Sermon Transcript
Well, there are probably a couple of Curry fans here, huh? Yeah, absolutely. What an incredible season again they’ve had, the Warriors have had, and what the season Curry’s had. Of course, if you’ve been following, you know that he also just got the Most Valuable Player of the NBA Award, second consecutive year. This year what was different is that Every sportswriter, 131 sportswriters voted for him to get that award.
It was unanimous, which has never happened before. In the 61-year history of the award being given, it’s never happened before. So, when you listen to commentators and sportscasters, you know, do a tape like that, a reel like that, it’s— They don’t know what to say. You know, it’s just the same thing over and over. Can you believe it?
This is outstanding, over the top, you know, all of that. What it’s an expression of is just the person that he is, Curry, but it’s also an expression of the incredible play, the talents that God has given him that he recognizes have come from God. And all of that just causes you to say, wow, big wow to all of that. I was thinking about that as I was looking at the passage we’re working on this morning found in Colossians chapter 3, because this passage actually in essence says our work, what we do, should cause other people to say, wow, or to express their favor for the work that we do. And so, in some ways, though we’re not going to probably have a stadium of people cheering us on, in some ways there ought to be some people that are impacted by the work that we do in such a way they say, well done.
Wow, that’s amazing how that all turned out. Look with me at this passage. We’re going to just talk about work here this morning. It’s the first week of 2 weeks where we’re talking about work, but we’re into Colossians, a book that we’ve been looking at for several months now, and we’re getting near the end of it, but we’re in chapter 3 where the focus is on the employee employer relationship. And this is what we read in Colossians 3:22 to 25.
And by the way, if you didn’t bring your Bible, the bulletin I think has a message note sheet there that has some Scripture on it for you to use or, you know, follow along on your tablets or whatever you brought with you. But take a look at the Scriptures with us just for a few moments as we talk about this matter and get God’s perspective on our work. Colossians 3:22, slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, and do it not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It’s the Lord Christ you’re serving.
Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. There’s a lot that that passage gets into here, but I want you just to capture, first of all, the framework. Essentially what it says is we work for 2. 2 employers, okay? There’s an earthly employer and there’s a heavenly employer, as you can see here.
Our work will either wow these employers or it will not. In their case, of course, the Apostle Paul is writing to a group of people who evidently many of them were slaves. And so, he says to these slaves that they are to serve their earthly master. This is in the time when Rome had slaves everywhere, 60 million-some slaves in the Roman Empire. We’re told that a third of the population were slaves.
Slaves worked in the majority of businesses. Most businesses were family-owned and operated, and so the primary workers in those businesses were slaves. So, it was just very much a part of the culture. Now you say, so Dave, how are we going to, you know, benefit by this? Well, some of you may feel like a slave.
Even though you’re not a slave, but there’s much more than just, you know, something here for slaves, because what this is, is it’s really applicable. The teaching here is applicable to anybody who works for somebody, anybody who works for somebody. And certainly, not only do we work for an earthly boss, but the second boss here is the heavenly boss. It’s God. It’s Jesus Christ.
So, it’s our Creator, and our Creator is very interested in the work that we do. He’s our provider. He’s our sustainer. So, it’s right that he would be interested in how we do what it is that we do. And the hope in both cases is that we would win our earthly bosses’ favor and we would win our heavenly boss’s favor.
In fact, you see that here in the passage in verse 22. The desire here is to win their favor, not just when their eye is on you, but just always to win their favor. But not only, he says, but not only the earthly boss’s favor, but we also want to win the favor of our heavenly boss, verse 24, so that ultimately at the end of this life our heavenly boss gives us rewards. So there are rewards, a bonus pay you might say, that potentially can come our way at the end of this life. So we ought to be interested in winning the favor of our earthly boss.
That could come by way of you know, a paycheck or words or a positive review or time off or gifts or you name it. And we certainly ought to be interested in the rewards that our heavenly boss wants to give us. So the thought here is, listen, if God wants to give us some rewards, we should want the rewards. Come on, you know, if God wants us to have rewards at the end of this life, then that should be of interest to us. So, the question then is, all right, if we can, so to speak, wow our employers, our earthly employers and our heavenly boss, if we can wow our employers, what do I need to do?
