WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.879 Okay, we're going to go back for a little while this morning to 1 John chapter 5 and these verses 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:15.679 in the first half on page 1023. And we're looking forward before the end of the service to the 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:24.000 baptism of forest and amily, that will be always a highlight for us and something important. And 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:32.399 baptism for us is something that speaks of very big truths, very significant truths. And we realize 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:39.480 and we see and we know that children today are born into guys, there's a bit of ringing coming 00:00:39.480 --> 00:00:46.120 back in it. It seems to be equine and ringing a little bit. So certainly from my point of view, 00:00:46.120 --> 00:00:51.519 I don't know if anyone else is hearing that, but children are born into a very uncertain world. 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:57.280 And we recognize that and we do love them very, very much. And part of what we're doing in baptism 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:05.359 as Christians is that we are committing them to the certainty and to the promises of God who 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:13.760 has changed the individual lives of their parents and of us as believers in the congregation. It's 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:20.280 good news that we have. It's good news that we want to share through baptism and also in our 00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:25.560 worship with any who come to us. And if you're not a Christian here today and you're worshiping 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:30.840 with us and you've come along just to watch or to see what goes on, we're so delighted that 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:36.719 that's the case and we hope and pray that God will speak to you through His Word and through the 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:43.640 truth of His Word. And maybe if you come with struggles and battles and uncertainties which 00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:50.879 surely we all have today, then we seek to bring comfort from God's Word. And you may wonder 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:55.519 the theme of this sermon, the title is How to be a Winner, which seems like a very kind of, 00:01:55.519 --> 00:02:02.879 maybe a strange thing to say, but I'll come round to why we've got that as the title today. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:07.400 Because if we just remind ourselves very briefly, if you've been here over the last number of weeks 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:12.520 and months, in fact, those of you who have could probably just get up and do this sermon, 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:18.080 because you know the book so well, it's a repeated theme that comes up again and again in 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:24.160 1 John. And really, he's speaking to this early church that's struggling and battling with 00:02:24.160 --> 00:02:29.240 difficulties and with false teaching and with people who want to draw them away from each other 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:36.520 and also from Jesus and His truth. And so we recognize that and we see that it's a word, 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:42.880 a truth from God, not just for that early church, but also for the church throughout history, 00:02:42.880 --> 00:02:48.120 because God has inspired that word and brought it to us. So it's God's message as well for us 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:54.000 today, which is always important to remember. And if we were to summarize that letter, we'd do it very 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:03.800 easily in three words, captured, well, especially if we had taken this passage as well, captured by 00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:10.000 the love of God, committed to being brothers and sisters in love together as people and then 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:16.800 conquerors. Okay, so we've seen that through a repeats again and again, that He wants them by 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:24.040 faith to see how much God loves them and how committed He is to them in the giving of His 00:03:24.040 --> 00:03:30.920 Son, Jesus Christ. And that's so important for all of us again to be reminded of. And it's the 00:03:30.919 --> 00:03:36.679 purpose of all we do as a church, as a worshiping body of people, is to be remind each other and 00:03:36.679 --> 00:03:41.719 encourage one another in the reality and in the truth of Jesus Christ and what He's done, 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:47.839 because so often we struggle with that, don't we? We struggle to be captured by His love. It's a battle 00:03:47.839 --> 00:03:55.599 and it's difficult for us to see it and to live in the light of it. And then to be committed, 00:03:55.599 --> 00:04:01.599 and John is always moving the next step, he's saying, this is who you are, this is what you 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:08.759 have. And he says, now, that's why you love one another as Christians. And he's fighting against 00:04:08.759 --> 00:04:14.840 this division and the false teaching that's come in and wanted to separate people and all that kind 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:20.399 of stuff. And he's saying, you have this new life together through the indepth dwelling spirit. So 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:28.120 move towards one another in love and in obedience. And he says that because, and God says that because 00:04:28.120 --> 00:04:37.479 He