WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:17.519 An American writer named Scott Stolzel, who is an editor of the Atlantic Monthly, I'm not sure 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:27.760 ! if that magazine is popular here, but I occasionally read this magazine, an article titled Surviving 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:29.980 ! An article titled Surviving Anxiety, which was published a few years ago, and he wrote 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:41.980 a compelling and at times uncomfortable expose of his own struggle with anxiety. In this 00:00:41.980 --> 00:00:49.980 pretty lengthy article, he admitted that no therapy or drug was permanently effective 00:00:49.980 --> 00:00:58.980 in overcoming even the most basic fears and worries that often prevented him from leading 00:00:58.979 --> 00:01:10.979 normal, regular life. This is what he wrote, I am buffeted by worry about my health and my 00:01:10.980 --> 00:01:18.980 family members' health, about finances, about work, about a rattle in my car and the dripping in my 00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:28.980 basement, about the encroachment of an old age and the inevitability of death, about everything and nothing. 00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:40.980 Sometimes this worry gets transmuted into low-grade physical discomfort, stomach aches, headaches, dizziness, 00:01:40.980 --> 00:01:48.980 my arms and my legs, or a general malaise, as though I have a mononucleosis or the flu. 00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:52.980 At various times, I have developed anxiety-induced 00:01:52.980 --> 00:02:04.980 difficulties breathing, breathing, swallowing, even walking. These difficulties then become obsessions, consuming all my thinking. 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:25.980 Next, in this article, he lists 19 therapies, 28 drugs, not to mention beer, wine, gin, bourbon, vodka and scotch, only to conclude with the sovereign statement. 00:02:25.979 --> 00:02:55.579 Here is what's worth nothing. Now, the passage of scripture, which I selected for our study today and Pastor Paul read before, addresses the issue of anxiety and interestingly links it to greed, something that the editor of the magazine, Stossel, didn't really do in his article. 00:02:55.979 --> 00:03:09.979 It links it to greed. And I think that link could provide some answers to lifelong anxiety issues that we all face in everyday life. 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:23.979 So let us look at the text again, if you hope still, open your Bibles on Luke chapter 12 and look at verse 13. 00:03:23.979 --> 00:03:33.979 What happens here is that Jesus is averting the discussion or dispute between brothers about an inheritance. 00:03:33.979 --> 00:03:45.979 Very, very normal, everyday issue that we can all face. Disputing about material goods with family members. 00:03:45.979 --> 00:03:52.979 Jesus doesn't want to resolve the conflict between these two brothers who are arguing about the inheritance. 00:03:52.979 --> 00:04:00.979 But instead, he redirects his audience's attention by telling a story. 00:04:00.979 --> 00:04:05.979 This story came to be known as the parable of the rich fool. 00:04:05.979 --> 00:04:19.980 The story goes like this. Some guy unexpectedly made a fortune and he decided to use it all to ensure for himself a comfortable future. 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:23.980 We see this in verse 19 when he says, 00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:29.980 And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. 00:04:29.980 --> 00:04:34.980 Relax, eat, drink, be merry. 00:04:34.980 --> 00:04:41.980 However, as Jesus continues and tells us this story, 00:04:41.980 --> 00:04:51.980 The comfort of happy life, he envisioned, could not be secured with his newly acquired crops and possessions he could get for these crops. 00:04:51.980 --> 00:05:00.980 Because that very night, that rich man leaves all his wealth to someone else. 00:05:00.980 --> 00:05:04.980 He drops dead. 00:05:04.980 --> 00:05:12.980 Using this parable, Jesus shows the utmost foolishness, and let's just face it, stupidity, 00:05:12.980 --> 00:05:23.980 Of someone who thinks that material possession could provide him with a relaxing, comfortable, and happy life. 00:05:23.980 --> 00:05:26.980 But you could say, wait, wait, what's going on here? 00:05:26.980 --> 00:05:30.980 Why was the rich man so foolish? 