[0:00] 1 Timothy 1, verses 12-17.
[0:21] I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, and foremost.
[0:57] But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, the foremost sinners, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.
[1:12] I thank Him for the Lord, to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
[1:24] I got out a blessing to the reading of His Word. Would you please be seated? Cows are everywhere in India.
[1:36] It would be strange to walk out on the street and not see a cow. They roam the streets. They lay down in the middle of busy intersections. They graze on garbage piled outside of homes and businesses.
[1:51] And I had a lot of questions from my Indian friends about all of these cows that I kept on seeing. Many Indians are Hindu.
[2:03] And Hinduism teaches that cows are sacred, that cows are gods. Cows are venerated in this culture. However, these sacred cows deemed to be deities are owned by different people in the community.
[2:19] And they have these tags on their ears which mark the person that they belong to. And so it was hard for me to wrap my mind around the thought that these lower life forms, which they treat as higher life forms, are still owned by people who in Hinduism are lower life forms.
[2:40] This is what the depraved mind looks like in India, which Paul describes in Romans 1, 22 through 23. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
[3:01] On our last day in India, we did some sightseeing and we drove by two younger cows. One was a little bit bigger, a little bit older, a little bit more mature than the other.
[3:15] And they were walking side by side connected by a rope that was tied to their necks. I hadn't seen this before. And so I asked our driver, why are those two cows tied together?
[3:28] He pointed at the younger, smaller cow and he said, because that one is naughty. Makes sense.
[3:39] Some of you who have experience with cattle probably could have deduced that. Apparently, the smaller cow was a wanderer, a little mischief maker who had irritated his owner to the point where he tethered it to a cow who knew how to behave.
[3:55] The cow was naughty, but instead of turning it into hamburger, its owner kept it and he tethered it to something that would keep it safe.
[4:08] Prior to his salvation, the apostle Paul was very naughty. Paul, whose Hebrew name was Saul, was a Pharisee. In Philippians chapter 3, verses 5 through 6, he describes his religious attainments.
[4:22] One of the things Paul prided himself on was his persecution of Jesus' church.
[4:47] Paul hated Christians. Paul made it his life's ambition to put an end to Christianity. As the Jews lived in fear of Nazis in the 1930s and 40s, so Christians in the early days of the church lived in fear of this man, Paul Saul of Tarsus.
[5:07] He would come into their cities. He would break into their homes. He would bind these Christians in chains. He would haul them back to Jerusalem to appear before the same men who orchestrated the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
[5:21] And there is no doubt that Paul desired the same end for everyone who claimed to be a follower of Jesus. What would Jesus do with such a naughty person?
[5:34] If it were me or if it were you, if we had God's power, we might think, turn him into hamburger. We might think, eviscerate him, vaporize him, condemn him, and send him away forever.
[5:48] But Jesus had other plans for Paul. Acts chapter 9 records the startling, shocking conversion of Paul, an adversary of Christ who became his ally, his missionary, his apostle to the Gentiles, his instrument to spread the gospel.
[6:08] On the road to Damascus, this bitter enemy of the cause of Jesus Christ, encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ. And this, in his own words, foremost of sinners was saved by God's grace and became the greatest evangelist and theologian that the world has ever known.
[6:28] In our passage today, we see that Paul never lost the wonder that God could and did save someone like him.
[6:44] He viewed himself as the supreme example of God's saving grace. He knew from experience the reality that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
[6:59] That was his testimony, which he shares in our text this morning and serves as the main idea for this morning's sermon. Very simply, Jesus came to save sinners.
[7:11] Jesus came to save sinners. Paul's favorite title for himself was the Greek word doulos. That word is often translated as servant in English, but bond slave is the correct translation.
[7:28] Paul was tethered to Christ. Jesus saved him, redeemed him, forgave him, and showed him mercy. Jesus was his Lord, his master.
[7:38] He was Christ to control. He was yoked to the Lord whose burden was light because Jesus had done all the work to save him, the foremost of sinners.
[7:49] And so Paul was fierce in his efforts to guard this truth, to guard this gospel from false teachers and strange doctrines, which produced strange gospels, because he knew the power of the real gospel to transform a person's life.
[8:06] He was unashamed to share his testimony and proclaim the power of Christ to save sinners like him. The true gospel is this.
