Are You Longing for Heaven? | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Instead of continuing in our series in the book of Mark, I wanna take the remainder of our time, this afternoon to encourage you with a different message that I hope will cause you to rejoice more than you already have. And by by doing so, we're not gonna rush through the text that we were planned to explore because I believe that it's gonna require much more time and meditation in order to fully benefit from it. And so we're gonna pause and mark, and I'm just gonna preach a message to that I believe is a vital importance in a day that we are living in. And so open your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter three. In Colossians chapter three, And meet me there in verse excuse me.

Colossians one verse three. Earlier this week, I stumbled upon a video online that I didn't look for, but just came to my recommendations. And the title of that video gripped me. It grabbed my attention, and so I decided to watch it. The title was something along the lines of, does anyone feel like everything changed?

Does anyone feel like everything changed? And I can say a lot about what was said in that well edited clip, But the main thought of the individual behind the commentary was that he can recognize how almost everything in his world or in the world has been altered in comparison to his own upbringing. And he begins his monologue by expressing his recollection of society and and culture and what it was like when he was growing up and how there was some level of faith in our institutions, in God, and in ourselves, whatever that means. And, essentially, what he's trying to say is that only a few decades ago, there was generally in the air something of hope, something of security, something of warmth, something of kindness, something of optimism, and all of us can attest to that. Even if you're a millennial, you can attest to that.

That growing up in the in the nineties, growing up in the eighties, there was there was a different world in the world that we're living in today. And whatever was left a virtue in our culture has virtually been evaporated. And not just evaporated, it's been replaced with a tangible eeriness. And this fueling of anger, fear, and suspicion, and it's only intensifying by the day. And I have personally had conversations with people, believer or non believer alike, who have said, there's something strange going on, and I can't put my finger on it.

I can't put my finger on it, but something is different. And they can't shake it off, especially in the past few years. And one striking statement that was made in this video by this man was the following, quote, I have been hard pressed to find a single soul who harbors any amount of faith that we are headed anywhere except in the wrong direction, end quote. You know it's bad when you talk to people who are not filled with the Holy Spirit, and they can discern that there's something dangerous going on. There's deception on the rise.

You have even people saying, I don't know if I wanna have children at this point. And reading some of the comments on that video only confirmed what this man's case was all about. You can feel the hopelessness in people's post after one after the other have made personal observations of the rapid deterioration of the quality of life because of the cultural corruption and the decay of dignified character. It's disappearing. And there's tension, and it's growing.

But with all of that happening, we have people now trying to find answers. You and I are a different breed. Yeah? You and I are different people because we have a different vantage point if you are in Christ. Because regardless of what is happening, we are a collective body of people who have answers to the meltdown of the values and the common sense that is left in our generation.

But we don't just have answers. You know what we have? We have hope. We have hope for the future. And the object of our hope is ultimately God.

Yes. But within that relationship with the living God, there are so many realities that offers layers of hope. Layers of hope. It's not just one dimensional. There are so many facets to our faith that gives us this anchoring security regardless of what is being shaken around us.

And what I wanna do today in this brief time is just touch on one of those gospel treasures that you and I have inherited because of the lordship of Jesus Christ who rules and reigns over our hearts. And one of those treasures is so precious and so profound that it has the ability to make us fearless, to make us immovable, to make us resilient in a despairing age. And it's right there in your text in Colossians one three. We read, we always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. Verse five, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

Of this, you have heard before in the word of truth, of the truth, the gospel. Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, Paul makes a clear connection between the gospel and this hope laid up for us in heaven. This message that we preach as followers of Christ contains a hope, and it is a hope that is beyond this world, and it is a hope that is beyond this life. And the hope is so incredible that it has the ability to change you today, to influence you today. When you look at this, you realize that there is a blessed promise in Jesus Christ, and I like to describe it in this way, a personal reservation of a place to be with God in his dwelling forever.

You and I know that to be heaven. There's there's not much talk about heaven lately. It it was dominant in in past singing, past sermons. It it it was what gave hope to martyrs, and yet it seems to not even be in our conversation, in our preaching. Heaven.

