragic. Ah, two. Now, I'll tell you
12:24 something. I've had the opportunity to be a part of that twice in my life. Once
12:29 at a very important time in my youth when I was uh about 14 years old.
12:36 And I saw revival fall on our little Baptist church in northwest Arkansas, a
12:42 town of about 4,000. There wasn't much going on in that town, 4,000 people. It
12:48 was a a small country town. You might even call it a village. And uh the biggest employer in town was a man named
12:55 Lloyd Yarro who owned a series of peach orchards all around the county. And uh
13:01 every year he would employ people to uh take care of his peaches. And I remember my first uh summer home from college, I
13:08 took a job with Lloyd. And uh I don't think I ever worked harder in my life.
13:13 uh $1.90 an hour, which you know back in 1976
13:19 was probably a decent uh a decent wage for unskilled labor, which is certainly
13:24 what I was. But uh that whole summer for uh home from university, I wound up
13:30 working 17 hours a day, 7 days a week because I needed to earn money for
13:37 college. My parents couldn't afford to send me to college, so I had to work my way through college. And before I ever
13:43 left for college in my senior year of high school, I worked a 40hour week
13:49 after after my schooling. And I've known nothing but hard work all
13:55 of my life, the same that my parents knew and taught me. And so that's going to come into this next portion of
14:02 scripture. But back to the revival. When I was a 14-year-old boy in our little
14:07 town of Clarksville, Arkansas, a church from Memphis, Tennessee, about 5 hours
14:13 away, came to visit us. And the the youth pastor that led the sermons that
14:19 week was a a man by the name of John Rushing. I'd never met a more dynamic speaker. I
14:27 had never seen somebody who so uh effortlessly seemed to be in the will of God and walk
14:34 with the Lord. And it was very obvious just spending a few moments with him that he was anointed and that the
14:41 presence of God rested on his life. And through that oneweek period, they brought about 40 young people from the
14:48 church in Memphis and they stayed with us and among us. And in that uh in that
14:53 week there was deep repentance, widespread repentance over our personal
14:60 sin. A large number of people in our uh congregation uh attended the revival.
15:05 Many uh who were not members of our congregation heard about what was
15:11 happening. And night by night as it progressed, the crowds got larger and larger. And I will contend to you that
15:19 what the world needs is they need more. They need to observe and see the reality
15:24 of more people whose lives are experiencing the power of God and personal revival in their life. And it
15:32 will draw it will draw men to us. And in that week, John preached. I decided that
15:40 I was going to give my life to Christian ministry for the for the rest of my
15:45 life. So, I made that commitment. Now, some of you know that I didn't actually follow through on that in maybe the most
15:51 obvious of ways, but nevertheless, it was an inflection point in my life. It
15:56 completely changed the direction of my life. This young man who was so sold out
16:02 and on fire for God turned a little town, a county upside down. And the
16:08 effects of that revival saw many people saved and uh people gave up their wicked
16:16 habits of gambling and and uh you know alcohol in our town. You couldn't have
16:21 in our county you couldn't have alcohol. You had to drive to the next county to get it. It's called a dry county and
16:27 that's typical sometimes in the south. But people quit going to bars. uh the
16:34 pastors of the various churches all got caught up in this revival. This
16:39 was 1973. And from there I made the decision that I would go on to Bible college. Little
16:46 did I know uh that some years later this young pastor uh actually left the
16:53 ministry and was out of service for the Lord for a number of years. So I think anytime you have great victory in your
16:59 life, when you know the power and the love of God and you're experiencing that, it's very natural outflow of that
17:05 into your life that you're in a position to be attacked by the evil one. and John uh left the
17:13 the ministry for a number of years and uh in 1981 so fast forward eight years
17:21 I don't know and I haven't heard of John Rushing and uh my uh fiance at the time
17:29 had an older sister whose husband died in a car crash at the age of 24 and she
17:34 had no children and uh she came in one day to the house,
17:41 the her parents house where I happen to be having lunch on a Sunday afternoon. And she said, "Uh, Dad, I'm going to
17:48 start dating a guy named John Rushing."
