[0:00] What a joy to see everybody. Our regular folks are mostly here and a lot of good friends that we don't see often as Steve already said welcome so glad to see all of you now I'm going to ask Jody right now I saw her in the back taking some photos and the back of your head is prettier.
[0:19] But actually the front of you is what's really beautiful so if you guys will just be kind of smiling she's going to get a nice photo here of everybody. Wow how wonderful.
[0:30] I have to back up because there's so many. There you go. It'll appear that Jody and I were not here that day but the rest of you were. Wonderful. You got it? I think so.
[0:44] Okay good. Good. So share that with me. We'll put it on the or share it with John. We'll put it on the website and that'll be great. Anyway glad to see all of you here today and I want to take a minute to introduce our guest speaker for the day who for those of you that have been here a long time he's no stranger at all.
[1:05] This is Chris Altry and I don't know how many years ago it was it was right as he was finishing college I guess. One summer we had him come as an intern to work with our youth and we had a great summer with him and at that time Renee Hawk was our director of youth and they worked very closely together and did a lot of great activities.
[1:29] Somewhere in the early 2000s. Somewhere in the early 2000s yeah and he was only about six at the time but yeah but he came and did all that.
[1:40] So since then my land the Lord has used this guy. He went on to Southeastern Seminary and received his training there and was ordained to become a pastor and pastored churches in Wilmington and in Wendell and I forget where else.
[1:58] And then down in South Carolina and then I had lost touch with him a little bit and then I heard that he was planting a church in Pittsburgh and Becky and I had a reason to go up that way and we went by and worship with them one morning when they were there starting a new church.
[2:19] They were meeting in a rented room like a meeting area of a hotel there and they had a great worship service and after a while the Lord closed that door and then opened up a door for them to go to Vermont.
[2:33] And now what was amazing about that. What was amazing to me about that not only had he served with us here but when we got to our church had been to Vermont a number of years before he went there and would you believe it the very church that we went to and we did a mission trip with.
[2:56] So I know the Douglass's were there and Kathy was there and the Stones were there and I don't remember who else but a lot of folks were there helping with that mission trip and we had a great time at that church.
[3:07] Well years later that's the very church that God called Chris and Becca to go and pastor. They were in Vermont for seven years freezing to death. Yeah.
[3:19] And then finally the Lord opened the door for him to come back to North Carolina which is their home originally and Sanford area and all and now you're in Fayetteville.
[3:30] And I forgot to ask the name of your church now. Temple Baptist. Temple Baptist in Fayetteville. So he's serving there. His wife Becca with him. We've known Becca since before they were married.
[3:42] She and Steve were good friends way back in the high school days. Steve my son. And then Sam last time I saw him he was just a little guy and now he's bigger than me.
[3:55] That's not saying a lot. I was challenged vertically but anyway. So Brother Chris we're just glad to have you here. Come on share what the Lord's laid on your heart.
[4:07] And when you need to have a slide changed if you'll just say next slide that'll keep our guys in the back awake. Okay. All right. Come on up here brother. Welcome.
[4:18] Well it's good to be home. It's good to be home. Well it is definitely good to be here. To be home. And before I dig in the word if I could just have a few moments.
[4:33] Every good homecoming needs a funny story. And I just want you to know how I got here. Dr. Garrett is right. The Howards and the Garretts were my Sunday school teachers and youth leaders for so many of us at First Baptist Sanford.
[4:50] And God called me in the ministry when I was in high school. My first two years of college were at CCCC. I have a learning disability in math.
[5:01] And so it was either my freshman or sophomore year. I can't remember which one it was. But I had two tutors. Jim Turner. He was my evening tutor.
[5:11] Y'all know what I'm talking about? The legend. If you don't know. I mean the legend. He's like 89 or something. Still playing basketball and pickleball and can beat all of us right now. Jim Turner was my evening tutor.
[5:24] Because I would literally work until midnight in his house on algebra. And then in the morning at 7 o'clock there was this soldier from Fort Bragg who lived in Sanford. And he was my morning tutor.
