Part Four, remember, repent and redo — Galatians 2

0:01 Question. What line was repeated around six or seven times out of that last song? What phrase? What clause? You can't answer the question.

0:18 Yet not I, but Christ and me. Where in the bible is that found? Is it found in the bible? It is? Where?

0:28 Yes, Jeremy. Are you asking or telling me? I'm saying I'm asking. No you should be telling. Thank you, thank you. Yes

0:37 Yes Paul says it. Where does he say it? He's talking about the grace of God. Can't quote exactly. Really?

0:49 Good one. Turn to Galatians two twenty. This is what came to my mind, although you would get credit for that on my test. I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

1:10 You know, that is a famous verse. Many of us memorized that when we were kids. But what we rarely quote is the next phrase, the next line. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, and here's the line I want you to see, who loved me and gave himself for me. Who loved me and gave himself for me. I

1:43 I almost envision Paul writing this and he sort of stops writing and he looks out the window and he just reflects on the love of God upon his life, the love of Christ, and it's like he can't get over it. Anyways, I feel like that about my wife. I can't believe I married up and it's been such a wonderful thing. Jen and I are big supporters of the institution of marriage. We believe in it. So,

2:07 So, go to that marriage conference! But more importantly, the Christian is moved, shaken, motivated by the love of Christ. Paul said it in another epistle. He said it this way, The love of Christ compels me. Do you know what the word compels means?

2:29 It means to drive you down one path and only that path. Like you were going to take a bunch of cattle and round them up and they all had to go through one one corridor for them to get onto the truck. It's it's this is the only way that you can go. Paul is saying that the only way that I can manage, do, think, live life is because the love of Christ drives me that way. Today's message is titled, The Love of Christ Compels Me.

2:58 You see, we've been thinking about this assembly. We've been thinking about body life this weekend And we've been thinking about it in terms that have to deal with maybe the things we should do, the things we ought not to do, the things we ought to be doing. And all of that is good discussion and it's healthy and we ask the Lord to send his spirit to bless his word. But I would be so remiss, I would be so inadequate if we didn't talk about this, the love of Christ compels me. Now, text this morning will fall to us from Revelation chapter two verses one through seven.

3:37 But in that text, we will take two diversions. One will be mentioned verbally, not turned to, in the book of Acts when the church was formed. The other will be in the solution when it says, remember. We'll talk about repent because that's of the passage itself, but the third detour we'll take is where it says recall or redo. So that's our outline of this morning. You

4:38 And he says, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lambsons. That's the churches that will be addressed. The imagery is that he's serving his high priest and he is there in his high priestly outfit described in chapter one and now he's going to trim the wicks, the burning elements, the filaments of the church. He's going to do what the high priest does. It's his right, it's his prerogative, it's his responsibility. For

5:07 For him not to do this, he would be derelict of duty. And let me tell you, the Lord Jesus never skims on his duties. Now, look at what it says here. These things says he, oh, sorry, verse one. I know your works, your labor, your patience.

5:25 Now, those are all nouns. Works means deeds. Just the normal activity of your life. The, you know, the kind of thing that you do in the morning. Most of us shower in the morning, but most of us can't remember that we showered because it's just so normal. We

5:40 We just do it. Some of you didn't shower and we wish you had. But most of us just do this. It's kind of like having breakfast and you finish breakfast and you say, Did I eat breakfast today? What did I have?

5:51 What did I eat yesterday? It's just so ingrained. It's just so natural. You just do it. That's the word works.

5:58 What's the next word? Your labor. Now, that's different. That means tedious work. It's the kind of thing that you do that requires a great deal of concentration. The

6:11 The kind of thing that requires a great deal of perhaps strategy. My wife is a cross stitcher. I didn't know what that was till she told me. Apparently, it's a skill set where you look at the tiniest dot and the tiniest fabric and you put thread through that dot and you do it over and over and over and then she has this thing that's called some sort of, like, grid and it's got this picture of this, like, bird and she puts the colors in and every once in a while she goes, I said, are you okay? She goes, I'm off by a square.

6:51 I'm saying, Cash it in, baby. It's not gonna, no one's gonna care. She says, I care. Very tedious. I liken it to suturing faces.

