1 Peter: Blessed Assurance (A Living Example: Submission)

Well, my name is Eric Leach, and I'm part of the teaching team here here at RLC, and it's so good to be with you this morning as we're gonna dive into God's word.

But for many of us, we're coming out of fall break.

How many of you had a staycation this year?

Show of hands, staycations, a few of you.

How many went on vacation?

A few more hands, and how many are going, I have no idea what you're talking about?

A few of those hands, but uh my family and I, we had an opportunity to get out of town for a little bit, and it was tremendous.

And if you're an adult and you have kids, oftentimes you need a vacation from your vacation, right?

You get back and you're like, I think I'm more exhausted than when I started.

But it was a good time to re-energize and connect with family.

Uh, and we had a great opportunity.

If you all remember the Mejias, they were part of our church family until they moved to Florida.

Uh, we surprised our boys and their family and reunited for a day and a half.

So it was a great time to see fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and be able to reconnect.

But I'm excited to share the word of God with you here this morning as we continue in the series uh in 1 Peter called Blessed Assurance.

And of course, I'm gonna have more technology because I think it timed out here.

Or once again, it helps if you turn things on.

It's amazing when that happens.

So Blessed Assurance, 1 Peter.

And in life, we have a few assurances, right?

Pastor Brandon, when he's here, he talks about the assurances that we do have.

And we have several assurances in life.

Taxes, it's gonna happen, right?

No matter what we do, taxes is gonna happen.

I see a cheer from somebody who's an accountant, and he's like, Yes, that keeps me employed.

I love taxes, and I keep going, I don't mind taxes.

We're to pay to Caesar what we owe Caesar, but man, can you reduce it just a little bit?

Several assurances, the world is ending.

Not tomorrow, not right now, but every single day that that goes by, we get closer to Jesus coming back.

And I have that conversation with my mom a lot.

She's like, Oh, I can't believe what's going on.

I'm like, trust me, mom, God has a plan, and we're just moving closer to it.

Several assurances that my favorite sports team is going to blow the big game.

I'm a Detroit Tiger fan, and as we boarded the plane to come back to Bowling Green, or Nashville, actually, I look down and the Tigers were winning two to one, game five of the ALDS getting ready to go to the championship series.

I literally turn it on to watch them give up a single, and the game gets tied.

We leave Orlando, fly to Bowling Green, get off the plane.

It's still tied, it's now in the 13th inning.

By the time we got to the baggage claim, still tied, get to the truck, Detroit lost.

They blew the big game.

That's my luck right now as a as a sports fan.

And another assurance that if you park illegally, fountain row towing will is gonna get you.

If you look at spotted in bowing green, that is an assurance, and here's a great example of that.

Oh, that's Pastor Brandon's truck.

There's another assurance that if I'm preaching, I'm going to poke fun at Pastor Brandon.

Pastor Brandon and I were having coffee at Spencer's.

We're outside because it's a nice day, and he goes, Oh no.

He gets up and he starts running.

He got hooked up.

Here's what's great about it, too, is the tow truck driver knew Brandon by his first name.

Not because he comes to church here, because it's happened before.

Even better, and then we'll dive into the word, was Pastor Brandon was like, I gotta go to an ATM because there's a drop fee.

The ATM was like, I'm not giving you money.

Not because he didn't have it, because he thought he was being hacked and somebody had stolen his card, so I had to bail him out.

It was great, and he knew instantaneously I was gonna hold it over his head.

So there's several assurances, and by the way, if you're parking downtown, don't park where it says toe-away zone.

All right, pay the fee.

But if you want to turn your Bibles to 1 Peter 2, 18 through 25.

And of course, as PB always says, if you have a digital Bible, great analog Bible, perfect.

If you don't have a Bible, we have free Bibles out in the lobby.

Just stop by, grab a Bible.

We also have free journals, and that's a great way to take notes just through daily life about what's going on as you study God's Word, create that journal, create that habit.

