Obstacles to Greater Faithfulness

Introduction

Good morning. Will open in your old testament with me to first Kings chapter twelve. First Kings chapter twelve. I think if we’re honest, we all struggle sometimes with distraction. Right now I’m distracted with getting the rest of this microphone cord in my pocket. You think about distraction, think about the nineteen twenties, don’t you just naturally think of the nineteen twenties? My illustration is from the nineteen twenties, and there was a factory in which there was all kinds of employee theft. And so they decided that the guards had to be more watchful, and the guards had to watch every shift worker who left. And so one day a shift worker goes out and he has a wheelbarrow with a suspicious looking blanket over a suspicious amount of something in the wheelbarrow.

And the guard said to the man named Peter, he said, Peter, now you’ve got to tell me what is in your wheelbarrow. He said, No, it’s nothing to worry about. He said, We got to crack down, I gotta do my job. What’s in the wheelbarrow? He said, Look, I promise it’s just some sawdust. And he removed the cover, and sure it was. And I said, Well, that’s strange, but go ahead. And he picked it back up and went and took it to his car. The next day, the same that the same thing happened the third day. And finally, one of Peter’s friends got really curious, and he said, What is it that you’re smuggling? It can’t be the sawdust. And he looked at him and smiled.

He said, I’m taking the wheelbarrows.

Sometimes distraction is to our benefit. But often it’s the benefit of the adversary, the enemy. In first Kings chapter twelve, we come to a crucial point in Israel’s history. You have Israel who has been divided under Saul, David, and Solomon with many peaks and yes, some valleys to the way that kingdom was led. But as Solomon leaves and his heart has been led astray by the foreign women we mentioned at the nine o’clock hour this morning. Rehabilam takes over, and in chapter 12, he has a decision to make. When the people led by a man named Jeroboam, come to him and say, Will you lighten our load, and we will serve you? He had a choice. Do I lighten their load so the people will serve me and trust that they will do as they say?

Or rather do I press down even harder? And as we talked about, the nine o’clock hour, there was two bits of advice. There was the young counsel that said, Make it tougher, and the older, wiser counselor that said, Lighten the load, and they will serve you forever. Rehoboam went with the bad advice, and the kingdom was divided. In verse 16, we see when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them. The people answered the king, What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel. Look now to your own house, David. So Israel went to their tents. But Rahboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah.

Then King Rehoboam sent Adorim, who was taskedmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. There was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. But the word of the Lord came to Shemiah, the man of God, say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and to Benjamin and to the rest of the people.

Thus says the Lord, you shall not go up or fight against your relatives, the people of Israel. Every man returned to his home, for this thing is from me. So they listened to the word of the Lord and went home again according to the word of the Lord. So what happened was Rehoboam made a foolish decision. And because of it now there was going to be Israel in the north, the ten tribes of Israel, and Judah in the south, both Judah and, as you can see from the collection of warriors, Benjamin as well. Jeroboam was going to be king over this newfound Israel. And Rehoboam is going to remain control over the much smaller tribes of Judah and Benjamin. But what we see from Jeroboam is when he had an opportunity as appointed by God, as prophesied in 1 Kings chapter 11, to lead God’s people, to be faithful to God, and that God would bless him as a leader and steward over God’s chosen people.

1. Why and How Jeroboam Rejected God

But Jeroboam rejected that. He refused to be faithful to the Lord, rather imposing his own sense of justice and right and wrong. And I want to know if we can learn some lessons for that. And I think we can when we examine why did Jeroboam reject God. And to first answer the question why, we have to say, how did he reject God? Look at me in verse 25. You see, so right off the bat, Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of the people will turn again to their Lord, to Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehobam king of Judah.

So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold, and he said to the people, You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. News flash on what happened. Jeroboam was worried that people would leave him. Yes, he had this new kingdom. Yes, he was receiving what God had promised him would be his. But he said, I have a problem. They’re going to leave me. And by the way, not only are they going to leave me, they’re going to go answer to Rehoboam. And when they leave me, they go answer to Rehobam. Then what are they going to do? They’re going to kill me. And so I can’t have that. So Jeroboam had to make some changes.

And changes began all the way back in verse 28. One of the most ordinary, most basic fundamental things you think Israel and Judah could agree on was, who do we worship? But not so. Even the most basic element was changed. In verse 28, what did he say? I don’t want to die. I don’t want my people to go to Jerusalem to worship God and stay there. So I’m going to change the object of worship. Rather than worshiping the one true and living God in verse 28, he says, Worship, here are your gods, O Israel. And in verse 28, what were they? Two golden calves. He literally had them made out of gold. They were fastened together. All the people would know this, would see this. And he, as king of Israel, God’s chosen people, says, You worship these idols.