knows it's tough. He knows it's difficult. He knows it's easier not to be directed towards 00:04:37.479 --> 00:04:42.839 one another. It's easier. We find it easier to be divided and separated in many ways because of 00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:50.239 our hearts sometimes and because of others and because of us. And then he comes in this passage, 00:04:50.239 --> 00:04:56.000 if that's kind of the theme throughout being captured and committed, to being conquerors. And 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:01.559 that sounds very grand, doesn't it? For an ordinary Sunday morning. And for ordinary people, 00:05:01.559 --> 00:05:09.359 the call is to be conquerors. We might feel, well, my life's not really about conquering. It's about 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:15.720 surviving. And yet here we have in these very particularly verses four and five, he speaks in 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:21.920 the context of being overcomers, being victorious, being conquerors is really what he speaks. That's 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:26.920 the language and the word he's using for everyone who has been born of God, overcomes the world. And 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:32.400 this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world, 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:39.959 accept the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? So that's the theme of this section 00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:47.719 about the importance of being a victor. That's why I used that title, how to be a winner. And you 00:05:47.719 --> 00:05:54.000 may think that's not a very spiritual thing to speak about or a very spiritual way of talking 00:05:54.000 --> 00:06:00.159 about the Christian life. And yet that's what we spend our lives doing, isn't it? All of us spend 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:07.640 our lives seeking to be overcomers, seeking to be victorious, seeking to succeed, seeking at 00:06:07.640 --> 00:06:15.800 different levels to win battles that we face. We may not use that language, but that's the reality 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:22.120 for us, whether it's our battling against our neurosis or our poor self-esteem or our circumstances, 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:27.879 whether it's depression or loneliness or our character failings, we want to overcome them. 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:35.719 We want to better ourselves and make ourselves victories, victors over addictions and maybe 00:06:35.719 --> 00:06:42.920 sometimes people's perceptions of us or our rejection by others to be understood, to do 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:53.000 our job well. It may be physical illness, exam pressure for some of you, poverty, or just to 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:59.439 use a very common phrase, the odds. The odds you feel maybe stacked against you and you're looking 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:06.240 for the ability to overcome and the ability to be a victor, the ability to fight for recognition, 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:12.519 comfort, justice, happiness, love, whatever it happens to be. That's what in many ways is the 00:07:12.519 --> 00:07:24.279 things of life that we are facing. And in everyday life, we have shadowy victories, don't we? We 00:07:24.279 --> 00:07:30.799 have many successes along the way. We have things that boost us up, things that make us feel better, 00:07:30.799 --> 00:07:39.279 small overcoming moments. And yet for most of us, life is that relentless capacity to knock us back, 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:45.839 to knock us off course. And of course, the elephant in the room for us today that nobody 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:53.559 speaks about today is the reality that death is the great enemy that none of us can overcome, 00:07:53.559 --> 00:08:00.879 none of us can have victory over, none of us can deal with in our own strength. And John is simply 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:08.679 wanting to remind us that ultimately the victories in life, that even the small victories, even the 00:08:08.680 --> 00:08:16.160 small things we need to overcome, can't be truly changed and overcome and defeated without the 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:27.639 reality of God. And ultimately overcoming death, that last great absurdity that we all face and we 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:36.639 all recognize as Christians has this spiritual focus and this spiritual genesis. So the good news 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:42.639 of Jesus that we recognize that John repeats again and again and again is that there's a different 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:51.600 story, it's a different narrative, it's a transcendent hope, it's the greatest recognition for ourselves 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:58.279 is to continually, you're probably saying, oh, not again. But that's what John does, doesn't he? 