[0:00] So Andrew was speaking to you today about your work week, and I always like, as you know, on Sundays we have different men give offering devotion. Anytime I see Andrew up here, I feel like we pulled the goalie, all right, and the hockey game.
[0:12] He always comes out of the sound booth. I'm always looking forward to what he's going to share about Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays. But how many of you like to use a Post-it note like this? How many of you love Post-it notes?
[0:22] Some of you got excited seeing a Post-it note. That's odd, all right, but that's great. And I'm thankful for people that love Post-it notes because they're more organized naturally than I am.
[0:35] But I need to stop using my kids' examples, so today I'm going to borrow Pastor Bo's kids for an example and give my kids a break. So last week, Thaddeus, being like his father, he likes Post-it notes, and he writes little notes to himself and says what he needs to do for the day, and I'm sure just got a great list of things to do.
[0:55] How old is Thaddeus? He's six years old, so you can imagine. How busy of a life he's living and needs a calendar and everything. But he's just following in his dad's steps there. And so Bo shared with me how he had in his room, he had this Post-it note that this is not it, but it said something along the lines of, be good.
[1:15] And that's what he reminded himself to be for the day. Be good, all right? And I'll make some of these if you want them for your kids. It says, be good, all right? And so that's an understandable thing.
[1:26] He ought to be good, understanding right and wrong. And it's written on our conscience what is wrong. And he's hearing the teaching of the Word. He wants to be good. But Bo, being a loving dad, wanted his son to understand that that being good will never be fulfilled, will never be good on our own.
[1:44] We need a Redeemer. One of us faithful and true because we're not faithful, we're not true, and that we are going to sin. So it gave him an opportunity to talk to his son, what it means about being a sinner in need of a Savior.
[1:58] Tonight, Greg will preach in here and he'll share his testimony and talk about why he loves what he does in the ministry. But that is not the message that your kids are getting this morning. It's just to be good boys and little girls.
[2:09] But they're being told that they need a Savior who is faithful and true. And so that's the message that he shared with them. So the next day it changed. And this is what he wrote down, something like this.
[2:19] He says, believe on Jesus. All right? And so he changed. Be good for believe on Jesus. And so at the age of six, this young man had an understanding of what is the separation between the two that is there so important, that distinction of knowing.
[2:35] And I hope you know that as well today, that you need to believe on Jesus here. And so I want to speak to you primarily as believers in here today, people that know the Lord, know God, put your faith and trust in him.
[2:48] How do you be ready for every good work? I told Bo, I said, well, my kids have put their faith and trust in Jesus, made a profession. Can I borrow your sign that says be good? All right? And maybe I'll say do good.
[2:59] All right? In Jesus, we've been made righteous, but we are still supposed to be do-gooders. You ever been called that? You're just a little goody two-shoes or a do-gooder? Some of you are never called that because you were troublemakers growing up.
[3:11] All right? But some of you might have been do-gooders or goody two-shoes. And that's not an insult to us as people. And I want to, good works have been given a bad rap if you misunderstand them.
[3:23] So I pray that God gives us clarity today. So how to be ready for every good work? You might contest and say, if you just preach the gospel and good works will happen on their own without any sustained focus on them.
[3:36] As we preach the gospel, good works will just happen. But in this passage, it is very clear that we are told to learn to maintain good works, and we're called to devote ourselves to good works.
[3:47] In other portions of the Bible, like Hebrews, we're told to provoke or to stir up good works when we come together. So it's a learned skill, Titus 3.14, And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.
[4:05] Even the great commission that Jesus gave to the church, he tells us that we go and teach the gospel, share about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We baptize.
[4:16] And then we go on to teach, to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded of you. It tells us how to live out our Christian life. And so we need to learn it.
[4:28] It's something that we are to speak about and to teach about and to encourage one another in this area of good works. So it would be important for us to define exactly what that is. And Titus 3 provides us a basic definition.
[4:40] It gives us some understanding about where good works should properly fit in our lives. Charles Spurgeon said this, and I found it shocking, and I sat there and I considered it, and then I came to agreement with what he said.
[4:52] He said this, he says, For in our opinion, good works are the rarest things in the world, and we believe we might walk for many a mile before we should see a good work at all.
[5:07] We should believe we could walk many a mile before we should see a good work at all. As I considered that and studied, I want to defend why that's the case.
[5:17] First of all, if you're going to do a good work, it's going to be something that's commanded the doom by the God of heaven. The Pharisees many times talked about things that they did.