[8:18] Jesus came to live the sinless life we could not live. To die the death we deserve to die. And to rise victorious over the enemies we could never conquer.
[8:29] Sin, Satan, and death. We are saved as a gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, his son. Salvation is not something we can achieve.
[8:40] It is not something we can lose either. There is no greater wonder in all the world that a holy God would give his only son to save sinners who hate him and who reject him.
[8:54] Paul knew how great of a sinner he was, and thus he understood how great of a savior Jesus is. This was a truth. This was a reality that Paul experienced, and he knew it full well.
[9:07] This was not like the myths and the genealogies which promoted speculations that he mentions in verse 4. Paul knew that there was nothing in him to draw God to him.
[9:17] As a Pharisee, he was zealous to keep the law, but that didn't draw God to him to save him. Conversely, his zeal to persecute Christians, to put an end to Christ's church, didn't keep God from drawing Paul to himself to save him.
[9:33] Paul's salvation originated in God and in God alone. That is true of all whom God saves. He alone gets all the glory.
[9:44] Paul was thankful for this. Christian, are you thankful for the mercy that you've received from Jesus?
[9:56] How grateful are you for the grace of God to save you from your sins? How joyful are you in knowing that Jesus has tethered you to himself and keeps you forever?
[10:12] Despite all the sufferings Paul endured as a minister of the gospel, despite all the successes Paul experienced as a minister of the gospel, he never ceased to be amazed by the grace of God to save someone as sinful as himself.
[10:29] He never took his salvation for granted. Paul was eager to share his testimony. He wasn't ashamed to admit how lost he was, how sinful he was, so that people would see how great of a God, how great of a gracious Savior Jesus is.
[10:51] What about you? When was the last time you shared your testimony? When was the last time that you told someone about what Jesus has done in your life?
[11:05] Friend, your salvation is a miracle of God's doing. You are his sermon. You are Jesus' message.
[11:17] You are his testimony to a lost and sinful world that Jesus came to save sinners. And so I hope that this message will encourage you to share the testimony of your salvation and intensify the joy of your salvation.
[11:37] As the Holy Spirit uses the word, he's inspired to help you cherish Jesus who came to save sinners like Paul and like you and like me.
[11:49] If you're not a Christian, if you're not sure that you are saved, I'm thankful that the Lord has brought you here to hear the testimony of one of his greatest servants.
[12:04] Paul's testimony is a reminder of the reality that no one is beyond God's ability to save. You are not too sinful to receive Christ's mercy.
[12:19] His desire is not to condemn you, but to save you. You may be familiar with John 3.16. Let's read John 3.16 through 18.
[12:31] Jesus says, And I hope that if you're not a Christian, if you're not saved, that today would be the day of salvation for you.
[13:12] I pray that today we would get to celebrate with the angels in heaven that your wandering is over. That what has been lost has been found. That you would be tethered to Christ and that you would testify with us to the reality of worthy of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came to save sinners.
[13:35] And so in these verses, Paul outlines three aspects of salvation through Jesus Christ. Three aspects of salvation through Jesus Christ. The first aspect is that the gospel is personal.
[13:49] The gospel of Jesus is personal. Some commentators contend that Paul's testimony in this passage is a digression from his flow of thought to this point in 1 Timothy.
[14:00] But that's not the case. Paul's purpose in writing this letter, if you remember, to Timothy was to put the Ephesian church into order. And a major aspect of that task involved dealing with false teachers and what they were teaching, as he describes in chapter 1, verses 3 through 10.
[14:21] Since they were presenting strange doctrines, which produced strange gospels, Paul gives his testimony to the true one here in verses 12 through 17.
[14:32] And again, he begins in verse 12 by saying, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul begins his testimony by pointing to Jesus as the source of God's grace and salvation.
[14:47] The Bible repeatedly affirms this truth. And one place we read about that is John 1, 17. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
[15:01] God gave the law to Moses in the Old Testament, but the law did not reveal his grace. It revealed his demand for holiness. The law was designed by God to reveal our sinfulness, our inability to measure up to his divine standard and to show us then our need for a savior.
[15:21] Romans 3, 20 says, For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3, 23 through 24 say, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift for the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
[15:41] Now, the grace of God can be hard for us to fully appreciate for, I think, at least a couple of reasons.
