[0:00] So here in Titus, I'm going to read it to you, a hundred so words, as I've said, and it says in verse number eight of the verses before, it's a faithful saying. This could have been in the early church as a creed, this portion of scripture, very likely something they would have taught in their Awana program to memorize the scriptures and to know it, or it could have been a hymn that they would have sung, but it's a faithful saying.
[0:23] It's just such a wonderful statement on our salvation and what God has done for us. I like to play this game sometimes where we say, if you were stranded on an island and you get to take five things with you, what are you going to take besides the satellite telephone or whatever is needed, right?
[0:42] And me and the kids like to play that. And if you'd ask yourself, what portion of scripture would you like to take with you? You only get to take a hundred words with you of scripture. What are you going to take with you to that island?
[0:54] And I'm grateful that we are not on an island with only a hundred words of scripture, but we get the word of God for us, which has been kept, preserved. And there's a lot of arguments.
[1:05] We won't make them right now. I'd be curious to know your thoughts afterwards, which portion of scripture. And we know that the understanding of the Bible, it's built on top of itself, compound, meaning like you'll read stories in the New Testament and the story of the scapegoat in Leviticus 1 is helping your understanding of that.
[1:21] Or you'll read another picture and you'll read about, you need to know about the Passover of Exodus, to fully appreciate this. And so I'm so grateful. But a case can be made for this, these hundred words or so of the scripture here in this statement.
[1:35] There's just so much there for us, but we need the rest of the scripture or helps us understand how beautiful and just absolutely life-changing. I'm calling for just the time of rejoicing.
[1:47] In Nehemiah chapter number eight, verse eight, this is a definition of what Bible teaching or preaching would be. It says, so they read in the book and the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading.
[2:01] I did not work backwards today trying to determine what I wanted you to do throughout the week that I think would be good. But I'm just going to say, this is the word of God and understanding will change our lives.
[2:12] It will change our week. It will change the way in which we have a Thanksgiving service together. One of the best things that we can do when you study the word of God is the ask it questions. Read a verse, ask us some questions.
[2:23] That's what I want to do is I read for it here the third time. You've heard David read it. You've heard me read it. You're going to hear me read it again for you today. Titus chapter number three. I'm going to read a verse and ask some questions to it. And then with the time that we have together, every time Pastor Bo says in the morning for the next 70 minutes, Stephanie elbows me.
[2:40] It's like, yeah, good luck on that one. All right. Roughly, just add roughly, approximately 70 minutes. All right. Is our service. But in the time that we have, we are going to look at the answer to some of these questions that I found in God's word.
[2:52] Verse four. But after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior toward man appeared. After what? But after what?
[3:03] Why kindness and love? Why are they both mentioned? And how did it appear? Reasonable questions. Verse five. Not by works of righteousness, which you have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
[3:18] What are the works of righteousness? How were we saved by mercy? What is this washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit here? Titus 3.6. Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
[3:32] How was this shed on us through Jesus? How is that possible? Verse seven. By being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
[3:43] What does it mean to be justified? And what is the relevance of being made an heir with Christ? And what is the significance of being made an heir according to the hope of eternal life?
[3:56] Verse eight. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that they affirm constantly, that that which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.
[4:07] What exactly is the faithful saying? Why does it need constant affirming? And why do we need to be careful? And what is the relationship between all this and good works? And how will it be profitable for all men?
[4:19] There's just a dozen or so questions that we could ask to this passage. You could probably think of many more. But the Word of God is ready and able to answer those, and they need to be answered for you.
[4:30] These are the questions of life you really need to be asking. If you had the opportunity to have any questions in the world answered, you'd want to know the questions that have to do about eternal life, about forgiveness of sin, what it means to be made right with God.
[4:46] In here today, if you're a believer, you may get so busy that you don't often think about that aspect of your life, and you most certainly should. But if you're not a believer in here, you may be staying very busy, answering, asking questions and answering questions that are important, possibly for day to day, but they're not the most important questions of eternal life.
[5:05] And I'd like to pray for you that you would allow for a moment an opportunity where you would just ask the most important questions in all the world. What are you going to do with the fact that you know that you have sinned and that you recognize that?
[5:18] The Bible tells us that we all know that, that we all have that in common, that we have an awareness, a consciousness of right and wrong, and we know that we have done wrong. And we have a desire to know our God that that is wired into all of us, as we have a desire to know Him.
[5:33] And so this scripture here has answers for us, and we need them. Two slides that will help you as we jump in this today. It says here that He saved us by His kindness.