And what you have here basically are 4 directives or commands or instructions, call them whatever you want, on that which will wow our heavenly boss and earthly boss and make it favorable impact in their life. So, what do we see here? Colossians 3:22 begins this way, Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything. Now, if you’ve been reading along with us or here in this study in Colossians, we’ve already come to actually this phrase. It was used in verse 20 of chapter 3 where it was directed to children, and we spent some time talking about that on that Sunday, If you’re a kid still living at home, You may want to go back and check that message out.
Maybe you don’t want to check it out, so we’re not going to go back and talk about it today. But in verse 20, it says, children, obey your parents in everything. Well, now here we are in verse 22, and it says, slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, in everything. I mean, that’s like, you know, all-inclusive. We are to obey the person that we work for in everything, or to live with or work with a do what you’re told mindset.
Have you ever had anybody say that to you? Maybe you had that said in the home to you, just do what you’re told. Well, in essence, it’s the same concept here in our relationship with our boss. We are to obey our boss. We’re to submit, put our— rank ourselves under our boss.
And do what it is that our boss is asking us to do. The idea here is to do it without moaning, without complaining, without backtalk, without the boss having to say it a second time, a third time, a fourth time. You know, you just do it. When the boss says, please, this is what I want you to do, or, you know, maybe you feel better instead of actually having do what you’re told, do what you’re asked. Okay, so whatever.
But the point is, is that when your boss asks you to do something, do you do it? I remember when Evelyn started working with me, she’s an assistant who works in the office, and she came on board to help me out and also another pastor. And there in the early days, she wanted to know how I ticked. So she put together this survey, it was interesting, a 10-question survey, and she said, Dave, would you mind just answering these questions because this will help me get a better idea of how to help you. And we had a fun time talking through the questions.
I’d never been asked by an assistant, you know, for this kind of sort of upfront information where they’re probing your brain and they’re just trying to get insights into, you know, what kind of person are you really? What kind of boss are you really going to be? And somewhere in that conversation, there was something that came up related to the kinds of things that bug me. She wanted to know the kind of things that irk me. All right, and so, I thought about that, and I said, well, you know, I guess what irks me is when I ask for somebody to do something and then they don’t do it.
That’s what irks me, and I have to come along and ask a second time or a third time or a fourth time or whatever that might be. And she took profuse notes at this point anyway, but, you know, you get the idea. A responsible employee, you could see it here, is somebody who gets the job done. They don’t have to be asked a second, third, fourth time. They take responsibility for what it is that they’ve been given, and in showing respect for their boss, they get it done.
Now, if you don’t like what it is that your boss has asked you to do, then that’s a whole other discussion, right? It’s what we called back in the children’s study an appeal process. It’s to appeal to your boss in a respectful way. Not to demean them or, you know, in any way inflict harm into this relationship. But nonetheless, the point is, is we please God and we please our boss when we do what it is that they ask us to do.
In fact, it’s interesting, in 1 Timothy 6:1, it says this, all who are under the yoke of slavery. So that’s to say, we realize this slavery thing is not a cool deal, okay? But nonetheless, at this point in these verses where Paul’s talking about slavery, he’s not trying to change the slavery thing. He’s trying to change the people that are slaves in terms of their attitudes and their actions. So he’s not even addressing is slavery right or wrong.
He’s just addressing whether or not our behavior for those that we serve, if our behavior is right or wrong. And so he says, so all of those who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters Worthy of full respect, full respect, meaning in our attitude and our action toward those who’ve employed us. And then he says, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. I thought you were a Christian. Well, you sure don’t act like a Christian.
I mean, if you’re a Christian, shouldn’t things be a little bit different than they are right now? Have you ever been around somebody who has slandered the name of God because of a Christian’s conduct because of how a Christian is living. See, what Paul is going after here is that we would have the kind of conduct on— at the job site or whoever it is that we work for as such that it will win their favor. We won’t lose it. There’s a second directive that he gives here.
It comes up in verse 22, the last part. He says, and do it, do it, what you’ve been asked to do, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart. Now, what does that verse bring to mind? Well, that brings to mind when the coach told you to run those laps and then he walked away. That’s what that brings to mind, right?
Where it didn’t really happen like it was or should have happened. The boss, yes, when he’s in the room, then everybody’s really playing this out well. We’re just giving it our best shot, but as soon as the boss leaves the room, well, things change. People start sloughing off. They, you know, start playing around with their own calendars.
