service. Let's all stand and sing 255,
blessed assurance, 255. Seed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of
God. Born of His Spirit, washed in
His blood. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Saviour all the day
long. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Saviour all the day
long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending, great from
above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of
love. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. Perfect submission, all is at
rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking
above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my
story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my
song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Thank you. You may be seated. Good morning, everybody. I'm going
to read Psalm 27. Psalm chapter 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation,
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies
and my foes, come upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumble
and fall, they stumble and fell. Though a host should encamp against
me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against
me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of
the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble,
he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will
sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with
my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me when thou saidst, Seeking my face, my heart said unto thee,
thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me,
put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help, leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God, of my salvation. When my father
and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach
me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of
mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the
will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against
me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait
on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning
thankful for this first scripture. And Father, we are as always
thankful for a place to come to hear the gospel. Places are
few and far between. And Father, we're just so thankful
that you've chosen to raise a place up here in a small part of Missouri.
And Lord, we're thankful for the pastor that you've sent us.
that he comes every week faithfully bringing the gospel. And Father,
again, we're so thankful for that. And Father, we're thankful
for our visitors this morning, and we ask that you get them
home safely. And Father, we just ask that
you open our eyes and our hearts and our minds this morning to
hear the gospel. And Father, we just ask that
you watch over and care for us in Christ's name. As you remain sitting, let's
sing another hymn, 447, The Lily of the Valley, or I Have Found
a Friend in Jesus, 447. so I found a friend in Jesus, he's
everything to me, he's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. The lily of the valley, in him
alone I see, all I need to cleanse and make me fully whole. In sorrow he's my comfort, in
trouble he's my stay, he tells me every care on him to roll. He's a lily of the valley, a
bright and morning star, he's the fairest of ten thousand to
my soul. All my griefs has taken, and
all my sorrows borne. In temptation he's my strong
and mighty tower. I have all for Him forsaken,
and all my idols torn from my heart, and now He keeps me by
His power. Though all the world forsake
me, and Satan tempt me sore, through Jesus I shall safely
reach the goal. He's the lily of the valley,
the bright and morning star. He's the fairest of ten thousand
to my soul. He will never, never leave me,
nor yet forsake me here, while I live by faith and do His blessed
will. A wall, a fire about me, I'm
nothing now to fear. With His manna, He my hungry
soul shall fill. And sweeping up to glory, I'll
see his blessed face where rivers of delight shall ever roll. He's the lily of the valley,
the bright and morning star. He's the fairest of 10,000 to
my soul. Thank you. Good morning. All right, brethren, we're going
to be in Ephesians chapter 5. Let's go to Ephesians chapter
5, and our text is found in verses
15 through 20. Last week we were seeing that
Christ is the light of his people. He's the revealer of God and
truth to his people. And he's the light of the church
and the church is described as a candlestick and she upholds
the beautiful, glorious light of the Lord Jesus Christ in this
dark, fallen world that men may see and know there's salvation,
there's the light, and be drawn to him and hear of the glorious
good news that God has declared, made known, provided for sinners
in need of his grace and mercy. So off of that, today's message
in this text is really given to inspire believers to that
end. to inspire us and encourage us,
knowing that our Savior is a successful Savior, and that we would be
encouraged to press forward in that calling to hold up the beautiful,
glorious light of our Lord and Savior, that we would serve Him
in this purpose, and that we would be willing bondservants
to minister this gospel to perishing sinners in need of His grace
and mercy." Now this passage, it helps to understand that Paul
is using figures. He's speaking of things that
we're familiar with, such as walking in a way, in a path,
such as what we drink, taken to our bodies, and being filled,
not with alcohol, but with the Holy Spirit. And these are figures
which reveal to us the glories of Christ, so that we see and
understand that as we're walking in this world, we're walking
in Christ. And as we're filled with His
Spirit, it's to minister, to pour out that strong drink of
the Gospel, the wine of Christ's love to needy sinners, believing,
praying that they would hear the voice of the Son of God and
