It Takes Dedication

And first Corinthians chapter nine. Producing fruit and good work in our lives to the praise of our savior begins and ends with our savior. It is only by his strength. Without him, we can do what? Nothing.

I can do all things through Christ who or which strengtheneth me. It begins and it ends with him. To God be the glory. However, God has given us responsibilities in his family. God has given us responsibilities in his service.

For watch for to which God compels us to be faithful, to be diligent, and if we are to bring glory to our God and produce much fruit, as Christians, it will also take effort and dedication as we look at this morning on our part. Matthew sixteen twenty four says on the screen here, then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and Take up the holy. Take up his cross and follow me. That sounds to me like effort. That sounds to me as something God expects us to do, to take up our cross.

Now, our cross is not the same as his cross. God's will for his son was for him to come to Earth and die on a cross for our sins that we might be redeemed. He is the only one that could do that. Amen. The only one who could be the savior of the world because he is the only sinless son of God.

It wouldn't do any good for me to die on a cross for you because I'm a sinner just like you. A sinner praise the Lord saved by grace. But God does have a mission for us to represent him here on this Earth. To to proclaim the gospel, to live a life, a holy life, to bring glory to him, to do good works that others will see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven. He does have a cross.

For you to carry today. And it is our responsibility, yay, and our joy. To take up that cross and to follow him. If you're in second Timothy, if you look at second Timothy, chapter four. Look if you would in second Timothy chapter four verses six through eight.

It helps if I turn to second Timothy and not first Timothy. There we go. Or you can also look on the screen if you would like. Paul writes there, for I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. Now, what kind of departure is Paul talking about?

He's talking about death. He's talking about a departure from Earth to heaven. A departure from which he is looking forward to. He said in Philippians, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. It only gets better, Christian.

Paul knew that. He wasn't afraid of death. For I am now ready to be offered the time of my departure is at hand. He writes in verse seven, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course.

I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more before we continue. Lord, we thank you for your word again today. Lord, I pray it would do a work in our lives that the holy spirit would take it as the sword of the spirit that it is and pierce our hearts.

Help us to see areas Lord where we that we have not dedicated to you. Things which we might be holding back. Lord, challenge us in your service today. Lord, encourage us in your service today. We thank you for what you've done for us.

It is our turn, Lord. To serve you. Lord, we can never repay the price that you paid on Calvary's Cross but it is our reasonable service. It is our responsibility and it is our privilege to serve the king of kings and Lord of lords. To fight the good fight of faith.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our savior. We pray Lord if there be one here today that hasn't entered that fight by faith, that's never trusted in you as Lord and savior of their life. We pray today would be their day of salvation. That they might be know the joy that it is to be a child of the king. In Jesus name, we do pray.

Amen. Does it sound like to you that Paul just cruised through his Christian life? Obviously not. Or does it sound like it took a lot of hard work and dedication? I would say it would have to be the latter and if you know and study the life of Paul from the book of Acts and his epistles, it becomes very clear that the apostle Paul was extremely dedicated to his Lord and savior.

He was on the wrong path, on the fast track to an eternity in hell and Jesus Christ stopped him in his tracks. And saved his soul. Amen. And put his feet on a different path. Paul didn't shirk from the responsibilities and the privilege of serving his Lord on that path.

He suffered greatly for it. He endured many trials. He was very diligent. He got up again and again and again and he moved on. For his savior.

He used terms in this passage as he wrote to Timothy. He said, I have fought a good fight. He says, I have finished my course. God has called us all to be Paul's and Abraham's, Joshua's, and Ruth's, Caleb's, and Nehemiah's, Esther's and Elijah's, Peter's and John's, Priscilla's and Aquila's, and we could go on. These men and women were all different and served the Lord in different callings.

And you say, but pastor, God hasn't called me to be an apostle or to be a prophet or to be a a preacher or a missionary or well, he didn't call Priscilla and Aquila to be that either by the way. They were just lay people in the church, ministering for the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't call Esther to be that either. She was the wife of the king. He didn't call Ruth to be that either by the way.

