Devotion

I find it quite interesting to observe how people can be devoted to many things, groups, or causes, or sports teams. I won't go there today. But to prove this point, the amount of fandom names that exist to just describe the devotion that people have to a particular cause or person is quite interesting to think about. I mean, just think about it for a second. Swifties. Cheerios. Ed Sheeran, if you weren't sure. Beliebers. No judgment if you're one of those people, not judging you, but it's just, I'm making an observation. And even just the specific causes that people can give themselves to. I read about a guy who paints cheese portraits and now has a cheese map to highlight some of the best cheeses in every state. I also read about an ultimate cat lady. She sold her Mercedes and a diamond wedding ring in the nineties, to start a cat shelter, and now it's a full operation as there can be over 1,000 cats at any time at her property. Can't make this stuff up. And by the way, there's different shelters for shy cats, sick cats, kittens, and older cats, because apparently the older cats, they need their space. Also, there's a world famous ski painter, and this painter has painted more than 430 total maps on five different continents, and he gives visuals of mountains and all of the ski trails that exist on these mountains. And I point all of these out because they're pretty interesting and they're pretty unique about all of these circumstances, and situations, and examples, but what do you hear with all of these examples? Devotion, loyalty, commitment. Regardless of our opinions on everything I just talked about, we cannot doubt the devotion. It is observable, to say the least. An observable devotion. Perhaps I can ask this question of all of us. When people see into the window of our lives, is there an observable devotion to Jesus? Do people see Jesus? Does the outside world notice something different in our conduct? Notice something different in our speech? Do we have such a devotion to God's word, such commitment to His people, such a love for the things of God that we're just known for our devotion to Him? See, I don't know about you, but I don't wanna be known for anything else. Oh, what a great thing to be known for, devotion to Jesus. And here's why. Maybe I can summarize why. A church that lives beyond ourselves is fully devoted to Jesus, knowing that He is fully devoted to us. You see, we're going to see this truth emerge from Titus 3 as we close out our series today. And what we must realize is that living out this devotion is centered on the gospel. Living out this devotion is centered on Jesus. The gospel is the motivation for our devotion to Him because it all starts with Him. It all has to do with His love, and His grace, and His mercy, and His kindness toward us. And so what I wanna do is I wanna turn to Titus 3. If you're not there already, you can find your place there. And I want us to be overwhelmed again, with the devotion of Jesus to us. I want us to be overwhelmed again, with who He is, with what He's done, and how He's demonstrated his love and His kindness to us in so many ways, and made us stir our hearts in such a way that we would be devoted to Him in even greater ways. So here's Titus 3. Or in fact, before I get there, I want us to pull out this idea. I'm just gonna break down that idea, a church that lives beyond ourselves is fully devoted to Jesus knowing that He's fully devoted to us. We can jot this down, Jesus is fully devoted to us, and that is clearly seen in the gospel. You see, Jesus is fully devoted to us, and that's clearly seen in the gospel. And here we go in verse 3, "At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. So that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying." So there's so much here, as we see Jesus' devotion to us and that it is clearly seen in the gospel. Paul spent some time here to Titus, talking to him about the reality and the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what I wanna do is I wanna break down some of these verses so that again, we can be overwhelmed again, by the devotion of Jesus to us, so that we can be overwhelmed again, by His grace, and His kindness, and His mercy. In fact, if we just look at verse 3, "At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." So here's what we see in verse 3: Our need of salvation. We see that pretty plainly in verse 3, don't we? Our need of salvation, it's because sin and rebellion against God has utterly broken every part of our lives. It's utterly broken you from the inside out, apart from God. We as a result of our sin, fall short of the glory of God, and independence from God, and doing things our own way is characteristic of being foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved. Sin leaves us a mess. But Paul goes on to say that we also, we lived in malice, lived in wickedness, and wishing ill will toward others. We were envious toward other people, maybe is how we can understand that, maybe their position or their power, and we could not help ourselves. Why? Because sin has left us, again, utterly broken. Sin has affected every area of our lives. Just think of who we are or who you were without Jesus. Just think about your life if Jesus hadn't intervened. Just think about where you would be if He hasn't come to us, we would be helpless, lost. And the reality is, dead. Dead in our sin. And then Paul goes on: "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared..." Isn't that a remarkable