believe, that they would believe Him. I've titled this message,
Not Drunk, Rather Filled with the Spirit. It's taken from verse
18, and we'll get there in our second point. So let's first
look at the way in which we walk. Paul says in verse 15, see then
that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. And this word circumspectly,
it's not used a lot in the New Testament, but when it is, it's
also translated as diligently, walk diligently. It's also translated
as walk perfectly, walk perfectly. And circumspectly, if you look
it up, it's described as One who walks circumspectly is being
watchful. They're being mindful. They're
looking about with understanding of where they're going and what
they're doing. They're taking into consideration
what's going on. around them, and the Lord does
that. He makes his people to know him
and that we are his. We know whose we are, and so
Paul is instructing these Ephesians to be mindful of their walk and
to walk with diligence, to walk in the purpose of our God for
his church. Now it could have been translated,
see then that ye walk perfectly. And that actually is a help because
there's only one way whereby believers walk perfectly. It's
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is perfection. We in this
flesh don't do anything perfectly, but Christ is perfect. And so if you're to walk perfectly
and I'm to walk perfectly, It's only in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by him because he is our
perfection. He is our holiness and our righteousness. And so when we go, when you're
looking at this passage, Set your heart and your mind on the
Lord Jesus Christ, because these are figures to put our mind on
Him. It's not to turn us back to the
flesh and to whip the flesh and to beat the flesh. It's looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ and being encouraged by His grace
and mercy and love. And He causes us, He gives us
to walk in Him, and it's a walk by faith. whereby we don't see
perfections in this flesh. We're ever looking to Christ
Jesus, our Lord and Savior. God's purposed it so to be. He's made it to be like this,
lest we become puffed up in our hearts and imaginations. But
he humbles us. He shows us it's all of his grace. And so believers have been given
a walk. That's what predestination is
speaking of. When we speak of God electing,
notice it's always He elected a people. Election is God choosing
a people. Predestination is what He's predestinated
us unto, our walk in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so He's predestinated
our walk. He's determined when we should
know and hear this glorious gospel, when the hour comes for the time
of our love, when he passes by us and in grace reveals his light
in our heart, making us to know him. And so he's predestinated
our walk, and it's all according to his will, according to his
purpose for us in his salvation. And so there's many figures that
are used in scripture that describe our walk. And they describe the
way in which believers walk. And everywhere you see in scripture
that's speaking of our walk, it's a figure of Christ. It's
speaking of our walk in the Lord Jesus Christ and being in him.
When our Lord said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me." He's telling us that he is the way unto the Father
and there's no other way to come to God. There's no other way
whereby man can know God. Men know a lot of gods, little
g-gods, they're false idol gods that cannot save, they're just
worshiping themselves, but there's one true and living God and it's
the Lord Jesus Christ who reveals to us the glory of the Godhead,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Then We see that this way of
life is found in him alone. And he says in Matthew 7, verse
14, that our entrance into this way is through Christ. And he likens himself unto a
gate, a narrow gate. He says, because straight or
narrow is the gate, and narrow is the way. And that word narrow,
describing the way, He's saying that this way in which we're
brought by the Lord is a distressing way. It's a way that presses
in upon us, making us uncomfortable in this flesh, in our natural
selves. It's a distressing, pressing
in upon you way which leadeth unto life and few there be that
find it. You know as a as an illustration
of that pressing way it reminds me of in my garden at this time
of year if you're a gardener and you're anything like me when
you're planting things you have some extra plants and you just.
can't stand to throw them away and so I always put in an extra
plant or two than what I really have room for. And if you have
cherry tomatoes like I do, they grow high and then they fall
over and it really presses in upon the path through the tomato
plants. And so if I'm going to get those
few tomatoes up in there, that few ever find, I have to go through
on my hands and knees, going through spider webs and in the
dirt, just to find that fruit. And the Lord is saying, it's
a way that few ever find. And He is that way. And that's
because, it's a narrow way because it's only as wide as Christ Himself. We don't go through and enter
the kingdom of God with all our religious baggage and God receiving
everything that we bring to it, we come in the person of Jesus
Christ. We come in the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's how narrow it is. And
so Paul says, see that ye walk circumspectly, because there
is no salvation outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
one in whom we walk. And then there's one more figure
that I like to bring out that's often used in Isaiah where he
speaks of there being a highway, a highway. Turn over to Isaiah
35. There's a few times that Isaiah
uses this word highway. And often it's a way which the
Lord has provided, describing our spiritual deliverance
from captivity. It's a way that he gives to his
remnant seed, his people that he loves and chose for himself.
