Philippians chapter 3, I'm just
going to get right into the message. And I really just want to just pour out my heart's feelings to you tonight. I seek the Lord's
presence and leadership in just giving to you some of the desires
of my heart, and hoping that what I desire may be glorifying
to God, and be scriptural, and hoping
that you have the same desire. Some of the desires of my heart,
I just scratched some things down on a piece of paper, and I want you to examine your
own heart to see if this is what you desire. First of all is to to be like Jesus Christ. I wrote in the back of my Bible
some time ago, eight or nine years ago, this statement that
says that salvation, salvation is recreating, let
me find it, salvation is reproducing the character of Jesus Christ
in a human being, being made like him, having his mind, having
his heart, being made like him in him. So my first desire is to be like
Jesus Christ, just like him. And another desire of mine is
to be his servant, to be so enwrapped with him, to be so in love with
him as I am my wife or my child, to be so taken up with him. We read in Solomon's Song a man
who was sick with love, lovesick. You know how it was when you
first married your wife or your husband and how that you couldn't
get enough of them. And that's the desire of my heart. I want to be consumed with the
person Jesus Christ and to be His servant, to serve Him because
of what He's done for me, because of who He is. because of what
he's done for me, because he's worthy. He's worthy. He's worthy
of everything I am and everything I have, because he's been so merciful
and gracious to me. Another desire of my heart is
to see other people saved. I'll be a little bit prejudiced
here, but I can't help it. I know you people. and desire
of my heart to see you saved, each one of you. I've come to
know you intimately and love you, and it's the desire of my
heart to see you saved, to see you know Christ. I cannot in
all honesty and sincerity really say with Paul yet that I could
wish myself a curse. But I can say in all sincerity
and honesty that I wish and I hope you know Christ. And lastly, not last in order,
but first in importance, last on
my list here, maybe first of all, is just to know him, to know more about him. to know
Him, to know Him intimately, to be so well acquainted with
Him that I know Him, I know His Word, I know His mind, I know
His will, I know His love. Having His love shed abroad in
my heart, that I know Him like I do my own, my own family. My pastor preached or made these
three comments one time in a message. He said, there's three things
that I want. First is total commitment to
the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be totally committed.
I don't want to be a Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night
believer. Forget about him during the week,
you know, and then pick up where I left off the following Lord
today. But I want to be totally committed.
one hundred percent, sold out, committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only disciples there
are. That's the only believers there are. A disciple is nothing
more than a follower of a person, somebody who's standing right
behind somebody following in their step, trying to imitate
what they're doing and looking to them, loving them, depending
on him and totally trusting him for all that you are and all
that you have. And that comes under the next
heading, total communion. Total communion. Like I briefly
said, I want to know, I want to know Him. I want to be
able to talk to Him as I do my wife, as I would my father, as
I would a brother or a sister. I want to be able to talk to
Him. I want to feel like He hears me and feel like I hear Him and
understand Him. I do. I want the same thing for
you. And I said at the first of this
little talk, I said total conformity, total commitment, total communion,
and total conformity. To be conformed to his blessed
image. Isn't that what salvation is? Look over to Ephesians chapter
2. Now look at Ephesians chapter
1 first. It says that God has chosen us. God has been gracious to us.
God has chosen us and blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. Verse 4. for this reason, for this purpose.
He's chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love. And
we know that there's no man, no woman can produce this holiness
in and of themselves. Tried to clearly explain that
this morning. That there's nothing we do to
obtain this holiness, to make ourselves acceptable to God Almighty. We cannot. We cannot. With man,
it's impossible. But in Christ, it's possible.
It's possible. And it says, before Him in love,
holy and without blame, before Him in love. There's only one
way we're going to be holy, and without blame, before God. And
that's in the love of God that's manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's sending His Son down to take our place, to be our substitute,
to bear our sin, our punishment. make us accepted by the Father,
accepted in the Beloved. That's what he says. He's predestinated
us under the adoption of children. It was Barnard, I believe, that
said, God looked down one day and saw his son, Jesus Christ,
and loved him so much and admired him so much that he decided to
have a whole family just like him. And he's predestinated us,
if you want to hear this, under the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ, by what Christ did, and He did it for Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will, that we might be to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein, because He's made us accepted
in the Beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want total communion,
total commitment. I want to be a follower, a true
follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want total communion. I know now, I know it's really
impossible for a human being to have unbroken fellowship with
God, with his Son, because we have to work out in this world.