[5:35] I would wake him up and feed him breakfast. And he would tutor me in college algebra before I go to class. And at this particular moment I was in statistics and percentages.
[5:45] And y'all listen. I know I'm a pastor. And y'all don't trust the stories we tell you. I promise you this is exactly how this happened. He may not remember this.
[5:56] But this is how this happened. I'm studying statistics and percentages. And my morning tutor said, hey man listen. I think the best way to help you pass this test is if we teach you statistics with cards and a package of dice.
[6:10] So 7 a.m. Every morning for a few weeks I'm in his house rolling dice counting cards. So when I would take a math test I would sit outside your office.
[6:26] In this cubicle. And I had like an untimed area. Untimed. I could take a test without any time limits on it. And I'm sitting there one day by his office door.
[6:37] And I'm literally like it's Vegas. Rolling dice. Counting cards. Taking a math. I promise you that. And I don't remember if you came out of your office. I don't remember if you walked behind me.
[6:48] But all of a sudden like somebody was behind me. And I turn around and look. And it was Dr. Garrett. And he says, Chris, what are you doing? Straight faced.
[7:00] I'm like, I'm just taking my statistics test. Way back in the morning I was on counting cards. And he stood there for a few minutes. And I'm sure the look on his face was, I didn't know we taught that kind of math here at CCCC.
[7:13] And literally the next thing he said was, when you finish, come see me. And so I walked into his office. And the first thing out of his mouth was, aren't you going to the ministry?
[7:27] Yes, sir, I am. I'd like to come serve at Moncure for a little bit. Now listen, guys. We used to work with the North American Mission Board. And we would recruit and train and develop church planters for the Northeast.
[7:42] If I found a church planter who was rolling dice, counting cards, doing math, I probably would not hire him to plant a church. So I don't know what the Holy Spirit did then, but he did it.
[7:56] And I'm so glad he did. Because I think back to the days of being here with Renee and Glenn and you guys, how you poured into me. It is not lost on me whatsoever.
[8:07] Yes, sir. And I think that was the summer that you opened the casino. That's right, yeah. We were trying to raise money. Phil, just don't tell anybody to mention that.
[8:18] Right? We were trying to... Don't get me started. We can... Hey, if you would open your Bibles with me to Revelation 19. Let's brag about Jesus. Revelation chapter 19.
[8:32] I want to, this morning, use what Chatham County education I've got. And I want to go back into my head for a minute and refer back to a timeline. If you're not familiar with a timeline, a timeline is literally a line with dots on it.
[8:47] And each dot represents a significant moment in history. Now the purpose of a timeline is to show you and I not just the flow of history, but the flow of thought and culture across a certain period of time.
[9:02] It's to show you how humanity has developed over a long period of time. All of us in this room have individual timelines. You have a beginning, a birth date.
[9:15] We're going to have an end date at some point. Let's hope no time soon. But between both those dates, there's a lot of key moments in your life. There's birthdays. There's graduations.
[9:25] There's job and job career changes. You've got the day you become a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, an aunt, uncle, etc., etc., etc. All of us have dots on our timeline.
[9:38] And all of us have dots on our timeline that we celebrate. That if we were to look back on, we could take a few moments and smile and enjoy. But all of us also have some dots on our timelines that are painful.
[9:55] All of us have some dots on our timelines where either we made a mistake, where Satan tripped us up, and he stole from us, and he sought to destroy us, and he tried to kill us.
[10:15] We're not just talking about... Let's go far beyond world history for a moment. Let's specifically look at your life. The moment maybe you went too far with alcohol.
[10:31] The moment that maybe that divorce happened. The abuse happened to you. The moment that somebody stole from you. Maybe the moment that you stole from somebody else.
[10:44] The moment that your anger went too far. The moment somebody else's anger went too far. The moment some kind of injustice happened to you. Maybe the moment that somebody took your job from you, and you didn't deserve it.
[11:01] You have all these... The moment where there was a death that happened when it was way too young. Or the moment that somebody got sick, and maybe you got sick, that you shouldn't have gotten sick, because you were way too young and way too healthy for it.