[5:45] The statement there, by His kindness, by His love, by His mercy, by His regeneration, by His Spirit, by His Son, and by His grace. Each one of those would deserve their own setting at the table and taking time on it.
[5:57] But I want us to see an overview. Kindness, love, mercy, regeneration, Spirit, Son, and His grace. And so here's five truths, the truth we're going to look at today, broken down into five statements.
[6:08] We desperately needed saving. We were completely unable to be our own Savior. God saved us with kindness and love. We have been saved by His mercy through the washing, regeneration, and the renewal of the Holy Spirit.
[6:20] We're now heirs of eternal life according to the hope of eternal life. We desperately need saving. Verse 4. But after that, so the first question is, after what?
[6:31] Wherever you were saved at, I know where you were saved at. I may not know the location, I may not know the time, but if you are saved, if He saved you, I know what He saved you from. He saved you out of sin. He saved you and gave you forgiveness of your sin.
[6:44] And that's where you're at when Jesus found you. A definition is, sin is any deviation from God's revealed will. Any deviation from God's revealed will.
[6:56] We can oppose a standard. You might have sinned by saying, I don't believe that there's a sense of right and wrong. I don't believe that there's a God. Maybe you grew up thinking that and you sinned in that manner. Or maybe you sinned in another manner where you fell short, where you knew what was right and wrong and you still didn't reach the standard which none of us can.
[7:14] We all fall short of the glory of God. One summer, the summer after 2002, I traveled in a program in kids evangelism.
[7:26] And we flew a lot and that was a big deal to me for me in a small town in Kentucky. Hadn't flown much. So I felt like a big deal. I'd go into the place in a suit and a briefcase and I really felt like I had arrived.
[7:38] You know, I always wanted to go to an airport like that. But then I would go through customs and they'd ask me to open up my suitcase, my briefcase, and it'd have balloons and magic tricks and all of that. And they're like, what are you?
[7:49] I'm like, kids evangelism. Like, so what do you do? And I say, well, I'll teach kids truths. And they'd say, well, you know, what is one of those? Security was high. The summer, you know, after 2001, we were paying at cash and the airport, two men traveling one direction.
[8:02] So you can imagine I spent a lot of time talking to the NSA, you know, getting through custom or getting through security. But one of the things that we were taught that we would teach in every place that we would go very early on in the week that we would teach kids and that they would repeat over and over is this.
[8:21] Sin is anything you say, do, or think that breaks God's law. Sin is anything you say, do, or think that breaks God's law.
[8:33] They needed to know that. Kids hear the word sin a lot, but they really need to know what it is. And they also need to know, oh, that's more than me just disobeying mom and dad. Yes, that is the way in which you sin, but what made it sin was that you were breaking the laws of a eternal creator God.
[8:49] Rules were not just written here on earth by us, but the God of heaven has written laws. And when you break those, you transgress those, that is what sin is. So sin is anything you say, do, or think that breaks God's laws.
[9:02] All right? And so there's some conclusions that the Bible would give us. Sin is universal. It's pervasive. It scars every person in every portion of life. Your entire life has been touched by the effects of sin.
[9:14] Jesus, who was perfect, was crucified by sinful people. He hung on a cross because of sin. He became sin for you and I. The sinless one whose life here on earth was touched in every aspect by you and I and our sin.
[9:29] Our lives are touched by sin. It's universal. That's Jesus' story in relation to sin, but it's not our story. Our story is different. We are not sinless. We are sinful.
[9:40] We have committed sin. And it's a human problem. The very first family, Adam and Eve, the relationship was broken between them and the creator because of sin.
[9:51] And that prompted this sacrificial system we read about in the Old Testament where sin will pass, judgment will pass over and it accumulates until Jesus Christ on the cross.
[10:02] None of those animals were able to pay for the sin, but judgment was passed and it was paid for by Jesus upon the cross. That's why Paul says that the cross was the greatest demonstration of love because it was on the cross that he was forgiving the sin that you had forgiven, the breaking of his law.
[10:22] And then we see that we can't save ourselves. After the first two brothers, Tinsley the other day in here, I said, where's your brother? And she said, am I my brother's keeper? And I said, you know what happened in that story, right?
[10:32] That's not the right answer to that. Where's your brother? I got real nervous, all right? And, but she's not, he's okay. He's okay, all right? And, but after Cain killed Abel, it says that men begin to call upon the name of the Lord.
