Participants:
Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP220910S
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00:14 >> Welcome, everybody, to PMC. How's everybody doing? 00:19 If you're doing well, wave your hand. 00:22 Praise God, praise God, praise God. 00:24 We'll be singing songs of praises together, and the first 00:28 one that we're gonna sing is "The Blood Will Never Lose Its 00:33 Power." Shane. 00:36 [ "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power" begins ] 04:51 [ Speaks indistinctly ] And because of God we'll never 04:55 be the same again. I don't know about you, but 04:58 personally, from the time I chose Christ as my personal 05:02 savior, my life has not been the same. 05:05 I thought that challenges would go away. 05:08 No, they did not, but I've been safe. 05:12 So here's to never being the same again. 05:17 [ "I Will Never Be" begins ] 08:59 Amen. Do you believe that? 09:05 One thing I like about the Watchmen, we like to sing from a place of experience. 09:12 And lately, personally, um... experiencing a lot of anxiety, stress, and then you have all 09:23 these plans, and then it don't seem to be working out. And then all you see is fear. 09:29 And you don't see joy, peace, or happiness. But then remember what I stated 09:36 on... When you believe in God, He will protect you. 09:46 That doesn't mean that he will shield you from experiencing anxiety, depression, stress. 09:54 He will protect you through all of that. He will give you peace. 09:58 He will give you joy. He will give you love. And whatever situation you might 10:03 be going through, He's working it out for your good. Keep on believing on, keep on 10:09 keeping on. 10:11 Philip. [ "Fear is Not My Future" 10:15 begins ] 16:00 >> ♪ Steal away ♪ Steal away ♪ Steal away to Jesus 16:15 ♪ Jesus ♪ Steal away ♪ Steal away home 16:28 ♪ I ain't got long to stay here ♪ 16:49 ♪ My Lord a-calls me ♪ Calls me by the thunder ♪ The trumpet sounds 17:05 within-a my soul ♪ ♪ I ain't got long to stay here ♪ 17:32 ♪ Green trees are bending ♪ Poor sinner stands ♪ A-trembling, trembling, 17:43 trembling, trembling ♪ ♪ Trembling ♪ The trumpet sounds 17:51 within-a my soul ♪ ♪ I ain't got long to stay here ♪ 18:20 ♪ Steal away ♪ Steal away 18:37 ♪ Steal away home 18:48 ♪ Ahhhh ♪ Ahhhh ♪ Steal, steal 19:04 ♪ Steal away home ♪ I see the lightning ♪ The thunder 19:26 and the lightning, O Lord ♪ ♪ The trumpet sounds within-a my soul ♪ 19:42 ♪ I ain't got long ♪ I ain't got long ♪ I ain't got long 19:55 to stay here ♪ 20:18 ♪ My Lord calls me 20:30 ♪ Calls me ♪ Home 20:51 >> Amen. 20:56 >> I hear the trumpet calling. 21:03 We ain't got long to stay here. O God. We've stolen away from 21:15 another eventful week. We've stolen away into the quiet of this sanctuary. 21:25 We have a few minutes left. We need you to speak really clear. 21:31 In Jesus' name, amen. 21:39 I hold in my hands a pair of real live handcuffs 21:45 from a deputy sheriff in Berrien County. 21:49 These belong to him, and he's here right now 21:52 to keep track of them. Everywhere we're going 21:58 this morning in the story we are about to share leads 22:01 to these handcuffs. 22:04 If you don't get the handcuffs at the end, it's just -- we've just blown 22:08 these few minutes together. We're going for the handcuffs. But first, a story. 22:17 Let's cut to the chase. Let's put it on the screen. Luke 4. 22:20 Last week we were with Jesus, the three. massive temptations 22:26 that He overcame for you and me. Dr. Luke, the very next story. After the three temptations. 22:32 Here we go. Here it is on the screen. "And Jesus went to Nazareth, 22:38 where he had been brought up." On the streets, they have a slang 22:42 name for a boy who comes home -- homeboy or a homey. Jesus is a homeboy. 22:48 He's got a lot of homeboys in that town. Everybody knows him. 22:52 He's been gone for two and a half years -- no, one and a half years. 22:56 Excuse me. One and a half years. He has not come home since he went down 23:00 and ended up in that wilderness with those three temptations. The homeboy is back. 23:08 You can be sure church is packed today. I mean, his brothers are there. 