The Authority of the King pt. 3

Introduction:

Good-morning Connection Church!

I am so glad that you have gathered with us to worship God together today!

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jonathan Hansen and I am the Pastor here at Connection Church in Lead. You hear me say this every week but I believe it to be true, It is a wonderful thing to worship God together on the Lord’s Day! We really do enjoy coming together to celebrate and worship our great God together. We worship together on the Lord’s Day through singing, giving, fellowship, the learning of truths, and the reading and preaching of God’s Word.

Since we have already worshiped through those other methods, we are going to now move into a time of worship where we read God’s Word and hear it preached. We really do center on the written Word of God here. It is our foundation for truth and what we build our lives and church on. We believe that the Bible is the revealed Truth from God and it is a firm foundation for all we say and do. It is how we learn about Jesus and the good news of salvation.

Introduction of the passage:

So with that in mind, take your Bibles and open with me to Matthew 9:1-8. We have been going verse by verse through the book of Matthew together. For those of you who have been here, what are some of the things we have learned in Matthew so far?

Give time for responses. If people struggle to respond, ask some of the following:

Who wrote Matthew? Who was it written to? Who is the book of Matthew about? What was the name of the promise God made to David? What are some things that we have seen Jesus has authority over?

Very good! Yes, we have specifically covered in the past weeks the authority of Jesus, the King. We have seen that Jesus has authority over sickness, nature and demons. Jesus has healed many people, calmed a terrible storm, and cast out demons. Last week we saw Jesus calm the storm showing His authority over nature. We also saw last week that Jesus cast out demons from two men, showing His authority over the forces of Satan. Specifically as we look at our passage today, Jesus’ healing of the leper is very important to our study. Who here remembers what the people of Jesus’ day associated leprosy with?

Leprosy was associated directly with sin. We discussed that Jesus’ healing of the Leper was a direct pre-curser to His forgiveness of sins. Well, today we are going to discuss Jesus’ authority over sin. Specifically we are going to discuss that Jesus alone can forgive sins.

Reading of the passage:

With all of this in mind, and because we take Scripture to be the inspired Word of God and authority for all we say and do, stand with me for the reading of God’s Word:

Matthew 9:1–8 ESV

And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

The Word of God.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, we give you all glory and praise. You alone deserve our worship and praise. Thank you for your great mercy to us Lord. We do not deserve your forgiveness, but in your divine mercy you have given to your own the gift of grace. You show mercy on those whom you choose to show mercy, and even though that can be confusing to us, Lord, we worship you because of it.

That you would forgive us our sins is beyond our understanding. We do not deserve it, but you have given the wonderful gift of forgiveness. As we strive to understand this according to your Word, give us understanding Lord. Open our hearts and minds to hear and receive your Word today. May we leave here with a more rich understanding of who you are and what you have done.

Lord, if there is any here who don’t know you, let today be the day they turn to you. May they today repent of their sins and turn to you for forgiveness. Call to their hearts today and may they come to faith in what you have done for them. Only you can forgive their sins.

Finally Lord, I ask for myself. Help me, Lord. Help today not to be about any of my thoughts or opinions. Let me simply be faithful to your word. Shut my mouth if i were to speak against you. Help me to shepherd these sheep you have entrusted to me well.

Amen.

Opening:

As we dive into this passage, we see that Jesus leaves the Gadarenes. It is truly a sad occurrence. These people witnessed a great work of the Lord but they rejected Him. “Leave us.” They say. Jesus does leave them. We see in verse one that He gets in the boat and leaves these faithless people. As we open, I just want you to hear my heart for you.

Connection Church, do not reject Jesus today. As you hear the Word of the Lord today, be faithful not faithless. These people reject Christ and He leaves them. Do not reject Christ. I pray that today you would be faithful and follow Christ. Love Him and welcome Him with warm open arms.

The text says Jesus left them and sailed back over to His own city. Jesus returns to Capernaum. This was the home base of most of His ministry. The Gospel of Mark tells us that several days pass before the people gather, but the word gets out that Jesus is back. Crowds form and people long to hear from Jesus. Among these people are some faithful men who longed to see their friend healed. The other gospels elaborate on this account but in this account we see the faith in Jesus’ authority over sickness.

