Simply Godly Living

0 (0s): Oh, sorry. Wait, welcome. Welcome to Harvest. Church we're glad you're here and let's start out with a word of prayer and then we'll jump right into the goodness. So heavenly father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for this chance to gather with fellow believers or to feel your spirit moving in our church in our midst, or just be here amongst your saints as, as we, as we have this time of worship and time in your word. Lord, thank you so much for this morning in Jesus name. We pray a man. Hey, thanks. And I'm gonna hand it over to these guys cause they know what to do. 1 (53s): 2 (9m 41s): You guys did a great job. Thank you. You can follow Ms. Care right off the stage. Oh, Hey, welcome once again. And this is a time to just do meet and greets. So say hi to somebody around you and take a couple of minutes 0 (13m 4s): About that, but it's. Yeah, so just stay tuned for that. With the men's retreat that's in January 8th, eighth, and ninth, and Tuesday was gonna be the last day of sign up, but we'll we'll we'll keep, keep, keep an eye on that one Christmas food donations are due today. You can drop those off from the info center. Thank you so much for your generosity. So far. I think we had like five or six hams get delivered this morning. So that is awesome. As blessing. So many families in our community, we have a Christmas Eve candlelight service and that will be at three, four and five. And once again, we'll have the sanctuary open. We'll have the loft as well as the parsonage for those who prefer to be a mass only. 0 (13m 46s): So that will be Christmas Eve. It's a family style service, pretty short services and kids will be in with us. And then lastly, we have the young, the new year's Eve young professionals, pajama party and game nights. So that is December 31st, six to 9:00 PM in the loft. And there's gonna be some catered street tacos and games. And Curt Curtis said, there'll be guaranteed funds. So if you fall into that young professional, then go check it out. Guaranteed fund cost is $10 and you have to set up on the app by the 27th of this month. So we got that going. And that's my last announcement and pastor Ron's come up and bring us. 2 (14m 29s): Thanks, Jeremy Lord. We're so, so thankful that we can gather and we can commune with you whether we're here in person or whether we're streaming at home, no matter where we are. Thank you that your spirit is everywhere. Your presence is everywhere, but most importantly, your Holy is working within 3 (14m 52s): Us within our, our temple, this temple, which you decided to live inside of by faith in Jesus Christ. And so Lord, we're looking to you to teach us today, help us to grow, help us to identify areas in our life where we need to be challenged and encouraged. And so Lord, we commit this time to you in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. So again, first Thessalonians chapter four, we're going to be covering verses one through 12, hopefully. And if you want a title for this message, the title is Simply Godly Living Simply Godly Living. 3 (15m 33s): So most of you know, that this book is actually a letter. It was a letter written by the apostle Paul. He loved the believers in this city and the city of Thessaloniki. He actually only spent about three and a half weeks there, but during that time that he spent there, a church was established and he set up elders and a Church community there. And then he had to leave. And far as we know, history records, he never actually physically made it back, but he sent Timothy. He sent others to check up on them and they were doing amazingly well. So his goal in writing this letter is of course, to encourage them and remind them of the things that he had talked about when he was with them, you know, face to face. 3 (16m 17s): Paul loved these people so much. So in this chapter, chapter four, he's going to be challenging them in their faith. He's going to remind them once again, God's will for their life. And he's going to tell them the truth. Now, as he's going to remind them God's will for their life, what he's actually doing. He's he's reminding us God's will for our life. So even though we speaking to them 2000 years ago, roughly he's speaking to us today as well. So he wanted them to know the truth. Some of the things you're going to talk about are kind of difficult to hear. There's this interesting sort of obscure verse in the book of Proverbs it's Proverbs 27, six. 3 (17m 2s): It says this faithful are the wounds of a friend might think, well, why would a friend, you know, want to wound me? And the idea is we love, we love this person so much that we're willing to tell them the truth about something that might be really difficult for them to hear Paul's doing that. Fateful are the wounds of a friend. I appreciate that when there's people around me, they're not so worried about offending me. They just want to challenge me about something that I need to hear that I have this blind spot