The Christian Will –
Introduction
You can live one way
or the other in regard to the whole business that all of us face
sometime in our lives, of trying to arrange our matrimonial
existence. You can live, either feeling that it’s up to you to try
to hook the right one, or the one that you want, or the one you
'think' will make you happy. Or you can live in real peace, and
relaxation, and rest, and confidence that your Father who made you
has certainly plans for that very important side of your life; and he
is going to lead you to the right girl or the right guy. So I think
all of us here this evening can see that you can live either one way
or the other.
Now loved ones, I
don’t think it’s a question of, do you get your salary check from
God or do you get it from the employer? Obviously God uses the world
in which we move to give us food. And to give us a great deal of
happiness. But the real issue is, is this world or these instruments
-- are they in God's control? And are they his servants? Or are they
pieces of inanimate and intractable substance that you and I have to
kind of try to wrestle into some shape to get them to give us what we
want? So do you see that’s the issue? The issue is not do I kneel
down, instead of going out to work, and pray, "Lord, send me a
salary check! Send me a salary check, Lord; I’m waiting! I’m
waiting! I’m waiting!" It’s not that. God will presumably
use many of the normal channels of this world to give us a salary
check. He will probably not send us an angel wife! 'Though they do
exist?!? But he will probably not send us an angel to marry. He will
probably send us some human being like ourselves. But he will do it
by his own desire and determination. And we have to decide, "Will
he do that? And can we trust him? Or have we somehow to wrestle what
we need out of this world ourselves?"
Loved ones, that’s
the issue really! There is only one issue in life: Do you live in
inner trust that your father that who has made you and put you here
has everything organized and will supply what you need? And
therefore do you live as a 'care free' child -- as we used to live
when we were four year old, you remember? We didn’t have to work
out where our next meal was coming from; we knew our father and our
mother had it organized. Do you live that way? Or do you live worried
and anxious, because you really do depend on the throw of the dice?
On the way the economy turns out? On whether your job allows you to
have promotion? On whether somebody smiles at you or doesn’t smile
at you? On whether the circumstances that you’re looking forward
to turn out as you hoped? You either live dependent on the Father, or
you live dependent on us here in this room and on hundreds of other
people that you’re dependent upon in work and school. And that is
the question in this life. On whom you depend?
And I think those of
you who have been here for years know that, I’ve so often shared,
that most of us have been brought up -- even, it seems, by godly
parents who have tried to tell us the right way -- most of us have
been brought up through it -- especially the influence of our schools
and the environment in which we live -- we’ve been brought up to
depend on people; to depend on people’s opinions, for our good
feelings about ourselves. And I think all of you would agree with
that.
I would say that
probably many of you sitting in these seats tonight are still very
dependent on other people's opinion for you’re feeling good about
yourself. And I would just suspect that many of you feel very down,
when somebody criticizes you. And you feel very up, when somebody
whom you respect says something good about you.
Now loved ones, it
seems that all of us have been born into the world like that. I don’t
know whether we came out of our mom’s womb like that. We probably
did according to the bible. We came out with a tendency to depend on
people’s opinions, for our feeling about ourselves.
I think it’s the
same with this whole business of feeling that we’re safe. You know
it. It’s just so much easier, it seems, to feel your safe if you
have 20,000 in the bank; and if your car is only two years old; and
if you are beginning to put money into some kind of savings in a
house or real estate or into stocks and shares. It seems so much
easier somehow to feel safe in that situation, than when you have
absolutely not a penny to your name.
And so many of us
are really slaves to what we own, or to what we don’t own. It’s
interesting to think of it that way isn’t it? They are not our
servants at all. We actually are often slaves and servants of our
possessions. And we’re slaves to the things we own, for our sense
of security and safety.
And it’s the same
thing with this happiness thing. Well I just ask you, what makes you
happy? And I mean most of us have probably got over, "Well three
gallons of whiskey!" Most of us have got past that. Most of us
got past, "Well I -- being promiscuous, or jumping in and out of
bed. That makes me happy." Most of us are kind of more
sophisticated than that. And we have risen above that.
But I push you a
little, what does make you happy? And isn’t it true that so often
it seems to come back to, "Well I have a -- boy if you saw the
trip I have planned for this vacation. Ah I’m so looking forward to
it!" Or, "I’m so looking forward to the theatre next
week." Or, "I’m so looking forward to this movie that
I’ve been waiting to come to Minneapolis." Or, "I’m so
looking forward to going out with this group of guys, because, boy,
they are fun." Or, "I’m so looking forward to this
person speaking to you, when you’re having a conversation with me."