7:02 I'm a very meticulous plastic surgeon when it comes to faces. Takes me thirty minutes to an hour to do a face. When somebody doesn't do that, I know they skimmed, right? My son was in a basketball game up in Illinois and they fixed his face and they put a running stitch in. And all my calmness went away.

7:27 Same idea. Very tedious. Very meticulous. This is what he's saying. I know that you are busy, but I also know that you take on the hard stuff.

7:37 You do the stuff that is difficult. Not many people do that. Notice the next one. He says this. Your labor, your patience. Now

7:45 Now patience means long suffering. Long suffering. I don't know about you, but I'm not a very good person with noises. So, I can chew potato chips and ice at the table, but if you chew it and I'm not, I'm going, It's just, I don't have that, I don't know, it's a thing, I'm sure, but it's just not good. You ever been around? My

8:12 My father, he's gone to be with the Lord now. But as he got older, he used to click his fingernails in the car. Just like that. We're on a six hour road trip. He's clicking.

8:24 And so, said, Dad, could you hold my drink? He says, Yeah, sure. He starts clicking with the other hand. My son, William, he's in the back seat. And I looked in the mirror, he's going, Let me get out of the car.

8:38 He goes, Dad, we call him Ojichan, it's Japanese for grandpa. I love Ojichan but can you get him to stop the clicking? Stop the clicking! I said, What's wrong? Don't you have any long suffering? He

8:49 He goes, No, I don't. This is the word. That long suffering. It's an endurance that has time element stamped to it. Now, the Lord is saying, I know these things about you. Now,

9:01 Now, the next ones are verb forms. Now, I call this first three set, I call it the reality of their existence. It's a description of their reality. But the next ones that include verbs are a description of their purity. Look at this.

9:17 It says this, where was I? And you have tested those, notice the verb, tested is a verb, those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars. You know what we call that? Purity of doctrine. Purity of source.

9:32 Purity of analysis. Very hard to achieve. One of the hardest things to do in analytical chemistry or really medical testing is to make sure that when you run the test, it actually was right. It's not giving you false information. Many times when you get a run of potassium and you get back a level that's 6.8, the first thing you ask is, was it hemolyzed? So

9:59 So it means was the red blood cells ruptured so that it released the potassium and when you measured the serum potassium, it was elevated. Doing things where you have to do analysis takes extra effort. It takes extra time. You have to be inquisitive. You have to ask the right questions.

10:16 And these Ephesians were doing that very thing. That's incredible. Now, not only did they do the very thing, they came to the right result. That's even more impressive. Now, the next one.

10:29 And you have persevered and have patience and labored for my name's sake. You know what I call that? I call that, the first one is reality. The second one is purity. I call this one longevity.

10:42 It's sort of a play on words. He says, You have persevered. You have endured the process so that you are known for endurance. That's the way he would really say it. You have persevered and have patience.

10:55 You have labored. That word's toiled. And, by the way, you've labored in a tiring way but you didn't get tired. That's the word, weary. And you did it for the right reason, for my name's sake.

11:09 Now, you have to understand something. Am I supposed to stay by this microphone? I think I am, right? I can roam. I love roaming.

11:26 It's a very good read, just one, two chapters there. And there were three major things that happened at Ephesus. And by the way, talking about the Church of Ephesus, you're talking around fifty, sixty AD, right in there, okay? The letter is written sometime in there, too. So, we're talking four decades before the Revelation letter was written.

11:46 So, how did it begin? Well, there's three things that happened. The first thing that happened was when Paul went, he met a bunch of Jewish people that were interested in the things of God. They knew the baptism of John, but they did not know the doctrine of Christ. So Paul explains it to him, puts his hands on there, they received the Holy Spirit and that was a, how do we say this, a senequonon. It

12:09 It was a sign, it was an indication that the Spirit of God was moving the Gospel beyond the teaching of John now into Europe and the foreign lands of Asia Minor. That's the first thing that happened. The second thing that happened is even more impressive. Well, I shouldn't say more impressive. It was equally impressive.

