[0:00] Amen. Luke chapter number seven. If you're visiting with us today or visit with us at any time, I pray that you get a hot cup of coffee, clean nurseries, a good lesson in your life group or Sunday school class if you're kids.
[0:13] But I hope you know that we love Jesus. And I hope that it's always evident in the way it's sung and everything that is said from every offering devotion. Everything we do, I hope it's expressed on Sunday morning.
[0:24] But if you bump into any of us throughout the week, I hope it's very evident in the way that we live our lives. It's people that have been forgiven much, love much, and it will radically change our lives.
[0:34] And I pray that it has changed your life as it has so many of us in here, as it has in the video we saw and in the story that we're going to look at today. Kind of catch you up from last week.
[0:46] There was a message sent from John the Baptist to Jesus saying, Are you the Messiah? Are you the one we've been waiting for? And Jesus does a series of miracles and tells the disciples that are with him to go back and tell John.
[0:56] And then he says, Blessed are the one that you're not offended by me. John gets the message that he needs from Jesus. And then Jesus, after sending those disciples away to John the Baptist, begins to teach those that are around him.
[1:11] John MacArthur calls this the parable of the brats. I think it's a great name, all right? Because he says, You guys, you know, you play, you're like little children sitting in the marketplace, Luke 7, 32, and calling one to another and saying, We've piped unto you and we've not danced, you've mourned and you have not wept.
[1:26] And they played church, they played wedding and they played funeral. And they're like little kids and they're saying, You just won't play according to our rules. And Jesus said, John the Baptist came, lived in the wilderness, didn't take any privileges in his life, lived such a difficult life.
[1:40] And you went and listened to him. And then I come upon the scene and there's rejoicing around me. And you say that I hang out with sinners and that I'm gluttonous. And then you won't listen to me either. And so it's appropriately called a parable of brats.
[1:53] And then in Luke 7, 29 and 30, it says, And the people that heard him, the publicans, had justified God being baptized, baptized, baptized, all right?
[2:04] That's what all of our little kids become when they're little, right? Baptized. And being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.
[2:18] And so we hear of a contrast between two groups of people. Those that came to John the Baptist and they said, We are just dead men's bones. We are just empty on the inside. We need to repent.
[2:29] And they repented. And they were baptized of John. And when Jesus came on the scene, they said, You know, there's the Messiah. That's what I've been waiting for. I recognize that I'm a sinner. But now I recognize that he is the Savior.
[2:40] But then there's another group of people that are not like that. And this is the portion that I've been looking forward to reading to you all week. And there's such a strong contrast between this lady in the story and this Pharisee.
[2:52] Verse number 36. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
[3:19] Now when the Pharisees which had bid in him saw it, he spake with him, saying, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, he would have known who and what manner this is that touches him, for she is a sinner.
[3:32] And Jesus answered and said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say against thee. And he saith, Master, say on. And there was a certain creditor which had two debtors, the one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty.
[3:45] And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? And Simon answered and said, I suppose that he that whom he forgave us most.
[3:59] And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and said to Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, and thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
[4:14] Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
[4:26] Wherefore I said unto thee, Her sins which are many are forgiven, but she loved much, but whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.
[4:38] And they that said it meet with him began to say with themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace.
[4:49] So we see this spending time speaking here to this woman who represents the love of somebody that recognizes what it's like to be forgiven much, with a great contrast to somebody who doesn't believe that there's anything that's needed.
[5:02] In the book of Luke, we come upon 10 meals. Tonight we will look at the Lord's Supper. It's important to understand the context of what's happening. And this story here helps us understand what a meal would have looked like during this time and sitting around a table.
[5:16] But so much ministry happens around meals. I feel outside of the Bible, the thing that I talk the most with people in this room about, Miss Lisa this week and others, is food, right? There's so much food around it.
[5:27] I thank God for that, all right? And just like Ben said so well, in everything that God gives us to do, he gives us an element of joy. And I love that. And in everything that he gives us as a Baptist church to do, there's an element of chicken, fried chicken involved.
[5:40] And so there's a ministry that's going to happen here around a table and a lesson to be learned. I was at Maple Street Biscuit this week. Greg used to work there, really likes that place.
