We'll be reading from Matthew 24, the first 35 verses.
!
But he answered them, You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be?
And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?
And Jesus answered them,
All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
And the end of the day will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.
And then the end will come.
So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand,
Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house.
And let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.
And alas, for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days.
Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now.
No, and never will be.
And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved.
But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.
Then if anyone says to you,
Look, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe it.
For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders,
so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
See, I have told you beforehand.
So if they say to you,
Look, he is in the wilderness, do not go out.
If they say,
Look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it.
For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west,
so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days,
the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will fall from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man,
and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,
and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory.
And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call,
and they will gather his elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other.
From the fig tree, learn its lesson.
As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves,
you know that summer is near.
So also, when you see all these things,
you know that he is near at the very gates.
Truly I say to you,
this generation will not pass away
until all these things take place.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.
Well, good morning, everyone.
Well, before we get into the passage,
this is Chris and Jess Brown's final Sunday with us.
Chris, you've been in this church your entire life, right?
Yeah, wow.
And Jess meeting Sam Jenkins at uni,
and then Chris eating broccoli in church,
and coming into this church, coming to the Lord.
We're going to miss you both so much.
You've been faithfully serving.
I'm not going to list them all,
because I'm going to forget all the ways
you've been serving in the church over the years.
What came into my mind was even quench back in the day.
But, anyway, many years of relationship.
So please grab them before they leave today,
because, yeah, they're going to Taree.
Chris has got a full-time job there.
So, yeah, let me pray for you now,
and pray for us as we come to God's Word as well.
Yeah, Father, we thank you for Chris and Jess,
and just more than friendship there,
our brother and sister in the Lord Jesus.
And every goodbye hurts,
even when it's for good reasons.
And so I pray that you would comfort them in this change.
Thank you that we have...
We know that there is a great reunion when you return,
when we'll never have to part ways again.
We pray that you'll give them a Bible-based church
that they can flourish in and serve in.
So we just ask that you'll go before them in this new season.
And, Father, I pray for us now as we come to sit under your Word.
Give us understanding.
Give us belief.
And I pray that we will be changed from your Word,
what we hear today.
In Jesus' name I pray it.
Amen.
Well, the late Pastor Tim Keller,
many people, many Christians use some of his phrases
and they don't even realise it.
And one person calls them Kellerisms.
People just use his phrase, they don't realise it.
I want to start today with a quarterwoodism.
Major on the majors and minor on the minors.
Now, he's not having a go at little children.
But I pray that that phrase,
or at least the principle of that phrase,
we never lose sight of
because we're going to unravel as a church if we do.
When it comes to unity in this church
and unity with other gospel-believing churches
in doctrine and in church practice,
we need a major on the major doctrines
and keep the minor details,
keep them in their proper place.
We get that reversed
and we get ourselves in all sorts of trouble.
Some Christians die on this hill
of end times theology called eschatology
and we can divide much too quickly on this.
Minoring on this doesn't mean you ignore these passages
and become a pan-millennius
that is just going to all pan out somehow in the end.
We're meant to study all these passages
but we need a major on what all Christians believe
and we express it in the ancient creeds.
Christ will return.
And the ultimate result,
as we heard in the children's talk,
is judgment
and rest for his people
in the new heavens and earth.
We all believe in that.
We need a major on that
and all the details we need a minor on.
For the average secular person,
the future is uncertain.
It is filled with the prospect of death and decay.
The present is big.
That's all that matters.
The present is big, future, uncertain.
But the Christian, it's the other way around.
It's the present.
That's small and uncertain.
But our future is massive and bright.
The Christian life is always,
it's like tiptoeing over the edge
of the threshold of eternity.
Not in a panic,
but there is an urgency
that these days are short,
are small.
We can't think too often about the hope
that scripture gives us.
You can't think too often about it
because it's that hope
that fuels us being faithful to Christ
and persevering.
We need to think about it often.
So, where we're up to in Matthew's Gospel,
Jesus has just pronounced judgment
on the Pharisees.
And until he goes to the cross,
his attention is now turning to his disciples.
He's preparing his people
for how we're to live
until he returns.