[11:12] All of us have moments where evil has struck on our timelines. I need you to know today that Satan will have his day.
[11:28] He has brought a war against you and Jesus. And that war against you and Jesus on your timelines, they can feel and they can be overwhelming.
[11:40] But we are a people. Who have a King Jesus. Who doesn't just have a day, but he has eternity. He has eternity.
[11:51] And so Jesus is preparing in this moment to remove the dots of human and satanic history from the timeline. And today, this is a day where this word is here to encourage us.
[12:06] It's a moment where we need to look at this word and be encouraged by the promise of it. So look with me real quick in verse 11. John, on the island of Patmos, exiled, sees heaven opened.
[12:24] And there was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. And with justice, he judges and makes war.
[12:35] His eyes were like a fiery flame and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood.
[12:47] And his name is called the Word of God. The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses, wearing pure white linen. A sharp sword came from his mouth so that he might strike the nations with it.
[13:02] He will rule, and he will rule them with an iron rod. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God the Almighty. And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh.
[13:15] King of kings and Lord of lords. Today, as we look at this king, there's a few things I want you to know about the King Jesus who's going to erase this timeline.
[13:28] First, I want you to know that Jesus is the man who won't lose the war. He is the man who will not lose the war. The Hebrews would have understood this text.
[13:39] As a matter of fact, let me just help you with this. You should not read Revelation with a newspaper. You need to read Revelation with the Old Testament. It's the only way to understand it. Because the Hebrews understood the vision of a white horse.
[13:54] As a matter of fact, the vision of a white horse, they knew that their kings long ago, all the way back to their very first king, King Saul, would go to war and would come back.
[14:05] And if they were victorious, they would know they're victorious because they would come back on a white horse. So the king would triumph and parade in town out of victory on a pure white horse.
[14:20] There's something different, though, happening in Revelation 19 that's different than what's happening in 1 Samuel. Because this king is not coming from war.
[14:30] He's going to war. Which means Jesus, riding the white horse to war, already knows he's won. He already knows the battle's over.
[14:44] He already knows Satan doesn't have a chance. He already knows that there's a period on the end of this timeline that the devil has had his day.
[14:55] Here he is, riding on the white horse. And what we see in this text is there's four distinct names of Jesus, and one of them we don't know. First, the first name what we see is that he is faithful and true.
[15:09] In other words, he's proven and reliable. And it's weird that he's called faithful and true in this moment, and at the exact same time that he's mentioned with his justice. But if you put it together, we now get the picture.
[15:23] He's going to war already in victory. And he's faithful and just to not only win the war, but in the text, to bring judgment, to bring judgment upon Satan, to bring justice upon Satan.
[15:37] In other words, he is faithful and true. He is proven and reliable that Satan's work is over. He won't lose the war.
[15:57] And family, this means everything for us today. Not just from a global perspective.
[16:07] I want us to think individual for a moment. I'm not sure who it was, but man, we got a sister back here who's on day four of not having a cigarette.
[16:18] Hey, Jesus is going to get a day five. Jesus is going to get a day six. Jesus is going to get a day seven. That's right.
[16:29] Oh, no, no. That's right. So now this matters, right? Oh, you have faced that divorce. And now you've got the kids.
[16:41] And you've got to figure out, how do I parent these kids? Honor my ex. Love them and lead them to Jesus all at the same time. And inside of you, there's a war of anger swelling up in you that you can't get over.
[16:57] Jesus already won the war. So now you don't have to let the circumstances the devil's put you in overcome you. Now I can keep going, but I got a lot to work through.
[17:09] You just need to know, he won't lose the war. Secondly, I just need you to see, Jesus is the man motivated to end the war. He's motivated to end the war.
[17:21] Look at the text, man. We have symbolism that we see elsewhere all throughout scripture. Verse 12 says his eyes were like a fiery flame, and there were many crowns on his head.