When you see this hope of a celestial habitation, it has such a mark on the believer who understands the implications of it that Paul teaches how that hope actually influenced the love that the Colossian Christians had for one another. Look back at the end of verse four again. He says, and of the love that you have for all the saints. Why? Because, verse five, of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

So there's something about this hope that energizes Christians, that encourages them in a certain way of life, And that is not limited to love. It's it's it's goes beyond. It goes into sacrifice. It goes into humility. It goes into patience.

It goes into steadfastness. It goes into godliness day by day. There's a particular realization that can actually impact your character and has everything to do with this thing that we know as heaven. John would confirm that in first John three three, and you don't have to turn there, where he says, and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who does hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

That hope that John is speaking about is very similar to Paul's. It's the certain expectation of the triumphant return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what he's saying there is that when you have that realization living in the forefront of your thinking, it actually has the power to cleanse you, to wash you, to conform you. When you live with that anticipation, it actually gives you some kind of energy to be transformed into Christ likeness. And I am confident that as you just hear tidbits of what is laid up for you in glory, that it will not only awaken a joy in you, but it will stabilize you.

Stabilize you to the degree that no matter what is happening in this life, you will be able to remain unshaken. You know why? Because you and I have something. It's an inheritance. And Peter says it's an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Do you long for heaven, my brother? Do you long for heaven, my sister? Do you think about it? When you move into a house, you do some research. What neighborhood am I going into?

What are the schools like? What facilities are near? How far is it from work? How close is it to my relatives? And we we put so much effort into our planning for vacation and where we're gonna be and how and yet our home is in a place beyond this life, and there's very little thought about where you're going.

Not just thought. The bible even says that you can invest in that place. And I believe that that factor being so diluted is affecting people, namely Christians, in their hope in this life. And so I wanna just touch on a few things. The first thing I wanna touch on is where you are going if you are in Christ.

Where you are going will be a place of incomparable satisfaction. And that's something that I see in Psalm 17, and I want you to see it with me in your bible. In Psalm 17 verse 13. This is David's prayer. I don't want you to see what he prays.

Psalm 17 verse 13. David prays, arise, oh, Lord. Confront him. Subdue him. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, oh lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life.

You fill their womb with treasure. They're satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants. Here's David crying out to God for deliverance from wicked men who are trying to plot against him, to threaten him, and to take his life. And from there, though, he he goes on to describe his foes in an interesting way. He labels them.

He criticizes them, and he criticizes them in the following manner. He describes them as those whose portion is in this life. Translation, Lord, deliver me from these men. These men who have only but this life to live for. Everything that they own, everything that they enjoy is confined to this world.

And that's an interesting way of speaking about those who are outside of Christ. Their possessions and their pleasures are limited to now and to a few tomorrows. And he even goes on to say from there that whatever they boast in this life, whatever they relish in, whatever they savor, whether they wanna recognize it or or not is sourced by God. He is the one who is responsible for those daily graces that they swim in and refuse to recognize him for. Look what he says here in the second part of verse 14.

You fill their wounds with treasure. Okay. They they don't wanna give credit to the creator. You might be that kind of a person in this place today. The very breath that you're breathing in today has been granted by permission from God.

You fill their womb with treasure. You are the one who who's so merciful that it overflows even into the lives of those who hate you, who despise you, who refuse to glorify you and give thanks to you. David says, you are that merciful. And he he goes on not just by defining by defining the portion of their pleasure and identity and hope, but the duration of it. The last part of verse 14, and they leave their abundance to their infants.

No matter how large, no matter how wide their assets are, not an inch of it is coming. Not an inch of it is coming into the world that you're heading into. Not an inch. Not a piece. It has to be left behind.

It has to be left behind when you are inescapably summoned to the grave. The mortality rate of being a human is one hundred percent. Not fifty percent. It's not like fifty percent of humans live forever and others die. All of you, you want a Sunday morning message, are gonna die, including the preacher.

So don't be offended. We are all headed in that direction. But but David does something now after he gives us brief category of people, which is the majority of our world, really. He stops now, and he's going to now say something to separate himself from such a category. And he uses three words.

As for me. That's verse 15. Right? As for me. So there's people out there and their portion is in this life.

Oh, yeah. They they have they have possessions, they have property, they have people, but but they're going on and they're gonna leave all that they work for, all that they were sweating over and crying over, They're gonna leave that here. But as for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. When I awake, he's not talking about a nap. When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

Yeah. The world may gloat the way the world may gloat over their temporary prizes, but as for me, I'm gonna point you to my portion, and it's not in this world. This portion is so magnificent. It's gonna be about seeing God face to face and being conformed to his likeness. You know, David could have compared the quality of his life to the others.

