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Worthy of praise, worthy of glory,
so I'll bless His name and His mercies are new every day. With all of my heart, soul, and
strength I will say, God is worthy, worthy of praise. With all of
my heart, soul, and strength I will say, God is worthy, worthy of praise. Thank you for joining us this
morning. If you would stand we'll continue with our song service Ephesians
chapter 6 verse 11 says put on the whole armor of God that you
may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil where
we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities
against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world
against spiritual wickedness in high places Wherefore take
unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day and having done all to stand Good to be in the
Lord's house today. Look forward to seeing what the
Lord has for us Richard. Would you open us in order prayer? Amen, please join us in singing
hymn number 259, Jesus Sings. ♪ Good, good, good is our good
Jesus said, Jesus said ♪ Good, good, good is our good Jesus
said, Jesus said ♪ Good, good, good is our good Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave We will love and try, day to
day, day to day, day to day, day to day, day to day. Sing in triumph, O God the King!
Jesus reigns! Jesus reigns! Amen. Thank you. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that's in me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, Oh my soul. And forget not all his benefits. And forget not all his benefits. ♪ Oh my soul ♪ And all that's in
me bless his holy name ♪ Bless the Lord ♪ Oh my soul ♪ And forget
not all his benefits ♪ And forget not all His benedicts
♪ ♪ Who redeems, who restores ♪ ♪ Who renews your youth like
the eagle soars ♪ ♪ Who forgives, who forgives ♪ an an an High as the heavens, far above
the earth, so great is Him as the Lord goes to give Him. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. So far as the east
is from the west, so far as He ♪ Oh my soul ♪ ♪ I ask the heavens
for help us see it ♪ ♪ It's the greatest thing I've done for
those who hear it ♪ ♪ Bless the Lord, bless the Lord, oh my soul
♪ ♪ Oh I will bless his holy name for he is good ♪ Bless the Lord, O my soul, that
I may bless His holy name, for He is good. who renews your youth like the
eagle's soars, who forgives every sin, who is raising us to new
life again. Oh, my soul. My soul will bless the Lord. We'll sing hymn number 264 once
for all. But for us, never receiving,
but for all, rather believing, until at last the people know, Christ shall redeem us once and for all. ♪ Oh, brother, believe in him ♪
♪ Only the cross shall bear him no doubt ♪ ♪ Rejuvenate us once
more, oh God ♪ ♪ Children of God, all glory is thine ♪ ♪ Shedding
its grace, we are free ♪ Amen. Please remain standing
as we go to the Lord in prayer for our offering today. Father, I would you pray for
us. We thank you today for the privilege
of opening your precious word, studying it, and having it move
your heart. I'm positive to bless this time
together, our singing, and the joy of our fellowship. In Jesus' name we ask for the
amen. And I think you may be seated. you I have sung Amazing Grace since
I was just a child. And I've joined in on it as well
at least a thousand times. And singing Jesus loves me is
a precious memory. And I remember where, just as
I am, first brought me to my knees. Oh, but here I am, surrounded
by some things I can't explain. But the truth is still the truth. in the moments my heart breaks. If I could sing it then, I can
sing it now. Cause who he was is who he is
beyond the shadow of a doubt. I might be standing in the darkness
with trouble all around. But if I can sing it then, I
can still sing it now. It's not always easy to join
those melodies, but how sweetly they remind me of what I still
believe. A voice that's raised in times
like these may be the truest praise, because I've never been
forsaken, and that will never change. And if I could sing it
then, I can sing it now ♪ Who's who he was, who's who he
is ♪ ♪ Beyond the shadow of a doubt ♪ ♪ I might be standing in the
darkness ♪ ♪ With trouble all around ♪ ♪ But if I could sing
it then ♪ ♪ I can still sing it now ♪ ♪ Great is thy faithfulness
♪ A mighty fortress is our God
Standing on the promised land Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. And if I could sing it then,
I can sing it now. It's who he was, it's who he
is, beyond the shadow of a doubt. I might be standing in the darkness,
with trouble all around. But if I could sing it then If
I could sing it then I can still sing it now Amazing grace, how
sweet the sound If you would stand once again,
we'll sing hymn number 248, How I Belong to Jesus. Now I belong to Him. Now I belong
to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. One side was lost in sin's defamation,
Jesus came down to bring me salvation. Now I belong to Him. Now I belong
