Paul’s Final Message | Ephesians 6:18b-24 | 03/29/26

All right. Well, welcome. We are back.

Uh again, if you're just joining us, my

name is Josh. I'm one of the elders and

teaching pastors here.

Have you ever had the thought, "Oh no,

what if I run out of something?

What if I run out?"

Do you guys remember what we all almost

ran out of a few years ago?

I don't even have to say it. You all

know what I'm talking about.

It was such a strange and bizarre

phenomena.

Anyway, I don't want to unpack it here,

but but it's we become acutely um

sensitive to aware of when we feel like

our ability to access something that we

deem important is compromised.

And this is something that people have

understood for a long time. I was

reading Sunzu's Art of War not that long

ago and he was talking about how when

you're engaging battle, like

understanding how you're going to pay

for stuff and how you're going to keep

supplies going to the front and how

you're going to keep sharpening weapons

and repairing broken armor and so forth,

like how that's such a costly and

difficult thing to sustain. And I was

thinking about how the whole history of

warfare, you know, you can sort of

follow the success of armies based on

who was able to logistically establish

supply chains in in war. It doesn't

matter. You could have the higher

ground, you can have a superior force,

you can have, you know, air dominance or

whatever, but if you can't keep bullets

in the weapons, if you can't maintain

supply lines, you will eventually die.

your armor, your army will eventually

fail.

And it's so interesting that

illustration because we're in the middle

of a discussion about spiritual warfare

with Paul in the book of Ephesians. And

he's going to today start talking about

prayer. And he's going to talk about

prayer like prayer is the supply line of

the Christian life. It is the only way

you're going to be able to keep

fighting. It's the only way you're going

to sustain the fight. It's the only way

you're going to reach the end and meet

victory there.

The main point today from our text is

this. A praying life is the way of

perseverance.

A praying life is the way of

perseverance. So, let's depend on God

together. Please open your Bibles to

Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

We're kind of sort of landing the plane

on this letter. This is the last text in

the letter. I am very very seriously

considering going back and hitting a

couple things one more time that I

didn't feel like I was able to

adequately develop as we've gone

through.

Last week, Paul began our descent, the

descent of the airplane.

He br he started the conclusion of this

letter by bringing up the subject of

spiritual warfare. And we for those who

weren't there, some of the key takeaways

were he warns us of a real enemy like a

real creature engaged in real tactics of

deception and disinformation who are

seeking to do real damage to the people

of God. And as a response to that fact,

we were taught to put on the whole armor

of God, to take up truth and

righteousness and faith and the gospel

of peace and to wear it like its armor.

wear it like it's our primary means of

defending ourselves. And we made the

case that a faithful Christian life,

doing those things that he tells us to

do, is a way of defending yourself

against the devil and his works.

I closed last week by pointing out that

prayer is one of the underlying

practices that undergurs our ability to

do all that stuff, the whole armor. But

then I had to finish the sermon. So

today we're going to pick up where we

left off with prayer as the final

exhortation that Paul gives to the

churches. And we're going to consider

how a life of prayer fits into spiritual

warfare, how it fits into New Testament

ministry as a church, and h how it fits

into our individual and corporate lives.

So let's now humble our minds and open

our hearts for the reading of God's

word. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 18.

Ephesians 6:18

Hear God's word.

praying at all times in the spirit with

all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all

perseverance, making supplication for

all the saints, and also for me, that

words may be given to me in opening my

mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of

the gospel for which I am an ambassador

in chains, that I may declare it boldly

as I ought to speak. So that you also

may know how I am and what I'm doing.

Titicus, the beloved brother and

faithful minister in the Lord, will tell

you everything. I have sent him to you

for this very purpose, that you may know

how we are, and that he may encourage

your hearts. Peace be to the brothers

and love with faith from God the Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with

all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with

love incorruptible.

This is the word of God. Help us to

internalize and embody this in your

name. Amen.

All right, we're going to look at four

things in the text today. And I'm going

to try to do this relatively quickly. I

know I've promised this several times in

the past month.

This time, I'm really going to do my

best. All right. Number one, we're going

to talk about the form of our praying

life, the form of it. Second, the

content of our praying life. Third, the

fuel of our praying life. And four, the

conclusion of this letter. So, let's

start with the form. The format. Look

down at verse 18. Verse 18, obviously we

find ourselves mid-sentence, praying at

all times in the spirit. But if we look

back, we find the beginning of the

sentence a couple verses earlier. In all

circumstances, it says, "In all

circumstances, take up the shield of

faith by which you can extinguish all

the flaming darts of the evil one. Take

the helmet of salvation, the sword of

the spirit, which is the word of God."