[5:52] I recommend it, the biscuits and gravy. But when they ask for your name, they don't ask for your name. They say, name a celebrity that you would like to be. I do not know of a single celebrity that I would like to be, all right?
[6:04] And I can explain more after the service if you want, okay? I don't want to be any celebrity, but if I would have been honest because I was studying this passage, I would have told them, I want to be the woman out of Luke chapter number seven.
[6:15] That's who I would want to switch lives with. That's who I would like to live like. Not Tom Hanks or Keanu Reeves or Kanye West or any of the other names that I heard being yelled out as biscuits.
[6:26] But Luke chapter number seven, this woman, what an example for us. Let's pay close attention to her story today. Before we get to her, we'll give a little bit of time to Simon the Pharisee.
[6:37] He doesn't deserve as much time because we know what he looks like. We know him. We've seen him before. I've seen him in the mirror at my house when I've looked at him before. We know what it's like to be this person who would invite Jesus into their home but not into their heart.
[6:51] That would invite Jesus in in a public way but not in a personal way. And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down with meat. This is a different Simon. There's a Simon in Mark 26 and Mark 14 and John 12 and that's Simon the leper.
[7:06] This is a story that's unique to the book of Luke. We have another story about a woman who's washing the feet of Jesus. But here we have Simon the Pharisee that gives an invitation to Jesus.
[7:16] Common tradition when Jesus, when there had been a visiting teacher that would have come through, they would have invited him to the home. And so this Pharisee invites him into the home and it says that Jesus went and he went into the Pharisee's house.
[7:30] I've said it before but Jesus loves every kind of sinner. Not just the kind of sinner that's so visible that everybody says that woman's a sinner but the kind of sinner that's a Pharisee that says, would you come into my house?
[7:41] Jesus goes there so this man can be confronted with his sin and the gospel. And so the dinner would take place in what we would consider a courtyard. And so as you know at the Lord's Supper, the last supper that Jesus had with the disciples and you hear that John laid his head upon the chest of Jesus and that doesn't seem to make sense for you in the way that we would sit at a table but I'm sure you've seen pictures before and so it'd be a lower table and they would be sitting at on their elbows eating at it and so it said that they were reclining.
[8:09] And this is important to know because when the lady will come in, the woman will come in and she will wash the feet of Jesus, he's not staring at her while she does this. He would not have seen who this woman was.
[8:22] And so here we are in like a courtyard and this man outside of his home would have set up and invited a guest to eat with him and so he's sitting there with Jesus but it would have been common when there would have been a guest to come like this that along the outside edges of the courtyard would have been people watching them eat their meal.
[8:40] And so from the story we learn the man invites Jesus over and he prepares a table for him but Jesus walks in and there's no pitcher of water there to wash his feet. There's no warm greeting of a kiss that would have been customary but Jesus is brought to the table and he has sat there and now he's eating this meal and you can see the man's opinion of Jesus by the way that he doesn't offer him the oil.
[9:04] So Simon is skeptical. He is sizing up Jesus. He's trying to figure out who this man is and you see it in his language, right? If you were a prophet you would have known who this woman was.
[9:16] He is constantly questioning. This is not the kind of dinner that you want to be invited to where somebody is skeptical about you but then it's so great. This would have been such a bad party to be at but verse number 37 and behold a woman in the city which was a sinner.
[9:35] Evidently she was a sinner and when she knew that Jesus set up meat in the Pharisees' house she brought an alabaster box of ointment. You see it wasn't everybody knew about this woman who she was.
[9:47] Just immediately they knew that she was a sinner. I thought about acting this out today. Anybody been willing to look like the Pharisee and wear a three piece suit but not many people want to sign up to look like the woman in the story that when she walked on the scene everybody knew this is a sinner.
[10:01] She appeared to either look like maybe as a prostitute or somebody wasn't very cared for. Somebody that honestly would not have had the very long life and the day in which she lived in. She would have been an outcast.
[10:13] She did not receive an invitation in the mail to come to this dinner but there she was with the most a Pharisee a critic a skeptic and then Jesus Christ and then here she comes into this as well.