12:29 And it was having to do with the occult because, in Ephesus, the great goddess Diana had, or Artemis, had a really big, big, big temple. I think it was four fifty feet long, two fifty feet wide, 120 columns, nine or 10 across the front, you can do the math, like 50 on each side. The thing was gigantic. What you would do to worship Diana, you would actually bring and offer money and so you would keep it there and so that temple came like a bank, a reserve for wealth, you see. And so, people were very entrenched in the occult.

13:09 So, in the pagan worship, they got involved into demons and spirits. And so, a family of Jews were there and they were known as the Seven Sons of Siva. It's an interesting name, Siva. I thought about naming one of our pets that, but Janet said no. Anyway, Seven Sons of Siva.

13:29 And so what the story goes is that they went, these seven sons were known as exorcists. They would cast out spirits. And so they would go up to this one guy and they said, you know, they've been hearing about Paul and his work because he was performing miracles and seeing demons cast out. So they go, Well, we cast you out in the name of Jesus. And the demon says, Well, I know Paul. Or,

13:53 Or, I know Jesus. I know Paul. Interesting conversation. Can you imagine having that? But I don't know you.

13:59 And the text says that demons jumped on them and they ran out, you know, naked and everything. Well, the whole community goes, Somebody's bigger and better than the exorcist. We didn't think that was possible. And a lot of people got saved. So many got saved that they decided to have a bonfire of their occult paraphernalia.

14:19 Now, the text says 50,000 pieces of silver was what it was worth. And so, they had this huge severing of their lives with the occult. Well, that wasn't all. The third big event that happened was that Demetrius, head of the Silversmiths Union, was on a warpath. It was all about money and nothing's changed.

14:41 And the warpath was that the collective sales of their trinkets of the temple goddess Diana was down, and, of course, they would lace them with silver to make them more valuable. It was so down that it affected the entire economy of all of Turkey or Asia Minor today. And he said, you know, this Paul's been preaching this gospel and our sales are down and so we gotta do something about it. We're gonna be out of business. And you know what he says then?

15:09 He goes to the community and says this Paul is subverting our way of life this is how it goes. Our great goddess Diana, you know? And the whole community goes, And then they go grab all the Christians and they take them down to the 20,000 amphitheaters location and they start going crazy for two hours straight. Now, Paul wanted to go down there. His friends and brothers in Christ said, No. No,

15:39 No, you can't do that. Eventually, they grabbed Alexander. They didn't wanna listen to him. He was a Jew. And finally, after two hours, the city clerk calms him down and talks sin sin to him. So

15:48 So this is I will tell you when to panic. Behind me on the ground. Okay. Nobody panic. Okay. There

16:11 There we go. Oh, alright. I'm fine. Now, this is the history of the church of Ephesus. So if you grew up in that church of Ephesus, what a place.

16:23 I mean, you you started out with with people being being with exorcist being overcome. The occult was put to rest. You started out with a riot. You started out with a with a massive display of the coming of the Holy Spirit. I mean, who wouldn't want to be from there?

16:39 Did you know that Paul spent three years there? That's one thing. Tickius came from there. In addition to that, Aquila and Priscilla was there. Timothy was there and if church tradition is right, John the apostle was there at the end of his life and he and he of course authored, I don't know, at least two, three, five books of the New Testament.

16:55 Wouldn't you love hanging out with John? Brother John, can I take you out for breakfast? Tell us again what it felt like to put your ear on the breast of the savior. Can you tell us again how he washed your feet? Did he use a wire brush or was it a toothbrush?

17:08 Which feet stank the most that night? Can you imagine that? I mean, you got a guy who was with Christ. That was four decades later that this letter was written and it's four decades later that Jesus Christ is performing analysis. And it's a good one.

17:27 I mean, you gotta admit, it's it's a lot of works, right? Lots of activity. They have the reality of what they're doing. They have the purity of what they're doing. They have the longevity of what they're doing. That

17:57 You're first. Now what's the word first? It's protas. Protas is the very word used in, I think it's Colossians one eighteen, and all things that he might have preeminence, and so you could then translate it. You have abandoned your preeminent love.

18:13 It's very important. You see, what he's saying is, it's possible for me to be one of your important loves. It's very possible. Not your preeminent love but your prominent love. Not first place, just second, third, fourth, or fifth.