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:03.639 And he keeps going back to the reality and the power of Jesus. It's the deepest longing we have 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:13.439 for our children expressed in the hope and the truth of baptism. And we know that we become 00:09:13.439 --> 00:09:22.480 overcomers, overcomers in this world through faith and by faith in Jesus Christ. And it's a God-shaped 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:29.759 success that is maybe unlike any definition we would give in the world or for the world to 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:36.039 understand. So the question just briefly that I want to ask today is, how can I as an average Joe 00:09:36.039 --> 00:09:43.159 be a conqueror? How is it that in my ordinary everyday life that you might ask that same thing as a 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:51.240 Christian, how can it be that we are conquerors, overcomers, successors, victors in this life 00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:56.399 which seems to knock us back so much? Then there's three things, well maybe four things, quickly, 00:09:56.399 --> 00:10:02.959 recognizing that the real battle we face is spiritual. I think that's the root of all the 00:10:02.959 --> 00:10:10.079 obstacles that we face. And John knows that. And John knows where the key to that is in dealing with 00:10:10.079 --> 00:10:17.319 that. You know, the battles that we face in life have all stemmed from our alienation from God, 00:10:17.319 --> 00:10:24.759 brought about by sin, all of them. This relentless desire to be independent, to seek to overcome, 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:32.879 to battle, to win, to succeed on our own, and rejecting His rightful claim to our worship and 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:41.159 to our childlike faith and obedience. Isn't it for us the classic rebellious child syndrome? 00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:47.360 This is the example that Jesus uses, the best example in the whole Bible is the prodigal son, 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:54.439 isn't it? It's a great example of what we are, despite everything that your parents stand for, 00:10:54.440 --> 00:11:01.200 the love that they've shown, the commitment and the sacrifice as a rebellious child, they know 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:07.800 nothing. They know nothing and we'll succeed without them. We don't need our parents, we're 00:11:07.800 --> 00:11:15.560 going to go our own way. And we just, we rebel against that and we find ourselves in that place, 00:11:15.560 --> 00:11:22.600 certainly spiritually, where we're in a pigsty. And the result is a broken world, isn't it? The 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:28.720 result is broken hearts and the sentence of death both spiritually and physically. So it's 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:35.960 recognizing that battle as a core reality for us all, in an ongoing way as Christians, because 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:40.720 that's where, if we recognize the battle, that's where we begin to find the answers, because the 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:46.519 answers then is always, and this is for an unbeliever, but it's also for us as believers, 00:11:46.519 --> 00:11:53.840 as to come to terms with the historical Jesus, the Jesus that is described in verse 6 here. 00:11:53.840 --> 00:12:00.199 This is He who came by water and by blood. It's good that we're talking about water today in 00:12:00.199 --> 00:12:07.559 baptism, and we've got one later. Jesus Christ, not by the water only, but by the water and the blood, 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:12.679 and the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. So you've got this, 00:12:12.679 --> 00:12:20.159 this, this triune kind of picture of Jesus coming, and it's really a picture of the historical 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:26.039 Jesus. He came by water, He came by blood. In other words, when He started His public ministry, 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:33.799 He was baptized, and He was baptized, and the Spirit empowered Him to do His ministry. Then He 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:39.120 died on the cross, because there is blood as well. And not only is that historic testimony, 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:46.799 but there is the truth of the Spirit testifying to these things. So the historical reality of 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:55.200 Jesus is always very important to us. In His baptism at the age of 30, He wasn't confessing He 00:12:55.200 --> 00:13:02.879 was a sinner and His need of baptism. He was saying that He was identifying with the humanity that 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:09.919 He came to save. He was the only person who ever lived who didn't need baptized, who didn't need to 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:18.600 be cleansed, who didn't need God's favor, because He was perfect in life, yet took on Himself the 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:28.320 identity of sinners of our place in order to set us free, in order to enable us to have eternal life, 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:35.040 because the blood and the water speak of His historical reality, and that death and resurrection 00:13:35.040 --> 00:13:42.879 is where the victory lies. That's where the success lies for us. It's in knowing and understanding this 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:51.720 real, recorded historical water and blood person who was in a sealed tomb, but who rose in the 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:56.720 third day. It's that great picture again, isn't it, that we need to ask everyone, 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:05.519 what do you do with a man who died, claimed to be God, and walked out of the tomb? What do you do 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:11.279 with that? What do you do with that? It's either, it's the old story, isn't it? It's either it's just 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:18.000 a lie, which John speaks about here, or he's a lunatic, or he's Lord, and we all need to come 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:23.840 to terms with that historical reality, and as Christians too, because it's easy for us to forget 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:30.240 that. And it's not just the record of the