to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Now I belong to Him. Now I belong
to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Once again, you may be seated. A thousand sparkling stars upon
the midnight summer sky. The majesty and wonder of the
oceans in this tide. And the more I see, the more
I care. How the one who set the world
in place Could even know my name And I'm amazed, I'm so amazed
How great you are, how small I am How awesome is your mighty
hand And I am captured by the wonder of it all And I will offer
all my praise With all my heart for all my days How great you
are How great you are How great you are A million snowflakes gently fall,
yet no two are the same. The colors fill the canvas of
the seasons as they change. And everywhere I look, I see
your hand. Why you would love someone like
me I'll never understand And I'm amazed, I'm so amazed How
great you are, how small I am How awesome is your mighty hand
And I am captured by the wonder of it all. And I will offer all my praise
with all my heart for all my days. How great you are. How great you are. How great
you are. How great you are. How small
I am. How awesome is your mighty hand. And I am captured by the wonder
of it all. And I will offer all my praise
with all my heart for all my days. How great you are How great
you are How great you are How great you are How great you are Amen. It's good to be in the
Lord's house today and to have each one of you with us. If you
would take your Bibles turn to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter
8. Jared that just sang for us will
be preaching this afternoon. He is headed off to summer intern. Jared is a Bible college student.
He's headed off to summer intern in Chicago. And so pray for his
safety as he's there in the big city of Chicago. And it's really
a great opportunity to grow in the Lord. We had a grandson that
served up there a couple of years ago, had a great time, so pray
for him. And just ask the Lord, just lead
in his life and develop him and use him while he's there. Romans
chapter eight. If you found that, you can stand
with me in reverence to the reading of the word of God. Begin reading in verse number
31. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? I don't know if you underline
your Bible, but that's a good verse to have underlined, amen?
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again. who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. I'd love to preach there
about a week and a half. I'm so thankful for someone who
intercedes for me. I need a lot, okay? Verse 35, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we love
you today, and we thank you for the wonderful opportunity that
is ours to be gathered together here in this place and worship
you. We're thankful that you are the
great, holy, awesome God, that you are the only one, and Lord,
that you are worthy of our worship and praise. Lord, I thank you
that we hold your word in our hand, not a book of suggestions,
not necessarily a book of rules, but a book of life, a book that
you've given us for us to live our lives after, to pattern ourselves
after, that we might find ourselves faithful to the end. Lord, we
pray that you would meet with us today, that the Holy Spirit
would have power and freedom to move in our lives and our
hearts so that you might be honored and glorified through the preaching
of your word here this morning, that your will might be accomplished
in our lives, that we might leave here walking and serving you
in a better way than when we came. We thank you for your goodness
and your love. We ask these things in your blessed
and most holy name. And all the people said, you
may be seated. So I entitled this message, Who,
What, and Why? Who, What, and Why? And I love
all the verses involved in this portion of scripture, but there's
one that just kind of stood out to me that really is what I'm
developing here this morning, and it's verse number 35. As
we read verse number 35, it says, who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? I don't know about you, but it
doesn't make sense to me. That verse leaves me scratching
my head. Look at it real close, because
it starts out, who shall separate us? But then when he gets past
making statement from the love of Christ, there's tribulation,
that's not a who. There's distress, that's not
a who. There's persecution, that's not
a who. So it left me scratching my head,
so that's how we develop our sermon today. You scratch your
head for a little bit, we'll see how it comes out, okay? When
we think about this who, John Gill writes this, a great Baptist
author from the 1600s, I believe, he wrote this. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? By the love of Christ is not
meant the saint's love to Christ, okay? So we're not talking about
our love to Christ, but we're talking about his love to us. Hallelujah, I'm thankful that