00:05:30.980 --> 00:05:38.980 Why was he thinking that he could use all that money to buy himself happiness? 00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:44.980 Why was he thinking that the crops could buy him happy life? 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:51.980 Well, this was just a story so we can only speculate what was really going through his mind. 00:05:51.980 --> 00:06:00.980 But, as it is often the case, he and we make foolish decisions when we are blinded by sin. 00:06:00.980 --> 00:06:08.980 In this case, next to foolishness, there was also a sin of greed, which the man had committed. 00:06:08.980 --> 00:06:12.980 I realize that the text never mentions the word greed. 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:15.980 Never mention it by name. 00:06:15.980 --> 00:06:20.980 However, I would argue that Jesus would make this point implicitly. 00:06:20.980 --> 00:06:25.980 Especially when we consider what's coming up next. 00:06:25.980 --> 00:06:33.980 When we consider the whole context in which this parable is placed here by Dr. Luke. 00:06:33.980 --> 00:06:40.980 So we need to ask ourselves, well, if greed is here, what is greed? 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:52.980 Well, one way to define greed is to say that it's an uncontrollable or inordinate desire to have things which are not ours. 00:06:52.980 --> 00:06:57.980 This can be money, but there could be other things. 00:06:57.980 --> 00:06:58.980 It could be power. 00:06:58.980 --> 00:06:59.980 It could be knowledge. 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:02.980 Knowledge of knowing what will happen to me in the future. 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:11.980 It could be a desire to have control over my life, over life of my children, over life of my husband or wife. 00:07:11.980 --> 00:07:16.980 In many ways, our anxiety can be fueled by greed. 00:07:16.980 --> 00:07:22.980 By that inordinate or uncontrollable desire to have things that are not ours. 00:07:22.980 --> 00:07:28.980 This happens when we inordinately desire to know what will happen to us. 00:07:28.980 --> 00:07:30.980 How we will support ourselves. 00:07:30.980 --> 00:07:34.980 How will I be perceived by this group of people? 00:07:34.980 --> 00:07:39.980 Will I pass this test or will I fail this test? 00:07:39.980 --> 00:07:42.980 Will I be accepted or will I be rejected? 00:07:42.980 --> 00:07:46.980 Will my kids be accepted in this school? 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:51.980 Will my kids succeed in life or not? 00:07:51.980 --> 00:08:00.980 What makes those desires inordinate and sinful is that answers to these questions are unobtainable. 00:08:00.980 --> 00:08:04.980 They belong to God and are not for us. 00:08:04.980 --> 00:08:07.980 They are not for sale. 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:12.980 Also desiring so deeply to know answer to these questions. 00:08:12.980 --> 00:08:18.980 Are often fueled by self-centered and narcissistic reasons. 00:08:18.980 --> 00:08:28.980 Motivated by personal comfort and not love of God and love of neighbor. 00:08:28.980 --> 00:08:44.980 This uncontrollable longing for money, luxury, power, material goods, good reputation, recognition, knowledge, stability, and many, many other things which I'm sure we could go on and on listing. 00:08:44.980 --> 00:08:48.980 Is nothing else but a greed in disguise. 00:08:48.980 --> 00:09:02.980 And in our popular culture, greed has often unfortunately been nicely redressed as a simple justifiable desire to, well, retire early. 00:09:02.980 --> 00:09:15.980 To have enough as not to depend on anyone else in my family or any of my friends or not be a burden to a church. 00:09:15.980 --> 00:09:18.980 To do anything we want at any time we want. 00:09:18.980 --> 00:09:23.980 To simply travel, eat, drink, and be merry. 00:09:23.980 --> 00:09:26.980 However, Jesus confronts this way of thinking. 00:09:26.980 --> 00:09:35.980 And he was not the only one to argue or to say that greed was foolish. 