And isn’t it true
that many of us, even here in this room, probably depend very much
for our happiness on what 'happens' to us. That’s what makes us
happy. It’s, "The right circumstances fall out, we’re
happy." And yet you know that it makes you a dreadful slave to
the throw of a dice. It really does, because if the circumstances
don’t turn out that way, it seems life is very empty, and
everything is flat. And even when the circumstances do turn out
right, you’re happy and up there while they are good. But then you
drop down, so often, into depression, after the circumstances change.
Now loved ones,
that’s what this dear book [Pastor holds up a Bible] talks about
when it says living “according to the world,” or living “off
the world,” you see, or living “according to the flesh.” It’s
living from the outside in.
And in fact there
is a different life that can be lived. And I know we’re not all
Saint Theresa’s here; or we’re not all used to 20 hours of
prayer; or we haven’t all experienced the stigmata of Jesus’
wounds in our hands.
But the fact is,
that the heart of happiness -- after you’ve analyzed everything to
do with sexual intercourse, after you’ve analyzed everything to do
with exciting circumstances -- the ‘heart of happiness’ is,
knowing that somebody else who is very important and significant in
your life, actually knows you, through and through, and through, and
still loves you. That’s actually the ‘heart of happiness’. And
many of us who are married realize that that’s it. It’s not the
intercourse; it’s not all the other things. It’s knowing that
somebody else who is very important to you knows you through, and
through, and through and still loves you. And that’s the deepest
happiness that any human being can have. When you’re even just
sitting across from another person like that. And you look into
their eyes, and they look into your eyes. And you know that they
know everything about you, and still they love you, and accept you
completely, as themselves. That’s the heart of happiness.
Now loved ones, that
is God’s plan for us, in our relationship with him. Now I know --
you don’t need to tell me -- I know many of us are not at that
place with God. But that is what real happiness is. It’s a little
bit of what was in that hymn: it is beginning to walk through the
world with the owner of the world right at your side. It’s knowing
that he’s there, and him beginning to point out to you, “That
tree! See I made that. Look at the way I made that mountain, and
look at the way I made that river.” That’s happiness! And that
is the happiness that God actually wants us to experience.
And it’s the same
with this business of security. Loved ones, you’ve been through it
enough to know that there are many jobs that you’ve been in that
you thought were absolutely secure, and you were like a ‘fiddler on
a roof’. It was just teeter, totter. The whole company was actually
bankrupt, when you felt, “Oh, this was a solid job.” And the
truth is that the security does not depend on those things. Security
depends on whether the Maker, who has made you, knows what you need,
and is going to be faithful in supplying it to you. And there is a
bit to that truth, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I
know who holds the future.” That’s where real security comes
from: knowing that the Father who has everything in his control,
knows you, and is not going to let you down.
Now there’s a
possible trust there between you and him that brings a deeper
security than owning all the stocks and shares in the world. Now
that’s the way God wants us to live, loved ones.
Now I think what
many of us here, say is, “I know that, Pastor. I know that. And I
do try to live that way. I do! But I cannot! I tell you, I have made
up my mind a thousand times, that when I see that red ink turning up
in my bank account, I will not worry. I have made my mind up a
thousand times, that whether this person likes me or not I’m going
to rest in the fact that my Father loves me. But I find myself unable
to do it. And loved ones, that’s because we are just turned inside
out. You are!
And that’s what
the Bible really means when it says we’re born in sin. Each one of
us here has been born into a world that has depended on itself for
centuries. And that attitude has been passed down to us by
generations and generations of human beings, until you, actually,
have a personality that works inside out, and is born upside down,
and cannot live the way it was meant to live.
And loved ones,
that’s why Jesus died. God took you and me, hundreds and thousands
of years ago, having foreseen every one of us that would ever live.
Do you realize that? Do you realize that God, the Creator, was able
to foresee your life before you were ever born? I mean, that
shouldn’t be difficult for us, when we think of the computers and
their ability to calculate probability, and permutations. It should
be possible for us to realize that if we can create computers that
can compute what is likely to be the situation in America in 20
years’ time, it is surely possible for the Creator of the universe
to have foreseen every one of us here in this room, to have foreseen
even the color of our hair, and to have foreseen the way we would
develop.
