The Visible and the Faithful
Practical Church (1 Corinthians) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Announcements
Good morning. Welcome to Southern Hills Baptist Church. Thank you for joining us today.
If you are a first-time guest with us, you will find a Connection Card in the pew rack in front of you. We would appreciate it if you would fill that out and place it in the offering plate. That gives us a record of your visit and allows us the opportunity of reaching out to you this week to answer any questions that you might have.
Online giving is available at our website, southernhillsbc.com. By clicking on GIVE, it will take you to our giving page where you can easily give by electronic check or credit card. You can also give during our offertory time or in the box at the info table. If you are a guest, please know that we do not expect you to give. Our members and regular attenders provide for the ministry of the church.
A few weeks ago, we turned in the Baby Bottles for the Her Health fundraiser. I wanted you to know that, this year, we raised a total of $891 for Her Health in the Baby Bottles. And so, from me and on behalf of Her Health, we thank you for supporting women in need in our community.
See bulletin for Calendar Updates
If you are a guest with us, know that this is our weekly Family Worship service. Our children will remain with us for the entire service. We do have a nursery available for children under 4 just down the hall if you would like to use it.
Please stand as I read our Call to Worship. We will be doing a 1 this morning. I will read the words in white and we will all read the words in yellow.
Call To Worship
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
Opening Hymn
Scripture & Prayer: Pastor Bob Phil 3:12-4:1
Song #1
Missions Minute: Vacation Bible School
Our annual Vacation Bible School is next week. So today, during our Missions Minute, we are going to be talking about how we try to reach our own community through VBS.
Invite Beth Lamb to speak.
Offering & Prayer
Song #2 (Abide)
Lord’s Supper - Pastor Atreju
Please be seated.
(beat)
Connect Song #2 to Scripture Reading
We’re going to continue our reading about Jesus from the book of John. Today we will continue in chapter 752:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
At this time, I am going to have our ushers come forward. If you are a follower of Jesus, in that you have accepted Him as Savior, bowed to Him as King, and been baptized in obedience to His commandment, we invite you to participate with us. In just a moment, we will pass the plates. Please take a piece of bread and a cup and hold it until we take together.
Pass
Instruction from Jesus: Read Matthew 26:26-29
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Prayer of Blessing on bread and cup
Song #3
Pastoral Prayer
World -
Country-
State-
City-
SHBC-
Introduction
This weekend marks my 2nd anniversary here at Southern Hills. It is hard to believe. Time has surely flown. But we have been busy and God has abundantly blessed both my family and our church family.
It also marks Southern Hills Baptist Church’s 65th anniversary as a local church body. We look forward to celebrating that with you in August with some special guests. So mark your calendars for August 23rd. Invitations will be going out this week, so I hope you will all plan on joining us for that.
Yesterday also marked our 250th anniversary as a nation. How blessed we are to grow up and live in a country that values the freedom of religion. And while persecution is not a bad thing for the church, how fortunate we are to raise children in the knowledge of Christ without worrying about them being harmed for their faith.
But while these are all noteworthy, let us keep our focus on Christ—the One who gives us true freedom and restores us in relationship with our Creator God.
(beat)
If you have your bibles this morning, please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
Thus far in his letter, Paul has called the church in Corinth to unity by putting to death their selfish desires and infighting, and instead focus on Christ. He has corrected their theology on multiple points and given them several pieces of advice for practical church life. And he has just spent the last chapter and a half discussing Christian freedom.
He closed our passage last week by emphasizing the need for self-control and discipline in the life of the Christian. And Paul is going to build off of that this week. He closed chapter 9 by saying this:
1 Corinthians 9:27 “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
He will now give us an illustration of this disqualification as he discusses the visible and the faithful.
[TITLE SLIDE]
Paul will jump off from this concern of disqualification to show that his concern with the way that he runs the race should lead the Corinthians also to be concerned about the quality of their Christian walk as well. When all is said and done, will they receive the crown of life or will they find themselves disqualified?