[15:54] First, much of our lives are based on performance and reward. If you're a student, you know, or if you've been a student, you know that your performance in the classroom, how well you score on your homework, your tests and whatnot, there's rewards for that.
[16:15] One of them might be being exempt from taking a final. You also are rewarded by being on the honor roll. You're rewarded potentially as you go through middle school and high school with a scholarship to go to college.
[16:31] And the reward for good grades in college is a good job, a career that rewards you by paying you well. If you're an athlete, athletes are also rewarded by their performance.
[16:43] Their performance can earn them scholarships as well. And if they're good enough, contracts to play professionally, which pay them millions of dollars. Most corporations have annual review, performance reviews, which determine if someone gets to keep their job or to get a raise.
[17:04] It's good to work hard. It's good to perform well. Laziness is a sin. God created us to work. But understand that no one can perform well enough in life for God to save them.
[17:19] We are saved by grace. Grace is a sin. Grace is a sin. And by definition, grace is not something anyone can earn or it wouldn't be grace anymore. And that can be hard for us to understand and appreciate since we are conditioned to think that performance should result in reward.
[17:38] Grace can also be hard for us to appreciate because people think that they are better than they truly are. Most people think that they are basically a good person and will go to heaven because of that.
[17:52] And we base that thought off of our measurement, our measuring ourselves against other people. And there's always somebody who we measure up better to. Adolf Hitler, for example.
[18:03] We can all hopefully say, I'm better than that guy. But again, we measure our goodness against other people. But God doesn't use that standard of measurement.
[18:14] He measures our goodness to his goodness. And in that case, none of us measure up. We all fall way, way short.
[18:28] This is God's testimony about humanity. Romans 3, 10 through 12. As it is written, none is righteous. No, not one.
[18:39] No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one.
[18:50] Some of you might be familiar with Ray Comfort, the evangelist from New Zealand. If you're not, I'd encourage you to just watch some of his YouTube videos. And what Ray Comfort does is he's great at revealing to people that you're not really as good as you think that you are.
[19:06] And what he'll do is he'll take them through the Ten Commandments. And he'll ask them questions. He'll say, have you ever used God's name in vain? And they say, yes. And he'll tell them, that's blasphemy. You're a blasphemer.
[19:16] Have you ever stolen anything? Even something as small as a piece of candy. They'll say, yes. He'll say, what do you call somebody who steals? They'll say, a thief. And he'll keep going. Have you ever looked at someone lustfully? They'll say, yes.
[19:27] Have you ever told a lie? They'll say, yes. Have you ever hated someone? They'll say, yes. So based upon your confession, he'll tell them you are a blasphemer, a thief, a liar, an adulterer, and a murderer.
[19:37] So if God judges you by the Ten Commandments, are you going to be innocent or guilty? Guilty. We're all guilty. We are all guilty.
[19:50] Salvation comes through the realization of our own depravity, of our own inability, of our guilt before our Holy Creator, whose standard is absolute, total perfection.
[20:04] It's in this abyss of despair. It's in this abyss of despair that the gospel fills us with hope. We don't measure up.
[20:16] But Jesus does. And he was willing to take our sin, to take our guilt, to suffer its consequences on the cross and exchange our sin for his righteousness.
[20:31] 2 Corinthians 5.21. For our sake, he, God the Father, made him, God the Son, to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
[20:49] Paul knew this. And he never forgot this. The gospel was the good news that Jesus saved him. It was the good news that continued to strengthen him as he served the Lord.
[21:06] In the rest of verse 12 and 13, he says, Prior to his salvation, Paul thought that he was a good person.
[21:27] He thought that he was doing good. He thought that he knew God. He thought that he was serving God. But in reality, he was a blasphemer, as he says, a persecutor, an insolent opponent of God. But God, in his grace, chose to be merciful to him.
[21:45] Mercy is an attitude that moves someone to act on behalf of someone else whose situation is completely hopeless. In India, there is an ancient social hierarchy system called the caste system.
[22:01] And though it was abolished in the 1950s, much of Indian society still operates under that system. People are born into a specific caste, which determines their social status, their occupation, their ability to own land, and to advance in society.
