Everything Is Meaningless - A Meaningful Conclusion

So today is the final message in our sermon series entitled Everything is Meaningless.

I think that that is a tremendous title.

To grow a church right.

Come to our church.

We're studying everything is meaningless.

But this stuff is in the Bible.

Each week we have discovered different elements of life in this world that people look to for meaning but really they don't hold much value or meaning at all.

And at times it feels like that our efforts, as good as they are, they feel like we're chasing after the wind.

If anybody ever experienced that, it's like you can't quite get your hands around it.

But this book concludes not with something that's meaningless but something very meaningful.

So this is this sermon is called a meaningful conclusion.

Let's turn to Ecclesiastes, chapter 12.

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

We're going to start in verse nine.

Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.

The preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth.

The words of the wise are like goats and like nails.

Firmly fixed are the collected sayings.

They are given by one shepherd, my son.

Beware of anything beyond these.

Of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

The end of the matter.

All has been heard.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, for God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Let's pray, father.

We thank you for your matchless words.

Lord, it's so amazing to me every time that I open your book or every time I heard here at red, or sung or talked about.

It brings life, it brings light, it changes us, and so, lord, would you do the work that only you can do today and take these words that you've given to me, cause them to be filled with life and power for change and transformation, and we give you glory for them in Jesus name, amen.

So it's interesting.

I did not know they were going to show that video today.

It was a great surprise.

But I'm starting out talking a little bit about what the video was about, but from the other side of things, from the pastor side.

So every preacher that I know of kind of has a love hate relationship with sermon prep.

So preparing a sermon the week of your sermon, it's like it's a serious thing.

It takes days and hours to pull it together and there's all kinds of things that you're thinking about in preparation for giving a sermon.

So here are a list of some of the questions that run through my mind as I'm preparing my messages.

Number one what does the passage mean?

That's important, right.

We don't want to just say something that is totally out of line of what the passage actually means.

What did it mean to the original hearers?

How were the principles applicable to our day and time?

What should I say?

How should I say it?

How do I engage the people I'm speaking to so that they will listen to what I have to say?

When should I try I'm focusing on try to try to be funny.

Try to be funny, thank you.

Or when should I be serious?

Am I going to make people too mad or too happy by what I'm going to say?

What illustrations or stories should I tell?

How do I say everything that needs to be said in the time allotted to me?

That's a challenge.

How do I make sure that I'm not misunderstood or misquoted?

I can't really do anything about that.

How can I make sure that the gospel is being spoken purposefully and powerfully?

The gospel is what brings about life and change in people's lives.

Is God truly being glorified by what is being said, but there's one question that haunts me more than any other question, and that is is anybody's life actually going to change as a result of this sermon today?

That's the one that I think about the most.

The Lord kind of gave me an answer to that or a solution, and that is and you may not even realize this, but every week that any of us elders of your church pastors here at TCC prepare our message.

Our first prayer, our first thought is not what we can do, what we can say to you, but our first thought is God, would you change us?

The word of God that we preach to you has first been implemented in our own heart and in our own soul to bring about the change that we hope and desire that will happen in your lives.

And so I can stand before you today with all in all honesty and transparency and openness and say I'm not where I need to be, but the change that needs to occur in my life from this passage of scripture is beginning to occur, and I thank God for that.

And my prayer is that that same change will transfer to you, that you will see God work in you and through you as a result of today's message.

So Solomon, as he concludes this book of sermons, he kind of thinks about or talks about the intent of the preacher, right?

So let me give you a few points.

Number one the preacher has first understood wisdom in his own life.

It says.

Besides being wise, how many of you realize, solomon was a wise man, in fact one of the wisest men who ever lived on the face of the earth.

Obviously, we know there's one that outdid him.

His name is Jesus.

Right, but Solomon was a wise man, he had a lot of wisdom and he shared a lot of his wisdom here also in the book of Proverbs, in a song of Solomon, and then in the book of Psalms.

Solomon actually wrote some of the Psalms as well.

So we see this wisdom literature that came from Solomon.

He understood wisdom in his own life and the question I have for you is are we content with having wisdom for ourselves?

It would have been one thing for Solomon to have all this wisdom and have a war room where he draws all his plans up and has all of these projects and things and schemes, but he never shared it with anybody else because it was his wisdom.

