Hard to Hear - Pastor Chris Kouba

Grab your Bibles, open them up to Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Let me add my word of greeting to David's earlier.

My name is Chris Cuba.

I have the privilege of being the lead pastor here at United City.

I want to give a special word of greeting to all of the men at the Ramsey Unit and the women at the Plain State Correctional Facility.

We are very grateful to be able to bring this message to you today.

And before we get going as well, I just want to say I love what God is doing in our young adult ministry.

It is absolutely phenomenal the way that God continues to move each and every week.

I just want to see more and more of it as we just see God pour out really his blessings in all areas of our church.

But just really, really excited to be able to see three young adults getting baptized today.

You guys, I'm just telling you, you're starting off your relationship right.

I want to know where you were.

I saw you earlier.

Right there.

Starting off your relationship right on a foundation that is exactly what it needs to be.

And man, I'm just pumped for you.

I can't wait to see what God's going to do.

I've had the chance the last couple of weeks to uh share the gospel.

Uh last three weeks, I've had the opportunity to share the gospel with somebody.

Uh, and I use the three circles method.

Uh, we we've done this in our life groups before.

We've taught this as a way of sharing the gospel.

My opinion is the uh most effective way to share the gospel is the way that you will do it.

All right?

And so it is one of many different ways to do that, but I've had the opportunity to share the gospel through that.

And in both times that I did it recently, and really every single time that I've ever done this, I always ask this question that I want to be a driving question for you today.

The question is this on a scale of one to ten, ten being absolute certain, and one being not sure at all, if you were to die today and you were to stand before God and he was to ask you the question, why should I let you in?

What would you say?

Most of the time, whenever I ask that question to somebody, I generally get, for the most part, a different version of the same answer.

The answer is something to this effect.

Well, I'm not perfect, but I'm a good person.

I'm better than so-and-so.

I'm not like they are.

And yeah, I've got things I need to work on, but for the most part, I am good.

And our response was to the two folks this past couple of weeks, it was the exact same that I would mention to you today, if maybe that is your response as you hear the question posed to you.

And the question would be this: how do you know if you're good enough?

You see, let's be honest, we all have a tendency to grade up when we're grading our own paper, right?

We all have a tendency to want to look a little more favorably on our situation than maybe we would on somebody else's.

In fact, I read a study that said one out of every two people think they're the best person that they know, right?

I mean, 81% of people say that generally mankind is inherently good, and 75% of people would say that they are inherently good.

So, how do you know if you're good enough?

What is the standard?

We started a series a couple of weeks ago in Romans.

We're gonna be in Romans 2 today.

We started this series though a couple of weeks ago.

We're gonna be walking through multiple series through the book of Romans, and we learn in Romans chapter 1, 16 and 17, it is the greatest verses you could ever have.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

I say that a lot because there's a lot of really good ones in the Bible, but this one is amazing because it talks about how the righteousness of God, the rightness of God, can be given to us not by anything that we do, but by something that we receive.

It's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But the reason why Romans 1, 16 and 17 is such good news is because of all of the bad news that comes and follows it.

Last week we began to talk about some of the lies that we tend to believe, and we talked about how we need to reject the lies and instead embrace the truth, but the truth's gonna be hard to hear.

Last week we even talked about the lie is I don't need God.

Shaking your fist at God.

The ugly truth is this I will answer to God.

You may have heard me talk last week about the fact that there are bad people out there and there are bad things going on in our culture, and there are bad things that we must identify and call it what it is, because we spoke about the image of the beach ball.

What happens is we suppress the truth.

We push that beach ball under the water all the while the water, the beach ball is trying to fight to get on top of the water.

Why?

Because you're calling something what it is when it's really not that.

You're suppressing the truth.

And you may have heard me last week and be like, man, I'm so grateful that we go to a church that preaches the Bible.

I'm so grateful that we've got a pastor who's willing to deal with difficult things and he's willing to address hard topics.

I'm so glad that we told the bad people why they're bad.

And if that was you, know that today the message is for you, okay?

Because it's for the spiritual people, it's for the religious people.

Today we're gonna talk not about the bad people out there, we're gonna talk about the bad people in here.

Romans chapter 2 begins to talk to us about some lies that we have a tendency to believe.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

The lie this morning that I want to present to you is this I can earn it.

I can earn it.

And the ugly truth is this you never add up.

You never add up.

I want to give you a little spoiler alert.