And it's always describing their coming out of captivity. They're being delivered out from
their bondage, such as when they came out of Egypt or when Israel
came out of Assyria. But Isaiah here in 35 verse 8
says, An highway shall be there and
a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness." This is
a spiritual highway. It's a figure of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the way in which we walk. And he's the highway that we
go upon. And Christ is the highway that
God has provided for his people. And it's called the way of holiness
because he is our holiness. He is our righteousness. And then it says the unclean
shall not pass over it. How is it that the unclean are
not on that highway. When we look at ourselves and
we see ourselves as fallen sinners in need of His grace, when we
cry out seeing our sin, I'm unclean, I'm unclean. What the Lord's
saying there is that all who go in Christ, all who are in
the Lord Jesus Christ, walking to that heavenly glory in Him
are not unclean because He's washed us In every way he's made
us whole and righteous by his sin-cleansing blood. And then
he says, but it shall be for those the wayfaring men, though
fools, shall not err therein. And that's because every sinner
Every believer is a sinner saved by his grace. And so we are the
wayfaring man. We're the ones who were lost
in trespasses and sins, dead in trespasses and sins. We're
the fools that knew not God, but were in darkness and didn't
even know the darkness that we dwelled in. And so we were shut
out from the things of God until Christ came in mercy and grace
and called us out of that bondage. And so now in him, Though we
were fools previous to his light, now in him we shall not err therein. Or what we should say is, we
shall not err in him. We shall not err in him, because
therein is the way, which is the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. You that trust in him, you that
look to the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall not come short of the
glory you seek. you have life in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You shall not be ashamed, trusting
in him for your righteousness. And so Paul says, see then that
ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Walk, continue
to walk in the Lord Jesus Christ. Abide in him. Don't be turned
from him. Keep crying out to him. Whenever
you see your heart turning, Cry out to Him because He's the one
that keeps us. He's the one that makes you to
see your heart turning. He's the one that makes you to
see your need of Him. It's all of His grace and mercy. You just stay upon Him because
He's the one that's put you there in Him. and makes you to know
him. So don't walk as being a forgetful hearer and walking in the ways
that we did when we were in darkness. That's what the flesh wants to
do. That's what the flesh does. It likes the darkness. It likes
to keep its sins hidden under the cloak of darkness. But God's
revealed himself to us. He's made us to know his grace
and mercy. So Paul says, walk as wise. in
the understanding that our God has given to each of us, making
us to know him, to understand his mercy, to understand his
grace and our need of it. So keep walking in Christ. Then
he adds in verse 16, redeeming the time because the days are
evil. And so this idea of redeeming
the time, what he's saying is make the best use of the time
that your God has given to you. use of it, whether you're saved
when you're old or whether you're saved when you're young. Make
good use of this time that you now have in Christ to serve him
and to minister this gospel to your brethren and to serve them.
Redeem the time. You know, we don't know how much
time we have, and we see just how easily time slips away from
us. We can all think of times when
we thought we would speak to someone about the gospel and
prayed about it, and just time gets away. And we see that happen
a lot. And sometimes it just does. We
pray for the opportunities. And we pray that God help us
to recognize those opportunities. But redeem the time. We might be saved when we're
old and still have 20, 40 years. We might be saved when we're
young and only have a few days left. Just make the best use
of the time that the Lord has given you to serve him and your
brethren. Paul said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 7 31, they that
use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world
passeth away. Things ain't gonna be like this
in glory, and it's all passing away. So set your heart and your
affection on things above. Don't be like those that scoff
at the promise of the coming of Christ. He is coming, and
we don't look at that with fear. We look at that with rejoicing.
And so make the best use of your time in Christ. And then Paul
adds to this that we are to redeem the time. He says, because the
days are evil. Now when Paul wrote this, this
was about 2,000 years ago, and he noticed that the days are
evil in which he wrote this letter. And when we examine our day,
we notice the days are evil. And that tells us that men were
evil then and men are evil now. Man hasn't changed. He hasn't improved. He hasn't
gotten better. He's still a wicked, vile sinner. He's full of wrath and bitterness
and deceit. He still works adultery and fornication
and uncleanness. He practices religious idolatry
and witchcraft. He's full of hate, envy, spite,
bitterness, malice, hatred. He continues in these things.
And Paul says, such were some of you. We see that we walked
in those ways. We see those sins in our own
flesh and in our heart. But the Lord washed us and he
sanctified us. And so men who were evil then,
men are still evil today. It means they need the gospel. now, just as the gospel was needed
then, because that's the only way that we hear what we are,
that we hear our need of salvation and look to Him. And so that's
the point, that if others are going to hear of the glorious
salvation that's in Christ Jesus alone, how are they going to
hear it if we're just living just like them in all things?
