Abolishing Anxiety, Part 10

It's great to have you with us once again on this Lord's Day as we worship our Lord together And although it's really not a worship kind of service, it's an opportunity for us to truly convey truth to you, and that's what we want to do We want to be able to make sure you understand what God has for you every single day and every single week of your life And so we're trying to expound on that truth so that you might understand it. I want to do so even more by answering some of your questions

Some of you might have some questions about what we're talking about on Sunday or Wednesday or maybe from your own personal study or about our church or things concerning this pandemic And if you want to ask us those questions, we would want you to ask us And so on our social media, on Instagram, on our website, and even on our Facebook, you can go to the comment section and write in there the question or just private message us so that we can get those questions and begin to answer them for you

Sometime next week, we'll let you know exactly when that day is, but we do want to answer your questions because we know that you probably have all kinds of things you're wondering about And so we'll take you back to the scripture and answer those questions In the meantime, we want to pray We want to pray that God does a great work, not just in our church, in your life at this point, but also in the life of our president, in the life of our governor and mayor, and those governors and mayors all around the country

We need to ask God to do a mighty work in their hearts and lives, save their souls first, and then do a mighty work through helping them understand the importance of church and opening churches up that people might be free to gather together and worship the Lord once again So if you're able, I'd ask you to join me on your knees as we approach the throne of grace Father God, we thank you once again for today And as we gather with our families in our living rooms, we had the great opportunity to be able to sit down with them and study God's word together

And our prayer, Lord, is that you do a mighty work in each family, that you'd stretch their hearts, cause them to see you, to depend upon you, to trust in you for these times Anticipating the day that we can get back together again and worship you, Lord, and sing praises to your name and gather together as a church is a fellowship and a partnership where we gather together to sing praises to our Lord, for we know that you inhabit the praises of your people We look forward to that day Until that time, we ask that you would continue to do a work in us individually as well as in our families

And we pray, Lord, for our president and our governors, our mayors all around this country, that Lord, you would work deeply in their hearts We know, Lord, that the heart of each individual is in your hand You turn it however you wish to turn it We are asking, Lord, that you would turn every governor's heart, every mayor's heart to the things of God, that they might understand your saving grace They might understand the need for the church to gather to worship your glorious name You can do that, Lord

And we're asking you to do it sooner rather than later, that we might be able to gather once again We also ask, Lord, that in the meantime, we would keep anticipating your return, looking for the day in which you will come to call us home to be with you, that we might rejoice in heaven for all eternity We ask, Lord, for those who might be listening for the first time today Maybe there's somebody who doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior We do pray for their salvation We pray that they would come to understand the saving grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord

And we pray, too, Lord, continually for the fathers who leave their homes, that they'd be the men, the men of God you want them to be, to be that bulwark and to be that shield for their families during this time of difficulty We ask, Lord, that you would continue to be with the different members of our church, some of them not feeling very well, some of them are anticipating, Lord, getting together again Some of them, Lord, are dealing with family members that they can't even see and visit because they're in long-term facilities

We pray for them, Lord, that you would give them the opportunity to gather once again together with their loved ones And so, Lord, on this day, as we open your truth once again, our prayer is that you'd open our eyes to see and to behold beautiful things out of your law In Jesus' name we ask, amen. I want to welcome you once again to our study, Abolishing Anxiety We have been doing this for the last two months, understanding what God has to say about how it is we are not to worry, we are not to fear, we are not to be anxious

Why? Because our key verse, Proverbs 12, 25, tells us that when anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, a good word, the good word, makes it glad And we're giving that good word to you, that good word of the gospel of Jesus Christ The psalmist said in Psalm 94, verse number 19, that when my anxious thoughts overwhelm me, when they consume me, it's like constellations that delight my soul That is just such a beautiful, beautiful verse We know that the word of God is a comfort The spirit of God is the comforter

So God will use his word to comfort our anxious souls, our fearful souls, that we might truly depend upon the living God And so we're giving you that good word week after week after week, helping you understand that these principles outlined in the scripture are designed to abolish anxiety We've told you that if you rest in God's sovereignty, it begins the process of abolishing that anxiety Rest in God's sovereignty Remember your responsibility, realize your dependency And then we said you need to regard your testimony, need to rejoice in his sufficiency, reflect upon your destiny

