The Majesty and Ministry of Jesus - Donny Swartzentruber

Well, good evening, dear brothers and sisters. It's a blessing

being here with you this evening. We've been spoken to

and challenged in a lot of ways already, and Birth

and I consider it a blessing and a privilege to

be here with you. I have prayed that God would

bless each one of you here this evening, and he

has already, and I trust that blessing will continue. So

it's wonderful to be able to travel several thousand miles

and meet with a group of people that you can

feel fellowship with and to look forward to fellowshiping with.

And that is something that Birth and I have been

experiencing and feel already again here this evening. You know,

there's probably likely that there's not another person here tonight

that carries the name Schwartz and Trooper, you.

Know, as a last name. Today, Brother Derek.

Changed Gladys's name from Schwartz and troupers Durstein, which is good.

We're thankful for that. But I don't know if there's

any other Schwartz and Troopers here tonight other than Bertha

and Eye. But we are just very happy to be

with you here, and you know, I greeted you as

brothers and sisters, and we're thinking tonight about the one

that has done that and made that possible. And so

in light of all of that, it's just a joy

to be here with you, and we look forward to

this time of fellowshipping with you.

Really appreciate your prayers.

You know, if i'd have my rathers, I would rather

just keep sitting where I was and let your brethren

keep ministering and preaching to me. It's something I need

and I would love to have that, but I understand

that's not what we're looking at for this week.

But we do look forward to this time with you.

Been thinking about you as a brotherhood here more in

the last month or two than what I normally would,

and I've found you being on my heart as I

came to the Lord in prayer.

You know, I've been thinking of brother Leland and.

Jason and Joel and Dan and Gerald, and I've been

thinking of young families here and you as a brotherhood

and youth and children.

I've been thinking of you children going to school and

children you that are here tonight that are going to

school here. You know, one of the things I've been

so thankful for and just thank the Lord for that

here in this part of the world, there's a wonderful

school for you children.

To go to.

And I was thinking today about how many children world

would just love to have the privilege of going to

a school like you do, and they can't.

They don't have that opportunity.

And I'd just like to encourage you children to just

be very very thankful to God that you have the

privilege of going to a school like this and to

a school where you have good teachers.

I was singing of that today.

You know, gabriel I went to school today and it

was just wonderful that she could go to a school

where there was a teacher that loves the Lord and

a teacher that teaches Gabrielle how to pray and.

How to read and to know God. What a blessing

that is.

You know, recently, I've heard some stories children of teachers

that just did horrible things to their.

Students in school.

And we know children today, it's reality, there's lots of

children in school that do terrible things too, but it's

really bad when there's teachers that do things that are

just just awful to the students and that's something you

don't have here. I've been thinking of you and of

course youth, and it's a blessing having you as youth

here this evening. And again my prayer is that God

would bless all of you. He only can bless us.

I appreciate your prayers in our behalf.

Trust you'll continue praying.

And we're just here as one of you, one with you,

fellowshiping with you, and we want to endeavor to give

ourselves to sharing what God has for us to share.

And to think about.

But it really is a blessing to be able to

go so far and to just be here with you.

So as we think of being together here this evening,

I'm going to.

Invite you to be a part of this work.

And as Brother Leland mentioned, this revival this week or

what we consider as being a time that we want

God to revive us, and in a very real way,

I just want to give every one of you.

An invitation to be a part of that.

It's not just about me up here or just whatever,

but about inviting us.

To do this together. And this is how we mean

to invite you to do it.

You know, there was a time when Jesus, like in

Mark chapter twelve, when he was speaking as he so

many times did, and as he was speaking, he spoke

words of truth, and he gave two commandments. And then

he followed that by saying, there is none other commandment

greater than these two commandments. They are the greatest of

all commandments. Jesus was saying, there's none greater. And as

I was thinking of this week, of our time of

being together, we think of revival. You know, Brother Leal

mentioned revival several times already this evening.

So what could revival be.

It could be by by us opening our hearts to

the two greatest of all commandments that the Lord has

given us.

That would be revival, wouldn't it.