She became the wife of a farmer by the name of Boaz. Happened to be the great grandmother of King David. You never know, but God is calling us to be servants of the king. And servants do what? They serve.

They serve. Yes, these men and women were different, had different callings but they have several things in common. They were called of God to serve him. And they did. They all sacrificed greatly in his service.

Number two, and they all succeeded and bore much fruit for their savior because greater was he that was in them than he that is in the world and by his strength, they did. Succeed. By his strength, they did fulfill as Paul here recognizes, acknowledges at the end of his life what God had called them to do and to be. No Christian will succeed and be fulfilled and at peace in the life that God has given him so graciously if he is not willing to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Unquestioningly, faithfully, obediently, and at great cost.

Second Timothy three twelve, Paul said to Timothy, it's probably on the same page you got there if you want look at it in the scripture. Yey, all that will live godly in Christ shall what? Suffer persecuting. Don't say might suffer persecute. Could possibly suffer persecution.

No, he says to Timothy, all those that will live godly in Christ, that will take a stand, that will dedicate themselves to the service of Jesus Christ, their savior, will suffer persecution, will suffer trials in this world, and in this life. There is a cost in serving Jesus and it does take effort. And dedication as we will see this morning. Unfortunately, this seems backwards to most people of today. Even Christians, It often seems.

We have bought into the idea that grace means that nothing is required of me. When actually, as a child of God who I'm saved by grace, who are filled with the Holy Spirit, there is much. Expected of me. Yey, maybe more than those of the Old Testament. For I have an advantage over them.

I have, I can look back to the cross of Calvary. We all who know Christ are indwelt by his spirit. Who goes with us every day and guides us. And we have all the completed what? Word of God.

Right here before us. Now, God doesn't expect less of us under grace. No, God expects more. That's indeed what he should, what he should get. We are happy in life.

When we succeed, in those things that matter so much. To us. Now, to Christians, what should matter most to us should be serving our Lord and savior. To others, other things matter more but we all thus derive a certain level of satisfaction from those accomplishments. It's a fact of life that success and fulfillment is a result of hard work.

Anyone who tells you differently is a fraud. They're selling you something. When I was when I was in school, as compelled by my mother in particularly, I studied sometimes more than others. But I liked it when I got that test back and it said A at the top. I liked it when I got that report card back and it had As and Bs on it and none of those other CDF things.

I felt accomplishment. I had succeeded in something. When when I was young, we we lived out in the country and and dad liked to plant a garden, and he planted the garden and plants grew but what else grew? Weeds grew. We had some, we had this beautiful flower called a morning glory.

I I came down. I think it was in Georgia or maybe it was here. I went to a Walmart and they were selling hanging baskets of morning glories. To us, morning glory wasn't a flower. Morning glory was a weed.

At least to me it was. It's beautiful flowers, but it also is a terrible weed. And I'd go out there and I'd come home from school or in the middle of the summer and and I, my responsibility, I had to pull weeds in these these rows. It wasn't something I wanted to but it was something I I had to do and I did do and you know, when I got finished and I looked back at those rows of beans or those rows of corn or whatever it may be, I felt satisfaction. Later on in the year, we'd have to pick and harvest the beans and I'd pick them and and bring them in, and there's satisfaction, even though I really didn't like to eat them.

Dad liked to grow some sweet potatoes every now and then, and I like digging up sweet potatoes. I still don't like eating them till this day. But still, there was satisfaction having accomplished something. I I worked construction for just a little while, and I love being able to make something. I'm not very good at it, but when you make it and you sit back and you look and you go, I accomplished something.

But it takes what? Takes work. It takes effort. When I was a youth pastor and a music director up in Georgia, we would perform a cantata most every Christmas and we held youth rallies and when things went well, I felt fulfilled. Gave joy especially when a teenager came to know Christ as his savior.

That's the greatest joy. The first step to fulfillment, happiness in life is faith in Jesus Christ. For without Christ, there is no hope. But in the realm of happiness and fulfillment, there is also the step of effort and work and dedication. If you're saved but complacent and stagnant, you will neither be successful, abundantly fruitful, nor terribly happy.