God loves me, amen? He is indeed the object of their
love, and so strong is their love to him that it can never
be destroyed. For though there may be an abatement
in the fervor of it, it can never be lost. Yet this is never called
the love of Christ because the apostle is speaking not of their
love to Christ, but of the love of God and Christ to them throughout
the context. Now the reason I want to make
that point is quite simply this, of course our theme this year
is Love God More, and why should we love God more? Because He
first loved us. He loved me while I was in my
sin. He loved you while you were in
your sin. He loves mankind today, even
in their sin, he loves them. He is not willing that any should
perish, but all should come to the saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ. Our great Savior, our great God loved us and cared
for us, and he still loves us and cares for us. No raising
of hands, but just think about this for a moment. Has there
been a time in your life that you've done something that was
sinful after salvation, and maybe it was so bad that you thought
to yourself, how could God still love me? Boy, I know I have. There have been times I had sin
in my life and I had already accepted Christ as my Lord and
Savior and I was thankful that I was saved, but Satan likes
to come along and likes to whisper, so are you still saved? How can
a saved man do that? How can a saved person be involved
in that? Well, you know the great thing
about being saved is it's not up to me, it's up to him. He loved me. And when I accepted
him as my Lord and Savior, he took all of me. He knew I was
broken. He knew I was hurting. He knew
I would fail, and yet he took me, and he loved me, and he cared
for me. In raising children, my wife and I, we raised three
boys. It was a great trial, okay? There's no way around it. You
know, raising three boys, each one of them different, each one
brought to the table their own needs, okay? Their own issues
and their own troubles. I, well, I have very little for,
we'll just leave some of that alone. In raising our boys, there
were some things that they would be involved in that I would have
to tell them, that's wrong, you need to go apologize that. But
I always told my boys this, it didn't really matter what you
did, I would always love you. I would always love you. It's
not based, my love for my sons is not based on how they live
their life. I never looked at them and said,
OK, you're this close. One more thing, and you're out
of love. I'm done. I've exhausted my love
for you. I think a true parent loves unconditionally. And I love my sons. And there
would be points that they would take it to the edge. And I'd
be like, OK, let's stop. Let's reel that back. Let's start
over. And there were times that things
had to be done, punishments had to be given, the restrictions
had to be implemented, but the whole time I still loved them,
and I love them today. So it is with our great Savior,
but His love far exceeds my love. As I love my children and I care
for them, and I want God's best for them, and I want them to
exceed, I want them to have the very best of everything, I realize
that God loves me even more than I could love my own children.
Praise God for that, amen. He loves me when I'm unlovable.
He loves me when no one else would have time for me or care
for me. God loves me. So good to be able to wake up
and know that God loves me and he's there to forgive me and
he's there to help me grow in him. And so the emphasis here
is on Christ's love and the fact that his love is not changing. It doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't
matter where we're at. He loves us, okay? So then I
come up with point number two, and that's what? Because the
rest of the verse is not whose, it's what's. There we read shall
tribulation. So it says who shall separate
us from the love of God? And then we get a what. Will
tribulation cause us not to love God? Have you ever had tribulation
in your life? Trying, one of the writers I
was reading after said, you might say affliction. Has affliction
ever come in your life? And you wondered and you thought
to yourself, where's God in the midst of all this? Has affliction
or trials come into your life? And rather than run to God, you
run to yourself. You try to figure out answers
and then you finally come to an end of yourself and you run
to God with it. Back in 2020, when my wife encountered
cancer, we ran to God with it. It was a tribulation. It's really
sad. Through the years, I've watched
different Christian people come to tribulation in their life,
and they give up on God. It's kind of like, well, if that's
the way God's gonna treat me, I'm gonna back away. Listen,
whenever you'd find yourself in any of these what's, that's
when you need to embrace him more. That's when you need God
more in your life than ever before. And so when affliction comes,
the truth is that we ought to run to Him. We ought to hug Him.
