Jude 24-25 - Failure?

[0:00] Father, we remember the gospel and then we forget the gospel. We trust in the gospel and then we start to trust in ourselves. We think that you have paid it all and then we think we have to pay it.

[0:15] Father, we are confused and we need your help. So Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the gospel. Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would bring the gospel home to us in a new and powerful way this morning and that your Holy Spirit would continually bring the gospel home to the very center of who we are.

[0:37] And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. So I'm going to confess something to you all.

[0:48] I'm going to share something as a confession. And I'm confessing this or sharing this with you and I don't want you to say anything about it afterwards. Like I'm not fishing for a compliment.

[0:59] Like I'm really not fishing for a compliment. It's a confession. So last Sunday, I think I preached one of the worst sermons I've preached in years. That's why I don't want you to say anything about it.

[1:11] You know, I don't want you to say, No, George, that wasn't bad or that was good. I don't want you to say anything about it. I just want to confess to you what's going on in my mind. So actually in the sermon last week, I was thinking to myself, I made a big mistake saying I was going to preach this week.

[1:26] I was really jet lagged. I hadn't realized how jet lagged I was. It felt as if I didn't have a brain, but I had cotton candy between my ears. And I got my order mixed.

[1:37] I wasn't able to finish my preparation to the extent I wanted. And while I was preaching, I lost my place in my notes. So I was standing up here feeling absolutely terrible, thinking this is a really bad sermon.

[1:52] How do I get out of it gracefully? And even as I was going home, I was just thinking about how bad a sermon it was. My wife, she is so lovely. I shared with her later on how bad I thought the sermon was.

[2:05] And she's so lovely because she could have said, George, that wasn't your worst sermon. Gosh, there's been a lot of worse ones that you've said, preached over the last couple of weeks. She didn't say anything. She just listened.

[2:17] And I said to her, one of the nice things about being jet lagged is, if I hadn't been jet lagged, I would have been depressed about it. But because I was jet lagged, I was too tired to be depressed about how bad my sermon was.

[2:29] But I still felt I'd really done a very, very bad job. And I did feel bad in my own jet lagged type of way. And I'm sharing this with you because it has a, it's a very, I mean, every single one of us struggles with failure.

[2:42] And I, and one of the hard things sometimes for a minister is that when I feel like I fail, sometimes I fail in front of people. Like today, if I fail, it's just in front of 40 or 50 or 60 of you, but sometimes it's a lot more.

[2:56] And that can be a hard thing. It's actually one of the things you can pray for a pastor and pray for a worship leader as well, who sometimes can go home afterwards and thinking, gosh, I wish I could dial that back and do it all over again or whatever.

[3:08] So, but the scripture text today that we're, it's our memory text for the week. It's a very, very powerful text for you to memorize for those of us who struggle with failure.

[3:19] So Andrew, if you could put the text up on the screen, it's at Jude chapter 20, at Jude chapter 24. There's Jude 24 and 25. Jude is a short book. It only has 25 verses.

[3:30] And that's why there's no chapter in front of it. They just list the verses. And here is the text. And I'd like you to read it with me out loud.

[3:42] Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.

[4:04] Amen. It's a very, very, I have to confess, I think this is the third week we've been doing these one verse sermons. And I had a hard time memorizing this because there's lots of bits and pieces to it.

[4:16] I think I could tell you what it's about, but I don't know if I could memorize it bang on. But it's a very, very deep text, a very, very beautiful text, and it's a powerful text for those of us who struggle with failure at different times.

[4:28] Why don't we just read it together again one more time, and then we'll look at how it addresses specifically what I was just sharing with you about how I felt about last week's sermon. So do you read it out loud with me again, please?

[4:40] Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.

[5:01] Amen. So, you know, if you look at this text, what is this text? Here's the thing, which one of the many things that really jumps out at me about this text. It says at the beginning, Now to him, that's God, who is able to keep you from stumbling, and the image there is that not only will I not stumble, but that when I actually stand in the presence of God on the last day, it won't be that as soon as I get into God's presence, I'm sort of falling and falling on my face.

[5:33] It has this image, the stumbling image also has this image that he'll stop you from being ruined. And God is the one who has the power and the ability, only God, to make me actually, to make sure that I don't fall into ruination, I don't fall and damage and hurt myself.

[5:52] God, and only God is the one who is able to make me actually stand in his presence, not cower, and that when I stand in his presence, and when you stand in his presence, that we'll stand before him blameless, and we'll be in the presence of his glory, and there will be great joy.