They led you up out of Egypt. But that wasn’t it. In verse 29, notice what he does with them. And he set one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. That might not mean much to you, but consider that Israel of ten tribes had a much bigger landmass than Judah did. And rather than everybody going into Jerusalem like they were told, Jeroboam says, I can’t have that. Because if they go all the way there, they’re not going to come back. And even if I put these two golden calves up, people are going to say, that’s ridiculous. So what am I going to do? I’m going to go to the north of Israel. I’m going to go to the south of Israel. I’m going to make it really convenient.

You know, if you’re leaving Israel from almost anywhere in the north, it was going to be much closer to you up there. But even those trying to go south into Judah would have to essentially pass Jeroboam’s golden calf in the south. He says, If I change the place of worship, I will have people who will be faithful to me. Do you see the problem though from the onset of this? Jeroboam’s worried about how will the people be faithful to me, not faithful to God. He’s changed the object of worship with the two golden calves. He’s changed the place of worship. He’s also changed who could be a priest. If you continue the reading in verse 30, then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.

He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from all among all the peoples who were not of the Levites. So if you’re keeping track, God says, You are to worship me and me alone. You are to worship me and me alone in the place I designated, which is Jerusalem at the temple that Solomon had not too recently just finished. And not only are you to do that, who administers the worship? The priest. And the priest came from the tribe of Levi. And so you think about this, you think about what Jeroboam’s changed already from the onset in his reign because of his fear and because of his pride. He says, I’m going to change who they’re going to worship. I’m going to change where they’re going to worship.

I’m going to change how they worship. I’m going to change who could be a priest, because now, was he saying we just need to get some Levites in here to help with this? No, why would you change now? You already changed who you’re worshiping. You change where you’re worshiping. You might as well make it convenient. Who did they have? Not the tribe of Levi who knew the law and cared about it. He had to get people who to be priests, verse 31, from among all the people, those who were not Levites. And by the way, in case you’re wondering, in case you’re thinking maybe they had liberty to this, that Jeroboam as king of Israel had the right, the sovereign ability by God to make these changes, we read in verse 30 that this thing became a sin, as any violation of God’s will is.

We may not like that. In America, we think that as long as we agree on it, that’s what mostly matters. But God says, when I say do this, and you do something instead, that is sinful. That’s wrong, no matter if Jeroboam, Rehoboam, or anybody else says otherwise. But notice in verse 33, of course, that wasn’t all, that wasn’t it. In verse 32, even, and Jeroboam appointed a feast on the 15th day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priest of the high places that he had made. He went up to the altar that he made in Bethel on the 15th day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart.

And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings. I don’t think it needs to be said any more clearly than verse 33. Where did Jeroboam get this idea and all the others? As he devised from his own heart.

I think people should act like I want them to. In that sense, we get distracted because we say, I’m so worried about this element of my life. Remember, Jeroboam was worried about two things not being killed and maintaining authority over Israel. He said, If the people go, they’re going to submit to Rehoboam, they’re just going to stay there, and they’re going to come back and kill me, even if they do leave.

And so, because of that distraction, rather than doing what God wants, he says, I’ve got to preserve self, and to preserve self, I’m going to keep them from going to where God wants to be worshipped. I’m going to go ahead and just change the God they do worship. I’m going to change who administers the worship service, and I’m even going to change the time and the feast days because I want to, and I feel like I can. As unfortunate as that is, and as I especially recoil at the idea of being compared to anybody who would make golden calves and then institute worship of golden animals. I think sometimes we can be like Jeroboam. I think sometimes we have obstacles, maybe not to worshiping God, but to growing in our service to God.

2. One Obstacle That Keeps Us From Him Is Fear

Do you ever feel like maybe we’re kind of just happy? We’re kind of just happy with where we are? Does God say, hey, once you get on the narrow way, you just kind of sit down and God will take you the rest of the way? It’s like one of those walkways at the airport you get on and a people mover. There’s never enough people mover to get you all the way to the gate, but there is some. That’s not how it works. You have to continually walk in the ways of our Lord. Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So how do we then be greater in our faithfulness? How do we grow? How do we get closer to God? But one obstacle that keeps us from him is fear.