And then it says, "Praying at all times

in the spirit."

So, right out of the gate, we see that

prayer is how you carry these other

pieces of armor. You take up faith in

prayer. You cover your head in the hope

of your deliverance in prayer. You wield

the word of God while praying.

If you're going to fight in the spirit,

you have to do it with the spirit's

weapons.

Prayer is the underlying practice that

is tying all the other armor together.

It's the underlying habit that they all

have in common.

So the first thing I want to show you

here is that the praying life is

necessary for the waging of spiritual

war against the enemy. A praying life is

how you keep the armor on against the

devil on the evil day. Or to say that

differently, a praying life is the way

of persevering

in the face of wickedness, evil,

deception, and opposition.

Prayer is how we're going to make it to

the end.

A praying life is a Christian life.

Now, I know I know whenever prayer comes

up, many of you immediately think to

yourself, "Oh no, this is going to be

like a whip on my back and you're going

to beat me up and tear me down and make

me feel like a total failure for not

praying enough."

I'm going to go out on a limb here and

say that I think that is the opposite of

how Paul wants you to feel in response

to these words.

Paul is not looking at us going, "Try

harder, do better." Paul is looking at

us saying, "You guys are going to have

some hard times coming up up ahead.

Let me tell you how you're going to make

it through.

Let me help you be ready when the hard

days come.

Nobody here, this text is not trying to

guilt anyone.

This text is the apostle trying to help

us, trying to equip us, trying to

furnish us with the proper tools and

habits so that we will persevere

together in the Christian life.

So that being said, hear this from that

heart. Okay? Paul lays out the form, the

content, the fuel of a praying life and

considers how we might use and apply

these things. Paul starts with the form.

We should be praying in verse 18 at all

times in the spirit with all prayer and

with supplication. Let's take those one

at a time. First, praying at all times.

When you first look at that text, you

think to yourself, "Am I supposed to be

in prayer every single moment, every

single day for the rest of my life

without ever breaking attention on God?"

Is that what that's saying? I don't

think that's Paul's emphasis.

I don't think Paul expects us to take

this text and think to yourself, I can't

think about another thing ever for the

rest of my life.

The flow of thought in this letter is we

are in the middle of a discussion about

spiritual warfare. Paul wants you to be

ready and equipped and armored up

praying at all times. The emphasis here

is not on the duration or how much or

how often you pray. The emphasis is on

dependence.

It's on the way you think about why you

pray.

When you're getting ready to engage in

spiritual battle, you are not supposed

to do so feeling strong in yourself. You

are not supposed to do so thinking, "I'm

just going to grit this out and get it

done, and if I push through hard enough,

it's going to be okay.

You are supposed to think I'm weak. Oh

no, I need God's help.

I need God's help.

It's not the spiritually strong who are

going to withstand the evil day. It's

the weak ones who make themselves

dependent on the one who's strong.

The command to be praying at all times

is about living in the reality that

apart from Christ, we can do nothing.

Which means the person who embraces that

is probably going to pray a lot. I think

that's what Paul's getting at.

Without God's help, we will fail.

But amazingly, thankfully, God is not

only available to help. God wants to

help. He wants to strengthen us. He

wants to furnish us with what we need to

withstand the evil day. We know this

because of the gospel.

Sometimes we try to pray, but we don't

even know how. Sometimes we don't even

know what to ask for. You find yourself

in a situation that's so confusing, you

don't know how to pray. We're told in

Romans 8 that when that happens, the

Holy Spirit himself actually prays for

us.

God, my point is God wants to help. He

is proactively helping.

If it's been a while since you've prayed

and you're thinking to yourself, well,

if I pray, he's going to be like mad at

me or punish me or something. The

nothing could be further from the truth.

He literally wants to help us.

That's the first thing. A praying life

is a life of habitual dependence of

faith that God is good and he wants to

help.

Second, a praying life is a life of

praying in the spirit or under the Holy

Spirit's influence or with the spirit's

guidance or in a way that's consistent

with the word of God, which is the

spirit's sword.