I appreciated the thoughts that were shared about the Pilgrim's progress.

The book and the songs we sang tonight were very

meaningful and open the way for us to consider.

The two great commandments that Jesus gave.

As he spoke of loving the Lord, our God with

all our heart and soul and.

Mind and strength.

And he goes on and talks about loving one another,

loving our neighbors, loving our brothers. You know, Peter even

said he said, above all things have fervent charity among yourselves.

In the Bible, we read that by this shall all

and know that your might disciples.

When you have love one for another.

I pray that God would cultivate a love in our

hearts this week for Him and for each other, and

help us to just look at it in a new

way and like to sit here like you know, things

will like the first time we've heard some of the

marvelous things of the Lord, and is goodness to us

that make us just want to give ourselves to revival

in the way of loving God more than we ever

have before. Coming tonight, we saw another herd of sheep

in the field. And one of the things we noticed

yesterday was the sheep in your beautiful.

Pastures of Oregon.

I just loved watching those sheep and seeing the sheep

in the fields. And tonight, coming to church, we were

blessed with the privilege of again seeing a herd of

sheep out in a pasture. It was so interesting And

I want to use this in a little bit and

just share a little picture of.

What's on my heart tonight.

You know, as we looked at that herd of sheep,

I didn't see any man out there with the sheep,

and so the sheep were kind of scattered out across

this pasture and they were just doing their things. A

few more words about that in a moment, But you know,

as we drove on tour church here.

I noticed way away from most of the sheep.

Now, the sheep weren't close together, and we're thinking about

coming closer together. But on up the road of ways,

it looked out and it looked like, I said something

to Derek, that's another one over there, Isn't it very

far from all the other sheep. It looked like another

sheep laying there all alone in the grass.

Away from the fold of the rest of the sheep.

And I thought of how that could be, you know, tonight,

as we're together here, or the coming evenings, it could

be like one of us sitting in these pews and

we're just.

Like that, that one sheep that's kind of away from.

The others and maybe lonely, discouraged press in the slew

of despond. In my mind, I pictured what would happen

if the shepherd would go out into that field, a

shepherd that knows those sheep, a shepherd that has sheep

that know his voice, and I picture him going out

with a with a little container of feed or something

for the sheep, and and and speaking a word, and

just seeing those sheep come together to the shepherd. Tonight

we are we're inviting the Lord Jesus to come and

to do that here among us.

He is the good shepherd, He's the chief shepherd. And

that's why tonight I want to greet you as my

brothers and sisters in the name of the one that

Peter called the shepherd and Bishop of our souls. And

that is so meaningful, and we embrace that thought. We

say amen to Peter's words.

He's the shepherd and the Bishop of our souls, and

we invite him to come into shepherd us.

Again. What we are inviting.

The Lord to do among us this week is just

like if the shepherd would have went out into that

pasture and he would have called those sheep and they

would have all come together to the shepherd. They would

have just started gathering around and getting up from laying

down in the pasture and started going towards the shepherd.

The Lord Jesus is the shepherd, and all of us

are the sheep. Now in that pasture, we all have

different responsibilities, but none of us here are the shepherd.

We're all fellow sheep. But you know what happens If

in that pasture the shepherd would have come out and

would have given his call, the sheep would have come together.

At least if that shepherd is in touch with his sheep,

they would have started coming together. And guess what would

have happened as they came to the shepherd. They also

would have come closer to each other. And that's what

we're inviting the Lord to do among us here this week,

me with you. You know, I believe if the Lord

Terry is till Sunday evening, Bertha and I are going

to be closer knit with you in heart than we

have been before.

And we're looking.

Forward to that to just be closer to you, to

know some of you by name that we don't know now,

and to know.

A little bit more about your life and the struggles

you have. So we're inviting the Lord tonight to come

into call.

Us, and you know what that is going to take

something on every one of our part to get up

and to do just that, because.

You know, you know, in our life, in routine and

several things were mentioned tonight already about being in the

slew of despond or being backslitt or being cold. We

can be like one of those sheep, And tonight the

Lord is inviting us to get up and to come

gather around the shepherd, and in that gathering.