[6:11] There will be great joy in me, there will be great joy amongst the angels, and I don't just stand before God in his presence, the presence of his glory all by myself, but I stand with others who have been redeemed by Jesus, and we stand in God's presence blameless, and it's like everybody is just hooping and hollering, standing ovation, songs of praises.

[6:37] That's this picture of God, of what he does. So if you could put up the first point, Andrew, here's the thing. You cannot add or subtract to what Jesus accomplished for you.

[6:51] You cannot add or subtract to what Jesus has accomplished for you. You see, on one level, what the gospel says is this, that God sees my great profound need, and when he sees my great profound need, he sends his son, and his son takes upon himself all of the demands of justice that people might have about you, that especially if they knew all of your secrets and knew everything that you'd ever done in your life, and if everybody knew every single thing that you'd ever done and every single thing that you'd ever thought and everything that you could have done but you didn't do and everything that you could have thought but you didn't think, and if people knew that, there'd be a demand that there'd be some consequence to you.

[7:40] And the gospel is this good news that God knows every secret of every heart, and nothing is hid from its sight, and he saw our inability to actually pay for that, to make that right.

[7:55] The demands of justice would unmake us because we just literally could not pay and make restitution for everything that we've done, and God saw that that was the case, and he sends his son, and when Jesus dies upon the cross, Jesus, in a sense, not in a very, very real and true sense, he is saying, all of the demands of justice, George, that should fall upon you, that will unmake you, I will put your hand in mine so that I will be your substitute and your representative, and all of those demands of justice will fall on me.

[8:32] But that's not all. The gospel is even more glorious than that. The reason the gospel is even more glorious than that is that Jesus came and lived the life that I was supposed to live and wasn't able to live and could never live.

[8:50] I regularly live my life in a way that sort of tells God to forget about me for a while, to go and do your own thing, and I have my own plans, my own desires, my own attempting to seek God's glory to be important.

[9:06] I have my own things I want to do. I can't live a life which is in perfect communion and fellowship and relationship with God the Father. And the other wonderful thing about the gospel is that not only does Jesus deal with the demands of justice that would be made against us if people knew every single thing there was to know about us, but Jesus has lived that perfect life life of communion and fellowship and oneness with God the Father.

[9:33] And when Jesus, hanging on the cross and then dying and rising from the dead, when he invites us to put our faith and our trust in him, not only are the demands of justice paid, but a life of perfect righteousness, a life of perfect communion with the Father that Jesus lives, that becomes ours as well.

[9:52] So what that means is that I can't subtract. It isn't as if after I put my hand in Jesus and trust him to be my savior, that all of a sudden I can do some stuff and Jesus says, whoa, I can only pay up to so much for what you've done, George, but now you've gone beyond the pale.

[10:10] I can't pay for that. Or it's not the case that God was looking down at me and said, well, you know, I sort of would have let George into heaven just sort of grudgingly.

[10:21] But now that I've seen how good a sermon he preached, he can come in. In other words, as if I have to add to what Jesus has done. This is what the text is saying now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling.

[10:33] In other words, from falling, from entering into ruination. He is the one who keeps me from stumbling and he presents me blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God, our savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

[10:47] So what this means is that if I preach a sermon which is so good that next week there's a lineup to get into church, that doesn't add anything in terms of how I stand before God.

[11:01] And if I preach a sermon which so sucks that next week it's only the person paid to be the worship leader who's here with me, it doesn't mean that I lose my place in God's standing because Jesus pays it all and his life covers me all.

[11:17] That's what the gospel means. That's what the gospel means. You see, when I start to really get down on myself after I've done a particular failure which is a little bit different.

[11:32] I'm not talking about saying to the Lord after a sermon, Lord, I did some things which I was inattentive during the week and I didn't apply myself to the week and I ask your forgiveness and I ask that you help me to live a better life.

[11:48] That's a good thing. But when I beat myself up, when my self-worth and my identity is troubled over failing to achieve my goals, what I show is is that my identity and my justification and my righteousness isn't in the gospel but it is in what I do.