23:13 His sisters are there. And his beloved mother, Mary, she's there. 23:18 I'm telling you what, Jesus -- No pressure, but you got to perform, boy. 23:23 This is a big deal. Oh, it's true. People down south, you know, 23:27 Jerusalem, Judea, they got this stupid little proverb about, 23:31 "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Well, you got a good one 23:34 right here, folks. Sit down. Listen up. Here we go. 24:10 Let's hit the pause button right there. This is not the first time 24:16 Jesus has stood in front, as a homeboy, in front of his home church. 24:22 When he was growing up. We need to be reminded. The chazan -- 24:27 that's the deacon in the synagogue -- he picked somebody. 24:30 "Okay, you're gonna read today. You're gonna read today, and here's 24:33 where we're going to read." And the expectation is that once you read, you give an 24:38 exposition of what you just read. And of course, everybody's dying 24:42 to hear this homeboy preach. They've heard the rumors out of Jerusalem, 24:47 but they want to hear it for themselves. So the chazan hands 24:53 him the scrolls. Jesus reads these words. "Preach to us, preacher. 25:03 Come on." So he does. "Desire of Ages" does 25:10 remind us this isn't his first time. "Often in the synagogue 25:13 on the Sabbath day Jesus was called upon" -- as a young man -- "to read 25:18 the lesson from the prophets..." Jesus is unschooled, okay? He hasn't been to seminary. 25:32 But he reads Hebrew beautifully. The common people do not read Hebrew, so somebody who can read 25:37 Hebrew has to be invited to stand up and unroll the scroll. Jesus does. 26:00 I want you to look at that line right there, because Dr. Luke, when he's composing 26:04 this account -- and he's the only one to tell us -- the word -- he uses the Greek 26:10 word for "anoint," which is chrio, from whence comes Christos. 26:16 And everybody knows that Christ means the "anointed one." In other words, the Messiah. 26:21 So Jesus opens his mouth, the homeboy opens his mouth and effectively declares, 26:27 "The Spirit of the Lord has made me the Christ, the Messiah. 26:31 I am the Anointed One." Whoa! 26:39 John Howard Yoder, in his book "The Politics of Jesus," comments on this passage that 26:45 Jesus is now reading. "We must conclude that in the ordinary sense 26:53 of his words" -- all right, so they're listening to him. "He's a homeboy. 26:56 He's just one of us." "In the ordinary sense of his words Jesus...was 27:00 announcing the imminent entrée en vigueur" -- the coming into force -- "of a new regime 27:08 whose marks would be that rich would give to the poor, the captives would be freed, 27:13 and men and women would have a new mentality, if they believed this news." 27:19 He stands in front of his home crowd and he announces, "A new regime 27:27 has come, and I am the Messiah." Oh, wow. The implications are huge. 27:38 We'll read the quotation one more time. 'The Spirit of the Lord is on 27:45 me' -- this is a direct quote. 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me 27:51 to proclaim good news to the poor.' Now keep reading. 28:04 Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. So we drill down 28:06 into what he's just read. Jesus has not emptied the prison cells of Judea and Galilee. 28:13 They're still full. He has not stormed the Bastille, the fortress -- Herod's 28:19 fortress of Antonia. He has not. What is this business about 28:24 the prisoners will be set free? And slowly, slowly it penetrates the listeners. 28:31 Wait a minute. Wait a minute. He's emptying out the prison cells. 28:35 The prison cells of demonic darkness all across the land. This is cryptic, 28:39 spiritual language. Good news for the poor. Freedom for the prisoners. 28:43 Recovery of sight for the blind. To set the oppressed free. And then he speaks the words 28:49 "to proclaim the Lord's favor." That is -- That is huge Jubilee language. 28:56 And everybody knows Jubilee language. That's what happens every 50 28:59 years when a Jubilee comes and the debts are eradicated, the slaves are set free. 29:08 The records are leveled. Everybody is on the same level playing field again. 