We come closer to each other.

It is a city of light where there are brothers

and sisters that truly love one another with a pure heart, fervently,

as we read in the Bible. And I just invite

us all to do that, to take the steps necessary

this week for the Lord to do that among us

that will be true revival following the greatest of all commandments.

Relationships are so extremely important. We go back at the

beginning of time and we look at the garden of

Eden and we see God placing Adam and even that garden,

and they were so close to God into each other.

They communed with the Lord and with each other.

God communed with them, and they walked with God in

a very real way, we believe.

And Adam and Eve were very close together.

You know, they were comfortable and totally at peace being together,

even with being unclothed.

They were just at peace and unity. There was just.

Perfect ontoness and closeness there. And then the devil came

and he's so discord there. He brought doubt and he questioned.

He put questions where God had put periods. And you

know what happened. Adam and Eve sinned. And then what happened.

For the first time ever, Man blamed woman for his

fault and failure.

And Adam said, the woman that you gave me.

And then God speaks to Eve and she turns around

and says the serpent, and we see a breakdown in

relationship and in closeness in oneness. Right, yes, and man

was driven from the garden of Eden. And we praise

and thank God tonight that Jesus Christ came to even

break down the middle wall of partition between Jew and gentile,

and between brothers and sisters, and between husbands and wives,

that we can experience closeness in oneness, and we thank

and praise him tonight for that.

We all we are tonight.

We're born like in the city of Destruction, and within

our hearts what was native there, what we were born with,

was a selfish nature. And we want to make sure

that number one gets taken care of.

And then we read things.

Like Jesus came not to be minister too, but to

minister and to give his life as a ransom for many,

And we're just so challenged in our selfish pride. Is

it breaks down as we consider Jesus. You know who

should have been served first at every meal, who should

have had the front seat at every gathering.

It was Jesus, the.

One that was born and wrapped in swaddling clothes and

laid in a manger. He came and showed us how

to yield our lives in servanthood and serving and sharing,

and to be unselfish and giving. There's a song that

I would like to think of as just like a

theme song for our week of being together. And I

don't know if we'll be able to sing it anytime

or not. If we can, that's wonderful. I don't think

it's in your hymn books. We don't have to sing it,

but I would like to share it because to me,

it's so meaningful as we think of revival, as we

think of the Church of Jesus Christ and what we're

called to do and to be.

The title is.

Christ is the Foundation, and it begins with those words

Christ is the foundation of the house. We raise be

its walls salvation and its gateways. Praise may it's threshold

lowly to the Lord be dear. May the hearts be

holy that shall worship here. What a tremendous blessing it

is that this songwriter has spoken of the threshold being lowly.

If we get that far tonight, I really want.

To give the title of this message is the Majesty

and the Ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know,

I don't think I've ever titled a message that way,

And to me, it's like the most.

Wow. How can you?

How can you bring that out? The Majesty and the

Ministry of Jesus. We think of his majesty tonight and

his ministry. But tonight we're so thankful that the threshold

is lowly, and that Jesus himself spoke of himself as

being meek and lowly in heart. We think tonight of

who it was that the Lord ministered to. We think

of a woman coming from the city that was a sinner.

Coming into a group of the professing religious people and

finding her way to Jesus and kneeling down at his

feet and weeping and washing his feet with her tears,

And oh what a blessing.

That woman received.

We think of the prodigal son, We think of the

thief on the cross.

We think of.

Men like Peter that denied Jesus and then repenting and

in lowliness seeking the Lord, and the Lord ministering to.

All those needs.

The second verse of this song says, here the vow

be sealed by Thy spirit Lord. Here the sick be

healed and the lost restored. Here, the brokenhearted, thy forgiveness prove.

You know, it's just no telling how many stories.

And what all is going on in the hearts of us.

In these pews here tonight. It's it's it's so easy

for us to look okay when there's something else going

on in our hearts. And we pray that we would

all open our hearts to the Lord and let him

just minister to us this week. And here, the broken hearted,

my forgiveness prove. Here the friends long parted be restored

to love. So thankful this wrong songwriter has put those

words in here.