He he could have trumpeted. This is a king. His position, his power, his authority, his fame, his accolades, his military, his riches. He doesn't even bring one of those things up because none of those things can even come close to the portion that he brings before us, and that is the life to come. There's a life to come.

And the language of the spirit of God to use and to point to the transition from death to life for the righteous is likened to sleep and waking up. That's what he means when he say when I awake. Why? Because just like sweet sleep, the death of the righteous will be serene and swift. When I wake up, there are two things that I am assured.

There are two things that will be certain for me. The first is I will behold your face. Who is he speaking to? Speaking about the Lord himself. I will behold your face in righteousness.

That would have been unthinkable for a Jew to experience in this world. Moses was told by God himself, behold, you shall not see my face and live. No one no one can see my face and live. And yet David here can excitingly say what would be a death sentence today was his stimulation for what is to come. When the bible uses that language of face, it speaks of unhindered intimacy.

And that's what is awaiting David, and this is what he can he can boast about and and explode about. I'm gonna behold his face. I'm not I'm not just gonna pray now and by faith believe that he hears me. I'm not just gonna read of him in his word. I'm going to meet him.

And secondly, he would be supernaturally transformed into God's likeness in terms of his moral beauty and his resurrected qualities, which will enable him to be in the very presence of God and not be consumed. I can say more about those two things, but I won't because the phrase I want you to highlight is when he declares, I shall be satisfied. You know what the word satisfied is in the original language? The same sensation that you experience when you eat a wonderful meal and you're no longer hungry. That's what he alludes to.

He says, what is coming will bring such a fulfillment and wholeness that I can sing about it today. That is not to say that as a Christian living here that you don't experience some level of satisfaction. Of course, you do. You have tasted and you've seen that the Lord is good. I believe what David is describing here is a whole another level of gratification that even the godliest man or woman in all of church history has never even come close to.

It is a satisfaction that will never listen to this. You ready for this? Never be challenged by temptation to sin. It is a satisfaction that will sustain you for thousands upon thousands upon millions upon millions of years. It is a satisfaction so deep that it will swallow up the most painful memories and sufferings that you have endured in this life.

And he here's what's so wonderful about it. That level of delight is waiting to meet you the moment that you step into the shores of eternity. When I awake, I shall be satisfied. And I think about that, and I and I realize that there is so much pain in so many people's lives. Can I tell you that one second one second into eternity will eclipse a hundred years of pain and persecution in this world?

One second. Years ago, I remember seeing a clip, actually series of clip clips, and maybe you've seen it too, where they have these glasses. They look like sunglasses, but they're for color blind people. Have you seen this? And and you would see family members give this as a gift to a grandfather or a brother or a sister or a friend, and and they have these balloons with all these different colors right beside the person who's receiving this gift.

And they would usually do it out in the open as well. And the moment that these people put on these glasses, they just become paralyzed. And you can tell that they're trying to register what is happening in this moment because all they have known is very faint colors, sometimes just black and white. And here they are, you have grown men starting to weep because for the first time, they can perceive that there are variations. There there there's blues and greens and purples and yellows, things that we take for granted, and they break down because they're just absolutely overwhelmed that this is what reality is.

And I remember watching that and thinking to myself immediately, surely, surely, Lord, this is but a sample of what's gonna happen when our eyes behold what no mind has been able to conceive. Surely, the moment that we step into the world that you have prepared for us, We will need specific bodies to be able to maintain it and to register it because there is a world with a dynamic dimension that our minds have not been able to even imagine. There is incomparable satisfaction that awaits those who are in Christ. Heaven is not open for everybody, by the way. It's for those who are in him.

But let me point you to something else. Go to second Peter very quickly in verse 13 of chapter three. In second Peter three thirteen, the apostle Peter has something to say about heaven. He says, but according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, in which righteousness dwells. Now I'll I'll give you a heads up.