We ought to hold on to Him. Say, you got any examples of
that? Sure. How about the Apostle Paul? The Apostle Paul suffered
many things and even had a thorn in his life of ministry, but
he still served God. Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians
12 in verse number seven, unless I should be exalted above measure
through the abundance of revelations that was given to me, a thorn
in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should
be exalted above measure. And so Paul knew what it was
like to battle with a tribulation. How about the next one, the word
distress? Whether it be a body or soul,
distress can come in one, two ways. It can be a distress of
the body or it can be a distress of the soul. We might say it's
kind of like the circumstances of life. So what if you're born
into a poor family? traveled the world, I've seen
Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines, and Australia, and I realized
that not everybody's born into the same class of family as far
as financial being. I've been in Papua New Guinea,
and the middle of grass huts, and people living with dirt floors,
and very crude furniture, and yet they're happy in the Lord.
And you might say, man, that's just too much distress for me.
My wife likes a little distressed furniture in the house. Raising
three boys, you naturally get some distressed furniture in
the house, amen? I'm talking about people who
have nothing. What if you had been born with nothing? Could
you find the happiness in the Lord? Better yet, let's reverse
the table and let's put it this way. Let's say that something
happened in America and tomorrow we all woke up broke. with nothing. The leadership's not gonna be
able to provide you much, and so you have absolutely nothing.
Would you still be happy to be a Christian? Would you still
say, wow, man, I'm glad I'm saved? Listen, that's what oughta be
the best, right? Let's say we're all reduced to
living in grass huts tomorrow. Man, can you imagine what a mansion
would look like? If you lived in a grass hut,
probably the homes you live in, the people in the grass huts
would think were mansions. Sometimes I think it's good for
us just to stop and really clear the air and think about, let
me not just deal with this life from where I live in America
today and all the wealth that surrounds me. Let me just think
back to if I had nothing, absolutely nothing. If everything that I
had was taken from me tomorrow, if I had been born in a third
world country, or if I lost everything, if I lived in a country that
was at war, what a horrible thing to think about. What if we were
just trying to survive? What if we would huddle up our
kids and we're trying to make it someplace safer? Well, I heard
if we can get to Colorado, you know, we can get out there and
they've got food. Let's get our family and let's
head to Colorado. But we don't have a car to drive.
We're gonna have to walk. And we're gonna have to be careful
of all the people that we interact with as we're making that trip.
You see what I'm saying? It's that, where do we really
put our trust and where do we put our faith? Do I put it in
the credit card that's in my pocket? Do I put it in the money
that's in my hand? Or do I put my faith, my trust
in God? When distress come and it will
come, who do you turn to? Maybe it's stress and anxiety.
Maybe it's a loss of a loved one, a very unexpected loss of
a loved one. Who are you gonna trust? Who
are you gonna turn to? I've been so thankful and so
glad to watch as Laurie's walked through this difficult time in
her life and she just trusted God. And she just keeps trusting
God. Where do we turn? Well, there's
only one place to turn, and God is the answer. God is the one
to turn to. Remember, God's grace is always
there for our help. He loves us, and he abides faithful. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy
2.13, if we believe not, yet he abided faithful. He cannot
deny himself. Revelations 21 5 says, And he
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. I'm so thankful for the fact
in the middle of distress that God is there to be our help.