[10:26] The woman's worst sins would have been known to the whole town. There would have been no hiding it. She came to the house of a man with an impeccable religious reputation in the community in the company of the most valued and trusted of friends.
[10:40] A company which undoubtedly she was an outcast and she was looked upon with condescending contempt. Could you imagine the day? Would we like to do that in here? Hey, how about all of us line ourselves up in here from worst sinner to least sinner.
[10:54] Would you all like to do that? A little exercise? We got a little bit of time in here. This would be our last Sunday together, right? If I was to ask you to line up and I would go to the far end with the sinners.
[11:06] You can't tell that. If I thought that there's a way in which I could show you the day that I was a sinner like anybody else in need of Jesus, I would wear that. If it's a t-shirt that you need with a cross on it, I'd wear it.
[11:17] But there's no way to make that visible. I need to tell you that I was a sinner that Jesus Christ saved. And if you think that's anything different about anybody that sits around here, it's not the case.
[11:28] We're all sinners that needed a Savior. And so we come here today to worship Him because we were with this woman in this story completely. Completely. And so she doesn't get in trouble for showing up for the meal because other people are allowed to show up and be in the peanut gallery and the sit-out in the back and watch what's going on.
[11:46] But what she gets rebuked for is that she couldn't stay on the sideline. She couldn't just stay over there while Jesus Christ wasn't taken care of. She couldn't stay on the sideline while they didn't wash the feet of Jesus.
[12:00] And so she comes off the sideline. It appears that she knew who Jesus was. Remember I told you that Jesus already went and preached to the poor. That Jesus already been doing things. She knows who this man is.
[12:10] She doesn't suppose who He is. She knows who He is. The Pharisee says I suppose. This woman did not have a supposed religion. She didn't have a supposed knowledge of Jesus.
[12:21] But she knew that she was who He had come to see. Luke 7, 22 Go thy way and tell John the things I have seen and how the blind see the lame walk the leopards are cleansed the deaf hear and the dead are raised and the poor the gospel is preached.
[12:34] She was one of those people in which the gospel had been preached. And she said nothing that very much was said about her in the story. She does not speak. But what is said about her is that forgiveness possesses a transforming power.
[12:50] She knows that she has been changed by the fact that Jesus Christ had forgiven her. Luke chapter number 8 verses 1 through 3 It's unique to the book of Luke. You won't find it in the other gospel records and it speaks about three ladies.
[13:02] right at the end of this story about this woman. And it mentions verse number 2 and a certain woman which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities and Mary Magdalene out of whom went seven devils and as I shared that with David this morning very specific seven devils came out of her out of this woman and Joanna the wife of Chusa, Herod, Stuart and Susanna and many others which ministered unto him of their substance.
[13:28] Don't let that chapter break confuse you. Those three women and this woman and at the end of Luke chapter 7 they all belong together and they're all real. I love the parable of the prodigal son but I love this story because she is a real flesh and blood human that lived upon this earth and that one day in heaven I will get to meet her and maybe she will meet that Indian lady from the story and they will share about their love for Jesus that is here.
[13:54] But in that story it shows that Jesus ministers and draws followers from a wide variety of backgrounds. You have this woman who had seven demons in her you have this woman who was seen as the worst of sinners in town and then you have people that are in Herod's kingdom there upon his house inside there of royalty and women from different walks of life are all coming to Jesus and what are they doing at the end of Luke 8 verse number 3 it says which ministered unto him of their substance.
[14:26] Their ministry came from two levels a personal involvement and a contribution of their resources. Both levels of involvement are important to effective ministry.
[14:38] Let me get what you might consider personal for a moment I think I'm getting pastoral here with you. Ephesians 4 11 and 12 and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ for the work of the ministry everybody that's been forgiven much they want to serve Jesus.
[15:01] Everybody that's been forgiven much loves much and wants to express that love to the Lord. That expression of that love that you have because you've been forgiven that expression is called ministry.
[15:15] We minister as unto the Lord and as I have a responsibility as a supply line to teach God's word to you you have a ministry on the front line in this community to let the world know that you have been forgiven much and that you love much and now you're looking for expressions of your love for God wherever possible.
