27 July 2025: Building the House of God #6 Sacrifice (David Pounder)

Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South

Australia. We have had quite a lot of input

from outside our context over the last short period of time.

And, you know, one of the questions that I've been asking

myself that I would ask all of us is what is God saying and

what are we doing with it? You know, like how we're

applying the things that God's speaking to us and God's really

been dealing with me. And some of these things, you

know, I've realized that, you know, one of the things that

God's really spoken to me is the need for having people around me

that I'm accountable to, that I'm completely transparent with,

open with. Trying to do life on your own or

for myself, trying to do what it is that God's called me to do in

my own strength is too hard. And we, we need each other.

Craig's laughing. He's like, of course it is like

we, we need each other. We need the body.

We need our brothers and our sisters.

You know, the people that are close to me need to know my

struggles. They need to know the things

that I'm struggling with. They need to know the things

that I'm victorious in. All of these things.

We can't leave things hidden in the dark.

When you keep things to yourself, you are, you are

leaving it in the dark. And when you have someone that

you can share these things with that you can shed some light on

it and they can speak the word of God of you and you make an

encourage you. It's called shedding the light

on on the darkness because all of us have got stuff.

All of us have got some sort of baggage, some sort of hold up,

whatever it is, we got some stuff.

And don't try and deal with your stuff on your own, you know,

And, and even like, because, you know, I have this attitude,

sometimes that just goes, I can just deal with it just with me

and the Lord. And that's great.

But sometimes that that isn't even enough, you know, like we

are the body of Christ, right? And so we need to have people

around us in the body that we can do this with.

Yeah. Anyway, I won't get too hung up

on this, but yeah, actually I will tell a story just from my

week, just in in line with this stuff.

I sell motorcycle engines. And so, you know, these

motorcycle engines are on a pallet at my house and I have to

move them onto the back of the car and take them to be shipped

and stuff like this. This is just part of my job.

And so Hilary helps me move these engines.

And so, so, you know, she, my wife is so much stronger than

you think. Like she should pick up these

things with me anyway. Like, I didn't get her to lift

him. I had my friend come when she

was pregnant and stuff like that.

So just relax. OK.

But she's not pregnant anymore. And I had to move this engine.

And so we've picked up this motor and we're sort of like

shifting it to the car. And I'm like, you're OK, you're

OK. Yeah, I'm fine, you know, and

and because I had to book it in, I had to estimate what how much

it weighed. I estimated this thing probably

weighed about 40 or 50 kilos, right.

And so, you know, like, you can pick up, I can pick up 30 kilos

pretty easily. Like, not easily, but 30 kilos

is quite a lot to pick up. But when there's two of you, you

know, it is easier. And it's funny because I took

this engine to work and I had what my mate at work helped me

take it off the car, right? And we're picking it up and

we're walking along and he's like, geez, this is pretty

heavy. Like, what do you reckon this

weighs? And he's like, oh, I don't know,

like sort of 40 or 50 kilos. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Because why don't we stick it up on the scales?

So we put it on the scales. 83 kilos, 83 kilos.

I had my missus carrying 40 kilos.

But anyway, please don't judge. She's fine, I'm OK.

But but my point is like 80 kilos, like I, I, I would

struggle to lift 50 kilos on my own.

Like I I don't, I don't think I could, right.

But between two people carrying 80 plus kilos, it's doable.

It's not that hard. You don't, you don't hurt

yourself. And my point is that 2 can carry

much more than half of what one person can carry.

Does that make sense? It's true.

I googled it. This is what they say like

because you know, things are awkward and, and some of the

things that it said, you know, the reasons why two people can

carry more is because they can coordinate with each other.

Just watch out behind you. Like, do you see what I'm

saying? Like there's a picture here that

we can get a hold of that doing this together and having someone

alongside you to help is so powerful.

And it's amazing to me that God has just created this universe

in this world and just put his truth through everything.

It's like you can see God and you can see the goodness of God

and you can see the structure of things in all of his creation.

Isn't that amazing? Very good.

And so this morning, I'm going to be talking about sacrifice.

Yay. So I've got this slide here that

Hillary's going to pop up for me.

These were the 8 key ingredients to building God's church.

And so one of these is, I forget which picture this is, but

there's another slide here. It's there it is.