Is it possible for for for friends.

To sit in pews together and and and and just

be very distant in heart? That is very possible, And

Here may friends long parted be restored to love. Here,

may every token of Thy presence be it's unto the Lord. Here,

may change be broken, prisoners here set free. Here, may

light illumine every soul of Thine, lifting up the human

into the divine. That's what we want to experience this week.

And here, may God, the Father, Christ, the Savior, Son,

with the Holy Spirit be adored as one till the

whole creation at thy footstow fall and in adoration own

the Lord of all. As we think of inviting us

all to be a part of this, want to remind

us tonight, as the Bible says, God is faithful by

whom you were called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ,

his Son, we have been invited into the fellowship. And

fellowship is closeness, its relationship. It's oneness with God or

Father and with one another. First John one three, that

ye may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship

is with the Father. May our experience this week be

what we read in Zachariah two five, where the Lord

talks about being a wall of fire around about his

people and the glory in the midst That's what we want.

May if the Lord tarries by Sunday evening. May may

as the Lord looks down on us, may there not

be one heart that is holding out on God.

May every one of our hearts be saying, Yes, Lord, Yes,

I want to I will. I will get up from

my little wherever I am laying in.

The pasture, and I will go to the shepherd, and

I will draw closer to you and to my brothers

and sisters, that we might experience the closeness in oneness

he wants us to experience.

Zephaniah. Three, p. Seventeen. It says the Lord, thy God

in the midst of thee is mighty.

He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy.

He will rest in his love. He will joy over

thee with singing. It would have been such a beautiful

scene tonight to see the shepherd go into that pasture

and see all those sheep get up and respond to

the voice of the shepherd, and all go to beat

him and to be with him and to be close

to each other.

And I pray that and tonight I'm not saying you're

scattered like those sheep or anything like that at all.

But all of us have within our hearts, the need

of being drawn closer to God and to each other,

and that's what we want, by the grace of God.

In those ways, we're inviting each of you to be

a part of this. And so tonight we want to

turn our bibles for the message to you know, there

is one book in the Bible. Out of the sixty

six books, there's one book that begins with the word God.

And yes, we already heard from that book. Tonight we

turn our bibles to Hebrews chapter one, and the first

word we read there is God. As we think of

that word tonight, we think of both Elijah and Elisha

spoke of the Lord before whom I stand, and we

think of the fact we think of God, God, Almighty

God in Heaven.

We think of as we think of God.

We could go to the first chapter of the first

book of the Bible, Genesis, chapter one, and if we

read that chapter, we will find over.

Thirty times the word God.

God created and in the beginning God and God said,

let there be light. And tonight we we with joy

we turned to Hebrews chapter one, and we we anticipate

what is there for us as we begin with the

word God, and we consider God tonight, and we consider

the fact that every one of us as adults, know

that we know something about God, and we've heard of God,

and and and we.

Think of the fact that we are accountable to God.

And tonight we reach the age of accountability when we

start sensing that it's no longer just what Mom and

Daddy say, but it's I.

Sense another voice in my heart speaking to me.

And and it is a voice a greater than than

Mom and Daddy's voice. It's something like what Samuel heard

when in the night God spoke to him. God, tonight,

we're so thankful. We can go on to read from

this beautiful book, and it says God, who at sundry

times and in divers manners spake in time passed into

the fathers by the prophets. We're so thankful tonight that

God has spoken. We're so thankful tonight that God, Almighty

and all his greatness has spoken, and we can hear

his voice if we.

Take time to stop and listen.

The Bible goes on to tell us in verse two,

he hath in these last days spoken unto us by

his son.

God has chosen to speak to.

Us in the last days by his son, the Lord

Jesus Christ, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,

by whom also he made the world's excuse me, who

being Jesus Christ, being the brightness of his glory, express

image of his person, and upholding all things by the.

Word of his power.

And I just look at this, when he had by

himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand

of the Majesty on high, and tonight we consider the

majesty and the ministry of Jesus Christ, the.