[22:19] There is a group of people who are considered to be so low, so vile, so far beneath everyone else, even the lowest caste of people, that they aren't even allowed to be a part of the caste system.
[22:38] These people are called untouchables. These people have virtually nothing but the rags that they wear for clothing.
[22:49] The homeless in America would look rich compared to these people. During our three-day pastor's conference in India, two of India's untouchables sat outside the entrance, the gate, to the church.
[23:09] And this frail man and woman would squat down in the sun. They wouldn't speak a word to us.
[23:22] They just held their hands out like this. We filled plates of food and we fed them. Pastors dropped coins into their little hands.
[23:34] We spoke to them. We showed them something they had rarely ever seen or experienced before. Mercy. Friend, this is what the grace and mercy of God is like.
[23:47] Sin has created a separation between us and God who is holy. Sin has created a chasm between us and God that we could never breach.
[24:01] We've all sinned. We are all guilty. We are all beggars. It is only by the grace and mercy of God that the outcast, the untouchable, is saved. Look at what Paul says about God's grace in verse 14.
[24:16] And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Jesus Christ. The Greek word translated as overflowed describes an abundance that surpasses expectations.
[24:31] So here's another story from India for you. In India, they fed us extremely well and the food was very good. But we learned that in India, if you're eating a dish or a meal and if you say, this is good, to them, that means you want more.
[24:51] And so I'd be eating this food and it was good. And I'd be commenting on, oh, this is so good. And between bites, they would come and they would just ladle piles of food on my plate and on the plate of those who were with me.
[25:05] And it got to the point where we had to learn, how do we politely say that we don't want any more? And so we were able to learn that. But God's grace is so good that we can never get enough of it.
[25:18] When we sin, as believers, He forgives us. When we stumble, He lifts us up.
[25:32] When we suffer, He comforts. When we're weary, He strengthens us. When we don't understand, He gives us peace that surpasses understanding.
[25:48] He continually lavishes us with His grace, sustaining our faith, pouring out His love on us. His grace and mercy are always greater than our sin.
[26:03] He is the source of living water. He is a well who never runs dry. He's washed us in His blood. He's clothed us in His righteousness.
[26:15] He's adopted us as His children. He's made us heirs of His kingdom. He saves us and He keeps us saved. He's the good shepherd who knows His sheep by name.
[26:27] He knows them personally. The gospel of Jesus Christ isn't some abstract thing. It's personal. If you've experienced it like Paul, you know this.
[26:40] You can say Jesus died for my sins. Jesus gave His life for me. Jesus suffered for what I have done.
[26:51] I don't deserve it. I didn't earn it. I'm the naughty cow that is prone to wander. But Jesus has tethered me to Himself. His grace and His mercy, they continue to overflow.
[27:05] He makes the wretched righteous. Is this your testimony? Have you experienced the grace of God personally like that?
[27:17] If so, share your testimony. Boast and delight in the Lord. And if not, He's brought you here today again to hear His gospel and to turn to Him in faith that you will receive His overflowing grace and mercy.
[27:37] But maybe you're not convinced. Maybe you think you need to clean yourself up first. Maybe you think all this sounds too good to be true and that there must be some sort of catch.
[27:51] Well, now we move on to the second aspect, which is that the grace of Jesus is unconditional. Verse 15. Paul says, This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
[28:09] Paul summarizes the gospel of Jesus Christ in nine words. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Christ means Messiah.
[28:21] This is the promised one. The one whom God said He would one day send to crush the serpent's head. A warrior king who would rule and reign eternally. He is the one whom all the Old Testament scriptures point to and prophesy about.
[28:36] Jesus is His name. That name means God saves. Prior to His incarnation, the angel told Joseph that Mary, his virgin wife, would bear a son in Matthew 1.21.
[28:47] And you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Jesus came into the world. He was not created.
[28:58] He has always existed as God. John 1, 1 through 4. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
[29:12] In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The one through whom all things were made and through whom all things exist came into the world cursed by sin.
[29:23] To a world full of sinners, full of darkness, full of unbelief. He didn't come for just a look around. Oh, what's it like down here? He didn't come merely to set a good example of moral living.