So in the Christian faith, we confess

that God is one in three persons,

father, son, holy spirit. The father

sent the son to be crucified for our

sins and to rise on the third day. And

when Jesus the son ascended into heaven,

he sent God's Holy Spirit to fill his

people. And he's with us even now to

this day. That's at the heart of the

Christian confession. That's at the

heart of what it means to be a Christian

is to confess that God is one in three

persons.

How do you pray in the spirit?

I think for those of us who hope in God,

praying in the spirit happens more than

you think.

I think every time you pray with faith

in the gospel of Jesus, you are praying

in the spirit. Every time you pray

saying, "God, I've sinned. I'm guilty.

I'm without excuse. And yet I believe

that your son Jesus died for me, that he

suffered for me. And by his death, I'm

forgiven. And by his resurrection, I've

made been made acceptable and justified.

and by trusting in him that you've

adopted me as your very own son. And so

even though I don't belong here, even

though I don't deserve an answer, you

will give me one because you love me

because your son shed his blood for my

soul. When you pray like that, you're

praying in the spirit.

Every time you pray like that from a

place of honesty, you are praying in the

Holy Spirit. The spirit is the one who

gives us this faith.

This faith does not originate from our

flesh. This faith is not generated by

human will. It comes from above. It

comes from heaven. It comes from the

spirit of God.

This is the kind of thing I believe

praying in the spirit is like. It's not

the only thing praying in the spirit is,

but it's that kind of thing. It has that

kind of smell. It's prayer generated by

the spirit's present presence in your

life.

third. So, praying at all times in the

spirit. And then it says with all prayer

and supplication. And you might think,

as I did at the beginning of the week,

praying with all prayer. What does that

mean? That's kind of confusing.

Well,

for faithful Jews who would read the

Psalms, they know just by reading that

there's more ways to pray than just

supplication, than just asking for

things.

They know that they're taught to pray,

"God, would you give us this day our

daily bread?" But also, there's

fellowship with God. There's adoration

of God. There's worship of God. There's

praise of God. There's expressions of

frustration and confession of sin.

There's all kinds of ways to pray that

don't involve supplication at all. And I

think that's what prayer is in this

passage. I think Paul sees them as two

distinct things. There's adoration,

devotion, worship, confession, and then

there's supplication.

Supplication,

if you're not familiar with that word,

is I mean, the word literally means like

to beg for something. It means

expressing utter poverty and desiring

that God would come and meet your needs

with his provision and his supply.

Supplication is bringing our needs to

him. It's it's treating God as the

source of all the blessings of our life

which he is.

When you are fearful,

when you are anxious,

to who or what do you go?

To who or what do you turn when you're

feeling insecure or lonely or afraid?

If you turn to God,

if your normal response is to habitually

turn to the offer of author of life for

your needs, you will be able to

withstand the schemes of the devil.

If you are habitually and regular

turning to lower things,

to sex, to food, to shopping, to other

relationship, if you're if you're

constantly looking to escape those

feelings with things that numb it or

things that make you forget about it for

a while, you are leaving yourself open

and exposed to the enemy's attacks.

That's the kind of stuff he loves to get

into and start twisting with your mind

over.

Pay attention to where your heart and

your mind and your head goes when you're

feeling those ways.

It'll one expose to you some hard to

swallow truths about what you really

think joy and peace is going to come

from.

But if it does show you that, then

you're able to repent of it and to turn

away from trying to drink salt water to

sate your thirst. These lower things

can't help you or deliver you or save

you. They just can't. They weren't

design. Nothing in this world was

created to do that. Only God can do

that.

But this is the form of the praying life

that Paul lays out for us. It's a

posture of habitual dependence. It's in

the spirit. It's both worshipful

communion and looking to God for our

needs. That is the form, the how. Let's

now turn our attention to the content of

our praying life.

Paul says in the second half of verse

18, "To that end, keep alert with all

perseverance, making supplication for

all the saints." So Paul uses the word

supplication again, which means he's

still talking about prayer here. We're

still, we haven't shifted subjects. Paul

says, "Keep alert with all

perseverance."

Sometimes that word there translated

keep alert is translated to stay in

guard or like to be watchful, to be

attentive. There's kind of like an

urgency to the word. Pay attention to

what's going on in the lives of the

saints.

Pay attention to the spiritual

implications of people's choices.

I think the idea is watch each other's

backs. Look out for each other.

Sometimes people get discouraged.

Sometimes people get exhausted and they

start to lose their will to hold on to

keep gripping on to spiritual realities.

they feel like giving up when they've

had a hard time for a long time.