[10:48] They recognize their need of a savior. We need saving. They called upon the name of the Lord because they, it was quite clear by that time in human history that they were broken, that they were a mess, and that they were in need of saving.
[11:02] They call upon him. And so we cannot save ourselves. If we could, we would boast, but we can't. And it's a gift of God. And that's what was sung about today, that it's not in me, but it's in Christ.
[11:13] That's where our hope is at. That's the truth that's being communicated. You and I cannot save ourselves. And so there's a description of sin here in this passage, verse 3, for we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, different types of lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
[11:35] Let's just kind of break that down here for a moment. Foolish, it means it's, we're ignorant, lacking understanding. We did not know the gospel. We were living in the way in which we thought was our only option.
[11:51] We were disobedient. We were rebellious. We were lawless. We were resistant to God. Even if you were saved at a young age and not pointing in your life, you had already got to a place where you were rebellious against the God of heaven.
[12:07] We were deceived. We were led astray. Some of you in here were led astray in a very formalized manner in false teaching and good, loving parents who did not know any better that might have been also foolish as you were were teaching you the best way they knew how to get a relationship with God and they meant nothing towards you.
[12:30] It's all that they knew and you were led astray or other people in life, friendships, teaching, something you read one time, you read something and it led you astray from the God of heaven and then you had different lusts and passions.
[12:45] There would be no value in this but we could all begin the talking. You could say what sins that you were in and I could say that seems absurd, why would you do that? And then I would name mine and you would say why would you do that?
[12:55] And they were diverse but they were all the same. They were opposed to God. They weren't pleasing to Him. And then we lived in malice, wicked and envious toward others and that hateful and hating one another, egocentric, isolated, detesting anyone who got in the way of the fulfillment of our pleasure.
[13:16] All those ways are describing the way in which people that have not been saved from their sin, the only options they have. And I know this happens on a scale or they're not all the same and it's more obvious but even in the best case scenario you think of, we still live rebellious.
[13:34] As I said last week, as pirates, we might live according to our rules but we're not living to the rules of the government of our God. We will make the rules and live by them and if they happen to line up with the rules of the Bible, we're going to do them but it is not our authority.
[13:48] The diagnosis is the same regardless, the foolish, the disobedient, all of those different things is lacking in understanding. The Bible says for the wrath of God in Romans 1.18 is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness and all those descriptions and other descriptions of the Bible, the wrath of God is revealed against them for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[14:18] Sin wanted to own us. It wanted to enslave us. It owned us. It became our identity and that's how the Bible would speak about it. We have a big no name calling rule in our home that my wife always tries to enforce among me and the children and I don't do as good as I should trying to do better and no name calling because it's true just because a kid does something it doesn't mean that they are that.
[14:45] Just because they're not up and it's 11 o'clock if they're not lazy they just did a lazy thing. All right. All right. Let me not get through. All right. But meaning that there's no reason to identify somebody in their sin but that's what sin wants to do.
[14:59] It wants to become your identity. It wants you to be the foolish. It wants you to be the disobedient. It wants you to be deceived. That's why the fight we have going right now is not just about calling sin for what it is but it's wanting people to identify themselves in what is sinful here.
[15:15] So foolish, disobedient but we are completely on our own without a savior. Who would rescue us is the question. This is the place that we are at. Every good story has basically the same premise.
[15:26] You're going to watch as something seems to be impossible. If it's a movie that Stephanie picks or the one that I pick or anybody else it's basically going to come down to there's going to be a situation. It doesn't seem possible.
[15:38] How is it going to happen? And then you wait until the hero comes in. And the hero is either a person in the story or in a flannel shirt from a lumberjack you know that's now whatever.
[15:51] All right. Hallmark. Whatever that is. Or if it's a marvel something or whatever it is you're always the point of anticipation where there's a real problem created of their own making but how is there going to be resolution?
[16:03] You and I without Jesus Christ there was no human that would have the desire to do to die in our place nor could they. There's no human that has a plan and there was no human that had a power.
[16:15] Nobody could save us. We would have lived and we would have died in our foolish disobedient deceived lustful state if it was not for Jesus. But it says those three wonderful words.
[16:27] He saved us. He saved us. Who is He? Verse 6 tells us which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
[16:37] Jesus Christ our Savior. He saved us. Three times in each of these three chapters God our Savior and Christ our Jesus our Savior Christ our Savior and God here.
[16:52] Both of those statements are made three times here in this book here. Seeing that God and Jesus our Savior He died for us.