It's that one sacrifice. And so we're going to talk about

sacrifice this morning. Is sacrifice something that as

believers that we are called to do, that we are called to live

in? Of course, it is Paul.

The apostles thought so, and he wrote a lot about it.

And, you know, but what does Paul know about building the

church? Paul knew a lot about building

the church. He called himself a wise master

builder in the Lord, you know, and so we can we can listen to

it when, when we think about building the church and building

God's house, we've got this guy that that knew how to build and

he and So what we're reading today is his words to the church

on on sacrifice. OK, so this is Romans 12 verse

Romans 12:1

1. And so I'm going to read through

it quickly and then I'm we're going to look at a little

closer. It's just one verse.

So Romans 12 verse one, it says, I beseech you, therefore,

brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a

living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your

reasonable service. So this word I'm, I'm not going

to say the Greek words. I'll just tell you that this

word beseech, the original Greek word is like to call for, to

summon, like he summoned them to speak to them.

But the, the definition is like a, it's a +1.

It's one of exhortation, like Paul wants to gather you to tell

you something good. And that same Greek word is

translated comfort a lot in the scripture, funnily enough.

And so Paul's beseeching you, I want to tell you something

that's good, something that's going to bring comfort.

And so that's the heart behind what he's saying.

It's a good heart. It's one that wants us to catch

this. This is important.

Listen up. I've got something to say and

it's good for you. This is the heart.

And he and he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, you

know, this is family. This is brothers or sisters.

He's not talking to a stranger. He's talking to the family of

God saying like I'm, I'm talking to my brothers and sisters here,

guys, by the mercies of God, by God's compassion, by God's

longing for us to catch this, your bodies to present, to

provide, sorry to, to present, to provide, to bring forward to

command, to yield. I like yield, yield your bodies

and and bodies. It's not just your physical

body. And you can tell that just by

reading the context. If you if you go back and read,

he's not just talking about your physical body and the same word

for body in this passage is the same word where Jesus says

don't, don't fear him who who can kill the body fear him who

can cast your body into hell body, same word.

So Jesus uses the word, this word body, not just for your

physical body, but the body that could be cast into hell as

that's all of you. That's like everything.

And so it says, present your bodies a living sacrifice.

So you're not going to physically die, but you're going

to die in your attitude, in your in your laying down of your life

as a sacrifice. You know this word sacrifice, if

you look at the strong's meaning, it only gives one

other, one other word to describe this Greek word.

You know what it is victim present.

Present your body as a victim. You know, we don't like that.

We don't like to even sacrifice. I would say a lot of us don't

like to hear that. Like I have to sacrifice myself.

Like that's crazy talk. But this is what the word of God

is calling us to do, to sacrifice, to make yourself, you

know, when they killed the sacrificial lamb, that lamb was

a victim, you know, for to cover the sins.

This is the same same thing that God's asking us to do to

sacrifice yourself and you know, holy, obviously set apart

acceptable to God, which is I love this bit, right, the bit at

the end here, which is your reasonable service.

Paul's not like pulling any punches here, right?

He's going, you know, as I'm I'm crying out to you guys as

brothers and sisters to lay down to sacrifice your body.

And this is like your reasonable service, you know this word

reasonable It, it just means logical.

This is logic. This is logic that you would do

this believers, brothers and sisters, wouldn't make any sense

that you wouldn't live this way. Do you see what he's saying?

It's like anything full short of full commitment to this thing is

illogical. Like it wouldn't make any sense

for you not to be fully committed to this totally given

over to Christ's likeness. And as a believer, as a

Christian, as a follower of Christ, it just makes no sense

to live in a way that's not completely sold out, given over

laying your body on the line as a as a sacrifice to the Lord

that that I'm belonging to him now and he gets to he gets to

dictate to me what I should do with my life and my choices.

Logical. Isn't that interesting because

we think sometimes that is irrational for us to like self

sacrifice. That's not what the Bible's

teaching. That's not what the Word of God

says. And so I'm going to read it

again for us. I beseech you, therefore,

brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a

living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is your

reasonable service. That's a powerful verse, isn't

it? As I was preparing this morning,

just around some of these things, I was just reading and

praying this morning. I didn't sort of look at the

notes or anything that I'm just up early.

I'm praying, I'm reading the word and you know, I just

started to dwell on some of these things and just, you know,

that that thing of like full commitment to the Lord and you

know how how me being fully committed to the Lord means be

me being fully committed to his church because we're the body of

Christ. You know, I don't know what you

think about church. I don't know what you think the

church is, but the church is Christ's body.