In the last week, it was reorder your priority Having done all that, having worked through those principles, you are ready now more than ever to radiate the Christ and his glory That's principle number eight, radiate the Christ and his glory You know, we've been designed to live for Christ We know that Isaiah 43, seven says that everyone has been created for his glory, and yet we have been created to live for him Paul said in Philippians 1, 21, for to me to live as Christ and to die as gain

He could say that because in second Corinthians five, 14 and 15, he tells us that Christ died and rose again so that we would no longer live for ourselves, but live for him The reason that Christ gave his life for you is so that you'd stop being selfish and live in sin and live for him So Paul could say for me to live as Christ and to die as gain And so in first Corinthians 10, verse number 31, he said, whether you eat or whether you drink, do all to the glory of Christ

Whether you're doing some of the most mundane things in all the world, such as eating and drinking, he chose those things because they are very low on our list of priorities Well, at least they should be, but we're eating and drinking So whatever you eat or however you eat and whatever you eat, do it for the glory of Christ Put them on display Can you honestly say that how you eat your meals is putting Christ on display? And how you drink, what you drink, are you putting Christ on display? He wants us to understand that in everything we do, we're to live for Christ because he died for us

He rose again on our behalf So we would no longer live for us, but live for him So we would learn what it means to put him on display, to glorify his name, to honor him above ourselves And so is it any wonder that in the book of Ephesians, the third chapter, Paul says these words, to him, be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever Ephesians three, verse number 21, to him, be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus from generation to generation forever and ever God is to be magnified God is to be put on display in his church

In other words, the glory of God is his name It is his attributes It is his character It's who he is And who he is, is to be manifested in the church To him, be the glory in the church So that the church itself, you and me, as we gather together, both individually, corporately and perpetually, we are to put God on display We are to put on display his grace and his mercy, his righteousness, his love, his wisdom, his knowledge We are to put Christ on display If we don't put him on display, we in essence are dishonoring his name

Back in the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, our Lord condemns those who don't put him on display, don't glorify his name Malachi chapter two, verse number one, and now this commandment is for you, oh priests, if you do not listen and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to my name or to glorify my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings and indeed I have cursed them already because you did or are not taking this to heart

First, the Lord God says, listen, you priests, you leaders, those of you who are to lead the people of Israel spiritually, lead them into a deeper knowledge of God, you're not doing that You're not honoring my name, you're not glorifying my name, you're not putting me on display And while Israel, if you heard me say this over the years, while Israel had a priesthood, you and I are a priesthood First Peter 2.9, we are called a royal priesthood Revelation 1.5-7, we are called a kingdom of priests So we, in essence, are the priesthood in the church age

We have direct access to God through his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord He is that mediator that allows us to enter into the presence of the living God What a great thing And we are to give him glory We are to honor his name That's what we do So let there be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, our Lord When the Bible says that the word of God became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, we beheld the beauty, we beheld the brilliance of all that God is And then in John 1 verse number 18 it says, he, the Christ, the word, explained God to us

He explained him by exemplifying everything that God is His whole life was to live to the glory and honor of his father And then in John chapter 17, at the end of his ministry, in the eve of the crucifixion, he prays this prayer Listen to this John 17 verse number 22, the glory which you have given me, the brilliance, the beauty that you have given me, I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me

Can you, can you even fathom that? The glory that you have given to me, the beauty that you have given to me, now I have given to them, your children, your disciples, my disciples, I have given to them So the whole world will know that you have sent me because my glory is now in them Isn't that what the Bible says in Colossians 1 27, Christ in you, the hope of glory, Christ is in us Second Peter 1 4, we are partakers of the divine nature

So the glory which you have given me, the Lord says, I have given to them that they might show forth the brilliance and the beauty of, of your nature, of your character, of all your attributes So the church will show forth your mercy So the church will show forth your grace, your righteousness, your truth How great is that? That's what the Lord has done And so as Christ manifested God in the flesh So now we, as the children of the living God, manifest the beauty of God every single day

As Christians, we are marked by the beauty we portray because that beauty is wrapped up in the glory that's within us because we're partakers of the divine nature And so there is a shining forth of God from us In fact, I've defined it this way The giving glory to God is when we as Christians radiate the righteousness of our Redeemer When we radiate His beauty, we are reflected or reflecting in and through us the redeemed In other words, we are reflecting the righteous radiance of our Redeemer because we've been redeemed We are living for Him because He died and rose again on our behalf

