The Valor of My Cross

Introduction

I have the honor and the pleasure to introduce Kenny Moore and his wife Beth this morning. It’s an understatement to say that I’m familiar with Kenny and Beth. When I moved from Birmingham to Tampa in 1987, I was already worked with Kenny some. He worked at the college in the early 80s, and I placed membership at university where they were attending. And we placed membership there. They had just come back from their honeymoon. And uh Kenny worked at the college and then he started preaching at university and worked with Harry Pickup for a while. He baptized my youngest son in about 1994. He married Jane Lou and I. We were remarried. He married Jane Lew and I in 95. And then he coached my youngest son on the Florida College basketball team.

So he preached there for a while, and then in 2013, he got a call, and he the preacher at Florence, Alabama, College View. They have three children, two boys and a girl, and they’re proud parents of a grandchild.

He has very well schooled in the Bible, and uh he has a very good presentation, provokes you to want to be a better Christian. And those that were here yesterday saw that. He is uh so at this time I’ll uh have you come forward for your lesson. Thank you, John. Well, good morning, everyone. I’d ask you to be turning to Luke, the 10th chapter, if you would. We’ll be there in just a moment. Yeah, John and I go way back. I know his knew his parents, and I know you knew them very well. And uh the Hindle’s many in that family have been close to Beth and me throughout our lifetime, and I appreciate them so so very much. It’s good to see John and Jane Lou.

It’s good to see several of you here this morning whom we have known uh over the course of our lifetime and who have been a great influence on us and to us. And so I appreciate that. It’s good to be able to meet several of you whom we have not met. You know, Beth and I, when we leave here after services today, we will have been in this town for only for less than 48 hours. That’s that’s a pretty quick turnaround in some ways when you’re asked to come and preach and to do some things that we’ve been asked to do since we’ve come here. But I will tell you, I feel like I’ve known you a long time. That’s what happens with people of faith.

When you meet them quickly, you get to know them quickly. And there’s a lot about you, and there’s a lot about who you are that resonates with me because I pray that we’re the same, and we uh reflect that in the lives that we live, and we’re grateful because of the grace as we have just sung because his grace does reach us. And so uh to say that uh it’s been a short stay for us is accurate, but it feels like I’ve been here a long time, and so for all of you, and for the invitation that the elders have extended, I appreciate it. It’s good for Beth and me to see uh the chapmans. They’ve uh they lived in the same town with us, and Ken and I worked at different congregations while they lived in Florence.

We didn’t get to see them near as much as we would have liked, but we were all doing things that we needed to do, but it’s good to be able to see them while uh we have been here as well. I just want to pass on this. Milton and Linda Harris said to tell you hi. They worship with us, and uh they wanted me, Milton texting me this morning and said, make sure you tell those folks how much we love them. And so I wanted to make sure I did that. I want to mention a friend of mine who’s here this morning. His name is Garth Pleasant. Garth’s sitting in the back corner back here. And Garth and I have been friends a long time. He and his wife Pat lived down here now during part of the year.

And Garth and I were coaching colleagues, uh, not colleagues. I I guess you could call it that, but we coached against each other for many years. And uh another friend of ours named Dave Lip coached in Oregon, and and Garth is from Michigan, Dave’s from Oregon, and I was coaching in Florida, and we would meet every year at a national tournament. And uh we just got so close, and our backgrounds religiously are very similar as well, and so we had some really good conversations, and so Garth uh made the choice this morning to come and and and and worship with us and to see me this morning, and it just warms my heart. And I want him to know that and how much I love him, how much I appreciate him, and how glad I am to see him this morning and how glad I am to see all of you.

Uh, I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together. I just, if if you’ll allow me, I just want to make a couple of comments about the service thus far. It has been inspiring to me. I think the fact that you spend as much time as you do thinking about the Lord’s death and the importance of that in our lives says a lot to me about where your emphasis is. And so, in my judgment, I very much appreciate that. I thought David’s comments were outstanding to help us focus our minds. Appreciated Sean’s excellent song leading and Rufus’ prayer and the scripture readings that have been given and your emphasis on reading of God’s word. Again, I think is is important. You don’t need me to uh to tell you all of that, and I’m not here to say because I think it’s good, that’s what you ought to keep doing.