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:42.980 That the whole idea that money cannot buy happiness was already known in the ancient world. 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:56.980 And even today many non-Christian and sometimes people who by no means are considered moral leaders or moral people could say the same thing based on their own experience. 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:00.980 Money cannot buy as happiness. 00:10:00.980 --> 00:10:07.980 Well, back in the ancient time, an author named Seneca, a great Stoic philosopher wrote, 00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:11.980 Why do you pile riches on riches? 00:10:11.980 --> 00:10:16.980 You really should remember how small your bodies are. 00:10:16.980 --> 00:10:25.980 What folly that's to think that is the amount of money and not the state of mind that matters. 00:10:25.980 --> 00:10:32.980 There are many other authors that said similar models or statements. 00:10:32.980 --> 00:10:36.980 Many throughout the ages offered moralistic lessons. 00:10:36.980 --> 00:10:48.980 But none could provide an effective, lasting cure until Christ and after him as well. 00:10:48.980 --> 00:10:58.980 The uniqueness of Jesus' teaching here is that he offered not only a moralistic lesson about the fact that money doesn't buy happiness, 00:10:58.980 --> 00:11:01.980 but he offered a worthwhile solution. 00:11:01.980 --> 00:11:06.980 A way out of the cycle of greed and anxiety. 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:12.980 A way out in which our greed could be redeemed and our anxiety could be healed. 00:11:12.980 --> 00:11:13.980 What was his solution? 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:16.980 What was his solution? 00:11:16.980 --> 00:11:24.980 What was the cure to greed and anxious thought offered to us by Jesus? 00:11:24.980 --> 00:11:33.980 Well, it was and still is today an investment in the Kingdom of God. 00:11:33.980 --> 00:11:40.980 It was an investment in the Kingdom of God of which he came to proclaim. 00:11:40.980 --> 00:11:51.980 The Kingdom which still is mostly spiritual, partially spiritual, we say already but not yet. 00:11:51.980 --> 00:11:54.980 Spiritual, in a sense invisible. 00:11:54.980 --> 00:12:00.980 But someday will be also physical and will last whole eternity. 00:12:00.980 --> 00:12:09.980 When Christ comes back again to complete his Kingdom and to institute his rule. 00:12:09.980 --> 00:12:19.980 Jesus taught that investment in his Kingdom is safer than any other investment because God himself guarantees it. 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:26.980 He protects it and makes sure that this investment will be successful. 00:12:26.980 --> 00:12:29.980 No crash of spiritual market is ever to happen. 00:12:29.980 --> 00:12:36.980 It cannot be stolen or destroyed because it is protected by God himself. 00:12:36.980 --> 00:12:48.980 Finally, investing in the Kingdom of God is not selfish or self-centered because it requires a special element. 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:49.980 It requires love. 00:12:49.980 --> 00:12:52.980 It requires self-denial. 00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:53.980 And it requires faith. 00:12:53.980 --> 00:13:00.980 Well, let me illustrate this point by bringing image from my childhood. 00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:03.980 As you already heard, I grew up in Poland. 00:13:03.980 --> 00:13:10.980 And in my childhood, Poland was occupied by, well, the Soviets who imposed communism on Poland. 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:13.980 Poland didn't choose to be communist. 00:13:13.980 --> 00:13:16.980 We were made to be communists. 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:23.980 The communist, utopian and demonic ideology in the name of equality forbade private ownership 00:13:23.980 --> 00:13:29.980 and imposed governments control over the whole market and private property. 00:13:29.980 --> 00:13:38.980 The country, as well as the whole Eastern European bloc, sank into dreadful poverty. 00:13:38.980 --> 00:13:47.980 As a child, I remembered that buying a fresh loaf of bread bordered on a miracle. 00:13:47.980 --> 00:13:50.980 Toilet paper, believe it or not, was a luxury. 