In our passage this morning, he is going to remind them to focus on seeking after the Holy Spirit in holiness and to purge the evil desires from their lives and their hearts. As he does so, he will be transitioning us from discussion on Christian freedom to that of engaging with idolatry.
Look with me to the beginning of chapter 1 as we read verses 1 through 6:
[MAIN PASSAGE SLIDE x2]
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (/) Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
Paul brings the people of Israel to mind for them—those who left the chains of Egypt. They had been freed from tyranny to a God-given freedom. And yet, many of them misused that freedom, desiring instead the comfort of the familiar over the future blessings that come through the purification of fire in the present.
So, as we begin to dig in this morning, let us use the nation of Israel as a mirror for ourselves just as Paul intended the Corinthians to do.
[POINT 1 SLIDE]
Visible Israel (vv 1-4)
So, let us start with the whole of Israel in the desert. Exodus chapter 12 tells us that 600,000 Israelite men escaped captivity along with women and children. If we are translating this number correctly, this would lead us to estimate that their were approximately 2 to 3 million Israelites who gathered at the base of Mt. Sinai.
We will call these people “visible Israel.”
Let us look back at verse 1:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
Paul is connecting us to his last passage with the word “for.”
“Because I am concerned with disqualification, I do not want you to be unaware.”
So, what is it that Paul wants the church to be aware of? He says that “our fathers,” speaking of the Israelites, “were all under the cloud.” Here, he is referring to the tower of cloud in the Exodus account. This is what it says in Exodus 13:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
This is the cloud that they were under. It was the presence of Almighty God leading them out from bondage in Egypt. It was He who would show them the way to freedom and lead them to His holy mountain at Sinai. The cloud then descended on the mountain top. There, God hovered in the cloud and covered His people with His protection. There, He gave Moses the law for His people to observe. And His cloud would eventually come to rest on His tabernacle when it was completed.
The visible Israelites dwelled there at Sinai in the presence of God. They were under His cloud, which symbolized His authority over His people.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
But Paul says that they also “passed through the sea.” By this, he means that they were metaphorically baptized through the waters of the Red Sea. They went into the waters as fugitives and captives, and came up out of the waters as a free people.
Then Paul makes an interesting statement. Look with me at verse 2:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
In Greek, he says that they were baptized “into the Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” He not only explicitly correlates passing through the Red Sea with baptism, but he says that the people were baptized into Moses. What does he mean by this? Wouldn’t God have baptized His own people in His own name?
In the Old Testament, Moses became an archetype for Christ. He was their leader who led them out of tyranny and into freedom by the mighty hand of God.
He was the mediator of God’s law to the people. He alone met with God and brought the commandments to the people and the laws to the priests.
He was an intercessor for the people when they were deserving of judgment. On multiple occasions, Moses threw himself on the mercy of God, willing to take their punishment so that God would show mercy to the people.
And he was the mouthpiece of God—His prophet, proclaiming truth to a wandering people. He communed with God and served as His ambassador to the nation. He even prophesied of the coming of the Messiah, speaking the words of the Lord,
Deuteronomy 18:18 “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”
Therefore, as the mediator and intercessor for the people of God, Paul says that they were baptized “into Moses.”
Onto verses 3 and 4:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
Paul says that the entire community consumed the same spiritual food and drink. They all ate the same manna and quail and they all drank from the same sources of water. But then he is going to say that “they drank from the spiritual Rock” and that the “Rock followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
So, let’s work through this. Most of you remember the story of Moses obeying God and drawing water from a large rock in the desert. But Moses actually does this twice in two different locations, once at the beginning of their wanderings and once at the end. But the key here is that God provided them with water in the desert every day for 40 years. He simply used the rock as a tool for teaching the people.
There was a rabbinic tradition that God had a well of water actually follow Israel wherever they travelled during their time in the wilderness. It seems as if Paul is repurposing this rabbinic tradition to apply it figuratively to Christ. Notice that Rock is capitalized here and that Paul identifies the rock as Christ.