[17:32] You'll find out later as you read through the Old Testament, and you get to hear the devil has a few crowns on his head, but Jesus has many. In other words, the Hebrews couldn't count the amount of crowns he had on his head. The fact that he's wearing crowns on his head shows that he has dominion and sovereignty over all nations.
[17:51] That means there isn't anybody, that nobody is outside of his authority, outside of his power. He is over all, he has dominated all.
[18:01] But what's key in the text is not just the fact that he has a crown on his head, it's what his eyes look like. You'll see this all over the text. If you look through the very beginning of Revelation, you'll see Jesus, his eyes are described like a fiery flame.
[18:17] Now, to help you understand this, I don't need to unpack to you some sophisticated form of Greek. What you need to do is think about your mama. That's what you need to do.
[18:28] Think about your mama. Your mama, did your mama ever go to school? Let me back up. Have you ever been to school? When you were younger, you ever go to school, and you walk in the hallway, and there's your mama.
[18:40] And she's looking at you. You now understand fiery flame, right? Your mama looking at you. Or if you went to Northwood, like I did, they used to have these windows.
[18:53] I don't know if it, I haven't been there in forever. They had these windows that you could kind of see in the office out of the lobby. And my mama wouldn't be standing out there. I would walk through the lobby, and I'd look through the glass windows, and she knew, I don't know how she knew it.
[19:04] She'd turn around and look at me. And I'd be like, oh man, what did I do? I don't even know what I did. Right? Right? Now you get it. Right? Here's Jesus. Jesus, in his eyes, is a burning, zealous anger toward Satan.
[19:23] And if you finish reading 19 and get all the way through 20, you're going to see what's going to happen to him. He's going to be bound up. He's going to be crushed. He's going to be done.
[19:36] He's going to be done. And that fiery flame lets you know his intentions. It is a symbol that Hebrews understood as an intense, righteous, judgment, anger.
[19:52] He is furious. He is furious at how Satan has had his day. He is furious at how the torture his people has been through. He is furious over the brokenness of his people.
[20:05] He is furious over the scars that we have somehow carried. He is furious at how the devil has stolen every single thing he can from us. And he has tried over and over again to destroy us.
[20:16] He is furious at how the devil has thought he has had his day. And you need to know, Jesus is motivated to end the war.
[20:28] He's not just going to end it. He's motivated to end it. But finally, I just need you to know that Jesus is able to end the war.
[20:40] And this is where we need to camp. Because if you look at the text in verse 14, he is not alone. It says in verse 14, there are armies that were in heaven who followed him on white horses wearing pure white linen, the color of victory.
[20:59] Now this, if I can, this has to be a sight to see. Because if you notice in the text, this comes after the moment that God's people have been rescued and have been brought to sit at the Lord's table.
[21:15] This is after the moment that you and I, followers of Christ, who have been rescued from all of this, he brings us in and seats us at the feast of the king.
[21:27] And it's at this feast that we're seeing all of this take place. Can you imagine seated at the table with the finest turkey legs sitting in front of you and you look up and here's Jesus riding by.
[21:44] Faithful and true. He has a name upon him that we don't even understand. It's mysterious because his power is mysterious. His robe is dipped in blood meaning he's already been fighting a battle.
[22:06] Here he is described as the word of God because he is the fruition of all of God's promises. And we're watching him ride by with the armies of heaven which the Old Testament described as host.
[22:22] If you ever read in scripture like in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel any of the minor prophets the Lord is described over and over again as the Lord of hosts. He's being described as the one who is over the armies of heaven.
[22:35] And he's riding by and then he sees a sharp sword come from his mouth. And he will strike the nations with it. In other words when you take the text and you see when Jesus goes to battle his robe is dipped in blood from the first battle of the cross.
[22:54] But here in this battle he's not going to lift a finger. He's going to conquer this war with the command of his voice. You know that he's titled the word of God and we see the word of God in Hebrews 4 described as a two-edged sword.
[23:12] A sharp sword back in those days had to have two edges. That's how they described the sharp sword. And it was double edged so it pierced even the deepest and hardest parts of whatever beast, animal, or person that it was used for.