17:54 I thought, "Well, I wonder, could it be that same John Rushing?" When I went to
17:60 Bible college, I went to a college in Memphis, Tennessee, the same college
18:05 that John went to, but probably seven years before me. And uh so he had been
18:10 long gone and unheard of for a number of years. But uh eventually my wife's uh
18:16 sister married John and he became my brother-in-law.
18:22 Isn't it remarkable the things that God can do? And John has been a constant
18:28 source of encouragement and challenge in my life to follow after God.
18:35 He's such a man whose heart beats for the Lord that even at 60 when you're
18:41 around him, you sense that there's a deep, deep love of God and a commitment to personal holiness in his life, but
18:48 also to share that love of God. And so, uh,
18:56 when I, uh, experienced the death of my wife in, uh, September of, uh, 2013, it
19:03 was almost two years before, uh, I happened to be in Houston, Texas, where
19:08 John lives in ministers now. He's back in ministry full-time and has been for quite a number of years. But uh he told
19:16 me eventually he said, "You know, you're 55 years old. You've got a lot of life
19:22 in front of you. You need to start dating again." And I found Julia.
19:29 And uh God brought her to me. Actually, our hearts were one. Uh it was very
19:35 amazing to me. Uh, I love her with the most incredible love that I have ever
19:42 experienced aside from the love of God. And that's what the picture of a marriage is supposed to be. You know,
19:49 the Bible tells us that we're married to Christ and that's a love relationship.
19:55 And sometimes we think of our relationship with the Lord as a series of a list of dos and don'ts. And if we
20:02 keep enough of the dos and we avoid enough of the don'ts, God will be pleased with us. And you know, you can
20:09 do all of that in the flesh. And and it never really gets to your
20:14 spirit so that you uh walk in this love of God and you walk in the power of God.
20:22 And I want to tell you it is it is possible. And I saw that occasion of revival a second time in my life.
20:29 uh also in the 80s unfortunately but uh God just moved in the town of
20:35 Memphis which is a town of roughly 1 million so quite different than Arkansas
20:40 but God moved in the hearts of a young uh youth pastor at our church and he had
20:47 a vision to see 10,000 young people meeting at the church. It
20:54 had not been done anywhere else and it actually wasn't done by this gentleman I'm speaking of. But what did happen was
21:02 that he started a ministry called salt s and it stood for spreading the abundant
21:09 life to teens and he started working with young people
21:14 and I know we have some young people in our congregation and I want to encourage
21:20 you. I want to challenge you to make a commitment to Christ now to be steadfast
21:25 now so that in the years that come you won't be uh diverted from the purpose of
21:31 God. But Mark started a ministry and eventually saw a couple of thousand young people meeting on Monday nights.
21:38 It was a pretty miraculous thing and a lot of people came to the Lord and even
21:43 we have a Facebook group to this day and we see what the effect of that uh period
21:49 of revival was where the love of God was shed abroad and uh these people are so
21:56 thankful to have participated in that. So I want to go over uh this uh issue of
22:03 also being steadfast in Christ. Uh but before I do, the absence of love leaves
22:09 a devastating void. You know, sometimes we think we can just go through the motions and and uh we're gifted in some
22:16 ways and we can operate out of our natural uh abilities and not out of the power of God. But when love itself, when
22:24 the love of God is not present, your super your uh your spirituality simply becomes superficial
22:30 and your good deeds or your benevolent deeds, they become self-centered and your sacrifices are insincere.
22:40 In any relationship where love is not your motivation, you can expect it to feel bland and unfulfilling.
22:48 My wife and I comment, and you might say, "Well, you're fairly recently married." Uh, we observe a lot of
22:55 couples that have been married for a number of years, and it seems like the fire has gone out. You know, uh, it
23:04 seems like they're just going through the motions. They may be quite civil to one another. They may be respectful to
23:10 one another and perhaps not. I mean the other end of that spectrum happens as well.