Son of God. And this is just a simple way.

You don't know how else to do it, you know,

to raise our right hand to the heavens. As we

think of the majesty of Jesus, it's unfathomable, it's unexplainable.

And yet tonight we want to think of some things

that just speak of the majesty of Jesus Christ. But

what if tonight all we would have to say is

to speak of the majesty and the greatness and the

power of God. Tonight we also consider the ministry of

Jesus Christ that reaches down to the lowliest of the

lowly and reaches down to all of us, reaches down

to humanity in all the world, and whosoever will I

pray that these this week of meetings would make a

difference in your life, because yes, His majesty is great,

but His ministry is unexplainable and unincomprehensible, and it is amazing.

I could open it up right now.

And if we would be honest, those of you that

know the Lord here tonight, you know how many times

we fail and stumble and fallen, and we again we

come back to God and we pray and we seek

His face with all our heart. And how many of

you here tonight could say that God said, no, no, no,

your sins are too great. And you know I'm not

going to listen to your prayer and say no, you're

forever doomed and damned.

You have not heard God say that.

You have rather known that God has responded to your

sincere prayers. And that is just so wonderful tonight. Aren't

you thankful you can tell your little children that, And

aren't you thankful that when your children reach the age

of accountability, you'll have a message like that to share

with them. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.

He's majestic, but his ministry reaches down to the youngest.

I prayed tonight these meetings will make a difference to

the oldest brothers and sisters here all the way down

to the babies in your laps, because of the difference

it's going to make in our lives as God's children.

We marvel that Jesus Christ, the son of God. You know,

how did God become man? Divine humanity? And why did

God become man? Tonight we think of the songwriter that

has said, Holy, Holy, is what the angels sing, and

I expect to help them make the courts of heaven ring.

But when I sing redemption story, they will fold their wings.

And this is just a thought.

We don't know how it's going to be, but it

is a thought something to think about for angels never

felt the joy that our salvation brings. We think of

Peter writing about the Gospel message that is so amazing

and saying which things the angels desire to look into?

And I just invite you to take a new, fresh look.

You know, maybe we heard it from this little all

the way to today. I invite you to just take

one more, just a fresh look at what it means

the Gospel and the message of salvation, redemption, the one

that redeems our life from destruction. Do we stop and

consider where we would be tonight if it weren't for

the ministry of Jesus. Yes, he's majestic, but his ministry

reaches down to where you are tonight, in all your brokenness,

in all your failures, in all the perplexities and complexities

and questions.

He is there.

It is said, I can't say that this is exactly

what Napoleon said, but something like this, this is what

someone has put together as what Napoleon said. When he

was exiled on Saint Helena, he was asked by one

of his friends, who was the greatest warrior of the

world has ever known, And without hesitation, Napoleon answered Jesus Christ.

But said his friend, you have not always talked that way.

When you were winning battles, even up to the very

time of Waterloo, you left the impression that you were.

The world's greatest warrior.

This is how Napoleon replied, Yes, I have always acted

as though I thought I was the world's greatest conqueror.

I have had lots of time to think since I

have been here on this island. The Caesars, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Charlemagne,

and myself.

We have fought with blood.

And tears, and swords and iron, and we lost. All

of us lost. We lost our scepters, our crowns, in

our offices. The only sword Christ had was a broken reed.

His crown some twisted thorns, his army, a band of

fishermen and farmers.

His ammunition, a heart of redeeming love. He lives. I

and my kind die.

I stand here and call for the old, but they

do not hear me. There are no responding voices. My

old soldiers do not hear me. I hear nothing but

the waves as they bite at the rock beneath my feet.

But after eighteen hundred years have come and gone into

the tomb of time, Christ calls in men answer. If

need be, they give their bodies to be burned. Wow,

yes they do. It's happening today in the world. There

are so many Christians being martyred today, put to death.

Just recently. You know in Congo, is it that seventy

were beheaded.

If need be, they follow Jesus into the heart of Africa.

But better still, they live, patient and triumphant lives.

In his name.