That would have been horrible, right, the wisdom that we are given by God is meant to be shared with other people.

We are called to be wisdom preachers.

The preacher thoughtfully shared with others the truths he had learned and you can see that here in the text.

The preacher also taught that people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many Proverbs with great care.

The preacher sought to find words of delight and, uprightly, he wrote words of truth.

Now, reading through the book of Ecclesiastes, you may be confused about this, because it sounds in some places like the ramblings of an elderly gentleman, if I'm being honest, if we're being real.

But what he's saying here is that all of these sayings, all of these wisdom thoughts, have been placed in an orderly manner, on purpose, intentionally.

The way that they were written, with the emphasis that they were written with all of that was done on purpose by the preacher.

It's important to know also that speaking the truth in love is a theme that we see used throughout all of the Scriptures.

You see that the preacher sought to find words of delight, but he also, uprightly, he wrote words of truth, speaking the truth in love.

Love and truth are friends, not enemies of each other.

So remember that as we go into our next series, but not only that.

The preacher also acknowledged that the only words that have power for change are the ones given by the good shepherd.

It would have been one thing if he stopped his commending to the people the reading of this book at the point that I wrote down some great sayings that are filled with all kinds of wisdom and insight and understanding and knowledge.

That would have been something that may have been interesting to us.

But what does he say?

The preacher acknowledged that the only words that have power for change are the ones from the good shepherd, and the words that he wrote, the words of the wise, are like goats.

What's a goat?

Anybody know what a goat is.

It's like a stick with a point on it, and the purpose of the stick with a point is to keep the flock together, to keep them away from danger, to keep them in a place of safety.

It may hurt a little bit to be prodded or to be poked by a goat, but it's always for good, for the right intent, for the best intent.

And it says that these sayings were nailed, firmly, fixed, by one shepherd, capital S shepherd.

Ultimately, the preacher warns us also not to stray far away from wisdom that is rooted in the Word of God.

This book, the book of Ecclesiastes, is not just the words of Solomon, it is the Word of God.

And how easy it is for us to stray away from what God says is true and right.

He says my son, beware of anything beyond these, of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

I'm here to tell you, guys, we live in an era where everybody wants to get their information from other people that have compiled it for them In every aspect of life.

We want other people to.

Now we want the computer to do it for us and to compile it and to tell us what is what and what is true and what is wrong and what is all of these different things, my friends, let's please keep the Bible at the very core and center of our study.

I'm glad to have books.

I read books a lot, I listen to podcasts, I listen to sermons from other preachers, I listen to music that is uplifting and encouraging.

But I must find my wisdom, the greatest part of my wisdom, must come from the Word of God.

Let's read it, let's meditate on it, let's focus on it, let's rely on it.

It's trustworthy.

And then, finally, the preacher gives a meaningful conclusion.

Let's read this the end of the matter.

All has been heard fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

So what is the first implorative, what is the first thing that Solomon says must be done, as he's viewed all of life?

Remember, this is a man who has experienced the highs and lows, but he's experienced a lot of highs the wealthiest man in history, the man who did more and was understood more by people who would come from other nations just to observe the types of things that Solomon had done.

This was a man who was respected and revered and honored in great ways, and yet, when it comes down to it all it's not about his accolades.

In fact, all of that is meaningless.

It's all meaningless, but here's what means something Fear God, fear God.

What does it mean to fear God?

Does fearing God look like this or does it look like this?

It can look like both, depending on where your relationship is with Christ.

If you don't know Christ, it may look like this, but once we know Christ, the fear of God is ah, it's worship, it's honor, it's glory, everything belongs to him.

It's an attitude of reverence and awe that God's people show to him because they love him and they wholly respect his power and his greatness.

This is the very foundation of true religion.

Fear God, my friends.

We live in an age where the fear of God has left many churches and many people's lives, and we know that the fear of God is absent from this world because this world continues to denigrate and to go into further and further depravity levels of depravity.

The fear of God, solomon says in a later writing in Proverbs, chapter one, verse seven the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

It's the beginning of knowledge, it's the basis, it's the foundation.

In Psalms 111, 10, it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

All those who practice it have a good understanding.

His praise endures forever.