And loved ones, the
fact is, that God foresaw you like that. He is able, in one great
eternal moment, to see all of life laid out before him. And what he
did was, when he saw that, he was able to take us, as yet unborn, and
put them into his Son -- put all of us into his Son -- and change us.
And that’s the
meaning of Calvary. And that’s the meaning of that incredible
verse, you remember, in Revelation, where it talks about “the lamb
that was slain from before the foundation of the world.” And then
you remember that remarkable verse in 2 Corinthians 5, which says,
“If Christ died then all died.”
Now, can you put
those two together? “The lamb was slain from before the foundation
of the world.” And if the lamb died, then all died. All of us died.
And that’s what the Bible means when it says, “Our old self was
crucified with Christ.” A million billion years ago, before the
world was ever created, God completely remade you and me in his Son.
And actually the ‘remade person’ is the only one that actually
exists. And the one that your living by at this moment -- that self
that needs people’s opinions and praises, that self that needs the
security of money and stocks and shares, that self that needs
circumstances and experiences to make it happy -- that actually has
been destroyed by God in his Son, Jesus. And when you live by that
self, you’re living by a mirage that actually has been destroyed in
eternity, billions of years ago. And that’s why so often the
security or the happiness that you tried to get from that disappears
like a mirage, because it’s all unreal! It’s been destroyed and
wiped out!
And that’s why God
says to you, “Believe this gospel!” That’s the first step. The
first step is not, “Exercise your will, to change your whole
tendency to depend on people, instead of on God.” That’s not the
first word. The first word is to believe the gospel; to believe that
that personality of yours that seems so intractable, that little eye,
that looks out, once it enters the office door to see, “Is he
smiling at me? Is he smiling at me?” To believe that that little
eye was destroyed by God In his son Jesus. And that that whole being
of yours was destroyed and remade completely. And what God is saying
to you is, “Believe that! Believe that!”
Do you see why it’s
so silly when some of you think, “Oh, I just don’t think God has
forgiven me?” Forgiven you? Not only has he forgiven you, he’s
destroyed you in his Son and remade you. And when he looks at you
tonight, he doesn’t see anything to forgive, because he sees the
new person that’s he’s made in his Son.
And if you say to
me, “Oh no! But look what I am; look what I am here on earth,”
that’s the ‘self’ that God destroyed in his son. And he sees
things according to what he’s done to you in his son Jesus. In
other words -- let me show you it on this old miserable diagram
again. God doesn’t deal with us according to our sins. God deals
with us as if we’re like that.
[Pastor shows a
diagram of the personality that consists of 3 concentric rectangles.
The outer rectangle is the 'body'. The next smaller one is the
'soul'. The smallest one inside is the 'spirit'. The basic diagram
shows God's Holy Spirit above the 3 rectangles, and an arrow from the
Holy Spirit into our 'spirit', and then an arrow from our spirit to
our 'soul', and then an arrow from our 'soul' to our 'body' and
finally an arrow from our 'body' out to the 'world', shown on the
diagram as below the 'body' outer rectangle.]
[The diagram is
actually more detailed than that. Inside the 'spirit are 'Communion',
'Intuition' and 'Conscience', and the arrow from the Holy Spirit goes
first to 'Communion', from there to 'Intuition', and from there to
'Conscience'. Then the 'soul' is similarly divided into 'Will',
'Mind', and 'Emotions', and the arrow from the 'spirit' to the 'soul'
is actually from 'Conscience' to 'Will', with a note "Obeys".
The sequence in the 'soul', then, is from 'Will' to 'Mind', and from
'Mind' to 'Emotions', and from there out to the 'body'.]
That’s the way we
were meant to live. And God deals with us as if we're like that.
That’s what Psalm 103 and verse 10 means. "God does not deal
with us according to our sins…" [Pastor shows the diagram
again, but with an overlay that shows the arrows going in the
opposite direction, from the 'world' into the 'body' and from the
'body' to the 'Emotions', to the 'Mind', and to the 'Will'.]