23:17 But you don't know uh how painful it is for us to see uh couples that experience
23:24 this uh isolation and lack of love in their relationships. And as I said
23:30 earlier uh our marriage ought to be a picture of our relationship to Christ. I
23:38 want to just share with you a recent story uh for us. Uh we had a supplier at our school that
23:46 uh was going through some hardship, very very great hardship. And uh to the point
23:52 where she thought about taking her life and only a couple of weeks before we
23:57 left for the US, she came to us and she said, "I want to share something with
24:03 you privately away from the conference room and everything else. everyone else. And she said, "Uh, you know, I thought
24:11 about taking my life, and when I did, I had the knife in my hand, and I was going to cut my wrists
24:19 and throw myself over a balcony, and she saw Julia's face
24:28 and something told her, "Don't do it. Don't do it." So Julie and I began to pray for her
24:34 very diligently and tried to stay in uh communication with her.
24:39 Over a period of a couple of months, she returned from a trip to China with her mother uh who she had been estranged
24:47 from. And she came to us at this meeting just a couple of weeks before we left and she said, "I want to tell you
24:53 something. I'm Buddhist. My whole history is Buddhist, but we have observed I have observed the
25:02 love that you and Julia have for one another. And I know that God is in that. I can
25:08 see God in that. And I want to become a Christian.
25:13 Now, to me, that is powerful. That is the love of God at work in our lives.
25:20 And I pray that you'd have the same desire to see that, to share it with those in your family, those loved ones,
25:27 even people you perhaps don't know so well. So at any rate, the uh the next uh slide
25:35 is just some things that happen when you experience the love of God. First of all, you realize how sinful and small
25:43 and helpless you are. You realize how awesome and holy God is.
25:50 You realize what your sin caused and caused in the death of Jesus Christ,
25:56 God's only begotten son. And you have real contrition for that.
26:04 You repent of your sins and you continuously repent of your sins.
26:10 And just a a note, uh sin is a principle or a condition of human behavior and
26:16 it's a matter of choice. We're all sinners by practice.
26:21 We're all sinners positionally in that we're a part of Adam who fell from the
26:27 garden of Eden and disobeyed God. But we're sinners by choice.
26:33 You know, when you get right down to it, the scripture says the heart is deceitfully wicked above all else. Who can know it? And so, this is our lot in
26:41 life. And when we see the love of God for the first time in its in its glory
26:47 and its truth and its holiness, then it affects a change in us.
26:55 So when Jesus was asked, oh, excuse me, uh you endeavor to live a humble and
27:01 submissive life through the indwelling spirit of a holy God and you want to see God's will accomplished uh here on earth
27:08 and in your own life. And last, you're con committed to remaining faithful and
27:14 steadfast in him until his uh until your death or his return.
27:20 So now just a word about uh the steadfastness from verse five. It says, "May God direct our heart into the love
27:27 of God and into the steadfastness of Christ." And the word steadfast literally means to remain or abide
27:35 under. uh this suggests not avoiding or running from challenges and pressures of
27:40 life but staying obedient to God. There's lexicon says that steadfastness
27:47 is the quality of patient endurance and continuence in a person who does not
27:53 serve swerve from his deliberate purpose and faith even when the greatest trials
27:59 even through the greatest trials and sufferings.
28:07 So the next I want to share with you is uh the next passage the uh the
28:13 pronouncement there's a couple of slides here on the uh on the uh section itself
28:20 starts with now in verse 6 now we command you brothers in the name of our lord Jesus Christ that you keep away
28:25 from any brother who is walking in idolist. Now, most people when they talk about first or 2 Thessalonians chapter
28:32 3, this is the section that always gets the most attention. And I'm going to
28:37 actually give it very little attention. Uh because I think the the the uh essence of it, the real message in it is
28:44 not in these verses about work, but another verse in verse 13, which I'll
28:51 share in a moment. So anyhow, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord
28:57 with the tradition that you have received from us. For you yourselves
29:02 know how you ought to imitate us because we were not idol when we were with you. Paul and his uh uh colleagues worked in
29:09 their presence in Thessalonica. Nor did we eat any bread anyone's bread without
29:15 paying for it. But with toil and labor uh we worked night and day that we might
29:21 not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right
29:26 but to give you uh in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we
29:32 were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. The situation
29:38 that was going on in Thessalonica at that time, they were under persecution.