Today's gonna be one of those messages, particularly if you are church or at least like the appearance of being church, that's probably gonna sting a little bit.

It's one of those messages that your tendency is when you start to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit coming on, you're gonna immediately try to push it away.

You're gonna begin to think about why this message is good for somebody else instead of thinking about why this message was given for you.

And I want to encourage you, don't do that.

Let it hurt.

Let it sting.

Let conviction live.

Here's why.

You will never fully appreciate the good news of the gospel, the good news of Romans 1, 16 and 17, until you know how much you need it.

And so today we're going to talk about why you need it.

Let's begin reading in Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

It says, Therefore, you have no excuse, O man.

Every one of you who judges.

For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things.

Do you suppose, O man, yet you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, now knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

This morning, what I want to do is give you four diagnostic things, if you will, four things for you to write down, evidences, if you will, of you believing the lie.

Don't assume that this isn't for you.

Instead, ask yourself this hard question.

This is the first evidence mentioned here of believing the lie, and it's this you value appearance over action.

You value appearance over action.

The context here is judgment.

He's sitting here saying that if you are somebody who looks there and you look at what we talked about in Romans chapter 1, the shameful lust, the sinful desires, the debased mind, and you look at that and you're like, yeah, you guys are bad.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

You guys do need to get it put together.

Please hear me.

If that is the approach that you take, it says here that you are bringing upon God's judgment upon your self-righteousness.

It's saying here that whenever we judge others, we're actually judging ourselves.

We're heaping this judgment upon ourselves.

And let's be honest, judgment is so prevalent today.

Like in everything in life, we are told whether your opinion actually matters or not, we are told that your opinion needs to be heard.

Have you ever been on a phone call and you're talking to somebody and they say, Would you like to wait?

And at the end of this call, you can give a survey on how well I did in this particular deal, right?

And we're told immediate judgment based upon how well they served us.

When you go to a restaurant, you are encouraged to leave a judgment online as to how that particular restaurant did, whether your food was hot or whether your food was cold.

In every way, Facebook, when you post something online, you are given the option of a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

Literally, there is instant feedback to the most trivial things that are out there.

In fact, we as a church think about this and we look into this because we know the algorithms are such that your judgment, based upon what you rate the church, has a profound effect on where we land when people look up churches, which is just a short little plug.

If you would go online today and if you would actually leave a positive review of your experience here, if in fact you do love the church, five stars are awesome, no less than four, it would be great, okay?

The problem comes when everybody's a judge spiritually, just as much as everybody's a judge about restaurants.

To where you look and you look and see other people, and you're like, yeah, they're doing stuff wrong, and yeah, they're doing stuff wrong, and yeah, they're doing stuff.

Oh, I didn't know that.

I didn't, somebody tells you I didn't even know what they were doing, so now I'm gonna tell everybody else about what they're doing.

And here's the thing you value appearances over action.

Because the assumption is this as long as I'm not like those bad people, then that must mean that I'm good.

He says here that very mentality is what makes you bad.

You see, when you look in condemnation at people that don't get it, it means you don't get it.

That's what he's trying to say.

The idea that he's presenting here is this idea of being a hypocrite.

The word hypocrite actually goes and draws us back to ancient Greek times whenever they would have uh plays that they would put on.

And the way that the plays would work is that you would have a solo actor.

And the solo actor would play all the different roles in a play.

And so what he would do is he would grab one of those face masks on a stick, and he would literally put the face mask in front of them, and they would they would act out whatever character was represented by the face mask.

And then when the scene needed to shift, or when the scene was over, they would put that face mask down, they would grab a different face mask, they would put that up, same person behind the face mask, totally different actions, though.

They would literally act based upon what they needed to in the moment.

What the idea is, is this what he's saying here in Romans chapter 2 is that if you over here are interested most in your appearances over your action, you're a hypocrite.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

So if you're at church on Sunday, your hands are raised and you're worshiping the Lord, yet when you're out with your friends, pour me another drink, I'm all in, you adapt to the circumstance that you find yourself in, you're basically grabbing a different face mask.

If you find yourself in a situation where I talk to someone, I'm kind to them, then I go around over here and I gossip about the very same person.

I've just grabbed whatever face mask is appropriate for the setting that I find myself in.

If I look up and I find myself wearing my church clothes, and then I got my going out clothes, which we hope aren't the same clothes, then basically you find yourself this.

Literally, you dress apart.

What he's telling us is this is that this right here is heaping judgment on yourself.