[15:38] Ephesians 4 7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Every one of you in here have a way in which you can express your love to the Lord based on the fact that He has forgiven you greatly and that's what we do together as a church.
[15:58] So willing to serve and another one so unwilling both is a response to who you believe Jesus Christ is. The Pharisee not doing the minimal amount of service for Jesus to Jesus because he did not know who Jesus was.
[16:14] Another woman taking all that she had of her resources this perfume that she would have wore one of the things that would have kept away the nastiness of this world that would have given her any kind of maybe feeling that she's not an outcast something that might have made her feel special was this perfume that gave her maybe some normalcy in life that she had it and it would have been taken upon her those of you that have perfume we can't even imagine the value in which it would have been to a woman in this position and she said of what I have I'm going to give it to Jesus.
[16:47] Four women in this chapter in verses 1-3 that took of what they had and they gave it unto the Lord and this is how they will overcome shame Isaiah 55-6 and 7 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon John verse John 1-9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and he is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Acts 10-43 To him give all the prophets witness that through him his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins She not knowing these verses in the New Testament maybe not knowing even Isaiah but she knew that the guilt and the shame that she had carried her whole life was now going to be taken from her by this man and so she lost herself in the moment She was being judged by onlookers Was Simon over there elbowing his friend and saying look at this woman interrupting my meal was people looking at her she was lost in the moment she didn't care what anybody else thought about her but it was just the presence of God and her life and all the trials that she had had now came to Jesus and they made sense and there was no comparison
[18:07] I don't care what anybody thinks about me I don't care if I'm seen as a sinner I don't care that I don't belong here that is Jesus and I love him and I'm going to take whatever I've been given and I'm going to give it to him in worship and so that incredible story leads us to this powerful parable in which Jesus says unto them if you had two debtors taking it and a man says he owes two months of what it would make he could make in a month and another man owes what he would make in 500 of these 500 pence and 50 what would make maybe 50 times of work 50 months of salary and so we look at it and the difference that would be here the difference isn't very far apart when you realize as it says and frankly and when they had nothing to pay we could argue about how much one is more is it a month or is it a day the contrast doesn't really matter because when you come to the debt collector and you have nothing to pay it doesn't matter how much you owe in that car it's going back to them it doesn't matter how much you paid off in your mortgage if you can't make the payment the home is going back to them and so the difference isn't far apart when you consider that neither one of them had much to pay so when Jesus asked Simon who should love the most and he says
[19:30] I suppose who forgave the most but if you ask the woman who should love the most her answer would have been I would I would because she knew in the story she was the one that owed the most she didn't need to know how much it was but she knew that she was the one that's how she saw herself and how should have Simon seen himself he should have seen himself also as the one that owed the most so you could ask yourself well if loving Jesus means that I have to be forgiven more then wouldn't it make sense that I go about sinning more so that he has more to forgive me let me go ahead and rest your sure all of you in here have done plenty of sinning in your life that have been forgiven much you have already met the criterion to need to be forgiven much and that was true of me at nine years age when I shook my rebellious fist at God as a kid before him that was convicted of him and did not repent as a person who only wanted to live for himself I had needed to be forgiven much and that is true of every one of you in here so calm down
[20:33] Simon if you don't believe that you have much to be forgiven I want you to know that that's not the case Chesley stood here this week and he said I want to thank God for placing me into a church because if I would not have been into that church there's a chance that I would have continued sinning in a way that many sailors did in San Diego the amount of sin that I have been saved from is greater than you ever know because I only know the sins that I got involved in but I don't know the sins that were avoided because my mom made sure that I was in church as often as I could be I don't know all the sins I could have been involved in if there wouldn't have been somebody in my life teaching me the gospel and somebody warning me God has saved me from a world of sin a world of sin that I participated in and a world of sin that I was saved from by his grace in my life so every one of you in here you have a testimony of being forgiven much and I'm going to remind you of that tonight when we look at the fact that every one of us have been forgiven much and so we should love much and honestly after the last song if you don't get up and move very quickly
