WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.780 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:20.760 that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:24.920 by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:31.520 for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:37.939 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really, 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:42.579 I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible, 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:48.760 they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:54.560 do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:59.340 non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:04.680 hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:07.760 types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:19.659 Let's just bow our heads in a moment of prayer. Father, we ask that you teach us and help us to pray, 00:01:19.659 --> 00:01:27.939 and we ask that you teach us and help us to adore you. Father, you know how often we pray. You know 00:01:27.939 --> 00:01:34.379 how, in a sense, good we are at praying. You know our fears and our misunderstandings about prayer, 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:37.979 but we just humbly ask you, Father, that you teach us and help us to pray, 00:01:38.539 --> 00:01:44.239 and that, amongst other things, you teach us and help us to adore you. And we ask this in Jesus' name, 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:48.079 your Son and our Saviour. Amen. Please be seated. 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:59.259 So, this week, somebody asked me a question about things which I gave an unbelievably lame answer to. 00:02:00.299 --> 00:02:05.299 It was sort of the end of the day on Friday. I'd worked a long day, and I went to one of my 00:02:05.299 --> 00:02:10.939 favorite coffee shops. I wanted to get my final five or six emails done before I went home for pizza. 00:02:10.939 --> 00:02:16.400 And as I come in, one of the fellows who works there, he knows that I'm a pastor, and he said to me, 00:02:16.460 --> 00:02:19.460 oh, you're coming in to work on your sermon? What's your sermon about this week? 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:24.659 Now, on one level, I love it when people ask me that question. On the other hand, I hate it, 00:02:24.979 --> 00:02:30.379 because what it did that time is it revealed to me that I only had a very, very, very lame answer. 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:35.319 Like, I think I said something about, oh, it's going to be really good, it's important, or something like that. 00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:42.959 Just very, very lame. And I like sharing that with you, because I don't want you to ever think that 00:02:42.959 --> 00:02:49.359 my conversations with people who are outside of the Christian faith, that I'm always just very eloquent 00:02:49.359 --> 00:02:54.539 with them. A lot of times, I mess it up. And afterwards, I'm thinking about it, and I thought 00:02:54.539 --> 00:03:00.340 to myself, what, like, first of all, so what should I have said to him? He's a really great guy, 00:03:00.340 --> 00:03:07.000 a well-meaning guy, a bit of a nominal Christian background, and I know he's a bit interested in 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:10.800 the Christian faith, because we've had a couple of talks about the Christian faith, and what should 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:14.379 I have said? What I should have said was something like this, and maybe it's not a good answer. 00:03:14.920 --> 00:03:18.340 After the service, during coffee, you can say, George, you should have said this, 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:22.480 and that would be a great gift to me that I could learn a little bit better how to talk, right? So, 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:28.480 what I should have said to him was something like this. I should have said something like, you know, 00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:41.000 there's lots of riddles about the fact that people pray. Like, you think about it, there's lots of 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:47.860 riddles about the fact that, first of all, most people pray, and they know, they don't really think 00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:51.759 they're just talking, they worry that they might be just talking to themselves, but they pray. 00:03:52.180 --> 00:03:57.340 And there's riddles about the way they pray, because it's sort of inconsistent with a lot of other 00:03:57.340 --> 00:04:02.780 things in their life the way they pray. And I'm going to look at a very wise and insightful text 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:08.199 from the Bible that gives some clarity about this mystery and the riddle of prayer. I probably 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:12.219 should have said something like that to try to make him interested. I didn't think of it. In fact, 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:17.500 I only thought about it later, about 24 hours later. But that's what we're going to look at. 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:21.220 You know, there is, in fact, a mystery and a riddle to prayer. 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:28.740 And I'm not going to talk about unanswered prayer or anything like that. But it's, in fact, it's amazing 00:04:28.740 --> 00:04:34.560 how many people who would definitely say they're not Christians. I've talked to people who would say 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:42.320 they're probably some type of an agnostic. And yet, they'll also tell me that they pray every day. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:49.459 In fact, many of our friends who are outside of the Christian faith, I mean, I don't usually ask 00:04:49.459 --> 00:04:52.980 people, by the way, do you pray? Like, I don't ask that question. But we might be surprised 00:04:52.980 --> 00:04:57.659 at how many people that we know that they pray. And it's a bit of a mystery. Why is it that 00:04:57.659 --> 00:05:06.639 human beings are sort of almost hardwired? It is intuitive that we pray. And why is it that not 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:12.479 only is it seen that people are hardwired to pray, but they pray inconsistent with their other beliefs? 