[5:27] They said, we take these herbs from our garden and we give them to you. They're always speaking to Jesus about things that they did that he never commanded. But the Bible teaches us that God is pleased with our obedience.
[5:41] God is pleased. He says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. God is only pleased by what he produces in and through us. And so to truly do good works, it needs to be a response of something that God has taught us that we should do.
[5:58] And so first of all, I want you to see that it's something that's commanded to us of God. It is something that is shown to us to be lived out. Second of all, I want you to see that good works are acts of love that meet people's needs that are done in obedience to God's command and for his glory.
[6:15] That would be the definition that I would give you today of good works. They're acts of love that meet people's needs that are done in obedience to God's command and for his glory. Verse number 8 of chapter 3 says, These things are good and profitable unto men.
[6:30] And it's contrasted in the next verse, The people, the avoiding foolish questions and genealogies and contention, which are unprofitable and vain. That good works are something that are profitable for one another, for mankind, and it's for God's glory.
[6:47] And it's going to flow out of our love for Christ. Nothing is a good work unless it's done with a good motive. And there is no motive which can be said to be truly good outside of the glory of God.
[7:02] And then good works should spring from our union with Christ. Why would a branch produce grapes or any other fruit? It's simply because it's been grafted into a vine, and it partakes of the nature of that stem.
[7:13] And the only way we can bring forth fruit to God is by being grafted into Christ and united with Him. And so when you think about it in those terms, you can see why Spurgeon would say that they're a very rare thing in this world.
[7:26] There are things that I do that, from your perspective, appear to be good works, but if they're not done with a proper motive, they're not done in obedience to the Lord, and they're not done by faith, they're not the good works in which I've been called to live out as a Christian.
[7:40] And so here we see how it's explained in this passage. He says you could do something for someone. In 3.13, it talks about Zenos and Apollos, and it says you should help them on their way.
[7:51] And so when you think about good works, you often think about those tangible ways in which we can help one another. Here I have a box of blankets, all right? And this is often an idea that you may think of very clearly for good work, and I would not argue at all that it is, all right?
[8:08] I've got a hidden compartment there. And so here I've got this box of blankets from Miss Terry, and I'm going to hand them out today because it's so cold. No, I'm just kidding. How many of you are cold today, all right? Please speak to your local deacons about that, all right, if you are.
[8:20] I don't think it's cold today, but these blankets that are here, and a lady that she knows, her mother sews these blankets, and she wants to give them the children that are in need.
[8:32] And so through our banner ministry involved in foster care, these blankets are going to be kept in our church, and they're going to be provided to somebody. That's a good work. That's a beautiful thing.
[8:42] People will do unhistoric events, and they will be buried in unvisited tombs, and they live the life of good works. That's a beautiful thing that a person would do.
[8:53] But it isn't the quality of this blanket, and it's not the use of the blanket, that it would help somebody, that would determine if this is a good work. It would be determined by the fact there's the motive in glorifying God, and is it living out the command of scriptures.
[9:07] And so it's quite easy for you to see how a blanket like this being made is a good work that you could be involved in, but the Bible doesn't stop there with giving us opportunities to be involved in good works.
[9:20] It can be big or small, material or spiritual, and the recipient can almost be anyone in sharing the gospel as God would command us to, helping a co-worker at the new job, helping the people in Chile get the word of God as we're working on a project to get the scriptures to them.
[9:36] People are in need of serving. That's where my wife is and daughter this morning, serving in the nursery, loving and caring for this church. Or you could use your gifts in building a company, providing labor for other people.
[9:50] Or companies need reliable workers, and so you can show up on time and follow the orders and do a good work. There's many tangible ways in which we can do things that are glorifying to God.
[10:03] So where would we look for a list today? Where would you look for a list of places in which you could be involved in this type of work? The scriptures are the only rule to direct how we may glorify God.
[10:14] Micah 6, 8 tells us, He has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of thee? O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of thee?
[10:27] Positively stated, this Bible is perfect to thoroughly furnish us for all good works. Unto all good works.
[10:38] I study the scriptures, the principles of the scripture, the truth that it's seen. I say, I want to live them out. I need to be enabled by the Holy Spirit, and say, in me there'd be no good thing except for what Christ has done.
[10:51] And then I work to live that out in my life. And that's what's being defined as a good work that is glorifying to the Lord. Stated negatively, it's to say that we must not invent things that please the Lord.