But we're talking about the blessed assurance, and in 18 through 25, we're actually talking about submission.

Submission is a difficult subject, especially for us here in America, because oftentimes submission is associated with weakness.

I talk to my staff all the time over the years in business, and I always tell them when you ask for help in something, you're not actually showing weakness, you're showing strength.

Because it means that, hey, I need help and I know my own wherewithal enough to know that I need to ask somebody for help.

Submission is kind of along the same things.

Oftentimes we don't want to submit to something because we consider that an authority over us.

We want to be our own person, we want to be our own individual, we want to have our own choices and all those things.

So submission can be a difficult subject to talk about.

But what we're talking about today is slavery and slaves submitting to their masters.

Now, it's important to understand in that time uh of the Roman Empire when this was written, that it's estimated one in three to one in five individuals were actually slaves.

That's about 12 million people in Asia Minor.

That's a significant number.

And as you look across your row, if there's five of you in a row, one of you would be a slave to some degree.

And so it was very, very prevalent.

You could end up being a slave through war.

If the Roman Empire conquered you, a lot of the men and families would be put into slavery.

The conquest, you could have been purchased.

It could have been a debt that you owed, or you could even have sold yourself into slavery.

A lot of men would do that.

If they weren't able to provide for their family, they would say, I will become your slave if you will take care of my family so that they can live.

It was also commonplace in that era that you could buy yourself out of slavery.

So it was an opportunity to exit that slavery, and there's a lot of different uh levels to it.

Second, and Peter is talking about in here when we dive into the text, he's actually talking directly to the church, the Christians who were enslaved at that time within the Roman Empire.

So let's dive into the word if you want to turn to it, verse 18.

We'll read it and then we'll start to break it down.

Slaves in reverent fear of God, submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.

But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it?

But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, no deceit was found in his mouth.

When they hurled their insult insults at him, he did not retaliate.

When he suffered, he made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who would who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in this body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed, for you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Let's pray and then break it down.

Dear Heavenly Father, we just come before you today as we open your word.

We ask that you just speak into our lives and open this text so that we can have understanding and dramatically change our lives and ultimately just serve you, Lord.

As we go about this week and everything that we have done, the hardships, the pain, the sorrow, the joys, the triumphs, we lay it all down at your feet because it all belongs to you.

We put our trust in you.

And as we study about submission, allow us to submit our hearts and our entire lives to you in your holy name.

Amen.

All right.

So why would Peter talk about submission?

Why would he talk about slavery and submitting?

And it's interesting because if you know anything about Peter, he was tended to be the polar opposite of submission.

Peter was an individual who would oftentimes just kind of fly off the handle a little bit.

You remember the time when he cut off the ear of the servant or the soldier who was trying to arrest Jesus.

He didn't think.

When he stepped out on the water from the boat to walk to Jesus, he didn't think, and then all of a sudden he got into it and he's like, uh-oh, I'm in trouble.

So here's somebody who tends to want to be his own individual and often thinks before he acts.

And now he's telling us to submit.

Well, part of that is kind of a change in life for Peter.

The slave, by the way, in this, uh the change in life in Peter, let me go back to that, was that he was in prison when he wrote this.

He went through a lot of great suffering and it kind of changed his mindset a little bit.

And part of it was he started to realize how much God can have influence over him.

So in Acts 12, he was in prison from Herald.

Not only was he in prison, but it was a double fortified prison.

So he had two guards on either side of him.

He had two gates that he had to go through.

And so he was submitted to that situation.

And it was a very difficult time for him.

And the church prayed for his release, and angels came and released him.

So here you have somebody who often thought before he acted, now spending time in prayer, and great things occurred from that.

But the word slave that Peter is talking about here in the Greek, and again, I can never pronounce the Greek.

Ok Equites, I don't know.

Um, which specifically refers to a household slave or domestic servant.

In the Roman Empire, a household slave's position could vary widely from skilled laborers like doctors and teachers to general domestic helpers.

Not exactly the definition that we think of as slaves, right?