And so you couldn't be committed to Jesus unless you were

committed to to the church. And that's kind of jarring to

hear sometimes. I don't know what you guys are

hearing when I say that, but if you're not fully committed in,

you know, this verse that I read about being a living sacrifice

completely given over to the church.

If I say you need to be a living sacrifice to the church, to the

body to live for it, that that would be the most important

thing in your world because it's Jesus, that could be quite

jarring to hear. And I wonder whether when it is

jarring and whether you go, oh, that doesn't sound right.

I can't be fully committed to church.

Church is just a building with people in it.

Like, I don't know whether we've grasped what the church actually

is, you know, like, because we can start to think things like,

you know, when I say that as a leader in the church, you know,

things that you hear people, I don't know, I know you guys

don't say this, but things that you hear the the people in

churches and stuff say, they say, you know, this passage just

wants all my time and all my money.

He just wants me to like give up everything for, for the for the

church. And you just go, yeah, that's

what the Scripture says. This is kind of like, but not

for my sake, not for me, not because I'm saying that you need

to give up everything for the church and to serve the Lord,

but for the Lord. It's like that is exactly what

God is calling us to do to to give up everything to serve him.

And can I remind us that what he's doing on the on the planet

earth right now is the church is in and through the church is in

and through his body, we are representing God here.

This is the most important thing that we have going on in our

lives. God's thing, not our thing.

Can I say that? Like we can't love Jesus unless

we love his church. A lot of people out there just

going, I'm done with the church. The church has just messed me

up. They're all just a bunch of this

and that. I love Jesus though.

Do you? Because this is his bride.

You can't follow Jesus without being a part of his church.

I'm just following Jesus on my own.

I'm just doing my own thing. I've just got my own

relationship with God. I've got my own faith.

Do you? Because if you're not a part of

his body, then where are you and what are you doing?

I hope I'm not coming across like, you know, too strong here,

but isn't Is that true? You can't come to God without

coming to Jesus. You can't come to the Lord

unless you come through Christ Jesus.

So when we talk about the church as his, as his bride, as as him,

himself, his body, well, can you, can you serve God without

coming to the church, without being a part of what he's doing?

I don't know that you can, not effectively.

I think that you could be saved. I think that you could be saved,

but I don't know that you're going to be very effective in

doing the thing that He's called us to do.

You might just be doing your own thing over here and just missing

the call that God has on your life, because the call that God

has on our life is in the church.

It is in the body. It's not off over there

somewhere doing your own thing. We are called to be servants of

the Lord and we serve in the church.

And so, you know, I think This is why Paul pleaded in this

letter in the into the to the Roman church to sacrifice

themselves. You know, I wonder whether he

was reminding them something that he'd already taught them or

whether he was teaching them something new.

I think maybe he'd already like they knew this and he was

reminding them of this. You know there's, there's

something worse and just not knowing something important.

Do you know what it is? Apathy.

Knowing something and just doing nothing with it.

Like apathy is like lack of interest.

It's like being unenthused, not concerned with.

I think I'm losing my voice. Apathy is worse than not

knowing. Well, I mean, it might both lead

to the same place, but it's just like if I know that that God's

called me to be a living sacrifice and to give up

everything to follow him, but I'm just like, meh, that's

worse. That means I'm going to stand

before the Lord one day and give an account of my life and he's

just going to go, but you knew this.

I don't want to stand before the Lord knowing that I I should

have given myself completely to him and I didn't just through

apathy. I wonder what's going through

our mind when we talk about these things, whether we're just

going, oh, well, you know, we talked about, you know, our

flesh and how, how we respond to the word of God and these sorts

of things. I wonder, I wonder what's going

on in here when we when we think about having to give up

everything, lay down everything to serve the Lord, whether it's

just like ice, we're doing OK. That might be apathy.

We don't want to be an apathetic church.

Can I say that the the church, especially in Australia, 1,

especially in Australia. I'm in Australia.

So you see it apathetic very just like, you know, what did I

say? It's like not really that

interested, not really that concerned like that, man.

It's funny because it's a meme, but you know what it means.

It's like, man, some of you probably don't know.

And I know that, you know, I don't say this to be heavy

because I know that many of us are sacrificing a lot already to

be here, to serve, to be a part of the body.