In your Christian life. The world around us tells us the way the happiness today is to party. Whatever feels good, do it. But that's not what God's word says. God's word says this, John thirteen seventeen, if you know these things, happy are you if you do them.

If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. What is the Lord Jesus talking about? Well, what had Jesus done? John chapter 13. He had just taken a towel and went around the room and washed his disciples feet.

He did the work of a servant, the lowest servant on the totem pole. And he told his disciples, as I have served you, you need to what? Serve one If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. And as we do the work of the Lord, as we serve him and serve one another, God gives joy. There's one of the choruses.

I guess we should have sung it this morning on my list of choruses. It's entitled, there is joy in serving Jesus. And I know no greater joy in life than the joy of serving Jesus. Particularly, the joy of seeing sinners saved and seeing Christians grow. Pleasing my Lord and savior.

Paul expresses fulfillment in his life and ministry at its close because he had completed the work God had given him to do. Therefore, he challenges us as he did Timothy. Second Timothy two three and four, if you're still there in your bible, you can read it from there if you like or the screen. Second Timothy two three and four, Paul says to Timothy, thou therefore endure hardness. As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that worth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Paul challenges Timothy, you as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, you endure hardness, trials as a good soldier of Christ. Don't entangle yourself with with the affairs, with the with the distractions of the world and of the flesh. Soldier who signs up to serve in the army, signs his life away for several years To say I will do what my commander tells me to do. My life now belongs to the army, the air force, the navy, the marines. Everything else comes what?

Second place. It's secondary. To serving. First Corinthians nine twenty four through 27, you'll have to turn for that one, turn back a few pages if you would. First Corinthians chapter nine verses 24 through 27.

In Timothy, Paul used a military metaphor. In first Corinthian, Paul uses another one of his favorite metaphors and this is a sports metaphor. Paul loves sports. At least it would seem because he talks about it quite a bit in his writings. He likes to use these metaphors concerning athletics.

First Corinthians nine twenty four, Paul writes, know ye not that they which run-in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run, that you may obtain. And every man that striveth for mastery is temperate, disciplined in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown. A wreath is what they placed on their heads on that day.

Today, we they give out gold medals. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. Laying up treasures in heaven. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, hesitantly, distracted by other things, unfocused. So fide I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached unto others, I myself should be a castaway or a failure.

Paul says, I have dedicated my life. As the soldier dedicates himself to the business of the military, so an athlete must dedicate himself to whatever sport it is that he wants to obtain the what? The gold medal, the prize. And everything else, other things, must take a backseat and to those who succeed in sports, sometimes things maybe take backseats that shouldn't. But they are very focused on what they do.

In both passages, Paul uses metaphors to illustrate the need of every Christian, not just ministers, to put forth effort in the Christian life and being profitable servants and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will amount to nothing for our Lord. We will be like salt that has lost its savior. If we're not willing to dedicate ourselves. In his service.

We're going to look the next three weeks at three different aspects of effort. First is dedication this morning. Next Sunday morning is discipline. The two are certainly have some overlap. The third one is dependence, which may not seem to fit, but it does.

But this morning, we're looking at dedication. The one who strives for the victor's crown, the one who seeks to win in the day of battle must be sold out. I mentioned athletics as Paul did here in first Corinthians nine. I watched, remember watching a film a few years ago, and I watched it again a few months ago, on the life of Pete Maravich. Does anybody know?

Raise your hand if you know who Pete Maravich is, alright? Some of you are old enough or follow basketball to know who Pete Maravich is. I don't remember ever watching Pete Maravich play, it was a little before the days that I remember. But I remember the day that he died. He was playing basketball with James Dobson whose name you might recognize and he just died there right on the court as it turned out he had had a heart defect from birth that once they realized it after his death, it just seems almost impossible that he did what he did for all those years of his life.

But being Pete Maravich was one of the greatest basketball players ever. How did he get to be one of the greatest basketball players ever? Was he the fastest? I don't think so. Was he the smartest?

Probably not. Was he the tallest? No, he wasn't seven foot four or anything like that. Was he the strongest? From having watched, from having seen video of him?