How about persecution? Talking about what's? Would persecution
push you away from loving God? Would persecution bring you to
the fact that you'd say, I'm done, God, that's it, it's over? Persecution from the world? Man,
I feel sorry for Harrison Buckner, the kicker for the Chiefs. He
stood up and said good, right things. And now everybody's,
they've even got one of those things that you sign, a petition.
to get rid of our kicker. Is that like the stupidest thing
in the world? A man cannot hire someone to
work for him without others telling him, oh no, you need to fire
him. That's the dumbest thing in the world. But can I tell
you that's where we're at? Oh, let me give you just a little
bit more. That is where we're headed. They want a silent truth. They want a silent morality. Now, I'm telling you, if you
were knocking the gay agenda or some of that over there, oh,
there'd be a big furor, and half the world would stand up with
him. But you get a guy that's talking about, we need men to
be men, and ladies to be ladies, and all those kind of things.
Oh, how dare he? Why would the NFL? You know what
I liked? That his jersey sells. They're
out of them. They're out of them. It just
tickles me pink. My wife said, you need to go
order one. Yeah, well, they already have them, so I can put my $80
in my pocket and, you know, it's still good. What about persecution? What
about, what about persecution? I hold before you one of my friends.
This friend is very old. He's older than any of you. That's
how old my friend is. My friend here was written in
1837. It's called A Universal History of Christian Martyrdom. being a complete and authentic
account of the lives, sufferings, and triumphant deaths of the
primitive as well as the Protestant martyrs in all parts of the world
from the birth of the blessed Savior to the latest periods
of pagan and Catholic persecution. I didn't write that, it's right
here. It was written in 1837. together with a summary of doctrines,
prejudice, blasphemes, and superstitions of the modern Church of Rome,
written by John Fox, 1837. And in this book, you'll find
story after story, and most of it, my wife's very squeamish,
she wouldn't want to listen to me read about it. Men and women
who paid for their love for God with their life and they were
persecuted unto death. Skin flayed off of their bodies.
Families butchered in front of them. They butchered to the point
of death. I'm telling you, it costs Christians
a lot in the old time to serve God. It doesn't cost us much
today, but that doesn't mean before our life's over that we
won't see it again. If, let's say next year, they
started persecuting everyone who's named the name of Christ,
and they start locking you up, and they begin to take all your
stuff. and they begin to beat you and mistreat you, and then
they would get to the point in a few years where they would
actually take your life from you. How many would recount?
How many of us here today would be in the new Fox's Book of Martyrs,
say five years from now? Question, would that persecution
stop you from loving Christ? That's the point he's making.
Would that persecution stop us from loving him? How about famine? You can tell I like to eat. But
if there was no food to eat, would that cause me to stop loving
God? I would sure hope not. Would
lack of food cause you to quit loving the Lord? You know, food
is a necessity of life, so is water. What if the great hunger
and great thirst would hit our land? Then we would have to just
eke out an existence. Would that cause us to quit loving
God? How about nakedness? You know, you all look very nice
today. You clean up rather well. You look very good, you would
be commended. But could you imagine not having enough to wear? Now
the sad thing is I walk in my closet and I see my section,
I turn around and see my wife's section, and I'm like, it'd take
us a while to wear all these clothes if we threw them away
after we wore them, you know what I mean? But let's say that you walked
in your closet and you had two items, only two, you had no more. And you had to wear those day
after day after day. Cleaning them as you can, but
putting them back on, wearing them day after day. And you scrounge
around, and you find maybe someone who passes away, and you go,
oh, he was my size. He has this shirt. It's got a
hole here and a hole here. I can sew that here and sew that
here. I'll wear that. and here, and there, and you're
wearing threadbare clothes. Some of you know what I'm talking
about, because you grew up that way, didn't you? How many of you grew
up with patches on your knees? Man, I'm telling you, that's
living. I had blue jeans, and you know, you get a pair that
lasts maybe a year, because you grew so fast. And so you'd get
holes in them. My mom had those iron-on patches,
and she'd put them on there, and she'd iron them on. Then
they'd get like halfway off, and then she'd sew them on. I'm