I'm not saying that none of us are doing anything, but I'm

reminding us that God's always calling us for more.

Like there's always more that God wants me to give up and lay

down. It's interesting because God

wants me to be fruitful and to multiply.

God wants to add to those who have something.

So if I have have something, God wants to add to it.

And the only problem that I can see with that is that if God

gives me more now I'm going to have to give more away.

Like I'm going to have to be more sacrificial with the more

that God's given me. Do you see how this works?

So we want more and more out of God.

We want Him to grow us and to bless us, but that just means

that He's giving me more to be accountable to.

With that, I would have to give more, that I'd have to lay down

more of myself. It's just like I've got a third

child in the house now. God's blessed me.

You know what that means for us? Sacrifice, more sacrifice.

It means that I'm going to have to lay down more now because

I've got another responsibility here that needs to be raised and

brought up to know the Lord. Why would anyone choose to serve

the Lord? Why would anyone choose the

narrow gate? Why would anyone choose the way

that he's harder? Because it's the only way.

It's the only way that leads to life.

Because God himself is the prize.

Because God is a greater rich, you know He's the greatest

riches that ever existed him to know him and to walk with him is

a greater richer than my words aren't working here.

But it's it's of greater value for me to know the Lord than to

have all the possessions on the earth.

Do you believe that This is why choosing the narrow gate and

choosing the hard Rd. is is is so fulfilling because you get

him. Isn't that amazing?

And his grace, he says, my grace is sufficient for you.

That means that when you choose to give up everything and serve

the Lord and follow him, not only do you get him, you get his

grace to be able to walk this thing through.

And you can do this and you can do it well because your value is

in him and not in yourself and not in your own staff.

So we're just going to look a little.

I'm going to try and get through the end of it.

My voice is dying, but we're just going to look at Jesus and

some of the sacrifices that Jesus made in his life and I'll

bring this to a close. What did Jesus sacrifice for you

and I everything like everything, like Jesus didn't

hold anything back for you and I not a thing.

You know, we we hear people leaving churches and and saying

things like they asked too much of me.

Jesus asked for everything. Jesus gave everything.

So here's a few of the things that Jesus sacrificed.

Jesus sacrificed money. You know, Jesus was a Carpenter,

you know, got some Carpenter friends.

They make some pretty good money tradies.

I am joking, but but, but Jesus gave up, you know, a life of,

of, of, of working and earning. You know, Jesus wasn't rich in,

in, in physical wealth, was he? When, when, when they said, when

Peter came and said that, you know, we need to pay this temple

tax. What did he say?

He didn't just reach into his pocket and just go, oh, I got

wads of cash here. He'd take some of this.

He sent him fishing and he pulled a, a gold coin out of the

fish's mouth. That says to me that Jesus

wasn't loaded, right? Why would he make him go and do

that if he could just reach into his bag and just grab some

money? There might be other reasons,

but Jesus wasn't chasing physical riches.

Jesus had to walk from place to place.

Jesus said that he has nowhere to lay his own head.

Jesus gave up, you know, having somewhere to live, somewhere to

call home, just to go to do the thing that he ultimately called

us as the church to do. Go.

Therefore, Jesus was just doing that.

Jesus gave up comfort. The comfort that you and I have

in our day-to-day lives, we're pretty comfortable.

Jesus gave up that. Jesus was sleeping in boats.

Jesus was sleeping in the wilderness.

He was sleeping in gardens. He gave up comfort.

I'm sure that he didn't have an air conditioner or a heater

going and all of that. I know that He had a nice coat,

didn't he? He did.

That's what the Bible teaches. I didn't think he had 10 coats.

I didn't think he had 10 nice coats.

I don't think that he was just, you know, I can go into my

wardrobe and I've got like 5 or 6 coats.

Jesus didn't have that. You know, I think about the

amount of stuff that I've got and the amount of stuff that we

just accumulate stuff. Have you ever walked into the

shed or something and seen something there and just go, oh,

forgot I even had that. Jesus didn't do that.

Jesus didn't like walk into his room and just go, oh, forgot I

even had that thing. Jesus knew what he had.

Do you see him? Like, what's my point in here?

Are we being, are we living sacrificial lives in our

possessions? Are we giving up the opportunity

just to store up a whole bunch of stuff and try and close the

door? How much stuff do we have?