But I’m here to tell you that at least to this point in this service, I have been inspired, I have been helped, and I know that that much of that is because of what you have done as well. You know, these men who help lead us, they lead. They don’t perform. They’re here to help all of us. We all engage in these worship periods, and so I appreciate the fact that these men have helped us do that this morning. So, again, I hope that what little I can do now for the next few minutes will help us as we focus even more on the study of God’s word. I want to continue talking this morning about what I would call the valor of crisis. Um, and and I think hopefully, as I go through this lesson over the next few minutes, you’ll you’ll have a better understanding really of what I mean by that.

But we’re talking about the valor of Christ. If you look at Luke the 10th chapter, you’ll remember a man came to Jesus, a certain lawyer, verse 25 says, and he stood up and he tested him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? Verse 27 said, He answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbors yourself. And he said to him, You have answered rightly. Do this and you will live. I think this is a very interesting passage because it is a man who asked Jesus the most important question that he could ask him, What shall he do to inherit eternal life?

And the man answers him. And the man says that you need to basically, he said, You need to love God with all of your heart. And it just goes on to tell us how deeply that has to happen. And what that what that tells me is this is the way Jesus taught. Jesus taught principally by principle. He said, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, You just simply need to love God. Now, when you hear Jesus say that, what do you think he means by that? Even this man had some questions about that, because Jesus asked him, What is written in the law and what is your understanding, or what is your reading of it? What he says he’s saying is, do you know what it says, and do you know what it means?

And so what this man did was he answered Jesus by saying, You need to love God. And then Jesus said to him, You have answered correctly. You you’ve given me the answer that I wanted you to give. Here’s my question to you this morning. What did Jesus mean by that? When you hear what this man heard, when you hear Jesus say to the question, What shall I do and inherit eternal life? You just need to love God. You need to love him with all of your heart. There has to be something in that principle that helps us understand how do we do that? How do we apply that? And Jesus goes on in this same context, and he tells him about a man who helped. And in that helping of another man, it showed that he actually did love God.

We’re not going to get into the parable of the Good Samaritan this morning, but my point for bringing this up is when the principle is stated, we have to know how to apply that principle. What is it that God wants us to do? When Paul tells us that we need to pray without ceasing, what does that actually mean? How does that look in practice? We know what it says, but what does it mean? When we’re told, even in a passage like 2 10, love your neighbor, Luke 2 10, or chapter 10, love your neighbor as yourself. What does that mean? We’ve got to somehow apply that. And I want to, I want to apply that principle, about principle, if I can say it that way, to what we’re going to talk about this morning.

1. What Does It Mean to Take Up Our Cross?

In Matthew 16, Jesus would say this. He said to his disciples, verse 24, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What does that mean? We know what it says. If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself. How do I do that? Let him deny himself. Let him take up his cross. Let me ask you a question this morning. Have you taken up your cross today? Do you, do you in your mind, does that resonate? Do you know what that means? Is there something when I say that? Is there something then that says to you other than just some general statement about denying self and taking up your cross and following him?

What is Jesus saying here? Is it just, is it just good talk so that when 2,000 years later preachers will have something to talk about? Or is there something that Jesus is wanting us to really understand about a text like this? He talks about saving life and losing life. What is he talking about? I don’t think these things are as maybe as clear to us because maybe we don’t think about it. But I think Jesus fully intended when he said it for us to understand what it was that he meant by it. He would make a similar statement in Luke 14. Whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So don’t you think that it’s important for us this morning to understand what it means to bear our cross?