statement? "But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior appeared..." After recalling our great need as we looked at verse 3, we recall to mind the source of our salvation. God is the source of our salvation. The kindness and love of God have appeared to us. You see, maybe some of us, friends, maybe we have a broken view of God. Maybe you have a broken view of God. He's kind. He's loving. He's merciful. I'm not sure maybe, what you've walked in here with thinking about the Lord, but we need to be reminded of who He is, of His character to us, of His goodness to us, of His kindness to us. Because if we lose sight of that, what you think, even as I've thought about even that book, A. W. Tozer, what we think or what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. He's kind. He's loving. We need to let that settle into our hearts. And what has God done to demonstrate this? Because here's the deal, God hasn't just said this. God hasn't just said this. He's demonstrated this to all of us. In fact, as we continue to read in verse 5, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of, let's say it altogether, His mercy. His mercy. Our salvation is based entirely on God. It is His mercy. We deserve death, we deserved hell, we deserve judgment because of our sin and our rebellion. This is what we deserved, yet God withheld from us the consequences of our sin as they were poured out on Jesus Christ so that we can now be the righteousness of God, even as the scripture talks about he who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in and through faith and trust in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. This is all based on the mercy of God. Our sin was poured out rightly on Jesus Christ, but mercy has triumphed over judgment, so that we can stand before God forgiven, so that we can stand before God set free. No good works could ever save you. No good works could ever do it, because this is all about His mercy. He's the hero of our stories. And no matter what you've done, how far gone you think you are, you are not outside of the reach of the mercy of God. You are not outside of His reach. You're not outside of His grace. This is the incredible gospel, this is the incredible truth that we cling to, the incredible hope that we have. This is about what Jesus has done, not about what we can do. And then even as we continue in these verses, in verse 5 it says, "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior." See, so far, we've seen our need, we've seen the source, and here we see the means. There's a debate in terms of how to exactly interpret these verses specifically around the term washing, as the Greek term literally means washing or a bath. So is washing referring to the outward symbol of baptism or is it referring more metaphorically here, to spiritual cleansing? That's where I tend to land, more in the spiritual cleansing. And I hold to this because the spiritual cleansing that takes place is consistent with what we know about what baptism as a whole is. Baptism is an outward symbol of an inward reality. Baptism is an outward symbol that we have already been cleansed. But nonetheless, we can see these benefits regardless of how we interpret these verses. We can see these benefits that the spirit of God, the Spirit of God applies to us in perfect unity with the Father and the Son. We've been regenerated and we've been made new. As we look at verses 5 and 6, we've been regenerated and we've been made new as the spirit of God comes into our lives, and empowers us, and allows us to live a totally new, brand new life. You see, the old is gone. The new is here. Who we once were is dead and gone, and the new life in Jesus Christ is here. We don't live for ourselves any longer, because the spirit of God has been poured out generously on us through Jesus Christ our Savior, right? Even as that verse went on and talked about, the spirit has been poured out generously to us through Jesus. In verse 7, "...so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." Brothers and sisters, here's the hope of our salvation, the full realization of our eternal life with God, as we are His heirs, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. We will be glorified with Jesus never to die again. We will reign and rule with him in an indestructible kingdom, and the inheritance we will receive will never perish, spoil, rot, or fade. This is the gospel. This is a trustworthy saying. So let me summarize very quickly for us, what I've already told us, and what some of these verses have entailed. We were completely lost, completely dead in our sins and transgressions. We lived in sin and could not help but to sin. Our lives were characteristic of darkness, and what ensued all of us because of our sin was death. Yet God is so kind, God is so loving, God is so merciful that He did not give us what our sins deserved or repay us according to our iniquities. Rather, we have been saved, not because of anything we have done, but only because of the mercy of God. We have now been raised to new life where the same spirit that rose Jesus from the dead now lives in us. We've been regenerated, we've been made new, we've been washed. And if that wasn't enough, we are heirs of God having the hope of eternal life. In fact, the spirit that we have received is a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. Jesus is so devoted to us that He is coming again for us. And when He returns, the dead will be raised, the perishable will be clothed with the imperishable, the mortal will be clothed with