But I want to be made more like him, day in and day out. I want
to be conformed to his image, in total conformity. Let's just go down through these
verses, and the Apostle Paul, another Paul, said these things a long time
ago, and these are desires of my heart, and I believe the desires
of many of yours. The Apostle Paul said, Finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. And we have so many reasons to
rejoice, don't we? We rejoice in the things we have,
yes. We rejoice in what he's done
for us, for our families. He's been so abundantly merciful
to us and gracious to us and blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places and all temporal blessings, giving
us all the things necessary for life and for godliness, life
in this world, and made us partakers of that blessed life in Christ. And we have a great cause to
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's him. It's because of him
that we have these things. And we rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. That's who I want to rejoice
in. Not so much in the things I have or the blessings God has
given me, but in his person. Like I said a while ago, I want
to be taken up with his person. I want to be so consumed with
his person that I just rejoice in him. I want to be able to
think about the gospel and hear the gospel and just exult and
rejoice in him, in the fact that he'd come down, that he came
down and would take on himself the form that would make himself
of no reputation. Made in the likeness of this
glorious Lord. Rejoice in him. When Paul says,
he exhorts us. He tells us to rejoice in the
Lord. Lest we forget. Lest we forget. Our Lord, to write the same things
he said to you, it's not grievous. And I've preached from this before.
I preached from this about, I don't know when it was, six or seven
months ago. I don't know. But by God's grace, I want to
preach from it again three or four months from now. To write
the same things. It's not grievous. How could the gospel ever be
grievous to a disciple of Christ? How could it? How could you ever?
My soul. It's not grievous. It's not grievous. It's a pleasure. It's a privilege.
I remember Bill Clark coming over one time. He's kind of convicted me. He came over and he sang a song.
at 13th Street, sang a song at an old Irish tenor. And he sings like he means it,
you know, when he sings. And he does, I believe. And he
got up afterward and he said, it's just so good to be with
you. He says, and it's a privilege. He said, someone asked me to
sing and he said, I count it a blessed privilege to sing about
my Lord and Master. And to speak of of Christ, to
hear of Him. It's not grievous. His yoke is
easy. His burden is light. His commandments are not grievous.
His gospel is not grievous. It's the most blessed thing I've
ever experienced, ever heard. It's the good news. It's still
the good news. So to write the same thing is not grievous, and
for you, it's real safe. You're on dangerous ground if
I get up and start saying anything new. You'd be on safe ground
if I told you every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, turn to Philippians
3. You'd be on safe ground. I'd be on safe ground. You'll
see that in a moment. It's safe. And he says here,
by way of warning, verse 2, beware of dogs. Beware of dogs. They go around, and Satan's,
their father, go around seeking whom they may devour. Someone
was talking about it this evening, encompassing sea and land that
establish one proselyte. They're evil workers, evil workers. Paul said over in verse 21 of
the previous chapter, he said they seek their own. They're
not seeking the things of Christ. They're not concerned with the
glory of God and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation
of men's souls. They're concerned with their
own name, their own glory, their own building and so forth. Not concerned with the things
that are the Lord Jesus Christ, with his glory. They're dogs.
And he says, beware of them. Beware of the concision. He says
that we can say this out with all honesty, and I say it. I
can say it. Any true preacher of the Word,
a man that's worth his salt, preaches the gospel, can say
in all honesty that the gospel I preach You do well to bear
with me. You do well to hear what I'm
saying to you, that I'm preaching the gospel. And if any man preach
any other gospel than what I'm preaching, let him be at first." And as Paul said it again, I'll
say it again, in case you didn't hear me the first time. The gospel
I preach this morning and the gospel I'll preach this evening
is the only gospel. It's the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and concerning him, his person, his work, It's the only
gospel. If any man's not preaching the
gospel concerning him and him alone, his lordship, his imputed
righteousness, let him be accursed. Let him be accursed. Anathema
maranatha, cursed when the Lord comes. And we're the circumcision. This is God's church, I believe.