The Faith in Jesus’ Authority over Sickness.

Explanation:

These men who brought their friend to Jesus have clear faith in Jesus’ authority over sickness. They heard of what Jesus had done. Perhaps they heard about the Leper who was touched by the Lord. Can you imagine the excitement they had when they heard Jesus had returned to Capernaum? I picture the one friend telling his friends of the return of the man who heals people. Picture the excitement of these faithful friends for their dear friend who is sick, lying on a bed. Their friend could not walk or move himself. But this lame man was rich in the company of the friends he had. These friends had great faith that Jesus could their beloved brother.

You can almost picture the excitement as the four men each grabbed a corner of the bed that carried their sick friend and hauled him to meet the healer. They knew Jesus would make this lame man walk again. Surely if Jesus could heal all those others, He could heal this man. They navigated the streets and brought their sick friend to see Jesus. We see an even more vivid picture of the faith of these men in the other gospels. Mark and Luke tell us that when they could not approach Jesus in the house He was in, they hauled their friend up on the roof, cut a hole, tied the bed to ropes and lowered him down to see Jesus. They were so confident that Jesus would heal their friend that they went to the most extreme lengths to bring their friend to Jesus.

Illustration:

Argumentation:

I wonder how many of us go to any lengths to commend our loved ones to the Lord? We see in this passage the beautiful picture of faithful men bringing their friend before Jesus in complete confidence that the Lord would do something for him. They did not doubt, they destroyed a roof to commend their friend to the Lord. They were rewarded for their faith. They were correct, even if it was different than they thought it would be. The Lord did touch their friend. Their friend was healed, but more importantly, their friend was forgiven of his sins.

As Christians, I wonder how often we commend those in our lives to the Lord. We do not even have to grab onto a stretcher. All we must do is get down on our knees. I wonder how many we would see forgiven if we were to simply commend them to our Lord. We see in this passage that we can have hope of it working. We do not have a guarantee that everyone we bring to the savior will be saved, but we can have full confidence that Christ will judge our requests fairly and with great mercy.

We have no reason to not bring our loved ones before the Lord in prayer. I wish that Christians would have the hearts of these four men who carried their friend to the Lord.

Who in your life needs to be brought before the Lord? We all know people who are lost, sick, dying. They need people who are willing to faithfully bring them to the Lord. Pray for those in your life who are in need. So often we are so selfish in our prayers. We are content to run to Jesus when we are sick or in need, but when we feel healthy, we forget to carry the corners of the beds of those who cannot carry themselves to Jesus. We forget too quickly that we were once lame and unable to come to Jesus. Someone commended us to the Lord and He gave us mercy. However now that we have recieved mercy, we show none to the sick and dying.

Who in your life needs to be brought to the Lord?

Oppening:

As we continue reading our passage, we see in verse 2 that Jesus shows His authority by forgiving the paralytic’s sins.

Jesus Shows His Authority by Forgiving the Paralytic’s Sins.

Explanation:

Picture this scene with me, these four men had gathered together and hauled their friend to Jesus to be healed. The man is paralyzed, unable to walk or carry himself in any way. Many believe that the lack of dialog in any account of this incident could indicate that this man could not even talk. He was in horrible condition. He needs to be healed physically. They reach Jesus and He forgives the mans sins.

What a bold statement on Jesus’ part. He openly takes upon himself the right that only God has to forgive sins. Man cannot forgive sins, for man is not the one sinned against. The right of granting forgiveness is reserved for the one who was sinned against.

Illustration:

Picture if you will that Thomas has upset his wife. He has done something that has hurt her feelings. For example’s sake, lets say he promised to pick up laundry soap from the store. She needs the laundry soap and he has taken upon himself to be the hero and go to the store to buy the laundry soap so that the Golden household can have clean clothes. Thomas boldly gets in his pickup and drives to the store. He walks into the store and instead of going to the laundry soap section, he goes to the furniture section.

Thomas returns home with a wonderful recliner in the back of his pickup. He not only failed to get laundry soap, but he got a chair instead. Sarah is hurt. She needed the laundry soap so her kids could have clean clothes for school.