00:13:50.980 --> 00:14:00.980 Ask any of your older Polish friends, well older, my age, 40 and up, how difficult it was to find toilet paper. 00:14:00.980 --> 00:14:13.980 And tropical fruits like oranges, bananas or lemons were a treat that I think for the first time I saw when some American missionaries came and brought us bananas. 00:14:13.980 --> 00:14:23.980 In order to help the crisis and overcome this dreadful poverty in which we were growing up and food was being rationed, 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:28.980 our government decided to print more money. 00:14:28.980 --> 00:14:34.980 When they were printing more money, that led to hyperinflation. 00:14:34.980 --> 00:14:36.980 What is hyperinflation? 00:14:36.980 --> 00:14:49.980 Well, hyperinflation basically meant that the money which you had was losing its value on monthly, sometimes even daily basis. 00:14:49.980 --> 00:14:52.980 Now imagine, and these are actual numbers. 00:14:52.980 --> 00:15:02.980 In January of 1990, one American dollar was worth 9,500 Polish Zlotys. 00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:11.980 Sorry, I didn't know how to transfer that to English pounds, but the info I found was with American dollars. 00:15:11.980 --> 00:15:16.980 So, in 1990, one dollar was worth 9,500 Zlotys. 00:15:16.980 --> 00:15:29.980 While at the end of August of 1992, the same one American dollar was now worth 19,600 Zlotys. 00:15:29.980 --> 00:15:37.980 So that only in a year and a half, the value of money dropped by over 10,000 Polish Zlotys. 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:42.980 Polish money became almost completely worthless. 00:15:42.980 --> 00:15:54.980 Wise people like my father kept their savings in foreign currency, which was, well, illegal, but it was stable. 00:15:54.980 --> 00:15:59.980 And at that time, American dollar was that currency. 00:15:59.980 --> 00:16:00.980 It took some risk. 00:16:00.980 --> 00:16:01.980 It took some risk. 00:16:01.980 --> 00:16:04.980 So my father had to hide that money. 00:16:04.980 --> 00:16:08.980 It took some challenges to do it. 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:15.980 We lived in a small apartment, small flat, in a communist block on the 12th floor. 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:18.980 Not many places to hide anything. 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:35.980 But I still remember rolled up dollar bills in a plastic bag, carefully placed by the little hands of my younger brother, under the bathtub in our tiny little apartment. 00:16:35.980 --> 00:16:42.980 These were the money that allowed my family to survive through this very difficult period. 00:16:42.980 --> 00:16:51.980 And only my brother, with his little tiny hand, could reach that real roll of green dollars there stored. 00:16:51.980 --> 00:16:54.980 Well, the point of my illustration is this. 00:16:54.980 --> 00:16:55.980 You would be a complete idiot. 00:16:55.980 --> 00:17:00.980 You would be a complete fool if you kept, if you could exchange your money to a different currency, 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:04.980 and yet decide to keep it in Polish Lotties at that time. 00:17:04.980 --> 00:17:09.980 Because this money would simply disappear in front of your eyes. 00:17:10.980 --> 00:17:17.980 People who did keep their money in Polish Lotties for whatever reason became angry, distressed and anxious. 00:17:17.980 --> 00:17:25.980 Just imagine one day having enough money to buy a weird looking communist car. 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:34.980 As we used to have those little post fiat types or other that sometimes you can see now as more as a joke. 00:17:34.980 --> 00:17:38.980 But imagine that you had enough money to buy a Trabant or whatever. 00:17:38.980 --> 00:17:40.980 Volga or Lada. 00:17:40.980 --> 00:17:47.980 If you were to buy from another communist country, one of their great products that would fall apart in a few years. 00:17:47.980 --> 00:17:49.980 But imagine you could. 00:17:49.980 --> 00:18:01.980 And then, a few months later, the same money would not be enough to do a decent grocery shopping. 