18:35 Denzel, you have a lovely marriage. But can you imagine if you said to your beautiful wife tomorrow, you are one of my top five. Yes. We call it the doghouse. Many of us have been there And you will be there too.

18:53 Right? It is unacceptable in our human relationships. I can't go home and say, oh darling, you're one of my important flubs. She said, I am your love, you know? And when we do that, we we we don't accept, we don't tolerate it on the human level and yet, we allow it on the spiritual level and if you think it hurts on the human level, do you think it hurts on the spiritual level?

19:19 The answer is yes. Now the question that is begged to be asked is why did they abandon? Neglect is another word, but how did this slippage of preeminent love actually happen? Well, the text doesn't say. We can only make some educated guesses.

19:40 But the educated guesses do come from the text. And I submit to you that they come from verses two and three. And the thing that they were doing is they were busy. They were very busy in, as I said, the reality description, the purity description, and the longevity description. That is good stuff and it has its name included for the right reasons, but when it doesn't come from the heart of love, it's unacceptable in the economy of God.

20:13 One of the things that you'll be tempted to do in your lovely assembly is to be busy, and I'm not saying busy is bad, but I am saying that if you do not as an assembly cultivate that love of Christ which compels you, you run the risk of getting a letter like that from the Lord himself. That's the letter we received when we began to study Revelation. And I was the first preacher on that series and that was my letter. I could never stop thinking about it, because that was my life. Now, notice also that it wasn't just busyness that seems to have been the problem, but it was distraction.

21:06 What do I mean by that? Remember, toilsome labor is not getting down and cleaning the floor with a toothbrush. Toilsome labor is the trials that we experience. The family difficulties that we go through. The children that become wayward. The

21:21 The adults that go wayward. The divorces that we go through. These are very deep issues in the people of god. They rock your world emotionally. We would never make fun of it but I can tell you they are toilsome labor and they can take away, subtract, divest your preeminent love of Christ. And

21:42 And when that happens, you run the risk of receiving a letter just like this one. You see, the trials and the toilsome labor of life is never intended by the spirit of god to diminish your love for him from a a preeminent position to merely a prominent position. It is always designed to heighten your love for the savior but for some mysterious reason including my own life, we'll find that it diminishes our thrill of the savior. That's hard to say why that happens. It sometimes is just, I don't trust you anymore. I

22:26 I I tried to trust you and look what you did. Sometimes, it's it's just bitterness. I just wish you hadn't done this. If you would have just listened to me, god, it wouldn't ended up like this. Some of it just depression. I

22:38 I I don't want to talk to you anymore. Whatever that is, that toilsome labor that can erode the love of Christ in your heart, it's not acceptable. You see, as an assembly, you have to cross that threshold too. Not just the labor part, but the things that are hard to endure. They can subtract, siphon, derail your love, the love of Christ that compels you. Now

23:13 Now I tell you that very seriously because that was my story. I'm ashamed of it. Busy guy, got through all the training, passed his boards, started working, started being active in the assembly. You know, nothing was wrong externally. Big family, lots of kids, had the big 15 passenger minivan. I

23:40 I love seeing yours. It reminds me of so many things. I got rid of mine as soon as I could. All that stuff. Running and running and running and running and running and running and running and and one day I woke up and I didn't know what I was running after anymore.

23:58 One day, I received a letter like this one. Change me. I I tell you this not because it's my favorite message, but because I fear that of all the things that you've gone through, the next answer will be, well, let's get working, let's get cracking. I would like to suggest that the next thing you do is cultivate this one idea, the love of Christ compels me. Now how do you do that? That's

24:35 That's a good question. Jenna asked that last night, did you not? No you didn't. I made that up. I want you to see the solution.