He is equating the watering rock of Israel with the rock of the church who provides water which nourishes life—in the desert in the physical sense and to the church in the spiritual sense. He makes an astounding claim—not only was Moses a forerunner of Christ, serving as the people’s mediator and intercessor, but Jesus Himself was present in the wilderness and functioning as God’s sustainer of life for His people.
But the purpose of Paul’s discussion is to help the Corinthians to relate to the Israelites. His point is that they are no different. They share the distinctive marks of visible Israel. Like them, they are also the people of God. They have been baptized into Jesus—the good and better Moses—and they dwell under His authority.
Their heritage is one of birth: for the Israelite, natural birth, and for the church-member, spiritual birth.
Both have been freed from tyranny: the Israelite from Egypt, and the church-member from sin and hell.
And they have both participated in the ordinances: baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
These are the marks of visible Israel and the visible church. For the Israelites, it was those people living in the Hebrew community. For the church, it is those who regularly participate in the life of the church. Current estimates say that approximately 1.5 Billion people attend church regularly, many of whom have received the marks of the visible church.
But are these all truly God’s people? Will a quarter of today’s worldwide population die and step into eternity in the presence of Jesus? I think that most of us would be quick to say no. The idea of Christendom on earth has failed us. You can force people to convert and to act like Christians, but you cannot change their hearts. And cultural Christianity is a myth. It is only play-acting for many, where you learn to go-along to get-along.
Coming to church doesn’t make you a Christian.
Tithing doesn’t make you a Christian.
You cannot be saved by being baptized or by taking the Lord’s Supper.
For we are saved by grace alone, through faith. It is God’s grace, working together with our loyalty to His Son that brings about salvation in our lives.
All God ever wanted from His people was their hearts. It is not what we do that saves us, but our allegiance to Him as our Almighty Creator God. We respond in worship and obedience because it flows from a heart of love and gratefulness for what God has already done for us.
But sadly, there are many in the visible church that have not come to this point.
(beat)
They profess belief in Christ with their lips and yet deny Him by refusing to allow Jesus to be their Lord.
And the same was true with visible Israel. Myriads were assembled at Mt Sinai worshipping the Holy and Almighty God who conquered the gods of Egypt and led them to freedom, and yet there were few who were wholly devoted to Yahweh God.
[POINT 2 SLIDE]
The Unfaithful (v 5)
There were unfaithful people in the midst of Israel, just as there are unfaithful church members today. These people claimed loyalty to the Most High God, but their lives are marked out by disobedience.
Look at what Paul says in verse 5. He has just spoken of all the ways that the Israelites were set apart as God’s people. Then he says:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Notice that Paul does not say that some of them failed to please God, but “most of them.” Here, he is not referring to the continual grumbling of the people or even to the rebellion of Korah against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. Instead, he is referring to the rebellion of the majority of the community after the spies had given the report of Canaan.
If you don’t remember the story, God tells Moses to choose one man from each tribe and send them into the land of Canaan for 40 days to spy it out ahead of the conquest. But 10 of the 12 come back with great fear of the people they saw and the 10 give a bad report. Their anxiety quickly spreads to the people so that Numbers 14:1 says that “all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.”
The people wake up the next day and demand a new leader to replace Moses. They want someone who can lead them back into captivity in Egypt! Their hearts desire to be back in bondage.
In this, they not only fail to believe God’s promise to give them the promised land, but they ultimately reject Him as their leader. They are not rejecting Moses, but God Himself! God responds:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?
God was not pleased with His people. The Hebrews had been set aside for Him from the time of Abraham. He had taken them out of the disinherited nations to be a holy people set apart for Himself. He had walked with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had rescued them from calamity by the hand of Joseph. And He had rescued them from the abusive Pharoah and led them to freedom, and yet the familiarity of sin and captivity were still more appealing to them then trusting God to fulfill His promise to give them a land of their own flowing with milk and honey.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
And Paul says that God was so displeased with them that “they were overthrown in the wilderness.” So, what does he mean by this?
The word “overthrown” in Greek means to kill. In the Septuagint, it is translated as scattered, slaughtered, or destroyed. In other words, Paul is saying that the Israelites who were unfaithful to God were brought to an end in the wilderness.