Truly, there's some believers here. I know it. There's some
believers here because they have these three marks. They worship
God in the Spirit. We don't have all this paraphernalia,
we don't have all these gimmicks and tricks and things that try
to get people to feel religious. Organ playing softly, we don't
have an organ. Piano playing softly and trying
to woo, altar calls like people talk about. I think it was Barbara
that said to someone, asking about an altar call here, she
said, There's no salvation in this
bench or whatever. It's in Christ, and that's what
we say every time we stand up here. Come to Christ. Go to Christ. Look to Christ. Get to Christ.
Look, come, go, something. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Him and Him alone. And get everybody out of your
way. Get to Him, whatever it takes. And we worship God in
spirit. God is not worshipped with men's
hands, he's a spirit, and he seeks such a worshipping. Worship
him in spirit and in truth. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus.
We rejoice in who he is, like he said in verse 1, what he's
done, and where he is now, that he intercedes for us. He's our
great mediator. And we have absolutely no confidence
in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. God has given you such a love
for me or whoever, Brother Jim Byrd or Don Fortner or whoever
it may be. And God has graciously upheld
these men, and that's what it is, restraining grace of God
that keeps any man from following and revealing himself to be what
he really is by nature. That is a child of hell. And it could be that God has
given you I love for these people, but don't put any confidence. We look to Christ and him alone.
Our confidence, our trust is in him and him alone. Now, Paul
said in verse 4, though I might also have confidence in the flesh,
if any other man thinketh he hath something to brag about,
I've got more. Now, let me put this in a little
modern-day language so you can understand it. I hope you'll
take it for what it's worth. I'm just trying to make it understandable. and make it, just make it relative. He said, I'll circumcise, he
said, if anybody wants to talk about their heritage and all,
he said, I'll circumcise the eighth day of the Stock of Israel.
Now I was, do you know that I was one of
the first babies born when the 13th Street Baptist Church was
organized? I was born in 1955, the year
it was organized. I was carried over to where they
were meeting in a school building. And I was circumcised and brought
up in a, that's what he goes on to say, a tribal Benjamin,
a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was brought up in a good old
Baptist family. A son of a Baptist preacher.
Who can say that? Who here can say that? You're
talking about baptized. I've been baptized twice, but
not only that, I used to swim in the baptistery. I've been baptized more than
anybody could possibly be baptized. Yeah, I have. As such, in the
law, a Pharisee. Yeah, I was a Pharisee. Sure
was. Concerning Zingalem, well, my
mom and dad liked to get out my Bible when I was eight. I
had a little Bible, a little red Bible. I was eight years
old, and I used to write poems in that Bible, poems and little
verses that I quoted and all. It sounded real good, real orthodox,
real Calvinistic, real good. They were real proud of it. Concerning
Zeal, Paul said, I persecuted the church. Paul, you know, went
about to carry throughout the land his brand of religion and
persecuted all those he disagreed with. Touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. I'll not touch that. But I can say this with the Apostle
in verse 7, what things were gain to me, they were just a
waste of time. Those things that I thought were
profitable to me, I grew up in religion, grew up in a religious
home, under religious parents, baptized at an early age. I could
quote doctrine and so forth. It didn't do me any good. I had
to come to know Christ. And I count that, well I don't,
I count it profitable. Paul said to young Timothy that
he was thankful for his mother and his grandmother that had
taught him the scriptures to make him wise unto salvation. But only Christ can save. only
he could save. And those things that I thought
were so, that might recommend me to God and might make me,
you know, be born in a home like that and being raised up in a
Calvinistic church and all that, it didn't. It didn't profit me.
It didn't profit me. It didn't show me Christ. It
really didn't. I had to meet him personally. Verse 8. Yea,
doubtless, I can all things but loss. for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ my Lord? All things but loss. Do you count
your past life as just one big loss? As just one big... I know you do, Bob. Oh, anybody that wouldn't...
Oh, boy. Do you count your life just one
big... Vanity. Vanity. Vanity. useless episode up until when
you came to know Christ? What were you doing? Just engrossed
in yourself and sin and everything else. And that's what Paul says,
all those things that I thought would recommend me to God and
all those things I thought were beneficial to me, just lost now
that I know Him for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ,
my Lord. Those things that I thought were so beautiful. Those things
that I thought I enjoyed, the pleasures of sin for a season,
like young Moses, who esteemed the approaches of Christ's greater
treasures, greater than all the treasures of Egypt. Some of you,
I was like a young Solomon, you know. I dove into it, into this
world and all that's in it. Kept not anything back from my
cell. It was all lost. It was all vanity. vanity of vanity, but the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. And Paul says, for whom I suffered
the loss of all things. I can't say that, my soul. I
can't say that, but I can say this, I really, I want to be
willing, I want to be willing, and I can say this in all honesty, for the gospel of Christ, for the sake of God's glory.