[29:37] I'll show them how to be good. That wasn't His mission. He was on a mission. What was that mission? To save sinners. To deliver them from darkness, sin, Satan, hell, and God's judgment.
[29:54] He came to live the sinless life that we could not live. Again, to die the death we deserve. To rise victoriously over the enemies that we could never conquer. Jesus came to save sinners.
[30:09] Do you know that? Do you believe that? Matthew was one of Jesus' disciples. He was a tax collector.
[30:21] And tax collectors were hated in their community. Especially if you were a Jewish tax collector. The Jews hated you because you were working on behalf of the Romans to tax them.
[30:33] And you were profiting unfairly. This was like legally being able to steal from someone. And Jesus saw Matthew, tax collector, at his booth.
[30:45] And He said to him, follow me. Jesus goes to Matthew's house. Matthew 9, 10 through 13 records that event. It says, And as Jesus was reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples.
[31:03] And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when Jesus heard it, He said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
[31:19] Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
[31:29] The Pharisees didn't think that they were sinners. They couldn't believe that Jesus would associate Himself with such lowly people.
[31:40] These people were their untouchables. Jesus' explanation as to why He ate with tax collectors and sinners was intended to point out that those who know that they are sick understand their need for a physician to heal them.
[31:54] The Pharisees didn't understand Jesus' mission because they refused to acknowledge their need for salvation. They refused to acknowledge that they were sinners. And they wouldn't tolerate sinners like Matthew.
[32:11] They didn't want people like Matthew. But Jesus did. When you realize that Jesus doesn't just tolerate you, but wants you, changes everything.
[32:32] Such was the case for Paul. Paul was a Pharisee. He was someone who once thought he didn't need to be saved. He insinuates that as the foremost of sinners, as the sinniest of sinners, if anyone should not have been saved, if anyone should not have received God's grace, he says that it should not have, it should have been me who didn't receive that.
[32:55] In verse 16, he says, but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example of those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.
[33:10] We are all sinners. Whether you are a tax-collecting sinner like Matthew or an obedient true tradition sinner like Paul, Jesus extends the invitation to come to Him and to be made well, to come to Him and receive eternal life.
[33:28] His grace is unconditional. Whether everyone knows you're a sinner like Matthew and thinks you're a hopeless cause, Jesus says to you, follow me.
[33:38] To those like the Pharisees, like Paul, who once said, I don't think I'm a sinner. He says, stop standing at the door and stop questioning my methods and my mission.
[33:48] Come inside. Sit at the table. Be a part of what I am doing. Join in my mission. Paul was living proof that Jesus can save anyone.
[34:01] Do you believe that? Do you think that Jesus can save anyone? that you are too far gone for Jesus to save you?
[34:14] Do you think that you've messed up too much for Jesus to have mercy on you? Do you think that there are some people that are just not worthy of receiving God's grace?
[34:33] There are many examples from Scripture that I could share. The Samaritan woman at the well who had been divorced several times and was living with a man who was not her husband.
[34:48] The prostitute who washed Jesus' feet. Peter who denied knowing Jesus three times. The Gerasene demoniac.
[34:58] The Roman centurion at the crucifixion. Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was afraid of being seen with Jesus during the day. Zacchaeus, the wee little man like Matthew was a despised tax collector.
[35:10] There are many others who many people would have thought are just too far gone to be saved.
[35:22] But how about the thief who died next to Jesus on the cross? He knew he was guilty for his crimes.
[35:36] And he knew that his punishment was deserved. Death on a cross. He wasn't a follower of Jesus. He couldn't be baptized. Moments before he was ridiculing Jesus with the other thief crucified with him.
[35:54] But as this man was dying, he was witnessing Jesus' demeanor on the cross. He was experiencing the supernatural darkness that filled the land.
[36:06] He was hearing Jesus' words and he heard Jesus pray for the forgiveness of those who had orchestrated his death. And that man turned to Jesus.
[36:18] Luke 23, 42 through 43 records his testimony. And he said simply, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
[36:39] What does Jesus say? Oh, sure, now you're going to ask? Sure, now that you're about to die, you're going to call out to me for help?
[36:50] Where were you all this other time? All these other times? I didn't see you hearing me preach. I didn't see you following me. And now you think that you can simply turn to me and ask for such a thing?