It's important to see here that when

Paul starts his list of things that you

should be praying for, when he starts

his list of the contents of your prayer

life, he starts with the assertion that

you should all be praying for each other

for all the saints.

Of course, that probably has the big

capital C church in view as well, but it

at least has these people at minimum in

view.

One of the most helpful things you can

do,

one of the healthiest things you can do

for your soul is to make a practice of

lifting your mind, your heart, your

perspective up out of your own life and

seeking to pray blessing and joy and

hope and peace into the life of others

lives of others.

It's so healthy to get out of your own

circumstances and think about blessing

other people. It'll change you as a

person. Setting your perspective on

others who are in need and bringing

their concerns to the throne of God at

no profit to yourself, you know, just

just seeking God's good will for them

will change you into a more loving

person, a more othersoriented

person.

First item on the prayer list, pray for

each other, for all the saints, the

whole Christian church, the whole earth.

You know, there's missionaries on the

field. There's churches in places with

persecution. There are church plants all

over the place. There are little

faithful churches all over town who are

all honestly seeking to do gospel

ministry. And they need God's strength

and power. And they need our prayers.

We should support them with prayer.

So, we're watchful. We pray for the

people around us and we pray for the

church in general. But also Paul says in

verse 19, also pray for me that my words

may or that words may be given to me in

the opening of my mouth boldly to

proclaim the mystery of the gospel for

which I'm an ambassador in chains. So we

should pray for the church in general,

but we should also pray for specific

ministries and specific ministers.

There are going to be people that you

meet in your life, in your Christian

life, where you're like, "Wow, I really

believe in what that person's doing. I

want to commit to help them

financially." And that's great. We ought

to do that.

But supporting by prayer is equally, if

not more important.

You know, it's it's good to remind

ourselves sometimes New Testament

ministry going and preaching the gospel,

helping people. It like it only sort of

costs money.

I would I would rather have a bunch of

people super committed to Jesus and

preaching the gospel. I I we could do

more with a church as a church with that

than with $100 million.

What are we going to do with $100

million? Build a marble statue of me out

there

for my 40th birthday.

I mean, it's it's good to think about

that sort of thing sometimes. It's like,

what do we need to do this? Like, not

that much. We need God's power. We need

the spirit at work through us as we seek

to be faithful to him. That's what we

need.

Every time I get all excited, I lose my

place. Darn it.

Why do why do pe ministers and

ministries need prayer? Paul gives us a

fairly shocking reason why we should

pray for people like that. Paul says,

"Pray that God will help me give me the

words to preach the gospel."

Paul says that

this week I'm like, "Aren't you the one

who explained the gospel to us? How do

you need help?" Explan

I

find myself in somewhat scary

circumstances about to share the gospel.

Even I need God's help to be bold and

clear. Even I need God's help to not

shrink back in timidity sometimes.

Even Paul asks for prayer about that.

It's not just you.

You're not the only person who starts to

feel a little nervous when you can see

the door opening and you realize, I can

bring up the gospel right now. Like,

this is the perfect time to naturally

just bring this up. Am I going to do it?

We all need prayer for that.

We all need prayer for that. Paul even

needed prayer for that.

None of us can do any of this without

God's power. But any of you, any of you

can do it with God's power. And so, we

need to pray for each other.

Let's now consider where we find the

energy to do this. Let's transition to

Paul's suggestion for the fuel of a

praying life. Paul says, "Pray for me.

Minister to me." in verse 19 and he says

in verse 21 and I will send someone to

minister to you. Titicus the beloved

brother and the faithful minister in the

Lord. He will tell you everything. He

will update you. He will give you the

information so that you may know how I

am. And I'm sending him to encourage

your hearts.

I'm sending a beloved brother, a

faithful minister to tell you how we're

doing and to encourage your hearts. It's

worth asking. Encourage your hearts to

what?

I think in context it's to keep going,

keep fighting, keep doing all the stuff

Paul just commanded us, including

prayer.

Paul wants them to devote themselves to

prayer and so he sends a person to

encourage them to do it.

We are fuel for each other's prayer

life. Did you know that?

It's kind of a weird thing to say,

but it's anecdotally true and I believe

it's biblically true that one of the

most powerful sources of motivation that

we encounter in this world to pray is

each other is someone saying, "Hey, you

want to pray with me about that?

Maybe we should stop and pray."