And as we live for Him, we are reflecting that glory that He's placed in us to the world that they might see the true and living God So we are either going to dishonor the Lord or we're going to honor the Lord We're either going to defame the name or we're going to magnify the name of the living God And so the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2, verse number 20, we are His workmanship We are His masterpiece We are the ones that are the literary masterpiece of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them

So by grace you've been saved through faith that none of yourselves is the gift of God, none of works that any man should boast, right? So we're saved by grace through faith, but we, having been saved, are a masterpiece of the master That He is working in and through us that we might portray the good works of the Lord to the world We're able to radiate the Christ and His glory, the Christ and His brilliance, the Christ and His beauty We are reflecting the righteous radiance of our Redeemer because we've been redeemed That's who we are That's why we live for Christ

That's why we no longer live for ourselves Is it not true that the heavens declare the glory of God, the splendor of God, the majesty of God? The heavens are manifesting the beauty of God's character, the beauty of His power, the beauty of His vastness, the beauty of His greatness, the beauty of Him Because Romans 1 tells us that the universe that God Himself has created is manifesting clearly the invisible attributes of God, so that man will learn about Him and glorify His name That's just a great thing

So if the heavens are declaring His beauty, how much more are we to declare that beauty who are created in the image of God and now recreated in that image through the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord? Very, very clearly this When the Master is manifested in and through His masterpiece, His magnificence is made known to the world When the Master is manifested in and through His masterpiece, His workmanship, His magnificence is made known to the world That's what it means to reflect the righteous radiance of His glory That's what we do That's who we are

What a great and marvelous responsibility You know, when the glory of the Lord departs, that means when Ichabod is written across the church or across someone's life, that means the beauty of God is no longer seen The brilliance of God is no longer shining forth And Paul says, let there be glory in the church Let the name of God be seen in the church, individually, when we come together corporately and from generation to generation perpetually, because when we get to heaven, what's going to happen? We're going to give praise and glory and honor to His name

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts And we will sing His praises and magnify His name perpetually So we're doing that now because we are His masterpiece We are His workmanship We've been created to do good works And what are those good works? It's putting God Himself on display, His attributes, showing to the world who our Lord is That's why we've named our church Christ Community Church Because this is Christ's church It's not my church or your church It's Christ's church So we named Him after Him It's Christ Community Church

So when the community comes together, we are to magnify the name of Christ We are to manifest the name of Christ because we are to minister in the name of Christ That's what we do You see, we need to ask ourselves the question, what's in a name? Because I'm afraid that today the church is seeking the applause of man more than it is the approval of God The modern day church is looking for the accolades that come from man instead of the wonderful praise that comes from the living God That's why we always wonder, what's in a name? Because so many churches today want to be fancy with their names

They want to be cool with their names They want to be relevant with their names And I've come to realize that those who have these fancy names have forgotten about their Father who has called them When I think about these churches that have cool names, I'm afraid that they have, for the most part, forgotten the Christ who was crucified for them And those who want to have relevant names, well, I'm afraid, for the most part, they have forgotten their Redeemer who has consecrated them Because they're so interested in what the world thinks of their name than what Christ thinks of the name

We live for Christ We name our church after Christ It's His church So when you're looking for a church, the first thing you ask is, what's the name of the church? Is the name focused on the Christ? Is it portraying the Christ? Is it proclaiming the Christ? Is it about His grace and His mercy? Is it about who He is? Because the church is designed to give Him glory, to manifest His beauty, to help others come to understand who He is How great is that? What a beautiful responsibility that God has given to us As Christians, we are marked by how it is we portray the name of Christ

That's why the Lord, when He prayed, the glory You've given Me, I have given to them So the whole world will know that You have sent Me So the whole world will know who I am And the only way they're going to know that is when the righteous radiance of our Redeemer is reflected in and through His redeemed We are to radiate the Christ and His glory We are to, as Ephesians 5 says, verse number 1 and verse number 2, we are to walk in love We are to be imitators of God and walk in love And so as a church, we are to manifest the love of Christ