So when Peter is addressing it, this is what he's talking about.

There are different levels of slavery that exist, but this is what the actual Greek reference was to.

And it's important to understand that he's directing it towards the church and to those Christians inside of it.

So again, this first part, submission.

Slaves in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.

But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and doing it?

But if you suffer for doing good doing good and you endure it, this is commendable for before God.

So what is Peter talking about there?

He's talking about those who are harsh and those who aren't.

When you do wrong, do you deserve it?

And when you're doing right, do you deserve that that treatment?

And so it's sometimes difficult to understand, but submit yourselves to your masters when they're who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh, that's not a fun position to be in at all.

Suffering happens throughout the scriptures.

We see it with Job as an example.

Job suffered immensely, yet he prayed for those who cursed him.

He prayed for those who cursed him, and what happened in the outcome?

Job went through that time of trial and tribulation and came out.

And those who cursed him that he prayed for, he ended up being blessed tremendously.

It's tough when you're sitting in the moment of suffering, and sometimes when you do the wrong, it's easy to go, man, I shouldn't have had that.

We see it with uh I see it with my boys all the time.

If they do wrong and I punish them, they might justify, well, I didn't deserve that.

But when they do good, if I punish them and I was in the wrong, then they're justified before.

And so it's a difficult, difficult position to be in.

Another example was when of suffering was when Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers.

So he's sold into slavery, goes into Egypt, and what happens?

He ultimately becomes second in command to Pharaoh.

So God takes a suffering situation and turns it for good.

And in that, Joseph is giving praise continuously to God.

And so it's a great example of how that is.

How we act, react, or don't act is a reflection of Christ in us.

So when you think of times of suffering and when you're going through hardships, how we act, react, or don't act is a reflection of Christ in us.

And this is a difficult challenge for me, is when you're in a difficult situation, is knowing that if you put your faith out there for people and you say, Hey, I'm a child of God, when you get in that difficult situation, everybody's gonna be looking to see how you act, react, or don't act.

Because I think don't acting is a complete reflection and a behavior just as much as the other two, is it not?

That you go, hey, I see that going on, but I'm just gonna kind of walk over here because I don't want to have to deal with that.

Or if you lose your temper, I've been known to lose my temper once or twice.

Uh my wife is smiling right now.

And how I react in that situation is a reflection of Christ.

If I show love and compassion, that's a reflection of Christ.

And that's what we try to do all the time.

But when you're in times of suffering, it's hard to act accordingly.

And that's trying to live through it.

And this is what Peter is talking about that when you have somebody who is kind and gentle, it's easy to give that back.

Well, what happens when somebody is harsh, rude, demeaning, putting you down?

How you react is a reflection of Christ.

Doesn't mean that you have to be roll over and let them just walk all over you.

No, but there's a right way and a wrong way to go through that.

So the first thing is that we will endure suffering.

The second thing is, what does it mean to today?

What does it mean to today?

This is where it gets a little bit more difficult and tricky for me, and we're going to reread it and then kind of dissect it.

But submission.

Slaves in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but those who are harsh.

For it is commendable if somebody bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.

But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it?

But if you suffer for doing good and endure it, this is commendable for poor God.

So it's real easy, I think, to go in today, president of America go, yeah, I can correlate that directly.

Man, I got a mean boss.

Does slavery currently exist in our world?

Well, yes, it does.

Certain spots around the world are very, very different.

North Korea, China, Africa.

When my wife and I uh lived in the Dominican Republic, it wasn't direct slavery, but it was, you know, essentially a form of slavery with the Haitians in the sugarcane plantations.

It was indentured servitude.

So oftentimes the plantation owners would go over into Haiti and say, Hey, I can get you into the Dominican Republic, but you got to commit to working in the sugarcane fields, and people would be like, Yeah, whatever it takes, I'll go over there.

They'd board the bus and start heading over, and when they get to the border, they collect all their papers and they would never give their papers back.