You see, the Israelites were God’s elect people, and yet most of them were found wanting in their faith. They were not loyal to their Creator. They had not given God their hearts and learned to trust Him. Their lives were still controlled by their fear and their own selfish desires. And the same is true of the church—both in Corinth then and in the church today.
Every Sunday, millions of people walk through church doors to worship a God that most of them have yet to submit to.
Jude speaks of these people in his letter to the church:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE x4]
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (/)
Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. (/) And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— (/) just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Jude says that there are people in the church just like these Hebrews. They pervert God’s grace and deny Jesus as Master and Lord. He even likens these people to the disobedient angels. For both the Hebrews and these angels knew God—they saw His works: His power and His might. And yet, they chose to serve themselves instead of Him.
And for these unfaithful, God has reserved for them the fire of eternal separation from Him. For that is the natural consequence of their unfaithfulness. Just like those in Sodom and Gomorrah, these individuals have chosen to serve their own unnatural sinful desires instead of the God who created them.
And so, Paul uses them as an example for the Corinthians of what not to do. All God wants in return for His faithfulness to us is our loving loyalty. Paul is reminding the church of this fact. Instead of making the assumption that these so-called believers can use their Christian freedom however they want, they should be concerned about living holy lives of quality.
The participation in the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper do not give license to live lives untethered to the gospel. As Paul will make clear in the rest of this chapter, they cannot commune with both the Holy Spirit and demons. Being baptized and taking communion are not “get out of hell free” cards.
Paul wants them to recognize this and to live lives faithful to King Jesus and to run the race with complete assurance that they will receive the crown of life.
But, as we discussed last week, the kingdom of God is exclusive. It is not available to all people. It is not even available to all of the people in the visible church. Instead, only true Israel will enter.
[POINT 3 SLIDE]
True Israel (v 6)
True Israel are those within visible Israel who have truly given their hearts and their lives to Yahweh God. They are those in the community who have been found faithful. In the case of the Israelites in the wilderness, God let an entire generation perish rather than taste the promise of the promised land. Only Caleb and Joshua were found worthy of entering.
And I want you to note that it is not because of something they did. Rather, it was simply the fact that they believed in God’s promise. They gave Him their loving loyalty and believed that the God who proved Himself more powerful than the Egyptian gods would also be more powerful than the gods of Canaan.
And Paul says that the Corinthians should take heed and learn from this story. Look with me at verse 6:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
Paul says that the failure of the Israelites in the wilderness should stand as an example for Christians. The word that he uses here, translated as “example” is typos. It is a type or a pattern for us to follow.
Just as Moses was a type, or pattern, of an intermediating savior—the archetype of the future Messiah, so Israel should serve the church as a type, or pattern, for the church.
As parents, we are always encouraging our children to learn by example. We model behavior for them, but we also point to others and say “I want you to be like this.” But we also pray that our children will learn from poor examples. “This is what not to do.”
I speak of my failures openly to my children because I don’t want them to repeat what I have done. “Kids, learn from my mistakes.” But I also want them to learn from others’ mistakes. Have you ever driven by someone on the corner wearing a trash bag and arguing with themselves?
(beat)
Perfect opportunity to remind the kids not to do drugs.
(beat)
I remember walking through a casino in Laughlin, Nevada with my kids at my sister-in-law’s wedding. There was an 85 year old lady sitting at a slot machine. She was wearing a nose cannula attached to a big oxygen tank and smoking a cigarette while she played the slots. I told the kids, “See guys, this is why we don’t smoke. That lady is 29…”
(beat)
But the point of that is that Paul is presenting Israel in the wilderness as a negative example to the church. This is what not to do. Failure to submit to God and give Him loving loyalty leads to destruction. We should “not desire evil as they did.”
Those within the visible church who run from evil and take shelter in Jesus, submitting their lives to Him fully, are those who make up the invisible church. They are the true church. And in fact, Paul says that they are the true Israel.