and they're faithful a faithful friend to help me in that area. 3 (17m 41s): So here's a problem. Here's a problem that we all face God's will for our life is often radically different than what the world is telling us. The problem is God's will, for us is often radically different than what the world is telling us. It can be very hard to accept and to live out God's will, as it is revealed to us in the pages of scripture, the Bible, it can be challenging because we're we get so indoctrinated by the world we live in, you know, Jesus prayed that that way for us. 3 (18m 22s): I know there in the world, but I want you to keep them out of the world. W that's the life we live we're we're in this crazy world. Some things are crazy and they're often in direct conflict with God's word and God's will for our lives. That's a problem we all have to deal with. So which leads us to very important question. So I want to ask this question in a personal way to each one of you hear this, are you willing to accept God's will as a final authority on all things. In other words, let me re rephrase it. Are you willing to accept God's word as the final authority on all things or will you instead, except the world's view as the final authority, it's a very subtle thing that happens. 3 (19m 11s): We're reading the Bible and we see things laid out for us. And then we come across this other ideology, this other worldview, and we're like, well, I know the Bible says this, but know that this is where I stand on this. And we see there's this direct conflict. So here's the problem. When we refuse the authority of the Bible and we accept the authority of what the world is telling us, we in effect have said, I am the one who has final authority of the things I life. God does not. And so we really have to answer that question this morning. So now, as, as Paul opens up for us, again, we're in first Thessalonians, chapter four, beginning with verse one, he says this finally then brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord, Jesus, that you should abound more and more just as you received from us, how you ought to walk and to please God for, you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord. 3 (20m 12s): Jesus. So he begins by saying finally, then, in other words, these are his closing words. He's about to close out this letter in a few chapters. He says, I want you to understand this. You should have bound more and more literally he's saying, I want you to continue to grow. I want you to continue to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. And as you do this, your aim should be to live in a way that is well pleasing to God. See, we're all answerable to God. I'm not answerable to you. I love you, but I'm not answerable to you. And you're not answerable to me. I'm at y'all answerable to God. 3 (20m 53s): And so Paul's challenges to grow more and more. The Christian life is meant to be this amazing journey. We come to faith in Christ. This transformation begins to happen. And now we're on this adventure that just gets better and better, better until the day we die. It should never get boring. It should never get old. Godly revealing, constantly revealing new things to us, keeping us excited in our Christian faith. What we're going to learn today though, is it's really up to you. Whether you embrace that journey, he says for, you know what commandments we gave you. 3 (21m 34s): So he's saying here, reminding them, these are not suggestions. These are not good ideas. These are not recommendations. I want to give to you. He's saying this is the will of God for you. These are commandments. Whenever the scripture talks about a commandment of God is like, it's non-negotiable, it's the truth. Now Paul is going to emphasize a Bible word here. So the word we're going to bring it out today and look at is the word sanctification. So Bible word, meaning you don't hear it a lot on the street, but it's in the Bible. So here look with me in verse three, he says for this is the will of God, your sanctification. 3 (22m 14s): We'll kind of pause there for just a moment. So there's three words. If we could sort of summarize the Christian life in three words, the Bible commonly uses these, create this sort of timeline, this progression of believers life. The three words are these justified, sanctified and glorified. All right. So what do they mean? Well, justified. It literally means this to make, to be made right before God justified to be made right with God. I want to say here, this is an amazing thing that we can be right with God. And literally we are, Clared justified by God. 3 (22m 58s): The moment that we believe the gospel. I want to say that again. You have been declared justified or right with God, the moment that you believe the gospel, we're going to talk about the gospel in a little bit today. And this is something that God does for us. In other words, it's a free gift. You can't earn it. You can't work for it. You can't achieve it. It's something