No. He was kind of a really thin looking fellow. No, he was nothing but a boy and a man of average stature and ability who dedicated himself to be the best in his sport. He ate with his basketball. He studied with his basketball.

He slept with his basketball. When he rode his bike, he bounced his basketball. Sometimes when he rode in the car slowly down the road when his dad was driving, he bounced his basketball. He spun it on his finger. He kept it with him all the time.

He lived, ate, and slept basketball. He practiced, he practiced, and he practiced. He was dedicated and so he became one of the greatest basketball players of all time and as wonderful as that is, in light of eternity, that's really a very little importance. Thankfully, somebody gave Pete Maravich the gospel and he got saved. And so now he is in heaven with the Lord but it takes dedication It takes dedication as a soldier.

It takes dedication as an athlete but it also takes dedication to produce abundant fruit. And succeed and bring glory in the Christian life to our God. It takes dedication first of all To the one who has called us. It takes dedication to the one that we serve. Why does the soldier?

Why does the athlete? Why should the Christian do what he does but to please the one who has called him in the service. That's what Paul says in here in Timothy says, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that worth entangle themselves with the affairs of this life that he may what? Plea.

Plea him who hath chosen him to be a soldier and in the Christian life, who is that? That's Jesus. Where did Pete Maravich get his zeal for basketball? What is it that drove him as a young man? It wasn't just a love for a round rubber ball.

It was for the love of his father who was a college basketball coach. To please his father, to be the best he could be. Before we dedicate ourselves to a cause and to a mission, we must first dedicate ourselves to a person and that person in the Christian life is Jesus Christ. To the soldier, it is his commanding officer. It is his country.

To the Roman soldier, he was honored to be chosen to serve for the glory of Rome. His commanding officer whom he strode headlong in the battle, risking life and limb to please the one who chose him to be a soldier. What a joy it is as Christians. To go into the heat of spiritual warfare every day. To take on the mission that God has called us to.

To bring glory to his name who gave his life for us. Jesus Christ, our savior. Romans twelve one, Paul pleaded with the Roman brethren on this point. You have called upon Jesus as Lord. Your Lord has called you to battle.

What will you do? Will you give your body a living sacrifice? It is your what? It is your reasonable service. It is both our privilege and our solemn duty to love the Lord our God with all our heart and to dedicate ourselves fully to his service.

Yet, most Christians today stumble through the Christian life with little focus and dedication to the one. Who gave them that life. It's not in my notes here but it reminds me of Hebrews chapter 12. And verses one and two. The writer of Hebrews says, wherefore seeing also we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every way and the sin which just so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We studied in Revelation chapters two and three on Sunday night the last few months. We looked at the seven churches in Revelation. The first one mentioned in Revelation two two is the church at Ephesus and what was their failing? They had left their what?

First love. We must remember as the Ephesians from whence we have fallen. And leaving or neglecting our first love, our dedication to Jesus. We must repent of our lack of love and allegiance to him. We must return to the unquestioning service, not of service itself but service of a person.

The Lord Jesus Christ. To please him, to honor him, to bring glory to him, to do his work, as his ambassadors. We are the ambassadors of Jesus Christ to this world. What a privilege. Read on my phone earlier this week that Trump appointed John Huntsman to be ambassador to, I think it was Russia maybe.

What what a privilege to be called up by the president to be an ambassador for your country. Everyone of us who are Christians are ambassadors to this world. For Jesus Christ in our home which is where? Which is in heaven. We must remember if we have neglected our first love, repent of our lack of dedication and diligence and return to unquestioning service to him.

It first must be a person to whom we are loyal before it will be a calling to which we are loyal. Don't deceive yourself to him that knoweth to do right, to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is what? Sin. James four seventeen. Are we dedicated to Jesus?

When you sing the song, oh, how I love Jesus, Has it ever occurred to you that maybe we don't love him as much as we should? And sometimes, does it occur to us that maybe those words are just a bit empty in his ears? When we are so distracted with other things, when we can be so lazy, and so caught up in fulfilling the the lust of the flesh? Are you dedicated to him? Do you know him as your Lord and savior?