29:43 Some people uh probably couldn't work. Uh that's not really what is in view
29:49 here. There were people who would not work. And these people were actually living
29:54 off the church and the benevolence of the church. And that's what was going on in this time. And Paul told these uh
30:02 Christian brothers, some of whom were getting uh bitter about being taken advantage of uh to not be weary and
30:10 welloing. That's in verse 13. And I think I need to advance one. Uh to
30:17 not be busy in or uh to not be weary and welloing, but to be steadfast in the
30:22 faith and in our service to God. Uh some were not working because they thought that the Lord was coming back soon. And
30:29 it just wasn't the appropriate thing to be doing with their time. Yet they ask the congregation to support them and the
30:37 leadership of the church and the uh the uh governing body of the church. They need to consider very carefully uh the
30:44 role of benevolence in the community. It's one of the things I'm so proud about this church is the outreach that
30:49 it has to the community uh at all uh strata of society. Uh it's very
30:56 impressive and very commendable. Uh verse 14 says, "If anyone does not
31:02 obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed, but
31:09 do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother." When you have the love of God present in your life, you
31:17 can't look at a brother in the Lord uh with contempt. Now, maybe some of the
31:22 things that they do are contemptable, but the Bible says that if you love God, you must love your brother. And if you
31:29 don't love your brother, then you don't love God. And so we can see brothers and sisters
31:35 that are taken in sin who have diverted from the faith. And uh our position is
31:42 not to ostracize them or to cast them out, but to distance ourselves from
31:47 them, to not have close social and and spiritual relationships with them. that the the power of God and the conviction
31:54 of the Holy Spirit would rest on their life for their error and that they would be corrected.
31:60 So, you know, when you think about these Thessalonian Christians uh and the fact
32:05 that they were weary uh in doing things, I can think of a lot of excuses that people make for uh not doing good any
32:13 longer after that was a part of their life. Some say it takes so much effort to keep doing good and uh
32:22 you know it does. It does. But when the power of God rests on your life, when the Holy Spirit is living in you, uh you
32:29 find strength from him to do that which is right and not in your own flesh.
32:35 Another might say it takes so much self-denial to keep doing good. But I would say to you it's worth it when we
32:42 consider the reward. Another might say
32:48 it uh just brings me persecution. It just brings me problems and obstacles when I try to do good. And I would say
32:56 to you that don't let that suffering or that persecution discourage you from
33:02 doing what Jesus would have you do uh in being good and benevolent to others around you.
33:12 And so the uh the last section here is that
33:18 uh uh the promise of the peace of uh God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 16.
33:25 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace. And that's uh dicurios
33:32 arenee ottos the lord himself the boss the master of the universe.
33:38 May he deliver peace to you. You know why he can do that? Why that claim is made? Because he is peace.
33:46 And I would submit to you that if you're experiencing a lot of anxiety or tension in your life and you're not at peace
33:52 with your circumstance and situation in life, then there is an opportunity for you to uh trust in God to deliver you
34:01 from that. And just just concentrate on the presence of the Lord. Make sure that
34:06 Jesus is preeminent in your life and in your focus. And you'll find that peace comes along with your submission and
34:13 recognition of the lordship of Christ in your life.
34:18 And uh it says uh that this peace may be with you at all times in every way. Uh
34:24 the Lord be with you all. Paul I Paul write this greeting with my own hand.
34:29 This is a sign of genuous in every letter of mine. It is the way I write. And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
34:37 be with you all. So, it's interesting to me that the same way Paul starts out the letter to the Thessalonians is the very
34:45 same way he ends it with grace and peace and a blessing uh from God the Father.
34:52 So Paul concludes that uh this peace and purpose in life come by considering the
34:59 prince of peace and the purpose that was purchased at the cross. Peace.