He would go on later in Ephesians 5, verse number 8 says that we are children of light, therefore we are to walk in light We are to walk brightly We are to shine forth the beauty of the light He goes on later in Ephesians 5, verse number 15, that we are to walk wisely We are to walk in wisdom because our God is the God of wisdom We are to walk in wisdom because our God is light We are to walk in the light Because our Lord is love, we are to walk in love Earlier in Ephesians 4, we are to walk worthy of our calling in all humility, in patience, and in gentleness

So we are to walk humbly, gently, and patiently because that characterizes our God, you see? And so when Paul says, let there be glory in the church, and unto Christ Jesus our Lord, from generation to generation, forever and ever, he is saying, I want the world to be able to see the love of Christ, the wisdom of Christ, the knowledge of Christ, the humility of Christ As you walk in all these things, as you walk worthy of your calling, I want the world to see that So important And so I say that to you because if we're going to abolish anxiety, we have to radiate the Christ and His glory

Not just individually, but corporately as a church All of us together Which has drawn me to a certain conclusion, and I want to express that to you this morning You see, I've always said these words And I usually say them in couples' retreats, when we talk about family, and we talk about marriage, and I've said it many times over the years, and you'll recognize it if you've been a part of our church It says, when my rights are first, righteousness always suffers When my rights are first, righteousness always suffers

And we've always said that in the context of relationships, because we're always fighting for our rights Well, don't I as a wife, or don't I as a husband, or as a parent, don't I have rights? But if I'm fighting for my rights, I am not fighting for the righteousness of Christ Because if my rights become now first, am I truly living for the Christ? Am I truly honoring Him? And we've talked about that when it comes to marriages and families But take that same phrase and apply it to the church during this pandemic And ask yourself this question

If the church says, my rights are first, are we in danger of compromising the righteousness of Christ? Because there are a lot of churches going to open up this weekend, and many of them next weekend, to defy the orders of the governor, and the mayors of their cities And they have told them that they have decided to open up on this day, and if they don't go along with their proposal, they're going to open up anyway

And the question comes, is that the right thing to do? Is that what we should be doing? And people say, well, the Constitution says, in the very First Amendment, that we have religious freedom and religious liberty, and they can't constrain that with us We have rights We want to do what's right for us But is what's right for you portray the righteousness of Christ? That's what you have to ask That's what we as a leadership have asked ourselves over the last five weeks, as we have discussed this There's nobody who wants to open the doors to this church more than I do

There's nobody who wants the freedom of worship more than I do. I actually want to see your faces Not in your pajamas, okay, but in your Sunday best. I want to see your faces. I want to be able to look you in the eyes, and address you with the truth of God's word Gather together with the people of God, and honor God, and praise his name. I'm looking forward to that day, and nobody wants that more than I do

But is it about my rights? Am I willing to sacrifice the righteousness of Christ, so that my rights are fulfilled? That's a question that I have to ask, and you have to ask, and we as a church have to ask Our Lord said these words The book of Matthew, fifth chapter Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount Living like a child of the king Talked a little bit about that last week About the kingdom of God, and we are children of the kingdom And we follow our king And Christ said this, You have heard that it was said by the ancients of old, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth

But I say to you, do not resist an evil person But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also If anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your cloak also Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him too Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy But I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven

In other words, I want you to pray for those who persecute you. I want you to love your enemies, because when you do that, listen carefully, you are going to portray that you are sons of your Father in heaven The best way you can show to other people, that you have a Father in heaven, and you live in another kingdom, is to pray for those who are against you, pray for those who persecute you, and love your enemy

In other words, if you are fighting for your rights, is Christ's righteousness truly being portrayed? He goes on to say, He causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect In other words, you are to be just like your Heavenly Father You are to love your enemies

You are to pray for your persecutors You are willing to give your life away If we are to walk in love, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, we are to live not just lovingly, but sacrificially And when you're fighting for your rights, you've got to ask yourself, am I living sacrificially? Am I living lovingly? Am I radiating from my being the beautiful righteous character of my Redeemer? Am I glorifying the Lord? Am I putting Him on display? That's the question all of us have to ask