[12:16] You see, here's one of the things. I don't know where you are with God if you're here and if you're a seeker and you've come here, one of the things which often bothers non-Christians about Christians is that we just sort of, we're all down on sins, you know, all those bad people who go drinking all the time, all those bad people who vote for the wrong party, all those bad people who, you know, are sexually naughty, all those bad people and for a lot of non-Christians they look at us and what they see isn't grace but they see self-righteousness and often they're correct because you see, my example of what I shared about how I feel, I felt bad after failing to preach the sermon that I thought I should be able to preach that my identity and my self-esteem sort of depended upon and it shows that really at bottom I still struggle with self-righteousness and self-justification and it's not just sins like doing naughty things that keep us far from God, religion also keeps us far from God because religion can just become a means by which we think we chalk up enough brownie points to make ourselves right with God and the wonderful news of the gospel is that nobody can do that but that, if that was the case that nobody could do that that would only be depressing but the gospel is the good news that Jesus has done it he has done it completely and utterly for us and so

[13:51] I will stand someday before God not because I'm a pastor not because I'm I'm a good husband or a so-so husband or a great dad or a so-so dad or because I'm a Canadian or I don't stand I will only stand before God because God was the one who sent power in the person of his son so that when Jesus died upon after living a perfect sinless life in communion with the Father and dying upon the cross he has paid the justice demands of justice that needed to be paid and his perfect life has stood for me and when I put my faith and trust in Jesus accepting that this is what God has provided to make me be able to stand without stumbling and blameless in the presence of his glory with great joy when I accept that he has accomplished and done all of that in Jesus and that stands for me and the rest of my life I cannot add to what Jesus has accomplished nor can I take it away that is the gospel and that's what this text so powerfully reminds us of now to him who is able now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord now some of you might say well in fact this happened just a couple of months ago when I was trying to communicate this to somebody and they said well if that's true they actually said two things they said well actually

[15:32] George that explains a couple of Christians that I've worked with as baristas because you know what George some of these guys like some of your Christians who work with me and work with me in some of these stores like they just sort of think oh yeah okay well I screwed up or I'm lazy or you know I'm gossipy and if you sort of somebody challenges them on doing a shoddy job you get this sense that they just sort of think that they're better than other people and now I sort of understand it they sort of think that they got this free pass from God that no matter what they do they're going to be right with God like George what on earth would give any human being any motivation to try to live a good responsible life if they believed what the gospel said that's a really good question let's read the text again out loud and see what the text says about it could you read it with me please if you could put it back up Andrew thank you now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forever amen so here's the thing this text actually is a here's it's very interesting

[17:01] I didn't think of saying this at the time the last time I had a conversation with somebody about this and they pointed this out to me but in a very very interesting way the comment that who would ever possibly live a good life if the gospel was true that's actually a very very profound insight to what we human beings are like because in fact what we actually want is a free pass isn't it we want to be like gods like in a very very curious way because this person still might think that you know when I in fact the person I was talking to in fact they would just say that when you die you go to a better place and they might actually say that it is possible for human beings to get better and better and better but this question this observation of the gospel shows that at a deeper level she actually didn't believe that human beings could get better and better and better because she sort of understood that the heart of human beings is this desire to take advantage of God and so if you could put up the next point Andrew what the gospel is telling us what this text is reminding us is that when you receive the gospel Jesus becomes your savior not your enabler and Pierre shared with us about how he was an alcoholic and I use enabler in the alcoholic sense that often what happens with alcoholics is they have somebody who enables their alcoholism they cover up for the alcoholic they make excuses for the alcoholic they don't confront the alcoholic with tough love they become an enabler and you see the fact of the matter is is that the human fundamental human desire that only the

[18:43] Christian faith brings this out is that the fundamental human desire is that we want to be like God and we somehow or another think that we can get away with that fantasy despite the fact that the tiniest little virus makes us sick despite the fact that we all die despite the fact that we were all born and the world was existing completely and utterly before we were born yet somehow or another we want to be the center we want to be like God we want to get the glory we want to have majesty we want to have the dominion we want to have the authority in very small or large ways that's how we live our lives and so actually this text you see hearing about the fact that Jesus does it all for us in the gospel in some ways reveals to us whether what we've actually done is we think we've pulled a fast one on God God is giving me the gospel therefore I can get away with everything you know and therefore we can become you know lazy we can become indifferent to criticism and all of that type of stuff we just think that God that we've deceived God about our true motives and that God is now just enabling us in our project of being God but what does the text say