29:14 He's using Jubilee language. He says, "I am the Messiah, and I have brought Jubilee to 29:20 you." Hometown boy to his hometown crowd. 29:25 What he's telling them, and they're slowly starting to get it -- 29:29 "I am your spiritual deliverer from what is holding you captive right now." 29:40 "Whoa. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. 29:44 Come on, come on. The bondage we want to be set free from 29:48 is from the hated Roman tyranny. We're not here to talk about the bondage of sin." 29:56 Ah, Jesus knows. As he's unrolling the scroll and picking the lines to read. 30:01 He knows that latent thought in every breast. And so he sees a line -- 30:08 "Unh-unh. I will not read that line." And he purposely omits 30:11 from Isaiah 61:1-2 the line, "And to proclaim the day of vengeance of our 30:18 God." "No, no, no, no, no, no," Jesus is saying. 30:21 "No day of vengeance. Now, this is a day of repentance. 30:24 You are the sinners and I am the Savior." 30:30 The message they needed, they refused to hear. And I'm afraid we do the same. 30:41 Because all we can talk about around here is that, "Jesus is coming soon. 30:46 He's going to crush the dark rule of the tyrant who has held us captive. 30:51 He's going to crush the devil." And all the while our sinful hearts still do 30:59 not know the victory over sin Jesus longs to bring to us. We can hardly cluck our tongues 31:07 at the Nazarenes, now, can we? There will be no day of vengeance, 31:12 it is clear, until the day of repentance comes, period. A friend of mine told me 31:19 about a book that just came out, brand-new. So I went on Amazon 31:23 and ordered it. Written by Kate Ott. Brand-new book. 31:27 Title of her book -- "Sex, Tech, and Faith: Ethics for a Digital Age." 31:34 And she rightfully acknowledges -- I disagree with a whole bunch 31:38 of her premises, but she rightfully acknowledges this. 31:41 And I'll put it on the screen for you. Kate Ott. 31:55 True story. Keep reading. 32:10 She's right. But while our privacy may be protected, 32:16 our innocence is gone. 32:22 Like Adam and Eve, we see each other naked now. And we are filled with shame. 32:33 "Who, then," Paul cries out, "Who will deliver me from this body of death, for 32:37 that which I do not want to do, I do? And that which I want to do, 32:43 I do not." But thanks be to God for our Lord Jesus Christ. 32:53 And that, my friends, in a nutshell, is Jesus' point in Nazareth. 32:59 "The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to you 33:05 who are poor, and how impoverished our addictions leave us feeling." 33:10 Be honest. "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, 33:16 and who is more imprisoned than the addict?" And by the way, 33:20 in this little series, the moment we hear "addict," we think sexual addiction. 33:25 That is only one of a plethora of addictions. Come on. 33:31 Some of us are addicted to food. Some of us are addicted to drink. 33:40 Some of us are addicted to caffeine. Some of us are addicted 33:44 to nicotine. Some of us are addicted to -- and in an institution like this, 33:50 this is a huge addiction -- we're addicted to work. Absolutely. Why? 33:57 "Because if I work hard enough, if I slave long enough, I'm going to rise on this ladder 34:02 and I'm going to be higher than the peers in my academic field. I'll get higher and higher, 34:07 and everybody's going to be reading what I write and the research I publish. 34:11 And at last, I will be where they cannot be." We're addicted to that. 34:16 Dopamine addiction. Oh, don't go clucking your tongues at the ones 34:24 who are sexually addicted. They are here right now, sitting beside you. 34:31 We are all addicted. 34:36 "I've come anointed to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind, and what can be blinder 34:42 than the one who cannot see the face of her deliverer and thus stumbles 34:45 on in darkness?" That's blindness. 34:48 "I have been anointed to set the oppressed free. 34:51 And what greater joyful existential discovery is there 34:55 than to discover the freedom of that which has bound you 34:58 and chained you all these months no longer chained anymore?" 