the love of you people. I left my home and family to
come down here. I say that in all honesty. I've suffered the
loss of all things because he's abundantly blessed me on top
of that, just given me more. But all that's behind. And that's
what Paul says here in a moment, pressing forward. And Paul said,
I count all those things that I used to think were profitable
to me and would recommend me to God, my religious heritage
and so forth, just worthless rubbish, that I may win Christ. That I may win Christ. Win Him. How do you win Christ? He's a prize. He goes on to say
here, the prize, or how I call it, of God in Christ. How do
you win Christ? Is it by being the strongest? You know, the
fighter who fights, the one who wins, is the strongest. Is that
the way? No, the psalm says not to the
strong is the battle, but to the weak. To the weak. The weakest. God has chosen the weak things.
The weak things, things that are not. How do you win Christ?
By laying down and giving up. That's how you win it. You win
His favor like that. Laying down and giving up like
a dead dog. Dead dog. Like old Mephibosheth. Well,
who am I? What am I? That you should show much such.
Come on in, sit at the table, son. That I may win Christ in
verse 9. And be found in Him. And here's salvation in a verse.
in a verse of Scripture, verse 9, to be found in him. Like that illustration I gave
this morning of the ant crawling under that rock, Moses up on
that mountain crawling in that rock to hide him from the overflowing
scourge of God's wrath. Salvation is being placed in
Christ. It's being placed in him. It's
being put under the shadow of his wings. It's being covered
with his righteousness. That's what he goes on to say
here. Not over my own righteousness, which is of the law, of my doings,
of my dyings, but that which is through the faith, look at
it. Not in, but of Christ. His faithfulness, what he has
done. Not even my faith. Not even my faith will save me.
I don't have enough. You don't have enough. I don't
care how long you live, you won't have enough to merit anything
with God. He said to those disciples that
walked with him day in and day out for three years and beheld
his glory, he said to them, oh, you have little faith. He said,
if you just had faith, it's very much the same. And we haven't come close to
doing the things that they did. Greater works, he said. Shall
you do it? I need to know that he's been
faithful. That's what I need. I need to be found in Him, resting
upon, looking to His faithfulness. He abides faithful. That's what
Paul told to Timothy. If I believe not, then He abides
faithful. And on my dying bed, if I'm a
vegetable, if I forget the name Jesus Christ, I can't call it
out. He abides faithful. And He still has a hold on me.
So I need to be found in Him. When God calls that role, I need
to be under the letter C. I don't want to be grouped alphabetically.
I want to be under C. I want to be under that name.
I want to have that name attached to me. Christ. When he says,
Paul made him, I want Christ to say, Here! Here. Be found in him. Not having my
own religious heritage and righteousness, anything I've done, anything
I ever will do. Not being found. I want God to
see these things. I want God to see those things
when I get up to glory. Because they're filthy rags,
you see. I want him to smell them. I want to be like Jacob
when he comes in before his father. I want him to be able to smell
any self-righteousness on me. I want him to be able to feel
me and not feel any sin on me. And there's only one way, and
that's to be found in Christ. Have that robe of his righteousness
wrapped around me so that he can't see me, so he can't smell
me, any sin on me. in his self-righteousness, which
is of the law of my doing. But that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, and God gives
it. It's that imputed righteousness that God and God alone must put
on the account of a person. That God must choose a person
and put it on that person. He and he alone can do that.
We can't earn it. He must decide. And God's mercy for him. He delights
to show mercy. He delights to put that righteousness
on people. And I want to be one of them. I believe I am. Verse
10, and here it comes back to my first, what I said to begin
with, that I may know Him. That I may know Him, to rejoice
in who He is. I want to read the psalm of Solomon
Harry and say, that's Him. I want to be able to say when
He when there's a time, a season apart from Him. Have you, anybody
seen Him? Somebody tell me about Him. That I may know Him. I want to rejoice in Him, who
He is and what He did. I don't want to ever hear the
gospel without a tear in my eye, for Christ's sakes. To base in gratitude, to hide
of ingratitude, to hear that wonder story and not be touched by it. Like
I said before, you know, God ought to drop the floor out from
under us. If we ever grow weary and tired of hearing that story,
my soul. But He remembers our frame. He knows that we're blessed.