immortality. I'm still going. Death will be no more, broken things will be better, every tear will be wiped from our eyes, there will be no more pain, and we will forever be with God, forever and ever and ever. I can't even begin to exhaust. I just can't even begin to exhaust or describe what God has done for us in Jesus. And in this, do you... Do you know what we have to remember? The devotion of Jesus to us. We have to remember the devotion of Jesus to us, because maybe we forget. Maybe we forget. Because maybe perhaps we've become devoted to other things that steal our affection, that steal our devotion, that distract our love from Jesus Christ. We need to remember the devotion of Jesus to us so that we can embrace what it fully means to be devoted to Him. Now, what does that look like? In other words, how do we live out our devotion to Jesus? What does that mean for all of us? Well, it brings me to my second statement, we live out our devotion to Jesus by doing what is good. You see, we live out our devotion to Jesus by doing what is good. If we continue in Titus 3:8, "This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone." Did you catch what Paul is saying to Titus? The gospel should be so stressed. Did I stress the gospel for us? Hopefully. And I believe we have been able to receive again, a fresh, even just what God is saying to us through His word by the power of the gospel, by the power of His spirit among us. But it's to be so stressed and emphasized because Jesus changes how we live in the present. Jesus changes our conduct. He changes how we live. Simply put, we will be devoted to doing what is good out of our devotion to Jesus. Does that make sense? We will be devoted to doing what is good out of our devotion to Jesus. Be careful to note that good deeds or good works do not save you. In fact, the verses that we just walked through should hopefully help us really understand that because the text clearly tells us... How are we saved? His...? Mercy.

- His...? One more time.

- [Everyone] Mercy.

- Mercy, you're with me. I love it. We're clear on that, because what we have to fundamentally realize is that out of the mercy of God, as we experience His mercy, we are changed, we will be continually changed. And He leads us to do good work so that we can be careful to do what is good. And by the way, these good works which have been prepared in advance for us to do. Listen to how Paul says it. Ephesians 2:8-10, "For it is by God's grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." So our faith in the Lord leads to good works, not the other way around. Good works result from a faith rooted in Jesus. And of course, the Lord will lead us all into what that looks like for us. But even within this context, within this passage of scripture, Paul actually outlined a number of action steps for Titus that we can take, that we can take, so that we can be careful to devote ourselves to doing what is good. Just as Titus 3:8 talked about, that's how we want to live, out of our devotion to the Lord knowing that He is so devoted to us, as we have clearly seen that in the gospel. So we wanna be careful to doing what is good. Here's the first action step that we see in Titus 3. Submit to rulers and authorities. Look at verse one. "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good." I'm reminding the people today, folks, here it is. Be subject to rulers and authorities. If you thought that I was gonna skip over that verse... Surprise, surprise. We're back. Verse one. Jesus has changed everything for us, which even changes how we should approach government. It changes how we should approach government, by the way, because again, the gospel should impact every sphere of our lives. So, question for you. When I gave this message point and read verse one aloud for us, what was the natural inclination of your heart? What was the natural inclination of your heart? Submission or rebellion? I get that the climate of our culture makes this really easy for us. No, it doesn't. The culture we live in is incredibly polarizing. We're bombarded with information all of the time, that seeks to sow seeds of rebellion. This is... And really, there's a reason why Paul gives this instruction to Titus, because Crete was under Roman rule, and the Cretins hated that. And they gave themselves to insurrections in wars, and Cretins were known to have an insubordinate spirit related to those in authority. And Paul tells Titus, this is not how believers are to act regarding government rulers and regarding authorities. They are not to be. In other words... So Paul is telling Titus, believers... And, you know, Crete has a reputation of insurrection, insubordinate spirits. But believers, no, no, no, no. Different, contrast, light, salt, submit to the governing rulers and authorities. Believers are not to be insubordinate, they're not to be insurrectionists. Why? Because it gets in the way of our testimony. It gets in the way of our testimony. It gets in the way of people seeing Jesus, and it gets in the way of our trust in the sovereignty of God, because we believe that God is sovereign no matter who is in office, because God is in office, and we are to be subject to rulers and authorities for the sake of order. Now, what we also have to realize is that government is God's idea. Government is God's idea. In fact, listen to how Paul wrote it. "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established." The authorities that exist have been, again, established by God. "Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." So