This part will not excite those who are not righteous in Christ, but if you're righteous in Christ, you will truly rejoice over this unique characteristic that Paul gives and highlights concerning heaven. The main point that he wants to drive into your heart and mind by the spirit is that the world that we are heading towards is absolutely covered in righteousness. And that is not to say that our current world is void of complete righteousness. We have some level of sanity left and some level of people who are operating with their God given conscience, and we have the church still on earth. So we have hints of righteousness sprinkled here and there.

But you and I can acknowledge that human history is generally a record of atrocities and evils committed from one generation to the next, and it's only getting bloodier. And that may not be so exciting to you what Peter says here. But for those who who have been made righteous, that cycle will not change until it is broken by the return of Christ who will redeem all things. And listen. When he does come back, he will make everything absolutely and completely pure.

No corner will be untouched. There will not be one molecule of contamination. And again, if you have this common misconception of what glory will look like let me give you the common misconception that we're headed towards a hazy place, generally white, foggy with slow motion clouds passing by. The only object really in operation is this massive throne where God sits, and surrounding him are millions of people who will sing worship songs with perfect pitch for millions of years. That's if I were to ask you, come on, be honest.

Yeah. That's how I think heaven is. And if you just do a a just a preliminary study of what is awaiting us, the bible gives you little peaks, little windows into what is going to happen, what is going to come, and it will absolutely obliterate that false notion of where Christ is bringing us. Can I show you one? This might boggle your mind, but it's okay.

That's what the Bible does oftentimes. Revelation chapter twenty one twenty three. Now as you're turning there, listen to what I'm saying. What I'm about to read to you is a description of the new heavens and the new earth. So this is not gonna be a complete teaching of of the doctrine of the last days.

But when Christ returns, he is going to set up his reign on this earth for a thousand years. He's gonna rule from Jerusalem. And for a thousand years, he will implement justice. He will receive worship, and the world is going to experience a government that it has never known. What I'm about to read to you is not in that time because once that that thousand years is over, then we read in the beginning of this chapter, there's gonna be a new heavens and a new earth.

So we're not we're not we're not being vacuumed into some sky's place. There's gonna be a heavens, and there also is going to be a regenerated earth. And so now we're in the eternal age in this part now that I'm about to read. Now look at this description. In Revelation twenty one twenty three, and the city oh, there's gonna be a city.

Not just borderless and colorless arenas. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it. That's how you know we're not talking about an earth. You can't survive without the sun. But in this world, there's no sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the lamb.

Verse 24. By its light will the nations walk. Nations? And the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Cities, nations, kings.

There goes your Sunday school version of heaven. I can't explain it, and we don't have an exact and comprehensive blueprint about it, but that alone is enough to prove that eternity is gonna be a lot more sophisticated and complex than what we've been given in terms of what it will be like. That may relieve you, but that's not the main feature. Mankind has known cities and kings and borders and nations almost near the inception of time. But what I will tell you in the next verse here is what we have never seen.

Scroll down to verse 27 of the same chapter. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the lamb's book of life. That is the glory of the new heavens and in earth. Imagine a world where nothing or no one will ever defile it. No more perversion.

No more being afraid to walk in Downtown Chicago at a certain time of night. No more murders. No more shootings. No more lies. No more deception.

No more pride, no more jealousy, no more human sex trafficking, no more rumors of wars, no more questioning people's motives, no more wondering if somebody's trying to cheat you. Ready for this? No more divisions and church splits. No more hypocrisy. No matter where your eyes scroll, no matter where your feet lead you, you will realize that absolutely everything has been made righteous.

Thank you. Hallelujah indeed. You know, you turn on the news today, and I think the news are just experts on making you feel bad in ten minutes. It's just bad news all the time, and they have a wonderful ability to make you realize how your neighborhood is much more dangerous than you thought. And if there's any coverage of good news, it gets like a two minute slot, and then they return to their endless horror story rampage.

But in the world that is to come, no bad news ever ever. Not one. Only good news. Only peace. Only love.

Only harmony. Only goodness. Safety. The warmth. We don't even need the sun.

The glory of God will shine upon us with our resurrected skin, and we will feel his fellowship wherever we go. I I I can continue. I can talk to you about what's gonna happen to our minds, what's gonna happen to our memory, what's gonna happen to our fellowship, what's gonna happen in terms of our activity, what's gonna happen in terms of I can go so far with this. But I just wanna point you to one thing because perhaps you're not convinced that these brief thoughts that were just shared are a matter of great importance to the Christian today. Perhaps you think that this is just a matter of satisfying curiosity of the unknown.