Now, his disciples are looking
at the beautiful temple
and they might have expected
significant reform,
really profound reform,
but what he says shocked their expectations.
Verse 2,
Truly I say to you,
there will not be left here
one stone upon another
that will not be thrown down.
Now, in 70 AD,
Jewish national zealots
to make Israel prominent,
they rebelled against Rome,
they murdered their own people
and they installed false priests.
And that precipitated the Romans coming in,
besieging the city on all sides.
No one could get out.
There was such a famine
that historians record
they ate their own defecation.
Mothers were boiling.
I'm not going to finish that sentence.
Some escaped to a place called Masada
and the Roman army pursued them
and utterly destroyed them.
Now, there have been horrific persecutions
of the Jewish people
under Hitler and Stalin,
but what's terrifying
about what happened at 70 AD,
no one,
no one escaped.
Now, that happened
within a generation
of Jesus' prophecy here.
And there's historical evidence
that Christians heeded this warning.
When they saw
these events starting,
they got out of there.
Now, there's three,
I've come across three main ways
of interpreting Matthew 24.
And there's so many
little offshoot variants
of how to interpret this
that I'm not going to go into all that.
I want to avoid confusing today.
So I want to just ask,
when do Christians,
reading Matthew 24,
where do they see
the 70 AD happening?
Because that might help us
understand these three views.
The first view
for understanding Matthew 24
is that 70 AD,
the temple destruction,
happened in verse 2 alone.
So when Jesus said,
not one stone will be left on another.
And they see the rest
as literal events
that are still to come
at the end of history
with a seven-year
great tribulation.
That view means
that verse 15
is talking about
another literal temple
is going to be built.
Now, a problem
I see with this view
is that it stretches
the meaning of generation
in verse 34.
Truly, I say to you,
this generation
will not pass away
until all these things
take place.
The natural reading of that
is those who are
hearing his words.
So that's the first view.
The second view,
so you see 70 AD
from verse 15
all the way through
to the end of verse 35.
So it's taking
verse 29 to 31 there
as symbolic.
Not as Jesus' second coming
but as symbolic
of the destruction
of the temple.
Now, the advantage
of that view,
let's see if I'm losing,
trying to read body language here
if I'm losing you,
the advantage of that view
is that it all took place
in that first generation then.
But those phrases
in verses 29 to 31
really do sound like
the second coming of Christ,
especially when you see
those same phrases
in other New Testament passages
and it's about
the second coming of Christ.
I know I'm not doing
these views justice.
There's probably some
just wriggling in their seats,
want to cry out this moment,
but by all means,
talk about it over morning tea.
just keep that quarterwoodism
front and centre
in our minds
as we talk about it.
I'm leaning heavily here
on Don Carson.
He's co-founder
of the Gospel Coalition.
So a third view is
verse 15 to 21
is talking about 70,
what happened at 70 AD.
It's a one
and a thankfully done
sign.
The abomination
that causes desolation
was that murder
and installment
of false high priests
causing the destruction
of the temple.
And the remaining signs
in this chapter
happened in that
first generation.
But they also happened
in every other generation,
including our own.
As the New Testament
elsewhere says,
since Christ's death,
resurrection and ascension,
we are in the last days.
There are many things
that can make life
feel uncertain.
As a parent now,
I'm starting to fear
for my children
what world
they're coming into.
There's so many things,
aren't there?
The political tensions,
just the social
and moral breakdown,
AI.
There's so many things
that are just
unsettling.
A guy called
Gavin Ortland
in the US
says that there's
a growing trend
of evangelicals,
Christians,
converting to
Eastern Orthodoxy,
especially young men,
for whatever reason.
Now, this isn't like
a Baptist
becoming Prezi
or Anglican.
They must renounce,
publicly renounce,
Protestantism,
that it's heresy.
And one of the converts
to Eastern Orthodoxy
suggested a reason
why the trend.
What's the attraction?
Here's what they said.
Everything's changing.
Protestant churches
are changing.
The Catholic church
is changing.
The culture is changing.
The government
is changing.
People want something
that is historic
and not going to change.
They want something
that's stable
and solid
and is not built
on sand.
And so,
the liturgy of
it's so ancient
in Eastern Orthodoxy,
it feels
unchanging.