[23:27] So check this for just a moment. Here he is, Jesus riding on the white horse. He doesn't have to come out flexing muscles. He doesn't have to come out pulling out the sword. His word is the sword just as it had always been promised all throughout scripture.
[23:42] That means that the war is going to end at the command of his voice. He ain't got to finger.
[23:53] It's not going to be like a chore for him. It's not going to be like a nine to five for him. It's not going to be like something he's got to put extra effort to. He's going to say the word and it's done.
[24:10] He's called the word of God. But here you see the sharp sword comes from his mouth. He strikes the nations with it. Here you see next it says he will rule.
[24:21] Now don't miss that. Don't miss the confirmation of the text. He might rule or it's possible he'll rule or we think he's going to rule.
[24:33] He will rule. And he will rule them with an iron rod. Now family in just a minute I'm going to take you back in the Old Testament but I just want you to know that shepherds ruled with wooden rods.
[24:48] And they would rule sheep with a wooden rod when they would get out of control or when they would wander off or when they wouldn't follow commands.
[25:01] But an iron rod represented the authority of a member of royalty. They didn't wield an iron rod. A person didn't wield an iron rod just for fun or just for show.
[25:16] No, that iron when it hit something it sounded like something. When it hit something it destroyed something. And so for Jesus to rule with an iron rod means he will rule with maximum maximum force.
[25:31] It means that his authority is secure. It's iron. It's not going to be broken or bent or maligned or shaped. He is ruling with absolute absolute authority.
[25:43] But we see later that he will rule with the force of his judgment. Notice the description in the text. He will also trample the wine press of the fierce anger of God.
[25:55] I don't know if you've ever seen a wine press before. I have not just on TV either. And it's not something it makes me not want to drink wine. Okay. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Right. Like y'all if you've seen him on TV that's great.
[26:07] But in person like somebody literally gets in this gigantic barrel full of grapes barefooted. I'm out. Right. I'm just saying. I don't know. I'm just out.
[26:17] Right. And immediately they start running around or stomping around the wine press. And when they do the grapes will smash and the juices will flow out of a hole but yet all of the residue of the grapes including some juices will get splattered all over their legs and all over the interior of the wine press.
[26:39] All right. Let me paint this picture. We lived in Vermont. One of our favorite things to do. So we had what we had. We had a food crawl in Vermont meaning that there was all these really good food stops.
[26:51] And so we were having a bad day or even just on a good day we'd go hit up the food crawl. And so here's what we did. We would start in a place called Waterbury which is down just across the mountain from us and we'd go to Green Mountain Coffee.
[27:05] Like not like the Keurig Green Mountain Coffee. They used to have a coffee shop, Green Mountain Coffee because Green Mountain Coffee is from Vermont. Okay. And so we would get Green Mountain Coffee. Now when we had money we'd go to this old barbecue joint because this dude from North Carolina started a barbecue joint and praise God it made us feel like home.
[27:21] Okay. but we didn't have money on these days. So we'd go from there and we'd go to Ben and Jerry's and get ice cream because the Ben and Jerry's factory is just up the street. And then just past it we'd go to Cabot Cheddar. The best cheese you'll ever have in your life.
[27:33] They had what we called a cheese buffet. It was a long table of cheese. All their kinds of cheese. And it was from the Lord. Let me just tell you. And you would just let you eat.
[27:44] They just let you eat. I mean and you would buy something. Like there was no way you could go in there and just eat for free and not buy something. I don't know how they did that. Something in the cheese. I'm just saying you'd buy something. But then we'd go from there and get some chocolate, Lake Champlain chocolates.
[27:58] And then we'd say man we need something to drink. So we'd go to the Cold Hollow Apple Cider Mill on Route 100. If you go to Vermont, I'm telling you where to go. Take note. Okay. So we'd go to Cold Hollow and you'd walk in the back and they'd have this humongous cylinder in the back of free apple cider and you'd drink to your heart's delight.