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:11.980 No wonder why Jesus joined other voices in calling fools those who try to secure their own destiny in material possessions. 00:18:11.980 --> 00:18:14.980 But as we already said, Jesus does not stop here. 00:18:14.980 --> 00:18:18.980 He offers more than moralistic lessons. 00:18:18.980 --> 00:18:26.980 He proposes what I would like to call here a spiritual currency exchange. 00:18:26.980 --> 00:18:32.980 We live in Europe, still for a while here in the European Union, I guess. 00:18:32.980 --> 00:18:35.980 But we do a lot of currency exchanges. 00:18:35.980 --> 00:18:37.980 Poland is not on Euro. 00:18:37.980 --> 00:18:39.980 We exchange our money. 00:18:39.980 --> 00:18:51.980 This is pretty much every, if not every day, for some, every other month, a procedure that lots of us do who travel around the world or around Europe. 00:18:51.980 --> 00:18:58.980 Just like my father, who would take Polish lotties that were about to become worthless and exchange them for dollars. 00:18:58.980 --> 00:19:06.980 I think in a similar way, Christ invites us today to take our resources and invest in his kingdom. 00:19:06.980 --> 00:19:09.980 Well, you can say, how can I invest in his kingdom? 00:19:09.980 --> 00:19:13.980 Well, first by trusting him for the forgiveness of your sins. 00:19:13.980 --> 00:19:18.980 That is the best investment that you can make. 00:19:18.980 --> 00:19:21.980 That is where you have to begin. 00:19:21.980 --> 00:19:33.980 If you haven't trusted Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, no other investment will make any sense in God's kingdom unless you turn to Christ and you ask him to forgive your sins. 00:19:33.980 --> 00:19:44.980 And then when you do that, you have a safe place where for the rest of your life you can invest everything else you have. 00:19:44.980 --> 00:19:48.980 Serving him with all that you have. 00:19:48.980 --> 00:19:54.980 This spiritual currency exchange is a place where you can trade in your earthly goods. 00:19:54.980 --> 00:20:05.980 You can trade in money, education, your reputation, your stability, your time, your talents, your gifts, for something that is much more permanent. 00:20:05.980 --> 00:20:08.980 For something that is safe, eternal. 00:20:08.980 --> 00:20:09.980 And guess what? 00:20:09.980 --> 00:20:13.980 It is anxious free investment. 00:20:13.980 --> 00:20:22.980 I think the essence of what I call the spiritual currency exchange is very well expressed in verses 28 and 34. 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:25.980 And I will read them again. 00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:28.980 Because I think they really capture what we are trying to express here. 00:20:28.980 --> 00:20:40.980 But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you? 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:43.980 Oh, you of little faith. 00:20:43.980 --> 00:20:48.980 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:52.980 For all the nations of the world seek after these things. 00:20:52.980 --> 00:20:55.980 And your father knows that you need them. 00:20:55.980 --> 00:20:58.980 Instead, seek his kingdom. 00:20:58.980 --> 00:21:01.980 And these things will be added to you. 00:21:01.980 --> 00:21:06.980 Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 00:21:06.980 --> 00:21:10.980 Sell all your possessions and give to the needy. 00:21:10.980 --> 00:21:17.980 Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, 00:21:17.980 --> 00:21:20.980 where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 00:21:20.980 --> 00:21:27.980 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 00:21:27.980 --> 00:21:41.980 Reading these words, let us not make the mistake of using them as an excuse for some kind of quasi-communist principle against owning private property. 00:21:41.980 --> 00:21:46.980 Or a license for very careless living and not working hard. 00:21:46.980 --> 00:22:00.980 Or for, again, as the Roman Catholic Church sometimes would argue, a necessary vow of poverty to show your, how extremely spiritual and dedicated you are. 00:22:00.980 --> 00:22:05.980 This is not what these verses are talking about. 00:22:05.980 --> 00:22:12.980 Avoiding success will not prevent us from being greedy, anxious or foolish. 