[37:06] What does Jesus say to him? truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
[37:18] Man, that's grace. That's mercy. The man knew that the gospel of Jesus is personal, that the grace of Jesus is unconditional, and in being with Jesus in paradise, he understands the next aspect of salvation.
[37:37] The glory of Jesus is incomparable. Paul ends his testimony to the true gospel in worship and reflecting over the grace and the mercy that he's received, he can't help but just exclaim, praising God in worship to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.
[38:06] Amen. The only appropriate response to the gospel is this, worship to glory in the Lord Jesus Christ, to thank him, to delight in him, to share the testimony of his goodness, of his graciousness to save sinners and to give them eternal life.
[38:31] So based upon what we've heard, how should we adjust according to this message? Share your testimony. That's what Paul's doing here and that's what you should do as well.
[38:44] Share your testimony. I'm sure many of you have heard my testimony. not going to take too long to give it.
[39:06] I was saved when I was eight and for the next 34 years, oftentimes I felt like that wandering cow who, thank God, the Lord had tied a rope around my neck to him.
[39:23] in college I was like the prodigal son and I was worried that you know what? I've been saved.
[39:33] I've had the privilege of growing up to church. Lord, I've made a mess of my situation. I've rejected you. I've run away from this call to ministry. Made a mess of my life and I was tempted to think that his grace for me had run out.
[39:53] And I stand here before you today telling you, friend, that that has never been the case. And even still, despite my sin, he continues to be gracious to me.
[40:13] I'm reading this passage this week and I couldn't help but just stop and think about how great of a recipient of grace that God has made me to be through Jesus Christ.
[40:28] And the more I know him, the more I realize how unworthy I am. The more I realize how much of a sinner I am. And yet his grace continues to overflow.
[40:42] It's amazing. Don't deserve it. That's who Christ is. And that's what he does. If that's your testimony, then declare it and share it.
[40:54] People need to know the hope that we have in Jesus. They can deny a lot of things but they can't deny what he's done in your life. You are his sermon. You are his message. You are his miracle.
[41:06] You tell people about what Jesus has done for you. And if you're an unbeliever here this morning, you've heard the gospel, you've heard about grace and mercy, it's not too good to be true in the sense that it actually is true.
[41:23] That you can be saved. That you can be made righteous. That you can have your sins washed away. That you can be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That you can be tethered to him and have eternal life.
[41:34] And know this grace and this mercy that continually overflows. And he has you here to hear this message. And I hope that he's opened your eyes to see your need for Jesus.
[41:48] And that he's been gracious to save you. And if he has, we want to know. And so during our invitation time, I'll be down here. Come find me. Come talk to me.
[41:59] If that's not comfortable to you, come find me later. But understand this, you don't have to walk down an aisle, you don't have to talk to me at all to be saved. You find time, you get alone with the Lord, and you pray.
[42:10] And like the thief on the cross, you cry out to him, Lord, save me. Lord, forgive me. And he will. And you'll be transformed.
[42:21] And you'll be different. And you'll have new life in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, it's an amazing thing that you would choose to save us.
[42:46] And God forgive us that at times, as those whom you've saved, we take it for granted. Or we just assume that, that of course you would save us.
[43:04] We forget about our sin, we forget about our inability to measure up, we forget about how desperate we were to be saved.
[43:21] And Lord, in taking that for granted, sometimes our service to you is just going through the motions. And sometimes our worship of you is the same.
[43:33] And God, we forget that what you've done in our lives is a miracle that we should proclaim and testify to. Holy Spirit, I pray for each one of us whom you've saved that you will have used Paul's testimony in your word this morning to encourage us to share our testimony, just being thrilled and overwhelmed by your love and your grace to save us.
[44:01] I pray that that would be something that we testify to and seek every opportunity to give testimony to. Lord, for those who have not been saved, I pray that today would be their day of salvation.
[44:12] Lord, I pray that they would realize that it's not about who they are or what they must do, it's the recognition that they're a sinner and they're helpless and turning to you in faith that they're saved, and I pray that they would.
[44:24] God, I pray for all of us that we would make much of the name of Jesus Christ wherever you would have us go because he is worthy. He is worthy of our best.
[44:39] And so, God, I pray that we would give it, that he would be glorified in our lives and our church. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.