They do stuff that has nothing to do with the company and everything to do with themselves. Not only, he says, when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart. So, there’s no duplicity here. We’re talking about somebody who is an honest employee, somebody who is truthful, somebody who’s engaged in their work. They’re giving it their absolute best.
But then he goes on in verse 23 and he says, whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart. Whatever it is that you do. This isn’t, you know, something that you just sort of, eh, kind of get it done. I really don’t like this. No, he’s saying put your heart into it.
Give it your best. Do your best. That’s what we say, right? Do your very best, because if you do your very best, it’s an expression of somebody whose heart’s in this. They’re fully engaged.
They’re sincere about what it is that they’re doing. They’re giving their absolute best to the task that they’ve been given. I love it when I see that in people. I saw that in a video that I looked at some time ago. This video is about a woman named Kimberly who lives with this mindset on her job.
Watch the screen just for a moment.
Eva, eggs are ready. Hey, has she got any tests today?
Uh, one. We’re given 24 hours a day. We sleep one-third of it. We spend part of the time with family and friends, and the rest of the time is at work. We spend more time at work than we do doing any other single thing.
I just can’t believe that God doesn’t have a higher purpose for us.
I own a design-intensive construction company, and most of our work focuses on older residential buildings, mostly from the 1920s, in our neighborhood. There are properties that have been completely neglected for many, many years.
We love this neighborhood, and where there’s the potential to restore a house rather than tear it down, we’re going to pursue that.
When I go to work each day, I just pray that God will help me to do my very best. The closer in relationship I am with God, the better able I am to be my best at work.
How many— do you have your tape? Tell me how deep it is again. This wall. Ooh, that’s tight. Did this wall get shorter?
As the person in charge of the site, I want to exemplify high-quality relationships, and I want to do excellent work.
When I meet a new subcontractor at work, I want to be in an authentic relationship with that person. Hey, Ina. How are you? Good. I’m well.
You okay? Yeah, doing great. Good. I don’t see my very best friends as often as I see the people with whom I work on the job site, so I take those relationships very seriously. And then we lower this in the way you want it.
It looks great. Looks great. Thank you so much for doing that.
There’s a responsibility towards excellence because I wouldn’t be comfortable putting myself out there as a Christian and doing shoddy work. You know, I was originally really hoping to get glass up here. How hard would that be? Well, I can get those out for sure. I’ve heard so many times from people who’ve said that they They really could not stand their contractor by the time their construction project was completed.
I certainly don’t want to be that contractor.
I want my work to be a reflection of my faith in God.
We often get the message that in order to do godly work, we need to be pastors or evangelists or Sunday school teachers. I don’t feel gifted to be a pastor, but I do feel strongly gifted to build homes, and I want to use that work to honor God.
It’s satisfying to have taken a property that was an eyesore and a problem within its community and to restore it.
I built great relationships with my team, and we did excellent work.
We as people, as God’s creation, are a reflection of him. If our output to the world is, is our work, then we want it to continue that reflection.
I believe this process is a high calling.
I do too, don’t you? That this work that God has given us, you don’t have to be a pastor, but whatever that work is, and I love that picture, that whatever that work is, and this is what he’s saying to us, whatever it is that God has given you to do, don’t do it halfway. Do it as a testimony of your faith, your expression of love for God, your expression of love for other people. I love this story about the pastor and founding president of Fuller and Gordon-Conwell Seminaries. This president, this pastor, was invited to a prince’s estate.
This prince is in Poland. And during his visit there, one of the workers walked by, and this prince pointed out this worker who was a Christian. And the prince said to this pastor president, he said, you see that young man? He is the best worker on my estate. It’s due to him that I’ve invited you here today.
And then he said this, I am favorably disposed to a religion that could so affect a man’s life. I’m favorably disposed to a religion that could so affect a man’s life. I mean, I see something different in that worker. And evidently he’s thinking about other workers he’s seen before, and there’s something different in that worker that caused me to reach out to you.
Maybe you could tell me more. And I think that’s the point, don’t you? How does that happen? How do you come into favor with others and God? It’s by doing what we’re told, by doing our very best.