God just gives to you and declares for you that you are justified. You are made right. You are right in the sight of God. That's an amazing thing. So the second word that I mentioned is sanctified or sanctification is kind of the bigger way. It is literally this to be dedicated or to be set apart to God, to be Holy. 3 (23m 43s): So that's what Paul is going to talk about right now. We get into this it's to be dedicated or set apart to God to be Holy. Now, if I took a poll, a survey, what have you said? How many of you here today believe that you're Holy. Probably nobody would raise their hand and be like, yeah, I know I'm not Holy. How about you? So we know we don't see ourselves as being Holy, but from God's perspective, you are being sanctified. You are being set apart and God looks upon you as Holy. This is a process, a lifelong process. So you've been justified. God did that. 3 (24m 23s): Now there's this process of sanctification and it begins the moment that you're born again, born from above. And it continues until the day that we die. It's this journey. Nobody's got it perfectly, right? You know, we can never say, you know, we've arrived. We're growing more and more in, in our understanding and our obedience and our walk with God through the Lord, Jesus Christ. So this is something that it's our responsibility. Paul's gonna help us to see that whether or not not, you want to grow, you want to be set apart from him God's purposes. We make the choice to lay down our life in order to be set apart for God's purposes. 3 (25m 6s): Now, as I said, this is a lifelong journey, but here's the amazing thing about that. Sorry, the Holy spirit joins us in this work. This is not human effort. This is not, I hope you, you know, been justified now, hope you do good hope you do fine. That the Holy spirit literally lives within us and is helping us to achieve and to walk in the way that God has given to us. So the last word again, justified, sanctified, glorified. What's that all about? So to be glorified literally is to be transformed or to be prepared for heaven. 3 (25m 48s): As a follower of Jesus Christ. When we die, we will be glorified. And then we will, we will be ushered into the kingdom of God God's presence. This is something that God does for us. It's a free gift. It's an amazing supernatural thing that will happen. Paul talks a little bit about this, this idea of being glorified or, or transformed in first Corinthians chapter 15, I'll just read a little bit of a tube. He says this, our physical bodies cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will all be transformed or glorified. 3 (26m 31s): Our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die. When our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die. This scripture will be fulfilled. Here's the scripture. Death is swallowed up in victory. Death is swallowed up in victory. God is preparing you for this justified, sanctified glorified. So Paul's going to place focus right now on that middle word, the word sanctification. And so this is where we all live. Again. I mentioned we're on this journey. It begins at salvation. 3 (27m 11s): We're justified. We're just walking with the Lord, learning, growing, having the Holy spirit, help us teach us. And then one day, of course, one day we're going to meet the Lord face to face. So this is where we live. This is where we make the day-to-day decisions of life. And I promise you every day, there's a new challenge put before us a new situation at work at home in life. What are you going to do? Who are you going to believe? Where do you get your final authority? So it's all about, I'm going to break it down into three parts. Godly Living, Godly loving and Godly leading Godly Living, Godly loving and Godly leading. 3 (27m 58s): So Paul, first of all, opens up this idea of Godly Living in chapter four, beginning with verse three, this is the will of God. As I mentioned your sanctification, what does that mean? That you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God. So in talking about sanctification, this walk, this journey of growing with God, he says, you should know how to possess your own vessel. 3 (28m 41s): And when he's talking about this, he's talking about it in the context of sexual immorality. So this takes us back to the people of Israel. This idea of possessing your own vessel. So the people of Israel has God was preparing them to enter the promised land. He's teaching them about this, the system of worship. These he's going to allude to the temple and there's going to be this temple. That's going to be built. It's going to be on this place that God's going to choose. Initially, there's going to be a tabernacle. Then that later is going to be a permanent temple for a dwelling place of God. And he says, they were to told us, take certain vessels. We're talking about vessels. So that would be cups and bowls and Lavers and tools and instruments that were used in the temple to worship God. 3 (29m 30s): And they were to be set apart. They were to be sanctified. These vessels were to be sanctified, to be used exclusively in temple worship. So the priests were told to take these vessels again, we're talking about cups and bowls and labors and just all the different things that were used there. And they were told the priests were told to sprinkle them with the blood of the sacrifice and by doing so, it made them God made them set apart for this purpose. Now, if you were to take a vessel that had been sanctified, the blood was spring, hold on, it it's ready to use. And you put it side by side to another sole identical vessel that had not been sanctified. 