35:04 Well, it doesn't get any better than that. 35:08 "I have come because I've been anointed 35:10 by the Spirit to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 35:13 Actually, the word "favor" is the word "acceptance." 35:16 And who here doesn't long to hear from the Lord, who 35:20 spoke -- "Neither do I condemn you. 35:23 I'm not condemning you for your addiction, girl. 35:25 Neither do I condemn you. Now go 35:27 and leave your past behind. Leave it behind. 35:32 I don't condemn you." Oh, to hear that we've been accepted by the Lord 35:37 who spoke those words. Who doesn't long, after failure and falling and failure and 35:43 falling and failure and falling, this incessant cycle of defeat -- 35:48 who doesn't long to hear those words, the year of the Lord's acceptance? 35:56 "For that which I do not want, I do. And that which I want, I do 36:04 not." But thanks be to God, who gives the victory 36:09 through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I sat down this week at my laptop, and oh, my, 36:17 was I amazed how many times you can link the name and the presence of Jesus 36:22 to the word "free" or "freedom." I made a list and I'm going to run it by you right now. 36:26 This is only from the New Testament, by the way. Okay, the first one is where we 36:30 have just -- where we have just been in Luke 4. One commentator 36:37 who listened to Jesus' speech, his homily there in Nazareth, summed up the homily this way. 36:43 I like it. It's the gospel. 36:56 Can Jesus really pull it off? Apparently, the New Testament believes the answer is yes. 37:00 Watch this. Jesus announces... 37:08 We go to John 8:32 in our Scripture a moment ago. 37:13 Drop down four verses. 37:23 Hallelujah. 37:29 There you go. 37:38 Praise God. Keep reading. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord 37:44 is, there is" -- what's that word, there is what? -- "there is freedom." 38:03 And the Bible's last book ends with the last assurance of freedom connected 38:08 to the name of Jesus. 38:22 And all the people said... >> Amen. >> Amen. 38:25 Anybody here want that freedom that comes only from Christ? Come on, you want that freedom 38:30 that comes only from Christ? Why wouldn't I want it? Bottom line, we can be set free. 38:42 by Jesus. That was his message to Nazareth. 38:48 Too bad -- To this offer, Nazareth says no. 38:58 How sad. How tragic the ending of this story we've begun. 39:05 Right now, in his homily, Jesus is at a critical, dramatic crossroads moment. 39:11 The air is thick with drama. Somebody is going to have to respond to what 39:17 the preacher is talking about. Nobody moves. Here's what happens next. 39:27 "Then he rolls up the scroll. Gives it back to the attendant" -- he's quoted the 39:31 Scripture for his little homily now. He gives it back to the chazan, 39:37 and he sits down. They always preach sitting down. The seat of Moses, they call it. 39:42 Now notice this. "The eyes of everyone in that synagogue were fastened on 39:47 him." You could have heard a pin drop. "What's he going to say now?" 39:52 We hear the Word, but how will he apply it? 40:09 They're not sure about this. They kind of buzz. They're speaking well of him. 40:15 They're amazed at the gracious words that come from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's boy? 40:19 Come on. Isn't this the homeboy Jesus that we grew up with?" 40:23 "Yep." But Jesus realizes... 40:31 ...they still think he's just the homeboy, and he's going to push this 40:36 envelope hard now. He has to. "Jesus said to them, 40:40 'Surely you will quote this proverb to me" -- this is a well-known proverb 40:44 in existence at the time -- "Physician, heal yourself!" And you will tell me, 40:55 Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum."'" 41:01 "Come on, physician. You the big healer that we've heard about down in Judea? 41:07 Strut your stuff. We have to see it to believe it anyway. 41:12 You might as well start right now." 41:19 And Christ, broken heart, realizes... he's lost this crowd. 41:27 But he will not -- he will not go down without fighting. 