Verse 4 is an incredibly kind verse, but it's also a verse that can be misused.

Because a lot of times when we live as hypocrites, grabbing whatever face mask is needed for the circumstance that we find ourselves and we get away with it for a period of time, we assume the lack of God's immediate judgment must mean that God actually approves of what I'm doing.

And in verse 4, what does it say?

Do not presume upon the goodness and the kindness of the Lord.

Do you not know that his kindness was meant to lead you to repentance?

You see, God rightly and justly can zap you out of the sky for all that you are doing.

The fact that he has not done that yet is his mercy and his grace to beg you not to keep doing what you're doing, but to beg you to turn around.

Do something different.

Please hear me.

His judgment is delayed, but it doesn't mean it's not coming.

Look at verse 5.

Look at what it says.

He says there, but because of your hard and impotent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

Have you ever been to a water park before?

Uh, you know that at a water park they've got something called the tipping bucket.

They may call it different things.

You guys can put it up there.

Uh, but this tipping bucket is something where basically you have this big, massive bucket and water is constantly being poured on it.

There's slides and stuff at the bottom.

And what happens?

This bucket gets so full that eventually it begins to pour out and just douses everybody that's underneath it, right?

You know the image that I'm talking about.

When you are standing here looking at the bad people over there and telling them how bad that they are, feeling really good about yourself, all that's happening is the tipping buckets getting full.

All that's happening is God's just judgment is being prepared to eventually be tipped over and poured out.

Listen to Pastor Tony Evans and how he what he says about this.

He says, the Jews, you see, have made the mistake that we often do.

They mistook God's patience for his absence.

They assume that if God had not judged them yet, he would not judge them at all.

But Paul says that God's kindness is intended to lead to repentance.

He waits to pour out his wrath, not because his wrath is a myth, but because he knows that once it begins, there is no reprieve.

Those who do not repent are storing up wrath for themselves.

This should encourage us when people seem to get away with evil.

Their account is enlarging, and the bill will come due in eternity.

We should never envy the wicked because all they are accumulating is a greater degree of divine judgment.

We don't like to talk about judgment.

But the last thing we should ever do is deny that it is real.

Let's keep reading.

Skip down to verse 12 with me.

It says, For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law.

And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

The second evidence that you believe the lie that I can earn it is you value information over transformation.

You value information over transformation.

The Jewish people had three specific things they were really, really prideful about and really, really excited about that they kind of used to bank on their rightness before God.

The first one was their lineage.

Basically, this was the idea that they were born Jewish.

They were born into the right family, they were born with the right parents, they were born with the right grandparents, they were born with the right tribe.

And so the idea was because they were born into the right place, that meant they were good.

If you were to modernize this and put this in our context, this would be like saying, Well, because I'm Catholic, I'm good.

Because I'm Methodist, because I'm Lutheran, because I'm Baptist, because I'm whatever denomination you want to choose, because I was born into that, then I'm okay.

I'm gonna be fine.

Or maybe you would say, Well, my dad is a deacon, so I'm good.

Okay, my mom was like she played the piano and taught Sunday school for years.

Like I'm good.

And the assumption is because you have the right heritage, because you have the right lineage, then you're good.

The other thing that they prided themselves on wasn't just their lineage, but their liturgy.

Literally, this was all the festivals and this was all the sacrifices, and this was all the things that they did along the way.

These were the religious ceremonies that they participated in, and so in their minds, because they went through all the various feasts and went through all the various sacrifices, they were good.

Again, modernize that in our situation.

Because you were baptized at the right time, at the right church, in the right way, you're good.

Because you went through a class and you stood up in front of the church and you were confirmed, or whatever you want to do, you're good.

The assumption is if you do the right actions, liturgy, you're good.

Folks, we make a huge deal about baptism here at United City because we believe the Bible makes a big deal about baptism, all right?

And so I know though that some people have more faith in their baptism or in some sort of class they took as a teenager than they do in Jesus.

And at the end of the day, you're not good.

Those things will not save you.

It doesn't mean those things aren't are are bad, but these things will not save you.

The Jews thought the same thing.

Well, we're fine.

I mean, we've done all the stuff, we've checked all the boxes, we're fine.

In verses 12 through 15, the other thing that the Jews prided themselves on was the liturgy.

They prided themselves on their lineage, but they also prided themselves on the law.

You see, they got the commandments, they got all the rules.

So in their minds, they thought, okay, well, since we were the ones who were given the rules, then that must mean that we are good, all the while not realizing the fact that because you have the rules makes you more accountable, not less.