If Jesus said, You cannot be my disciple unless you’re willing to bear your cross, then I think the first question that I have to ask is, what does that mean? I have to know. I must know, because I do want to be his disciple. Or another idea that covers the same ground in Matthew 10, 38. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. All saying a few different things, but the idea is similar, right? But my question is, what does it mean? If I’m not willing to take up my cross and follow after Jesus, I’m not worthy of him. So my question is, what in the world does it mean to take up our cross? That’s what I want us to think about this morning.

2. What Did It Mean to Them?

And the question that I would ask us is this not what does it mean to us, but what did it mean to them? If we can answer the question, what did it mean to them, then we’ve answered the question. Then we’ve answered the question for us. Anytime we try to understand what the New Testament is telling us, the first question we need to always ask is, what did it mean to them? When that first century audience heard what Jesus said, heard what other men said, when they heard those people preach, when they heard those apostles preach, what did it mean to them? Jesus talked about the cross before he died. Take up your cross and follow me. When the first century audience thought about taking up a cross, it seems to me that what they were looking at was what they saw every day.

When they heard the word cross, when they heard the word crucifixion, they understood what it meant because they saw it. I think sometimes we fail to understand it because we don’t see it. How many of you have seen someone crucified? That’s exactly what I thought. None of us. We’ve not seen someone crucified. Not only did a first century audience in Palestine see people killed, they saw it all the time. When they walked out of their homes in the morning, when they walked to work, when they walked to school, when they walked to a business, whatever they did, when they saw it, there was a good chance they were going to walk by people who literally were crucified. Many times bodies still hanging on those crosses. Their visual was not our visual.

And I think because of that crucifixion sometimes may come across almost sterile to us. I’m not suggesting that it doesn’t affect us. But I am suggesting this. We don’t see it like they saw it. They understood crucifixion. When we think of taking up our cross, I have been guilty of preaching this as well. And I don’t know that guilt is the right word, but many times when I’ve talked about passages like this, I have talked about the fact that we need to make sacrifices for our Lord. And I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong at all with making that point. Yes, we do need to make sacrifices. When you think about crucifixion, you think about sacrifice and the sacrificing of one’s life. But we need to think, I think, in a little bit deeper terms.

We may think of these sacrifices that we make daily. If I ask you this morning, do you make sacrifices for the cause of Christ? I would hope your answer is yes. If I gave you some time this morning, well, what are tell me what are some sacrifices that you do make for the cause of Christ? My guess is, and I think that you could come up with some, not just for the sake of coming up with a list. I think you can come up, well, these are some sacrifices that I make for the cause of Christ. And I think that would be good, and I think that’s what God would expect from you. He would expect that from me as well. But I don’t think that’s what Jesus really means.

When he says, if you want to follow me, you have to deny yourself and take up your cross. In their minds, they had to consider daily the fact that they might die for their faith. My good friend, we may not be very far from it ourselves. I’m very grateful that I live where I live. I’m very grateful that I live in a country where freedom is espoused and freedom is given, and freedom allows me to be who I want to be. It’s my choice, and I’m grateful for that. But circumstances could change.

3. All the Disciples Forsook Him and Fled

And I think Jesus is helping us understand that we certainly need to be willing to do that. How? How did the disciples handle? Well, they heard Jesus say. I’m sure they heard Jesus make these statements many times. No doubt when he taught in various places, he said, What you’re gonna have to do is be willing to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. He would say that multiple times, even before he went to the cross himself. But the disciples knew what he was saying. I don’t know that they understood it fully, at least not initially. In Matthew 26, a passage that’s already been alluded to this morning in our Lord’s Supper remarks, the text tells us that Jesus said to them, his disciples, he said, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered, but after I’ve been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.

That was a prophecy from Zechariah. And he’s telling them, This is what’s going to happen. This is, in essence, this prophecy is going to be fulfilled. And when Jesus spoke this prophecy, Peter, being Peter, answered and said to him, Even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. And Jesus said to him, Assuredly I say to you that this night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to him, Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.