If you look at me in Matthew chapter 14, I think there’s a fantastic illustration and real life example of how fear makes us distracted from Jesus. In Matthew chapter 14, we run into Peter, the apostle who’s like all of us, he just says what we’re thinking if we don’t have the courage to. But in Matthew chapter 14, the apostles and this Jesus’ disciples are seeing Jesus come to them on the water, and they are absolutely terrified. If you notice in verse 26 of chapter 14, when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and they said, It is a ghost. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take hard as I do not be afraid. He noticed that phrase we skipped over at the end of verse 16.

When they saw him walking, they thought it was a ghost, they were afraid. They cried out in fear. And so notice what Peter does. He realizes it’s Jesus, and in verse 28, he says, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. Jesus said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. Now stop the story right there. Isn’t that pretty amazing? That yes, Jesus was walking on water. That makes sense. He is the Son of God, he can do that. But in verse 29, Peter gets out of the boat and is successfully walking on water. I think a lot of us have a lot of success in getting out of the boat sometimes and following after Jesus.

But the story doesn’t end there. In verse 30, but when he saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God. You can think about Peter, and I think we can relate to him. We start walking, we say, There is Jesus. That’s what I need to do. I need to be with Jesus. And if he says I can do it, I know I can. Can I tell you that first and foremost, as easy as that sounds?

Peter was the only disciple to actually get out of the boat. We like to condemn Peter and say, Man, he lost faith. He got distracted, he got afraid. And don’t worry, I’m going to make that point in just a moment. But he was the only one of all the disciples who got out of the boat. And do you notice the text says he walked on the water?

First couple steps being successful doesn’t mean that we’re going to be pleasing to God forever. Sometimes what happens is in this very real visual of the story in Matthew chapter 14, is what happens in my life. I start walking towards Jesus. I do the otherwise unthinkable and impossible, and then what happens? I look around. I take my eyes off of Jesus. And what did Peter notice? He noticed the wind. And he was afraid. Afraid of what? Something similar to Jeroboam was afraid of. He was afraid of losing his life. He said, I’m going to drown here. And we would tell him, Peter, don’t be silly. Of course you weren’t going to drown. You were walking on water. Jesus is right there. He would save you even if you did.

But when it’s my life and my circumstances, you know what I tend to do? I say, this is really bad. Nobody has it like I do. You don’t understand what I am going through. You don’t understand the depths to which I have dropped or the fear or the pain that I am facing. But the Bible teaches us when you are in fear, when you are afraid, even when you are terrified, that’s the best time to look to Jesus. You notice they were all afraid, but then when Jesus was there, he said, Do not be afraid. It was Peter’s fear that caused him to sink. The beauty is that yes, we will often fall away because of fear. We will lose our way from the narrow pathway at times.

The good news is if we cry out to the Lord and change, we can be like Peter who said, Lord, save me. And he did. Fear has pulled away too many servants of God, though. Please don’t, if you haven’t, don’t let that be you. And if it has, recognize that Jesus is there, ready to pick you up. If you will just simply say, Lord, save me and repent and come after him. We think about fear. That often keeps us from greater faithfulness because we’re too preoccupied and fixated on what we’re going through now. And we think if we don’t think about it, nobody else will. Have you ever thought like that? If I don’t worry about my problems, nobody will worry about my problems. Two answers to that.

3. Another Obstacle to Faithfulness Is Pride

One is maybe your problems aren’t worth worrying about. Jesus says, do not worry about your life. But also remember that God cares for you and He wants to hear your worries, and He will take care of you. I think another obstacle to faithfulness is pride. Do you remember in 1 Kings chapter 12, not only did Jerob was Jeroboam afraid of people killing him, he didn’t want people going into Rehoboam’s kingdom because they would do what? They’d stay, and they would worship the person who was already there. The one who had the temple, the one who was in Judah, and the one who they had already come down and visited. They were going to leave Jeroboam, and his pride couldn’t handle that. And I gotta be honest again, as uncomfortable as it may be, sometimes I think pride can be an obstacle to greater faithfulness.

Look with me in Matthew chapter 18. If you think maybe that can’t apply to you, I’d encourage you to look with me in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 1. Notice who is going to have a pride struggle. The disciples of Jesus. What we might call the best that the Lord had. Notice what they’re doing in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 1. The best that Jesus has. Matthew 18 and verse 1. At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Other accounts teach us that they were walking around, they’d be arguing over who would have a prominent place, who was more important, who was the greatest. Can we say that even if Jesus’ closest disciples struggled with pride and this type of thinking?