Because you know, that means you have to do it.

It doesn't mean you don't.

Yet too often, what do we do?

We think just simply because we have Bible knowledge, that's more important than transformation.

Listen to what Ray Pritchard, who's a pastor and author, says.

He says, God doesn't want big talkers, he wants big doers.

Anybody can say, look at me, I keep the law.

What God wants is people who actually live by his divine commandments.

That's where the Jews fell short.

They didn't understand that it is not the possession of the law, but the practice of the law that matters with God.

That's not good news for the Jews or for the 20th century moralist.

We're in big trouble if we think God is impressed because we go to church, pay our taxes, dress nicely, live in a big house, and stay out of trouble.

We may think we're better than others, but God judges us more strictly because we know so much more than the sinners of this world.

Church person, religious person.

Ask yourself the hard question.

Do you know more Bible?

Or do you do more Bible?

I've seen people who have literally been in in-depth Bible studies for 15 years and have no disciple to speak of.

That is not the point.

The goal is not that we would all be able to ace a quiz about Bible knowledge.

The goal is that people look at us and they can read the Bible by looking at what we do.

They see the way that we live, they see the way that we act.

Please hear me.

I'm not anti-Bible.

I am massively pro-Bible.

I have two graduate degrees in Bible.

Like I am well studied and well-versed on this.

I literally have devoted my life to teaching other people how to read and study the Bible.

I also, on a weekly basis, get the privilege and the opportunity of learning and studying and wanting you to know your Bible.

But please hear me.

That is not the goal that you hear more sermons about the Bible.

The goal instead is that you actually live what you've already heard.

Otherwise, you are more knowledgeable in your disobedience.

That's all you are.

You see, some of you think that you're getting away with it.

Some of you think that God's impressed by your answers in your life group.

And I would simply tell you this.

You have along the way exchanged information as the goal, and all along God wants transformation.

He wants you to be different.

Let's keep reading.

Look at what it says in the next verse of verse 17.

It says, But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law, and if you are sure that you yourself are a guy.

To the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truths.

Pretty good little resume.

Verse 21, you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?

While you preach against stealing, do you steal?

You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

You who boast in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law.

Here's the third evidence I would give to you of believing the lie that I can earn it.

Number three, you value preaching over practice.

You value preaching over practice.

Christians love this one because it's very easy for us to identify in the sins of others.

You know, sometimes I want to be honest with you, this 11 o'clock service, I feel like I am preaching in a library, right?

You guys are just eerily quiet, no one says anything except some people on staff, which I appreciate you folks on staff saying stuff, but uh the goal was that this would be a participatory exercise and that I'm preaching better if you respond back, okay?

But I just want to warn you though, because it's very easy for you to maybe listen to me preach something and maybe say a particular point or something like that, and here's your immediate thought, man.

I hope my kids are listening right now.

Like, I really hope my my daughter hears this.

She needs, she needs this.

Or maybe you you you hear me say something, and and and it's it's okay to do this, by the way.

You can say amen or respond in some way, but you're saying amen really loudly, not necessarily because you want to encourage that, hey, that's good, keep doing that.

You say amen really loudly mainly because you want to make sure your husband heard what I just said?

Amen.

I don't know if y'all do this.

We do this in our family, we've got family group text, but has anybody ever sent the link to a message that it's very obvious only one person needs to hear, but they send it to the whole group?

Because they don't want to call them out, but they just want to make sure, hey, this is a really good message, and usually isn't to it, you know?

I want you just to realize there's all these different situations where it's easier to use God's word as a binocular, and I think what he's saying here is that we need to be using God's word as a mirror.

You know the difference, right?

I've got some binoculars up here.

This is some pretty high-powered binoculars.

These things are pretty amazing.

Whenever I look through these binoculars, like I can see, like, crystal, I can see some people waving at me all right over here.

Good deal.

I mean, I can see like it's pretty clear.

When I have these binoculars pulled up to my eyes, you know what I see?

I can see incredible clarity out there.

I can't see anything in here.

All I'm doing is looking out, I'm not looking in at all.

I think a lot of times what happens is we begin to use God's word and we're like, yep, oh man, can you believe they're doing that?

Can you believe it?

And so we're using these the scripture as though it is some sort of like grenade that we're just kind of launching, and I'm looking through and I'm seeing all the bad things you do, I'm seeing all the bad ways you respond, I'm seeing all the bad ways that you act, when all along what he's saying is that so you're telling me you're gonna call out all these things in other people, yet you do them too?