[17:02] So Paul who is the human author and I say that to mean that we believe that these are the words of God that are inspired but Paul is the one that writes. He would have Paul's writing style would have Paul's background in it but it's the perfect denierent word of God.
[17:15] So Paul who is writing this to Titus who wrote a book also to Timothy and Titus is in the middle of those two books Paul's writing this and with his background he knew as much as any human author about what it meant to live a life where he tried to save himself.
[17:29] He saved us. Paul wanted it to be Paul saved himself. Paul tried that for many years. We have great examples in the Bible like in Solomon we have God gave a man everything you could ever ask for all the wisdom and all the money and he said how happy are you without me and he says I'm not happy at all.
[17:45] Alright. Then we have an example of a person. What if you were going to live religiously and what if you were going to try to fulfill the Old Testament and what if you were born in the right tribe and you were circumcised on the right day and you did everything possible to do it would that be enough to save you?
[18:03] And the Apostle Paul is a person that we are given that if you think that you ever tried to save yourself you weren't even getting close to what the Apostle Paul does in his life. He knew his sinfulness he knew that there was a God and he knew better than most about the works of righteousness.
[18:20] He was extremely religious. Philippians chapter 3 verse 3 through 6 it says For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. Jewish people God's people I'm the right people here we rejoice in but we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
[18:40] He says I have no confidence in all these other things that I've done I can only rejoice in He saved us. He saved us. I don't say this irreverently but the Apostle Paul would like this message today quite well right?
[18:54] It's the message he wrote he would love that thought He saved us not anything that he did and then he goes on to describe it he said though I might also have confidence in the flesh meaning if anybody wants to stack up what they've done I could try and if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more and that applies to all of you in here if you say I do pretty good I'm a pretty good neighbor I don't even feel those things that you said about me I don't feel like I'm slave to my own lust or that I'm disobedient or deceived and I don't feel like any of those things are me and I do pretty good and I help and I volunteer and I cheer for the bulldogs I do all the things that you're supposed to do those for you Hannah Pharoah alright I do all the things that I'm supposed to do in life Paul could have said I more in the court of law it could have been shown to be true meaning that it was evidentially true that he gave his life to it circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee as touching the law
[20:00] I was an NBA player alright as touching the law I had achieved the highest level of doing it concerning zeal if you don't think that I was giving my very all I was persecuting this new group this new group called the church I was taking the lives of people touching the righteousness which is the law blameless bring me your rules about what you're supposed to do on the Sabbath I'm not running the vacuum cleaner bring me your rules on all those things touching it you're going to have a hard time finding where I broke it and all those things that the apostle Paul had done that he could stack up that he had there he says I count them as nothing they did nothing for me they did nothing to earn my salvation I would have died with those in my sin and spent eternity separated from God but he saved us and I don't know where Jesus was at when he found you he might have found you in a religious mess where you're just doing all kinds of things juggling all kinds of plates and being very impressive but you needed saving or maybe you're at a place in life and you were just living it up and you didn't have any concern and then one day you realized that I'm sinning against the holy and loving God one day we'll stand with the apostle Paul and all the redeemed
[21:14] Revelation 17 says and cried with a loud voice saying salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb and he cried a loud voice salvation to our God God salvation belongs to God and to nobody else not God plus you not God plus anything else it belongs to us to him he gave towards us God saved us he saved us and he saved us with kindness and with love God will never find in us anything which he ought to love he will never find in us anything which we ought to love I know that's a hard pill to swallow and I know that we think that we do good things I won't belabor the point but last week we looked at these works of righteousness and when you said that you were doing good works you weren't doing good works you were trying to earn favor with God or you were doing something for your own self a good work can only be done when it is an obedience to God for his glory he tells us what good works are he defines what it is he is the creator and unless you're a believer unless you put your faith and trust in him you have never been involved in doing good works and we said even as believers there's things we're involved in and they are not good works either the Bible calls those works of righteousness that are there and so he saved us with kindness and love our God is kind we tell our kids to be kind all the time for a lot of reasons so that the car ride would go better or so that they don't get in so much trouble at school there's all kinds of good reasons for being kind but the Bible tells us that our God is kind and that is the reason in which we should be he is holy he is separate he is different than this world we are to be called to be holy and separate than this world kindness is this goodness of heart towards others goodness of heart toward others because I am kind