00:05:13.079 --> 00:05:18.180 Like, if you think about it for a second. So the average Canadian, they would say, I think, 00:05:18.259 --> 00:05:23.779 that when you die, you go to some type of better place, or that you, you know, you sort of live in 00:05:23.779 --> 00:05:31.719 the trees and the wind, or you live in some disembodied existence, you know, but watching over 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:38.700 people. But when we pray, almost always we pray with words, as if we're praying to a personal God. 00:05:39.380 --> 00:05:46.060 Well, why is that? Like, that's a bit of a riddle. I mean, and if you, if you go and you, you know, any, 00:05:46.220 --> 00:05:52.860 if you have friends who are Hindus or Buddhists, and obviously lived Hinduism and Buddhism is often 00:05:52.860 --> 00:05:58.900 quite different than how it's presented, sort of, to middle class and upper middle class 00:05:58.899 --> 00:06:07.899 people here in Canada. But at its heart, they basically do have an image of God as being sort 00:06:07.899 --> 00:06:13.679 of everything, or the soul of everything, or in the case of Buddhism, it's a type of, you know, 00:06:13.699 --> 00:06:19.379 a nothingness. And when you die, you know, the very common image is, it's like a drop of water 00:06:19.379 --> 00:06:25.179 entering into the ocean, and ocean is a very impersonal image. And yet when Buddhists and Hindus 00:06:25.180 --> 00:06:32.280 pray, they pray to a personal God. They use words and pray to a personal God. Like, why is that? 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:38.620 That is actually really interesting, isn't it? That there is this both, it's almost as if there's 00:06:38.620 --> 00:06:48.439 something innate, and it's almost as if this innate type of prayer is to, is to use words as if God is a 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:57.779 person. And I think in some ways it shows that there's a bit of a general intuition, and also a longing 00:06:57.779 --> 00:07:05.579 about what the true God must be like, or should be like, or we hope that he's like. Even if we use primarily 00:07:05.579 --> 00:07:13.740 languages of the divine in some type of a impersonal thing, as an impersonal presence, or as everything, or some 00:07:13.740 --> 00:07:22.400 type of force, the way we pray reveals some intuitions and longings about prayer. And I think, 00:07:22.740 --> 00:07:27.060 especially when we look at the text we're going to look at today, we see that those intuitions and 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:35.180 longings are grounded ultimately in reality. And we need Christ, and we need his word to help us to 00:07:35.180 --> 00:07:41.300 understand those riddles of our intuitions and longings. So if you turn with me in your Bibles, 00:07:41.300 --> 00:07:47.780 we're just looking at two verses, and it's a prayer, a prayer that God wrote for us. It's Jude, 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:56.360 chapter, Jude, there's no chapters because it's just one book, 25 verses long, and it is verses 24 and 25. 00:07:57.139 --> 00:08:03.160 And just so you know, on the computer, I'm going to say, I'm going to probably read these verses quite a 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:08.800 few times. And one of my hopes would be that you'd be close to memorizing the verse by the end of the day. 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:13.180 If you can't remember everything I've said, but you remember Jude 24 and 25, 00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:19.439 I wouldn't view that as a failure on my part. I'll view that as a success, because it's way better 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:26.360 you remember God's word than George's word. George's word is just George. God's word is God 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:34.039 speaking. And listen to how this goes. Now, to him, and by the word now here means in this prayer, 00:08:34.039 --> 00:08:39.059 Jude consciously is, in a sense, mindful of everything he's said up until now. 00:08:39.980 --> 00:08:47.699 Now we turn to prayer. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you 00:08:47.699 --> 00:08:54.819 blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus 00:08:54.820 --> 00:09:02.160 Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:08.300 Amen. It's a very beautiful prayer. And actually, you'll notice there it's a prayer with words, and 00:09:08.300 --> 00:09:13.860 it's a prayer addressed to him, to a person. That's at the very, very heart and center of the Christian 00:09:13.860 --> 00:09:19.620 faith is that God is a person. He's a personal God, but he's not just a personal God. He's a personal God 00:09:19.620 --> 00:09:26.039 who has spoken in his word, and he's a personal God who desires a personal relationship with human 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:33.779 beings like you and me. And he desires that personal relationship, and he desires us to pray. He desires 00:09:33.779 --> 00:09:43.080 us to pray, to pray to him as, well, to pray to him in these types of ways. Now, it's, you know, 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:52.800 one of the things about, so the mere fact that when people pray, they use words, it should be, 00:09:52.879 --> 00:10:01.460 if we think about it for a second, a bit of a hint, a hint about God and a hint about, 00:10:02.840 --> 00:10:08.879 well, a hint about recognizing the truth when we finally see it. It's like a, it's a type of clue, 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:14.500 true, because how do we learn to speak? We learn to speak by hearing people speak. 00:10:15.860 --> 00:10:20.799 Some of you know, maybe all of you know, that I have nine children. If, under some horrendous 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:24.919 situation, after each one of our nine children were born, they were given to different families, 00:10:25.539 --> 00:10:29.779 and maybe adopted in different countries of the world, they all wouldn't grow up speaking English, 00:10:29.820 --> 00:10:34.100 just because Louise and I speak English. If they got adopted into a French family, they'd grow up 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:40.220 speaking French. If they got adopted by a family in India, they'd grow up speaking Hindi. If they got, 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:46.300 grew up in, in Beijing, they'd grow up speaking Mandarin. They don't necessarily just going to 00:10:46.300 --> 00:10:50.899 speak English, because Louise and I speak English. That's sort of, sort of, not grafted into them, 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:58.139 but by hearing people speak around them, human beings have the capacity for speech. They have, 00:10:58.139 --> 00:11:06.059 in a sense, a drive and a longing to speak. And they learn to speak, not only by hearing people 00:11:06.059 --> 00:11:11.460 speak, but also because with loving parents, and sometimes rude brothers and sisters who are older, 00:11:11.539 --> 00:11:16.439 but that's, of course, a whole other topic of conversation, you know, their speech is corrected. 