3 (30m 11s): You wouldn't be able to see any difference to us. They look exactly the same, but to God, one of them it's been accepted and set apart for God's purpose. All right. Now, what does that have to do with us now? Fast forward, you have been sanctified. In other words, you have been set apart by God, by virtue of the fact that you've made the decision and you've asked God to apply of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God upon your life. You are now now dedicated as a vessel of honor, prepared by God to use as he desires in a place of worship. 3 (30m 54s): In fact, in another place, Paul opens up this, this idea a little bit more, and this is in first Corinthians chapter six. This is what he says. He said, your body, your body is the temple of the Holy spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own. Why are you, why are you not your own? Because you've been set apart for God's purposes. And he goes on for you are bought at a price. What price is he talking about? He's talking about the price of the shed, blood of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who died on the cross for us, for you bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. 3 (31m 38s): So you don't actually own yourself. God owns you, but it's up to you to render yourself as an instrument of worship to him. A vessel of honor. So as you stand side-by-side with another person, so you got, imagine you're standing you're, you're the believer. And you're standing next to an unbeliever. Someone who's never played your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Can you see a difference? I mean, this person is sanctified by God, this person isn't, they look from our perspective identical, but not to God, to God, you have been set apart. You've been called for his purpose. You should have. And so with that in mind, with that in mind, just what he says, he's gonna give us a little more detailed. 3 (32m 24s): He says, because of that, because you're a vessel of honor sanctified for me, you should abstain from sexual immorality and you should know how wow to possess your own facile. And again, he kind of puts it on you on me, on us, okay? This is your responsibility. I'm not going to do this for you. I'm going to give you the Holy spirit that will help you and strengthen you and guide you. But you should abstain from sexual immorality and you should know how to possess your own vessel. So I want to keep this family friendly this morning, but we're called to use that is we're called to use self-control in a world that is out of control in this area. 3 (33m 9s): Once again, the Bible is the final authority on all things on this subject. No matter what the world is telling us, the Bibles have final authority. So a few weeks ago, someone asked me this question. They asked me if it was okay, if, if they slept with their girlfriend, is it okay if I sleep with my girlfriend? And I said, no, it's no, it's not okay. If you sleep with your girlfriend, that's why God has, you know, this whole marriage thing. So what they responded to me, they said, well, that's old fashioned, okay? They said, times have changed. 3 (33m 51s): I said, well, I have to live by my convictions and you have to live by your convictions. But my convictions tell me that the Bible is the final authority on these things, By the way, this isn't my idea. This isn't even Paul's idea. This is God's will for your life. So talk about old. Old-fashioned there's this interesting verse it's found in Genesis chapter two, verse 24, it goes something like this. A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and then they shall become one flesh. 3 (34m 35s): So the idea is, you know, going back to the idea of creation, this is God's design God's will. Sexual intimacy is meant to be reserved. That marriage covenant, this was by the way, mentioned by Jesus, many times in the new Testament, this isn't something just found way back. When in the ancient books of history, God brings it forward. It applies to us today as well. So the city of Dallas Alona, CA the city that, that Paul loved the people that he loved. It was a Gentile city than the words they didn't. 3 (35m 17s): They were given over to idolatry and all kinds of sexual immorality. And so Paul is telling them, Hey, we know you've been, the Gentile has been given over to passion of last, but that's not, you you've been set apart. You've been sanctified. So Paul continues this idea in verse six, he says that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter because the Lord is the Avenger of all such as we also forewarned you and testified again. He's reminding them. He says, not only should you not be involved in sexual immorality, but you need to, he says, be careful not to take advantage of others. 