And then he says, as working for the Lord, the last part of verse 23, as working for the Lord, not for men. It’s the Lord Christ, the last part of verse 24, it’s the Lord Christ you are serving. And if you go back up into verse 22, it says that your work really should be done as out of reference, out of reverence for the Lord, so as a sign of worship and respect and honor for the Lord. So it’s not just getting the job done for the boss, the earthly boss, But it’s working for the Lord, and that’s Paul’s perspective on the work that he was doing, and he’s basically saying, have that perspective. Yes, you work for your boss.
I mean, he’s already told us, obey your boss. So, we’re not going to get out of that, but in obeying your boss, constantly keep this focus in your mind that you’re doing this for the Lord. Notice the word as here. It’s something that you gotta be conscious of, that you are doing this as if it was the Lord that gave you this assignment. It was the Lord that gave you this job.
So, in whatever it is that you’re doing, see your work as serving the Lord. That’s what he’s saying. Is it homework? Is it school? I knew you were gonna bring that up, Dave, some of you are saying right now.
Do it for the Lord. I know your parents want you to do it. I know the teachers want you to do it. Do it for the Lord. What is it?
Is it washing the dishes? Do it for the Lord. Is it cleaning the outside of the house? Do it for the Lord. See what he’s saying?
That changes everything, doesn’t it? Just think about that. That changes— if we have that perspective, that’s going to change the amount of effort that we put into whatever it is that we’re doing. It’s going to change our attitude on what we’re doing. It’s going to change how we use our time.
I mean, if I’m doing this for the Lord, I want to be a good steward of the time. I want to make sure that I’m using my time wisely. It’s going to affect the quality of work. We’re going to go right back to the previous point. We’re going to do our best.
It will help us persevere in our work. Sometimes we find ourselves in job situations where we just flat out want to quit, but we know we can’t quit because we’re right where God wants us to be. God put us there, and we know that that’s where He wants us to be right now. I mean, if He’s given you the pink slip to leave, fine. But if he’s got you right there and you know you’re right where he wants you to be, perseverance oftentimes is connected to remembering, wait a minute, I’m serving the Lord here.
I’m doing this for the Lord. I’m not just doing this, I’m doing this for the Lord. A while back I pulled up at a red light. It was in Phoenix, Arizona. And there was this pickup truck that was already sitting there.
And I looked over at the pickup and on the door of the pickup there was this sign, J&W Heavenly Labor, and then it had the phone number and then it said, said, we do all things as unto the Lord. Now, for a lot of people, they might see that and say, what does that mean? But I knew exactly what that meant. That meant this guy’s been hanging around Colossians chapter 3, for one. This is a person who really believes that that mindset is essential in what he or she is doing.
And so, they decided to actually put it on the sign on the side of their car so everybody could know. That, that was how the work was going to be done, and to carry that out would be wonderful. Bernice and I several years ago were on a cruise ship, and we asked one of the crew members how he liked his job. It was fascinating. He was just cleaning the railing, you know, and I think he was also cleaning the elevators.
But we asked him, how do you like your job? He said— you know what he said? He said, I love it. Every day I get to serve the Lord. That’s the mindset.
I love my job. I love what it is God has me doing, because I’m not serving that boss. I mean, yeah, I am, but ultimately in my mind I’m serving the Lord. William Carey had that mindset. He was a shoemaker.
When he was asked what he did, he said this: My business is serving the Lord, and I make shoes to pay expenses. Isn’t that good? So, this isn’t about the money. Yeah, sure, we believe that we should be paid what we’re due. We’ll talk about that next week when we talk about the other side of this.
But this is more than just the money. This is all about us serving the Lord in the job we do. Pastor Samuel Chadwick, around 1900, he said this, write letters as unto the Lord, No blots or mistakes. Now, things have changed since then. Some of you are going to have to research and find out what does that mean, you know, blots.
I don’t get that. But you get the idea. I’m going to give God my best. I’m going to do my absolute best here. I’m not going to give him shoddy work because I’m serving the Lord.
Same mindset was Dawson Trotman’s mindset. I don’t know if you recognize that name. He was the founder of the Navigators. There’s the Navigators ministry, which has been on campuses and just has had such a tremendous ministry since the early ’50s. Well, when they came to this headquarters building over in Colorado, as Trotman was leading the ministry, he wanted things to be done right.
He asked a guy named John to install or replace the front and the back doors at the headquarters there. Just needed to be replaced. So John got the job. Das went out on a trip for a couple days, came back. When he came back, he went through the front door, and he knows that the front door was fantastic.