The fear of the Lord is healthy and good and we should embrace it and not run from it.

God isn't looking for us to run from him.

He's looking for us to run to him and to understand that he is greater than we are.

We need to hear that there is something in this universe that is greater than we are and he is God and he is worthy for us to fear him and honor him for what he's, for who he is, just for who he is, even if he didn't do one more thing, just for who he is.

The fear of the Lord, though, by itself is not enough.

It requires obedient living.

The result of fear, the result of true fear of the Lord, is that we will live obedient lives.

Otherwise, fear that we express is only a sham.

It's fake, it's not real.

It's pretend.

To honor God with our lips but our hearts be far from him is the way that a lot of Christians, people that call themselves Christians, live their lives.

Let it not be said of us.

We have a chance, even today, to turn our hearts toward God, to fear him and to obey his commands.

Keep his commandments.

The person who truly fears God will pay attention to his word and obey it.

Now, when we think about that, we think about I'm not under the law, I don't have to do those things.

How many of you know that the 10 commandments are still a good idea?

There would be nothing wrong with following and obeying the 10 commandments, and in fact, that's what God intends for us to do.

Man took the 10 commandments and made 613 rules or regulations or laws, because people do that.

They take God's stuff that he says is enough, and they say it's not enough.

So they add to it and they pile on.

But there's 10 commandments, and then, even further than that, a further delineation of that we know is found, and we'll talk about that in just a minute.

With Jesus, actually, let's look there real quick.

Matthew, chapter 22, verses 34 through 40.

Matthew 22:34–40

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, jesus here, they gathered together and one of them, a lawyer, asked a question to test him.

Now we don't know for sure what kind of testing this was, but it probably wasn't like I'm checking you out to see if I wanna follow you or not.

There's probably more tests, like let's see if we can make this man say something wrong or make a misstep so that we can arrest him.

He says, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the great and first commandment.

And a second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

That's simple Two commandments.

Can we do that?

Can we be honest, because I want to say on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

Everything depends on loving God and loving people.

Loving God and loving people, those are the commandments that we are called by God to fulfill.

That's where our obedience is to be found.

In those two places Jesus made it extremely clear for his followers to keep his commandments is to love God and love people.

That's what it is.

This is the final counsel of Solomon.

As he gives this great wisdom and, combined with what we just read about Jesus and what Jesus said, we understand that this is true.

Now we're gonna get into the fact that we can't obey the commandments of God without some help.

Is that right?

Because many people better than you and I have attempted and failed, right?

The next thing is that God will judge the entire world.

Solomon then begins to get very serious here at the end of the book.

He's had some fun through the book.

He's given some wisdom that was kind of tongue in cheek and some that was very somber, and now he hits the most serious of all God will judge the entire world, for God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Now we can look at that and thank God.

Thank God, we're on this side of the cross, we're on this side of Calvary, and that is true.

That is true.

But I want you to also read out of Revelation, chapter 20, verses 11 through 15.

Revelation 20:11–15

Because we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Each one of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.

From his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened.

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

Is your name in the book of life?

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it.

Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

And then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire, and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

This is New Testament, this is Revelation, this is something that we have, that's coming still.

The day of the Lord, the day of judgment, the day when we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Now we could say here today, if we're all honest, we probably could think of three people right now that needed to be on the judgment list.

We can laugh or cry, it's true.

Maybe not three names of people, but three categories of people Abusers, criminals, whatever you wanna list.

But how many of you know?

If we're to be honest about this, we have to say we're the ones who deserve the judgment.

All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

All of us are deserving of the wrath of God.

All of us, if we were to get what we deserve, should be separated from God forever and sent to hell.

That is not just something preachers say.

That is the absolute truth.

It's found throughout scripture, from the front to the back.

These things are absolutely true.

Thank God that God, in His grace and mercy and love, sent His only Son to live the life that none of us could ever live, because none of us have a desire even to follow after God before he saves us and changes our hearts.

We're born dead in sin and trespasses, but Jesus came.

He lived a perfect life.

He took all of the suffering that he took in His body and I don't believe, when he prayed in the garden, that he was praying about the stripes on His back or the crown of thorns on His head or the nails in His hands and His feet.

When he cried out my God, my God, is there any other way that we could do this?