3 (36m 2s): It's it's easy to take advantage of other people. We know that why? Because the Lord is, is the Avenger 2 (36m 13s): Of all such. 3 (36m 17s): So there's consequences for violating the commandments of God. Did you know that there are consequences for violating the commandments of God? In fact, Paul talks about this in Galatians chapter six, verse eight, he says those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will Harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the spirit, and that's what Paul's talking about here. Those who live to please, his spirit will harvest everlasting life from the spirit. By the way, you know where Paul says that God's the Avenger. 3 (36m 60s): God is always for you. He's never against you. It is always God's desire to bless your life because he loves you. But this is a warning. There are consequences associated with violating God's word God's commandments. So again, Paul continues here in verse seven and eight, he says, for God, did not call us to uncleanness God he's talking about sexual immorality. God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness, therefore he rejects. This does not reject man, but God who has also given us his Holy spirit. So what is uncleanness? 3 (37m 40s): Uncleanness is anything that is in conflict with sound Bible teaching concerning proper sexual morality. Once again, this is not man's idea. This is God's design for a life of blessing. God wants to bless you. What we find is we're on this journey is as we walk in obedience to the Lord, life just gets better and better. It's not free of trouble or trials or tribulations, never, but it's just, it's so amazing. It's so awesome. It's so good. He's God's God's blessing is upon our lives. God is with you, not against you. So that's, Godly Living we're talking about now. I want to talk about Godly loving. 3 (38m 20s): He brings this up in verses nine and 10. He says, but concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you for you. Yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed you do so toward all the brethren who were in all Macedonia, but we urge you brethren that you increase more and more. So they were noted that the Thessaloniki and believers were noted for their love for one another and for the other churches and communities that surrounded them. But Paul's again, reminding them, encouraging them, increase, increase in your brotherly love. What's he talking about? He's like, that is the love that is shared within the community of believers, the Christian community, you know, the Christian community here on the central coast is not just, obviously Harvest, Church, it's every believer that lives, you know, in the five cities, but not only that, the Christian community is every believer that lives on planet earth and, and what we share together, this genuine loving Christian fellowship, that we're a part of it is a unique thing. 3 (39m 31s): It is not found anywhere else and is a powerful testimony to the world of the reality of Jesus Christ. I've had the opportunity to travel to many different countries on mission trips and things. And one of my favorite times was when I was in India and I'm gathered in this worship time and they're speaking Hindi and Malati a few other languages and, and they're just worshiping. And I had no idea what they were saying, but I knew exactly what they were doing. They were worshiping God. And I knew the songs that they were singing in English. And so it was this kind of crazy experience, but they were my brothers and sisters in Christ. 3 (40m 13s): And I had this connection to them, even though we couldn't communicate through language, we communicate through the fact that you are my brother. You are my sister in Christ. It's an amazing privilege that we get to experience. So Jesus talked about this as well in John chapter 15, he said, this, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life 5 (40m 42s): For his friends, 3 (40m 44s): These things I command you, that you love one another. Now, if you look at the new Testament, what you'll find is this is a common three theme through Jesus and all, all the disciples, they love one another level. It's like, okay, I get it. I mean, is it that hard to love one another? Well, yeah, it is. You know why? Because we have an enemy, we have an adversary who wants to bring division and judgmentalism and criticism and put roadblocks 5 (41m 14s): Between us. So we, this is, are 3 (41m 20s): Being challenged to love one another. And it's something we have to pursue and make a priority because again, our adversary, he wants to just divide and conquer. That's what he does that his mission to divide and conquer. So God's will for us is that we should increase more and more in our love for one another. The longer I am in church and the Christian community, I, the more exciting it is to know you can take two people that are so, so different in every way imaginable and bring them together in Christ. And they're like best friends, inseparable. 