The craftsmanship, he said, the workmanship, it was— he said it was superb. The front door was superb. So he did a bunch of work that day, they told— the story is told. At the end of the day, he went out, did something, and had to come back through the back door. And when he came through the back door, the back door it was not up to caliber.
It was not done, the workmanship was not done the same way as the front door. So Dos got into his office John, the guy who had done the door, and he said, tell me, what’s going on with the back door? And John said, well, Dos, it only opens into an alley.
Dos at that point looked at John and he said, John, listen, when we do things for the Lord, the back door is to look as good as the front door.
We do our best because we’re going to do it for the Lord. Just one last thought here, one last directive. If we’re going to win the favor of others and ultimately we’re going to win the favor of God, there’s one last thought here. I just think it’s fascinating. He says in verse 24, since you know, you know, you have this mindset, so you’re working with this mindset.
Since you know you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. So, we’re not talking here at this point about the inheritance that comes to us as children of God through Jesus Christ. We’re talking about a different inheritance that’s connected to a reward. It is the Lord Christ you’re serving. Anyone who does wrong, and here you see that interpretation, Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.
What he’s doing here is he’s connecting an outcome to the work that was done. And you’ve heard the concept, we’re going to ultimately reap what we sow. Well, if we sow unrighteousness or we sow, in this case, if we sow laziness, whatever it might be, that is going to result in a loss of reward, possibly the Lord’s discipline, and it’s going to come as payment for that which was wrong because God is a just God. But that’s not what He desires. He doesn’t want us to lose reward.
He wants us to gain reward. And so, He’s talking about this whole matter of reward, which isn’t connected to salvation. See, salvation isn’t something that we earn or deserve, and a lot of people think that that’s what it is. It’s something that you earn or you deserve. So, if you ask somebody, you know, when you finish this life, do you think you’ll go to heaven?
Oftentimes people say, oh, yeah. Well, why? Well, because I did a lot of good things. I’ll tell you one thing, I did more good things than that neighbor 3 houses down. I’ll tell you that right now.
So, what that is, is that that’s an answer of, my salvation is connected to merit. It’s connected to what I do. If I just do enough good things, and of course, you never really know where the line is on doing enough good things, but anyway, if I just do enough good things, then I’ll get to heaven. But what we believe is that’s not the case, that a person isn’t saved by their works, but they’re saved by faith in Jesus Christ. This salvation matter is a gift.
It’s a gift that we receive by faith. It’s not based upon our works. It’s based upon God’s works through His Son, Jesus Christ. So when Jesus Christ died on the cross, His work is sufficient to save us from sin. And when we place our trust or our belief in Jesus Christ, we are adopted into God’s family, not because we deserve it, not because we deserve it, but because of God’s grace.
And it’s by grace then that we’re saved. So salvation or heaven is something that comes to us as a gift. It’s a gift that we receive by faith. But God wants us to have more than just heaven. He wants us to have rewards in heaven, and that’s what this is describing.
Let’s call it bonus pay. We should be working for bonus pay. You see, God’s just put it out there. There’s bonus pay. Okay, this doesn’t have to do with salvation.
This has to do with lifestyle. This has to do with how you live. But specifically here, this has to do with how you work. This has to do with whether or not you do what you’re asked to do from your boss. This has to do with whether or not you put your heart into what it is that you do, you do your very best.
This has to do with who you’re ultimately working for. Are you working ultimately for the Lord? And yes, this even has to do with working with the perspective that what I do now is ultimately going to pay dividends later. And if God wants to pay the dividends later, shouldn’t we want them as well? I believe so.
So, what he has given to us here is a tremendous directive or 4 directives for our work, for how to view our work, for our attitudes in work, for the actions that we put into our work. You know, it’s interesting, even this motivation thing, we go back and forth over to Austin, Texas, to see our family over there, our son and his family. And we’ve noticed a difference in the workers that work on the freeways over there. It’s amazing. I said to my son, this doesn’t make any sense to me.
I mean, like, look at these people. They’re working. They’re actually working on the freeways. You know, they’re here like all hours and they’re working and they’re working. I said, what is that?
He said, Dad, you got to understand, here in Texas it’s different. In Texas, we give bonuses to these people if they get the job done early. And if they get the job done early, then they get these big bonuses. So they’re quite motivated to work. And in essence, what you see here is this, this bonus.