Peter makes a strong proclamation in this, and all the disciples, the text tells us that all the disciples said what Peter said. But when you look at what happens in this particular context, all the disciples said it, but as you read through this particular context, when you get to verse 56, then all the disciples forsook him and fled. They all said, Lord, we’re going to stay with you. We’re going to be with you. We will never deny you. And if we have to die for you, that’s what we’re going to do. And even before he was crucified, all the disciples forsook him and fled. Listen, we’re not talking about just people who’d heard him preach. We’re talking about the disciples. We’re talking about those men whom he had hand selected, who knew him really better as far as any earthy relationship, who knew him better than anybody else.

They all said, We won’t deny you, and they all did, and they all forsook him, and they all fled. That’s what happened to Jesus. When we sing songs that talk about how he died alone, yes, he did die alone. And he asked us to not separate ourselves from him. And I think, again, again, when we look at these passages, I think there is a very practical point to what we need to determine about how we’re going to live our lives and how we’re going to follow what Jesus said. Why do you think the disciples forsook him and fled? Of all the people who should have stood by his side. And when those officers came and arrested him, those men should have, in our minds, they should have just flocked toward those people and said, You’re not going to take the Savior.

We’re not going to let you do this. They were the closest to him. Why do you think they forsook him and fled? I think I have an answer. I think they were like you and me. I think they’re human.

And when they’re called upon to think about the commitment that they’re going to make for somebody, even to the point of losing their life, that’s hard. I think when we think about what God asks of us and what his son asks of us, I think it’s hard. We can look at this and we can read these passages and we can think things like, well, if that would have been me, I would not have denied him. I would have not denied him and fled. They all forsook him, and they all fled. And yet, he tells us, you’ve got to be willing to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. I think they understood what Jesus was saying. But I really think in their human frailty, folks, I think they were unwilling to do it.

4. The Same Men After an Event

I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t know all the reasons why, but what the text does tell me is they forsook him and fled. Now I want to look at them after an event. I want to look at these same men after an event. When you go to Acts 5, of course, the crucifixion has taken place. Jesus has now been buried. He has been resurrected. And he has ascended back into heaven. He’s given, he’s given direction to his apostles, and they have already begun preaching. They’ve already begun talking about what Jesus wanted them to talk about. The Spirit is helping them. He’s given that to them so that they can, in essence, broadcast the message of the gospel. And when you get to Acts 5, verse 33, they have been beaten and they have been put in jail for the preaching of the gospel.

And when the Sanhedrin finds out about them and understands what they’re doing, the text says when they heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them. That’s in reference to the council. Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. Gamaliel speaks. And this is a turning point, it seems to me. He’s going to tell the Sanhedrin listen, I’ve been around a while, and I need all of you to hear what I have to say about what we’re doing to these men. So Gamaliel speaks. In verse 35, he said to them, Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men.

For some time ago, Thodas rose up claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about 400 joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. And after this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. So Gemal is reminding all these men, listen, there have been many false Christs, many false messiahs who have come and said, We’re the Christ, follow after me. And Gamalos says, their people rise up. And he mentions two here. And he says, Fellas, they’ve come and they’ve gone.

He continues, and now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or if this work is a man, it will come to nothing. But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God.

He says, I’ve seen this. We’ve all seen it, we’ve all known what’s happened. I just want to remind you. These men have come, they’ve gone, nothing’s happened. Let’s leave these men alone, he says. And if if what they’re telling us, if what they’re preaching is true, then we’re not going to do anything to stop it. If what they’re preaching is false, it’s just going to go away like everybody else. And so when you get to verse 40, the council agrees. They agreed with him. But when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name, and daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Does Acts 5 sound like Matthew 26 to you? Do the men that we read about in Matthew 26 sound like the same men we read about in Acts 5? They don’t sound anything like the same men, do they? Now they’re fully convinced. Now, when Jesus said, you have to be willing to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me, now they understand what he is trying to say. They have seen something that they had not seen before. They have seen a risen Savior who said, I’m going to rise on the third day. And because of my resurrection, you need not worry about anything that relates to death, because I am risen, you will be risen as well. Now they understand that. Now they’ve seen that.

