to give thanks to the Lord in our worshiping by considering His Word. This morning we are going to step out of 1 Peter and consider giving thanks to the Lord. And so I'd like to ask you this morning to turn in your Bibles to 1 Chronicles 16. And we're gonna look at verses eight through 11. If you are following along in a Pew Bible, you could find 1 Chronicles chapter 16 on page 347, 347. So let's just consider these few verses this morning. 1 Chronicles chapter 16, verses eight through 11. Listen carefully for this is the word of the living God. David says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him. Sing praises to Him. Tell of all His wondrous works. Glory in His holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His presence continually. As for the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our God stands forever, and we are thankful for it. Let's once more go before the Lord and ask his help for the exposition of his word. Father God, we are exceedingly grateful for you, for the many blessings that you shower down upon us. As we oftentimes say, Father, if all you ever gave us was the blessing of salvation. And nothing else. Father, that would be enough. But you don't stop there, Father. You shower down upon your people, whether those people are in America, or China, or Mexico, or Russia. Father, you shower down upon your people a multitude of blessings. And we are thankful for it, Father. And I pray this morning that as we look back on 2018, what you have done in our midst, just here at Grace Covenant Church, that you would remind us, Lord, of your wondrous deeds, that we would make them known to one another, that we would look around to the right and to the left and we would see the work of God in the life of our brothers and sisters, that we would stand back and see the work of God in the life of this church, and that, Father, we would give thanks to you, for you are worthy to receive glory and praise and honor and fame, for you are worthy. We ask all these things in your son's name, amen. So in the life of Old Testament Israel, the Ark of the Covenant was a very precious and important feature in the religious life. They did believe in the omnipresence of God. That is to say that they believed that God was everywhere all the time. There was no limit on his spatial existence. And yet at the same time, they did believe there was a sense in which God dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant together with the copy of the covenant and Aaron's rod. And the Ark of the Covenant belonged in the tabernacle and later in the temple. That's where it belonged. There's a sense in which they believe that God's presence dwelt over that ark. And if you think about it, that really makes a lot of sense, right? Where God's word is, i.e. his covenant, there God is. Where the evidence of God's wondrous works is, Aaron's staff and all the things that it accomplished in the life of Israel, there God is. God was there with his people in the ark of the covenant. And that is why It was such a devastating blow to the life of Israel, not only at the national level, but also at the individual level, when after a crushing defeat by the Philistines, the Philistines stole the Ark of God. And they had it for some seven months. They couldn't keep it, though. Things didn't go well. Their own idols, Dagon, was tumbled and pummeled by the very presence of the Ark of the Covenant. The servants of the Philistines and even many people in their camp received what seems to be some type of tumors. Some exegetes have said it might have been hemorrhoids. We don't know what it was, but it was some type of growth that was exceedingly painful. And so the Philistines said, let's just send this thing back to Israel. So they put it on a cart and an ox took it back, but it didn't go back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem, where the people dwelt. Jerusalem, where God decided to put his name. But for 20 years, it dwelt in a little town called Kiriat Jerem. When I studied in Israel in 1999, that's actually the place where I stayed. And for 20 years, this Ark of the Covenant was there. And finally, when David came into power, he wanted to bring that Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, where the Lord had decided to set his name. He tried it two times. First time didn't go very well because he had non-Levitical priests guiding the Ark of the Covenant as it was being pulled by an ox in a cart and the ox stumbled and the Ark began to fall over and this poor innocent guy named Uzziah went to put his arm out to stop it and the Lord struck him dead. A little bit later, David tried to bring it back, and this time it was successful. This time he sought and inquired of the Lord, shall we bring it back to Jerusalem? The Lord answered in the affirmative. And who shall bring it up? The Levite should bring it up. And so finally, the ark, after some 21 years being absent from the religious life of Israel, was brought back to Jerusalem. And what we read in 1 Chronicles 15 and 16 is the account of that. And as it was brought back into Jerusalem, all the people began to rejoice. Some of them were rejoicing not only with laughter, but with tears and cheers. David himself danced mightily before the Lord. It was a big deal that the Ark of the Covenant was returning to the people of Israel. And in the latter half of chapter 16, David breaks out in joyful thanksgiving to the Lord. I've decided not to read the whole