00:11:16.439 --> 00:11:22.720 It's encouraged. You delight. Parents universally are excited when they think they've heard their 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:28.300 child speak their first word. And I'm sure the child senses that. And then eventually you start 00:11:28.300 --> 00:11:34.320 to correct how they speak. And in a sense, it's an intuition. If we have this desire, intuition to 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:40.519 pray, if it's somehow a natural thing woven into us, and we speak, it really implies, in a sense, 00:11:40.519 --> 00:11:44.200 that we should be learning how to pray by learning how God speaks. 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:53.340 And in particular, by learning how God wants us to pray. And that's one of the things which is so 00:11:53.340 --> 00:11:57.800 beautiful. It's not only this prayer that we're looking at, it's not just a God speaking to us, 00:11:57.820 --> 00:12:03.460 it's a prayer that God wrote, which means it's extra special. It's a prayer that we can pray, 00:12:03.520 --> 00:12:08.879 and our service will end with us praying this prayer together, by the way. It's one of the reasons why, 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:13.560 if what comes out of the service is you remembering the words, or wanting to memorize the words, 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:20.339 that's a great accomplishment, because it's going to help us to understand better how to pray. And 00:12:20.339 --> 00:12:25.559 it's a prayer not only that helps us to understand how to pray, but it helps us to understand what 00:12:25.559 --> 00:12:32.119 the gospel is, and how we should understand what it means to live as followers of Jesus. 00:12:33.599 --> 00:12:40.059 So, well, let's just say it again. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, 00:12:40.059 --> 00:12:44.699 and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 00:12:45.479 --> 00:12:51.319 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, 00:12:51.359 --> 00:12:56.539 and authority before all time, and now, and forever. Amen. 00:12:56.539 --> 00:13:05.039 So, it's very interesting that this book, some of you are coming to this, you don't remember the rest of Jude. 00:13:05.839 --> 00:13:10.039 Some of you are coming to this, you didn't know that we've been preaching through the book of Jude. 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:14.919 We took a break for Christmas, and not Christmas, Easter, and now we're back. 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:20.360 But it's very interesting that this book ends with a prayer, because if you go back and read the book 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:27.899 again for yourself, the whole book is a call to fight. That's what contend for the faith means. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:33.659 It means fight for the faith. And as I talked about in other weeks before this, it's not fighting for 00:13:33.659 --> 00:13:43.019 the faith against people who are not Christians outside. It's a call to warn us that there are those 00:13:43.019 --> 00:13:48.940 who profess Christianity, or who say that they're Christians, and are part of our churches, but that 00:13:48.940 --> 00:13:55.480 in fact, they are, and this is what the book of Jude calls, some ungodly influencers. And in a sense, 00:13:55.700 --> 00:14:02.340 it's not about dealing with those outside of the Christian faith, but that, to use a different 00:14:02.340 --> 00:14:08.240 imagery, it's as if the enemies to the Christian faith are professing the Christian faith, and are 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:14.600 within the gates, and a call to the church to look, to recognize them, and to fight against them. 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:21.420 And you can go back and listen to the other sermons, but it's very significant that this 00:14:21.420 --> 00:14:26.180 letter, which is about a call to fight, ends with prayer, and ends with a prayer like this. 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:32.540 Because if you think about it, what we would expect, and by the way, a lot of our prayers 00:14:32.540 --> 00:14:40.320 that we make are, of course, a lot of prayers that we pray are motivated by guilt and by shame, 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:44.480 and there's nothing wrong with that. All of our prayers should begin with where we are. 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:52.540 But a lot, I think, of general prayers are for particular types of power. And it's very 00:14:52.540 --> 00:15:00.280 interesting that you'd think that in a call, in a book about fighting, that the prayer would be about 00:15:00.280 --> 00:15:08.500 power, or about victory. You know, Father, you see these terrible people over there, I want you to 00:15:08.500 --> 00:15:15.000 make sure that they wither, they die, that they're completely embarrassed and ashamed and humiliated. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:20.460 I pray for our victory, for my side's victory. I pray for triumph over them. I pray for all of 00:15:20.460 --> 00:15:26.700 these things. That's, in a sense, what we would expect a book like this to end with, with prayer. 00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:33.000 But that's not how it ends. It ends in a very, very different way. Listen to it again. 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:39.420 Now, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of 00:15:39.420 --> 00:15:45.480 his glory with great joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, 00:15:45.680 --> 00:15:52.520 majesty, dominion, and authority before all times and now and forever. Amen. See, one of the things which 00:15:52.519 --> 00:16:04.299 I think is so emotionally and intellectually wise about this text is it realizes it, and helps us to 00:16:04.299 --> 00:16:14.659 guard against the fact that we have a, there's something broken in human beings, and Christians 00:16:14.659 --> 00:16:21.399 are human beings, so it's broken in us, and that if we're not careful, when we fight, we can end up 00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:29.360 becoming like the enemy, so to speak. Like, there's a famous line from a military commander during the 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:37.059 Vietnam War, where he told the press, to save the village, we had to destroy it. I'm not making that 00:16:37.059 --> 00:16:42.059 up. To save the village, we had to destroy it. Well, it's just one of those things that he said 00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:48.019 unselfconsciously, which was very revelatory. Obviously, the village isn't saved if it's destroyed, 00:16:48.019 --> 00:16:54.279 is it? One of the things which is involved, I'm going to be a little bit political here for a moment, 00:16:54.740 --> 00:17:04.139 but I think it, I think it will be helpful. Hamas launched a war against Israel by the indiscriminate 00:17:04.139 --> 00:17:12.160 raping and desecrating of bodies of infants and young women, and the young and the old and everybody. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:23.620 It was an unprovoked attack. It was wanton and gleeful, and any of us who have seen any of the videos 00:17:23.620 --> 00:17:27.840 which came from them because they were proud of what they have done, 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:37.340 well, probably for most of us, if we're all like most Canadians, it's actually hard to watch. It's hard 00:17:37.339 --> 00:17:45.519 to even imagine that it happened. Now, the danger in Israel's response is to become like Hamas. 00:17:50.439 --> 00:17:57.159 And in lots of places in life, I'm not just picking on this, and we'll go beyond that now to just in 00:17:57.159 --> 00:18:03.679 general, there's always a problem that when you start to be involved in something, especially if 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:08.140 you see them as being ungodly influencers, and you begin to try to turn your attention to them 00:18:08.140 --> 00:18:14.400 and use your intellect and use the best of your words and the best of your prayers into that, 00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:20.299 there's a danger as the things go on, and they're not maybe bound by the same type of 00:18:20.299 --> 00:18:26.420 understandings and commitments and morals that you are, that you start to believe that the only way for 00:18:26.420 --> 00:18:32.060 you to win is to, in a sense, become more like them. And the great tragedy could be that you win, 00:18:32.059 --> 00:18:39.299 in quotation marks, but when you win, you've actually lost because you've become like them. 00:18:41.379 --> 00:18:49.899 And that's what's so emotionally wise and powerful about this text. It's what's so deeply wise about 00:18:49.899 --> 00:18:55.200 it. Listen to, you know, so, because listen to the prayer again. If you listen to this prayer, you realize 00:18:55.200 --> 00:19:02.019 however it is, you know, through our showing mercy, through our arguments, you know, maybe through 00:19:02.019 --> 00:19:07.920 church discipline, through a variety of different ways that you come to deal with those who the, 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:13.960 you have to go back and read earlier, are described as ungodly influencers. But then it ends with this, 00:19:14.420 --> 00:19:17.920 before you go out to do any things, by teaching you this prayer to pray. 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:30.320 And look at how it refocuses you on what your end is. And given what your end is, how you should live. 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:37.400 Listen to it again. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:43.900 before the presence of his glory with great joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, 00:19:43.900 --> 00:19:50.240 our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. 00:19:52.940 --> 00:19:59.480 It's a very, very wise way to be focused. I mean, that's, at the end of the day, you know, in the end 00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:06.400 of the day, the reason that Christians should deal with those who profess to be the Christian faith, 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:11.740 but are in fact not Christians and taking you away from the Christian faith, is because on one level, 00:20:11.740 --> 00:20:20.960 the stakes are so high. Like, we, we, I believe, we believe, Christians have historically believed, 00:20:21.059 --> 00:20:29.400 the Bible teaches us, that when I put my faith and trust in Christ, and I'm made right with God through 00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:39.740 him, my end and your end is to stand blameless before the presence of God in all of his glory, 00:20:39.740 --> 00:20:47.940 and to stand there in fullness of joy, not having, and not being blameless or having stumble, 00:20:48.120 --> 00:20:52.240 but to stand in his presence with great joy. That's the end. 00:20:52.240 --> 00:21:02.460 And if people are teaching things under the guise of being Christians that take them away from that, 00:21:02.539 --> 00:21:04.259 then shouldn't we fight against them? 00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:09.799 But even in our fighting, shouldn't we be humbled? 00:21:11.779 --> 00:21:17.059 Because the fact is, the authority isn't mine. All authority comes from him. The might doesn't come 00:21:17.059 --> 00:21:22.460 from me. All the might comes from him. The glory doesn't come from me or for me. All the glory 00:21:22.460 --> 00:21:29.099 is for him and comes from him and is to him. And all the majesty has nothing to do with me. 00:21:29.579 --> 00:21:34.659 It, it's, there might be majesty to what I say or what happens in a worship service, but 00:21:34.659 --> 00:21:38.700 the majesty comes from him. It, it's for him. 00:21:38.700 --> 00:21:49.360 There is both a, a profound encouragement to press on and a, and a profound humbling of us. 00:21:50.500 --> 00:21:57.580 But humbling in the context of such encouragement is a, is in and of itself a profound comfort and joy. 00:21:57.579 --> 00:22:08.980 Now some of you might say, George, this is a very beautiful prayer, but George, the problem is it's not true, is it? 00:22:10.619 --> 00:22:12.779 Like, George, do you never stumble? 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:16.299 Like, are you blameless? 00:22:18.679 --> 00:22:24.480 Well, if you've thought about that, reading the prayer and hearing it, you've, you've asked and thought about a very important question, 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:31.819 a very good question. And, uh, there's two very, very different ways to, to, to try to understand those two things. 00:22:31.819 --> 00:22:36.740 And it's really like oil and water. It, it, they're completely and, and utterly different. 