I think he was talking about when the sin of the world came upon His shoulders and the wrath of God was poured out upon Him so that, for the first time and the last time in all of eternity, god the Father and God the Son were no longer together.

They were separate from each other.

That's what Jesus endured for us, so that we, by grace, through faith, can put our trust and hope in a living God who did what he said he was going to do, so that we could be changed and we could be made followers of Jesus Christ who are not righteous by our own deeds, but who do deeds that are in line with righteousness, because we have been saved and we have been changed.

This is the gospel.

This is the good news.

We need to remind ourselves of this all the time, all the time.

So this great gift of salvation that we've been given the technical term for that is justification.

It's the grace of God that's been given to us.

It's grace that we don't deserve.

We've been made just as if we never sinned, just as if we never made a mistake, just as if we were made right with God.

And we have been made right with God as believers.

We have been made right with God as believers.

We have been made right with God as believers.

But a lot of people think that that's the end of our story.

I'm just holding on until Jesus returns.

My friends, if we think that accepting Jesus Christ is all that there is to a relationship with God, we are sadly mistaken.

There is so much more to this life than just that particular experience, as important as it is.

According to Scripture, followers of Jesus will continually be increasing in their desire to obey God and to do the things that he wants us to do.

That should be something that continually grows in us.

I want to live a life that's pleasing to God.

Now, it doesn't grow in this kind of a trajectory.

It grows like this, but we should ever be increasing in our love for God and our desire to obey his commandments.

And secondly, we should be ever decreasing in our desire to disobey God's commandments and to do the things that this world tells us is what's best for us.

Those desires, those wants should be decreasing, continuously decreasing.

That process is called sanctification.

It's the work of the Holy Spirit, bringing to our attention something that needs to change and him saying let's go together.

We can do this together.

Put your hope and faith and trust in a risen Savior and I will give you the grace which is the ability to do what you can't do in your own strength.

Let's change, not just for change's sake, but let's change to the glory of God.

To the glory of God.

I'm going to make a statement that is really the central part of this whole message.

If you don't get anything else, please pay attention to this.

Jesus didn't obey all of his Father's commandments so that we wouldn't have to Hear me.

He didn't obey all of Father's commandments so that we wouldn't have to, but so he could empower us by the Holy Spirit to do what we can't do in our own strength.

We are called to walk like Jesus walked.

Let me ask you this if there were only one question asked of us at the judgment seat of Christ, if God looked at us and said what did you do with the gift of love?

What would we answer?

You understand that the gift of love has to be received before it can be given.

The gift of love is something that the Father expressed toward us in sending His Son.

But once we have received that gift of love, it has no choice.

It can't be contained within our souls, within our physical bodies, even within our spirit.

The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

It is looking for ways to get out, to be expressed heavenward and towards people here on this planet.

That is our purpose Now.

Don't forsake love for agreement, because some people believe that if I agree with somebody else or if I applaud them, even though they're not agreeing with Scripture, if I try to build them up or help them, it has to be within God's.

What God says is right, correct.

That's not true love.

It's like we have grandchildren now and our granddaughter I'm not going to name.

We've got two granddaughters, so I'm not going to name them, but one of them was over at the house recently.

I can't wait until the day where they come up to me and say Pops, I'd really appreciate that you don't use our examples in your sermons.

So maybe I'll just say this could have happened in somebody's house recently.

So maybe a grandchild is playing and everything's going great.

And our house is the snack house, so they all know where the snack cabinet is and they all head for the snacks.

But sometimes it's like they get real quiet.

And whenever they get quiet, what do you know?

Something's going wrong.

There's the potential for really something bad to happen, and so one recently one of our grandchildren went over.

My wife is reading her books and doing all of the sweet she's such a sweet lady, she really is and tea parties and she's buying dolls for the baby oh, don't tell her, for her birthday she's getting a baby doll, anyway spilling beans everywhere.

But all of a sudden her voice changed no danger.

And I look over and our granddaughter, our sweet granddaughter, has her hand on the knobs of our gas stove and she's trying to turn the knobs to be a gas stove.

Now it would be cruel for us to not say no danger, wouldn't it?

Because that's true, it's what she needs.

It's not always what I want for her to have, but it's what she needs.

And it's the same way with the love that we show toward others.