Now they’ve seen that in the Savior. But they said, We’re going to beat you. The same heaters said, We’re going to beat you and we’re going to send you out. And the text tells us, so they departed, meaning the apostles, they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. That’s different than Matthew 26. I want you to see what they did. Notice what verse 42 says. Daily in the temple.

But when we release you, don’t go preaching anymore. And basically saying, if we catch you preaching again, it’s going to be worse than what we’ve just done to you. Let me ask you a question. If you had been an apostle and you started preaching again, where might you have gone first? Or let me ask you this where might you not have gone first? Would you have gone? I’m just going to go to the temple. I think when I’m going to start back, I think I’m going to start my preaching, my missionary journey, I’m going to start the temple. The last place these men should have gone in terms of their life should have been, we’re going to go back in the temple. The text tells us they went to the temple every day and they preached.

And they proclaimed the name of Jesus every day. What do you think happened to them? Well, you know, if you read the book of Acts, you know some things that happened to them. But not only did they go to the temple preaching in the temple daily, they went to every house. And the text says they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. They didn’t cease doing that. Now, let me ask you another question. Do you think they knew where the high priest lived? Do you think they knew where the associate high priest lived? Do you think they knew where the members of the Sanhedrin lived? My guess is they knew it very well. It seems to me the thing to do might have been, let’s have, fellas, let’s go, let’s go kind of regroup.

Let’s go meet and let’s go talk about this. It seemed like a wise idea would have been to say, you know what? Let’s let’s move, let’s head on up to Galilee a little early. Let’s head on north. Let’s kind of work our way down, and eventually we’re gonna get to Jerusalem. And when we get Jerusalem, we’ll eventually get to these houses, and then finally, maybe we can get to the temple. That’s not what happened. They went to every house. Every house.

They did not cease preaching that Jesus was the Christ. I’ll tell you what they were unconcerned about. They were unconcerned about dying. Forget, forget some of these sacrifices they had made. They had now decided our life is not worth living. If we can’t preach, if we can’t share the gospel with people, what we really need to do, if we have to die for it, then we have to die for it. I think they were starting to get what Jesus was talking about. They saw Jesus after his resurrection. You know, that’s something that we’ve never seen. I think that is, I think that is one of the reasons why. I think our faith and the people of faith, I think that’s why it’s it’s really it’s really quite, I think, an accomplishment for people of faith to believe in somebody that they’ve never seen.

5. Believing in Someone We Have Never Seen

You never saw one miracle that he did. You never heard one sermon that he preached. You never sat around one fire where he was at. You that never happened to you. It’s never happened to me. And yet we are people who vow and determine that we’re going to dedicate our lives to Jesus Christ. And people look at us and go, Are you out of your mind? You’re going to believe in someone you’ve never even seen. Why do you believe? Why do you believe that Jesus even lived? Well, we believe because of evidence. It’s not a blind faith. I think we’re committed to denying ourselves and hopefully taking up our cross and following him because we’re committed, because we’ve looked at the evidence and we have concluded, yes, he did live, and yes, he did die, and yes, he has been resurrected, and because of all that, that can happen to us too.

So these words by John in 1 John 1 have come to mean a great deal to me. John says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you. You see all that language? We’ve seen him, we’ve heard him, we’ve touched him. He was manifested to us, and because of that, we can share that with you. They say, we’re declaring these things to you. We’re declaring it. A declaration is something that can be affirmed.

When something is declared, it is something that is factual. And John says, We saw him. You don’t have to see him. We saw him. And the evidence is there. And I love the last part of this particular passage where John says, and these things we write to you that your joy may be full. Why do you serve God? Why do you believe in Jesus? Why this morning are you, I believe, intellectually, I believe every single one of us is intellectually ready this morning to die for Jesus if we’re called upon to do that. Why would I tell you that intellectually? Because practically we have not been asked to do that. Jesus said, you have to be willing to take up your cross and follow me. I don’t believe for one minute that Jesus is talking about you just need to sacrifice some things in your life for my cause.