Yes, the other warriors and I will ride down to dust,

but Christ will live forever. Jesus the Majesty and the

ministry of Jesus.

Here it is.

I think if you have a knave's topical Bible and

you go to Jesus Christ, I think there's over seventy

nine pages of what is to be shared in that

book of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our advocate. He is

in the Bible seen as the bright and morning Star.

These are all words from the Bible, from the scriptures.

He is the Captain of Salvation. He's the day Star.

He's Emmanuel. He's faithful and true. He's the first in

the last. He's the found He's God manifest in the flesh.

He's God, our Savior. He's the Good Master, the Great,

Shepherd of the sheep, the Head of the Church, the

head of the Corner, the Holy Child, Jesus, the Horn

of Salvation, the Great. I am Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth,

Jesus the King of the Jews, the King of Saints,

King of Kings, King of Glory, the Lamb of God,

Light everlasting, the Living Stone, the Lord our Righteousness, the

Lord Mighty in battle, the morning Star, the Mediator. Every

one of these have such depth of meaning. The Most Mighty,

the Nazarene, that's so meaningful, the only Begotten Son. He's

the Prince of Life, the Prince of Peace. He's our propitiation.

He's the Redeemer. He's the Rose of share and salvation,

the Savior of the body, the Servant, the Shepherd, the

son of the Father, Jesus, the Son of God, son

of the Highest. He's the Teacher, the True Vine, the

unspeakable gift, very, the Vine, the Way, the Word of life.

He's the Wonderful. Once again, the songwriter has said, Shepherd

of Love, you have called me by name into thy

sheepfold of lost sheep.

Reclaim You've carried me back from the mountainside cold and

furnished a place in the heavenly fold. For this we

praise and thank the Lord. Tonight, Shepherd of Love, I

would follow along, joyfully, lifting my voice in a song,

trusting thy wisdom to choose the right way when my

own choices would lead me astray. Shepherd of Love, you

abundantly gave all of thyself for the lost sheep to

shave save, leaving the glories of Heaven above, giving thy

life as a ransom of love. And then the prayer

is feed us and lead us, o Shepherd of Love,

and bring us at last to thy sheepfold above. We

consider the words of the men that said we would

see Jesus, and we turn our bibles tonight we think

of the testimony.

Of the greatest of the all Testament prophets.

In fact, we believe it was Jesus himself that said

there was those born of women. There was never one

greater than John the Baptist up to that time. But

then you tell me what this means. Jesus went on

to say, nevertheless, he that is leased and the Kingdom

of Heaven is greater than he.

What a privilege we have, and how blessed we are.

I wonder if we'd asked the question tonight, how many

of you here tonight can trace your ancestry all the

way back to the tribe of Judah. How many of

you here tonight could get up and say, I am

a Jew, I'm from.

The tribe of Judah. You don't, probably no one.

We're so thankful tonight, and that in the Old Testament

there were men like Uriah he was a Hittipe.

They were supposed to be killed. He was a part

of the army of Israel.

We're thankful for the picture in the Old Testament of

women like the Harlot, Rahab and.

Ruth the more of Itis. Tonight, we're so thankful for

the Book of Acts. The door was burst wide open

for us as gentiles.

To come into the Kingdom, and it should be just

as new and fresh to us tonight as like the

first time we ever heard it or seen it. May

it be like that, and we think about how wonderfully

blessed we are, and we can lay our head on

our pillow tonight and know the Lord Jesus Christ is

our own personal Lord and Savior. We think of John

the Baptist, his testimony. He was the greatest of Old

Testament prophets, we believe. And by the way, if I

say anything anytime that's wrong, I would plead to be corrected.

I want to be I'm capable of saying things wrong.

But you know, we think of John the Baptist at

amazing prophet preacher.

He spoke of Jesus, and what did he say? He said,

there's one coming after me.

I'm not worthy to stoop down and and just and

and and.

Loose the latchet of his shoes.

You know, I baptized with water, but he's coming. He's

going to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

And we just stop and pausing, We just we marvel

at the majesty in the ministry of Jesus. Tonight.