41:32 And he switches to his homily. And what a homily. Nobody's quite sure. 41:37 "Why is he telling these stories? We already know the stories." 41:41 It will only dawn on them at the very end. Here we go. 41:47 "'Truly, I tell you'" -- ameen in the Greek, "I tell you" -- "'no prophet 41:53 is accepted in his hometown.'" The old King James used to put it this way -- 41:57 "A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown." "I know what's going on here." 42:21 She is a pagan, godless, idol-worshiping woman. Nobody, not a widow in Israel 42:30 can be found to send Elijah to. He's sent to her. 42:36 Please. Well, I got another story for you. 42:52 A godless, pagan, idol-worshiping general. Syrian! 43:02 The only leper, God, you could find to heal was that? 43:11 Suddenly the wheels are beginning to click, click, click, click, click. 43:16 "No, no, no, no, no. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait. 43:20 Are you saying that there was nobody in all of Israel who had faith in God, 43:25 so God has to assign his two prophets to two pagan heathens who turn out to have more faith 43:30 than the Israelites? Is that what you're saying, hometown boy? 43:36 Are you saying that that's why the Israelites" -- and we are living in Israelite former 43:40 countryside -- "are you saying that's why the Israelites were dragged 43:43 into captivity and extermination by the godless Assyrians? Are you suggesting that 43:48 we Nazarenes have no more faith in God than those widows and lepers in Israel 43:52 who never were delivered by God? Are you saying we are no better than the heathen we have looked 43:58 down upon as gods? Is that what you're saying, homeboy? 44:02 Are you saying that?" 44:36 The end. What a sad ending. Sad, isn't it? 44:44 That you can be a Seventh-day Adventist worshiping on the Bible's Seventh-Day 44:51 Sabbath and praying for God to bring vengeance upon this 44:55 wicked world and culture through the second coming of Christ -- 44:58 You can be a Seventh-day Adventist and end up rejecting Jesus in the end. 45:04 They did. What makes you any different? No, come on. 45:10 What's so special about you? 45:17 "Desire of Ages" speaks to you and me right now. "Our standing before God depends 45:21 not upon the amount of light we have received" -- and some of you are so proud 45:24 of yourselves for all the light you have -- "but upon the use 45:28 we make of what we have." 45:48 End quote. 45:53 Does your daily life contradict your profession? 46:01 Do you practice great light but harbor great darkness to that addiction of yours? 46:13 Are we any better than the Nazarenes, who claim Jesus belongs 46:17 to them, but who choose not to belong to Him? 46:24 Some of you have been struggling for a long time with great darkness. 46:28 I know. You've told me your stories. You're not that old. 46:34 Though some of you are. 46:40 The addiction seems impossible to give up. The allure 46:44 is too strong to resist. And you know exactly what it feels like 46:51 to be wearing handcuffs. The reason -- my friend Bud Chapman, 47:00 deputy sheriff here in Berrien County -- the reason he slaps 47:07 these handcuffs on a pair of wrists... 47:14 ...is he wants to reduce movement, to incapacitate 47:20 the one who is now in handcuffs. And sometimes he'll have the handcuff on his wrist 47:30 and the handcuff on the wrist of the arrestee. "You can't get away from me 47:36 now." The devil's handcuffs work the same way. 47:46 You don't want this to come down. I tried it on. 47:49 Ooh, you don't want this to come down. Because the moment 47:54 it comes down... you're stuck. The only way this handcuff 48:02 can be released is if you have a key. Which you don't have. 48:12 The whole point of Jesus' homily, that homeboy back in his hometown, 48:21 was to announce, "I have the key to your handcuffs. 48:33 The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to unlock your handcuffs." 48:41 In fact, the Bible ends with the words of Jesus, red letter -- red letters in 48:45 Revelation 1. "I have the keys," he says. He's got them. 48:53 "I have the key to what has handcuffed you to the enemy of all enemies, 49:00 who says, 'Boy, I'm not letting you go.' Oh, I've heard your profession. 