telling you, we weren't looking broke to be cool. I wish I had all my clothes from
when I was a kid. I could make a lot of money selling
them today. Oh, those are so cool. Those
are relics, you know? Have you ever been so cold that
you can't put enough clothes on to get warm? That's what we're
talking about. Would nakedness cause you to
walk away from God? Would nakedness cause you to
push him away? I couldn't help but think of
John the Baptist. Mark chapter one verse number
six describes John the Baptist this way. He says, and John was
clothed with camel's hair and with a girdle of skin about his
loins, and he did eat locusts and wild honey. And I'm thinking,
oh, gross. Can you imagine having camel
hair or a jacket? Hey, look at me, man, I got this
leather jacket. Yeah, it's got camel hair on
it. Probably got like sand mites
all in it. And the smell, have you ever
smelled like a wet dog and he comes in the house? Oh, we're pretty blessed. How about peril? dangers from
people and from ways. Paul knew what it was like to
live in danger. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, starting
in verse number 23, and he says, and the ministers of Christ,
I speak as a fool, I am more, in labors more abundantly, in
stripes above measures, in prisons more frequently, in deaths off. Of the Jews five times received
I 40 stripes, save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods,
Once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck. You know, I gotta
go back here for a minute. So they beat him with a whip 39 times, and they stop. Now he's got all these scars
on his back because of what, they did it five times? And then
they beat him with rods three more times. Can you imagine how
good that feels on the scars that are on your back? Can you
imagine what they thought when they said, Paul, you're going
to be beaten with rods? He said, well, you've done it
before. You might as well do it again. And they pull his shirt
off, and it's nothing but scars everywhere. I got a scar right here. When I was 16 years old, I was
cleaning a slicer at work, and I didn't keep the guard down.
And it grabbed the towel out of my hand and right into the
blade. And I don't know, it's like five
or six stitches. Anybody feel sorry for me? Thanks,
Gary. He's sitting there going, nope,
not at all. This is nothing compared to what Paul went through. Can you imagine getting in heaven?
Oh man, it cost me so much to serve God. I had to buy like
$3.50 gas to go to church, man. It really cost me to serve God.
And Paul goes, talk to the back, buddy. Talk to the back. How about swords? Swords are
uncommon in America, but we'll just say guns, planes, bombs. As it says there in verse number
six, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day
long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But what about
the what's? Would the what's stop you from
serving God? Let's look at the why. Verse
37, nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. So here's our answer. So should
I ditch God because of tribulation? Should I ditch him because of
peril? Could I ditch him because of sword? Should I ditch him
because of persecution? And the writer comes out very
boldly and he says, no! Nay, in all these things, we,
we are conquerors through him. Wait a minute, you mean if I
go through distress and I trust God, I'm a conqueror? Oh yeah,
baby. I go through persecutions, even
to the point of it costing my life, and I'm a conqueror? Oh yes, oh yes. See, here's the
sad part, Christian friend, is too many of us, we're living
our lives for here. For here. Maybe 70, 80 years, 90 years
if you're lucky, or here. But this is a drop in the bucket
to there. Eternity. My simple mind has
such a hard time grasping it. I just know it goes on and on
and on and on and on and on. And here's the great thing. It's
not going to hinge upon anything that this world has to do. So
I'm not going to be tied down to some government. I'm not going
to be tied down to lust. I'm not going to be tied down
to lying. I'm not going to be tied down to bitterness. I'm
not going to be tied down to unforgiveness. I'm not going
to be tied down to gossiping. I'm not going to be tied down
to slander. All those things are gone. He is the light of
eternity, and I'm going to spend it with him. And I'm telling
you, it's going to be the most wonderful thing. I'm not worried
about here. Here is just an investment to
make sure that I'm ready for there. Are you ready? Are you ready? Notice what he
goes on and says, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor death, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ our Lord. Think about this once again. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Well, I think the answer is this.
I'm the only one that can separate me from his love. You say, oh
no, no, the devil made me do it. No, no, no, it was my choice.