apostles which we have in the Bible, the historical, 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:38.800 and the witness of all of these people that's spoken of in the New Testament and in the early 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:46.000 history of the church, but it's also the testimony of God. We're told that it's the spirit of truth 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:56.480 who testifies to these things. And so the work of Jesus Christ is the self, so we can't prove it, 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:04.720 okay? It's the self-attesting claim of God's word. He claims this, and he says, this is what the 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:11.840 spirit is claiming, and this is what all of the word points towards, and that's what the prophecies 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:16.960 speak of, and that's what God has revealed. It's the truth that He's given us. This is what He's 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:26.080 chosen to give us, and that is His testimony. So there's this self-attesting stamp that's given 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:30.879 to God's word that comes from God Himself, because He's got no one hired that He can claim, 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:37.840 that He can go to for attestation, because He's God. And so it has to be at that level 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:43.280 self-attesting, coming to terms with historical Jesus' water and blood in the testimony of the 00:15:43.280 --> 00:15:50.960 Spirit. But then also is the importance and an ongoing way for us of responding to the Spirit 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:57.759 of God who testifies to who Jesus is. That means that this, when we come together and worship 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:02.160 every time we come, every time you open the word, every time your conscience is struck, 00:16:02.160 --> 00:16:06.720 it's the living God saying, will you, will you consider this truth, water and the blood? 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:12.800 Will you consider this Christ? And He comes to us, and He comes to us first, and He comes with this 00:16:12.800 --> 00:16:18.080 great truth. So we have John's classic repetition. We've looked at that, haven't we? Over a number of 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:23.040 weeks that John repeats himself again and again and again. So here in this session, four times, 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:30.720 four times he says, verse one, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:37.200 Verse five, who is he that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:43.440 Christ? Verse ten, whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony of himself. So repetitive. 00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:48.160 And verse twelve, whoever has the Son as life, whoever does not, the Son does not have life. 00:16:48.160 --> 00:16:56.240 And there's this relentless repetition of important truth, and he says, it's not just coming to 00:16:56.240 --> 00:17:01.759 terms with this historical reality and the witness of the Spirit, but it's responding to that. 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:13.519 Your faith can never simply be accepting facts as being true. It's entrusting yourself to the 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:21.759 Christ behind these facts. It's recognizing that the Spirit persuades you to believe in Jesus Christ. 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:27.680 It's the facts of the gospel plus the influence of another. That's what belief means. It means we 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:34.480 take the facts and we are influenced by someone who brings these facts to us. We're moved by them. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:42.720 And that is exactly what happens. We fuse the water and the blood, the historical reality of Jesus 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:50.879 and the Spirit of God together. It's not enough just to accept the facts. We need to respond to 00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:59.520 God's Spirit and accept and entrust our lives to the one who says, believe in me and you will be 00:17:59.520 --> 00:18:05.440 saved. Believe in me with all your doubts and fears and struggles and unanswered questions. Just 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:11.680 believe this, this resurrected Christ. The rest will come, if not in this life then in eternity. 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:21.360 We need, and we're looking for, you know, that's why we do seven days of prayer as a testimony 00:18:21.360 --> 00:18:28.320 to our need for the Spirit of God to be cooperating with us in persuading those whom we love, those 00:18:28.320 --> 00:18:35.039 whom we pray for, those whom we rub shoulders with, also to believe. We entrust, we want them to 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:41.920 entrust themselves to Christ as their Lord and Savior as we have done ourselves. We follow, we 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:52.240 accept not the facts, but we accept the loving commitment of the living God to have dealt with 00:18:52.240 --> 00:19:01.119 our alienation from Him before we were even born. This incredible commitment, this incredible patience, 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:07.199 this incredible promise that He holds us and never let us go. They will keep us, that what He 00:19:07.199 --> 00:19:12.879 started He'll finish, that He'll take the bad things and He'll help us to see some reason behind 00:19:12.879 --> 00:19:17.599 them at some point, that nothing will have victory over us and that will walk with us through the 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:24.879 valley of