49:05 I've heard, oh, you're going to change. Oh, girl, I've heard you say, 49:07 "I'll change. I'll never do this again." Guess what. 49:10 You're still handcuffed to me, girl. And I'm not letting you go.'" 49:14 The only way the handcuffs can be sprung is if the one who holds 49:23 the master key, the master Himself... Chkk! 49:32 And you're free. That's the Gospel. That's how free it is. 49:38 We've made it so difficult. No, no. Ask Jesus. 49:45 Ask Jesus. In fact, I'm going to give you four responses 49:49 to this handcuff analogy. Response number one, please. 49:57 Once the handcuffs are off, don't ever put them 50:02 back on again. Do you understand me? 50:06 What a fool. Only a fool would say, 50:09 "Give me that back! Strap me to your side! 50:14 I want to be your plaything! I love being your victim! 50:19 Handcuff me again, Satan!" Only a fool 50:25 would go and pick the handcuffs up that have just been unlocked 50:28 by Jesus. If there are handcuffs sitting 50:31 in your dorm room, there are handcuffs sitting 50:34 in a cupboard in your home, handcuffs in the refrigerator -- 50:38 I don't care where where the handcuffs are. 50:40 Don't get near the handcuffs again. 50:45 Keep as far away as you can. Response number two -- Keep as close as you can to the one 50:52 who holds the master key. Just stay close to Jesus. I don't care what you do. 50:58 You want to slow read to the Gospels? Be my guest. 51:01 You want to go on amazon.com and get a little paperback book called "Desire of Ages" and just 51:05 a slow read through "Desire of Ages"? Why not? 51:08 But every day -- every day -- stay away from your handcuffs 51:13 and stay close to the one who holds the key. You'll be fine. 51:19 Now, there's this third response because sexual addiction, 51:24 as some have pointed out, is as strong as heroin addiction, perhaps even stronger 51:31 than heroin, one physician told me. Because sexual addiction 51:38 has that nature, there's something come to town that I'm going to tell you about 51:42 right now. I'm not going to put a website on the screen for you. 51:46 I'm going to tell you about it. And then if you text me right now, 51:51 you text me right now, I'll send you the website. You check it out. 51:57 We're bringing in a group, CFE is, Center for Faith Engagement and Pioneer, 52:01 we're bringing in a group in October. I'm not going to give you 52:04 the dates. We're bringing them in for a weekend. 52:09 There'll be professionals in that group. They have dealt with sexual 52:13 addiction all across America. They know what we struggle with, you and me. 52:19 And by the way, we're asking -- we're asking moms and dads to go. 52:22 We're asking our elders to go. We're asking the teachers to go. We're asking everybody to go. 52:28 So there'll be no stigma on the fact that you show up in a room full of people. 52:33 They don't need to know, and neither do you. But we're going to give you 52:37 an opportunity. In fact, let me put the number on the screen for you so that 52:41 you can send me that text. Because if this is true, there's somebody who can pick 52:48 this lock with His master key, then we need help, and we need it right away. 52:54 All right? My next step today -- Let's find out. 53:05 That's the number we use. And you've memorized it by now. Would you please text the word 53:08 Chasing2 to it? You'll get a form that looks like this. 53:11 "My next step today is I want to keep praying. Luther's prayer" -- 53:14 that was last Sabbath, but we didn't have a Connect Card, so I wanted to 53:18 make sure you have it so you can print it off. 'O Christ, 53:20 who has overcome the devil, help me!'" It's a prayer for you and me. 53:26 You put a check mark there, I'll send that to you and you can print it off 53:29 and then keep it with you wherever you go. Put it in your wallet. 