Sometimes, and for some people, the only

thing keeping them from a prayerless

life is when you offer to pray for them.

That's true.

Paul sends Titicus to the churches to

encourage their hearts with the good

news and to encourage them to keep

praying, keep holding fast to the word

of God.

Paul sends you and I to each other every

week with the same goal.

One of the things I've always

appreciated being at West Hills is that

whenever we do anything, we always like

part of we always spend part of whatever

the thing is that we're doing part of

that time praying. We pray for meals, we

pray for community group, we pray, we go

to the word, we pray youth group, we

pray everything we do, we pray. And that

habit preceded me that that came before

I got here. That was already in place.

And I love it and I encourage it and I

champion it because it's good and it's

right.

I'm grateful for it.

But other people started it and today I

don't know the right word. People

continue to enforce it. Is that that's

the wrong word? You know what I mean?

It's like, you know, if I if I were to

start this sermon and not pray, Phil

would be like, "Why didn't you pray?"

Right? I mean, you'd be like, "That was

weird. That's weird. Why aren't you

praying?"

We kind of encourage each other to keep

participating and keep doing it.

All it takes is one of you to say,

"Let's pray." And all of a sudden, we're

praying.

All it takes is you to say to your

brother, your children, your wife, your

husband, your whatever, why don't we

pray about this? And all of a sudden,

we're praying. You can start that

practice in your home today.

We are fuel for each other. Each of you,

we can encourage each other's hearts to

keep seeking the Lord and to keep

obeying Paul by praying.

It seems like when I'm alone, when I'm

alone,

the distance between knowing I ought to

pray and actually praying is like this

big hill and I'm just look, I'm a

sinner.

I'm I'm not up here because I'm strong.

All right, I try to remind you guys

about this all the time. I need the

gospel. I was literally like broke down

and crying earlier because we were

singing ashamed to hear my mocking

voice. I used to mock Jesus

and now I serve him because he's so

powerful and so gracious and kind.

Sometimes in my office when I'm by

myself, the distance between I really

ought to pray now and actually praying

feels like I have to walk up a hill.

Like I'm going to do it. I want to do

it. I like doing it. But I also have to

say no to the other stuff calling for my

attention right now and deliberately

make myself. I can't just keep answering

emails. I can't just keep whatever

studying. I have to actually draw close.

For some reason that I can't explain,

the second one of you walks in and sits

down with me in my office, that distance

of we ought to pray to praying, it

transforms from like an uphill to a

downhill. I don't know what it is.

I think I'm explaining something real.

Does is does anybody resonate with

anything I just said? Okay. I'm glad

we're just like saying it out loud and

being honest about it. That was going to

be really embarrassing if all of you

guys were like, "I don't feel that way

at all."

I love praying all the time. What are

you talking about, Pastor Josh?

When you pray together in certain

situations and you do it a couple times,

it becomes a pattern.

And when it becomes a pattern, the

downhill downhill turns into like a

water slide or,

you know, think of something pushing

making it. I don't know what I'm saying.

Okay. It gets easy when it's a pattern.

It just gets it's like natural

breathing. Now we just This is what we

do. Now, what is my point? My point is

you are part of the fuel of the praying

life of this church. Your desire to pray

fuels my desire to pray. And hopefully

my desire to pray fuels your desire for

it. And all it takes is for one of us to

say to the other one, "Why don't we pray

about this?"

All right. I know that was a really,

really long exhortation, but I want you

to think about that. that I want to

think I want you to think about how much

power you have to affect someone's life

with those simple words. Let's pray.

So what have we seen so far? We've seen

that Christian prayer has certain

characteristics.

It's comes from a posture of habitual

dependence. It's in the spirit. It

includes both prayer and supplication.

Second, we've seen that we should be

praying for each other, for the whole

church, for the God's empowerment of

gospel ministries and gospel ministers.

And finally, we've seen that the only

that one of the ways God wants to

empower and sustain our prayer,

encourage prayer among us, is using each

other.

Let's now close by considering the

conclusion of this letter.

Here at the end of this long and

glorious discussion, Paul is going to

finally land the plane.

The way that letters in the ancient

world would end was with well-wishing. I

wish you good health or something to

that effect. May the gods have favor on

you. Here Paul does not well wish. Here

at the end Paul pronounces a

benediction,

a statement of blessing over his

readers.