That desire
for stability
and security
that doesn't change,
that is good.
Don't you have that desire?
We all have that desire.
Nothing wrong
with that desire.
But there's only one thing
that can't change.
It is not
man-made tradition.
Jesus tells us
these things
ahead of time
so that we have
an anchor
for our lives
into something
that is rock solid.
more solid than rock.
He's telling us
these things
ahead of time
so that we won't
be led astray.
We won't latch on
to something else
that says,
put your life on me
because I'm unchanging.
He's telling us
these things
to give us an anchor.
So,
verse 8
describes
how we're to
interpret these
distressing things
we see
that rock us
and give us
that sense of
distress.
All these
are but the beginning
of the birth pains.
Like a woman
going into labour,
there's joy
to look forward to.
Labour pains
are evidence
that the end
is close.
There is permanent
lasting joy
up ahead.
But it could be
that the labour
lasts one hour
and she barely
makes it
to the hospital.
Or the longest
recorded labour
is 75 days.
Poor.
We might
pray for Lauren
it's not that long.
Jesus
is preparing us
to face
pitch black times
and interpret them
with hope.
Like a woman
can persevere
through the pain
because she knows
joy
is so
close.
He's telling us
these things
so that we can
interpret events
in hope.
So,
let's go through
what the pains
are,
the birth pains.
the end times
are characterised
by international
rivalry,
wars,
the world wars
of last century,
hundreds of millions
killed.
So many Christians
were talking about
this is evidence
of the end of history
and you can understand
why.
But there was also
huge upheaval
in the sacking
of Rome
around the 400s,
the fall
of the empire.
When we read
these events,
when we see them,
Jesus says
the end is not
yet.
Verse 7,
we've got natural
disasters like
the 2004
Boxing Day
tsunami.
Over 200,000
people killed.
Some speak
of climate
change as
we're about
to annihilate
ourselves.
This panic
but there was
also a massive
earthquake
in the
Philadelphia
area
in AD 64.
The Apostle
Paul raised
funds for the
famine in
Jerusalem
because
the crops
in Egypt
failed.
If we were
living in
Myanmar
with what
they're going
through,
you can
understand
why you'd
feel hopeless.
The earthquake,
civil war
and all the
social effects
things.
But they're
just birth
pains.
Then we've
got spiritual
afflictions on
the church.
We've got
persecutions,
verse 9.
There's still
many Christians
being killed
around the
world today.
Last century,
we had more
martyrs than
all the
previous
centuries
combined.
You can't
live a
godly
life of
integrity
and not
get insulted
or not
feel left
out or
kicked out.
You can't.
We shouldn't
expect religious
freedoms to
continue.
by all
means use
the avenues
to say
they should
but it
is not
the norm
in history.
What he's
saying here,
we shouldn't
expect it.
It gets
worse.
We should
expect
apostasy.
Verse 10.
Jesus
himself warns
that public
declarations of
faith of
individuals and
teachers and
churches,
some will
renounce
their faith.
The
definition of
a Christian
from the
New Testament
is someone
who endures
to the
end.
There's
such a
work on
the inside
that they're
born again.
They're
breathing in
the gospel
truths in
their local
church.
Divine
Grace is
causing
them to
repent of
their sins
regularly.
All these
things mean
they will
persevere to
the end.
That's the
definition of
a Christian.
they will
persevere.
So as
distressing as
it is when
someone
renounces,
that too is
a birth
pain.
It's just a
spiritual
attack on
the church.
Love will
grow cold.
Many people
feel that
society is
getting morally
worse.
I think most
generations say
that.
some
believers
won't
apostatize
dramatically
but
their love
for God
and love
for one
will grow
cold.
It's the
lawlessness
that will
do it.
It's being
inoculated to
wickedness
that creeps
in.
I think
I find
myself
laughing
with TV
series that
have got
an agenda
of
trying to
say you
should embrace
this wickedness
and I laugh
along.
we're letting
our kids
breathe in
these movies
saying ultimate
truth is found
inside you.
It's just being
inoculated to
the wickedness.
It's like a
frog in water
slowly rising
to the boil
which I know
is reversing
the metaphor.
It's growing
cold.