[21:38] I'm going to go straight into that message alright I'm so excited about sharing it with you and so sincerity it didn't save I want to make sure that you know that if our forgiveness is based on our expression of love we are in trouble if our forgiveness of our if our forgiveness is based solely upon our expression of love then we're all in trouble for she loved much her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much you see this word being for here is not the cause but it's an evidence God didn't look at her and say that this great expression of your love and the tears that you gave because honestly I'm up here today and this Kleenex doesn't seem to be doing the job but today I'm expressing my love for a way in Jesus that I may not express tomorrow but God did not carry my sins because in this moment I'm expressing it in an emotional way the Pharisee was not condemned because he wasn't moved in an emotional way like this woman but she was to make sure that it's clear in verse number 50 and he said to the woman thy faith hath saved thee go in peace it wasn't the sincere expression of her love that saved her that came after the fact that she was saved by faith it's very important for you to understand that
[22:58] Jesus is not saying that she was forgiven because she wept tears or that she was forgiven because she did this outward work of cleaning his feet with her hair she wasn't forgiven because she anointed his feet with oil it could have been said like this it's not your love to me which has saved you it's because you trusted in me you knew that I was to me shows me that you don't know who I am and you don't know your own heart the expressions of love come after the fact that you recognize that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven that he is the only forgiveness of sin see believing is not complicated but in this world there's tons of cheap imitations in John chapter number 2 verses 23 and then when he was in with a man who said that he believed in many things about
[24:25] Jesus that he was ready to accept but he did not believe in the deity of Christ that Jesus Christ was God and that is not belief it doesn't matter if you believe in all these things that were revealed to you if you don't believe in all that he has revealed to you about him then you will not treasure him has so so what is at the root of true belief in Jesus John 6 35 and Jesus said unto them I am the bread of life that he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst you see saving faith receives Jesus for all that he is in so far as we understand what he is belief will give you sight that Jesus existed but one of them said he is worthy of me washing his feet the other one said he is worthy of all that I am and all that I will be and she treasured him as she should 2
[25:25] Corinthians 4 tells us that the world has blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ which is the image of God shall shine make full atonement for him was right in front of him but this woman had perfect sight she saw him in his majesty and in his wonder so the Pharisee knew that Jesus existed but did not wash his feet did not saw him as less than a prophet acted as if what the woman was not right but the woman who was not yet aware of the teaching of James even so with faith she knew that works was dead that the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead that thou wilt know vain man the faith without works is dead even so faith has not works is dead being alone Jesus or James the brother of Jesus hadn't written these things in James she didn't know that she didn't know that teaching but what did she know she knew like others
[26:29] I was once lost but now I'm found I was once blind but now I see he knew me completely but he loved me just like the woman at the well you said right woman I know your story but I love you he was not ashamed for me to come to him she knew that his shame would be something he took from her and he looked her in the face and he said go in peace for in Jesus Christ Galatians 5 6 neither circumcision avail anything nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love she wasn't earning her salvation that day but she was expressing a love to him and by faith which work is by love her faith in him created an expression of love that is so beautiful today and so over here they would sing and they would say he is more than enough for me Nate Wilkerson our missionary in West Africa would say what would he say
[27:29] Christ is life right that's how he would express it Selah drawing in church the other day she drew and she showed us and she said I love Jesus more than my family but I really really love my family she didn't take anything away from her love for Jesus she just said my love for family is great but my love for Jesus is even greater it's an expression of faith my daughter has put her faith and trust in Jesus and now she wants to express that I'm in love Isaiah 118 could I reason with you for here a moment come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be like crimson they be as wool you come in here today and you may believe that you're the Pharisee but don't be the Pharisee you don't want to be the Pharisee for all eternity you're not good enough you need him you've come in here today if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus and you came as a sinner and I don't know it but I know it from God's word that you're in need of him and you can hear as she did go in peace today
[28:35] Luke 7 50 and he said to the woman my faith has saved thee go in peace how wonderful is it he tells that to Simon the Pharisee he says this woman's faith has saved her she probably could have overheard the conversation but he doesn't leave it at that because he turns and he looks at her and he says it to her he acknowledges her he looks at her remember the Pharisee said if you knew what kind of woman was washing your feet there's no way you want to be associated with her but that's not our Jesus he looked she did not walk into a room being judged knowing that she was a sinner but when she encountered Jesus she left that day with incredible peace and maybe it's you it may be like the man that was sick of palsy everyone but Jesus was only focused on the problem that the man had but he couldn't walk but you're ready to respond to his command in