25:23 I I want to take you back to Luke seven, if you will. Luke seven. And and I I the story demands a treatment that is worth an hour but we we must shorten. I must be careful. The story is that the the excuse me, the context is that John the Baptist was the subject of early literature or early paragraphs of chapter seven. And

25:49 And the Lord Jesus kinda eulogizes him and talks about how he's this this really great individual, but, you know, you could you could reach that level of greatness spiritually speaking. Then he then he compares John the Baptist by the next paragraph which talks about the phariseical response and it was very fickle. You know, I I you know, we played a dance for you. You said it was wrong and then so we're all serious like John the Baptist. You said, he is wrong. We

26:14 We can't make you happy, right? And then, what happens is a story which is begins in Luke seven thirty six and it illustrates what the lord Jesus was saying. So, the context is obviously king and and the story goes like this that the lord Jesus was quite a celebrity including his 12 boys with him. You see, once you start healing and people watching you go through and produce food out of nothing and eradicate disease in an entire city which is what he would be. We call him a really top notch hospital, wouldn't he? We

26:50 We call him a roving touch, a top notch hospital and so his reputation was well known and yet the Pharisees had a jaundiced eye towards him. They didn't trust him. So he invites, this is Simon, the Pharisee invites him over for a very nice event. Now the record of of how things looked and and appeared is really from Erdoschein's work, but it's really archaeologically on the mosaic in the floor of a of a synagogue in Sapphoris not too far away, and and the point is is that the dinner parties of this magnitude had the guests of honor and a u shaped table around the room and of course as you see in the pictures they recline towards their elbow towards the table and their feet are towards the wall. Now, in order to have an opportunity for you to rub shoulders with the rich and famous, the celebrities, the public was allowed in to align the perimeter of the wall. Obviously

27:49 Obviously there was limited space and so usually only those who had some measure of respectability with the host of the home would be allowed in. But for some reason, this lady who had a terrible reputation, meaning she may have been a prostitute, she may have been a drug addict, she may have been an alcoholic, came in. Most people who would notice that would have think thought she was too bold and and brazen that you think you can come to this party with this celebrity in your condition, you scum. Simon just sounds like that, doesn't he? He even thinks that Because as she's standing at the feet of the savior, she must have recalled things he she heard him say.

28:39 And it brought her to tears. No doubt, maybe she was in the crowd when when he fed the 5,000 and she got a loaf of bread and took it home to her very many children that she might have had from her lifestyle. Just tired of her life being busted up, being a mess. And so when she learned that about the savior, she came to his feet and she started to weep spontaneously and the tear that ran down from her eye off the corner of her jaw to then drop almost in slow motion to then spread out in a diffusion capacity the dirt on that master's feet. She couldn't believe that the most simple respect of this great person would be overlooked and she immediately turned on the faucet of her tears and began to bathe his feet.

29:30 Simon said, oh, how disgusting. If this man was anything worth a prophet, he would know what kind and manner, what not, the way she's lived and he would never, never touch his feet. You know what he's saying? I would never do that. Heal, schmiel.

29:52 Can't even tell the difference between holy and unholy. Can you hear that? Vimminant criticism of the Lord Jesus. It was all in his head. Don't you love it when the Lord says, Simon, I have a question. Oh,

30:02 Oh, yeah? Did you want to talk to me? Yeah, you see there, we had two debtors, if it's alright, I would like to ask you a question. We had two debtors, and one owed 500 denarii, a year and a half worth of salary, and one owed 50 denarii, 10% or one tenth of the other debt. Now when they could both not pay, that's the key point, the debt... The

30:25 The creditor forgave them both. Which will love him more? Can you see Simon? He's such a such a guy. I can see him.

30:34 It's my British accent now. Well, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. So academic, so cold, so sterile. The Lord Jesus goes, you answered correctly. Simon.

30:55 I'm almost like, is that the best you've got, Rabbi? Is that all you got? Bring it on. Oh, the Lord's got more. It says in the text, and now I'll get to the text.

31:08 It's actually fun to dramatize it, but it's really important to get to the text. Okay? Verse 44. Do you see this woman? It says, He looked at the woman and said to Simon, Oh man, that's really business, right?

31:25 I'm looking right at you because I'm communicating with you who's a heap of mass of tears and humanity on the floor. But I'm really talking to you arrogant man over there. Do you see this woman? I'm thinking Simon goes, Yes, you little scum. Let me tell you what I see.

31:43 And he goes into it. I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her glory. That's kind of interesting. With her hair.