That’s the way so
many of us live: trying to get from the world the security,
significance and happiness that we need. And so we end up with our
'mind' manipulating instead of understanding; and our 'emotions'
trying to get joy from everything we can; and our 'will' absolutely
dominated by these things. "God does not deal with us according
to our sins," because on Calvary that was crucified. [Pastor
adds another overlay of a big cross covering the whole mess.] And God
deals with us as if were like that. [Pastor removes both overlays to
get back to the diagram that shows the personality functioning in the
normal way, from the Holy Spirit into our 'spirit' and out through
our 'soul' and 'body' to the 'world' as detailed above.]
And that’s the
first step in beginning the Christian life, believing that; believing
that God deals with you this evening as if you’re like that.
[Pastor indicates the diagram again with the arrows coming from the
Holy Spirit into our 'spirit' and out through our 'soul' and 'body'
to the 'world' as detailed above.]
Now that’s
incredible! In other words God is willing to give you all that he was
willing to give you when you were innocent, and when you were
sinless, before the foundation of the world. God doesn’t deal with
you as if you’re like that, [Pastor puts the overlay that shows the
arrows going the other direction, from the world to the body to the
soul, etc. back over the diagram.] because that, in his mind is a
deception and a mirage. But he deals with you as if you’re like
that. [He again removes that backwards overlay.]
That’s why it’s
so foolish and such a trick of Satan when you sit there this evening,
and you say, "But brother you're right. You're right. I’m
like that. [Pastor puts the reversed overlay back on.] I’m like
that. How on earth do I get to be like that?" [Now he removes
the reversed overlay again.] In God’s eyes you’re like that. The
other self that was like that [Puts overlay back.] was crucified and
wiped out of existence on Calvary. [Again he removes the reversed
overlay.] That’s the only self that remains. And God treats you as
being like that at this very moment. Because he knows you are like
that in reality. And he has given each one of us these 70 years to
believe that.
Now if you say to
me, “Oh! What happens after the 70 years?” Loved ones, the
tragedy is, the deception is able to commit you to a life of
deception forever in hell. The deception can work out an eternal life
of deception forever in hell! But during these 70 years God has given
us an opportunity to actually believe that this [indicates the
original diagram with the arrows from the Holy Spirit into our
spirits] is the real self that exists. And then loved ones, then you
begin to submit your will to that, and live according to that. But
the way is first by faith, first by grasping it, first by believing
it.
Ok, I’ll shut up.
Any questions, anybody want a push me?
Question from
audience:
We should trust God
instead of external situations, but could there be something to be
healed, before we’re able to trust him?
Response from Pastor
:
Marie, I suppose
that’s -- I’m sure that’s true. I’m sure what you say is
true. But it will only be healed by faith. It seems that’s it, that
it has been healed in Jesus. I mean presumably your thinking of
someone maybe who was brought up -- I don’t know if I can create an
example -- but someone who was brought up maybe with an overbearing,
dominating, cruel kind of father. So that, that person came up with a
very tender, frightened little heart, and came up overwhelmed with
pleasing this one 'significant other' in her life, and so began then
to fear all such threatening people. And maybe you’re thinking,
"Well now, wouldn’t that little fearful, terrified heart have
to be healed?" And I could see how, yes!
But I would answer
that the only way to be healed is the way Jesus said, "Your
faith has made you whole," your faith that actually that dear
little heart was destroyed and crucified and made completely new in
Jesus; and that she now had a heart that belonged to Christ; and that
it was up to her repeatedly to go back to that. Now maybe she might
stumble often. Maybe she might often take that stand and say, "Lord,
I know I do not need to be terrified of this person. I know that I
have been changed and made whole." And she might stumble a
thousand times doing it, but really what I would say is, that is
still the basis of eventual healing: taking that position of faith.
Instead of saying to her self, "Oh well, I’ll just have to
try. I’ll just have to try, try to will it."
Or I don’t know if
what you’re getting at -- maybe you’re wondering, "Well
would she not have to have some psychiatric help, or some
psychological help?"
And I think the only
value of that is, if it’s a Christian psychologist who can somehow
lead a loved one to see in what way they are not believing this, or
they are not having faith in this.
But it seems to me
where you would go to the kind of healing that would try to get them,
"Alright, now trust this person. Now will you trust this
person? Now will you trust that person?" It seems that that’s
back to the old 'salvation by works'.
Now on the other
hand, I can see that a loving a person who had Jesus within them
himself, could express Jesus, as a trustworthy person to them. But I
still think that sooner or later the only way to healing is by faith
in this 'great act' that God has done for us in Jesus.