Notice that back in verse 1 that Paul claims “our fathers” for the church. He says that the leaders of Israel are the forefathers of the church. It doesn’t matter that the Gentile believers don’t physically descend from Abraham. The church has been grafted into Israel. And because of that, we share the same history with the physical descendants of Israel.
Paul says that loyal Jews and Gentiles have become one body—one family—as fellow citizens in the household of God. Israel is not a race, but a holy people belonging to Yahweh God. The nations have been blessed by the seed of Abraham and the regenerate have been adopted into God’s family by the blood of Jesus.
Paul makes this understanding explicit in Romans chapter 11:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE x4]
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. (/) Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. (/) Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. (/) For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
The invisible church is the invisible Israel. Those submitted and loyal to Jesus link arms with Caleb and Joshua as we walk into the promise of God.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
Paul is trying to help the Corinthians understand this. The church has been grafted into the people of Israel by the seed of Abraham blessing all nations through His death and resurrection. And true Israel are a people who have been called to holiness.
Will these church members consider this example? Will they run the race without disqualifying themselves? Will they sacrifice some of their freedoms for the sake of the gospel and those around them?
Obedience matters. And not only because it demonstrates our loving loyalty to Jesus. But also, because obedience is what keeps the church holy.
Paul wants this lesson to take root in the hearts of the Corinthians. And I call you today to take note as well. For this lesson is for the church today. Will we learn hard lessons of loyalty or will we chase after our sinful desires?
Let us run the race with loving loyalty and endurance as we chase after Jesus into His kingdom.
[PREVIEW SLIDE]
Application
Now, I don’t want to leave you guessing this morning. It is a sad and lonely existence to constantly be anxious about the state of your salvation. So, how can we be assured of our salvation this morning?
The simple answer is that if you have believed in Jesus, you will be saved.
But that belief is not static. It is not just something that we mentally assent to. We must believe that Jesus is God in the flesh and that He died and was resurrected to free us from sin and reconcile us in relationship to the Father. And that belief must move us to love and obedience. We come and bow at the feet of King Jesus and give Him our lives to do whatever He wants with. This is what it means to be in submission.
This is what is means for Jesus to be our Lord.
And when we have believed and submitted to Him, our hearts are regenerated—they are made new by the Holy Spirit entering into our lives. And God only asks for your loving loyalty to His Son.
Paul says in Romans 8 that nothing can separate the love of God from us. But are do you love Him in return? Is there something today holding you back from giving Him your loving loyalty?
Regenerated hearts and the presence of the Holy Spirit are the marks of salvation. They are how you know that you are saved. Paul tells the Ephesians that the Holy Spirit is the seal of that salvation. His presence guarantees our eternal destination with Jesus. So how can we tell if our hearts have been regenerated and the Holy Spirit is present?
First, if you have submitted your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit has begun shaping you into the image of Jesus. You should see your desires begin to change. You should begin desiring holiness and obedience. You should also begin seeing fruit in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. They will manifest differently in each person, but they will continue to grow in your life as you faithfully follow Jesus.
Initially, you may just have a sense of joy and peace that you have never felt before. Keep being faithful and the others will begin to fill out in your life as well. Be obedient in every moment, not out of duty, but out of gratitude for your salvation.
But if you have submitted your life fully to Christ and have seen your desires and the character of your heart begin to change, you can be assured of your salvation.
(beat)
For those of you who are sure already, it is normal for us to sometimes doubt. It is part of our tainted human condition. There are moments in our life when fear and doubt grab a hold of us. And in those moments, let us return to the Word of God and rest in the fact that we serve a God who always keeps His promises.
Invitation
And finally, for those of you who have never made the decision to follow Jesus, you can come and join the family today. God created you for a purpose. And even though we are all sinners, God still loves us the way that we are. He loves you right where you are in this moment. It doesn’t matter what you have done or where you have been. He loves you all the same.
But He also loves you enough to not leave you there. He calls you to come and be made new because He designed you for something more—something better. Come and see what the Lord has in store for you. Come and see what it means to be truly human.
CLOSE IN PRAYER
CLOSING HYMN
CONGREGATIONAL BLESSING