How much stuff do we need? Not a lot, according to Jesus's

example. Is that true?

I think I've got too much stuff. Jesus sacrificed his time,

didn't he? Constantly, constantly

interrupted. Going here to help someone.

Runs into someone else that needs help.

Always interrupted, pulled aside by women.

Help me here. OK.

Yeah. And always willing.

Just living a life of being interrupted constantly.

Didn't seem to bother him too much.

He was on mission. Jesus gave up sleep.

I'm just. I'm trying to say things that

you and I struggle to give up sleep.

We don't like to give up our sleep.

We don't like to sacrifice our sleep.

Jesus couldn't even get a nap. He goes to have a sleep in a

boat and they wake him up, right?

Jesus, we're going to die here. What are you doing constantly?

Just like can't even catch a break.

And you know, that can be the same for me.

It's like I want to be available to you guys when you need me.

You know, you could call me in the middle of the night.

Hopefully I would I'm, you know, I'm exposing myself here.

My phone's in the other room. But I trust that if I needed to

hear, God would make it make me hear right.

My wife would probably hear and tell me to go get it.

But if you, but if you if I was asleep, right, My point is, if I

was asleep and one of you guys came to me and said, help, help

me, I'll get up for that. I would.

Would you get up for me like if I called you in the middle of

the night, would you answer your phone or would you just go, oh,

Dave's calling and go back to sleep?

Would you do that for each other?

I'm, I'm questioning us here for your brothers and sisters.

Would if your brother or your sister rang you in the middle of

the night because they needed help, would you just go, oh,

I'll just call them in the morning?

Think about that. Would we be like Christ with our

sleep? Mark 132.

I won't read the passage. I'll just give you the the

headlines here. It says that Jesus was working

late. It says that Jesus was

ministering and the whole town came to him.

And this was after the sun had gone down.

Do you think that if the whole town came to Jesus, he might be

working for a few hours? I think he was working well into

the night. And then on that same night, it

says that Jesus rose early in the morning before the sun was

up to go and seek the Lord, sacrificing his sleep, right?

He didn't sleep in because he'd had a big night in ministry.

He got up because he knew that seeking the Lord was more

important than his own sleep. Think about that glass.

Some of us, you know, and I don't even know how I can say

that that's I started saying, I'm going to have to finish the

thought Now. Some of us can't get to the

meetings on time because we had a late night the night before.

That was not Jesus's example. Please hear the word.

Don't hear what I'm saying. Like it's just like, be

accountable to the Lord with your sleep.

You know, when I was young we would go out partying all night,

even if I had to work in the morning and I still went, right?

I might call in sick from time to time, but generally I would

go because I needed the money, right?

So I'd sacrificed my sleep to have fun and then to get the

money that I needed. So I was willing to sacrifice

for my own needs. Am I willing to sacrifice for

the needs of the brothers and sisters and for Christ?

Because we have to be here like you Take the Sunday meeting, for

example. Someone has to put that chair

out that we're sitting on. Someone has to set this stuff up

so that you guys can hear what I'm saying.

Someone has to do all these things.

If we're not coming in just because we're tired, are we

living a sacrificial life for one another?

I mean, wisdom says go to bed earlier.

But you know, I'm not always wise, but I know that being

here, I have to be here, so I sacrifice.

I hope you guys are catching what I'm saying here.

And Jesus, you know, ultimately I thought about this this week,

Jesus sacrificing his life. He said that I only do what the

Father says and I only says what I only say what he says to do.

You know, I got up on on Saturday with that in my on my

heart and I was like, man, I'm going to try and just do what

God I'm going to. I'm going to try and be careful

with my words today and only speak what the Lord would say.

And I'm, I'm only going to do like what I know that the Lord

would do. She's laughing because she's,

she was with me on Saturday. Do you know how hard that is?

Well, Jesus did that right. Wow, he's amazing.

Thank you, Lord, Thank you that you walked this thing out that I

would seem impossible for me to do.

Thank you, Lord. Oh my gosh.

And so, you know, we, we read in the Scripture that that this

lifestyle that Jesus lived was training Jesus to go through the

ultimate sacrifice, like a life that Jesus lived day-to-day,

sacrificing day after day after day after day, led him,

empowered him, strengthened him, brought him into a maturity to

be able to make the ultimate sacrifice for you and I.