Now let’s picture that Thomas walks up the street to grab some soap from Katharine and I rather than go back to the store, and he is relating this story to me. After listening diligently and hearing how he sinned against his wife, I boldly tell Thomas “It’s ok man, I forgive you.”

That would make no sense whatsoever! I am not the one who was wronged, Sarah was. Thomas does not need to seek my forgiveness, he needs to seek Sarah’s forgiveness. My bold declaration of forgiveness is meaningless because I am not the one who was sinned against.

Now, I want to end this illustration by saying that I am sure Thomas is a wonderful husband who would never get a chair instead of the much needed soap, and that Sarah is a wonderful wife who would be patient with her husband if he did such a thing. However, I think you see my point.

Argumentation:

Jesus’ declaration of forgiveness of sins is huge. Jesus is saying that He has the right to forgive sins. He is claiming this man’s sins are directly against Him. Jesus is the chief offended party in this man’s sins. This is true because Jesus is God. When we sin, we do not just sin against those we have wronged. Our sin is offensive to God Himself. Our sin is an offense to a thrice holy God. It is a direct affront to God Himself.

Our sin is a direct affront to God.

We so seldom see things this way. We have the tendency to think that our secret sin harms and offends no one. But It does. It is an attack against the character of God. And Jesus, as God, is taking upon Himself the right given Him by the father to judge the sinner. As John 5:22 says, “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,”

Explanation:

But this brings us to a seldom addressed part of this passage. Jesus gave this man something that the text makes pretty clear he and his friends were not seeking. Jesus saw their faith forgave the paralytic his sins. Notice what is missing from this interaction. The paralytic did not ask for his sins to be forgiven. Nowhere in any account of this story is it even implied that they were seeking forgiveness of sins. They carried their friend to Jesus to be healed. We don’t see in this account that Jesus says to the man, “My son, pray this prayer and ask me for forgiveness and I shall come into your heart.” No, Jesus doesn’t do this. Jesus does not say “I would love to forgive you of your sins, but I need you to ask me to first. Please ask me for forgiveness first.” Jesus just does it. Jesus’ exercise of authority over sin is to show that He can forgive whom He wills. Or as Romans puts it in Romans 9:18, “he has mercy on whomever he wills”

He has Mercy on Whomever He Wills.

Argumentation:

We seldom in this day and age hear from the pulpit things like this. However, it is my job as your pastor to preach the Word of God. That means that I will preach these things that are in the Word of God, even if others seldom cover them, even if they are unpopular. But why are they unpopular? They are unpopular because they elevate Jesus and minimize us. Our natural tendency is to want to magnify ourselves. This is why as Christians, I fear our favorite passages are the ones that we can make about ourselves. But this is wrong. We are to make much of Jesus. We are to elevate Him.

It is so common for us to want to add our own works into salvation. We enjoy the idea that Jesus forgave us because of something we did. We want salvation to be a reward for something we did in partnership with Jesus. But this is not how salvation works. We are like this lame man, unable to bring ourselves. We cannot offer Jesus anything. We cannot even without His doing have faith. We are as Ephesians 2 puts it, dead. We are dead men hopeless to bring ourselves to life. We so often are like this lame man, seeking something else. We come to Jesus for a fix. We want Him to fix our lives, to bring healing, to restore relationships. Jesus instead does something even greater. He brings us to life. He forgives our sins, and He saves us. Make no mistake, if you are here and you have been saved from your sins, this is not your own doing. It is the work of Christ. He is the one who brought you to life. You like this paralytic were not seeking life, but God awakened you, brought you to life, and gave you the faith to believe in Christ. Salvation is all of God.

Or like John 5:21-22 says; “ 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,”

Why are we so opposed to this? Because we want to maintain the idea of our own autonomy. We want to think that we are autonomous from God. We wish to think that we can exist and live our lives separate from God. We want to have the freedom to say no to God. We want to be our own. What a blasphemous idea. That we could be like God. You see, God is the one who is autonomous. He is self existing. He is self-sustaining. He alone is an autonomous being. Scripture makes clear that every breath is a gift from God. He maintains our lives. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge. He is the maintainer of all. And we desire to be separate from this.