No. It has practical implications to your personal walk day by day, how you treat others, how you worship, how you endure suffering. And if there's anybody who actually believes that there is great value in upholding this view of your heavenly home, you know who sees it? Satan. You don't believe me?

Well, you're in Revelation, so meet me in Revelation 13. Revelation 13. A majority of that chapter is a prophecy that one day in human history, we will have a man who will rule the world. He will be a political figure who'll be known as the man of lawlessness or the antichrist. And this will be a false type of messiah who will bring some kind of sanity into our life, at least at least in the beginning.

He will rescue. He will rescue the nations from plunging into self destruction and destructions towards one another. He will bring some some peace like the world has really never known. And and in a day today where we see such a lack of qualified leaders on a global scale, we we can have some kind of an impression of how a person like this will rise into power out of nowhere. He will put every other politician, every other world leader to shame.

He will be extremely charismatic, extremely persuasive, powerful, and and the Bible even says that he will perform false signs and wonders that will cause people to actually worship him. And you're gonna have people who are gonna be so desperate because of the destitution of life that they will fall on their knees before this man. And he is a person who will take advantage of the weakness of that generation, who will play on the fears of people, and he will actually demand worship. And you are you ready for this? It it it will come with an incentive.

If you want to buy something, if you want to eat, if you wanna be in business, you need to take this mark. And by the way, Christian, if you're worried, you can't accidentally take the mark of the beast. This will be a public way for you to have an allegiance to this man. And for others, it will be less about that. It'll be more about you wanting to just live a comfortable life because you want to go where you wanna go, and you wanna do what you wanna do, and you want freedom.

So tell me to do this, I'll do it. Tell me to go here, I'll go. Tell me to stay, I'll stay. Sound familiar? And so this man is going to rise into power, and he is going to be very bold in his statements.

And so bold will this man be that he will actually defy the living God. He will publicly, on this world platform, degrade the name of the God that we worship and love. But not just that. Look at verse six now. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God.

This is the antichrist who's gonna be energized by Satan himself. Blaspheming his name and his dwelling that is those who dwell in heaven. Now if you have the King James or the New King James, it would read, blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, which is another way of saying heaven, and those who dwell in heaven. Isn't it interesting that the Antichrist will not only stop at slandering God himself, but will go ahead and actually defame his holy habitation? Why would he do that?

Why would he try to pollute people's minds about where God dwells? And I'll tell you why. Because he longs to lie about the very thing that the holy spirit in his word tells you to set your mind and your hope on. Do you understand? And if the devil can't convince you that heaven doesn't exist, because as much as this gonna this is gonna be intensified with the antichrist, Satan has been doing this since the beginning.

He has been whispering lies about the afterlife since since the start. And if he can't convince you that there isn't a life to come after you die, then he'll convince you, dear Christian, that where you're headed is gonna be a dreadfully boring place. So live it up while you're here. Because where you're going is an endless worship service, and that's it. As though worship was boring.

And so you have to understand that Satan sees the value of God's heavenly place to the degree that he would wanna smear it. He would want you to think small of it because that's that's what Christ is preparing for us. You see, the devil hates God so much. He wants to violate absolutely everything that he does and everything that he is. And I believe in part two, take away heaven, you take away people's hope, at least for the Christian.

What can you do to the man who knows that he will live forever? What can you do to the woman who knows that she will be in the arms of her savior for all of eternity? What can you do? Jesus himself said it. Do not fear the one who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

They can't touch you ultimately. So Satan knows that if he can blur your vision of what is to come, then he can make you a very weak child of God. Now I can say so much more, but let me end it with one more verse in Revelation, and we'll break bread. Go to chapter 14 verse 13. Says, and I heard a voice from heaven saying, write this, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

Blessed indeed, says the spirit, that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them. Who can actually say that death is a blessing? Only one type of person, he was in the Lord. Only he who is in the Lord. That's why you have Christians who don't call funerals funerals, they call them homecomings.

Listen, I don't know when I'm going, but when I go call it a homecoming. Don't call it a funeral. He's in glory. The spirit says blessed indeed. You had a man who is Balaam, who is a false prophet, and who tried to curse the people of God.