00:22:36.740 --> 00:22:43.440 And, and so what I, I want to say is that I, I, you know, one of the things I do when I, I drive to church in the morning 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:50.180 before the eight o'clock service. So one of the things I do actually while I'm driving is I say the Lord's prayer out loud. 00:22:50.180 --> 00:22:56.539 And I say the 23rd Psalm out loud, uh, because my voice can be very raspy if I don't talk at all. 00:22:56.580 --> 00:23:00.740 And sometimes I've come to church and I've not talked to Louise. So the very first times I talk her at church, 00:23:00.820 --> 00:23:06.140 I'm all raspy and all like that. So I like to try to actually get my voice moving. And I, I pray. 00:23:06.180 --> 00:23:10.160 But one of the things I do is I actually confess my sins. I mean, I know I'm going to do it at the eight 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:15.840 o'clock and the 10 o'clock service, but I, I confess my sins over the last week. And I never have, 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:19.359 it's never the case that I say, Oh, I guess there's nothing to pray about this week. 00:23:21.439 --> 00:23:26.359 There's always something to pray about, uh, without fail. And I don't even have to go 00:23:26.359 --> 00:23:30.740 throughout the whole week. I just, the last 24 hours, the last few hours, I have something to pray 00:23:30.740 --> 00:23:38.119 about. And so this isn't saying that, um, the people who get to stand before God are the people 00:23:38.119 --> 00:23:45.859 who don't stumble and the people who aren't blameless. Cause frankly, if that's the criteria, 00:23:46.299 --> 00:23:55.279 I'm screwed. And so are you. And if you don't think you're screwed, you're really screwed because 00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:04.239 you don't even realize that you do wrong things like, you know, so, so what, what's it saying? 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:12.299 Um, just this week, somehow or another on Instagram, um, I came across Denzel Washington, 00:24:12.299 --> 00:24:19.140 uh, giving some advice and I, I wish Denzel Washington has just such gravitas when he speaks 00:24:19.140 --> 00:24:24.620 and, uh, just his, the way he speaks. I wish I could imitate it right now. I wish I could fact, 00:24:24.819 --> 00:24:29.680 I wish I could speak like Denzel Washington all the time. That would be a very good thing, 00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:36.060 but he's receiving some type of award. And, uh, he's saying, I remember, I remember one time my 00:24:36.060 --> 00:24:42.519 mommy said, my mom saying to me, uh, you know, uh, Denzel, what makes a man isn't whether or not 00:24:42.519 --> 00:24:48.840 he falls, but that no matter how many times he falls, he gets up one more time than he falls. 00:24:49.560 --> 00:24:54.080 He just keeps getting up. And then he made some comment about, I think she might've said it to me, 00:24:54.079 --> 00:25:00.079 uh, one of the nine times I got nominated for this award and didn't win it and got everybody laughing. 00:25:00.859 --> 00:25:04.179 And, and that's, you know, there's something when we hear that, there's something very, 00:25:04.299 --> 00:25:10.500 very compelling about that, uh, in our culture. The idea that it's not so much that you fall or you 00:25:10.500 --> 00:25:16.319 fail, uh, but that after you fail, you can stand up and keep pressing ahead and that you fall and you 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:20.079 get up, you fall, you get up. There's something very powerful about that in our culture, 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:25.480 but that's now I'm sure if you went on and asked Denzel about it, he'd be able to say something 00:25:25.480 --> 00:25:31.259 else because in fact, Denzel is a believing Christian. Uh, but in our culture, that's just 00:25:31.259 --> 00:25:38.279 humanism and it's very inspiring and we wish it could be true, but we all know, and maybe for you, 00:25:38.399 --> 00:25:45.159 it's been true for you up until now, but live long enough. That will not be the case. Or you'll 00:25:45.160 --> 00:25:50.759 reach a time that you fall and you stay down. Uh, maybe it's, you reach the end of your career, 00:25:50.940 --> 00:25:55.860 you reach the end of a marriage, uh, a failure with your kids or your best friend and you fail 00:25:55.860 --> 00:26:00.500 and you fail, you get up, but at some point in time, you can't get up again. But you see what 00:26:00.500 --> 00:26:05.519 this text is saying is that longing, that, that, that sense when we hear something like what Denzel 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:11.420 Washington has said, that there's something that we, we think that's wise and we wish we could live it, 00:26:11.420 --> 00:26:16.940 but we know that in our own, in our own power, we can't. What that is actually, that is a hint 00:26:16.940 --> 00:26:22.640 to what the gospel promises us and what has been made clear in this text. 00:26:24.140 --> 00:26:28.000 See, because what this text is saying is it's not that when George prays this, 00:26:28.539 --> 00:26:32.279 I'm saying, oh, Father, I thank you so much that I'm not like other people. I've never stumbled. 00:26:33.019 --> 00:26:37.220 I thank you that I'm not like other people, that I've, I've, uh, I live a blameless life, 00:26:37.220 --> 00:26:44.980 you know, no, that would be the opposite of this text, wouldn't it? What it's saying is that in 00:26:44.980 --> 00:26:54.620 Christ, stumbling is not the last word about you. And in Christ, the evil you've done or the good you 00:26:54.620 --> 00:27:02.660 fail to do is not the last word about you. That in Christ, the last word about you is delivered by 00:27:02.660 --> 00:27:11.519 God to you face to face as you stand in the presence of his glory with great joy. And he looks at you and 00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:18.220 he does not say stumbler or sinner. He says, beloved. 00:27:18.220 --> 00:27:27.339 He says, beloved. 00:27:34.460 --> 00:27:40.620 You know, as this prayer grips our heart and forms us, there is nothing better than this profound 00:27:40.620 --> 00:27:47.700 truth of what Christ, in fact, does do for us, unworthy as we are when we put our faith and trust in him. 00:27:48.220 --> 00:27:59.579 To give you a place to stand on for you to stand up again, to push you forward, to stand up again, 00:27:59.579 --> 00:28:09.079 to draw you forward, to stand up again, and to press on. And it's not rooted in humanism. It's rooted 00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:17.259 in the promises of God and what Christ has done for us in the gospel. Listen to it again. 00:28:18.220 --> 00:28:24.740 Now, to him who is able to keep you. It's God who does this, not George. In fact, it's very 00:28:24.740 --> 00:28:30.880 interesting. In some ways, God is being named in this verse. Who is God? God is him who is able. 00:28:31.579 --> 00:28:34.839 That is who God is. Him who is able. 00:28:37.220 --> 00:28:44.900 To him who is able. What is he able to do? He's able to keep George from stumbling and to present 00:28:44.900 --> 00:28:52.200 George blameless before the presence of God's glory, his own glory, with great joy. To the only God, 00:28:52.300 --> 00:28:58.460 our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and 00:28:58.460 --> 00:29:08.500 now and forever. Amen. One of the things I hear often when I talk to people is it's very common for 00:29:08.500 --> 00:29:14.740 them to either give me the mountaintop analogy or the elephant analogy. And in the mountaintop analogy, 00:29:14.740 --> 00:29:21.019 when they discover that I'm a Christian, one of the things, by the way, I have a friend, he's moved 00:29:21.019 --> 00:29:28.359 away from Ottawa, really, really neat guy, originally from Nicaragua, huge, big, tall guy. And he always wore 00:29:28.359 --> 00:29:34.240 a black clergy shirt and collar wherever he went because he didn't want the Canada, he didn't want Ottawa to 00:29:34.240 --> 00:29:41.819 think that there were no Christians in Ottawa. And so he is a former Division I NCAA basketball player 00:29:41.819 --> 00:29:51.500 who played in the States. Anyway, but for me, an elderly white guy, I wear t-shirts all the time. 00:29:52.140 --> 00:29:56.480 I'd rather that the people in the coffee shop get to know me before they find out that I'm a pastor. 