[11:03] That we don't have to invent things that please the Lord. That the Bible is able to thoroughly furnish us unto all good works, and the living this out. You see, there's a danger when we speak about good works.
[11:15] So far up to this point, I've spoken about it in a positive manner, as what we should do as Christians. But typically, when you hear about good works, you'd be told the negative aspect of it. And the Bible's filled with that.
[11:25] And the Apostle Paul's writing many times, he's speaking about works of righteousness. This weekend at the wedding, I got to see my mom, and I told her something that I'd learned about the name of Trent.
[11:36] If you're visiting here today, that's my name, all right? It's Trent. And I asked my mom, where did it come from? And I told her a story. Last week, I told you about how in the Reformation, there was an emphasis on justification by faith.
[11:50] And that the Word of God was the only rule of conduct for us. It was the authority in our lives. We need to submit ourselves to the authority of God's Word. And so coming out of that, there was a discussion.
[12:00] Councils were gathered together. And they would consider justification by faith. Is it true or is it not? Well, in the northern part of Italy, there is a city that is named Trent or Trento.
[12:11] Please don't call me that, all right? And there's a city named Trent. So people gathered together at the Council of Trent. And they argued about many things. And they got many things wrong concerning the Word of God.
[12:22] And one of the things that they get wrong at this council here is they rejected the doctrine of justification by faith was rejected in favor of a both and doctrine of justification by faith and works on the basis of the authority of both Scripture and tradition.
[12:38] So that group of people, the majority of them, got that understanding wrong, which means that there was a mixing of what we do with being justified by faith or mixing it with having to earn our salvation.
[12:53] And that is where so many people that we know and love, and maybe you're part of that today, somebody that we would know and somebody that we would love, that have a misunderstanding about the role of good works in your life.
[13:05] I love how it's been said before. It says, Good works, as they are called in sinners, are nothing but splendid sins. Let me read that for you one more time.
[13:16] Good works, as they are called in sinners, are nothing but splendid sins. Titus 3.5 Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
[13:35] That is the category or description that is given when it speaks about people that have never put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. When they do what would appear to be good works, these are called works of righteousness, and those are simply just splendid sins.
[13:52] And when you come to know Christ, you will repent of not only your wrongdoings, but even your good works that you did because they were not glorifying to God. So what is the difference here in the works of righteousness and good works?
[14:04] And I'm giving you a definition, working definition for good works. Let me give you one here of works of righteousness. Let's have a definition I'll read to you, and it may be up on the screen, and it says this. Works of righteousness is a form of self-righteousness that believes that our salvation can be earned and or sustained by doing good works.
[14:26] It says we can make ourselves righteous before God by our obedience. It's a form of self-righteousness that believes that salvation can be earned or sustained by doing good works.
[14:38] And so that's where good works has caused a lot of confusion. Many people have tried to achieve their salvation by doing good works, and they do not merit salvation here.
[14:51] And so from 100 feet away or even 5 feet away, these actions may look the same to you and to me, but not to the God of heaven. The Bible has a lot of negative things to say about works, especially the works of the law.
[15:06] But we are justified by faith in Christ and not by works of law. Salvation is not a works, lest any of us would, we should boast in them. Salvation cannot be earned by doing good works.
[15:18] And the Bible is very clear on that matter. When I became a homeowner, there's a lot of things that I didn't know. One, for example, was trash services. I was always trying to take my trash somewhere because that's what we did in Kentucky, all right?
[15:32] And I was always trying to find a place I could take it. And so one day I asked my neighbor, I'm like, where do you take your trash? And he pointed to some bins at the end of his driveway. And I'm like, well, can I put my trash there?
[15:43] He said, no, you get your own bins. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, yeah, you pay, you know, $10 a month back then, and somebody would come and pick up the trash at the end of your own. And I'm like, are you serious? I've never employed anybody before.
[15:54] I'm so excited about this, all right? And so I loved it. For the first few weeks, I tried to go out there and watch it when it happened. I'm like, look at this. Stuff's getting done around the house. I'm not even doing it, all right?
[16:06] And I loved it. Well, another area in which I didn't understand was about a foundation to the home. And so I don't know what I was looking for, but I was looking for the crawl space underneath my house.
[16:16] And I walked around the house over and over again. And I'm thinking, I cannot get underneath my house. And somebody had to tell me, well, Trent, you can't get underneath your house.