He knows we grow tired, but I don't, I don't, that's my desire. I
don't want to ever grow tired of hearing about it. That's not
a wrong desire, is it? I don't want to ever grow tired
of hearing about it. I really, I don't grow tired of hearing
about my daughter Hannah. Never. Y'all, y'all probably getting
tired of hearing about her. But I don't mind, because I love
her dearly. And I don't want April to grow
tired of hearing of Christ. I don't want you to grow tired of it. But I may know Him, and look
at this, the power of His resurrection. Look over Romans chapter 6, Romans
chapter 6, the power of his resurrection. Romans chapter 6 verse 4. You
know, Christ not only proved that he was accepted by the Father
in rising from the grave without sin, but this was indicative
of what he did for us. what he has done for us. He says
in verse four, we're buried with him by baptism into death, that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. And I can say this with all honesty,
and you should be able to say this as a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that old things have passed away, that all things
have become new. They're not what it was. Not
what I was. Not what I want to be. Not what
I'm going to be, but I'm not what I was by His grace. Old
things have passed away. Things have become new since
I've seen that He rose from the grave and sits at the right hand
of God for me. Oh boy, that I may know Him and
the power of His resurrection. That accomplished something.
It accomplished my eternal salvation. It accomplished my regeneration.
It accomplished my sanctification and my justification. Who is
he that condemned me? Because Christ died, and he rose
again. He was even at the right hand
of the Father, and he makes intercession for us. It accomplished something,
and I want to know that. I want to know that. I want to
be taken and consumed with it in the fellowship of his suffering. Look at Philippians 1 verse 29. Brother Rick and I were talking
about this the other night. We were talking about this, this
thing of being a disciple of Christ and being ashamed. He says here in verse 28, look
at this, see if this doesn't make you hang your head in shame.
Sit in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which to them is
an evident token of perdition. That is, turning back to you of salvation and that
of God. But only you is given in the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. As he
now said over and over again in his word, that if anyone takes
up his cross and follows after me, the persecution will arrive.
He'll be hated of all men for my name's sake. I don't want
to be despised by men. I don't want to have enemies.
Nobody does. Nobody in his right mind wants people to hate him
and be down on him, but if that's what it takes to be a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'd like to know something about
it. Wouldn't you? Yeah, I would. He said, woe is
unto you if men speak well of you. I want to be so consumed
and taken up with his glory and his honor that I'm ready to speak
his name at the drop of a hat and to have people hating him
for it. Somebody said one time that a fanatic Maybe somebody
loves Christ more than you do. Well, I want to be considered
a fanatic. Yeah, I do. Fellowship of his sufferings
and being made conformable unto his death. Conformable unto his
death. I tell you, a lot of people laid
down their lives for this gospel. They really, literally laid down
their lives for this gospel. He calls on the same thing for
you and me. Now, we may not be under the persecution where somebody
says, now you either renounce this faith or you die. We may
not be under that, but it may come to that someday. And I want
to be able to renounce everything for Him. Verse 11, whatever it
takes. If by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead. And I say, I hadn't already
attained it. I haven't. Neither were I already
perfect, or I'm a long way from being a mature believer in Christ,
my soul. I know my shortcoming. I'm not
already perfect, but I tell you, I'm following after. You better
want to give it a run. I follow after, if that I may
apprehend that for which also I've been apprehended. This is
a two-fold grab and hold-up, like old Jacob at Bethel, you
know. I'm not letting you go. Well, the angel had a hold of
him first. And you wouldn't let him go, really. The Lord himself
wasn't going to let him go, and Jacob said, I'm not going to
let you go either. He says, I want to apprehend that
for which I've been apprehended of. He's got a hold of me, and
I want to have a hold of him. I do. It's better that I count
myself to have apprehended. And I don't say the things I've
said tonight for any personal reasons at all. I'm just pouring out my heart
to you, like I said. And I sure don't count myself as apprehended.
I don't come close to being what God calls on us to be. But this one thing I do, I'm
going to forget this morning's message. I'm going to forget
my prayer ten minutes ago, thirty minutes, forty minutes ago. I'm
going to forget what I just said previous to this. I'm going to
forget it and reach forward. I'm going to reach forward unto
those things that are before me. Who? What? Who rather? Him. Christ. Looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of my faith. Looking unto Him. The author and the finisher.