Like, have you not looked at your own self?

Have y'all seen the video clip of the bear in the woods?

Sees his image in the mirror.

Take a look at this.

You're going to the wrong church.

Now, some of you, the problem is that you grew up in church and all you were told is hell, fire, and brimstone, all, and we want to make sure we believe that we preach the whole counsel of God.

And again, I want you to understand Romans 1, 16 and 17 is good news, but it's only good news because it's really bad.

So the the gift that we can give you is to allow God's word to be a mirror, which means at times your feet should hurt when you walk out because your toes got stomped on.

I'm not doing that with pride.

Because here's the thing, it's gone through me all week, and God's wrecked me all week as I'm looking and sitting.

I can't tell you how many times I've stopped in the middle of my tracks of studying and just had a time of confession to the Lord because this is hard.

I want you to know when you read God's word, what I have discovered is this is so often when I open up his words, I come there thinking I'm gonna begin to ask him for things.

And as I read God's word, I begin to feel bad that I'm even in his presence.

And what happens is it's not that I walk away feeling bad.

Instead, I allow the kindness and the mercy and the grace of God to give me my identity of the day as opposed to my performance to him.

And I allow God's word to speak.

Please hear me.

Do not neglect the discipline of the Lord, for the discipline of the Lord is a sign, not of God's disapproval, it's instead a sign of God's love.

He loves you enough to get on to you.

He loves you enough to bring conviction.

He loves you enough to say, hey, this is a check.

You need to do something different with this.

Look, let's keep reading in verse 24.

For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

For circumcision is indeed of some value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes their uncircumcision.

So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision, but break the law.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is one, nor is circumcision outward and physical.

But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter.

His praise is not from man but from but from God.

Final evidence of believing the lie is this: you value externals over internals.

You value externals over internals.

I know that you thought, man, I'm so glad he got there.

I was hoping he'd give an in-depth study on circumcision.

This is great.

I'm not going to.

If you have questions, Tyler Gillilan, T.

Gillilin, a United City.church, send him an email, he'll be grateful to respond to any of your questions that you have about this.

Circumcision essentially meant this.

Externally, you looked the part.

Like you addressed the part.

You had the law, you had the right lineage, you had all of these things, and so externally it appeared like you were good.

The problem is, what the Bible repeatedly speaks towards, is that while externals matter, that is not what Jesus came to change, is just your external behavior.

He came to change your heart.

I read a study that talked about religious people versus non-religious people, and it basically looked and compared the religious and the non-religious people, and the religious people said that they were better morally, they were better in their giving, they were better in their civic duties, they were better in their kindness compared to non-religious people.

They just assumed I'm better off.

Yeah, what the the the the the study actually discovered was that there was no measurable difference between those who are religious and those who are non-religious.

They both lost their temper the same amount.

They both told little white lies the same amount.

The only thing that they could find between those who claim to be religious and those who claim to be non-religious is those who are religious ate with their extended family more often than those who claim to be non-religious.

That's it.

All the other things that you would think would be noticeably different weren't.

What does this tell us?

It doesn't work.

If you've tried to find your rightness with God based upon your performance, it doesn't work.

If you've tried to find your identity and your standing before God based upon how well you go to all of the things that you're supposed to go to, how well you do the things you're supposed to do and don't do the things you're not supposed to do, it doesn't work.

Stop fooling yourself to believe a lie, but you can earn it.

Question that I asked at the beginning is a question I pose to you now.

If you stood before God and He was to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven?

Ten being with absolute certainty and one being not sure at all, what would you say?

If your answer is anything like this, well, I'm I'm I'm pretty good.

I work hard, I go to church, I give, and I serve.

It's not enough.

You don't add up.

The only answer is Jesus.

He did it for me.

I know I'm not good enough.

I'm a mess.

Instead, I'm going with him.

He's the one who died for me.

Please hear me.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

No one, not even the most religious person that you can think of will get to heaven apart from Jesus.

Including you.

Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes?

Last few weeks, we've had a lot of people that have been shuffling around a whole lot.

Some folks trying to get early to lunch.

Please don't do that today.

Would you please just give me a few more moments?

Because I believe there's some religious people that are in the room, church people in the room, who every external box has been checked along the way, but the reality is you don't know Jesus.

And it would be a horrible thing to miss eternity by 18 inches.