It's this
hypothermia
setting in.
But we
should expect
that sort of
thing to
happen.
It's a
warning to
us but we
should expect
it to
happen.
These
birth pains
are all
bracketed at
the start
and finish
by the
warning of
false
Christ and
false
prophets.
Verse 5
For many
will come
in my name
saying I
am the
Christ and
they will
lead many
astray and
you will
hear of
verse 6.
And then
verse 23
to 26.
Look here
is the
Christ.
Don't
believe it.
This age
this time is
marked by
false teaching.
Don't expect
that false
teaching to
come out
obviously
going here
I am I'm
false teaching.
It sneaks
in.
Half
truths.
Human
reasoning
that just
twists
scripture and
relegates
scripture to
the side.
Now there
could well be
an intensification
of all these
things at the
very end of
history.
There could
well be
a ramping
up at the
very end
including an
antichrist.
But here
Jesus is
warning of
many.
Many.
There
haven't been
many who
have claimed
to be
Christ in
the flesh.
There's
been a
few.
Some
devastating
cults.
There have
been some.
We could
potentially
apply this
broader.
Anyone who
claims this
unique
connection to
God.
This
special
empowering.
If you
don't follow
them, you
are not
part of
God's
kingdom.
Be
suspicious
of anyone
who claims
a unique
authority.
A special
relationship
with God.
One, this
person is
going to
fix the
church.
They're
going to
fix the
world.
If only
everyone
got on
board
with
that kind
of talk.
These
self-appointed
prophets,
often
inducing
fear, like
that South
African guy
just recently.
The rapture
was meant to
be two
Wednesdays
ago.
But their
reach online
to people
here is
incredible.
Causing
lots of
bad
things.
But not
just
self-appointed
prophets,
but I
think any
Christian
institution
or Christian
so-called
teachers,
we've looked
at recently,
that says
Christ and
his cross
isn't
enough.
You need
to add
something.
You need
to add
works.
You need
to add
rituals.
You need
spiritual
gifts.
You need
another
book besides
the Bible.
You need
a human
tradition and
institution.
You need
enough
repentance.
You need
anything that
adds to
his cross
and simple
faith and
lead us
astray.
I don't
like thinking
about all
this.
I don't
know about
you.
Are you
sick of
me saying
all this?
Jesus loves
us too
much.
He's
preparing
us.
He's
telling us
these
birth
signs so
that we're
anchored
to
something,
to
someone
more
rock
solid
than
the earth
itself.
Verse 35,
heaven and
earth will
pass away
but my
words
will not
pass away.
God
will not
change.
His word,
his gospel,
all about
him is the
only thing
that cannot
change.
His church
can change
but his
word,
his gospel
is the only
rock solid
thing.
God
please
don't
settle
for
anything
less
than
that.
He
tells us
these
things ahead
of time.
We may
not
understand
his
reasoning
but he's
told us.
He's
ruling.
He
knows.
I don't
know.
He knows
though.
And he
even says
he's cut
these days
short so
that we
all make
it to
the end.
I think
like a
jeweller
getting a
diamond ring
out of the
cabinet,
they don't
just place
it on the
bench,
they'll
place a
black
mat so
that the
diamond
shines all
the more.
You've got
all these
distressing
pains.
And then
verse 14,
it just
shines really
bright in
the midst
of this.
And this
gospel of
the kingdom
will be
proclaimed
throughout the
whole world
as a
testimony to
all nations.
And then
the end
will come.
This is
what God
is doing
in this
era.
Which is
why I think
eschatology is
that make us
focus on
interpreting
day or
hour,
literal
events or
filling
politics and
media and
businesses with
Christians.
It's
distracting from
God's agenda.
God's agenda
is this
gospel,
this good
news,
the victory
of the good
news going
to all the
world.
This isn't an
instruction to
us.
He's just
saying,
that's his
agenda,
he's going to
do it.
We can get on
board with that
or not.
I hope we
do.
Well, we
are.
Let's do it
more and
more.
There were
apparently two
Scottish
prisoners of
war in
Germany in
World War
II.
There was
two camps
side by
side.
One was
with the
British and
one with
the American
POWs.
They acted
as chaplains.