[19:51] I mean what is it that the end is why is it that Jesus redeems us Jesus doesn't redeem me so I can stand in the presence of the kingdom of George to receive glory and majesty and dominion and authority and power I am made right to stand in God's presence and when and the text reminds me of what it's like to stand in God's presence that first of all you can only stand in God's presence if you're blameless you can only stand in God's presence if he does what you cannot do the gospel becomes home to us when we call out to God and say God I can't do this please help me please rescue me the Christian life doesn't begin when you necessarily know all this theology the theology the cross for me when I became a Christian it all came down to this basic sense that there was a type of a life and a peace which I did not have and could not create in my own and I just

[21:01] I needed God I needed Jesus I needed the Holy Spirit to help me and I couldn't articulate that I didn't know a lot of the Bible all I knew was that there was this incompleteness and this out of whackness that I couldn't fix and that Jesus could and I put my faith and trust in him but then as you read the Bible you learn more and more and more and more and more about it and this text is describing how Jesus redeems us to stand in God's presence that the end of the days there will be an end of the days and God will make all things new he will bring things to their proper end and to say that I will stand in God's presence blameless with great joy not grudgingly on my part or with God's part and I stand in God's presence and when I stand in God's presence I will see and you will see his glory that just means he's just fully revealed as God and he's just the brightness is such that it would blind us if we saw him on this side of the grave and majesty means that we have this sense of

[22:21] God's great transcendence it's as if you were when I was in Angola a year ago I stood on this cliff and on one hand it was a something that I was a place of horror because up until a few years earlier the government would throw dissidents over the edge of this huge cliff to their death now they turned it into a tourist attraction but when you stood on this cliff you had this huge vista it just seemed as if the earth fell away and it went on for distance and distance and distance and it's a vague image of what it would be like to actually see God to have this sense of his largeness his greatness this vast depth that goes on and on and on and to acknowledge his dominion that he is over me and that it's good and that he's authoritative over me and it's good and so God in the gospel Jesus becomes my savior I abandon myself to him he doesn't become my enabler and and the fact is is that when you now know that everything is done by Jesus and that he saves you to stand before

[23:30] God God it checks my desire for him to enable me in my God project and it frees me up to take risks it frees me up to try it frees me up to know that I can actually look at the really really bad things I've done in my life and I can look at them and I don't have to worry about them because God knows all about it and it's been paid for by Jesus that actually is the gospel grips you it provides this energy to try to take risks and to look at yourself in new ways because you have this profound security of what Jesus has done for you on the cross but then some might say well George if God's just going to do it anyway like why is he waiting like why doesn't he just sort of come down say okay I've had enough I'm going to come down right now and I'm going to take Ottawa I'm going to take Canada and I'm going to take the Middle East I'm going to take Iran I'm just going to go to a better place right now just like that and get it over with why are we why is like just we'll all go to a better place right now if

[24:39] God's just going to do it why did he do that well if you Andrew could you put up the text let's read the text to you know one of the things about the Canadian view which is what the Canadian view is when we die we all go to a better place and it sounds superficially as if it's really superior to the Christian way but I mean the question we have to ask is really okay really like I'm going to die and against my will God is going to put me in a better place like who's better place like is it going to be the better place for the

[25:41] Ayatollah is it going to be the better place for Putin is it going to be the better place for Stalin is going to be my better place like who gets to determine that and he's going to do it against my will like what's up with that like the Canadian view is really a type of cheap grace and it really if you think about it if people actually thought about it for more than a few seconds there would be all sorts of people who would say that I mean there's a t-shirt that I saw just the other day about how I'm not going to heaven I'm going to hell where all my best partying friends will be or something to that effect and the fact of the matter is the Canadian view is just as if God is going to overwhelm our freedom and you know what if God overwhelms our freedom we're not going to be there as if it's a happy place I mean a couple of years ago I had this really pushy guy

[26:41] I didn't realize how pushy he was and it was only as I got to know him we ended up being put on this team together this sort of cross denominational team of putting on an activity and I didn't realize how pushy he was until I started to work with him but he was really pushy and so one day without any warning he comes to the service and he basically pushes me and pushes me that after the service rather than doing what I want to do okay fallen George after the service chat with you folks I go to Starbucks I buy a dark roast coffee I go home I eat maybe I have a nap I get some downtime I feed my introverted soul because I'm introverted no no I had to go out for lunch with him and meet all these other people and it just went on and on and on and on and on and on I was not happy so what would happen if