There’s a bonus here in your relationship with those that you work for. There’s a bonus here in your relationship with God. Last week we had the children’s musical. This is something the church has had for I don’t know, I guess it’s at least 39 years because Les Schneider, who’s the one that leads the children’s program, the children’s musical, excuse me, not the children’s program. She would never want me to say that.
Are you kidding? She already feels taxed enough. But anyway, so she’s, she’s been leading this children’s musical program for 39 years. Well, this week for me started with her sending me an email. And she was just reflecting back on last Saturday when we had this all on the stage, and this Kids Under Construction musical, it was fabulous.
But she was just reflecting on how it was picked, how the program was picked, the musical. She said, you know, when I sat down to pick that musical, I had no idea that we would end up doing it, you know, a week or two after we got back into this building. A building for some of you, you may not know, but we were out of this building for over 20 months. So we were doing all this work and then all the work got done and then this musical comes along and it’s focused on construction, which is what we had just been through. And then the celebration of the construction of what God is doing and what God is going to continue to do.
And so all of that. And so she sent me this email and she was just reflecting on the amazing work that God does here in our lives. And she said, and you know, Dave, it wasn’t just the Kids Under Construction musical that I chose way back last summer, not knowing how that would play out, but it was also the Christmas musical too, the out-of-the-box musical, the Out-of-the-Box Christmas, it was called, and how we were over in the gym, and at the time when I picked this, I thought maybe we would be back in the worship center, which didn’t happen, We were still in the gym, and so we literally needed to have an out-of-the-box Christmas program. And she said, so I was just reflecting on that, and I was just thinking how thankful I am to God. And as I read this email, I thought to myself, you know, I’m just thankful for God’s favor.
And I’m just thankful for how God’s favor is seen here in the church in such a variety of ways. But it’s seen on people like Les, who— she just does her absolute best. If you know her, she’s just trying to do her best. She’s trying to serve the Lord. And at times it’s taxing.
At times it’s really difficult. But the result of all of that is, is that you’ve got to believe she’s living in God’s favor, and she’s also experiencing the favor of others. And that’s what this is saying to us. It’s saying, be people who others give favor to, who others, you know, I just appreciate your work. You remember Jesus, it says, when He was young, He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.
He grew in favor with God and man. Isn’t that interesting? This is Jesus. He grew in favor with God and man. And what this text is telling us is that every one of us through our work could grow in our favor with God and man.
And that being said, then certainly We should want to be people who, when we look at the Scriptures, say, you know, this is for me. This is not something to leave in a building. This is something to take with me so that it can impact my life, and as a result of impacting my life, it ultimately will bring pleasure to God and hopefully wows from others. Let’s pray. Lord, thanks for helping us this morning talk about a subject that we experience every day in a variety of ways.
And we thank you for the work that you give us. So we pray that we would be people who, on those jobs or wherever we are, whether the job’s in the home, outside the home, in the school, wherever we find ourselves, Lord, we would represent you well. And we would ultimately bring pleasure to your name. People would look at us and see a difference in the work that we do and be drawn to you and not away from you. And so we thank you for the practical application of this passage this morning and pray that you would help us apply it.
And just take a moment, would you, just as we’re praying here, just So what does that mean for you? What is the application for you? Is it to ask God to save you, to adopt you and bring you into his family? Have you received Jesus as your personal Savior? The Bible says if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you’ll be saved.
And so there’s an invitation there. It’s an invitation to salvation. Relationship with God now and forever. He loves you. He loves you.
And he longs for you to love him in turn. Stop making it hard. Stop making this hard. I mean, stop pushing away from God. Come to him.
And if that’s the decision, tell him right now, Lord, I just want to be one of your children. I believe that you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins.
I want to receive the gift of life.
Forgive me of my sins and change me. Make me the kind of person you want me to be. Or is it today the application directly related to— you’re a Christian, but now it’s just directly related to how well you represent the Lord. Ask God to give you the perspective, the mindset that he longs for you to have. Especially in those difficult times, that you might represent him well, and it would be ultimately to his honor and glory.
Lord, thanks for hearing our prayers. We love you. We’re grateful for this time to encourage each other through the Scriptures, through song, and just being together. We celebrate all of that in baptism, in your name, amen.