They have to go live in the sugarcane fields and harvest the fields, making about$3 a day.

Do you know who owned the houses?

The plantation.

Do you know who owned the food markets?

The plantation.

So they ended up in indentured servitude.

They had no papers, they weren't legal in the country, and they were kind of stuck in that spot.

Could they get out?

Yes.

Much like the biblical times and Peter's times, they could buy their way out, but it was almost impossible to do.

But for us here in America, submit to you the authority.

We go, man, I've got a mean boss.

I've got a mean manager, parents, elected officials, police, and parents again.

Because kids are going, oh, my parents.

My parents, my parents, my parents.

They rule over me.

I'm a slave to them.

And it's easy to identify a mean boss or things like that.

But how do we handle that?

Slaves to the master of our own doing.

So this is a little bit of a different twist on the sermon, and I think I'm probably talking to myself a little bit on this.

And when I say slave to our master of our own doing, oftentimes, right now I feel like in present America that we are slaves to our own lifestyles.

How many have one of these?

How many hours do we spend on it a day?

I encourage you, go to your settings when you're done, and there's a screen time app and go ahead and start that.

And then after a week, just see how much time you spend on your phone.

Am I a slave to my phone?

Does my is my phone my master?

Or for me, is it my job?

Is it my work?

I take a lot of great pride and fulfillment in what I do.

Uh, and many of you know that I now have a restaurant, and so uh it becomes my master.

I put my time, my energy, my focus into that.

When I'm home, I try and engage with my family.

But as I mentioned, I came back from vacation.

We pulled in our driveway at 1.30 in the morning yesterday.

I'm up at 5 30 in the morning so I can be at the restaurant at 7, come home at 10 o'clock at night.

I live for the grind of a job.

Am I setting that up as my master?

Every one of us has something different.

Some of us, it might be sports, some of us, it might be another thing.

But am I being a slave to the healthy things that God has intended, or am I being allowing something to be my master of my own doing?

So, how is it to my credit if you receive a beating for wrongdoing and during it?

How is it to my credit if I say, ah, I spent hours and hours and hours on my phone, but I didn't do what I was supposed to do?

Is that on me?

Absolutely.

Am I putting glory to God and being a slave to the positive things?

No.

But conversely, it talks about when you deserve a beating versus when you don't, when you're doing good and doing the right things.

When we consistently give into sin, why do we expect any good?

That's going back to the bad, but then slaves to the master of our own doing.

But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

So what if we develop the good habits and our master is our Bible and we study our word?

We wear our faith on our sleeve.

We're out in public wearing the real life shirt, and somebody calls you out on it.

Oh, look at you.

You're a Christian, you're one of those.

But that's actually commendable before God because we're serving the right master in those situations.

And so this was my real struggle is how do I correlate slavery into modern day?

And I think we often just put our own personal agenda and our own personal things and the things that make us feel good ahead of the things that we should be doing.

And how does that change and develop?

Now, as in my role of a restaurateur, and I have many, many employees who have many, many different lifestyles than I do.

And Sunshine Can Attest, I've had several employees come up to me and go, Man, you're the greatest boss ever.

That makes me feel good, right?

That's a natural thing to feel good about it.

But what I want them to ask is, why are you the way you are?

Am I perfect?

Far, far, far from it.

But I'm trying to wear it on the sleeve so that I can open up and have a conversation with them as to why I am the way that I am.

If you look at the mural and when you walk in, there's a couple of Bible verses up there.

I want those there so that they ask the questions.

While they continue to run in a lifestyle that is circular and they're just chasing and chasing and chasing and chasing, I'm waiting for the opportunity for them to go, okay, I no longer want to be a slave to what is controlling me.

I want to something better and something more and something greater than what I have.

And so to correlate it back, in today's meaning, why do we allow ourselves to be slaves to things that are unhealthy when we can be a slave to our Lord and Savior and in his word and develop those habits that allow us to become a witness for him?

And that's an absolute game changer in good things.