00:22:12.980 --> 00:22:23.980 Also, let us not think that we must be rich, smart, powerful or good-looking to deal with the issues brought in the passage we just read. 00:22:23.980 --> 00:22:31.980 Whoever we are, we are commanded to come before God and to trust Him with our future. 00:22:31.980 --> 00:22:37.980 Also, the resources, the talents the Lord gave us need careful evaluation. 00:22:37.980 --> 00:22:42.980 We need to ask ourselves, do we invest in the Kingdom of God? 00:22:42.980 --> 00:22:46.980 Or do we invest in something else? 00:22:46.980 --> 00:22:49.980 In what do we trust? 00:22:49.980 --> 00:22:56.980 What is the source of our temporary peace, stability and comfort? 00:22:56.980 --> 00:22:59.980 Is it God? 00:22:59.980 --> 00:23:02.980 Is it His Kingdom? 00:23:02.980 --> 00:23:04.980 Is it His Church? 00:23:04.980 --> 00:23:11.980 Christ's death on the cross atoned for our sin. 00:23:11.980 --> 00:23:17.980 And was also an example of how we are to live our lives. 00:23:17.980 --> 00:23:22.980 We as Christians, we call ourselves those who follow Christ. 00:23:23.980 --> 00:23:27.980 We don't only take His atonement and that's it. 00:23:27.980 --> 00:23:32.980 We take His atonement that took place on the cross for us. 00:23:32.980 --> 00:23:37.980 But we also pattern our lives after our Master. 00:23:38.980 --> 00:23:50.980 Jesus, by sacrificing His life, showed us how to be ready to invest all, all including life itself, for the sake of God's glory. 00:23:50.980 --> 00:24:00.980 This example has been followed by early Christian martyrs who died gladly for the sake of the Gospel. 00:24:00.980 --> 00:24:07.980 May we not miss the opportunity to seek first the Kingdom of God and to seek it today. 00:24:07.980 --> 00:24:30.980 May the Spirit of God give us strength to come to Christ, accepting His sacrifice for our sin and following His faithful example in our daily Christian lives. 00:24:30.980 --> 00:24:33.980 That's not an easy challenge. 00:24:33.980 --> 00:24:39.980 But that's the challenge that we all as Christians must consider. 00:24:39.980 --> 00:24:55.980 May I conclude this study of the passage that was in front of us with the words of comfort that come from Heidelberg Catechism. 00:24:55.980 --> 00:25:03.980 One of the catechism, one of the catechisms that we use in reform tradition coming from the Netherlands. 00:25:04.980 --> 00:25:14.980 And part of it, which was actually also inspired and taken from some of the things that the Polish reformer Jan Waski, 00:25:15.980 --> 00:25:21.980 who was pastoring churches in Emden, in Friesland, but also pastored strangers' churches in London. 00:25:21.980 --> 00:25:26.980 And as I said, during the Sunday school, back then these were called strangers' churches. 00:25:26.980 --> 00:25:33.980 I think if Jan Waski was here today, he would probably call them international or maybe refugee churches. 00:25:33.980 --> 00:25:40.980 But these churches were very, very much open and consisting of all sorts of people who came from all over Europe, 00:25:40.980 --> 00:25:44.980 where evangelical Christians and Protestant Christians were being persecuted. 00:25:44.980 --> 00:25:51.980 And he gave them a refuge here in London. 00:25:52.980 --> 00:26:01.980 But the Heidelberg Catechism, question one, question and answer two, gives us comforting words that are challenging, 00:26:01.980 --> 00:26:08.980 but also giving us comfort, telling us that if we take refuge in Christ, 00:26:08.980 --> 00:26:14.980 not only with our sins, but also with our future, He will give us rest. 00:26:14.980 --> 00:26:17.980 Let me read this. Some of you might know it. 00:26:17.980 --> 00:26:22.980 But here is what this confessional document teaches us. 00:26:22.980 --> 00:26:25.980 The question is, what is your comfort in life and in death? 00:26:25.980 --> 00:26:35.980 And the answer is, that I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:26:35.980 --> 00:26:43.980 He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. 00:26:43.980 --> 00:26:55.980 He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. 00:26:56.980 --> 00:27:05.980 In fact, all things must work together for my salvation, because I belong to Him. 00:27:05.980 --> 00:27:18.980 Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready, from now on, to live for Him. 00:27:18.980 --> 00:27:19.980 Amen.