We think of the time when he went with Peter,

James and John up on a mountain.

And he was transfigured before them.

And he became you know, his even his clothes, the

clothes he had on, just became glistening white, the Bible says,

and white like snow, and like no fool or soap

could could could clean them, you know. And so I

just think on earth we've probably never ever seen anything

as white as what Jesus became on the mound of transfiguration.

And for a moment the glory of his majesty was

revealed in a little way. And while there, remember there

was a voice heard that came out of heaven saying,

this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

And they went on and say hear ye him, you know,

on that same mountain. That was amazing. Elijah and Moses,

great men of God. But God said hear him, Jesus

was there, the majesty and the ministry. Isn't it amazing tonight.

That that that the Lord Jesus desires to live.

In your heart by his spirit? He said, the Kingdom

of Heaven or the Kingdom of God is within you.

We marvel.

We go to John chapter one, and as we think

of Jesus tonight and who he is? What was John's

testimony of Jesus. Just like to go through John chapter

one and notice just picking out the words, and first

we begin with verse fourteen where John said, we beheld

his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of

the Father, full of grace and truth. And notice verse sixteen.

Of his fullness have we all received, and grace for grace,

grace upon grace and abundant grace, that grace of God

that bringeth salvation. That also teaches us how to live

and how to deny ungodly loss and world worldly loss

and to live righteously true. But notice John, the beloved,

the one that leaned on Jesus' breast, leaned on him

because he loved him. And I pray that that would

be the kind of love we would have for him,

the kind of love that comes when we marvel that

Jesus got up that night when he's with the disciples,

and he took a basin of water and a towel,

and he went and he bowed down to wash the

disciples feet, and we just marvel, and it just creates

within us a love for him. John spoke of him

in verse one as the Word, in verse four, as

the one with life and light, verse nine, the true light,

verse fourteen, the one full of grace and truth, verse

twenty nine. We stopped there a moment, and consider, you know.

John, seeing Jesus.

Coming, he said, behold the lamb of God, which taketh

away the sin of the world. One of the things

that caught my attention this evening in that sheep pasture

was the little lambs, those beautiful little lambs, those innocent,

lovely little lambs.

How is it that John spoke of the majestic Creator

as a lamb, the lamb of God.

That taketh away the sin of the world. And we

agree with the songwriter tonight, when you know he talks

about pouring contempt on all our pride.

Yesterday in just a new way.

Flying out here, I just marveled again and again and again.

Both rides in the airplane, I was privileged with having

a seat by the window.

And just marveled at the.

Majesty of the creation your mountains, snow caps and rivers

and streams and farmland, and it.

Was just amazing.

And isn't it just amazing tonight to think about how

right now, how.

Fast we're flying through space, and we're turning in our

orbit around the Sun in just an amazing way, perfectly timed,

and where scientists can tell us if time goes on,

what time the sun is going to peek across the

sky tomorrow morning, And we just marvel, isn't it amazing

tonight that in our lungs there are approximately four hundred

and eighty million little tubes.

The name for it is something like.

Our villa little tubes in our lungs or over. Since

we've been here tonight, every one of us have been breathing,

we breed in, inhale, we exhale, and all the time

in our lungs, those millions and millions of little tubes

are taking oxygen into our body that it winds up

going into our bloodstream that goes to every part of

our body, from our toes even to the roots of

our hair, and then we exhale as well, and from

us flows out through those little tubes and our lungs,

carbon dioxide and waste.

It's just amazing.

There's so many things we could talk about. Just think

about how many of you see me up here tonight

or see see that board, and how many of you

can guess about how far well that.

Is from you?

Your little eye is just an amazing part of God's

creation and we marvel and we just and tonight another

marvel is that we can become proud and how many

of us have done this to God, even the backsliders

and those rejecting God.

Tonight it is God's.

Goodness that gives us breath, and it's keeping us alive

and giving us another day to say yes to God.

Tonight we marvel as we won't turn there, but if

you turn to Isaiah sixty one, the First Light four versus,

we marvel at that Old Testament scripture that tells us

what the Messiah was going to do when he comes.