[16:27] It was built on a concrete slab, and there is no space underneath it. I'm like, what are you talking about? I can't get underneath my house. I was looking forward to crawling underneath my own house someday, you know, reading a book.
[16:39] No, I'm just kidding. I don't know, but there's a lot of things that I didn't know, and that's why you should pray for my wife. There's so many things I still don't know today about being a homeowner. And so there's a misunderstanding about foundations.
[16:53] And that's comical, I believe. But what isn't comical is that when people misunderstand that our foundation for our lives cannot be built upon the works in which we have done.
[17:04] You see, good works belong in our home, but they cannot be the foundation. Religion says, I obey, therefore I'm accepted. But the gospel says, I'm accepted, therefore I obey.
[17:15] True Christianity is always maintained that faith necessarily expresses itself in action. That good works are what goes on inside of the house, but it can never be the foundation of my home.
[17:29] Titus 3.8, it's undeniable when it says this. This is a faithful saying, and these things which I will affirm constantly, they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.
[17:43] These things are good and profitable in the men. It says there that that which have believed in God. That statement in Titus 3.8, you should underline it and you should look at it there.
[17:54] Those that have believed in God. That is the foundation. And so these good works have a glorious purpose. 3.14, and let us also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful.
[18:08] And so the definition, good works are acts of love that meet people's needs, that are done in obedience to God's command and for his glory. It's part of the mandate we're given in Genesis 2.15 where we are to dress and to keep.
[18:21] We have a work that God has given us to do. And so moreover, godly behavior is encouraged that the word of God be not blasphemed and those that are opponents of Christianity and the word of God would be silenced.
[18:35] You might have a friend or somebody in your home that likes to stir things up and to cause trouble. I don't want to cause any trouble today, but I would like to stir up among us a desire from believers to do good works for the honor and glory of God.
[18:49] To read our Bibles in the morning, to allow it to press upon our hearts, and then to get up and to put it into action. To live by faith, to live by obedience, so that the word of God is not blasphemed, so that it is adorned, so people can see the incredible value of our lives being changed by this glorious message.
[19:08] And so how do we become a people that are zealous of good works? It says that we're a peculiar people in verse 14 that are zealous of the good works, who have a great desire for this. We simply live differently than those that are around us.
[19:20] The redeemed are able to live differently than the unredeemed, and we can be ready for every good work. Reading a book this week by Kerry Smith, which has spoken here before, and he says this, You are a child of a good news God.
[19:36] In Jesus, you are called to live a good news life. You have been given a good news assignment, and God's good news transcends all possible bad news.
[19:50] And all God's people said, Amen. In the gospel, good news transcends all possible bad news. He gives a kind of example of how all the bad news in life, when you look at the gospel, when you look at the cross, it could fit in this little tic-tac container right there.
[20:06] It makes it so small. The gospel transcends all possible bad news. I just want to pause here a moment and speak to you in here today. Whatever is going through in your life, because of the gospel, your best days can be to come.
[20:20] And it may not be resolved on this side of eternity, but in the one that is to come, you can put your faith and trust in Jesus. But I want to add to that. You are a child of a good news God, and you're called to live a good news life.
[20:31] You'll be given a good news assignment, and good news transcends all possible bad news. And in light of what we're studying today, I'd like to add this statement. The children of a good news God, we live our days doing good and obedience to His command by faith, through His enabling and for His glory.
[20:48] So what do you got scheduled this week, Andrew, on Monday and Wednesday and Friday? Nobody thinks about Tuesday and Thursday, right? And what do you got scheduled for this week? I want to be about doing good. Not for my salvation, but because I'm free to do so.
[21:01] I can live out the scriptures. I want to be busy about doing good works that are pleasing to the Lord. And then it brings us to a humble stance. If you want to get ready for this week, if you want to get ready to do these good works that we're being called to do, verse number 1 and 2 kind of, they show us the position of our heart, where we should be at.
[21:19] This humble position, this humble stance. The only message that can be trusted to produce good works in is the message that tells us that our works cannot save us.
[21:31] So we start with realizing our inability, how insufficient we are. Titus 3, 5, It's critical for Christians to remember that God saves us.
[21:44] In Romans it's stated plainly, None of those good deeds that you're doing and those good works are ever going to merit forgiveness and favor with God.
[22:04] And so that brings us to a place where we say that we are empty, that we are broken. We come to the Lord humbly. Nothing pure comes from the unregenerate heart because the motives are impure.