31:53 You gave me no kiss, but she has not ceased to kiss. The tense there means that she has continuously kissed my feet. And you did not anoint my head. The common customs like offering somebody to wash their hands. And she has anointed my feet, not just with oil, but with oil that has permeated the entire house, so that's what grabbed your attention.

32:12 That's an offer of worship. Verse 47, this is key. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. Here it is, listen, listen. For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

32:33 Remember what I said in Revelation two verse five. The word was remember from where you have fallen. See, part of our problem with the Lord having a neglected, protos love, first love, is that we actually have forgotten where we've fallen. And every song, thanks to Samuel, his selection, the music team selection, it brought all of that back to us. Did you notice that?

33:01 Every one of those songs brought us to the cross, brought us to where we have fallen. When you forget what kind of debtor you are, what happens to your heart is it shrivels and it becomes difficult to actually keep the savior as your first love. So one of the things I suggest you do as an assembly is you remember from where you have fallen. For he who knows they've been forgiven much loves much. I don't mean you have to have these moments where you have therapy.

33:38 Oh, I wanna remember where I fall when I used to be the terrible sinner. Blah blah blah blah blah. I'm not talking about that. I'm just talking about a realization that you had a debt you could never pay and he paid a debt he never owed. So that you who had a debt that you could never pay could be free of all debt forevermore.

34:01 That should never escape you. Good friend of mine named Bob Brown used to say it this way, that guy over there, he's so busted up about the savior, he got saved fifty years ago and he never got over it. Classic Bob Brown. I could never imitate him except in the word duh. He uses duh a lot.

34:21 Now, I think that's the way we need to be. I don't mean we always have to memorialize our past, no, no, no, no, But what we do remember is that I am a great sinner and he's a greater savior. John Newton said something like that. There's two things I know. I am a great sinner and he's a great savior. You

34:43 You see that's what keeps your love first. Fresh. That's what keeps it burning. And that love is what drives you to do the work, to be involved, to to to take the extra effort, to make the sacrifice. That's what drives you. Without

34:58 Without that love, you become a shell of a person and other things that grab your attention easily pull you away. That's not what this is about. It's about loving the Savior. Alright. The second word in Revelation two:five is repent.

35:39 Repenting simply means that I used to think this way and now I think this way. Now, it's not just I agree mentally with the ascent. I have many smokers who agree, Yes, Doctor. Price, cigarettes will give me cancer, but they don't change. You see, the point is that when you change your mind, you are also, it's going to lead, it's going to lead to a change in direction.

36:02 The point of changing your mind is not to mentally assent, the point of changing your mind is so that you no longer are going to continue in the path that you were. So it inevitably involves a change of action, but make no mistake, it begins, it begins by understanding that this thinking is wrong, this thinking is right, and I'm going to turn from this and turn towards God. That's what it is. And he's saying, now listen, you Ephesians, you think you're doing the right thing. You think this turmoil or this tedious labor and working for my name's sake, your purity, your longevity, and your reality is great.

36:36 But I have to tell you something. It's devoid of the first kind of love. That first love, the foremost love that you once had. And because of that, you need to change your mind. In our assembly, we did that.

36:52 We got on our faces and we confessed to the Lord. We abandoned our first love. We changed our mind. I think that was one of the key steps of the Lord keeping us going. Did you know this phenomenon of Revelation two happened to the fourth decade of Christian?

37:19 That's usually, usually a decade is a generation, you know, when you grow up from childhood, or 15 to 25. I think you guys are well into your fourth decade, right? We were, we were in our eighth decade. Eighty years we've been in existence. What am I saying?

37:37 The risk of this phenomenon increases as the decades go by. So the significance of the solution is even more important for you and I. So it says remember, it says repent, think about what you're doing, change your mind. The last one is, and I'll read it for you back in Revelation, and we're almost done, so that's the the warning that you can start the ovens, okay? And Revelation chapter two it says this, remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the first works. What's

38:38 So, it's what... Like the typical New Testament writers and the spirit of God sort of illustrates the point. Now, the story is very simple. Why is this man born blind? Was it his parents' sin or his sin? The

38:50 The Lord Jesus says it's for the glory of God. He washes in the pool of Siloam. He gets his sight back. He goes before the inquisition of the Pharisees. They demand how he got his sight back. He

38:59 He just testifies of the savior. They bring the parents in. They demand them to tell him the truth. They said, well, we told you the truth, and besides, our son is able to answer for himself. You ask him. They

39:09 They go back to the son, said, how do you get your sight? He said, I already told you. You Do wanna know this Jesus too? Jesus means no. But tell us again. How

39:19 How can you see? He says, well, all I know is this. I was born blind. Now I see. But it's kind of amazing, isn't it?