That it’s fair game that this type of thought might come into me or any of us who are here this morning. How would pride impact our work, though, for God? How would pride impact our faithfulness to him? Maybe sometimes we think we’ve arrived. Maybe we think we’re like the disciples and we’re kind of on cruise control, and we just got to help everybody else get on cruise control too. And again, that’s not what Jesus promised. Jesus says, narrow is the way, and there are few who find it. That narrow pathway that leads to life, broad is the way that leads to destruction. There are many who will enter in by it. We think about those two gates, which one is the one for cruise control? The broad gate.

If we start thinking we’ve arrived, we’ve stopped acknowledging the need for Jesus. There’s no way around it. If I recognize that every day I need the sacrifice of Jesus, every day I need the mercy and forgiveness of my Lord, that’s gonna humble me and change the way I serve him. But if I start thinking I already got it in the bag, that Jesus already died for me, I already said what I needed to do. I go to church the number of times I need to go, I’ve said the number of prayers I need to, I’ve helped the number of people I need to. We’re not serving like Jesus did. Was Jesus plagued with pride? Not at all. In fact, Philippians chapter 2 says he was willing to humble himself into the form of man.

Jesus, the name above all names, came into our form. And with his last breath before the crucifixion, wanted others to be forgiven. And he would have recognized he was on the cross because of the ignorance and hardness of heart of men. Can we please recognize that all of us need to get better and more like our Lord if we’re going to be pleasing to our God. It’s not a thought we would ever proactively say. We wouldn’t be like Jeroboam and say, you know, I got this all figured out. I just need people to stay on my side. But sometimes we might act like that. When we think we’re good enough, when we think the group we’re with is good enough, we stop recognizing the need that Jesus said.

What is our mission like his? To seek and save the lost. The best case scenario is that you are so good that you need to go out and spend every waking moment helping others be as good too. But the truth of the matter is, if we’re all honest, we’ll recognize we’ll never be good enough because Jesus was perfect, and all sin, all violation of God’s will is sin, and that can separate us from God without his forgiveness and love. And so I need to put aside my fear and look to Jesus. I need to swallow my pride and recognize his wisdom here in verse 2. Calling them a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I need to set aside fear and look to Jesus. I need to set aside pride and become like a child. Can you imagine the lesson for these disciples, these proud disciples arguing over who’s the greatest? For Jesus to grab a child and say, you have to be like him. But I want to call your attention to a word in verse three. He said, unless you turn and become like children. Translation, unless you repent, turn from your wrong and humble yourself. There will be no place for you in heaven, let alone who will have the greatest seed. If we’re going to grow in our work together or individually for Jesus, we have to set aside both fear and pride.

4. Willing to Compromise God’s Laws for Convenience

When we think about Jeroboam, though, I think the biggest thing is he was willing to compromise any and all of God’s laws as long as it served his purpose and will. Whatever was convenient, and you see that not only with keeping people in his kingdom, but what did he do with those golden calves? And Dan in Bethel, he had them in the north and south of the kingdom. And he said, I’m going to make it easy for you. Why don’t you look at Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1 with me? See if the description of the Christian walk is easy. Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse 1. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.

And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Not only does verse 1 say we have to run a race with endurance, it says to do so, to do so successfully, you have to lay aside sin. We have to repent of wrongdoing, which is not only turning, but turning and running away from, fleeing temptation.

Sometimes compromise is the kind of thing that sticks to us, though. Because it’s one thing to say, look, those Israelites are really just plain old foolish and dumb for bowing down before a golden calf. Have you ever thought about that? They’re bowing down and worshiping these idols that everybody knows were handmade. And we think you foolish people. But what about when you think about the will of God and you say, well, obviously I shouldn’t leave the faith. Obviously, I shouldn’t just go out and steal and kill. But what if I just kind of compromise on God’s will a little bit? What if I only give Jesus 90% of my attention and time? Or 80%. Or what if it’s only when I’m in my hometown? That’s the only time I need to take God seriously.

Or maybe it’s only with my family. Or maybe it’s only my local family. Maybe it’s only people afar and not my local family. Maybe if I just do most of what God wants, that’s good enough. Can I add the scary reality? That may not be something we would ever say out loud, but something that I think each and every one of us are tempted to do at one point or many in our lifetimes. We often think that if there’s just one moment, God will understand. And then that one moment becomes two moments. And those two moments become four moments, and those four moments become eight moments, and all of a sudden we don’t recognize where we were anymore. I want you to consider for a moment the idea of a ship.

If you imagine a ship that’s anchored and docked by the shore, and it lifts up its anchor with a calm sea within a day, is it really that far from the shoreline? Not too far. But what about a month later? What about a year later? What about ten years later? How far is that ship who pulled up its anchor? Nowhere to be found. Because it had no compass and it had nothing holding it in place. While we’re running this race, what do we do in verse 2? How do we get rid of sin which clings so closely? How do we, verse 3, consider how to endure hostility and not grow weary, not grow faint-hearted. Always give God my best. Verse 2, you do it by looking to Jesus.