[22:16] Faith is what purifies our heart and gives us the example. On our website, underneath the media section, you can see the notes. And there's a section there with footnotes.
[22:27] And this story is much longer than that if you'd like to read it. But I thought it was interesting because I wrestle with this idea because I know unbelieving people, people that have never put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that do things that have helped me, that they have been good neighbors, they have been very kind.
[22:44] And so I wrestle with that. I would say, what do you mean that a person can't do good works as they're not a believer? Because my neighbor who fixed my lawnmower, he seemed to be doing a good work or whatever the scenario is.
[22:56] And this example given by W. Smith I thought was wonderful. And something that I won't forget and I hope it'll help you as well. And he speaks about pirates, all right? The kind that had the eye patch and the hook and imagine Peter Pan or whatever you need to to think about pirates here for a moment or whatever knowledge you have about it.
[23:14] And so there's pirates and I guess there's pirates still today, right? And in the real world that we live in and off the different coasts of these pirates, they have a moral code to one another. They're not supposed to lie to one another and they have ways in which they do things.
[23:27] They have a way in which they govern themselves and they do things and they benefit one another. But the trademark of a pirate is that they don't live underneath the rule and reign of the government.
[23:40] They are in their own selves, their own authority. They are the picture of a rebel. And so there's no doing good if there's not doing good for the honor and glory of God.
[23:52] So the Bible goes as far as to say that when you do something and you do good and you're doing it either to earn your salvation, some people would just come out and tell you that's what they're doing. I'm doing good to earn my salvation.
[24:04] Or they may tell you I'm doing good so that I can be seen as good or so that good comes back to me. Or there's all kinds of reasons that are given outside of the glory of God. And the Bible goes as far as to say those good things are as filthy rags.
[24:20] They do not impress the God of heaven. They do not merit salvation. And so we see this here of rebellion even through good works. In Titus we've seen that grace, it not only forgives us, but it continues to train us.
[24:36] Titus 2.12, teaching us, denying ungodliness and worldly lust. And so grace is doing two things in the life of a believer. The first part of 2.14, it says that he gave us that we might redeem us from iniquity.
[24:49] The gospel in our lives is saving us from our own sin. It's saving us from living in a way that's contrary to God. We've been forgiven from sin. We're being saved from the sin. And we'll be eternally saved from the consequences.
[25:01] And the grace of God and the gospel is doing that. But it's also doing something where it's purifying unto himself a people zealous of good works. It is freeing me from desire of self so that I can love other people and obedience to Scripture and for his glory.
[25:21] The Holy Spirit enables that. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. And if any man minister, in 1 Peter 4.11, he says, Let him do it as the ability which God giveth.
[25:33] Several stories in the Bible illustrate this. I think there's one that's not any more plain, in my opinion, than the feeding, where Jesus has 5,000 plus people to feed. And there's the disciples.
[25:44] And they're running the numbers about how we can feed all these people. And they say, I'd have to work for a long time to be able just to give everybody a bite of food here. And then Jesus takes the bread and the fish and he breaks it.
[25:55] And the disciples come to Jesus. They take what he has and they go and deliver it to other people. And it's the grace of God being delivered to people through the disciples here that are able to do that.
[26:08] A good work is something that God does through you on behalf of other people as we yield our lives to the Holy Spirit. So it's here not by trying harder, but it's by surrendering that this characteristic of a believer should be found in our lives.
[26:23] That the Christian character will not be developed just by striving and working harder, but it's surrendering ourselves. Coming to a place of humility. The kind of people who fight their own sins are the kind who are ready to genuinely help other people.
[26:38] Humbly saying, Father, I want to die to myself. I want you to live in and through me. So there in Titus 1 and 2, it's 3, 1 and 2. It says, You can consider very easily a good work of knitting blankets.
[27:06] And some of you would say, well, that's not really, that's not my jam. I won't be knitting blankets today. If that's the application of the sermon, I'm going to be in trouble, okay? Because that's not what I'm able to do. But what is a good work being shown in Titus 3, 1 and 2 about people that have been changed by the grace of God?
[27:22] It's people here that they speak evil of no man. Do you know how rare that is? We live in such a cynical and critical world. Nobody wants to celebrate.
[27:33] I love weddings. All right. I really do. I said that last night at the dinner because it just seems that everybody knows this is just the time that we allow ourselves to be happy and to celebrate.