3 (42m 3s): They just genuinely love each other that wouldn't normally happen in other, you know, another context, but in Christ, it happens. I want to, by the way, I want to challenge us with this one thing. If there's, if there's a person that you can think of, they're really kind of great. You the wrong way. I'm talking about a brother or sister in Christ. You know, you're just, man, this person annoys me and I, I just don't like being around them. And here's my challenge. I want you to spend time with them. I want you to love them. I want you to get to know them. I want you to get to understand them because what we often find is when we learn their story, you know, it opens everything up. 5 (42m 49s): It takes effort. 3 (42m 51s): God wants us to love each other. Genuinely. This is God's will for us. So I'm going to close with this last area it's got, we've looked at God's loving God's Living, God's loving. God's leading. So look at me, verse 11 and 12, he says that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your own hands. As we commanded you, that you may walk properly towards those who are outside, that would be unbelievers and that you may lack nothing. So this is very practical, practical. Living practical, leading in life. Here's what he says. He says, I want you to lead a quiet life. 3 (43m 31s): I want you to mind your own business, everybody. Have you ever had anybody tell you that? Why don't you just mind your own business Work with your own hands? You know, if there's ever a place where there should not be a bunch of drama, it's the church of Jesus Christ. Okay? Lead a quiet life. I took that. Literally. I moved way out of town, about 30 miles out of town. I'm on 40 acres. If you can find me, you can come and visit me. If I want a quiet day, I know how to get it lead a quiet life. You know, be content. Just love people. Be satisfied, mind your own business. 3 (44m 14s): Again. There's no, no place for meddling, backbiting, bickering, drama, and work with your own hands. Be diligent, walk properly to those who are outside. So our lives literally are a living testimony to those who are outside the church community. And you can be sure people are watching us. People are watching you that don't know Jesus, you're a living testimony. So Simply do this. Live your life as a Godly representative of the Lord, Jesus Christ, wherever you go, live your life as a Godly representative of Jesus Christ, wherever you go, sounds easy. 3 (44m 58s): Doesn't it. It's not always easy. And he concludes with this thought that you may lack nothing. Now this again takes, it takes us back to the children of Israel. When they were being prepared to go into the promised land. And God gave him a bunch of commandments and promises and blessings. But one of the things he said to them, he says, you're going to be a lending nation. You're not going to be a detonation. I'm with you, my blessings upon you. You're going to have an abundant life and you're going to be a lending nation. You're not going to be a detonation. And so, you know, God's promises to take care of us as well. If you seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he says, I'm going to add everything to you. 3 (45m 41s): You're going to have everything you need. Did you seek after me? So God has intended in that same way that you may lack nothing, that we would be a generous, a generous people in every area. All right, back to the beginning, verse three for this is the will of God, your sanctification. So we looked at three words, justified, sanctified, and glorified. What is it to be justified? Well, you're right in God's sight, in God's presence. He did that for you. It's something that God does for you. 3 (46m 21s): It's a gift. So here's the question. Have you made the decision then to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? And when I say that, what, you know, often I find it's a little bit confusing. What is the gospel or so I didn't crumb. I didn't come from a Christian home. I knew nothing about Christianity. When I came to the Lord, knew nothing about the Bible had to be explained to me. And so I want to explain just very briefly to us and to those who might be tuning in, okay, I have to believe the gospel will. What, what is it? What, what did God do for me? 3 (47m 1s): Well, the reality is this we've all been born into sin. We've been born under a curse that came from Adam we've, we've inherited this. So we're born in sin and we're spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. So what did God do for us? He sent his only son to die on our behalf to take our punishment, to take our judgment, that that curse would be lifted. And so when went to the cross as the sinless lamb of God, and when he said it is finished, what he was saying is the debt has been paid. 5 (47m 40s): The curse 3 (47m 41s): Has been vanquished. So what are we required to do? That's the gospel, what? This is what Jesus provided for us, so that it simply means how do we respond to that? Well, first of all, we acknowledge that, yes, I have sinned against God 5 (47m 58s): And I repent. 