We find this in Hebrews 5 verse 7.

Hebrews 5:7

It says of Jesus. It says, who in the days of his

flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with

Bohemian criers and tears to him, who was able to save him

from death, and was heard because of his godly fear.

Though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things

which he suffered. And having been made perfect,

having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation

to all of those who obey him. Oh my gosh, the Father heard

Jesus, it says, because he of his godly fear, because Jesus

lived a life, he feared the Lord and God heard him because of the

life that he lived. It says that Jesus learned

obedience through suffering, the life of self sacrifice.

It LED Jesus to give up everything.

The last thing that Jesus had was his own life and he laid it

down. And it says that, you know, in

the laying down of everything and his own life, perfection now

perfection in laying down everything, it's like, how do I

become perfect? Lord, lay it all down.

You know this wise man that comes to Jesus, this rich man,

he says, what must I do for eternal salvation or what?

What? What does the law say?

This thing, this thing that you have done, all of that.

OK, now sell everything you have and from come follow me.

Lay everything down then and come and follow me.

You know I'll read this, I'll read this again.

Verse 9 it says, and having been perfected, he became the author

of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

That is a stern word, that Jesus has become the author and the of

our of our salvation to those who obey him.

Don't miss that, believers. Don't miss that.

Followers of Jesus to those who obey him, that is.

That should shake us up a little.

I know it shakes me up a little. Do we even want to obey him?

Do we even want to lay it all down to serve him?

And so I'm asking us here, like, what is the Lord saying to you?

What are the things that that God is asking you to sacrifice

to him? What is he asking you to give

up? You know, I was thinking about

people today, believers that that a martyr that that come to

that place where Jesus was where they had to lay down their

physical lives, you know, renounce Christ.

I will not put to death, you know, this.

There's a time coming where the if you're going to stand for

Jesus, stand for Christ. That's your life now.

And so I think about that. I was thinking about that this

morning and I was just like, gosh, it's almost, I don't want

to say easier, but I can see God's mercy and grace in that,

allowing A believer to come to this place where it's like me or

your life. Can you see the mercy of God to

allow that to happen, to give a person, to give a believer the

opportunity to lay down their life for the king?

An opportunity because you would look at that in the natural and

just go. How could God allow his

believers to be beheaded and killed?

But if you understand what Jesus has called His church to be and

who He's called you and I are to be, you would understand that

God is giving people the ultimate opportunity to lay down

their lives for Him. Perfection.

Do you see it? I think that some of us that,

you know, I don't know some of us, but some of the people that

will face that end might have lived a life that, that I'm

guilty of sometimes where I just haven't seemed to give it all to

God, where I haven't seemed to lay it all down, where I've sort

of lived sort of for God, but sort of for myself.

And then God's going to give this wonderful opportunity just

to, to, to go all in. I thought about, I looked

through my notes this morning and I got to the end here and I

was just, oh, I can't leave it there.

I was can't leave us there. Where's the hope in this?

And so I'm going to read for us here.

Don't worry, OK, I'm not going to leave this here.

Hebrews 12 verse 2 says this. It says, looking unto Jesus, the

Hebrews 12:2

author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was

set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, He

sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

You know, when you're working a job that you don't really love,

you prefer to be at home or whatever.

I'm sure all of us can relate to that, whether it's a job or just

doing something that you would prefer not to be doing.

And you're looking at the clock and you're just like, it's 4:30

and I'm knocking off at 5:00. And it's like now I'm looking

for the hope before me that I'm going to be, I'm knocking off.

I'm going to be able to get out of here.

And so you can enjoy the last half an hour because you know

that I'm getting out of here soon.

It's a stupid analogy. I know when it when you, when

you bring Christ into it, right? But Jesus, knowing the hope that

was before him, knowing that laying down everything meant

that people like you and I could be set free, made whole,

delivered eternal life with the King forever, He thought that

was worthwhile. And he thought that there is a

joy there that is worth me laying down everything for.

And so for you and I is the same joy that Jesus had set before

him. It's the joy that we have set

before us. We can overcome, we can endure,

we can lay it all down for Christ and and for his Church

and for his bride and service of God and each other.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love one another.

Service, sacrifice. Thank you, Lord, for the hope

that's set before us. Amen.

Thank you for joining us for today's message.

For more information about The Way Church, please visit

[email protected] dot AU.

Have a blessed day.