He was going to give beauty for ashes and the

oil of joy.

From morning you know all kinds of things.

And then, but I do want to turn to Luke

chapter four, and I want to read for you tonight

from Luke chapter four.

One day Jesus, when he.

Was gathered together with others, someone brought that Book of

Isaiah to him and gave it to him to read.

And he in verse seventeen and following we see that

he took the Book of Isaiah, and he opened the book,

and he found the place where it was written, and

he read this. The spirit of the Lord is upon

me because he hath annointed me to preach the gospel.

To the poor.

He had sent me to heal the broken hearted, to

preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to

the blind, to set it liberty them and their bruised,

and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now,

you know, any true minister could take all those different

points and make a whole message.

Out of any of them.

Should be we should be able to, you know, like

the Gospel being preached to the poor and him coming

to heal the broken hearted.

We just read it quickly tonight, but it's all so meaningful.

Does Jesus actually do that? Yes, he does Has he

done it for you? Yes?

I know many of you here tonight could say yes, yes,

and you could say, look, I want to tell you

about this and that and something else that has been

your experience. The Bible goes on to tells us then

that Jesus closed the book and he gave it again

to the minister, and he sat down, and the eyes

of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened

on him, and he began to say, unto them this day,

as this scripture fulfilled in your ears, and all bare

him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded

out of his mouth. And they said, is this not

Joseph's son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

How was it that the Creator came down to earth?

Why did he become man? He became man to redeem

our lives from destruction.

In conclusion, tonight, I want to think about something we

find in Luke chapter eleven, where it tells us about

in verses twenty and twenty one. It tells us about

a strong armed man keeping his palace.

And his goods being kept safe there.

And I would love to hear your what you think,

But to me tonight as I look at the verses

before that, to me, it is the devil keeping.

The heart of man, and it.

Brings out in verse twenty two, I think about what

he trusts in to keep the door.

Of our heart and the palace of our heart.

But then the Bible goes on, Yes, in verse twenty two,

it talks about one stronger than the strong arm man

coming and spoiling the strong arm man and taking away

from him his control.

In the world.

Setting people talk about, you know, power and who is

the most powerful, and tonight we just that's just like

Pewter compared to the fact that tonight we just rejoice.

You know, there is a strong armed man that's keeping

the door of many a heart, and there are those

things that the devil trusts in to keep our heart

captivated and.

Away from God.

And tonight maybe we think about in our life what

it is that the devil uses to keep my heart

close to God. The Lord Jesus came to burst wide

open those doors and to take away from the devil

the things that he uses to keep us captivated and

in in captivity.

And to set us at liberty.

Tonight we are thankful that there is one stronger than

the strong armed man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he

is the one that wants to be our shepherd to

gather us together for his glory. Could we stand together

for closing prayer? Father in heaven, we want to praise

and thank you tonight.

Lord.

We marvel at your majesty and at your ministry. Lord,

we marvel at the creation and Lord, as it was

even said this evening, Lord, we had no choice to

be born in the city of destruction. But Lord, we

see it as a result of us as humanity, sinning

and disobeying you. Father, tonight, we thank you for the

picture and the pilgrim's progress of a message being given

of hope and salvation, a place that we can go

and be unburdened. And Lord, tonight, we just want to

invite you to come and to be with us in

these coming days. We pray that you would come into

our pasture, Lord, and we pray that you would call us.

I pray that every one of us, Lord, would arise

and come to you. Lord.

We think of that one sheep tonight that was so

far away from the others, and we pray that Lord,

if you look down and you see it that's one

of us here will be in the coming services. I

pray you would call us and bring us into the fold. Lord,

I pray that every one of us you would give

us grace to respond to your voice and to say

yes to you.

And Lord, we look forward and are coming to come

closer to you, as you've called us, to draw nigh

to you, and with it also to come closer to

each other, and to truly love one another with pure hearts. Fervently.

Oh God, we pray for this tonight in the wonderful

name of Jesus, with thanksgiving.

Amen.