Listen, when you look at what's happening in our country, we all have to begin to realize none of us want to be called non-essential But the church has been deemed non-essential And yet liquor stores and places that sell marijuana and abortion clinics are essential And I take offense to that, and so do you And we should, because we are essential Those things that take life are essential, and those of us who give life are non-essential That's frustrating That irritates me It even angers me. I get so frustrated when I watch the news, and there's nothing else to watch

There's no baseball games or basketball games or football games unless I'm going to watch the old things, and I've already seen them. I know the results So I watch the news And when you hear these things, it's irritating to say that we are non-essential, but we are very much essential And none of us appreciates being treated like children, and yet during this pandemic, we are We're told, wash your hands We're told, wear a mask We're told, stand on this dot and don't stand on that dot because somebody else is on that dot

It's almost like we're in kindergarten again. I've been told to wash my hands more in the last two months than I had in the first eight years of my existence. I mean, washing your hands is just a normal thing to do That's what we do Do we actually have to be told to wash our hands? But they treat us like children That irritates me, and I get frustrated with that, and so do you But does that irritation give me the responsibility to go against the standards that have been passed down? I have to ask that question

You know, when you look at all the events that have taken place and realize that when all this happened, we locked down society We closed down our country, and we closed it down because we were told that we have to flatten the curve We have to Or hundreds of thousands of people are going to die So we locked down the state And sure enough, we flattened the curve But then, after we flattened the curve, they came back out and said, Now, here's the standard We have to make sure that we don't overrun our hospitals with people with the virus So we're going to keep you locked down

We're going to make sure that there's not a mass run on hospital beds We're going to run out of beds So they changed the standard, and they never ran out of beds In fact, we sent the ship Mercy to the west coast and the ship Comfort to the east coast, and of the thousand beds on both of those ships, 77 beds were filled on the west coast, and 182 beds were filled on the east coast Nowhere near what they said In fact, our government built 17 field hospitals Of the 17 field hospitals, seven were never, ever used, and they had thousands of beds

And of the other 10 that were built, a fraction of those beds were used So when they realized that, they said, Okay, now the standard is we've got to have more ventilators And I'm scratching my head, and you're scratching your head, thinking, Hey, wait a minute What is the standard? Why are we continually being locked down? It was to flatten the curve We flattened the curve It was to make sure that there were enough hospital beds Well, there's clearly enough hospital beds Well, now it's we need more ventilators And the next thing you know, we make all these ventilators

Now we have more than we need We have one state shipping them to another state And then it was like, Well, okay, now we need to make sure, and I wrote all these things down. I took a picture of them on my TV Now we need to make sure that there are more tests available You're going to stay locked down until there are more tests And then it was, Now you're going to stay locked down until there's a vaccine. A vaccine You know, it took four years to get a vaccine for the mumps Four years We have a vaccine for the flu And yet 30,000 to 60,000 people die every year because of the flu

So when you get a vaccine, people are still going to die, unfortunately And so it went from that to, Now we need hundreds of thousands of tracers and trackers before we can let you out And now even our own mayor said, Until there's a cure, nothing will ever be like it was So what is it? The goalposts keep moving further and further back Because you see, at the core of this, it's not medical It's political It was medical It started out that way But it became very quickly political And how do we know that? How do we understand that? Let me give you one illustration

And I say this to show you how irritated we are and how we say, You know what? Our rights need to be first And so we're going to fight for our constitutional right And we're going to open the church no matter what But is that the right thing to do? If I was to tell you there's one thing, there's one thing that's causing 1,300 deaths daily, would you do everything you could to stop it? Sure you would If 1,300 people died every single day because of one particular act, we'd stop it

That means that 480,000 people, close to a half a million people die every year, every year in our country, and we have done nothing to stop it Nothing And yet you would think, because we are concerned about people's health, we would do all we could to save a half a million people a year If I told you that this one thing killed more people in one year than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, suicides, murders, and illegal drugs altogether, if this one thing killed more people in one year than all those six things together, would you do all you could to stop it? Of course you would So would I

But we're not Because that one thing that kills 1,300 people a day and almost a half a million people a year, every year, is tobacco Tobacco Look it up Fact check that one. 480,000 people die a year because of tobacco You say, well, you can't compare that with the virus And I like it when people say that because, you know what, they're always comparing the virus in New York with 9-11 and how many people die So yes, you can compare the two Because of the 480,000, 41,000 of those 480,000 die because of secondhand smoke