thing, but what I would like to talk about this morning is really contained in these few verses that I read. What does he say? He says, not only give thanks to the Lord, but please note this. He says, listen, make his deeds known among the people. Make them known. We need to make God's deeds known among the people. I think it is so easy today, as it is in every generation, it's so easy today to bemoan and complain about all that is going wrong in this society. And trust me, there's plenty that's going wrong. Plenty! We could be Mr. Negativity day in and day out, from sun up to sun down, about every jot and tittle, about every wicked, corrupt thing that is going on. But giving thanks is something that should mark us as a people. Giving thanks should not be something we learned from a motivational speaker at a highfalutin conference where he basically tells us, think happy thoughts, think positive thoughts, think happy, happy, happy, and happy will appear in your life. No, no, something much more robust than that in the Christian worldview. We are not calling out to or invoking the name of some ethereal, empty concept of happiness. We are calling out to a God who is there and is not silent. A God who has appeared in this time-space continuum that we call history and has done marvelous deeds amongst his people. We are calling out to that God and we are saying, God, thank you for what you have done. We are looking at that God and then lowering our eyes and looking on the horizontal plane to a people and saying, people, look at what God has done. Let your hearts be lifted, let your countenance rise, because God has done good things among us. Thanksgiving is not one thing you do once a year when you're gathered around a table with friends and family, salivating at the mouth with a turkey at the center of the table. Thanksgiving is something, as I said, that marks the people of God. It is a vital part of worship, and not just on Sunday morning, and not just on Sunday night, but with every breath that we have, we give thanks to the Lord. And this is especially true when we think about what the Lord has and is doing here at Grace Covenant Church. This morning, in the spirit of David, I'd like to not teach about thankfulness. I would like to just give thanks. I would like to lead us as a people in looking around what the Lord has done in 2018, and maybe a few months into 2017, and just putting my finger on things that we could look at, behold, marvel at, and give thanks to the Lord for. So that's what I'd like to do this morning. So as we take stock of 2018 and we look into 2019, it is good to magnify the work of the Lord among us, to be encouraged by it, and to continue seeking the favor of the Lord in all that we do. Now in the new covenant, we don't have an arc of the covenant. We don't have an arc of the covenant where we, in some sense, see God present among us, no, no. God himself, listen, became incarnate in the incarnation. Emmanuel, God with us, and this is why Jesus said in the Great Commission, behold, I am with you what? Always, until the end of the age. So as Jesus has been among us in 2018, and even as we peer into 2019, what has he done? With his presence in our midst, what has the Lord done? We're gonna consider that this morning, and I'd like to give just 14 ways in which we can give thanks. 14 ways in which we can give thanks. They're gonna be short. So here's number one. Number one, the one reason we can give thanks to the Lord. In the past five weeks, we have had six baptisms. We've seen fellow believers symbolically go under the waters of judgment and come up to new life in Christ. You know what baptism is? Baptism is going public with your faith. It is recognizing the internal work of what God has done in your life and putting it externally out to the people and identifying not only with Jesus Christ and His death, resurrection and ascension and coronation, but also on a horizontal level, identifying with the people of God. It reminds us, baptism does, of our new identity in Christ. And what I have seen as I've conversed with many of you is many of you have found renewed value in going back to your baptism, not simply seeing it as a ritual that was at maybe the beginning of your Christian life, Or maybe in the middle, if for whatever reason you forewent baptism for a while. It's not just a ritual, but it's something that you constantly go back to. Because here's the thing, whether we are faced with the temptation of depression, discouragement, or lust, or whatever temptation comes our way, at bottom, the fundamental question and fundamental orientation that we must start with to start to think through how we're going to address that temptation is what? Who am I? Because the answer to the question, who am I, is going to set a trajectory through the valley of tears, through the valley of hardship, through the valley of discouragement, to give me a heading of where I'm going to go, to give me a heading of what promises lie beyond that valley on those mountain peaks of the new heavens and the new earth. Well, where is your identity publicly proclaimed? In baptism. And so baptism has become for many of us, many of us have been reminded that it's something that we constantly go back to. So we thank God for our baptisms. In fact, of the other baptisms we've had in 2018, one of those baptisms was from somebody that was recently converted in the present. People say, People don't get converted in Reformed churches. Yes, they do. They do get converted in Reformed churches. And we had somebody that was converted in our church and then got baptized. So we give thanks to the Lord. And I just wanna say finally on this note, there are some of you who are walking with Jesus and have never been baptized. And I want to encourage and exhort you to pray through the prospect of taking that public step of baptism. Secondly, a second thing for which we can give thanks this morning. A culture of discipleship is being cultivated among us. A culture of discipleship is being cultivated among us. Some of the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ were found in the Great Commission where he said what? Go out and preach the gospel. Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them, listen, teaching them all that I have taught you, and lo, I'm with you always until the end of the age. Discipleship is, listen to me very carefully, intentional. Discipleship is intentional. Discipleship is at the heart of the great commission together with evangelism itself. And because it's intentional, it is not casual. Becoming a Christian is, yes, a supernatural act of sovereign grace for which we are eternally grateful, but when we come into the church, you know what we bring into the church? This is true of you just as much as it's true of me. We bring baggage, we bring habits, we bring proclivities, and we bring false views of all kinds of things that need to be tempered and trained and corrected by the Word of God. What we need is to be taken by the hand by a mature Christian man or woman and shown the ropes. This is what discipleship is. Discipleship is not just taught It's caught. You have to catch discipleship. Okay, it's just like when I was in high school and I took Spanish one and two, and you know, you look through the textbook, you do the exercises, you do all that kind of stuff, but really coming out of high school, Spanish, all I could say is burrito supreme and nacho Belgrande. Why? Because textbook instruction is different from immersion. Later in life, when I became a missionary in Mexico, I went to an immersion school where they didn't give you a textbook. They just talked to you in Spanish, and it was sink or swim. So it is with discipleship. Discipleship is not necessarily primarily or exclusively taught. It's caught. So let me give you an example. It's one thing to say, Christian, you need to pray. Okay, thank you, Captain Obvious. Christian, you need to pray without ceasing. Thank you, still don't know what that means. It's another thing to say, give me a man, give me a woman who has walked with Jesus for a number of years, who has, as James, the tradition says of James, was known as camel knees. because he was on his knees so much that they were calloused over. Give me that man, give me that woman, and let them display before me what it looks like to pray. Give me a man, give me a woman who knows how to not just read this Bible and check off their Bible reading plan, but a man or a woman who takes this Bible and by the leading of the Spirit, does heart surgery and self-heart examination on their selves, and they say, this Word of God, this Word of God is a mirror. This Word of God is a guide. This Word of God is meant to lead me by the hand. We're at the right hand of God, our pleasures forevermore. Give me that man, give me that woman. Give me that man or woman who knows how to listen to a sermon for all it's worth. Give me that man or woman who listened to me very carefully, loves the church. We have many Christians, even in our congregation, I don't know that we have exclusive church men and women. If you love me, Jesus says, you will love my what? My people, if you love me, the church will be just as important to you as following me. Why? Because how many times in the Bible does Jesus identify himself with what? With the church. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He wasn't persecuting Jesus, he was persecuting the church. But Jesus so loves the church that he identifies himself with it. For you philosophers out there, not ontologically, but conceptually. So a culture of discipleship is being developed among us, being cultivated among us. There are at present at least 12 men and women who are meeting with other men and women in the church for normal, regular, consistent times of looking at the Bible, praying together, accountability, showing them how to pray, showing them how to listen to a sermon, showing them, listen, how to love their wife and live with her in an understanding way, showing women how to be that exude that gentle and quiet spirit and still get through to the hard-headed husbands that they live with. What does that balance look like? I don't know, give me a woman. Let her show me what it looks like. Folks, life is hard. Life is hard, but we have the word of God. And what we also have by God's grace in this church is technicians, if you will, if I can use that word, of the word who know how to use it and incorporate it into their life. So I thank God, and I think we should thank God that many of you are becoming intentional about this. And I would also put out there that if you are interested in getting together with a man or woman for intentional discipleship, or on the other hand, if you've been walking with Jesus for a number of years and you've got some time and you're like, give me a young man, give me a young woman so I could pour into them, reach out to me or Pastor Jim and Pastor Ken