18 inches is the distance between your head and your heart.

Jesus didn't come to make you smarter.

Jesus came to change your heart so that you would see that he is the smartest.

If you've never given your life to Jesus, I want to invite you to do that today.

I'm not asking you to convert to a church, convert to a denomination, convert to a religion or a series of practices.

None of that stuff matters.

Only thing that matters is Jesus.

If you've never given your life to him, I want to invite you to do that today.

In just a moment, what we do here is an invitation.

There's nothing saving about coming forward, nothing at all.

However, what we have discovered is that it's a perfect opportunity for us to engage in a conversation with you, to pray with, and for you to have questions maybe that you have answered, and for you to be able to know for sure where you stand before you leave here today with Jesus.

It's the only question that matters.

Today you want to receive Jesus.

I want to invite you to come forward.

We have folks on the side, we have folks in front.

I want to just ask that you would respond today by coming forward.

Maybe grab somebody next to you and let them come with you.

Some of you need to come and join United City Church.

I got an email this week from a family that's been coming to our church, gone through Gro Track, and said, We're coming, we're joining the church.

Praise God for that, and so many others who continue to do that.

If that's your story today, would you lead the way today?

By your coming, it's gonna be an encouragement that God's moving.

Others need to be baptized like these four that we saw today.

What an incredible picture of the gospel.

The fact that Jesus died on the cross and he rose from the dead.

If that's you today, come forward.

Maybe some just need prayer.

You want to pray with?

We want to pray for you.

We want to pray that you would experience the joy of your salvation.

Maybe you're somebody who've been saved by grace, but you go back to works.

You come and let us pray with and for you.

Maybe you've got a prayer need, something heavy on your heart.

We want to always allow this to be an opportunity to be prayed over and prayed with.

Father, we come before you and we thank you for these moments that we have together, Father, for the fact that you are moving in our midst in our church.

God, I thank you that you allowed people to respond first service as well.

And God, now as we move into this time and this next service, God, we ask that you would pour out your blessing on this place.

It's in the name of Jesus that I pray.

Amen.

Would you stand up, please?

No one moving or leaving unless you're coming forward.

God really is our everlasting God.

He's so faithful in times of trial, in times of triumph.

He is here for you, he's here for me.

It's an amazing truth that we can cling to today, that God is with us.

You do not navigate this season of your life, no matter what you may be going through alone.

The Bible tells us that God is never too far away for us to reach out to him.

In fact, it tells us that we need to consistently reach out to him, knowing that he is our ever-present help in time of need.

He is fearfully and wonderfully made you and I, and we have the opportunity today to respond to his blessings, his grace, and his love for us in a unique and meaningful way.

So today, if you heard that message about God being our everlasting God and you would like to make Jesus the everlasting God of your life by placing your faith and trust in him, you can text the word you see next to the number 55498.

There is nothing that we would love to do as a staff more than to hear your story, hear about how Jesus is moving in your life, even help you navigate this season, your next step, maybe whatever God may be leading you to do in your future, whether that be baptism or joining the church, maybe jumping into our growth track process.

I just want to let you know we have been where you are.

And it is so, so important that you allow us the opportunity to link arms with you on your faith journey, coming alongside of you right where God has you to disciple you, equip you, and encourage you in your faith.

We're so, so thankful for how God is moving in your life.

We're so thankful that uh He has given you a purpose.

We're so thankful that uh that purpose is being made known more and more in your life.

If there's anything that we can do for you, we want you to reach out to us.

Again, you can text UC Next to 55498.

We're so thankful to bring you this service.

I pray that you have an awesome week.

As we look ahead to this next week, I want you to cling to the truth that God is our everlasting God in times of trial and times of triumph.

And as we look ahead to this next week, I just want to pray a blessing over you and your family this morning.

Lord Jesus, we're so thankful for you.

We're so thankful for who you've called us to be.

God, we're so thankful that you have met us exactly where we are at our greatest moment of need.

God, we're so thankful for the grace that you have extended to us even right now on this Sunday.

God, thank you for the word that Pastor Chris just gave us.

Thank you for your holy Bible.

God, I pray that your word would be written on our hearts and would be so close to our tongues that we speak it throughout our week.

God, whatever we may come in contact with, whatever we may be going through this week, I pray that you would meet us exactly where we are with grace and mercy.

Would we glorify you in all that we say and all that we do?

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

United City Church, I'm thankful for you.

We will see you next Sunday.

God bless.