[23:12] I will not be finishing the sermon of the day alright and you'll get home at a decent hour but I'm going to this third point here of his kindness Jesus commands us to be loving or kind based on his kindness look at me look at Luke chapter number 6 verse number 35 you're going to see at the beginning part of the scripture something that you would expect where you're told to Luke 6 35 that you are told to love your enemies and do good and to lend hoping for nothing again and your reward shall be great and you shall be the children of the highest and then it goes on to say so this is telling us to love our enemies and to do good and lend hope nothing in return meaning give the people not knowing if it will come back your reward shall be great you are the children of God and the reason in which this is all true it says for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil God is kind to us when we were unthankful and we were evil
[24:14] God is kind to them and there will be many people this week who God is kind to that are unthankful and why is that 1 Peter 3 20 tells us we were sometimes disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing when but few that is eight souls were saved by water there will be people that will eat and they will not say thanks there will be people that make their own rules and expect people to live by them but they will not obey the commands of God there will be people this week that will mock the things of God and God will reign upon their fields and he will not strike them dead he will be patient and he is kind and his kindness has a purpose knowing that the goodness of our God leadeth thee to repentance we have a kind and loving and a patient God he has been kind he has been loving and he has been patient to you and there's love here he's kind and he's loving several words get translated for love here in the Bible the word we have here love is a pity or a compassion an eagerness to deliver from pain or distress because of strong affection it has the idea here of a strong affection in Acts 28 verse 2 it says they showed us no little kindness it was cold and it was raining and they brought us in because they had kindled a fire and they showed us no little kindness it was a demonstration of love our God has told of us of God in limitations three it is our Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not you may measure your life in here and you would say
[25:55] I hear you preach and sing and talk about a kind and loving God but I have this or that that's going on in my life and I'm dealing with this or that's going on I want you to consider the greatness of God's love I want you to consider how kind he has been to you I want you to consider that he has given you opportunity yet again today to respond how would you measure the greatness of someone's love for you how do you go out measuring the greatness of love there's a lot of different things you wonder our dollar once was based upon gold now I'm not sure and I don't want to get into that I don't know what our dollar is worth you should probably just give me all your money because it ain't going to be worth much very soon alright and that went sideways alright but I don't know what I don't know what is based it's based on gold or whatever but why because gold is valuable it's rare it's all those different things that need to be some type of standard like why don't we base it upon cement or something else like that right because it needs to have certain values to it in which you measure so how do we go measuring the greatness
[26:57] God's love we'd see the degree in which the person that loved us how undeserving we were you and I were not deserving of his love we were not deserving of forgiveness completely undeserving it's hard for you to look at yourself and see how undeserving you are well go ahead and pick the person that you're very easy to figure out in this world and look at that person and imagine him or her in your mind and say they are so unloving of his love that is you and more so your view of that person is not even as clear as it should be if you knew them as clearly as God could you would know they were far more undeserving of love than you even imagine and that is where you and I are at the greatness of love is demonstrated in the fact that we are so undeserving the greatness of the price paid to love a person it was no small thing he left the glory and splendor of heaven he came to this earth mocked ridiculed beaten suffered took upon him the weight that we would feel so that we would have a high priest that knew the feelings that we have the testings in our lives and he died upon a cross and just a horrific death that's the expression of his love the greatness of the good that is done for the person when he loved us so not only we're not deserving and not only did he pay a high price but the love is measured in how much it changed our lives that he loved us he saved us has absolutely changed everything just like sin was universal and pervasive and touched every aspect of your life the love of God has touched every aspect of your life and it has radically changed us it has made us the redeemed it has made us a peculiar people set aside for him and in the level of desire that God has for the good of the one loved he loves us with kindness and mercy and grace we saw a beautiful picture when we in Luke several months ago
[28:57] Luke chapter number 15 of a father who stands out there and the same road that the son had left on and he has compassion and he ran and he fell on his neck and he kissed them to the people he was speaking to he was saying Pharisees you're as the older brothers other believers in here you might have been like the prodigal but I am the father I am the compassionate one I am the one that ran and showed you and that's how God awaits you the day he will save you with love and kindness and a kindness and a love that appeared in the person of Jesus when did it appear we already saw in Titus 2 11 for the grace of God that brings us salvation has appeared to all men that speaks of the incarnation and we'll celebrate that around Christmas and come after Thursday it'd be appropriate to start singing Christmas music but until then slow down Jeff Bush alright every time there's a season for everything alright we're not in that season I tried to let it go but I just can't I feel very committed to this alright but it's that incarnation that we celebrate the grace of God that brought salvation that is what Jesus Christ did when he came and lived here for us a full visible personable manifestation of the grace of God the kindness of God the love of God came into the incarnation of Jesus Christ