and we can get you set up. Now speaking of prayer, number three, a third thing to give thanks for, for which we can give thanks, is that Grace Covenant Church saints are taking more seriously the privilege and joy of public prayer. You know, on Sunday mornings, and you've seen this exhibited even this morning, it is the pastors who lead out in prayer. And certainly we participate as we amen those things, either internally or maybe even verbally. But on Sunday nights, what happens? The saints engage in prayer. The saints engage in prayer. Those saints who don't say things like, even though I know what they mean by this, don't say things like, there's power in prayer. No, they have a different attitude, just a little tweaked. There's power in the God who hears my prayer. There's power in the God who hears my prayer to not only, if it be His will, answer that prayer, but probably more importantly for us at times, to not answer our prayer in the way that we want, but to answer it in such a way that we bend and conform our wills to His will, such that prayer, public or private, becomes an alignment of my will with the will of God through the means of grace called prayer. People, prayer, public prayer is not an addendum to what we do here at Grace Covenant Church. Our Vesper services are not an addendum to what we do at Grace Covenant Church. Our Vesper times of prayer are part and parcel, warp and wolf of who we are as a people. Do you believe in the means of grace? Do you believe in them and together with what I mentioned before, do you love the church so much that man, if those doors are open on the Lord's day, where the Lord's people are gathering, I am there. And I wanna lift up my voice and cry out to the Lord that he would hear my petitions and I wanna give thanks to the Lord for what he has done. This is what prayer is. It is countless times in scripture, we see that through the prayers of the assembled people of God, things happened. Remember, we were going through Acts, and remember, it was at the church of Antioch. I love this participle. As they were praying, as they were worshiping, as they were seeking the face of the Lord, the Holy Spirit told them, set aside whom? Barnabas and Paul, first missionaries, sent out from Antioch, in the context and in the seedbed of what? Prayer. Things happen through prayer. Not only that, but we also read in the book of Acts, Peter's in prison. What are the saints doing? Not watching a football game. They're praying together, Lord, free Peter. Don't bother us, we're trying to pray. Who is it? Ah, I think it's an angel. No, it's Peter. Rhoda, come on. Did you take your medication? I don't think it's Peter. No, it's Peter. Peter shows up through prayer. Things happen through prayer. Not only that, but after the disciples or the apostles were convicted of preaching the gospel, they go back to the church and what do they do? Thank you, Lord, that we were found worthy to be persecuted for the name. in preaching the gospel, breaking the law for God's sake. Thank you, Lord. And you know what Luke says? And the church grew and was strengthened. Things happen through prayer. And we have prayed for many things in Vespers, and the Lord has been pleased to answer many of these prayers. In other requests, as I said, He has responded with a no or a wait. And in the process, our hearts have been aligned with His will. Number four, a fourth thing for which we can give thanks, the Lord has raised up for us a third elder. You know, as the church has grown, so have the needs of the saints. Pastor Ken and I have sought to be intentional, listen to me, in actually shepherding this congregation. We've been intentional in actually shepherding this congregation. You know what that means among other things? That yes, we have a high and lofty view of the means of grace, word, sacrament, prayer, in the public ministry of the word. And we firmly believe that if we are faithful to do that, the Lord's gonna do his part. But a shepherd doesn't just say, hey sheep, do this. Shepherd also comes alongside them and helps them. A shepherd also comes alongside and says, what's going on? Are you straying? Are you discouraged? And as we have reached out to you, we have noted that the needs among the saints have grown such that we needed to bring on another elder. And so we sought the Lord as a congregation, and the Lord was pleased to bring Jim, and he has hit the ground running. By God's grace, he has added a dimension of wisdom and pastoral perspective to the elder board that has greatly aided and supplemented our efforts at shepherding. And for this, we give thanks to the Lord. Number five, a fifth reason, is the Lord has brought more Sunday school teachers. You know, people who don't typically serve our young ones as teachers, people who, if you ask them, what is your spiritual gift? Instead of telling you what it is, they could tell you what it's not, okay? It's not working with nursery kids. It's not working with middle-aged kids. It's like, just whatever it is, take kids out of that sentence. Those people have stepped up and said, give me some young hearts. Give me some young hearts, equip me with the word and the gospel, and just let me at them. Let me speak words of peace to them so I could just put a rock in the shoes, so I could put a thought in the mind, a thought in the heart. Let me bring law to them, let me bring gospel to them. And you know, I have heard countless testimonies, I'm sure you have as