They were
allowed to
meet at
the fence
in the
middle every
so often.
They realised
the German
guards didn't
know Gaelic.
They could
share news
with each
other.
One of the
soldiers had
a secret
radio.
One of
these chaplains
told the
other one,
Germany has
surrendered.
It was so
broken down,
the communication.
The guards
didn't know
that yet.
It took
three days
for the
guards to
know that.
But when
the other
chaplain went
back and
reported the
news, there
was just
this cheer
that went
up and
they didn't
complain about
the food
anymore.
They weren't
complaining
anymore.
They had
rifles in
their faces
and they were
smiling at
the guards.
They were
walking around
like it was
a party,
they said.
The chaplain
said we
were liberated
by the
news before
we were
liberated by
the guards.
That's the
power of the
good news of
the kingdom,
of Christ's
cross and
resurrection and
ascension.
He is on the
throne amidst
such hardships
and change and
uncertainty.
We can
smile at the
guards.
Christians can
even willingly
enter more
affliction
sharing this
good news with
those sitting
in darkness
because of
this news.
It liberates.
It feels like
the spiritual
war is raging.
It can even
get us down
that God's
agenda is
losing.
But the
war has been
decisively won
2,000 years
ago.
That's the
good news.
When he died
and rose
victorious,
Satan,
he's done.
Our sin is
done.
The world
is done.
Death is
done.
It is
decisively
won.
It's
finished.
We're
living in
between the
times of
that decisive
victory and
just the
wrapping up.
Someone's
used the
illustration,
another World
War II
illustration,
is when the
Allied troops
landed on
Normandy,
once they
got
conquered
there.
The war
was decisively
done.
Everyone knew
that.
Germany knew
that.
The Allies
were advancing
on the
Western Front.
Russia was
pushing on the
Eastern Front.
It was done.
But the war
was still raging.
People were
still dying.
But the
victory was won.
The cross and
resurrection is
our D-Day.
day.
We're just
waiting for
that V-E
day when
we're just
going to be
shouting and
celebrating in
the streets
when all the
rifles are put
down.
Like the
birth pains,
to mix
metaphors,
we can look
at all these
distressing,
changing
things and
we can go,
joy is so
soon.
which brings
us to
verse 27
to 31.
They
describe the
obvious,
indisputable,
glorious
appearing,
coming of
Christ.
I don't
know about
you,
sometimes I
see lightning
in the sky
and I start
counting in
my head to
work out how
far it is.
Sometimes I
just keep
counting because
I never
hear the
thunder.
That's not as
close as I
thought it
was.
It's just so
far away.
That's the
point of this
lightning metaphor.
When Christ
comes,
everyone will
see it.
East and
west,
everyone will
see it.
I won't have
to tell you,
you won't have
to tell me.
It will be
obvious,
you won't
miss it.
I think that's
the point of
the vulture
thing too.
When there's
a carcass,
no vulture
is missing
out on that.
Everyone will
know.
After this
whole era from
that first
generation where
all those
signs were
taking place
through to
our day
today,
all these,
immediately
after the
tribulation of
those days,
the sun will
be darkened
and the moon
will not give
its light
and the stars
will fall from
heaven and the
powers of the
heavens will be
shaken.
Then will
appear in heaven
the sign of the
Son of Man.
Then all the
tribes of the
earth will
mourn and
they will
see the
Son of Man
coming on the
clouds of
heaven with
power and
great glory.
And he will
send out his
angels with a
loud trumpet
call and they
will gather his
elect from the
four winds from
one end of
heaven to the
other.
This is the
winding up of
the universe.
He's not
riding on a
donkey anymore.
He's coming
victorious.
There's a
banner, there's a
loud trumpet
call.
All authority
is his right
now but it's
contested.
On that day
there's no
contest.
And those
who have placed
their joy and
their hope here
in this world
rejecting Jesus
will mourn.
And there's a
poem that
captures this.
I dream that
the great
judgment morning
had dawned and
the trumpet had
blown.
I dream that
the nations had
gathered to
judgment before
the white throne.
The rich man
was there but
his money had
melted and
vanished away.
A pauper he
stood in the
judgment.
His debts were
too heavy to
pay.
The great man
was there but
his greatness.