And in numbers 23, the spirit of God comes upon him to change his curse into a blessing. And at the end there of his of his oracle, he says something along the lines of, oh, that I may die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like his. That's what he concludes. He goes, oh, something happened there where the spirit of God showed him what what death is like for the believer and even this pagan false god worshiper goes, oh, may my end be like that. If that's leading to that, then I want that.

But here's the thing. You ready? Although Balaam, who did not really follow the true God, although Balaam desired it, he never got it. Did he die the death of the righteous? No.

He died the death of the wicked. Maybe today in this brief segment where you got just a little taste of what makes Christians in this life different, of what keeps our head up when people are running into things in this world. Know this, that we're not an exclusive club. We've been commissioned by God to recruit as many people as possible. I don't wanna tell you today that you can know eternal life.

You can know life after death. And it's not just an escape from judgment. It is an entrance into a bliss that I I can't really communicate. I try my best. But I want you to see this again and realize that the way there is not what you might think.

Notice at the end here, it says that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them. He's speaking about those who die in the Lord. Did you notice that it doesn't say for their deeds go before them? The deeds of the righteous don't go before them, they follow them. Why?

Because we already have someone who went before us. His name is Jesus Christ. Our works don't go before us to place us in a heavenly dwelling. It doesn't prepare us a home with God. Christ's work went there for us.

He is the forerunner. He made that entrance on our behalf. And based on his own merit and his own righteousness, do we have a name and do we have a seat at his table? The deeds of the righteous follow them, implying what? Yes.

As Christians, we're we're changed. We we look different. We live different. And they will accompany us when we stand before God, but not as a means for salvation. Yes.

God will evaluate our lives, and he will reward us based on our faithfulness. But but he will never ever evaluate whether you are worthy enough to be with him because Christ does that for us. He did that for us. And so why we come here on Sundays and some on Wednesdays and some on Fridays and why we live the way we live is not so that we can gather as much works as possible so that when we do die, we can come before God and say, here you go. Did I make it?

Did I pass? No. From the place of gratitude, from the place of grace and faith. Oh, we want to serve him, and we want to live from him, and they follow us. And as we come before the Lord, we realize that we stand there solely based on what Christ has done.

And, Lord, because that because that you died for me, here is my life. I dedicated it to you. I used my gifts for you. I worshiped you. I honored you.

Yes. I failed here and there. But look, Lord, this is what I did because of you. And for, hopefully, all of us here at NBC, the Lord will say, well done, good and faithful servant. Well done, good and faithful servant.

So my my charge to you today, if you're a visitor and I'm not ashamed to preach in this manner. It sounds strong, but if I really believe in heaven and hell, I have to be strong. The way that you have eternal life is when you actually surrender your efforts and you just give up. It's not you impressing God. It's not you trying to be in in in a good place with him, good reputation before him.

You just say, lord, I can't do it anymore. I tried. I failed, And I realized that you've loved me enough for your son to to live in my place and to die in my place. I receive that, and I accept that. And I repent from my sin, and I cling to the cross.

And I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to wash me. I ask you to write my name in the book of life. And, Lord, give me this hope that this preacher is talking about. And I tell you today that that hope is not resting upon whether you have a good day or a bad day as a Christian.

It rests on that fact that two thousand years ago, Christ lived a perfect life, and he died a perfect death and has satisfied God, the judge of the earth. And it was so so sufficient that even two thousand years later, you can, in 2022, give your life to him, and that blood will still apply and still work. Glory be to his name. And that's why we're breaking bread today. As Christians, we are coming to take the symbols of his body and his blood, and we are confessing to him and to one another, not of my own works.

Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. And if you're in this place and you're not a follower of Jesus Christ and you have not put your faith and trust in him, this is something that is not for you. It's only reserved for those who have put their faith in him and who have been born again. But as you see these people who will stand now and come to this table and partake, may you realize that each person is making a public statement, so to speak, saying to you, as they go back to their chairs and as they sing and meditate. They're saying also to you, I am not righteous.

I have nothing to offer God, but Christ took my place. And I am remembering that, and I am rehearsing that. And this moment right here is reminding me that my hope isn't Jesus alone. And hopefully, one day, if not today, you will repent and believe on Christ, and we will meet you at this table. The worship team can come up.