well, countless testimonies that go one of two ways. Either one, people say, I was saved, and it was as a direct result of my Sunday school teachers. Or people say, you know, I was saved later in life, and when I came to that point of despair, when I came to rock bottom, all these promises of the gospel started flooding my mind, and I could see the face of my Sunday school teachers. Beloved, we thank God for every Sunday school teacher and nursery worker in this place. It is not a low-level position, it is a lofty position. It is a lofty position for parents in this place to give our children under the instruction of men and women who spend time on their knees and in preparation during the week to prepare a lesson and a craft and maybe a song and certainly snacks or else there'll be mutiny, two children so that they can receive the words of the gospel. And we thank God for these Sunday school teachers. You are laying down a foundation of faith for our young ones, and we give God the glory for it. Number six, number six, as Pastor Jim mentioned in his pastoral prayer this morning, parents are taking the family altar more seriously. Parents are taking the family altar more seriously. A challenge has been put out in the morning and evening ministry of the Word for parents to take seriously and solemnly their roles as parents to shepherd their children's hearts through the ministry of the Word at home. And many parents have taken up this responsibility, some of you for the first time, others of you You're getting back into the rhythm of it after having let it go or letting it slide after a season. You're getting back into it and many parents have taken up this responsibility, they're reading the Bible at home with their families, they're memorizing scripture, they're catechizing, they're singing hymns. And listen, as they do, children are seeing, this is so important, your children are seeing that worshiping the triune God is part of the warp and woof of life, not just Sunday morning. How important is that? How important is it for a young impressionable mind growing up under the rearing of their parents to see, not only in the words, but in the life and the attitudes and the actions of their parents, that worship is not relegated or hermetically sealed off to Sunday. And then Monday through Saturday, whatever. But that worship, it seeps into Monday, into Tuesday, into Wednesday, and the kids see, man, the word of God is important to my parents. Loving the Lord with all my heart and my strength and my soul and my might is important to my parents. And as a result, guess what? That carries over by God's grace and in His time and in His will to the hearts of your children. Conversely, Your kids see that, well, Sunday morning is just kind of really a ritual for my parents. Biggest fights during the week, Sunday morning. I'm not saying that's good or bad, I'm saying that's normal. But why is it they think and reason in their little minds and hearts, why is it that on Sunday morning when we go to worship God there is so much strife? Can you see the connections that a child might make? But if Sunday through Saturday, the Word of God is a priority in their life, and that Word is not just getting out there in a superficial way, but that the husband, if he's doing his job as a priest of the home, is seeking by God's grace and through the leading of the Spirit and the help of the grace of God, to massage those things first into his own heart, and then into the heart of his wife, and then into the heart of his children. And there's even tears when children are not following the Lord. There's tears when there's disobedience and no repentance. There's joy and laughter and celebration when God gives genuine repentance for when Cohen punches Caleb in the face and he feels bad about it. All of those things go into family worship. You know, my wife and I, and the kids, we've been working through Ezra and Nehemiah in our time of family worship, and something struck me as we were reading through that book. As you know, Ezra and Nehemiah give an account of the people of God coming out of captivity back into the land of Israel. And as Ezra and Nehemiah lead them, and they come back in in different batches, from one group, two groups, three groups, Do you know what the first thing is that they build when they get there? It's not houses. It's not granaries. It's not the general kosher store, okay? It's the altar. That is the first thing that the people of God, having learned their lesson, because they went into captivity because those things took a backseat. Worship took a backseat. Fealty to their covenant Lord took a backseat. And after 70 years of pondering it over and being punished in a foreign land, their children not being able to go to Shabbat at synagogue, they finally come back into the land. They say, Lord, we're gonna get it right this time. First thing we build, altar. What does that communicate to the society? What does that communicate to their children? Children, society, everyone, God comes first. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, not only on Shabbat, Saturday, but every single day of the week. So I thank God that he has given us a vision to incorporate worship into every facet of our day. May the Lord give us humble, may the Lord use our humble efforts to give us an unbroken chain. Wouldn't this be wonderful that the Lord would give us at Grace Covenant Church an unbroken chain of generational Christianity? Wouldn't that be marvelous? Wouldn't it be marvelous if your children or from your children or from my children, the next elder at Grace Covenant Church would rise up? Wouldn't it be marvelous if from your children or my children, the next missionary that we support comes out of Grace Covenant Church? We can start making efforts at that now by gathering around the family altar during the week and leading our children and wife in worship. Number seven, members are making the most of their membership with joy, holy zeal, and intentionality. I think on record, we probably had the longest membership meeting in the history of this church last time, didn't we? When I got up to give my little spiel, it was probably gonna take about 15 minutes. I dared not do that. Because we had been there so long, and why? Because you as members were taking ownership of the budget. It wasn't just, yeah, okay, elders, do whatever you want. It was, yeah, okay, well, we've got some questions about that. And you know what? The elders rejoice about that. We want to see you as members taking ownership of matters in this place. We are elder-led, but congregationally ruled. That means you have a say in what happens at this church. And we have seen members owning business matters in the church rather than standing idly by. I know, personally, of at least two family units, I'll put it that way, in this congregation. One of those family units are believers. Another family unit, if I could put it that way, are probably not believers. that have had opportunities to leave this place and relocate geographically, either because of school or because of work, and after long deliberation and prayer, they decided to stay here for a number of reasons, but one of those reasons was what? They love this church. They love you. They love the people at this church. They love what fellowship this church accrues to them, and they couldn't think of moving away. It's because members are making the most of their membership. Number eight, number eight, another reason we can give thanks to the Lord. Free will giving is up. Now, let me clarify this. I don't say that as some sort of end-of-the-year business highlight, like, hey, look, here's a chart and a graph, our giving's up, that's great. I mention it because I believe it shows that many of us are not content to be stuck in the 10% rut. Many of us have been liberated from the thought that in the New Covenant era, our giving is some sort of law-driven obligation. Instead, they're seeing it as a concrete opportunity to worship the Lord with a portion of what the Lord has given them. In other words, a free will offering. Grace Covenant Church has been able to Give considerably larger amounts of financial support to the Amadis in Ireland and this came at a providential time Because as giving was increasing in our church at the same time five Principal churches that gave to the Amadis dropped off. They said we can't do it anymore And at the same time, the Lord gave us an increase in giving. He moved the hearts of Grace Covenant people and we were able to give them a substantially larger amount to keep them in Ireland and keep the gospel going out to a population that is probably one or 2% Christian. I thank God for that. We had the privilege of supporting the Woodrow's in Mozambique and have been astounded at the many stories of God's faithfulness to that ministry, that church, that hospital, that pastor's conference, and the planning of even more churches. Furthermore, the deacons, because of an increase in giving, have been able to joyfully bless families within our midst with needs, families who have needs, through the Benevolence Fund. So we're being reminded that our worship and our priorities are reflected in our checkbooks. You ever thought about that? Your worship and your priorities have a concrete checkpoint or a concrete heart checkpoint in your checkbooks. What you do in your checkbooks reflects where your heart is. So I thank God that giving has been, number nine, bearing one another's burdens is becoming a more tangible reality. Many are beginning to open up more about their struggles to one another with the expectation that the brethren are here to bear our burdens. The brethren are here to encourage one another as we see the day approaching. We're seeing the spirit grow, especially in the context of our home groups. People are becoming more comfortable with one another. They're realizing that contexts like home groups are not simply a time for food and fellowship, but also a time where we get real with one another. Contrary to a typical Facebook feed, where most people are posting how wonderful and amazing their lives are, Our home groups have become an honest sounding board of real struggles in which we pray for one another, challenge one another, and actually open up the word of God and use it for one another care. Some are experiencing like never before that brothers and sisters can be safe people. Do you have a safe person in your life in this congregation? Is there somebody with whom you can share the muck and the mire, the faithlessness in your life, your struggles, your doubts, your fears, without fear of judgment? And yet on the other hand, because they're safe people, you can also expect that they're going to challenge you. They're going to exhort you. They're going to use the word of God, not in a judgmental, Law of Moses type of way, but in a gospel-driven way. So I praise God that bearing one another's burdens