Question from
audience:
Doesn’t it seem
like some things can be healed just by the love of other people?
Response from Pastor
:
Marie, it seems to
me it's that -- I’m sure that’s true, if it’s the love of Jesus
coming through people.
But I think there is
a great danger in our present so called 'Christian movement', there
is a great danger of substituting a little bit of psychological
therapy or manipulation, which lacks complete honesty. There’s a
little tendency to say, "Oh now let’s just be kind to this
person to kind of heal them." And really what they need is a
sight of Jesus. And he alone can heal them completely. And that’s
why it seems to me that many loved ones get 'healed lightly', who
experience what they call a 'Christian healing', or experience what
they call 'Christian new birth'. It actually is, too often, a kind of
modification of a psychological treatment. And I think that’s
dangerous.
So I sure agree with
you, that I think Jesus can love a person through another’s eyes,
but only when the other person is in love with Jesus, themselves, and
is doing the thing just as an expression of Jesus' Spirit, and not
with a 'view in end' to try to heal this person.
Question from
audience:
Isn't it a growing
thing and a developing thing?
Response from Pastor
:
Undoubtedly that’s
true. And undoubtedly part of what God has called us to, as a body,
is to encourage one another, gradually to hold steady on our faith
that this is so, and gradually to get our wills moving in the same
line. And undoubtedly that’s true. And undoubtedly that’s part
of the love that 'builds up'.
Question from
audience:
Is it because it’s
a growing thing, that sometimes at the beginning you seem to slip
back into the old self?
Response from Pastor
:
I think so, sister.
I think there are a number of pressures that work on us. I think the
sheer society itself is constantly brain washing us, in all kinds of
subconscious ways, to operate on the same basis as them. So I think
we're meeting that every day.
I think as well as
that, our old personality has to be 'rerouted'. And so often it
keeps going this other way. [Pastor shows the diagram again, with the
overlay that shows the arrows going in the opposite direction, from
the 'world' into the 'body' and from the 'body' to the 'Emotions', to
the 'Mind', and to the 'Will'.] But I think the key to the whole
thing -- and that’s the heart of what I wanted to share this
evening -- is that God has done it! That God 'has' actually 'changed
us in Jesus'! And unless we have faith in that, we become
overwhelmed by just what you said. We become overwhelmed every time
we slip back. It’s just -- Satan is the 'accuser of the brethren'.
And he just comes along each time and says, "There! You see,
you’re really just what you thought you were!"
And that’s why
it’s so essential to stand on the basis of God's word, that, "He
does not deal with us according to our sins," and that, "Our
old self has been crucified, and we’ve been changed," and that
God deals with us like that. And so faith is the only ground to stand
on.
And I think often,
what Marie is saying; often we get into all kinds of desperate
attempts to do something about it, because we somehow have not
grasped that. And loved ones, what I saw was -- I saw a lot of us
trying to create this [life that runs the way it was intended]. And
we're trying to get into it by our own wills. And what God asks us to
do is to believe that 'it has been done'. And if you remember -- I'd
show you that verse if I can remember where it is. But it’s in
Revelation. Yes, it’s in Revelation 12:10, "And I heard a
loud voice in heaven, saying, 'Now the salvation and the power and
power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have
come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who
accuses them day and night before our God.'" So that is Satan's
job, to accuse us 'before our God'. He says, "No, it doesn't
matter what you believe; you are a disappointment in your belief."
And you see how they answered in verse 11. "And they have
conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony." And it's by the death of Jesus, and by their
standing on that death that they overcame Satan.
It seems to me it's
the same thing with our own situations. When Satan comes along and
says, "Look, your the same old miserable person that you were
three years ago," you stand on the basis of Jesus death. And you
say, "No, God crucified that old self with Christ on Calvary.'
That', I know is gone, and 'that' is dead. And he would not allow
'that' to exist in his own universe. And that is why he destroyed it
in Jesus. I know that is gone. I know I may still be living by some
of the lies and deceptions I've been used to living with over the
years. But that has gone. So get away." But it seems to me that
is the way to answer, instead of answering him, "Oh, but I'm
doing better than I did last week."
Question from
audience (inaudible):
Response from Pastor
:
Well Brother, I
would agree with you. But I would put it even more strongly than
that: God knows how to make this miracle real in us. He knows the
timing. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He is able to make
real to us the benefits of Jesus' death on Calvary, and resurrection.