6. Would You Be Willing to Die for Jesus?

That may have been a part of it. But I think this is what Jesus means. You be willing to die for me. Would you be willing to lose your life? He would even ask that question in some of these previous contexts. If you’re willing to lose your life, then you’ll be able to find your life. See, the question of would you be willing to die for Jesus is a lot different than are you willing to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus? That’s a lot different question, then would you be willing to die for Jesus? You see that? And I believe when those first century people woke up every morning and they left their house, in essence, they saw themselves as possibly having to literally take up a cross and follow after Jesus.

They had the mindset, if they were true followers, they had the mindset that said, if today is the day I have to die for him, then today is the day I will die for him. I preached this lesson in Dallas, Texas, several years ago now. And I had been asked to come and preach to a group of younger people. There were several there in the audience. And the whole theme was about related to the cross. And the man who was heading up the lessons asked me, he had heard me preach this lesson and said, Would you would you preach this lesson here? And I said, I’d be glad to. So I did. And when it was over, when the whole thing was over, I was sitting up here when they had the closing prayer.

And when it was over, I just do as I would normally do. And I turned and I just began to talk to some folks who were up here at the front. And of course, as I was talking to a man here, I could see there was a younger man in the back. And I could tell he was making eye contact. You know how you see people from far away, but but you make contact with them, and you can tell there’s something going on in their head that you need to know about. And I could tell from the back of the room that he wanted, he wanted to talk to me. I could just tell because he was kind of working his way down. He knew I was talking to some people here, but he was working his way down.

He’d go about two rows and he’d stop. He’d look at me. Go about two rows, he’d stop and look at me. And I and I could tell he was evaluating the number of people here to get down here so that he could say something to me. And so I kept talking to these folks, and pretty soon he came to about pretty close to where John’s sitting right here. He was standing there, and it was very clear by now that he wanted to say something to me. So the last person left, and I acknowledged him. I said, How are you doing? He was a young man. He said, My name is so and so. And he said, might just ask you one question. I said, Well, sure.

You know, I’m thinking he wants to know where I’m from, or he wants to know this. He said, You’ve asked us if we’re willing to die for Jesus. Are you willing to die for Jesus? I wasn’t ready for that. I was like, you’re not supposed to ask me that. I’m the preacher. I’m asking you that. He said, I just wanted to know, are you? He said, you talked about us. Are you willing to die? It stunned me. And I just paused. And as honestly as I could, I said, I don’t know. I don’t know. I said, but here’s what I’ll tell you. I believe in him. I believe as strongly in him as I ever have. I believe the evidence points to him. I believe that the evidence is clear that he is, that he was that lived on the earth, that he was who he said he was, that he died, that he was resurrected.

And I do believe that what he asked me to do is not only to die for him, but to live for him. And I said, I pray that I’m doing that. I said, but if I’m asked to die for him, I pray to God that my answer is yes. If somebody walks in here today and says, Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Because the answer to that question is going to depend on whether or not you live. I pray to God Almighty that my answer is, yes, I do. I believe in him, take my life, whatever that means, but I’ll never ever deny who Jesus is. All I want you to do this morning is to think about that question. Are you willing to die for Jesus?

Conclusion

I think that’s what he’s asking us. Because if we are, my friends, then we’re willing to live for him. And that’s what he wants to. So may I ask you this morning, are you willing to die for him? And if you are, then you ought to be willing to live for him. So may I ask you as we sing this song of invitation to consider both questions. Are you willing to live for him? And are you willing to die for him? If we can help you this morning with your obedient faith, with you beginning to make that choice. Maybe, maybe you’ve decided that. Maybe you, but maybe you need to put on Christ, or maybe you need to reestablish your relationship with Christ. Maybe you’ve rebelled against Christ.

God wants you back. He wants you back and he wants you committed. And so I would encourage you, as would everyone here this morning, if we can assist you in your obedience to the faith, we ask you to come as we stand and as we sing.