My only help. My only hope. Looking to Him and Him alone.
Forget it. Forget the past. Forget yesterday. I hope you'll do the same. We
get down on ourselves, and we tend to look at our past. We look within right now at the
present. Let's look forward. Let's look
to Him. Look up. Look to Him. Press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. It's a high calling. It's the most blessed privilege
on the face of the earth. That's what we talked about this
morning, this thing of being a member in Christ's body. Not
our duty, our responsibilities and all. They're not duties.
Privileges. Privileges. Every man doesn't
have this privilege being placed in this body and how we should
esteem it highly. Everything else is the most blessed,
the highest calling on the face of the earth. Like the young
man that quit being a missionary to become an ambassador of a
country. And his father, who was also
a missionary, said, My son has taken a demotion. Taken a demotion. I heard Brother Donnie Bell say
that. He said, If I get elected President of the United States,
it would be a demotion. A step down. The prize of the
high calling. Christ said, Heaven is preached
since John, since the prophets and from John the Baptist. And
since that day, people press into it. Press. Strive. This ain't no two-bit, like I
said, one day a week, following after. It's a following after.
Continuing. Give me Christ or else I die. That's what it is. And I say
this in all honesty, based upon the Scriptures, that unless you
hunger and thirst after Christ, you have no wise entry in. No
wise. Let us, therefore, as many as
be mature, or would be mature, be thus minded. Have these things
in mind. Let these be the desires of your
heart also. Be thus minded. And if anything,
you'd be otherwise. If anything takes up your thoughts
and your desire and your hearts, if anything gets in the way,
I don't care who it is or what it is, pray that God might reveal
it to you. That's what he says there. Pray
that God might reveal this unto you. Well, that's just a few. I had
a whole message prepared, you know, and I just scribbled a
few things down on a piece of paper. The desires of my heart
felt a burden to talk about it. I hear of troubles and trials
and problems and this and that and
the other. And I'm tempted to say with Paul at times, I wish
he didn't have to be bothered. I want to be, I just want to
worship him. And that's what I want for you.
I want you to come here, and that's what I want for this church.
I want us to, just to be a group, an assembly of people seeking
to worship God and nothing else. Not seeking our own whatever. All seek their own policy and
not the things of Christ. I want us to be seeking the things
of Christ. Not me, not mine, whatever. but to be taken up
with Him, to come and see it and tell me some more about Him.
We'd like to learn some more about this person. Sirs, we would
see Jesus like they see Him, like Solomon sees Him. Has anybody
seen Him? Are you going to talk about Him tonight? Well, I hope
so. And that's what I want for me,
and that's what I want for you, to be taken up with Him. And
I tell you, if you are, all this other stuff will God will show
that even unto you, what Paul said there. God will show you,
God will teach you, that there's nothing worth troubling you,
there's nothing worth being upset over, there's nothing worth whatever,
whatever. That He and He alone is the only
one we need when we're depressed. Seek to be found in Him, to know
Him. Stand with me and be dismissed
in prayer. Let's bow for prayer. Our Lord, we once again feel
our helplessness, our insufficiency to even read your word, let alone
comment upon it. but how we appreciate your word,
how we need it, esteem it as our bread. It's the one thing
needful, to hear about Him who loved us and washed us from our
sins in His own blood, and how we need to hear about Him over
and over again until we actually learn Him and be found in Him
win him and come to know him. Lord, grant it. Grant it for
this church. Grant it for me that you bless
us through the understanding of your word to see Christ, him
and him alone. And when we wake up from this
sleep that we're in, that we would see Jesus only and be taken
up with him and follow him in the way. I said, blind man. Lord, I pray for these people.
I pray for everyone. I pray that you might intimately,
reveal yourself intimately to each one. It's not a great thing
for our great God to be able to do great things. It's not
a hard thing. It's not hard to save how many
or save many people or a few. It's a life to our God. So I
ask for every individual in here. young and old, our children,
that you reveal yourself personally to each individual. Cause them
to know you. God grant it, for your glory
and for our eternal, everlasting good. Bind us together in love
for one another. Bring us back to worship again.
And be with us tomorrow as we travel, be with Bob and Becky
and their children. In Christ's name we pray these
things for His glory. Amen.