When death
came was left
far behind.
The angel
that opened
the records
not a trace
of his
greatness
could find.
But for the
believer that
same moment,
oh that
celebration,
he's sending
his armies of
angels to keep
us safe and
gather us.
one of the
effects of this
passage on me
is just
thankfulness
for my
salvation.
Not that I
chose him but
that he is.
I would have
been mourning
on that day but
now I can lift
my head looking
forward to it.
well the
disciples asked
when will
these things
be and
some
Christians,
some
teachers,
they use
this passage
to do the
exact opposite
of Jesus'
stated purpose.
They point to
all these
events and
they're trying
to stir up
alarm among
believers but
Jesus says,
see that you
are not
alarmed.
for this
must take
place but
the end
is not
yet.
These are
the beginning
of the
birth pains.
But that
not being
alarmed is
balanced by
verse 32
to 35
of the
fig tree
lesson.
All these
things which
doesn't include
Christ's
returns,
all these
signs,
that doesn't
include Christ's
return because
if he's
back,
he's back.
You don't
need a
sign.
All these
things,
we can
know he's
really near.
He's at
the very
gates about
to come
in.
So Jesus
in the
New Testament
is calling
for a
proper balance
here.
Don't be
too quick
to say
the end
is really
close.
If it
distracts you
from God's
agenda,
proclaiming
the gospel,
it can
create a
sense of
panic and
uncertainty.
We're meant
to be
anchored in
his word.
He's told
us ahead
of time.
But
there's
this pulsating
hope.
There's
this,
he could
come back
any moment
in my
lifetime.
there's
this tension
there,
this
balance.
Now,
if you're
feeling like
this will
never happen,
I'm sure
Noah's
contemporaries
were pretty
skeptical too
when it
took a
hundred years
to build
that boat.
it
happened.
I'm
sure
Jeremiah,
when he
said
Babylon is
coming,
they said
the temple,
the temple
God would
never.
He's
coming.
2 Peter 3
9,
So I'll
just finish
with how
then should
we be
living with
this balance?
Some
Christians
pray and
talk as
if
we're
meant to
rise above
all the
pains in
this life.
That's
not the
Christian
way.
We're
meant to
endure
the
distress.
We're
still in
the world.
Nor
should we
fixate on
reading
political
events
and
prophetic
things
people
say.
It is
also
crazy
to place
our hope
here.
Now I'm
convicted by
this
myself.
It's
crazy
to make
the present
big
when it's
not
big.
It's so
uncertain.
It will
pass away.
there are
things not
to do.
I think
this passage
is pushing
us to
make our
priority as
a local
church his
priority,
what he's
doing,
which is
verse 14.
This
gospel of the
kingdom will
be proclaimed
throughout the
whole world.
Knowing he's
ruling now,
knowing he's at
the very gates,
let's get on
board with
his agenda.
seeing his
word take
deeper root in
each other's
lives,
raising and
training and
sending up
more gospel
workers from
this church.
Let's pray
that missionaries
will come from
our own church
to go to
places where
there is not
a church yet.
That's going
to cost us.
That's going
to cost us
financially and
relationally.
All those
things in our
life that we
call non-negotiables
that we need to
actually put aside
for the sake of
this.
It's going to
cost us.
Year 12, so
you guys, if I
can just briefly
talk to you
guys, you're
entering an
uncertain world.
A HSC result is
not a great
foundation.
As much as the
world is telling
you that, his
word is the
foundation.
I know where
you all are, I
should be looking
both ways here,
but his word is
the foundation to
build your life
on.
Living for his
word in his
church and his
mission, that's
a life well
lived.
The present is
small, the
future is big,
the victory is
won.
His word is
unchanging, not
some liturgy, his
word is
unchanging.
Let's smile at
the guards.
these are the
very gates.
Will you pray
with me?
Let's pray.
Father, I pray
that the hope you
have purchased for
us in the blood of
Christ would fill our
imagination much,
much more so
that we will be
faithful to you
and we will show
a hope that is
deeper than what
anyone else in this
world has so that
we can display the
beauty of the good
news of the gospel.
people and I pray
that you would use
us as a church to
get on board with
your agenda.
I pray these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.