[30:16] Jesus was full of compassion he was full of pity he was full of love he was full of kindness he was goodness and human form he was the eternal God made visible and all the divine Father's attributes that love sinners was made visible in Jesus and if you ever wonder if the God of heaven loves you as a sinner look at Jesus crying over you look at Jesus dying on a cross and you know how the God of heaven feels for you and what he has done he felt compassion he felt mercy mercy means you're in a pitiful state in which you needed forgiveness of sins and he gives that to you and he's done a wonderful work would you say those three words with me again he saved us there's nothing more special when it's your time around Thanksgiving and you want to have something to celebrate celebrate he saved us by his kindness his love his mercy his regeneration his renewal his spirit his son is summed up all by his grace and we did not deserve it and just like the theology of Christianity is based upon this grace of undeserving our ethic or the way in which we live our lives is based upon gratitude it will change your life it will change your life to recognize the magnitude of the fact that he saved us and so believer in here today
[31:47] I want you to just rejoice and he saved us I want you to consider that and as we pray here in a moment pray that that you are allowed God's word to stir your heart and be reminded of all that you have been saved from and all that you have been saved to you're no longer foolish you once were you are no longer rebellious he saved you from that praise God praise God I love that I have to say he saved us it's personal he saved me but I also get to say he saved us we're the family of the redeemed and the greatest expression of gratitude is found in lowly service to others and find a place and a time and a person that this week you can express the love of God because he found us when we were not lovable he found us when we were enemies and he demonstrated love and kindness and grace and mercy and the most wonderful expression of our gratitude is that we would demonstrate that to somebody else and say we want you to know about the God of all grace and all mercy and all kindness and they do not know there's a God like that because they've never seen a person like that and when they can see that people have been changed by that God then we can point them to our wonderful
[33:04] Savior if you're in here today and as believers will pray to those in here that have not received forgiveness of sin and you're not able to say with us he saved us I want you to know we were once there we were ignorant of God's law we were not better people we just simply did not know that somebody showed us somebody showed us that there was a Savior that died for our sins somebody showed us that we didn't have to keep sweeping the sin underneath the carpet and trying to fix it ourselves and trying to manage all these things and recognizing that there was something inside of us that was broken there was something inside of us that needed forgiveness there was just something inside of us that we could not fix he came and he saved us and he saved us from our consequences of sin and he is saving us from the sin of our lives today we were there we were ignorant and those of us who knew it were rebellious as well but God is kind and God is loving and God extends grace and mercy to you today and you need to reach out and you need to receive this most wonderful gift and say with us all he saved us
[34:15] Heavenly Father I want to thank you for your word Father I want to thank you for saving me and Lord as a believer I want to thank you for stirring in my heart and bringing me back to such a simple truth and have so much to be rejoicing in and Father of all the things this week that my brothers and sisters will stack upon their list of things to be thankful for may it be upon the strong foundation of you saved us thank you Father with every head bowed every eye closed and believers would you speak to our Heavenly Father would you thank him for saving you would you say that to him today and the way in which he did it he was kind and he was gracious and he was long suffering to you and he was patient but he forgave you of your sins and let that gratitude propel you into this week and as you're praying believers I want to speak to you and hear today if you can't say with us he saved you today is the day that God that I spoke about that is kind and loving he is today kind and loving and gracious and compassionate and he knows you completely and he loves you and there's nothing like that in all of this world it is the thing that you may not be aware of that you so desperately need it is the solution to the brokenness that is in our lives and so this is what
[35:43] I want to encourage you to pray I want you to pray to the God of heaven and say as you have saved others I ask that you would save me I recognize that I was a sinner and I was in need of a savior and today I want to receive that gift of forgiveness of sin I see you as kind and I see you as gracious and I want you to be my savior I want you to be my Lord and I want you to provide me the gift of eternal life pray that in faith believing if you prayed that today I would love nothing more than to share some resources with you and help you start a conversation with people that can teach you all the wonderful truths that have fall out of that and how wonderful it is if that's you in here today and you prayed that prayer I would never embarrass you but would you just raise your hand for a moment so I can see it and I can pray for you throughout the week if you prayed that here today well believers in here make it foundational in your life that before you thank God for anything else you thank him for the fact that he saved us
[36:44] Heavenly Father I thank you for our time together in your word I thank you for the family of the redeemed who stir in me a desire to be grateful Lord may the truth of this be lived out in our lives this week in Jesus name I pray Amen