Make no mistake, we are not separate from this, we are subject to Him. He is the Lord. He is the one who creates and maintains all to the glory of His name. He is able to grant forgiveness to whomever He wills. We add nothing to salvation or the forgiveness of sins.

Application:

Our responsibility is to recognize Him as Lord. In this passage, Jesus is demonstrating that He is Lord over sin. We must recognize that He is. We must see that our sin is an offense against Him. We must see that the one we have sinned against is God. We must see that we have nothing to bring Him. We must see that we cannot add to our forgiveness. We must see that we cannot aid our forgiveness. We are truly at the mercy of almighty God. We must fall to our knees and repent. We must call on Him for mercy, knowing that He alone can show mercy and He will show mercy on whom He will.

Opening:

As we continue in this passage, we see an extraordinary exchange. We see that Jesus shows His divinity by rebuking the scribes thoughts.

Jesus Shows His Divinity by Rebuking the Scribes Thoughts:

Explanation:

Look with me again at verse 3-5 “ 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?”

What an incredible exchange! In the gospels of Mark and Luke, they add that the scribes acknowledged that only God could forgive sins. Matthew likely left this out because he was addressing a jewish audience who would have immediately recognized this. The scribes think within their hearts that Jesus has blasphemed by claiming to be God, and Jesus rebukes them for their thoughts! Can you imagine the shock for the scribes? They ponder within themselves, “What is he saying? That is blasphemous! Only God can forgive sins.”

And Jesus responds to those thoughts, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?”

That would have been incredibly shocking. But it reveals something even more shocking about Jesus.

Jesus knows the hearts and thoughts of men.

Jesus knows the hearts and thoughts of men. He knows our intents and our thoughts.

Argumentation:

Think about this. Jesus has just acknowledged that He is God, and because He is God, every sin is a direct offense to Him. But then you add on to this the fact that He knows the hearts and thoughts of us all. Everything is laid bare before Him. He sees all of our sins and knows the corruption of our very thoughts. Truly we need Him to forgive us.

Explanation:

But what of that phrase, “ 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” What does this phrase mean? At first glance this statement seems to make no sense. It is not easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” than to say “rise and walk.” Even in greek the first phrase is longer and has more words. Jesus is not saying here that the first one is a more simple phrase. So what is He saying?

Jesus, in this interaction, is showing His divine purpose. He is here to forgive sins. Matthew Henry says this, “This is a general argument to prove that Christ had a divine mission. His miracles, especially his miraculous cures, confirm what he said of himself, that he was the Son of God; the power that appeared in his cures proved him sent of God; and the pity that appeared in them proved him sent of God to heal and save. The God of truth would not set his seal to a lie.”

In other words, Jesus is here not to heal physical sickness but to forgive sins. What is easier, to do what He is here for or to heal the sick? Christ here is emphasizing His divine mission. Jesus is here to save sinners.

Jesus is here to save sinners.

Argumentation:

This is a great comfort to us! We need to be saved. We are sinful to the core. We are totally depraved. Jesus knows our every thought, and that is bad news for us. But Jesus came to save sinners, and that is great news for us! We can have hope knowing that the reason Jesus came was to save sinners like you and I.

But we get it twisted don’t we? So often we come to Christ, not for salvation but for healing. And yes Jesus does heal, but Jesus’ primary mission was the cross. Jesus came to fulfil the Law, die a sacrificial death on the cross in our place, and rise again all for the glory of God. This was God’s plan from from the beginning. This is why it says in Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief;” This is why Jesus came. It was easier for Jesus to fulfill His divine purpose. In essence this was Jesus saying “I came here to forgive sins, not just to heal the sick.”

Opening:

And Jesus proves His authority by healing the paralytic.

Jesus Proves His Authority by Healing the Paralytic.

Explanation:

In verse six and seven, Jesus says “ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he rose and went home.”

Jesus gives a reason for His miracle before performs it. He says it is so that the people there may know that He has the power to forgive sins. Jesus is backing up His authority to forgive sins by healing the man of his disability and sickness. Picture the scene once again with me. The friends have just lowered their sick friend down to Jesus; Jesus has forgiven his sins (a thing that was not requested); and then called out the scribes for their sinful thoughts. Then He says, “To prove that I can do the greater, I will do the lesser act.”