Romans 13, what do we see? Government is God's idea. It's His idea. This is what He has instituted for society to function, for good to be promoted, for evil to be punished. This doesn't mean we all have to agree on everything. We don't all have to agree on everything. I get all of that. But beloved of God, brothers and sisters in Jesus, our default cannot be dishonor, disobedience, or rebellion, because the scripture teaches here... Here's why. The scripture teaches you're not rebelling against the government when you do that. Do you know who you're rebelling against? God. You're rebelling against God, because government is His idea. Now, some might be asking, aren't there times to not submit to what the government is asking? You're asking me that question, aren't you? I can just feel it, I can sense it. I can sense it in the room. Let me answer that question by responding with two statements, really. If the government asks us to do something that God has prohibited, in other words, government is saying we should do something, but God has strictly said no in His word, we obey God rather than man. Secondarily, if the government forbids us, in other words, government is saying, "Stop this," or "Don't do this," if the government forbids us to do something but God has said, "Yes, people of God, do this," "Yes, people of God, obey me in this," but the government is saying, "No, you can't do that." We obey God rather than man. Notice though, that the spirit of this is never actually out of rebellion. It's not out of rebellion, it's out of submission and obedience to God. Government is saying, "Stop this," or "Don't do this," if the government forbids us to do something but God has said, "Yes, people of God, do this," "Yes, people of God, obey me in this," but the government is saying, "No, you can't do that." We obey God rather than man. Notice though, that the spirit of this is never actually out of rebellion. It's not out of rebellion, it's out of submission and obedience to God. It's actually, God, we trust you, God, you're sovereign, God, we're following you. And rebellion is not characteristic of the life and the heart of a disciple, submission and obedience to the Lord is, so always submission, never rebellion. We obey and honor authorities because we are submitted to God, and we trust that He will work out His sovereign purposes within the world. We also, if the government says we can't preach the whole gospel, we still preach the whole gospel. Not out of rebellion, but out of submission and obedience to God. Amen? Amen. So be law abiding, promote good where you live, pray for and honor those in authority, because all of this actually helps our testimonies to the gospel and not create distraction because of how we live or how we post. We don't wanna create distraction, we just wanna be witnesses to the gospel. Secondly we can see, be gentle to everyone, as we see this unfold in Titus 3. Look at verse 2, "...to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always be gentle toward everyone." So don't be confused here. Gentleness does not mean soft. Gentleness actually reveals strength. The word translated as gentle can mean, humble or courteous, meek, considerate. And this is how the church should treat everyone, this is how the church should view everyone. We're not looking to belittle, we're not looking to cause strife, we're not looking to cause division. So let me ask you a question, what if you let love and gentleness framed how you viewed the people around you? What if we just allowed this to take root in our hearts, allowed this to just overflow in our hearts, where we just...? What if we allowed love and gentleness to frame how we viewed the people around us, where we still view people with love and gentleness. People who don't look like us, vote like us, think like us, act like us. We just want to allow love and gentleness to frame the way we treat people, to frame the way we view people. What if we viewed everyone that we came in contact with as someone that Jesus loves, cares for, and died for? You see, this is just allowing the life of Jesus, the heart of Jesus, to flow in and through us where it shapes our worldview, it shapes our perspective. And this is how Paul is telling Titus, remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, and to slander no one. To be peaceable, to be considerate, and to always be gentle toward everyone, every single person, so that the outside world would see an observable, would have an observable devotion. That there is something different, there's something unique in the way that believers and disciples conduct themselves in the world. So maybe I could ask you a question. Are there people in your heart that are easy to slander? Are there people in your heart that are easy to slander? And if so, would you take that before the Lord? Because the instruction that we have is not that, but to allow gentleness and love, forgiveness, the way of Jesus, to shape how we live. You see, being gentle isn't about being soft. It's not soft. It's strength. Here's why. Is it because it actually reveals a life submitted to Jesus? That's what gentleness, that's what it exhibits in the life and the heart of a believer. We also see this instruction, avoid foolish arguments, as we continue in Titus 3. "But avoid foolish controversies, and genealogies, and arguments, and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned." And now, as we move along in Titus 3, we find in verse 8 that good works, excellent and profitable. And