So we have the submission, we have today's meaning, meaning, and then we have Christ's example.

And Christ's example is extremely, extremely powerful.

To this you were called, but because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, and no deceit was in his mouth.

When they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate.

When he suffered, he made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin sins and live for righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed, for you were like sheep going astray.

But now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Let's go back here real quick.

So this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.

Christ suffered for us.

So while we sometimes suffer in life, Christ did the ultimate suffering, leaving us an example to follow.

He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth.

It's unbelievable that here was a perfect man living a perfect life, and the whole reason he did it was for us, for salvation.

We are all fall from far from perfect, but as we go through the suffering and the trial, we need to look towards Christ on that.

When they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate.

When he suffered, he made no threats.

How many in here when you're going through something, you're like, I'm gonna get back at them?

I do it all the time.

Even as simple as somebody cutting you off on the road, man, I'm gonna get back at them, right?

He didn't retaliate.

When somebody says bad about you, are you quick to return it?

Do you want to get even?

It's kind of human nature, but it goes against everything that Christ stood for.

He made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly, our Lord and Heavenly Father.

Masters don't always judge justly, they judge how they see fit, whereas our Heavenly Father judges justly.

He bore himself, or He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.

He took everything upon Himself.

Perfect, flawless, took everything upon Himself, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed, for you were like sheep going astray now that you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of our souls.

Incredibly powerful message on why Christ did this.

Who Jesus is, he committed no sin, no deceit was found in his mouth.

And in fact, in John 14, 6 through 11, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

Jesus is declaring who he is.

He is our Father, He is our Lord, and He is our Savior.

His example is what we strive for.

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate.

When he suffered, he made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed, for you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of our souls.

What Jesus did.

So we have the who Jesus is, he is the way, the truth, and the life.

Now we have what Jesus did.

He bore our sins for us.

And then the why.

Why did Jesus do that?

Or what what did Jesus what Jesus did?

He fulfilled the prophecy.

Isaiah 53 9.

He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Again, this is a direct reference from 1 Peter.

He is actually quoting backwards here.

He had done no violence, and no deceit was in his mouth.

Then as I Isaiah 53.5, a lot of us know that as by his stripes we are healed.

Striper, the greatest Christian rock band of all time.

Isaiah 53.5, but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

So 1 Peter is directly quoting the Old Testament on what Jesus did.

Then in the New Testament, it was realized what Jesus did.

Colossians 1 22.

But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through the death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from acquisition.

But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and accusation, and free from accusation.

So in first Peter, we talk about submitting ourselves to the master, to our master, through the hard times, through the good times.

And then you go through the valleys in the darkness.

As Pastor B.

Pastor Brandon always says, you're either coming out of a storm, you're in the middle of a storm, or you're about to head into the storm.

All of those require a position of what?

Humility and submission.

We have to be willing to give it up to Christ.

And it's hard for me to think about slavery in those terms of having no life, no choices, but to obey a master.

And to sit and live in submission.

But the whole 1 Peter, we're talking about blessed assurance.

That's a positive thing, right?

Out of submitting ourselves, and if we submit ourselves to Christ, we have the assurance that we're going to live an eternal life with Him.

And to be able to sit in His presence day in and day out.

When we are in the midst of suffering, if we praise, do you know what that does?

That sends a resounding message to everybody around you about who and where and what your priority is.

Is it an easy position to be in?

No.

Absolutely not.

And I guarantee you, everybody's going through something right now in this room that nobody knows about but God.

Some of us know the difficulty that we're others are going through.

Because we have brothers and sisters in Christ that we rely on and we walk through and we come alongside.

It could be sickness, it could be a loss of a job.

It can be a loss of a loved one.

That we are suffering greatly, but we have redemption in Christ.

And we also can come alongside brothers and sisters if we are submitting ourselves to our ultimate authority and come alongside them and love on them.

In the most difficult times, we have the blessed assurance that he is king, that he is Lord.