is becoming a more tangible reality in our life. Number 10, saints are taking a more sober and proactive approach to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a means of grace. What does that mean? It means that it is there for you to strengthen you, to buoy you, to make the forgiveness and grace of the gospel more vivid to you as you see it symbolized in the bread and the wine. You know, some people in this congregation are a little too willy-nilly in their approach to the Lord's Supper. They think, well, I'm a Christian, Jesus has forgiven me, so I'm gonna take the Lord's Supper without asking themselves, have I actually repented of the sins that I believe Jesus Christ has forgiven me of? Make no mistake. Jesus is spiritually present in the Lord's Supper. You don't say to yourself, if Jesus were here, would I take the Lord's Supper? No, you say to yourself, Jesus is here spiritually in the supper. And as I take a sounding of my heart and life, is there any outstanding sin that I am holding onto or unwilling to repent of? Is that sin more precious to you than Jesus himself? Then you shouldn't take the supper. If you have beef with another brother or sister in Christ, and you refuse to repent, you refuse to reconcile, then don't take the supper. On the other hand, on the other hand, there are some who never think they are good enough for the supper. They can't identify any outstanding sin in their life, but they think, well, there must be some disobedience in me, so I won't take it. People of God, the supper is for broken sinners. The supper is for you. The question in taking the Lord's supper is not, has Christ forgiven me of my sin and given me a place at the table? The question is, what is my heart attitude toward that sin for which Jesus Christ has forgiven me? And if your attitude is a clenched fist on that sin, unwilling to part with it, then don't come on the other hand if you are broken by it, if you are grieved by it, if the Lord has given you a godly sorrow, and you say to the Lord, Lord, I've done this Monday through Saturday, and I've hated every single instance of it. I hate what it does to my reputation in putting you on display. I hate what it does in my own life. I hate what it does in my marriage. And Father, I don't wanna do it again. I may go back to it next week just as a dog returns to its vomit. I may do that, but if I do, I will be grieved. Will you forgive me? Please give me grace. Come to the table. Come to the table. The table is for you. And we have seen more people taking a more serious and intentional approach to the Lord's Supper, even such that, listen, and I commend this to all of you, their preparation for the Lord's Supper begins on Saturday night. Not on Sunday morning, Saturday night. In their own lives and the lives of their family. They get their family together on Saturday night and say, kids, wife, Lord's Supper's tomorrow. Let's examine our hearts. Let me confess to you how Daddy has been a jerk to Mommy. Let me confess to you kids how I have lost my temper with you. Please forgive me. Do you forgive me? Good, all right. They start on Saturday nights. 11, members are evangelizing with less fear and more boldness. That's all I wanna say. There are many of you in this congregation, maybe I should say a handful, that you're just evangelists. The Lord has just gifted you with evangelism. And frankly, I'm just gonna be honest with you, I look up to you in that. I ask the Lord in my private time of prayer that the Lord would give me some of your mantle, that I would be more fearless and bold in my proclamation of the gospel, caring more for the eternality of someone's souls than their opinion of me, because that is called fear of man, and this is called eternity. 12, God's grace is working on unbelievers in our midst. I won't mention this person's name, but there is a person in our congregation who is not a believer. And this person has been coming for a number of months, shall I say. And this person wants to be saved. This person realizes that it needs to be a work of the grace of God, a supernatural work of the grace of God to change this person's heart. And this person recently had the opportunity because of school to move to a different area. But this person, even though this person is not a believer, has decided to commute four hours to school every week so that this person, you can tell I don't wanna use a pronoun, this person can stay here under the means of grace. Because this person knows that if this person will be saved. it will be through the means of grace. This person also knows, this person told me a few weeks ago, the Lord's doing something in my heart. I don't know what he's doing, but the Lord's doing something. I seem to have some type of sorrow over sin. I don't know if it's worldly sorrow, I don't know if it's godly sorrow, but I've reached out to somebody in the congregation. We're gonna get coffee and we're gonna talk about it. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. The Lord is causing His grace to work on unbelievers in our midst. Number 13, some members are experiencing fresh victory over longstanding, besetting sins through the gospel. I ask permission to use this person's name. Through numerous sessions of sharing the gospel with Michael Stevens, individually and publicly, the Lord, over the course of many months, maybe even a year, has broken a long-standing slavery to addiction in his life. Through the gospel. The Lord has brought wholeness and restoration and healing not only to his life, but also to his vocational life. The Lord has brought healing and restoration to his marriage life. And if you asked him, what was it? He would tell you in so many words, as I realized my identity in Christ and all that I had in the gospel, all of the covenant promises that are irrevocable based on the eternality of God, and I looked at what this slavery and addiction was doing to my life, I just said it wasn't worth it, I want Jesus, I want Jesus, and the gospel broke shackles of addiction. That's what the gospel does. And the Lord has not only done that in Michael's life, but the elders, things of which we can't share with you, the elders have seen marriages come to us in private counseling where husbands are confessing big-ticket sin items to their wives. And you know what? It's not easy. It's ugly, it's messy, but you know what? In every single case where that has happened, I can report to you that their marriages now, after confessing the dirty, difficult, longstanding sins that they have been committing against their wife and against God, their marriages are better now. Because that's what the gospel does. The gospel doesn't simply give you forgiveness and eternality with God, it gives you good life here on this earth. Clear conscience and healing for your marriage. Finally, people are becoming more proficient in actually applying the Word of God to their struggles in life, rather than hermetically sealing the Bible off from it. I have seen countless examples of people in this congregation who are not just reading their Bibles, but they're actually using their Bibles. They're reciting promises to themselves that a year ago, two years ago, they just didn't use because they just thought, well, you know, the Bible's good for religion, but, you know, I can't really use it in my everyday life. No, I can use it in my everyday life. I can cling to promises, depend on promises, hold on to promises that are gonna get me through the valley of tears. They're gonna get me through this dark providence that is hanging over my life. and they're becoming more proficient in using, and not only that, but they're turning to their brother, they're turning to their sister, and they're lifting their countenance through an efficient and proficient use of the Word of God. The Lord is doing something here at Grace Covenant Church. And while the effects of the Word of God are indeed extraordinary, salvation is extraordinary, sanctification is extraordinary, victory over sin and a greater zeal for prayer, restored and forgiven sinners, strengthened marriages, deeper intimacy in home groups, the means by which these things are happening are ordinary and simple, the means of grace. Word, sacrament, prayer. Do your pastors get any credit for this? You know what Pastor Ken, Pastor Jim, and I are? We're the cafeteria workers standing in the means of grace chow line, and we're just ladling out fruit, milk, meat, wine, just giving the word of God. They've got hairnets on, I don't. That's all we are. We don't get any credit for what the Lord is doing. I do thank God that he has kept us faithful to preach the word of God. And the moment we veer from that, stand up in your seats at your members meeting and say, give us Jesus in the word or get out of town. I do thank God that he's kept us faithful and I pray that he would continue to do that. The Lord is doing something at Grace Covenant Church. What is he doing? I'll tell you what he's doing. I'm hesitant to call it revival because of all the negative connotations that come with that, though I do believe, and so should you, that God is sometimes pleased to pour out his spirit upon a people, even a nation, and bring revival to hearts. But let me step down from such grandiose claims and say more humbly that the Lord is simply discipling us through the word. That's what he's doing. He's discipling us through the word. This is the Great Commission. This is what the church has been about the business of doing for 2,000 years. Do you see the mighty feats of the Lord among his people here at Grace Covenant Church? What is the Lord doing in your life this morning, dear believer? Is the gospel not only precious to you, but central in your individual life, in your family life, in your work life, in your church life? As we peer out into 2019 together, may we all resolve with holy zeal and determination to see the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ shine through all of us, all of us, for his honor and his glory. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the peoples. Sing to him. Sing praises to him. Tell of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence continually. Let's pray. Father God, we give you thanks and glory and honor and worship for what you have done here at Grace Covenant Church in 2018. And Father, we are hopeful, we are hopeful that as we continue to just keep on doing the normal thing, an ordinary ministry of the ordinary means of grace, word, sacrament, and prayer circulating out among the people, bleeding over into their personal lives. Father, we pray that your Spirit would be present to do the work of ministry within us and that we would be further equipped to look out to our brother, look out to our sister, and even look outside of the walls of this place and bring the gospel to one another for your glory and our good. We ask all these things in your Son's name, amen. Let's stand for the doxology.