He says, "Peace be to the brothers." And

of course, the word for brothers means

brothers and sisters, to everyone in the

family. But he says, "Peace." Peace is

the headline of verse 23, and grace is

the headline of verse 24.

If Paul's going to leave us with a

blessing, it's going to be a gospel

blessing. Peace and grace. Peace is

yours and grace is yours from God the

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace and grace are not a wish for your

psychological welfare.

That is an announcement of the status of

those who love Jesus.

Through faith, you now have peace with

God and you are the object of God's

never- ending grace.

If you are a brother/sister and you love

our Lord Jesus Christ with love

incorruptible, then peace and grace have

been given to you by God in a way that

cannot be taken away.

We get so used to those words peace and

grace that we forget that they're almost

synonymous with the word salvation.

Peace with God means to be reconciled.

It means that mountain of sin and

distorted thinking that separated us

from him has been overcome by his

sending his son Jesus.

Grace means that the guilt that we bear

for the wrongs and the evil that we've

done, he has offered clemency and

forgiveness through the death and

resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This same

grace and peace

comes to us only through faith in the

gospel.

Love with faith, he says, is describing

the interrelated nature of those two

things. In chapter one, Paul says, you

know, um, I thank God for your love for

all the saints. Your faith and your love

for all the saints. Those things are

inseparable in this letter.

This same love with faith that

characterized them from the beginning in

chapter 1 should continue to

characterize them until the end. Paul

says those who love Christ with a love

incorruptible.

It's a really interesting word choice

that Paul uses there. That word

incorruptible,

it's it's a new creation word. It's the

same word for immortal.

It can't be corrupted or it cannot die.

Immortality and incorruptibility belong

to the age to come. The world that he

will make when he returns. And embracing

Christ and loving Christ and following

Christ in this world brings that element

of new creation into the present.

You might ask yourself, do I love God

with a love incorruptible?

Do I have this kind of love in my heart?

What kind of love is an incorruptible

love for our Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, first and foremost, that kind of

love is the Jesus loving kind. It's the

kind of love that loves him.

It's the Jesus trusting kind.

It's the kind that doesn't look to

itself for hope, but to Jesus as the

author and perfector of our faith.

There's quite a bit of theology packed

into these last two verses. But the

thing I I just want you to see here as

we end is that these blessings of grace

and peace are for those who are hoping

in loving trusting Jesus.

And it's not just stated over

individuals. It's stated over us as a

group.

All of us together standing firm in the

whole armor of God called to continually

strive in prayer to the end. We are told

grace and peace is ours through Jesus

together as a family.

A praying life is the way of

perseverance.

Dependence on God is something we have

to do together.

I feel

I just want to say, you know, peace with

God, grace from God,

these things fundamentally change your

life.

If you don't know peace with God, if you

don't understand grace with God, I'm

going to try to help you see it.

You were created to be at peace with him

and you were created to be the object of

his grace. And in so far as we turn away

from that, we are in disharmony

with the world, the universe,

everything. We're lit. It's like we're

swimming against the current.

You were not created

to walk purposeless through this world,

to be untethered, to not know what

tomorrow's going to bring. To feel like,

who knows what's going to happen

tomorrow, the way the world is going or

whatever you tell yourself. You're not

meant to live that way. You're meant to

walk side by side with God,

knowing that he loves you and that he's

with you and he is a fortress and

defender of his people. You're not meant

to live wondering how long it's going to

take for the guilt of that thing I did

to come back and finally be visited upon

my head. You're not meant to live with

guilt eating away at you because of who

you are and what you've done. I did that

for a long time until I was sick.

We're not meant to live that way.

You're meant

You're meant to hear the words, "You're

forgiven.

You're forgiven through the blood of

someone else who died for you. His

name's Jesus. And he died because he

loves us. Because he wants to save us,

and all we have to do is confess our

sins. This is what I did. It was wrong.

I shouldn't have done that." And you

agree, and you died for me anyway. And

we're called to believe it. and to

receive grace and to know forgiveness

and to have the joy of salvation

restored to your soul. You're meant to

walk in peace all the days of your life

in love with the community with a sure

and certain purpose for your life. That

you were made to love your neighbor as

yourself, to love God with all your

heart, soul, and strength, and to never

let guilt and shame and reckless living

run your life ever again. That's what

you're made for. Be free.

Come to Jesus and be free. If you don't

know how to do that, please come talk to

me after service. I want to help you. A

praying life is the way of perseverance.

So, let's depend on God together. Let's

pray.