35:08 Yeah. Peace is something that only God can give.
35:14 and purpose. God's whole purpose of his work in my life is to conform me into
35:19 the image of Christ that he might reveal himself through me to the world. His
35:25 love through me, his grace through me, his kindness through me. God wants to
35:32 live his life in us so that we can reach the world, that we will reveal Christ in
35:38 our lives. And I want to share with you just one uh story in closing. It's a story of a a
35:45 soldier that had uh finally had the opportunity to come home after uh
35:52 participating in some very vicious fighting. And uh when he got to New York
35:58 City coming back from uh the war zone, he called his parents and he said, "Mom,
36:05 Dad, I'm coming home, but I have a favor to ask.
36:12 I have a friend and I'd like to bring him home with me."
36:18 "Sure," they replied. "We'd love to meet him." and he said, 'I I I don't think
36:23 you understand uh everything. Uh first of all, this man saved my life in the
36:31 war. And he continued that he was badly hurt in the fighting.
36:38 He pushed me out of the way and stepped on a landmine. And he process he lost an eye,
36:46 he lost a leg, and he lost his arm.
36:52 he doesn't have any place else to go and I want him to come and live with us. And
36:58 as his father started hearing that and understanding the implications of it, he
37:04 said, "I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live." The son said, "No, Mom. Dad,
37:13 please. I want him to live with us and for us to care for him because he saved my life
37:20 and he's my friend. Son, the father said, you don't know
37:27 what you're asking. Someone with those severe handicaps would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to
37:35 live and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. Just come home and forget about this guy. We'll
37:43 find he'll find a way to live on his own eventually. At that point, the son hung up the
37:49 phone. The parents heard nothing else from him.
37:55 A few days later, they received a call from the police department.
38:01 Their son had died after falling from a tall building, they were told, and the
38:07 police believed that it was actually suicide.
38:12 The griefstricken parents flew to New York and were taken to the city morg to identify the body of their son.
38:19 And when they looked at that body, they noticed to their own horror that their
38:26 son had only one eye, only one leg
38:32 and only one arm. And so it is in our lives. We suffer
38:40 unimaginable loss when we fail to make room in our lives for that which may
38:46 cost us something dear. Jesus is to us symbolic of that
38:52 soldier's sacrifice to save us. He lifts us up from the depths of our depravity
39:00 and he sets our feet on solid ground. He gives us eternal life and he reconciles
39:05 us to God uh by his own blood. And I think nothing could be greater than
39:11 that. And I would just ask you to think about
39:17 where you stand with Jesus today. What is the reality of your walk?
39:23 Do you know him intimately, personally, powerfully?
39:29 That is available to you because of the love of God. And I would submit to you that if you're not experiencing that,
39:35 then your eyes have been taken off of the love of God in your own life and
39:40 what he's done for you. And so I'm going to ask for a moment of prayer and then I'm going to turn the service over to
39:46 Arnold. Uh if you'd just kindly bow your heads with me.
39:54 Lord Jesus, when we think about your love, we are moved emotionally.
40:04 Lord, I know one of the great struggles that I'm having right now is trying to understand
40:11 what you're doing in this world
40:17 in a rational way. Lord, I think of many Christian brothers
40:22 who have a reformed theology and it's something that I'm trying to understand
40:28 and I struggle with. And I see other brothers who are charismatic Christians and they seem to be uh
40:36 committed to the emotional experience. And Lord, I don't know really where I
40:42 come down. I see something good in both of those situations. But
40:47 Lord, the one thing I'm convinced of is the love of God is real. That it resides in me and that you want
40:55 to live your life through me. Lord, I pray for each member of this congregation that you would uh cause
41:02 them to want to abandon their own goals and desires that their chief aim would
41:09 be to please you and to live in your presence. And Lord, we trust that you'll send
41:14 revival when we meet the conditions for it. And so Lord, I pray that you would
41:19 place a burden on us to know and experience the love of God in our lives and to show that to others so that we
41:26 may be conformed into the image of Christ. And I pray these things in Jesus name.