No, no, no, it was the spouse that God gave me. No, no, no,
it's still my choice. Who can separate us from the
love of Christ? And the answer is only you. Only you. Can I challenge you
with this? Love him more. Think of all he's
done for you. And think of the fact, no matter
what happens to you, if you'll just trust him, he'll use it
to magnify himself and to glorify himself, and we're gonna spend
an eternity with him, and he always, always, always loves
us. So shouldn't we love him more?
Sure. Every day I wake up, I say, God,
I wanna love you more. Every time a hardship comes into
my life, I say, God, thank you. I don't understand it. It's difficult,
it's hard. I know it will make me more like
you. It'll make me in the image you want me to be. But most of
all, God, I know that you feel like you can trust me at that,
so I love you more. Thanks for thinking I'm worthy
of that. Thanks for trusting me with that
thing in my life. Now, if you've never accepted
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, all this really means
nothing, because you've never made it past the step of saying,
I need Jesus to forgive me of my sins and to be my Savior. He loves you. The Bible tells
us, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten son. Romans 5.8, but God commendeth
his love toward us. And while we were yet sinners,
Christ died. Jesus wants to save you today.
Listen, if you're not saved, you need to get saved today.
And if you are, you need to fall in love with Jesus. Quit loving
you. Quit loving you, quit loving
the world, start loving him. Start loving him. Lord, we love
you today. Thank you, thank you, thank you
for your great love for us. Lord, I pray that if there be
one here that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, I pray
today that they might come, let's take a Bible, share with them
from the word of God how they can know that they're saved on
their way to heaven. Lord, I pray for Christians today. I pray
it'd be our desire to live for you, to take all that comes into
our life, to funnel it back, to rely upon you, to help those
items that come into our life, to mold us to be more like you,
and God, that we would love you more as a result of it. Make
us in your image. Help us to walk with you and
to serve you in all we do. We love you and we ask these
things in your blessed and most holy name. Amen. Would you stand
with me today? Piano's playing. We're going
to have a verse of invitation of God spoken to your heart.
We'd encourage you to come whatever your need. Would you come, Brother
Foster, if you would? Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Hold me and make me after thy
death. Search me and drive me, Master,
today. Lighter than stone, watch me
just now, as in thy Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Clothed and weary, help me, I
pray. Power of God. is God. Touch me and heal me, Savior
divine. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Hold, Lord, my need. Good to be in the Lord's house today. Brother Potts with our announcements. All right, say congratulations
to one graduate coming up will be Madeline Fry. Camp meeting
immediately after afternoon service with Brother Lalo right here
in this corner, so afternoon service. A special speaker next
week, Brother Dave McCracken will be preaching for us on Sunday,
May the 26th. Got a youth rally coming up at
South Noelwood Baptist Church on Friday, May 31st. Cost is
$10 per teen, which will include food. Please have your teens
at the church by 5 p.m. and should return between 11
and 11.30 p.m. that evening. Camp's coming up
on June 2nd through the 7th. Camp fees are $175 per child. That's due today. Wow. Due today. Our kids. Coffee sales are done. Workday. Coming up on Saturday
June 8th from 9 a.m. till noon. If it rains out we'll
have a backup date of June 15th. For workday. Baby shower for
Morgan Foster coming up here at the church on Saturday June
8th. A.M. Vacation Bible School will be
July 14th through the 17th. Theme is gonna be Wild Live.
Stay tuned for more information on that. And then YouthCon coming
up on July 30th through August the 2nd. More information to
come. Then there's a wedding tonight,
yes? Yes? Yeah? All right, Ethan Purcell
is gonna get married tonight, so if you're attending that,
it'll be a great event. OK those are all the announcements. Brother
Danny can you close us in prayer please. Amen. So, you
How, What and Why
Series Love God More
| Sermon ID | 519241638326374 |
| Duration | 1:05:33 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Romans 8:31-39 |
| Language | English |
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