Jesus is going above and beyond to illustrate the fact that He is God.

So often people will make the claim, “Jesus never claimed to be God.” These people must not have ever read this account. Jesus has claimed for Himself the right that only God has, to forgive sins. Jesus has read the very thoughts and hearts of the scribes and called them to account for it. Now, Jesus has in essence said, “To prove that I am God, get up and walk.” And the man gets up and walks!

Illustration:

But if we can, for just a moment let’s put ourselves into the shoes of that poor paralytic. He cannot move. His faithful friends lovingly take him to the one man with a reputation of being able to heal the sick. They lower you down, and your hopes rise. Jesus looks down at you and there is kindness in His eyes. You cannot even speak to ask to be healed, but you have hope that He knows why you are here. Why else would you be here? He looks at you and utters the words, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

“My sins? What about my body?” You lay there in shock and confusion. Through the fog that is your pain filled life, you hear Jesus confronting the scribes. He asks them why they think evil. “He can hear their thoughts?” you mutter inside your mind. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” Jesus turns and looks down again. “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” Without even thinking about it, you get up. Your body seems to naturally obey the command of this… this King. You stand, pick up your bed and begin to walk out. As you reach the door, it begins to hit you, you haven’t walked in years. You begin to laugh, to dance. Your friends who brought you are screaming and laughing for joy. They are dancing around you. Then the weight of what just happened hits you.

“Wait, hold on… Stop dancing for a moment… He said my sins are forgiven...”

“What?” your friends seem to say in unison.

“Jesus, He said… He told me He forgave my sins. He said that He healed me in order to prove that He was the one who could forgive sins.”

The beauty of this new reality hits you like a freight train. You realize that the one who commanded your dead legs and arms to move had declared you forgiven. He was the only one who could declare you forgiven. You were new. Washed white as snow. You had just had an encounter with God, and you were forgiven.

Clearly it dawns on you, “The first thing He said to me was much better than the second. I am made right with God.”

Argumentation:

Jesus has authority over sickness. He can command the lame to walk and they obey. He can command the worst sickness to leave and it will. He has full authority over sickness.

But what is more important is the fact that Jesus has authority over sin. He has the right to declare those He wills to be forgiven and they are forgiven. This is truly the greater act. Sickness is a result of sin. Just as a tumor in your brain will give you headaches, sickness is a spawn of sin. The Bible makes it very clear that sin is what causes sickness and death. Before the sin of Adam and Eve, nothing was sick. Nothing died. All was good. But when they sinned, they trapped all creation in the sickness and death that they brought about. God had promised them that one would come who would crush the serpent’s head. Sin would be defeated. And this one has come. His name is Jesus. He came and crushed sin and death.

This is why it bothers me when I hear people more focused on the healing of the body. Yes it happens. Jesus is fully capable of healing the body. He has touched many people, myself included. But if we are not careful, we can seek the healing rather than the forgiveness.

If you are here and you are sick, I want to pray for you. I believe that God can heal your body. But I would much rather you be forgiven of your sins. You need to be forgiven of your sins much more than you need to be healed. If your body is healed, that is a fantastic miracle. Praise God for His mercy to you! But what good is it if your body is healed but your soul is lost? Each of us, even if healed, will die. All of the people that Jesus healed died. But not one of those that Jesus forgave is in hell. They are with Him forever, in eternal glory. He has not lost a single one of them.

This is why my desire for you is to be healthy. I long to see you all healthy and happy. But I would much rather you be saved. If I had to choose for each of you weather you would be healthy or forgiven, you would all be sick. I would much rather you be forgiven and in right standing with God.

I pray that God would remove me from this pulpit and ministry if I ever become a preacher who preaches health and wealth at the expense of the true gospel. Christian, we talked a few weeks ago that following Christ is costly. You will not always be healthy following Christ. You will not always be wealthy following Christ. You will suffer and someday you will die, even if you follow Christ. This is not an easy life. But if you follow Christ, you will always be forgiven. Someday your life will end. Your body will give out and fade. But you can have hope that as a follower of Christ, you will be forgiven of all your sins. You can follow Jesus and have full confidence that you will saved.

Health and wealth fade. Salvation is eternal.