as we look at verse nine, if we're all looking at it, foolish controversies, genealogies, arguments and quarrels about the law, unprofitable and useless. And by the way, chapter one kind of talks about how there were false teachers at Crete that were infiltrating the church as they were causing divisions and disrupting households with their teaching. And they were to be silenced and rebuked so that the truth of God would be protected. And Paul comes back to this idea of false teachers here, which highlights the issue. And Titus is instructed, avoid their foolish arguments. Avoid what these false teachers are saying. Because what they need instead is not just to debate and not just to engage in their argumentation, so to speak, just for argument's sake. But what these false teachers need instead, is correction. What they need is discipline, church discipline. Now, debating with them is going to be unprofitable and useless. And so again, we see that in Titus 1, of some of these false teachers and how they needed to be silenced and whatnot. But then in chapter three, we hear Paul telling Titus, avoid these foolish arguments. Avoid what they're saying because they need discipline, they need correction. And then this correction entails giving them two warnings in hopes that they would repent, in hope that these false teachers would repent. Because even as verses 9-11 talk about, if they're given upto two opportunities to repent, two warnings in hopes that they would, but a lack of repentance and a continuation of causing division, if that persists even after warnings to these teachers. If you warn them up to two times yet they're still in repentance, and still spreading false teaching, and still being divisive, the church is to have nothing to do with them, for said person, for the sake of unity and health within the congregation. That person ultimately, as you read in verse 11, that person has just revealed their sinfulness, their perversion, and ultimately, they're being unrepentant and it's causing division. And so, friends, what I would tell us is that if you're a divisive, if you're wanting to cause division within the church, God takes the unity and health of His congregation, and the unity and health of His people seriously. And if you're bent on causing division, you need to repent. You need to repent, for the sake of the mission we're on together, for the sake of the unity and health of the body of Christ. If on the other hand, you're someone who is just engaging in arguments for argument's sake. And again, Paul qualifies this as foolish arguments, if you're just engaging in foolish arguments just for that, there's more important things to be concerned about, there's bigger things to be concerned about, to be together, seeking the mission of God, seeking to give people opportunities to hear and to respond to the gospel, seeking to grow in our discipleship, the unity and the health. Let's give our attention and our focus to those things, because if we're just bent on argument for the sake of argument's sake, and particularly obviously in this context, the false teaching were some of the arguments, or false teachers were. But if that's kind of flowing into how we live, it's unprofitable, it's useless, it can distract from our witness. And that's why Paul says avoid these foolish arguments. And then we see this, live a life of service. Live a life of service. As we conclude Titus 3:12-15, Paul wrote, "As soon as I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I've decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way, and see that they have everything they need. Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all." Zenas the lawyer, we don't know much about, but Apollos we do certainly. And Zenas and Apollos were likely the people that traveled to Crete, which is where Titus was, to bring Titus this letter from Paul. And the instruction is to take care of Zenas and Apollos to ensure that their needs are met during their travels. In helping these men, it would provide a practical way to serve and to do what is good. So this is how Paul helps to give instruction with Titus as he's wrapping this up and concluding this saying, our people must learn, devote themselves to doing what is good in order to provide for urgent needs, and not live unproductive lives. So what would it look like to live a life of service? What would it look like to provide for the people around you? To meet the needs, to serve some of the needs and people around you? Because service and serving lead to fruitfulness. Serving leads to fruitfulness. But not serving, as we can see right here in verse 15, right? Paul gives this instruction to Titus to help some of these travelers out, Zenas the lawyer and Apollos, so that, you know, we don't live unproductive lives. Not serving, not engaging, unproductive, unfruitful. And so there's plenty of ways you can continue to serve even within our church, within our congregation, even with outside of that. Live a life of service because it leads to productivity and it leads to fruitfulness, and ultimately, fruitfulness for the sake of the kingdom of God. To provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. Live a life of service. And that's the book of Titus, and that's what we see together. So let me tell you what I told you earlier, a church that lives beyond ourselves is fully devoted to Jesus, knowing that He is fully devoted to us. Our devotion to Jesus, we are devoted to Him because of how He is devoted to us, and we wanna give ourselves to