[29:38] Matthew 9 2 and behold they brought him their faith saith unto the sick of palsy son be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven you see everybody was concerned about the fact that this man couldn't walk and rightfully so and they brought him to Jesus but Jesus looks through all the problems that that man is having and he says be of good cheer he deals with way past anything that that woman he didn't say he didn't begin just to correct her from outside and say hey let's make you look appropriate for this meal that isn't where Jesus started he went to the heart of the problem he dealt with the guilt and the shame and he told a lady go in peace he told a man be of good cheer maybe you're dealing with problems in your life and you're dealing with other people and you think the greatest problem they have are the ones you can see that are visible that's not our greatest need in life we're in need of forgiveness we're in need of putting our trust in him and that will overflow as a love that we have and I hope that your life what we would call our religious life is not an expression of you trying to be like the
[30:43] Pharisee where everybody would think that you're put together but the life you're living is just an overflow of the fact that you know that you are in need of forgiveness and that you have been received forgiveness and it is so great don't try and justify yourself today through your reputation throw yourself on his mercy and he will teach you the meaning of mercy in ways that you cannot imagine no wonder she loved him the only question is do you and do I love him and we should could we been forgiven much as I do on every Sunday morning here in a moment I am going to speak to those in here who may not have put their faith and trust in Jesus opportunity those of you that know Jesus in here you want me to do that in every service those watching online need that opportunity but can I encourage you in here believer if you say I know that I been forgiven much you and how great a need you are in forgiveness and how even today on a daily basis we sin against him and he still offers us he removes the guilt and he removes the shame and we have that relationship with him and when we walk into the room
[32:01] Jesus wouldn't say what is this woman doing here what is this man doing here he would say that's my friend I'm so you know it's not my job to artificially create programs in which we can fill volunteers and say this is a demonstration of love for the Lord what is supposed to happen is that the God of heaven would work into your heart and that he would show you opportunity for ministry and say God I so desperately want to express my love to you and in doing that I want to serve you in that way and that I could help be a supply line and I could equip you as those of all of you on the front line and that's what ministry is really about us realizing that we have been forgiven and in our trust in him now expressing our love to him in a way and so I'm praying today that God would show me the work that he would have for me and it's so wonderful and so could
[33:11] I beg you believer in here to ask him today if Jesus walked into this room today and a table was set for him every one of us would know how to respond and hear I pray we would respond like this woman but there is a table that is set and there is a ministry to be had and there an opportunity to serve Jesus in this given week and I hope that we're ready to seize that opportunity with a heart filled with love for him let's pray Heavenly Father I thank you so much for this passage Lord I thank you for its word Lord I pray that if no one listened after the reading of your word today that it would be clear that those that have been forgiven much should love much Lord I pray for the believers that hear right now Lord that and the Father as the piano begins to play I pray that those in here who may not know you or those that are watching online that do not know you who have never seen you to be treasured they never thought that their lives should be altered by your greatness who have never been willing to give anything of themselves to you because they don't know you as the great treasure and the satisfying bread of life
[34:24] I pray that they would turn away from their Pharisee understanding of you and turn to the broken sinner understanding that is the day with every head bowed every eye closed if you're in here today and you say I know Jesus and I know him by name but I never treasured him as the greatest I can never say as a little kid that I love him more than family I can never say that he is my life if you're in here today and you do not treasure Christ and you do not know him as your Lord and Savior would you allow me an opportunity to give you some instructions of how you can go to a counseling room if that's your story in here today would you look at me up here so I could give you some instruction in here by the testimony we have a group of people in here that recognize that we were sinners in need of forgiveness what does that look like in your life respond appropriately express your love to him and let him know that whatever it looks like in the years to come that he has all of you and that you desire to show your love to him in a way that work in the hearts of those in here
[35:37] Lord that have believed and now desire to express that to you