[28:16] And you would sit there and drink and you would look as they would press apples. And when they would press apples they'd have them on these plastic sheets and they'd stack them really high and there was this incredible machine that would put like gentle but firm pressure down these apples and the juices would fall like a waterfall out of these apples as it would just gently press them and press them down to where those mats would be stacked seven feet high.
[28:45] Next thing you know they're just a few feet tall. And I mean juice would just flow everywhere. And that's exactly what the Lord is going to bring to our greatest enemy.
[29:00] He's described his anger is described like one who tramples in the wine press. And all of Satan's power and work is just going to fall apart.
[29:19] And in that moment it's going to prove something. It's going to prove that his fourth name is true. Because now we have seen the war end with the command of his voice.
[29:32] We have seen the full force of his authority. We have seen him rule with the force of his judgment. We have known that he's motivated to end the war. We know that he will for sure end the war.
[29:46] And now we're at this moment where he has ended the war. Because in the text it says there's another name written on his robe and it's written on his thigh.
[29:58] And it is the name where he is king of kings. We live in a world of governmental kings and wannabe kings. But ain't none of them as great as Jesus.
[30:12] He is the king above all kings. And if you want to know just how great he is then they used another name of royalty that was high and above all other names. Lord.
[30:23] There's a lot of people who try to rule your life as if they're lord over your life. There is only one capital L Lord who rules and reigns forever. It is Jesus the Christ.
[30:35] You and I are not that lord. You and I are not that lord. You and I are not that king. If anything this text proves it. If anything this text comforts us.
[30:47] There's no way we could ever hold the label king of kings and lord because there's no one who can complete verses 11 through 16 of this text. Not a one.
[30:57] You've tried. I've tried. And I've lost a lot of battles in the war. Anybody else?
[31:08] But our hope is not in us or any other human for that factor.
[31:19] Our hope is in the only one who is king of kings and lord of lords who is faithful and true who is the who is the fulfillment of all of God's promises who has a name that we just can't quite understand because it's mysterious.
[31:34] We are the ones who put our faith and our hope in the one who is reliable and proven. Jesus the Christ will end the war. In World War II many children grew up learning about their fathers while they were at war.
[31:53] Their mothers they would share pictures of their fathers and they would learn about their father through these pictures and stories that whatever their mothers or their families would tell them.
[32:06] A term was coined at the end of World War II when some of these boys or some of these kids rather would see the soldiers parade by in victory.
[32:19] And as they parade by in victory some of the kids began to look and see some of the men that looked like their fathers in the pictures. And they would look at their mamas and they'd say there go that man.
[32:31] There goes that man. Hey mama there goes that man. Mark Jackson was a point guard for the New York Knicks. He's now a color commentator in the NBA.
[32:45] One night when Kobe Bryant was doing his thing playing a flawless game. No one could stop him. As Kobe Bryant ran right past him on a fast break on live TV Mark Jackson said there goes that man.
[32:58] There goes that man. And oh church our anchored hope our anchored hope as followers of Christ is that one day Psalm 23 is going to make complete sense because we are going to be reclined at the table of the Lord.
[33:17] And here he comes riding out to war already in victory. And the people of God are going to go there goes that man. there goes that man.
[33:28] There goes that man. That's our anchored hope. And if you don't have that hope today, if you don't have that hope today, you can. This word is proven and true.
[33:44] Jesus is faithful and true. You can trust him today. not just you should, but you can. Has he not proven to you how faithful and true he is?
[33:58] He's already been to your life. When your life went shipwrecked and everything fell apart and you're still here. our friend is on day four.
[34:12] And the church of God is going to remind her the Lord's going to get it to day five. Hey, has he not already been proven faithful and true? Then we know he will be faithful and true in the end.
[34:26] So you put your faith in Christ. Now listen, this is where it gets weird. If you've never placed your hope and your faith your whole life in the hands of Jesus Christ and you want to today, listen, it's a hard step.
[34:41] It's a very difficult step. I need you to know this life is not easy, but I need you to know that you're secured. I need you to know nobody's expected to be perfect, but we're all pleading for you to be faithful.
[34:56] And so the first step is acknowledging that man, this Jesus that this word has described to us, has told us about perfectly, is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and you trust him.