Secondhand smoke. 41,000. I remember growing up and getting on airplanes, and those of you who are my age and beyond, you recognize this, that there was a non-smoking section and a smoking section on the airplane How do you do that? So you close the curtain, and the back section is a smoking section and the front section is a non-smoking section, but yet that secondhand smoke is still going to get over into the other section It was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard of They finally banned smoking from airplanes and from restaurants and from certain places, they've banned smoking

But you can still go into a store and say, I'd like to purchase a pack of death, please. A pack of what? A pack of death Because cigarettes kill you And so we are actually selling death to people We are actually condoning the selling of death Can I have a pack of death, please? Sure Hey, happy death day That's exactly what we do You see, this whole thing is not medical, it's political And that irritates us, and rightly so But does that mean that I can put my rights over the righteousness of Christ? That's the question you and I have to ask

You see, there are all these rules, all the things that we can't do You can't go here, you can't go there. I thought it was really funny when Mayor Garcetti says that you can't stand on the dry sand, but you can stand on the wet sand What? How did he come up with that? And so now you can walk on the sand, but you can't sit on the sand. I mean, you can go to the beach, but you can't park at the beach because we closed the parking lot And so there are so many things that you can't do, and they become so ridiculous

But if you're consumed with the many things you can't do, you'll be anxious, you'll be worried, you'll be frustrated, you'll get angry But if you are consumed with the one thing you can do, you'll abolish all that anxiety and that frustration And what's the one thing you can do? The one thing you can do is reflect the righteous radiance of your Redeemer You can glorify the name of Christ You can magnify his name You can put him on display You can put his love on display, his mercy on display, his grace on display, his forgiveness on display You can overcome evil with good

Isn't that what Paul says in the book of Romans? He says these words He says, If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men Are you doing everything you can to be at peace with all men? Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord But if your enemy is hungry, feed him If he is thirsty, give him a drink For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good Wow Overcome evil with good

How do we best do that? By being consumed with the one thing you have total control over The one thing you can do, and that is to magnify the name of your God in that situation That's the one thing you have complete and total control over It's the only thing, by the way, and I'll explain this to you next week It's the only thing you have control over Nothing else For you choose to put God on display Having said that, the leadership of your church is going to realize that we want to put God on display in this community We want to put God as leaders on display for those in our church

And because our church isn't being persecuted, we're not being thrown into prison, we're not being beaten because we preach the gospel We've been asked not to meet because of the medical issues, and whether true or not, we can debate that forever, right? But we've been asked not to meet for that purpose So we want to honor that We want to honor the Lord by honoring those who are in authority over us We want to glorify the name of Christ We want to put them on display We want to love, for lack of a better phrase, our enemies Pray for them Asking God to do a work in them

You know, as I was preparing this week, I realized, do you remember that last miracle that Jesus performed before his death and resurrection? The very last miracle he performed in his earthly ministry The very last miracle was the least of all his miracles You'd think that the best would be saved for last But it was the least of all his miracles The last miracle was the least of all his miracles And yet, on the other hand, it was the largest of all miracles Because it was the loudest of all miracles What was that, you ask? John chapter 18

When Peter would take his sword and cut off the earlobe of the high priest's servant's ear His name was Malchus And Christ would touch and heal the high priest's servant's ear Could he live without his earlobe? Sure Would it make that big a difference? No That's why it's the least of all the miracles Not like healing a blind person, causing a lame person to walk, raising somebody for the dead, walking on water He healed the earlobe of Malchus The least of all the miracles was the largest of all the miracles Because it was the loudest of all miracles

Because of the one who said, love your enemies, he loved them to the very, very end What a powerful testimony That's what we want to reflect That's the compassion and joy and mercy we want to portray That's what it means to reveal the Christ and his glory When you do that, you abolish all anxiety Because of all the things you can't do, there's one thing you can do And that's put God on display And that's what we want you to do That's what we want to do as a church And may God give us the grace to do so Let me pray Father, thank you for this great and glorious day

Another opportunity that you've given to us to look into the word of God We pray that the spirit of God would convict us and challenge us and move us in the way of righteousness That as a church, we'd be consumed with you and your glory In Jesus' name we pray, amen Thank you so much for joining us today We trust that this is the best week ever in your life And may God go with you as you glorify his name Thank you so much.