39:25 We know that God doesn't hear sinners, but God hears the righteous, and no one's ever... It's never been on medical records that somebody born blind now sees, so this guy did that, so probably he's he's of God. Right? They get all indignant. You're teaching us, you little dumb dumb.

39:44 It's a translation that's not in the text. And so and so what happens is they cast him out, they throw him out. Now, just like Jesus is the great shepherd that he is, he finds this guy, and he has a conversation with him. Let's let's pick up the action. Verse 35, Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when they had found him, he said, do you believe in the son of God?

40:06 He answered, who is he, Lord, that I may believe? I just love this. You're physically blind. You're spiritually blind. And the Lord's gonna fix both of you.

40:15 And he says, is he? If you just tell me who he is, is it that guy over there? That guy over there? Jesus says, no. No. No.

40:22 No. It's not that complicated. It is... You have both seen him, and it is he who's talking to you. Can you imagine that moment?

40:31 And and do you believe in the son of God? Just tell me who. Oops. It's me. It's me.

40:38 Can you imagine that man's reaction? You you you you you you're the son of God. And all that's happened to him now suddenly makes sense. Now look at the next verse. And he said, Lord, I believe.

40:54 And he fell down and worshiped him. Remember that verse in in two five? Do the needs you did at first. You know, one of the things that has affected us and affects our first love for the savior is that we we we forgot what it's like to worship when you're first redeemed. I was saved when I was eight years old. I'm

41:18 I'm a bible camp product. I'm... So I'm very big supporter of the bible camps. If it wasn't for that bible camp, I don't know where I'd be. When I got saved, I would go home, and I told my mom and dad, and and and my dad, he was thrilled. My

41:31 My mom was thrilled, and and and I would make a habit of singing. Not... I'm not a great singer, but I make a habit of it. And and pretty much annoyed the whole house. One day, was singing, and my voice was sort of crackling and changing.

41:44 And I have to admit, it sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard to be quite honest with you. And I'm singing away and like an hour goes by. Finally, dad goes, Steve, can you... And then my mother says, Bob, he's singing to the Lord. My dad didn't say another word. You

42:04 You couldn't stop me singing. Do you remember that? When you were first redeemed? The most important thing to you was that you would be like this guy who fell down in his face and worshiped him. Remember, repent, redo.

43:07 It's that we come together as a body to worship the lord. That's what we do. You can get spiritual encouragement from a lot of places. You can get it from a homeschool group. I should know. I'm

43:22 I'm part of that group. I taught in that group. The Christian school, you can get it from your from your Christian friends and other organizations. Yes, but it's this place that is meant and designed to come together to worship the lord as one. That's what makes this different.

43:41 You don't wanna give that one out. For if you do, you run the risk of becoming just like them and getting a letter from the Lord. Let the love of Christ compel you. I think I've talked long enough. Let's pray.

44:06 My savior, I am ashamed that in so many ways I've not remembered, I've not repented and I've not redone. It's taken you a long time, I'm sorry to have to communicate this to me on over and over and over and I'm ashamed before you, but I'm reminded just how much I've been forgiven. I'm reminded father that my thinking has been wrong and I I repent. And I sow. I so want to be a worshiper like the first time I ever worshiped you.

44:49 Oh father, would you work in our souls in this assembly at Westlake Bible Fellowship that they would be a meeting that has Christ as their preeminent love, not second, not third, not fourth, preeminent, I pray and in so doing, we would become a collection of people that worship the savior, true worshipers and that's what draws us in every time we make that this this gathering then that had to have that priority for it's where we give, we worship, we react rightly to the king of kings and the lord of lords. How Shawnee to be like this. If your son were to return tomorrow, may he find this both here and in all the assemblies I pray in Jesus name, amen.