good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do, out of our devotion to Him, so that people can see the life of Christ, so that people can see an observable devotion. The outside world looking in, can see Christ in us, the hope of glory through the good works that we engage in so that people can see our good works and glorify the Father in heaven. You see, this is what we want people to be able to observe, the life of Christ in us. So a church that lives beyond ourselves is fully devoted to Jesus, knowing that He is fully devoted to us. So imagine what it looks like for future generations to say, "The people of The Chapel during this time, were devoted to Jesus because they knew Jesus' devotion to them." Imagine your kids or your grandkids being able to save of you, "They were devoted to Jesus because they knew Jesus' devotion to them." Imagine your friends or your family being able to say of you, "They were devoted to Jesus because they knew Jesus' devotion to them." Imagine your peers, or friends at school, or people that you know, maybe even years down the line, if you're a student, even years down the line, maybe being able to say of you one day, "They were devoted to Jesus because they knew Jesus' devotion to them." Imagine your coworkers being able to say of you, "They were devoted to Jesus because they knew Jesus' devotion to them." Imagine one day being before Jesus and realizing just how devoted to you He has been, He is, and will always be to you. Would that change anything about how you're living now? Would it change everything? Because the devotion of Jesus to us, it'll change how we live. It'll change how we live. Maybe just getting in the word, diving in and just having time for the voice of God to speak over your life, to speak over your heart, to remind you of His devotion to you. Maybe it's getting in a community group and growing with brothers and sisters in Christ who will love, and encourage, and challenge you. Maybe it's even starting with some of the things that we talked about by living out and being careful to do what is good, such as submission to rulers and authorities, being gentle to everyone, avoiding foolish arguments, living a life of service. What's one action step that you can take in one of these areas so that we might have an observable devotion? Because this is because our devotion to Jesus matters. Our devotion to Jesus matters for the kind of church that we want to be and for the kind of legacy that we want to leave behind. A church that lives beyond ourselves is fully devoted to Jesus, knowing that He is fully devoted to you and to me. Let's pray together. I would encourage you in these moments, to just spend some time with the Lord. What did God say to you? What did He speak to your heart about? Now, I'm not sure what God is specifically saying to your heart, but I know that God is moving, I know that God is working in this place, and we give Him glory and we give Him praise for that. Maybe some of you, again, need to be reminded of how faithful, and loving, and devoted that Jesus is to you in Christ. If you're in Him, you're His. You belong to Him. Be overwhelmed again. Let your heart grow in worship and in adoration for who Jesus is again. Worship Him with your life, love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength out of His gracious, and kind, and merciful love that God has demonstrated toward us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Maybe it's just even this year as 2024 has started, just finding that time and that place to be able to just be with God. Let Him shower you with His grace and His word. Allow His voice to speak to you. To continually conform us more and more into the image of Jesus, we wanna look and act, sound and talk, that are consistent with the life of Christ in us, and He'll shape us and form us in that. Maybe you're here though, and what we must recognize is that this all starts with coming to faith in Christ. Jesus, He lived a sinless life. He came, taught about the kingdom of God, but ultimately went to a cross and took upon Himself my sin and your sin, and was nailed to a cross. But three days later, he got up from the grave demonstrating His victory over sin, death, hell, so that we can now belong to the Lord, so that we can be forgiven out of the mercy of God, where we can now go from death to life. Be regenerated and made new as we talked about the wonderful truths of the gospel. If that's your need to receive Christ today, we'll have prayer partners up front. Come on by, stop by and talk with one of them. If you're walking through something, if we can help you, if we can pray for you in any way, we'll have prayer partners down in front again, that would be really glad to pray with you and talk with you. So Father, I thank you for what You've said to us, and I pray that by the power of Your spirit, you would have Your way in this place. God, may we be devoted to You, fully devoted. May we not be devoted to lesser things, because what we'll find is really no other thing or person is as devoted to us as You are. And so may we live lives that give testimony to who You are and what You've done, not distract from it. May we be careful to do what is good in the different ways that we talked about, and the different ways that are revealed in Your word, so that we might have an observable devotion to You, Lord. I thank you for these people and I pray Your blessing and Your favor upon all of us, shape us and mold us more like Jesus today. In Your name, and all God's people said, amen.