53:33 Box number two -- "I want to keep claiming Jesus' promise: 'If the Son set you free, 53:37 you'll be free indeed.'" Of course. Me too. 53:39 Put a check mark there. Here's the one I want you to put a check mark to 53:44 if you would like. "I want to be part of the Pure Desire conference -- 53:48 please send me information on how to sign up." And if you put a 53:52 check mark there, when you hit "send" on that text, within split seconds 53:56 I will send you a website. Don't look it up now. You need to be able 54:00 to look it up in the quiet of your own space. And in that it would send you 54:05 directly to the page. And there saying Berrien Springs, Michigan, 54:08 we'll be there in October and you'll see it all, and it'll tell you how to 54:11 register and it'll tell you about the cost and how we've got a special scholarship 54:15 fund that's set up so that you don't have to pay the full cost. It'll tell you about that. 54:19 Don't worry about the details. I'm not gonna give you the website here. 54:23 You'll only get it this way. 54:30 "I want to be baptized and follow Jesus." Hey, listen, once Jesus takes 54:34 these off, the most -- if you've not 54:38 been baptized, the most natural response would be to say, "Hey, listen, Jesus, 54:40 I want to follow up my decision with baptism." Just put a check mark there. 54:45 We'll be in touch with you. Electronically. And you'll pick a time. 54:51 And we'll do the next steps together. There's one more 54:55 that's not on there, and that is, "I want to be here next week when you celebrate 55:01 the Cross of Christ." This will be the only place on campus 55:04 next week where you can actually come to the foot of the Cross and be cleansed. 55:09 We're going to celebrate Communion. It's going to be a Communion 55:11 like you've never experienced before because your heart 55:14 hasn't been ready for it before. You come next week and bring all your friends with you. 55:19 Bring every friend you have. You bring them. And let's go. 55:22 The title of the homily -- "Bathing in the Red River." It's all about cleansing. 55:31 You'll go home as pure as a wind-driven snow. You don't have to wait 55:39 till next week. But that will be a graphic support to your mind 55:46 for the decision you've made. That's it. I'll see you next Sabbath. 55:52 But we're going to sing a hymn right now. And I'm going to pray 55:55 before we sing to him. For you and for me. O God, Jesus of Nazareth, 56:02 whom the spirit anointed to be the Messiah, the only Messiah we have, 56:07 the only savior of the world we know, dear God, take these handcuffs, 56:15 Lord Jesus. And with the master key in the hand of the Master, 56:21 click the handcuff to open and set us free. Oh, we have stuff to do. 56:30 We get it, we get it. The handcuffs are gone. We're not hanging around them. 56:35 We get it. We may have a place we need to go to 56:39 for the full deliverance, but that's okay, Jesus. Let it start right now. 56:45 For if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. And we thank You. 56:51 In the name that is above all names, let the people say... >> Amen. 56:55 >> Amen. 56:58 >> Before you go, let me take an extra moment to share with you 57:01 an opportunity to get into the Bible in a fresh, new way. 57:04 All across the world, more and more people are hearing the call 57:07 to examine Scriptures for themselves. 57:09 If you've felt drawn to learn more about God's Word, but you 57:12 don't know where to start or you're just looking for a more 57:14 in-depth examination of Bible truths, then I have something 57:17 right here that I believe you're going to enjoy. 57:19 I want to send a series of guides to get you started. 57:22 This one's entitled "Why Does God Allow Suffering?" 57:25 Each guide begins with a story, an introduction of the subject. 57:28 Then, through a series of focus questions, you'll be learning 57:31 portions of the Bible you may never have known before. 57:33 And when you're through, you'll be able to share with others 57:36 some of these inspiring Bible truths. 57:37 Just call our toll-free number. It's on the screen. 57:40 877, the two words "His will." Friendly operators are standing 57:44 by to send these study guides to you. 57:46 Once again, that's 877-HIS-WILL. Call that number, and then 57:51 again join me next week right here at this same time. 57:55 "New Perceptions." 57:59 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:18 ♪♪ |
Revised 2022-09-19