If we just do exactly as they do and don't care or aren't mindful
about the calling that we have in Christ, that as his church
we are to minister this gospel, to uphold the light of Christ
and to give of our resources and time to the local church,
that this gospel would go forth and minister to the needs of
lost sinners that the Lord has chosen out for himself who are
yet to come to a knowledge of this salvation. If they perish
without Christ, Paul says, they shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. And so it's the purpose and will of God to draw in all
his people, because none shall be lost. None shall be lost. He's drawing them. And so we
redeem the time, because the days are evil, because men are
yet sinners without Christ, and they need him. If they're to
be saved, They're only going to be saved in the one name that's
given among men under heaven, whereby we must be saved. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
in Ephesians 5, 17, wherefore, Paul says, be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. He's just saying
what he's been saying so far. Don't be ignorant of what our
God has done for us. walking in that light, and he's
revealed the gospel to us, and it would be unwise to continue
in that way, to continue living as though we didn't know the
truth, when indeed we do know the truth. So walk with that
understanding of what the will of the Lord is. There's many
examples in the epistles where Paul prays for his brethren. He prays for the church. And
it's revealing what the will of our God is for us. And when he was writing to the
Hebrews in Hebrews 13, 21, he prayed that God would make you
perfect in every good work to do his will. Working in you,
that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. And since that's his will,
we know that our God is continuing to feed us with the gospel. He
keeps us from going astray. He's teaching us, growing us,
reproving us, blessing us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. He keeps us in grace, and it's
His purpose to continue to grow us in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what is making
us to know that we're His. He purchased us. We're not our
own. where His servants called to serve and worship Him. And
so His will is that we continue to uphold that gospel in our
lives and in the things that we say in furthering this gospel
that sinners would hear it. So now, with that understanding
that our walk is in Christ, that that's what we're called to do,
and that the way is Christ Himself. He is our wisdom, our light,
and our understanding. That being so, we come to verse
18. And the Holy Spirit was very
specific in putting this verse here. It almost seems a bit out
of place, but when you see it for what it is, it's a figure
of Christ. It's revealing Christ to us,
and it's revealing the work of the Spirit in the child of God. Now he says here in verse 18,
be not drunk with wine. wherein is excess, but be filled
with the Spirit." Now, let me just say, we are not to be drunkards. We shouldn't be drinking in excess,
because in drinking, what we find is that we're not diligent. We're not mindful of what the
will of the Lord is. We become more careless. we're
more likely to be indifferent to the will of God when we're
full of alcohol and we're drunk, and that's what he's saying.
And he's saying don't be drunk. He's not saying don't ever drink
alcohol or drink wine or beer or have, you know, whatever. He's just saying don't be drunk.
And so We should see this verse 18 in the same way we saw verse
15, where he says, see then that ye walk circumspectly, not as
fools, but as wise. And we saw that that could be
translated, walk perfectly, walk diligently. But a man who's drunk,
how does he walk? You know, we see them on the
side of the road sometimes. when the police pull over someone
who they think's been driving, and what do they do? They ask
them, walk to me. Walk a straight line. And they
want to see if you're able to walk the line in a manner that
says you're not drunk, that you can walk a straight line. And
so that tells us that a drunk person is walking imperfectly. They're walking imperfectly.
They're walking not with diligence. They're stumbling. They're getting
off track. They're probably getting sidetracked
and going astray. And so Paul's saying, yeah, don't
get drunk because you are indifferent to the things of the Lord. But
there is more to this verse. It's a figure. It's a figure
showing us the grace of God for his people by the Holy Spirit. And we noted how that walking
circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, is a call to us to walk
in Christ. Walk in that light. Walk in the
knowledge and understanding that he's given to us in Christ. How that we are saved by his
grace and mercy. That we're saved by the blood
of Christ. We're justified by his sacrifice. He is our righteousness and our
salvation. And so If we're just living the
way this world lives, such as getting drunk and doing our own
thing, that's not redeeming the time, and we're not walking with
understanding of what the will of the Lord is for us. And so
what Paul has in view here is a picture of the gospel, that
we're to be ready always to, with that gospel word, with that
hope, They only hope for sinners that we might preach it to others
and speak it to others and declare it to others in that time that
we're brought to. You know, Peter said it this
way. He said, sanctify the Lord God
in your hearts. Set him up as the one true and
only of your heart and your life. Sanctify him as having control
of all things over you. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear." Understanding this is a critical moment when we're
given an opportunity to declare Christ to another. It's critical.