And so my challenge in a lot of this is where am I placing my life choices on?

Am I allowing this to be my master?

Am I allowing sports to be my master?

Am I allowing my job to be my master?

You stick in whatever belongs in your heart right now.

Because I guarantee you every one of us has something that we prioritize.

It's real easy for me to get up in the morning nice and early, get my cup of coffee, go sit in the sunroom, let the dogs out.

And I, first thing I do is pull this up.

I have the eight websites I go to, I have social media to go to, I have emails to check, and then my Bible sits on the kitchen table, untouched.

And I'm not preaching to you guys, I'm preaching to me.

My dad always said growing up, you can tell a man's heart by his wallet and where he spends his time.

And that's why I encourage you to set the screen time on your phone.

See how much time you're spending on it.

Look at your bank account and see what's your priority.

Because right now I think Amazon's my priority.

I think Facebook is my priority.

Is my fantasy football team, which is doing pretty well, is that my priority?

But that's the challenge.

When am I gonna stop making that my priority and making that my master and put my master and my heavenly father in the things that are important and eternal?

I don't get to take this with me.

But I get to take those who I help lead to Christ with me, because we get to reunite in heaven.

I get to take those people who I've invested in and have those relationships forever.

And that is one of the hardest things, too, is when you come alongside somebody that might not be a Christian, you try and walk through life and show them the way, and guess what happens?

They keep messing up time and time and time again.

And we've had this conversation in our household.

We have somebody that we befriended and they kept messing up and keep messing up and keep messing up and keep messing up, and it's like, you know what?

I'm done.

How many times did Christ say, I'm done with us, and leave us by the wayside?

It's tough.

It gets dirty, it gets ugly, you get disappointed, you get your feelings hurt, and when you get feelings involved, then you want to check out, right?

But Christ is there for us continuously.

Jesus didn't die on the cross for some, he died for all.

And how we go through our suffering and how we share our testimony, how we share our faith is what we should be doing day in and day out.

I encourage us all to become slaves to the master of our Lord and Savior, not to the things of this earth or this.

And for those who don't have a relationship with Jesus, I hope today's the day.

I hope that you say, you know what?

I'm tired of living for the things of this world and want to live for something more.

Inside your worship guide is a connect card.

There's a prayer of salvation on the back of that card.

And allow, I hope that today's the day that you say, you know what?

I'm gonna submit my life to Christ.

And know that I have eternal, blessed assurance that I'm gonna be with him forever.

That's an incredible, incredible spot.

Here in a moment, the band's gonna come up and lead us in a song of worship.

And as they do, if you want to come up to the altar and just lay everything down at his feet, feel free to do that.

We have a prayer team that'll be in the back.

That if you just have questions that you need answers to, they'll be there for you.

And quite honestly, most of the people in this room would be here for you as well.

Are we perfect?

No, we're all humans.

But we genuinely deeply want you to have a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this day.

We thank you so much for the opportunity to worship with you today.

Lord, right now here in this room, there are various degrees of suffering going on.

And Lord, I honestly lay those all at your feet.

That you know what they are.

You know the deep hurt that some people are going through, the disappointment, the abuse, all the different things.

We allow that to be lifted from them.

But also hear me, Lord, that in the moment that they will continue to praise you, continue to lift the words of worship to you.

That you will be the light that shines through them to influence the world all around.

There are those dealing with the losses of the loved ones.

We ask that you wrap your loving arms around them.

That we know that they're there celebrating with you.

It doesn't diminish the hurt and the loss that we have right now.

But Lord, while they suffer, allow them to be a light into the world and share the testimony of those that they've lost.

And Lord, for those who do not believe, we just ask that you open their hearts and open their minds.

Because there is nothing greater than knowing deep down that we have that complete blessed assurance that you are our Lord and Savior, that you died, you bore all our sins, that we can have a relationship with you and have permanent, eternal life with our Heavenly Father.

Lord, we just lay all these things at your feet in your holy name.

Amen.

Let's worship.