[27:45] God just came and said I'm going to make all of you go to heaven and you're going to be in my presence and you're going to hear everybody saying that all the majesty no if you put up the next point Andrew see what this powerful scripture teaches us is this the God grounds your freedom to reject or receive the gospel because it is for freedom that Christ has set you free God grounds your freedom to reject or receive the gospel because it is for freedom that Christ has set you free I mean that's the wonderful thing that's why when we get stand before God those who've accepted the gospel and those who've rejected it nobody will be able to have an excuse God will show them how he has given them sufficient freedom to accept or reject the gospel and why is it that

[28:46] God grounds our ability to be free why because freedom is central to love it's central God does me the perfect life that I cannot attain he takes my doom upon him and he gives me his destiny it's all offered freely all with grace out of love and it's all to further and deepen us being free to finally stand before God and I've told you this before but what it will be is we come in to heaven and it will be all bent and broken and stuff like right all bent and broken and we finally appear before God face to face clothed in the righteousness of Jesus and I can sort of see that there might be some pain as we stand and we start to become straight but whatever pain there is in that will be beyond the greatest joy and greatest pleasure of anything we've ever experienced on earth and the cry of our heart the

[29:55] Holy Spirit ministry in our heart we will say free at last free at last thank God almighty I am free at last because the gospel works to make us free it is a picture of freedom to stand in God's presence with great joy and hear and join the cry of all of the created order and all of the angels and all of humanity saying God your name is savior you've saved us through Jesus you are the only God to you all belong all glory all majesty all dominion all authority and say that with a smile he makes us free but some might say well George that sounds really good but right now my life sucks right now my life sucks so what's up with that

[31:08] Andrew could you put a scripture let's read it again and see what the text helps us to understand that could you say it with me please now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forever amen now the normal habit of our heart is when we hear that somebody's life sucks is we want to go in one of two directions isn't it if you're all like me the natural tendency would either be to say well actually there's three directions we might go one direction is to say well you know life just is really really hard it's just hard have a good day the other direction we might go is to tell them to try harder to say you need to try harder you need to buckle up you need to start memorizing the

[32:12] Bible more you need to go to church more often or you need to speak in tongues or you just need to do do do do do do do or the other thing we might start to do is try to give them some therapy we might say what was it like with your dad I'm just joking get in touch with your inner child deal with your self esteem and try to give them some therapy but what we don't do is actually try to apply the gospel to them you see we very easily fall into the idea that the gospel makes us right with God and I just say this is the gospel makes us right with God okay done that in older days we'd say got the t-shirt nowadays we'd say got the tattoo and got that but then we start to move on and live our life as if it's all about how much we try or therapy but the fact the matter is is the gospel isn't just something that makes us right with God that how we grow as

[33:13] Christians is by the Holy Spirit applying the gospel to more and more of our lives so that the gospel becomes real to us in a deeper and deeper way could you put up the point please Andrew the point is that to grow as a Christian your greatest need is not moralism in other words do this do this do this do this do this or therapy it is for the Holy Spirit to apply the gospel to the heights and depths and breadth of who you are and what you do you see last Sunday after I thought I'd done a very bad job on my sermon and once again I don't want you to say anything about my sermon last week I don't want you to say it at all because this is like a confession time to you it's not a convoluted way for me whatever comfort or therapy or that was actually good

[34:14] I don't want to say anything about it but the fact of the matter is is that what happens what happens to me when that goes on is that I actually think my standing with God depends upon my own efforts my own accomplishments I no longer think that it's the gospel that makes me right with God and what I need is it it starts to show that at a very functional practical level I have some other God at work that what the God is at work is maybe the God of success in Canadian standards which would be how big the church is or the God that is at work is for me to be able to have certain types of self esteem about my accomplishments so often what happens is failure reveals to us what we really worship it reveals to us what we really worship and where we're finding our identity I don't find my identity in the gospel I find my identity in something else

[35:15] I don't actually worship God saying that to him is all glory majesty dominion and authority whose name is savior and I worship him because he and he alone is able to make me stand before the presence of his glory blameless and with great joy but functionally I worship and trust in something else and my identity is based on other things and so failure is an invitation for me to cry out to God and say God please make the gospel real to my life make it real to me as a pastor make it real to me as a husband as a father as a bureaucrat as a mom as a single person as a gay man as someone suffering gender dysphoria make the gospel real to me help me to find my identity in the gospel people now some of you just in closing might say