We don't know how it's going to go for them, whether they're
going to hear it or hate it. And we don't know whether they're
going to be angry with us or be thankful that we spoke the
truth to them. We don't know how it's going
to go, but. This is really less about drinking,
this is less about being drunk, and it's more about Christ being
our hope, and our focus, our love, and our life, our light,
our glory, our all, in Him that we would minister that gospel,
redeeming the time, because the days are evil. And so turn over to Proverbs
31, and I think it'll help us to see this verse more clearly. Proverbs 31, and go to verse
6. Paul says, I'm sorry, the writer
of Hebrews here says, give strong drink unto him that is ready
to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Now you understand this verse
in light of alcohol, but see it in the light of Christ. See it in the light of Christ
who gives life to him that is ready to perish. That gives joy
and gladness to him that is of a heavy heart. The Lord Jesus
Christ does that for his people. So let us always be ready to
give the strong drink of the gospel. that the perishing sinner
may hear of Christ and live, that their soul be warmed by
hearing of the grace and love and mercy of our God and his
covenant of grace fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ for his
people. Let us be ready to pour forth
the wine of Christ's love, that their heavy hearts would be lifted,
that they would be encouraged and their hearts and minds set
upon him whom you love, who has done so much for you in delivering
you from your burden and sin. Proverbs 31.7 says, let him,
let that dying sinner drink and forget his poverty. Forget that
he's a bankrupt sinner with no righteousness because he's now
made rich in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may remember his misery
no more. because Christ has delivered
him from his death. The only way they're going to
be delivered and helped is in the preaching of the Lord Jesus
Christ and declaring him, sanctifying the Lord God in your hearts and
speaking of him, pouring forth, ministering that strong drink
of the gospel, which is given to us and has done so much in
releasing us from our burden and our guilt and delivering
us into the the light of our Lord and Savior. So, therefore,
let us declare that God the Father has an everlasting love for His
people whom He chose for Himself and gave them to Christ. And
Christ came and faithfully ministered unto us as a servant, laying
aside His glory that He had with the Father and taking upon Him
the flesh. And He came in weakness and humility
lay down His life for our lives. He bore our sin and put it away,
and He took the wrath of God that was our due, so that we
are now received by God, and that His blood covers our sins,
and God is pleased with us in His Son, and He's blessed us
with His Holy Spirit, whereby we know these things, have come
to hear and believe what He's done for us, and made us alive
in Him, Remember what He's done and share that with perishing
sinners. Share that, that they may hear
of that glorious hope that we have in our Savior. Do you believe
that He died for you? Do you believe that He died for
you? Does your perishing soul believe by this strong gospel
drink? Is your heavy heart lightened
to hear that Christ bore all the burden of His people to set
them free and to make them alive in Christ. You that believe,
do so by the grace of God, because that's what he reveals in the
hearts of all his children. He makes us to know our need
and to find that need met in the blood of Jesus Christ alone. And so all who believe on him
have the assurance and the confidence and the rest in Christ, that
their sin has been put away. This is the wine of the Spirit
which we drink, and therefore we serve it to others. And while
we don't get drunk on this world's wine and Babylon's fornication,
we are filled with the Holy Spirit and rejoice in Him. And you know,
as we look at verses back in our text in verses 19 and 20,
when you read I guess older books is where
you see this, but for some reason I have this in my head that when
people drink or when they used to drink and they get married,
they would begin to sing songs, right? And they'd sing of tales
and songs of misery and other foolish things. But in verse
19, We that are filled with the Spirit, we sing the psalm of
redemption. We sing of the glories of our
Savior. That's what we minister, which
is edifying to the body of Christ. And it says in Ephesians 5, 19
and 20, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. We're
filled not with alcohol but with the Spirit. And so we sing the
song of redemption and encourage one another giving thanks always
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And so I pray that the Lord encourage
you and that you not be burdened when you see passages like that,
but always look for Christ. Always see how it's a figure
and a picture of our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, because
it's given to encourage you. It's given to bless you and to
help you as we go on our way in the kingdom of God and in
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so I pray you bless your
hearts with that word. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy. We thank you for your grace that
you're not laying on us burdens that we cannot bear. Lord, you
keep us and you keep our hearts. And we're so thankful for that.
And you do this by keeping us in Christ, ever looking to him,
filling our hearts with joy and love for him. Lord, thank you. We pray that you would continue
to help us to hear this gospel and to see your word always reflecting
and shining the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Help us
to minister this word, to walk in Christ, ever mindful of why
we're here, that we may serve you in joy and gladness and that
your people would be edified and ministered to by the love
you've sown in our hearts. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ that we pray this. Amen. Okay, brother. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, 236 Amazing Grace. 236. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
am found. Was blind, but now I see. Was grace that taught my heart
to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come. This grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there
ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, leave no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Thank you.