[27:43] It's such a good time. We live in such a cynical world. You could do the good work of being the person at the workplace who isn't the one who speaks evil of other people. The one who lives in just joyful submission, recognizing that authority is God-ordained and that you don't have to be the one who pushes against the system.
[28:01] And you just do it in an honorable way before the Lord. And be ready to do every good work and not a brother, but be gentle, showing meekness, which is a power, but it's under control and it's purposed in a way that is honoring the God, showing meekness unto all men.
[28:17] We live in a dark day. And those of us that will surrender ourselves, allow the Holy Spirit to work in and out of us, we have so much opportunity to make much of his name. So in closing here, Titus 3.8, it says, This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that affirm constantly.
[28:37] Affirm constantly. We need to be reminded of. Maybe the day you needed reminding of these things, that which have believed in God, and I pray that's true of you all in here today, that you might be careful that you would live intentionally to maintain good works.
[28:53] See, these things are good and they're profitable unto all men. Let me help you out here for a moment. Let me speak first to the life of a believer in here.
[29:04] You should devote yourselves to good work. You should stir those things up. You should be looking in the scripture and saying, How do I live this out in this coming week? You shouldn't just be set on autopilot, reacting to things and being passive.
[29:17] You should come out of your time with God's people and Bible study. You should come out of your time and study in the Bible with being intentional and says, I want to go live this out. You know, this lady here that hears about a need to care for the widows and care for the orphans, biblical passage, opportunity in front of her.
[29:34] She sells blankets. There's a lot of those. There is no shortage of them. As long as there is a need to be done, something to instruct in this world, we should be about it. And there are so many opportunities all around us in this world to do good that is honoring to God.
[29:51] We should look to God's word to lead us in the way in which we should live. And then we should help encourage one another, provoke one another to this way of life that is honoring to God.
[30:02] So in a moment when we pray, believer, I'd ask that you would do that, that you would affirm in your heart that you would devote yourself and say, Father, I want to be about good works this week. I want to maintain those in my life.
[30:14] I want to reflect your glory and your wisdom in the way in which I handle myself throughout this week. And then maybe pray. Say, between now and Thanksgiving, say, Father, would you lay upon my heart a way in which I can do something for your honor and your glory that is pleasing to you.
[30:32] I would encourage you to make that application today as it's been my application in studying this. And then I speak to you in here today. If you're someone who has done many good works, and if I was to see them from five feet away or from 100 feet away, I would say this person has just been so nice and caring and good, but they're not good works because they're works of righteousness.
[30:54] You're working to earn something. You're either doing it for yourself or you're doing it to earn your own salvation. And the Bible is clear that there's nothing that we can produce on our own that is pleasing to the Lord.
[31:07] And today can be the day of salvation. Today can be the day that you reject and you repent not only all your sinful behaviors, but you repent of even all the good works that you have done in trying to earn your own salvation.
[31:23] There's always been confusion. But by the grace of God, let there not be confusion in the day among us as we look to God's word about what is necessary in putting your faith and trust and believing in the Son of God who died for you.
[31:37] Would you bow your heads and pray with me here for a moment? To the believer, I pray for you first. Heavenly Father, I pray that this will be a week of unprecedented good works from a group of people that know you and that they love you.
[31:52] May our lives be distinct and honorable as the redeemed. May you use us this week to show forth what the life of a redeemed person can do, not for our own glory, not so that we can boast as a church, but so that your goodness in our lives of being faithful and true can be on display.
[32:15] Believer, as you speak to the Lord and you pray there, let me speak to you in here today. If you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you do not know that your sins have been forgiven.
[32:26] You may have worked at it for many years today, and you feel like it's something in the future that you're eventually going to achieve and that you've been working at it. I want to call you to rest.
[32:37] I want to call you to Jesus. All you that are weary can find rest in Him today. You can set down that attempt at achieving, and you can accept this eternal gift that's offered.
[32:48] I would love nothing more today than to pray with you and show you from Scripture. There in your seat, repent of your sins, repent of your good works, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and pray to Him today.
[33:02] You can stop back at our Next Steps table or speak with us after the service, but we would love to be a blessing to you, to help you, get you involved in discipleship, get you partnered with a Christian friend who's been walking this road longer than you, and they can help you understand the Bible.
[33:19] Today could be a wonderful day for you. I pray that's the decision that you will make. Heavenly Father, I pray for those that are listening in this room or online or may listen someday who are tired and weary from working to achieve.
[33:34] May the day be the day that they would find rest. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.