Application:

Closing:

But there are two options. You can either follow Jesus, or you can be like the people who were there. The people missed Jesus.

The People Missed Jesus.

Explanation:

The closing verse shows the people’s response to this miracle. three things happened.

They were afraid: This is an appropriate reaction. They just witnessed the impossible. The supernatural is astonishing to witness. It is completely understandable and appropriate to have that sense of fear when witnessing a man who was crippled have his sins forgiven and be healed.

They Glorified God: That sense of fear lead these people to glorify God. Surely this is the most appropriate response. They witnessed God Himself to the most astonishing thing imaginable! They would have been blind to not leave glorifying God.

They thought Jesus was just a man: But notice the closing. They glorified God who had given such authority to men. They missed it. Jesus has just gone above and beyond to prove Himself to be God and they missed it completely. If we were a jewish audience reading this passage, this would be the record scratch stop. We would immediately go, “What?! Did they not see or hear anything that just happened?! Jesus openly is claiming to be God and they just ignore that?!”

It would have shocked us to read this reaction. There is no way that someone familiar with the time and culture could read this and not see Jesus’ blatant acknowledging of Himself as God. The most shocking this about this passage is that the audience missed Jesus’ claim of divinity here.

Argumentation:

But It really is not that shocking. We do the same thing today. How many people claim to believe in Jesus, but deny His divinity. This is rank within our culture today, and especially in the New Age. The New Age religion loves Jesus. They love the peace and good vibes of Jesus. But they do not acknowledge that He is God. They ignore the blatant evidence of His divinity. That is why this is so important. We live in an area that is inundated with the New Age. Lead is full of it. But the New Age is exactly like the audience in this passage. They hear about Jesus and all He has done and they marvel and say “How amazing is it that this authority has been given to men. How can we have this power?”

And this has invaded the Church. But this type of thought is wrong. It is not Christianity. It is a mutated lie. Do not buy into it, beloved. Jesus was not just a man. Jesus is the eternal God. Existing forever in the Holy Trinity and the eternal God. He is the Son in eternal unity and glory with the Father and the Spirit.

We will talk more about this on Christmas Eve, but do not make the mistake of thinking Jesus was just a man. He did these things as God, not as man. He is fully God, who took on humanity, to be Fully God and Fully Man.

Application:

But as we close, what do we do with this? Where do we go from here?

First,

Bring those in need before the Lord.

Be like the paralytic’s faithful friends. We all know people who are in need. We know people who are sick. We know people who are lost. Will you, oh Christian, be faithful like the friends of that paralytic so long ago? Will you carry your loved ones before the Lord? We can bring them and commend them to God, knowing that He is capable to change hearts, to heal the sick. Bring those in need before the Lord.

Second we can,

Recognize Jesus’ Authority and Freedom to Forgive Sins.

So often we as Christians can commit a form of idolatry in glorifying ourselves. We think we are so special because we have done something to be saved. We must recognize that we have done nothing to be saved. Christ alone has done the work of salvation. As Jonathan Edwards said, “The only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary.” We as Christians should rejoice over this. Christ has forgiven us, not because of us, but in spite of us.

Third we can,

Repent and Beg Forgiveness, or Reject and Miss Jesus.

Call for Response:

Today, will you repent, or will you reject? Jesus is God eternal. He is Lord. But the question I have for you is this, will you repent and beg forgiveness from the only one who can forgive you, or will you be like the people who thought Jesus was just like them.

Today as we close out, we are going to pray, then sing a chorus together. I will dismiss you, but if you need to pray for someone you know, or if you will repent and beg forgiveness, I challenge you to come to the front. Let me pray with you. Let us comment the ones you know to the Lord together. Let us pray together if you need to repent and do not want to leave here rejecting Christ.

I beg you, do not leave here without rejecting Christ. Turn to Him today and beg forgiveness from the only one who can forgive you.

Again, we are going to pray, sing a chorus in praise, then please come and pray with me. No one will judge you, in fact, we all would love to pray with you. We will not look down on you, we will rejoice with you!

Prayer:

With that in mind, let us close in Prayer together.

Closing Praise:

Closing Benediction:

Romans 16:25-27

25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

If you need prayer, please come! Amen.