It was just as loving for my wife to read her books or to give her snacks or to do a dance party or whatever it is that she was going to do, but it's just as much love when she said don't no danger, right.

So we have to redefine and we're going to be talking about this in the weeks to come what we think love is, because love and truth, again, are friends, not enemies.

So true believers will produce fruit that proves that there are new creatures in Christ.

Are we living in that life?

What does our tree look like?

It should be that over time, each year that we have a better, there's a better product.

There's our fruit shinier, or it's healthier, or it's growing or whatever the case might be, and it's feeding more, it's helping others, it's used for blessing the nations.

Unfortunately, pretenders will act the part, but nothing will have truly changed.

Matthew 7, 21 through 23,.

Jesus says Not everyone who says to me, lord, lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven.

On that day, many will say to me Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

I never knew you.

Now, when I'm witnessing to people, I usually ask a couple of questions.

One question I ask is do you know Jesus?

And most people will say, oh, I've been to church or I've heard about the Bible, or.

But the next question is does he know you?

To be known by God, to be chosen by God to be my name, to be written in a book of life, is different than just knowing about somebody.

Right, everyone will exist eternally, either with God or apart from God.

A person's eternal destiny is determined by whether they believe and put their trust in Christ alone to save them.

There is, no, there is nothing else outside of that that will save you.

But if you are saved, you will begin to live like you are a Christian.

In other words, you will begin, in a progressive manner, to obey the commandments of God.

It takes choice too.

That's sanctification.

You have to choose, but God gives you the power.

Let me talk to you about hell, and this isn't going to be preached in a lot of churches today, but it's the truth and it's found in the Bible.

I've given you references for the things that I'm going to say about hell.

Hell was a place originally designed for Satan and his demons.

It's a place of punishment.

Hell will also punish the sins of the people who have been to heaven.

It's a place of punishment for the sins of those who reject Christ.

By the way, that is the only sin that will send somebody to hell is rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

So if the devil has lied to you throughout your life and tried to convince you that you've committed an unpardonable sin, or whatever the case is, if you have put your faith, hope and trust in a living God and Savior, jesus Christ, my friends, that is what gains us access and entrance into the kingdom of God, and it's also the refusal to do that that, unfortunately, will cause people to go to hell.

Hell is a place of conscious torment.

There will be fire that is unquenchable.

There will be weeping that will never cease.

There will be the gnashing of teeth.

There will be worms that don't die.

Hell is not the party that many rock musicians have attempted to make it.

Hell is a place of utter despair, forever.

The worst part about hell is not any of these things, though.

It's the fact that God is not there.

Can you imagine for one moment in time if God would were to remove himself from this planet just for a second?

What do you think the effects would be?

Talk about global warming or climate change, or whatever you want to call it.

This world would implode.

It would change in an instant, because God is the one who set things in place and who keeps things in order, and he's the one that will determine the expiration date of our current earth.

There will be a new heavens and a new earth, but man will not be able to decide that.

About how many cars he drives or planes he flies, god will decide it.

Hell is forever and irreversible.

Hell is forever.

Hell is forever and irreversible.

Now let's flip the coin and let's talk about the good stuff.

Heaven, on the other hand, is a place of no mores.

Heaven is a place where there's no more tears, there's no more pain, there's no more sorrow, there's no more separation from God.

Heaven is a wonderful place, but, you know, the best thing about heaven is not any of those things.

It's the presence of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ.

We will be with Him, we will look Him face to face and we will spend eternity thanking Him and praising Him for the sacrifice that he made so that we could enjoy His presence forever.

Now, for the sake of making a statement, I just want to say to the daughter's family that, as difficult as things are and I can't even imagine the hope that we have as believers in Jesus Christ is that there is a place where there is complete and total healing and rest and restoration, and we believe that Scott is.

That's where he's at today and he would want us to be saying that.

He would want people to know that.

Charlotte Stanton also, who passed away a couple of weeks ago You'll be celebrating her life tonight.

At six o'clock.

There's a receiving of friends from four to six and then at six there'll be a service tonight.

So if you can make it, we'd love to have you come out.

These are the things that we hold on to from a hope standpoint, because this isn't the end of the journey, it's not the end of the story and for those of us who are in Christ, these loved ones of ours.