3 (47m 59s): I'm going to turn around and I'm going to invite Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death on that cross. I want that to apply to me. I want that blood to atone for my sins. And it's a decision. We all have to make it can't be done, you know, corporately. It has to be done individually. 5 (48m 20s): So have you done that? 3 (48m 21s): Have you prayed and asked God 5 (48m 25s): To 3 (48m 25s): Allow Jesus Christ to be your Lord and savior? And I want to say this, there's no one special prayer. There's no one right way to do this. My encouragement to you all. And to those who are, might be listening as we're ending this service with the closing worship, that that would be a perfect time to call upon the name of the Lord and invite him into your life to be your Lord and savior. And as you do that, the moment you do that, you're going to be justified before God you're going to be made right with him. And so then again, we talked about this idea of being sanctified or set apart. That is your responsibility. In other words, it's really up to you. 3 (49m 6s): It's up to you to constantly say yes to the work of the Holy spirit in your life. It's up to you to open up the pages of the Bible and to constantly say yes to the things that God is, is revealing to you. And as you are confronted with the world's view of things you confirm and declare that God is the final authority in all things that pertain to life and godliness in Christ Jesus. And finally, I want to go ahead and invite the worship team to come on backup, glorified, to be transformed and prepared for heaven. 3 (49m 46s): This is something that God, it's a gift that he is going to do for you. I want to close with this last question. I have some, well, first of all, make a statement. I have some startling news for you today. We're all gonna die one day. Okay? We hear about it all the time. Especially during the soul covet thing, we're gonna die. We are, we might not die of COVID, but we're gonna die of some, but we just don't know when we don't know where we don't know how, but we do know the reality is the truth is we're all gonna die one day. 5 (50m 25s): So here's the question are ready to die. 3 (50m 29s): Are you ready to die? I have been at the bedside of many, many people in the hospital and at home they're on the last breath of life. And I have to ask them that question in a loving, gentle, and appropriate way. Are you ready to die? And most of the time the response is, yes, I know I'm right with God. I've been walking with him. I'm ready to meet the Lord face to face. And that's, that's what God has for us. What's what this is all about. Death has been swallowed up in victory, the victory of the cross. Are you ready to see Jesus face to face? 3 (51m 12s): I hope you are. Let's pray, Lord God. We just, once again, we look to you. This is not something that we can do on our own. We've been given the Holy spirit to live within us. Our body is literally the temple of the living. God. So Lord, we just want to agree with you. We want to partner with you on this journey of sanctification. Lord, we want to be set apart for your purposes. We want to reap all the benefits and joys and blessings that come from a life that is set apart and committed to you. So Lord, we, we, we acknowledge and admit our shortcomings, but Lord, we also acknowledge how great you are. 3 (51m 53s): If God, before us, who can be against us solar, we just leave it at your feet. And we are so blessed. So thankful in Jesus name, we pray and God's people said, amen, let's stand. We're going to go ahead and continue to worship this morning. 6 (52m 14s): No, we're in a season of waiting for the Messiah to sing songs. We begin talks about waiting, worshiping in the midst of our waiting . 6 (58m 7s): Ooh, Ooh. going to take some joy and peace into the world. 6 (1h 4m 38s): good. 6 (1h 7m 59s): Thank you for your presence here with us. Thank you. That you are always with us, that you are Emmanuelle in our midst, this season and all wings. So I pray that you would just cover every heart just with your love this morning with your peace has our understanding that if we're curious through this in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Yes. Amen. If anyone would like prayer this morning, feel free to come on forward. We love to pray with you today, but have a wonderful day Merry Christmas, and we'll see you next Sunday. Have a great day.