And we can afford to put ourselves in his hands and say, "Father,
I know that has happened. And I thank you for it and I believe it.
And I know that you love me. And now, Lord, just bring me into this
bit by bit; just bring me into it through your Holy Spirit."
Yes, and God does it -- some of it he does like that, and some of it
he does gradually. But it is in his hands.
I would agree with
you thoroughly; yes, we should be patient with God. But still, that
is an understatement. We should be, not only patient with him, we
should say to him, "Lord, you alone know how to make this real
in me, and I trust you."
But you see, if it
hasn't been done on Calvary, then we are in a real difficulty. But if
it has been done on Calvary, then we are acceptable before our God.
And he is not interested in destroying us anymore. He destroyed us in
Jesus on Calvary! If you said to him, "Lord, you don't want to
come and destroy me?" he'd say, "I've already done that!
That's past!" That is why some of us are so dumb, when we say,
"Oh God still wants to punish me." He is not interested in
punishment anyway. But the reason that he did destroy us, at all, in
Jesus, was so that we'd be able to live in him today. And that all
has been done
Question from
audience:
If that is the case
then you can't really pray to God to "Give me strength."
"Give me strength to stop smoking." "Give me strength
to do this or do that." Because actually it all has been done.
You've been destroyed and remade. All you can ask God for is light
and revelation to see it and move into it more fully.
Response from Pastor
:
Especially, then, if
you say, "In what way can you grow?" It is by exercising
your will in light of this, you come into more and more power so that
God is able to manifest, in the world, through you, more and more of
the works that he said we would do, "Much more beyond" what
his Son did when he was on the earth.
But that is right,
Dan.
But loved ones, it
is good to think about it. I'd urge you to do that. I'd urge you to
think about it. And if you say to me, "Well, what if I don't
want this 'old self' crucified?"
Well, it's been
crucified. So you can't do much about it. You can, if you choose, to
live by the lie that it is still alive. And if you continue to do
that until the end of this life, then you will find yourself in the
company of those who live in an eternal deception in hell. Because
God has allowed -- he says, "Be it unto you according to your
faith." And if you are determined that is what you are going to
believe, then actually that will -- has created, indeed, a great
world of deception over which Satan rules.
But during this
lifetime we live in a period of respite, every one of us. And I'd
encourage you, any of you who tend to come under the accusation of
Satan, boy, I would encourage you to see that he has no ground for
that at all. It's like having a car that was in an accident; it was
absolutely smashed to bits. And you take it into an auto body shop,
and you get it completely redone so that it looks absolutely like
new. And your little brother says, "Yeah, look at your old beat
up car!" And you say, "You dumb-dumb! Don't you see that it
has all been remade? It has all been completely remade!"
And that is the
situation with ourselves. And that is the answer to Satan. But loved
ones, the beginning of any place of our wills in our lives, has to be
'faith'. The first step is, "Do you believe that Calvary has
taken place and that you have been remade in Jesus? Do you believe
that?" That is the first step.
And next Sunday I'd
like to then begin to talk about the place of the 'will' in light of
that. Let us pray.
Dear Father, we
thank you for the miraculous truth that you do not deal with us
according to our sins, or reward us according to our transgressions;
but that you do treat us in the light of 'reality'. And 'reality' is
that all of us were slain with "the Lamb that was slain from
before the foundation of the world" and completely remade and
renewed. And, oh Lord, we thank you for that. And thank you Father
that you deal with us according to that. You're so gracious.
And Lord, we thank
you. Thank you that all of heaven is open to us tonight, because
we've been remade in Jesus. And when you look upon us you see us in
your Son. And you will not withhold any good thing from your Son or
from those who dwell in him. And, oh Lord, we thank you tonight that
we can believe that, and we can live according to that.
And Father we thank
you that your Son did not need the approval of the Roman soldiers, or
even of his own mother. And we thank you that your Son, Jesus did not
need lots and lots of gold and possessions. But his security and his
sense of value was found in his confidence in you and your love. And
Father we thank you that that is so for each one of us tonight, that
you love each one of us here. You think the world of us! And you are
not going to let us want or be in need. Any you yourself are our
complete happiness. Father, we thank you for that. We move out
tonight in confidence that we have been remade and born again in
Jesus.
Now the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with each one of us tonight and forever more.
Amen.
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