[35:10] You trust that this Jesus died on the cross, it was meant for you, rose from the grave to give you new life that was meant for us. And in that grave laid buried all of our sin, all of our shame, all of our pain, all of our despair.
[35:26] In that grave laid everything that was dirty and rotten about all of us. And when he rose from the grave, we got to have new life. You trust it, but then you follow him.
[35:39] So you go to the Lord and you, you proclaim him, Lord, I believe that you are my savior and king. And then you start trusting him and trusting him does not look like big steps of faith.
[35:56] Like, listen to me, no one's telling you right now, you got to get in the car, move to Vermont and save the lost. You know what we're telling you? Let's eat a good meal.
[36:09] And then let's go home. And let's say, Lord, what is my first step? That's it. Lord, what is my second step? That's it.
[36:21] Lord, help me to figure out what my third step is. Lord, give me grace because there's, I'm trying to follow you, but there's things I don't know, right? And so I may step in some, I may walk in some old ways of things.
[36:33] You might have to kind of pull that wooden staff out and shepherd me back in the fold a little bit more than I need to, but I still trust in you, right? So help me, Lord. Just help me get one single step at a time.
[36:43] Lord, how do I follow you in this moment? Does it mean, does it mean that I go home to my kids? And I, and I, and what I do from this moment forward is I change how I, how I, how I parent to the point that I'm pointing them to Christ.
[36:58] Does it mean when I go into work, man, tomorrow, man, I'm not here to just make a buck, man. What I'm here to do is to look at my workspace as a mission field. And I'm here to say, Hey Lord, use me and whatever work environment you have placed me in.
[37:15] But you just need to know after you declare that you'll trust him, he will, his Holy spirit will empower you to follow him in every single step. So, so you, you, you follow him.
[37:28] And here's what you need to know. I know this about this church. This church will help you follow him. That's the, that's the whole, that's the whole reason of the church. The whole reason of the church would be the presence of Christ in any given community.
[37:39] And it's to help believers follow Jesus. You need to know everybody in the room, including this dude, we're all walking the same road. some of us might be a little bit farther down the road than you are.
[37:52] Some of us might be a little bit farther back down the road than you are. Some of us might be walking right where you're walking, but you need to know that the church exists to proclaim the gospel and to help, help, help children of God follow Christ.
[38:08] So you declare your trust in him today. And then you, and then you follow him. And I will tell you, you cannot follow him separate from this word.
[38:21] You have to cling. This is, this is God's word. It is breathed out for you. It is his breath that is breathed out. If he, he, if Jesus is the word of God, then let us lean in and listen to what the word has to say about himself.
[38:37] You can't navigate life separate from this word. You can't follow Jesus separate from this word. So I want to encourage you to man, if this is your first time back at Moncure and it's the only time you come in a year, man, we're so glad you're here, but listen, make it a permanent time that you're here.
[38:55] Plug in to a Bible study, a Sunday school class, plug in, find another believer and say, man, teach me this word. Teach me how to follow Jesus in this word. Don't be scared.
[39:05] Don't be scared. We all grew up too scared to ask that. Don't be scared. Because you know what? All of us need that. So I'm not sure how the invitation looks.
[39:18] We didn't talk this far, but here's what we're going to do. I'm assuming y'all going to sing. Y'all going to sing. All right. They're going to come up. The praise team's going to come up. They're going to do their thing. Right. Listen, Dr. Garrett or somebody will come up.
[39:30] They're going to come up. And listen, here's what I want you to do. If you're ready to follow Christ, you come down and you tell somebody, I want to follow Jesus. Help me take the next step. I want to follow Christ.
[39:41] Help me take the next step. And I want you to know we will be a family to you. Preach it. You come as they lead and just say, help me follow Christ.
[39:57] And maybe that's not your response. Maybe your response is right now. I know he's won the war. I just want to praise him. Then stand up right where you are and sing at the top of your lungs. And may the Lord Jesus receive your praise.
[40:09] Father, help us to believe in Jesus name. Amen.