the shadow of death. And He will always allow us to be, in His way, overcomers. It might 00:19:24.879 --> 00:19:30.799 not look like what we think victory and success looks like, but it will be success and victory, 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:40.639 and overcoming His way. And the alternative to that, for all of us in our lives, and I say this 00:19:40.639 --> 00:19:48.159 guardedly and I say it gently because I know my own heart, but the alternative is that we're calling 00:19:48.159 --> 00:19:56.480 God a liar. John says that in verse 10, you know, if whoever does not believe God has made Him a 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:02.160 liar because He is not believed in the testimony that God has born concerning His Son. So it's 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:07.200 not so much that we reject the testimony of the apostles or fellow Christians or other people, 00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:12.960 but the claim here, John is saying, is that if you reject the truth, if you live even as Christians, 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:19.360 as practical atheists, always questioning His goodness and grace, then we're making out God 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:27.119 to be a liar. And that's such a serious accusation that John makes here because it is for him. 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:32.479 And he recognized it as such a black and white issue. I think Bob Dylan put it really well in 00:20:32.479 --> 00:20:40.079 one of his songs when he was, as a Christian passion was strong in his heart and life, he said, 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:47.359 you either got faith or you've got unbelief, there ain't no neutral ground. And in many ways, 00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:56.639 that's the reality. We may feel that we're just, you know, on the fence that we're thinking one way 00:20:56.639 --> 00:21:05.119 or another. But the reality is that we're, if we choose to reject the living God and question Him 00:21:05.679 --> 00:21:11.839 and doubt what He Himself testifies to through history and through the apostles and through 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:18.000 His Son Jesus, we're making Him out to be a liar. And that's a challenge for us that there's not 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:27.919 really neutral ground. We're rebels without His love and grace transforming us and offering us 00:21:27.919 --> 00:21:33.439 that outstanding rescue. Yes, we need to accept it by faith. And yes, that's a great challenge. 00:21:33.439 --> 00:21:39.279 And yes, there's difficulties along the way. But there can't be that transformation, that 00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:45.440 change of desires, that hunger after righteousness, a hatred of the destructive powers of sin, 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:53.920 no battle in our conscience unless we come and redefine what it means to have faith 00:21:53.920 --> 00:22:00.079 as it's presented in God's Word. So there's that responding to the Spirit of God. And lastly, 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:07.519 the fourth point is then we can know an ex, in an ongoing way. I'm not, I'm saying this, even if you're, 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:12.639 and I've been a Christian for a long, long time, I think there can be daily and ongoing 00:22:12.639 --> 00:22:19.119 newness as we experience and think through who God is and His character again and again. Isn't 00:22:19.119 --> 00:22:25.440 there, we kind of, we feel like we're born again and can be born as it were, sense that renewal 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:33.039 in our lives. When we recognize like John that his love for us is so fundamental and basic, 00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:38.720 is that agape love which we spoke about before. It makes sense of what he's done and therefore we 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:44.879 see his commandments in a new light. We don't see them in the same kind of way, a heavy burdensome way, 00:22:44.879 --> 00:22:50.879 but we begin to see them as a delight because they are how we find victory and success in our 00:22:50.879 --> 00:22:59.839 lives. It does turn success upside down. It's not kind of Instagram success, if we can call it that. 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:11.679 It's finding our identity in Jesus on a day-to-day basis. Our Creator is having sorrow over sin and 00:23:11.679 --> 00:23:19.519 confessing that and just the freedom of knowing your forgiven and guilt doesn't have this great grip 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:25.919 on your heart and soul. It's being able to put others, God and others first, which is a total 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:35.759 revolution for us and allows us to know victory in all kinds of different ways. It's taking the defeat 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:41.920 of the opinions of others and the sense of despair about the planet and the loneliness that we have 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:50.800 to the living God and being embraced in his family. It's taking the powerlessness of feeling old 00:23:50.799 --> 00:24:00.799 and aging and illness and this powerlessness to change and allowing him to renew us so that even 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:07.680 old punters are able to say, I'm being renewed day by day. We see that here, don't we? Some of the 00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:15.279 older people here are just like young whippets. They're just full of energy and they're full of 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:20.879 spiritual life. Outwardly they're wasting away. Outwardly we're wasting away, but inwardly they're 00:24:20.879 --> 