00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:04.980 Partially to try to mess up their stereotypes. And often when they hear that I'm a pastor, 00:30:05.140 --> 00:30:09.380 sometimes, either then or later on, they'll talk a little bit about how, you know, they think, 00:30:09.480 --> 00:30:14.640 it's sort of neat that you're a spiritual guy, and you seem like a nice guy, enough, nice enough, 00:30:14.740 --> 00:30:20.900 and you're a spiritual guy. And you know, I believe that all the religions, it's sort of like they're all 00:30:20.900 --> 00:30:26.940 trying to get to the top of the mountain. And so you have your way of going up the mountain, and, 00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:32.019 you know, the Hindus have their way of getting up the mountain, and the Buddhists, their way of 00:30:32.019 --> 00:30:36.120 getting up the mountain, and the Muslims, their way of getting up the mountain, and I have my way 00:30:36.120 --> 00:30:39.580 of getting up at the top of the mountain. But we all just want to be at the top of the mountain 00:30:39.580 --> 00:30:47.320 together. Now, I have a variety of things I might or might not say to that. But one of the things I now 00:30:47.319 --> 00:30:51.339 think I should say is I say, you want to know something really interesting? I disagree with you 00:30:51.339 --> 00:30:55.819 about that, because I don't think all the different religions are, in fact, trying to get to the top 00:30:55.819 --> 00:31:01.700 of the same mountain. And they'd say, well, that's not true. I'd probably say, just listen to this. 00:31:02.299 --> 00:31:05.460 And now maybe what I'll do, especially if I've memorized the text, I'll say, you know, there's 00:31:05.460 --> 00:31:09.799 this text in the book of Jude, and it ends with this. Now to him who is able to keep you from 00:31:09.799 --> 00:31:14.599 stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. 00:31:14.599 --> 00:31:20.759 Sorry, I did that too quick. Keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless, 00:31:21.379 --> 00:31:28.579 present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. So that's not what all 00:31:28.579 --> 00:31:35.879 religions want, is it? I mean, the average Canadian thinks that when you die, you have some type of 00:31:35.879 --> 00:31:42.899 vague disembodied existence. You aren't standing before the presence of God in all of his glory 00:31:42.900 --> 00:31:50.080 with great joy. If you follow the path of Hindu, of Hinduism or of Buddhism or of Islam, 00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:54.500 you do not end up standing before the presence 00:31:54.500 --> 00:32:01.980 of the Godhead and all their glory, all God's glory, I should say, 00:32:01.980 --> 00:32:11.779 with great joy. That's a very different end. But isn't that ultimately really the end you long 00:32:11.779 --> 00:32:19.000 for and yearn for? Isn't that like, aren't your longings and yearnings a hint as to what really 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:25.079 should be true? And what nobody really longs that they just have a disembodied existence? 00:32:25.079 --> 00:32:33.720 Some ethereal disembodied existence? That's not what we really long for. We don't want to die, 00:32:33.819 --> 00:32:41.240 and we long that if we... This idea that there is this great joy, that's what we long for. 00:32:43.619 --> 00:32:50.960 This idea of continuing to exist and really exist and to exist with joy, 00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:58.019 that touches more buttons about what we really long for and yearn, and that's what the gospel 00:32:58.019 --> 00:33:05.160 makes clear and reveals. And C.S. Lewis has so brilliantly portrayed what this joy is like. 00:33:05.500 --> 00:33:10.880 The thing which is so wonderful about this joy is it's the type of joy that when we finally come 00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:17.559 and stand before God in his glory, clothed with the righteousness of Christ, made clean and pure and 00:33:17.559 --> 00:33:23.159 washed from all of our sins by what Christ has done for us on the cross, and when we stand before 00:33:23.159 --> 00:33:30.399 him in the presence of his glory with great joy, that we will feel that joy will be in us and around 00:33:30.399 --> 00:33:36.359 us, and we will, in a sense, taste of that joy and drink of that joy. And when we drink of that joy, 00:33:36.359 --> 00:33:45.000 it will satisfy us at the most deep and profound level. But that joy will not just satisfy us or sate us. 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:51.079 That same joy will trigger within us something that we did not know was there in the very depths 00:33:51.079 --> 00:33:57.500 of our being. And it will not only satisfy our joy, but it will create within us a longing for more joy. 00:33:58.380 --> 00:34:04.599 And even the longing for that more joy is a type of joy. And the same type of joy that is surrounding 00:34:04.599 --> 00:34:11.940 us and entering into us that satisfies our longings for joy and then creates this new longing for joy, 00:34:11.940 --> 00:34:18.099 that new longing for joy will be satisfied in him and create new longings which will once again be 00:34:18.099 --> 00:34:26.980 satisfied in him. That is your destiny in Christ, brother and sister. And now you understand why it is 00:34:26.980 --> 00:34:32.820 that we need a savior. Listen, if you're just going to go to a better place when you die, you don't need a 00:34:32.820 --> 00:34:37.679 savior. If you're just going to, at the end of the day, go through endless series of reincarnation and then 00:34:37.679 --> 00:34:43.940 be a water that drops in the ocean and loses its identity, you do not need a savior. And if there's 00:34:43.940 --> 00:34:48.500 any of those other types of ideas about merely climbing a mountain for some other, whatever reason, 00:34:48.759 --> 00:34:55.419 you don't need a savior. But if your end is this, how on earth are you going to do that by yourself? 