[36:23] George that's all very very good but it's not going to work for me George partly it sounds too good to be true and it won't work for me that type of good stuff happens to other people but it doesn't happen to me well let's see what the text says could you put the text up this one more time Andrew could you say it with me again please now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forever amen the amen at the end is saying so be it like it's a solemn affirmation it might be that all we can do is say father help me to have that ever be an ever deeper amen and the whole point of this sermon by the way is if what happens afterwards is you know

[37:27] Jesus more than me that's good if you want to actually memorize this text that's that's I want you to remember the text more than my words but here's the thing Andrew if you could put up the final point please you are not so good or so important that you do not need the gospel and you are not so bad or so unimportant that God does not offer the gospel to you you are not so good or so important that you do not need the gospel and you are not so bad or so unimportant or so broken or so forgotten, or so helpless, or so incompetent, or so unloved, or such a failure, or so unsuccessful, that God does not offer the gospel to you. See, it all comes, it is, one of the things which is so wonderful is when it says in the text here, through Jesus Christ our Lord, because Jesus is real. I mean, non-Christian historians record elements of Jesus's life. Like, Jesus actually really, only a few kooky Marxist communists don't believe Jesus actually existed. Everybody, even skeptics and atheists, know that there's incontrovertible evidence that Jesus actually lived. And so this isn't just a story. This isn't like the Easter bunny. This isn't like the great pumpkin. This isn't like Santa Claus. This is a story about what God actually did in space and time in history, in a way that Roman and Jewish non-Christian historians would write about him.

[39:10] It's actually something that really happened. He really did die. When I was in Jerusalem, just over a week ago, part of the thing which was so wonderful is I'm walking these streets, and I think to myself, Jesus, I mean, obviously there's pavement and everything like that, but Jesus walked these streets. He had to walk up these steep hills under the burning sun looking for some shade. When we were on the temple steps, there's some steps, part of the ruins just outside the, just within the old wall of Jerusalem, and I sent a video about it, like that actually was not destroyed by the Romans. So Jesus's feet were on those steps. And I discovered afterwards that historians believe that after the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on the disciple in the upper rooms, it was on those stairs that the disciples stood and preached to the people.

[40:02] So that when I was sitting there, I was just sitting hundreds of yards from where the Holy Spirit actually fell on people. And it was close to there that Jesus, we don't, might not know precisely where he was buried, but he really did die right near there. And he really did rise from the dead right near there. And it really happened. And he's the only God. And because he's the only God, that doesn't mean that he only has a few. It means he's the only God for every human being. It isn't if he's just the God of the Jews, and there's the God of the Muslims, and there's the God of the Hindus, and there's the God of the Buddhists. If there is in fact only one God, then we are a common humanity, not a fractured humanity. And if he is the only God, then he is the only Savior. And that means his offer to save is to every single human being. He died on the cross, and he lived his sinless life and died on the cross for every single human being. So there is no one that you will meet today who is so good that they do not need the gospel. And there is no one you will meet today who is so important they do not need the gospel. And there is no one that you will meet today who is so unimportant or so bad that the gospel is not offered to them. The gospel is offered to every one of you who are here today. Please stand.

[41:22] Just want to urge you, there's no fancy words, but if you're not sure what your status is with God, there is no better time than today to just to say, Jesus, I don't know everything you've done, but I know that you just say, Jesus, I want you to be my Savior and my Lord. I cannot fix myself.

[41:52] I cannot make myself right. I thank you that you have done what I cannot do. Jesus, be my Savior, be my Lord. I want you to be my Savior and my Lord, just to call out to him to be your Savior. No better time than today. Father, pour out the Holy Spirit upon us. Father, for those of us who are Christians who've received the gospel, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for what he did for us on the cross. Thank you for his sinless life. Thank you, Father, that you through Jesus have done everything that needs to be done with nothing left out, that we will one day stand before you blameless in the presence of your glory with great joy. And you have done everything and only you can do that. We can add or subtract nothing from it. Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that you are Savior. Thank you that the Holy Spirit freed up our hearts to respond to the gospel with yes. Father, we ask that you would continue to pour the Holy Spirit upon us and bring your word to bear into our lives, that the gospel might become more real to us in the heights and depths and breadth of our life, and that when we fail, we might call out to you that the gospel will become more real to us, forming our identity, forming our sense of destiny, and granting us great confidence and boldness in the security and finality of your love. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.