00:24:28.960 being renewed day by day. And you young people here, spend some time with these elders, elders, men, 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:34.799 women, older people. Get to know them, find out their story, find out how they've experienced 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:40.879 God in their lives so much. Don't just think of them as old wrinklies. Just spend time with them 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:47.440 and Rick. They have huge experience of life and of grace and you do a great disservice to yourself 00:24:47.440 --> 00:24:52.320 to ignore them or to only spend time with young people. And old people here spend a lot of time 00:24:52.320 --> 00:25:00.640 with the young, share your experiences, embrace them and take them on board because you will show 00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:07.360 them what victory means in a real way because you've experienced it. I include myself in that 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:15.439 aged gap in case you're wondering. And it's so important for us to do that, isn't it? Because we 00:25:15.439 --> 00:25:22.639 see the inner renewal and as we get older, we see that death isn't the end and death doesn't scare us 00:25:22.639 --> 00:25:31.039 in the same way and it isn't the kind of the block on all our hopes and dreams, but it's the entry into 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:38.079 recognizing the victory and the success of God even more so. So that every fulfillment, the 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:46.079 fulfillment of every shadowy victory that we have in this life, every incredible feeling that you have 00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:53.519 of overcoming adversity, which we've all had in different ways, every success that you've enjoyed 00:25:53.519 --> 00:26:01.680 is only a shadow of what God wants you to have and know in Him. And it's in all their 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:10.079 temporariness what He's offering is permanence in these areas and victories that are massively 00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:16.480 significant in our ongoing relationships. That's what we want. That's what I want to experience 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:22.160 more and more in my Christian life. That's the promise. That's the promise, part of the promise 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:29.279 that we will be making and praying over for our covenant children, that they will respond in faith 00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:37.120 to the privileges that they are being given in being part of a church family, part of a Christian 00:26:37.120 --> 00:26:44.560 family in their own homes. It's symbolized in baptism and it's all so hugely significant. It's 00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:54.639 a spiritual act, a sacrament that God initiates and is involved in and is part of today for us. 00:26:54.639 --> 00:27:00.319 And I just want to finish by reading some words which I hope makes sense in the context of what 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:04.559 we've been looking at. Very famous words from Romans chapter 8. What then shall we say to these 00:27:04.559 --> 00:27:11.759 things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare his own son but gave him up for 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:18.559 us all. How will he not also graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against 00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:24.799 God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is it that condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died. 00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:29.920 More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:38.400 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, 00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:44.400 and nakedness, danger, sword. As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day 00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:50.400 long for we regard as sheep to be slaughtered. Know in all these things we are more than conquerors 00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:56.320 through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, 00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:01.920 nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything 00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:07.440 else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:13.360 Now I could have just read that and not preached. That says it much better, much more succinctly, 00:28:13.360 --> 00:28:18.720 but also very related to the passage that we've been reading. Amen. Let's pray. 00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:26.799 Father God, help us to understand you more and to grasp the wonder of the victory, 00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:35.600 the success, the overcoming in your terms and what it looks like and what it means. We know it's 00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:43.119 kind of the exact opposite so often of what maybe is offered in the world, this natural order of things. 00:28:44.399 --> 00:28:50.000 But Heavenly Father, help us to see with the eye of faith. Forgive me for all that I've left out of 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:55.039 this amazing passage today, but may we be able to read it and take time to look at it today and 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:02.639 listen for the voice of God through it all. So help us now. We look forward now to the baptisms 00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:08.640 and we pray your blessing on us through them and ask that Christ would have all the praise 00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:34.640 and all the glory for Jesus' sake. Amen.