00:34:56.579 --> 00:35:03.119 How on earth are you going to do that by yourself? Or how on earth is your club or your group going to 00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:10.739 do that for you? It's impossible. You need a savior. That was God has provided his son. That one of the 00:35:10.739 --> 00:35:15.420 things is a really nerdish thing. But one of the wonderful things about this prayer in the original 00:35:15.420 --> 00:35:22.179 language is the exact same words in the original language can be translated two ways. So scholars, 00:35:22.339 --> 00:35:27.099 when they're translating it now after many years, sometimes generally scholars tend to say, well, 00:35:27.239 --> 00:35:31.259 you know, English can't do it. We have to pick one and they'll take the one that's most likely. 00:35:31.260 --> 00:35:35.900 But the fact of the matter is, is that I think one of the reasons that God chose this particular 00:35:35.900 --> 00:35:41.260 ancient language to reveal himself is that there's often these double entendres, so to speak. But 00:35:41.260 --> 00:35:46.480 they're not double entendres that are sexual. They're double entendres that reveal profound truths. 00:35:46.860 --> 00:35:53.040 And on one hand, you can translate this text to say that all the glory and majesty and might and 00:35:53.040 --> 00:36:00.020 authority that we acknowledge goes to God, the Father, that goes through Jesus. And that's a way to 00:36:00.019 --> 00:36:04.340 interpret it. But the other way that can be understood in the original language is that the 00:36:04.340 --> 00:36:11.219 way that we're saved is through Jesus. And that's, you see, the wonderful thing about this whole text, 00:36:11.420 --> 00:36:17.059 and what it helps us to remind us about the gospel, is that Jesus didn't, the story of Jesus isn't just 00:36:17.059 --> 00:36:24.280 a story. It's not a myth. It's a story very deeply rooted in time and place for all times and place. 00:36:24.280 --> 00:36:30.360 It's very deeply rooted in particular language and particular people, for people of all languages 00:36:30.360 --> 00:36:37.460 and throughout all of time. And it's this profound story of Jesus, God the Son, entering into our 00:36:37.460 --> 00:36:43.240 human world, the world that he created, and living the life that we should live but couldn't, and dying 00:36:43.240 --> 00:36:49.420 the death that we deserve, but a death that would completely unmake us. And so, as all of the wonderful 00:36:49.420 --> 00:36:55.280 sacrificial language of the Old Testament puts is that, in a sense, in our minds or our hearts, and we 00:36:55.280 --> 00:37:03.420 reach out to Jesus and trust in him and connect to him, that it's like he touches us and we touch him, 00:37:03.599 --> 00:37:08.860 and all of the things that I've done that are wrong, in a sense, they go on him. And so, when he dies on 00:37:08.860 --> 00:37:14.820 the cross, he's taking away and canceling the things that I have done that are wrong. And it's, 00:37:14.820 --> 00:37:21.960 I'll discover, when I stand before God, in the presence of his glory, with great joy, that he has 00:37:21.960 --> 00:37:27.920 taken away everything that I have ever done that is wrong. He's paid the punishment for it, that is 00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:34.460 wiped away. And it's not just now that I am, I am, I'm just completely and utterly naked, that I am 00:37:34.460 --> 00:37:40.380 clothed with his righteousness. The goodness, the goodness and the wholeness and the holiness that is 00:37:40.380 --> 00:37:49.320 properly his, he bestows upon me. And so, I stand before God in his presence with great glory, with 00:37:49.320 --> 00:37:59.539 great joy, the resurrected body. And he looks at me, and he doesn't see George the sinner, and he doesn't 00:37:59.539 --> 00:38:06.539 see George the stumbler, but he sees George clothed, washed clean by Christ and clothed by Christ. And he 00:38:06.539 --> 00:38:18.779 says to me, beloved. He'll say that to you too, if you put your faith and trust in Christ. 00:38:18.780 --> 00:38:28.720 Just one thing, sort of in closing. 00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:36.740 You know, one of the things about this text, one of the things that the Bible helps us to do is it 00:38:36.740 --> 00:38:45.320 helps us to awaken longings and desires that have been dormant. We live in an age which teaches us 00:38:45.320 --> 00:38:51.740 distraction, not thinking, but primarily an age which encouraged, obviously we have lots of elements 00:38:51.740 --> 00:38:56.320 in our culture that go different directions, but there's a strong element in our culture that teaches 00:38:56.320 --> 00:39:02.720 distraction and that sees the world as empty. And the fact is, for most modern Canadians, we have a hard time 00:39:02.720 --> 00:39:07.039 understanding what on earth glory is and what on earth majesty is. 00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:18.980 And in fact, actually, we live in an age where comedians and others will mock ideas of glory and majesty. 00:39:21.039 --> 00:39:23.559 But this teaches us that glory is real, 00:39:24.940 --> 00:39:27.059 that there is something called majesty, 00:39:27.579 --> 00:39:31.400 just as there is something like might, and there is something called authority, 00:39:31.400 --> 00:39:35.240 with all of its proper morality and ordered morality 00:39:35.240 --> 00:39:37.480 and a way of living. 00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:39.500 And partly 00:39:39.500 --> 00:39:41.340 what this prayer 00:39:41.340 --> 00:39:43.840 should help us to do is to call out to God 00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:45.400 that we can begin to recognize 00:39:45.400 --> 00:39:47.360 what glory really is and majesty 00:39:47.360 --> 00:39:48.099 really is. 00:39:49.400 --> 00:39:51.619 And even to say, Lord, even if I don't 00:39:51.619 --> 00:39:53.260 entirely know what it is, I acknowledge 00:39:53.260 --> 00:39:55.440 before you that whatever glory there is 00:39:55.440 --> 00:39:57.599 in my life or is within my reign 00:39:57.599 --> 00:39:59.599 of control or stewardship 00:39:59.599 --> 00:40:01.679 I should say, whatever majesty 00:40:01.679 --> 00:40:03.739 there is, whatever might 00:40:03.739 --> 00:40:05.659 there is, because if you go back that word 00:40:05.659 --> 00:40:07.519 dominion in the text, if you 00:40:07.519 --> 00:40:09.360 look at different Bible translations, 00:40:10.159 --> 00:40:11.719 you'll see it's translated three ways. 00:40:11.839 --> 00:40:13.599 And if you sort of take the three words, 00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:15.599 you triangulate them, you're getting 00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:17.179 at the idea in the original language. 00:40:17.659 --> 00:40:19.420 Some translate it as dominion, some 00:40:19.420 --> 00:40:21.539 translate it as power, and some translate it 00:40:21.539 --> 00:40:23.279 as might. And if you take those three 00:40:23.279 --> 00:40:25.639 English words, it gives 00:40:25.639 --> 00:40:27.519 you a bit of a picture of what's being referred 00:40:27.519 --> 00:40:27.819 to. 00:40:27.820 --> 00:40:29.760 You see, 00:40:30.080 --> 00:40:32.660 everything in Canadian culture 00:40:32.660 --> 00:40:34.920 is trying to encourage us to be a 00:40:34.920 --> 00:40:35.280 someone. 