And that’s exactly what we saw in Matthew chapter 14. When Peter got out of the boat and began walking towards him, who was he fixated on? His eyes were on Jesus. But when he saw the winds, he began to sink. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2, Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. Verse 3, he endured such hostility that when we are facing struggles, when we’re looking and saying, well, maybe I can cheat this way, maybe I can compromise this way. We need to look to what Jesus did. Did Jesus ever stop doing the will of God? No. And do you know why he didn’t? Because nobody in this room, including myself, would be saved if he didn’t. Three times he prayed in the garden, not my will but thine be done.

If it is possible that this cup passed from me, Jesus knew the crucifixion would be brutal. He knew the death that was sitting before him. And he did it anyway because God’s will should be done no matter what. Not in part, but in whole. If we want that whole redemptive plan of God, the whole sacrifice of Jesus, we have to give our all to. And that means, unlike Jeroboam, there’s no room for compromise. And that means when we’re running this race, we recognize, first of all, running this race is not a sprint. It is a race that requires endurance. It requires a focus of looking to Jesus and a realization that hard times will come, but we can make it through verse 4. Keeping in perspective, and I struggle against sin.

5. Forgetting What Really Matters

I have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Jesus went all the way to his death. And we owe him our lives for it. In fact, our lives aren’t even worth what he paid for them. But he died in my place anyway. He died in your place. Anyone who’s willing to truly dedicate themselves to him to change the entirety of our life to fit in with God’s will. That’s what God wants and what Jesus demands. Consider one final point with me. Sometimes the biggest obstacle to greater faithfulness isn’t fear. It’s not pride, it’s not compromising. It’s big picture. It’s forgetting what really matters. This is just like with Peter when he looked at the winds. He stopped looking at Jesus. He was afraid. It’s like with the disciples, they stopped thinking about heaven and they started thinking who’s the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

It’s like Jeroboam when he compromised for convenience. He was thinking about himself and his self-preservation and the people that he could be in control of. When we forget about heaven and we forget that heaven is about pleasing God, we’ll never make the right answers to the rest of the test. The only way to be pleasing to God is to recognize that I before him am nothing. But despite that, despite my sin, despite my rejection of him at every turn, Jesus died for our sins. He was crucified and hung on the cross because I rejected his will. But God demonstrated his own love towards us. And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is what really matters. That Jesus would die for me.

That I can have a chance to be with God forever. That we can remember that God is there. So we, Colossians chapter 3, set our minds on things that are above, not on the earth, but we focus on God and Jesus who is at the right hand of him. Set your mind on things above and fear won’t catch you. Focus on God and pride will never befall you. Focus on pleasing God with every fiber of your being, and you won’t be willing to compromise. And when you’re doing that, your mind will be in the right place. It’ll be on the only person who can save you, and then and only then can we not only pray a prayer of asking God for forgiveness, but we can know that he is faithful to give it.

Conclusion

Sometimes the greatest obstacles to faithfulness is the most simple and basic concept. That when I wake up every morning, I have to think, how can I make my God pleased? Now, what are some things I need to do because I call myself a Christian? Do we see there’s a difference in the attitudes of I’m a Christian, so I’m good, and I need to please God with every fiber of my being in my day. Do we think that maybe that would change our calendars a bit? That that would change the way we look at life, the way we treat other people, the way we think about ourselves. And so we understand the scriptures when it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. This morning the only question is, will I put God first?

Or I might add to that only question, will I put God first right away? There’s all kinds of reasons to wait. There’s all kinds of reasons to compromise to say I’ve done most of what God wants, to say that I really don’t need God, I do enough on my own, or to say, you know, if I really make a public confession of my faith, I don’t know what it’s going to mean for my friends and my family. But the truth of the matter is, God says, if you trust me, if you believe in Jesus as the Son of God, you confess your sins and confess Jesus as Lord and make him the principal ownership of your life. If you repent of your sins, turning towards, getting rid of the sin which clings so closely, running towards Jesus, and you’re baptized, you can have your sins forgiven, sharing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

Maybe you’re a Christian, you’ve given in to fear, pride, compromise, or convenience. Recognize that God is faithful. If you confess your sins, he will forgive you of your iniquities and cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. What a mighty God we serve. Please Him today. Put Him first right now. If we can help you in any way, come forward as we stand and sing the invitation song.

Yet I turn away from all your loving care.