We will see them again, not like they were.

Erase from your memory any kind of negativity that you could ever consider.

Think of them on their best day and then multiply it toward times a zillion and you may be getting close to what they're going to be like and what we're going to be like when we are with him.

The book of Ecclesiastes pleads for a savior to bear away our sins, to forgive us, to cleanse us from all of our selfish disobedience and to give us peace and purpose in an empty world.

Solomon was here, and he understood more clearly who Jesus is.

He would say to you put your trust in Jesus today.

I told you at the beginning of this message that the Lord uses these words to change us before we ever deliver them to you.

And this happened to me this very week yesterday actually, I went to get my haircut, and I go to one of the places where it's kind of like rolling the dice.

It's like whoever's available next, and so this is seriously what I do.

I'll pray before I go in.

Lord, I'd like to have a good haircut.

I can't pay for the one that ensures a good haircut, or I choose not to.

But also.

You know what he says to me usually.

Just pay attention, I might want to do something.

What?

In a haircut place?

Yeah, so I walked in yesterday and you always kind of scan the room to see who's busy cutting hair and the one person that's sitting down, and you realize you're the only one there.

So they're going to be cutting your hair.

And I'm going to get serious for a minute and be real with you.

The gentleman that was sitting there was very effeminate and it seemed obvious to me that he was struggling with homosexuality, and so I'm going to be real with you.

My first thought was don't eat a haircut today.

I thought about leaving, but then I looked down and I saw his name Hayden.

I wasn't Hayden.

I'm sorry, zaden.

Zaden, I'm going to ask you to pray for Zaden.

I remembered my mind went back three years ago when I sat in a chair, got my haircut at a different location and Zaden was the one that cut my hair that day and we had to talk about our families.

He talked to me about how difficult his relationship was with his dad growing up and how he and his mom were kind of at odds and there was a lot being expected of him as an adult child and he didn't know how to handle all of it.

And so all of a sudden, my attitude changed.

Just like that.

I said, lord, you're going to give me another chance to share, because I told him before I'm going to be praying for you.

And so I looked at Zaden and I said, zaden, I've been praying for you for a few years.

I'm so glad that you're going to cut my hair today.

And we had a conversation about family and about remodeling and about life.

And it's not that the end of the story is he.

I wish it was.

The end of the story was that he got saved yesterday as my hair was getting cut.

That would be a great way to end it.

I don't know the end of his story, but I'm trusting God that my piece of it that I almost missed out on because of my prejudice that my piece of it that God would use that see fit to use that to reach this young man who's desperately seeking for hope.

So all he wants is hope.

Let's pray Another in Jesus name.

I thank you for this message today.

I thank you, lord, for your word is faithful and true, and I pray now for those that are in this room or that are watching this online or listening in a podcast, lord, that have never accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, they've never put their trust in him.

I pray that this would be the day, this would be the day of salvation that they would choose, instead of being afraid of God in the wrong way, that they would choose to put their faith and hope and trust in him and to fear him from an awe and reverence and respect way.

Change their hearts and minds that they would be able to follow after Christ and obey the commandments of the Lord and know that when they stand before before you, god, that the end of the sentence will be enter into my rest.

Follow me.

Long to hear those words from you.

Well done, my good and faithful servant.

Enter into my rest.

So, if that's you now, I just encourage you to just call out to God.

Just you, between you and him.

You don't have to pray fancy, you don't have to have the exact right words.

Just talk to him, tell him that you need a savior, that you've tried everything on your own and you can't fix it, and ask him to come in and change your life.

Ask him to forgive you of your sins and to put you on the pathway that you need to be on.

And maybe there's another group here that, like me, you find yourself missing out on opportunities because you really just don't want to be bothered by somebody who's obviously dealing with something that you don't agree with.

Father, would you give us wisdom that wants to impart wisdom to others?

Would you give us your heart of love?

Would you help us to really understand the love that you've given us, so that we can give that love to others, not just in word, but indeed as well?

Lord God, Help us to speak the truth in love.

And, father, I just pray also that you would be that we would find ourselves in a place where, every day that we're continuing to pursue what you want us to pursue and that we're walking away from the things that you want us to walk away from in ever-increasing manner.

Let me give you glory for it In Jesus' name, amen.