00:40:36.500 --> 00:40:38.360 I got this idea from John Stott. 00:40:39.480 --> 00:40:40.800 Everything in Canadian culture 00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:42.039 is trying to teach us to be a 00:40:42.039 --> 00:40:42.360 someone. 00:40:43.080 --> 00:40:44.940 And we read the Bible, we come to 00:40:44.940 --> 00:40:46.400 expect the Bible's going to teach us 00:40:46.400 --> 00:40:47.680 how to be a someone, and we're 00:40:47.680 --> 00:40:48.880 surprised that it doesn't. 00:40:49.800 --> 00:40:51.400 Because, you see, the Bible says, 00:40:52.160 --> 00:40:53.480 you know, it's not so much that God 00:40:53.480 --> 00:40:54.480 wants you to be a someone. 00:40:54.480 --> 00:40:57.940 God wants you to meet someone. 00:41:00.940 --> 00:41:02.880 It's not about how to be someone. 00:41:03.880 --> 00:41:05.639 It's about knowing someone. 00:41:07.699 --> 00:41:09.480 In a sense, everything in our culture 00:41:09.480 --> 00:41:11.240 is designed to try to make us think that 00:41:11.240 --> 00:41:12.900 we're like flashlights that are fully 00:41:12.900 --> 00:41:14.619 powered up, that we're a source of 00:41:14.619 --> 00:41:16.599 light, a source of warmth. 00:41:16.599 --> 00:41:19.839 And the Bible is vastly more realistic, 00:41:20.219 --> 00:41:22.759 but it's realistic without despairing. 00:41:22.819 --> 00:41:24.779 Because of the gospel, it's realistic in a 00:41:24.779 --> 00:41:25.599 very hopeful way. 00:41:26.279 --> 00:41:28.119 It says, no, George, you're a mirror. 00:41:28.819 --> 00:41:30.679 And you put a mirror in a dark room, 00:41:30.759 --> 00:41:31.519 and it's just dark. 00:41:31.619 --> 00:41:33.159 Mirrors have no light or whatever within 00:41:33.159 --> 00:41:33.319 them. 00:41:33.360 --> 00:41:35.139 But, George, every human being like you is 00:41:35.139 --> 00:41:36.639 like a light, is like a mirror. 00:41:36.639 --> 00:41:38.480 And, you know, you've acknowledged that 00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:40.159 the Bible is revealing that you stumble 00:41:40.159 --> 00:41:43.079 and you have, you do wrong things. 00:41:43.299 --> 00:41:45.279 And so what the Bible is trying to help 00:41:45.279 --> 00:41:46.779 you to understand is that, in fact, 00:41:46.879 --> 00:41:48.339 George, you're a mirror. 00:41:48.980 --> 00:41:51.900 And, George, you're a mirror that's cracked, 00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:54.339 and some of it's warped. 00:41:54.340 --> 00:41:58.840 And no light ever comes from you in and of 00:41:58.840 --> 00:42:01.100 yourself, but George. 00:42:02.260 --> 00:42:04.680 You angle your mirror, who you are, 00:42:04.760 --> 00:42:08.539 towards Christ, who is the light, who is 00:42:08.539 --> 00:42:11.840 majesty, who is glory, who is might, who is 00:42:11.840 --> 00:42:12.340 authority. 00:42:13.740 --> 00:42:16.160 And just as we can take a mirror, one of 00:42:16.160 --> 00:42:17.620 the things they do in wilderness things, 00:42:17.700 --> 00:42:19.539 if you get lost, is often those little 00:42:19.539 --> 00:42:20.960 things will have something like a mirror, 00:42:21.559 --> 00:42:23.220 because they know that if you angle that 00:42:23.219 --> 00:42:25.000 mirror that has no light in itself, that 00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:26.959 it both catches the sun but shines in 00:42:26.959 --> 00:42:28.259 that direction, you can have a light 00:42:28.259 --> 00:42:29.679 which is so bright that people will 00:42:29.679 --> 00:42:30.039 notice. 00:42:32.139 --> 00:42:33.619 And so, George, when you're learning that 00:42:33.619 --> 00:42:37.059 all glory, majesty, and all might and 00:42:37.059 --> 00:42:40.039 authority come from him and go, or 00:42:40.039 --> 00:42:44.439 properly his, this is a call to so angle 00:42:44.439 --> 00:42:48.619 your life towards him and towards, and 00:42:48.619 --> 00:42:52.339 from him towards others, that his glory 00:42:52.340 --> 00:42:55.600 and majesty, his might and authority is 00:42:55.600 --> 00:42:55.940 known. 00:42:57.019 --> 00:42:59.800 He can fill your cracked and warped 00:42:59.800 --> 00:43:02.600 mirror and shine into even the darkest 00:43:02.600 --> 00:43:03.260 places. 00:43:04.160 --> 00:43:07.500 Even the lowliest Christian can do this in 00:43:07.500 --> 00:43:07.800 him. 00:43:09.420 --> 00:43:10.519 I invite you to stand. 00:43:10.519 --> 00:43:16.500 I'm going to say the words of Jude. 00:43:16.619 --> 00:43:18.259 I'm going to turn the words of this 00:43:18.259 --> 00:43:22.320 prayer into a prayer for us, for each of 00:43:22.320 --> 00:43:25.820 us personally to say, I don't know where 00:43:25.820 --> 00:43:26.780 you are with Christ. 00:43:28.039 --> 00:43:30.019 Maybe you would describe that you've maybe 00:43:30.019 --> 00:43:31.360 wandered away from him. 00:43:31.719 --> 00:43:33.480 Maybe you would describe that you've been 00:43:33.480 --> 00:43:35.280 trying to figure out whether he's true. 00:43:35.780 --> 00:43:38.480 I would invite you to consider this prayer as 00:43:38.480 --> 00:43:43.340 your conversion prayer of giving yourself to 00:43:43.340 --> 00:43:43.559 him. 00:43:46.179 --> 00:43:49.360 But for those of us who are in Christ, it's 00:43:49.360 --> 00:43:49.820 a prayer. 00:43:51.820 --> 00:43:53.940 A prayer that God wrote for us because he 00:43:53.940 --> 00:43:55.880 wants us to learn to pray it for ourselves 00:43:55.880 --> 00:43:56.420 to him. 00:43:57.159 --> 00:43:59.340 So I'll say a phrase, and if you would pray 00:43:59.340 --> 00:44:02.800 it after me in response, if the Lord puts it 00:44:02.800 --> 00:44:04.220 on your heart, that would be good. 00:44:08.440 --> 00:44:14.300 Almighty God, you are able to keep me from 00:44:14.300 --> 00:44:14.840 stumbling. 00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:21.060 You are able to present me blameless before 00:44:21.060 --> 00:44:21.380 you. 00:44:21.380 --> 00:44:24.760 You are able to present me blameless before you. 00:44:24.960 --> 00:44:27.940 In the presence of your glory with great joy. 00:44:27.940 --> 00:44:33.159 You are the only God. 00:44:34.800 --> 00:44:36.440 You are the only Savior. 00:44:38.440 --> 00:44:40.179 Through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:44:42.260 --> 00:44:44.139 To you be all glory. 00:44:46.139 --> 00:44:47.480 And all majesty. 00:44:48.960 --> 00:44:50.059 And all dominion. 00:44:51.599 --> 00:44:52.700 And all authority. 00:44:52.699 --> 00:44:56.460 As it has been from the beginning. 00:44:58.719 --> 00:44:59.919 Is right now. 00:45:01.219 --> 00:45:02.299 And will be forever. 00:45:03.980 --> 00:45:04.339 Amen. 00:45:05.539 --> 00:45:07.439 Father, we ask that you would teach us and help 00:45:07.439 --> 00:45:07.980 us to pray. 00:45:08.519 --> 00:45:09.779 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:45:10.199 --> 00:45:10.519 Amen.