You don't know him as Lord and savior, then you're certainly not going to be dedicated to him. Are you committed to serve him each and every day? If not, then you need to repent and we need to refocus and rededicate ourselves. If you're not saved, first you must be saved. You must know him before you can serve him.

But, if you know him, then why are you not dedicated? Why are we not dedicated as we should be? If you're not, then you will not. And, the rest of this message is for not. Because it starts with who?

It starts with Jesus. Are you dedicated? Are you set apart to his service? Not only in the eyes of God and on the records of heaven but in your actions, your goals, and ambitions. Secondly, as we are dedicated to our savior, secondly, we must be dedicated to our calling, to our mission, to those things that he has commanded us to do.

The Roman soldiers dedicated to his commander simply does what he is told, carries out his mission without question, as does the good athlete, his coach or trainer. This is the natural fruit of trust and allegiance to the commander, to the coach, to the savior. The natural fruit, the natural result of trusting him is doing what he says. As taking up the baton, taking up the mission, and fulfilling it. The commission, the Christian's commander is Jesus Christ.

Where do we find our mission and the instructions of what Christ has called us to do? For the calling and the mission he has put before us. Brother Steve. Word of God. It's in the word of God right there in his hand.

The word of God right here in my hand. The word of God hopefully in the hands of most of you this morning. It's in the word of God. It's not in me. I'm just here to tell you what God says.

I have no authority apart from the authority of the word of God but he has authority as Lord, as savior, as king, as redeemer, as commander in chief to every Christian and he tells us right here in his word the vast majority of what he wants for us. The mission he has set for us. For instance, Matthew twenty eight eight three and twenty, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Jesus is speaking of his what? The word power there is not dunamis which means power, might, ability, it's the word exousia, it means authority.

Jesus said, all authority is given to me. He is our commander, our Lord, and king. He is the one who has the authority and issues the commission. All authority is given me in heaven and earth. Now, here is the commission.

Go you therefore and teach all nations. Teach them what? The gospel. Baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost, and then teaching them to observe all things. Whatsoever I have what?

Commanded you. And low I am with you always even to the end of the earth. Jesus says, all authority is given to me. I command you, go do this. Oh, and by the way, you're not going to have to do this alone.

I'll be there. I'll be there with you. I'll help you. But you have to go. It's assumed in this verse that that we will go, that we will do, that we will put forth effort, that we will dedicate ourselves to our king and to his mission.

Acts one eight, but you shall receive power. Now, this is dunamis. This is might, strength. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. God, Jesus says to disciples, I'm going away.

He had told them earlier he was going away and he says it is profitable for you, beneficial for you if I go away because I will send who? The holy ghost and he will not be just be with you, he will be in you to strengthen you, to guide you, to help you in the mission I've called you to, to be witnesses for me. In Jerusalem, where you live and in all the area of Judea and up in Samaria and unto the furthest part of the year. Like Pistol Pete was dedicated to the temporal earthly task of becoming the best basketball player, he could be we, God's children, need to be dedicating ourselves to the task of glorifying our father in heaven and taking the gospel to a lost world. It is his commission to us.

We should dedicate ourselves to that mission. Whatever time we have left here on this earth, we don't know how long that time will be. But, let's dedicate ourselves. Let's not be so caught up in other things. Let's let's not allow the lust of the flesh and the laziness of the flesh.

Let's commit ourselves to his calling. Study and apply the scriptures wherein we find not only his instructions but his help in fulfilling that task. He says in Joshua one seven eight to Joshua. Joshua had a incredible task. He had to lead nation of over a million people into this land and conquer it with little weaponry and and little training to the extent of the enemy that they were facing.

They had walled cities. They had chariots. They had people who had been groomed to be soldiers from the day of their birth. It was a daunting task. God said to him, only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee.

Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then, thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua, I know you're looking at this mountain in front of you and it looks impossible. This task that's laid before you.

But God says, if you'll just abide in me and in my what? In my word, you'll have success and what I have called you to do. Now, God hasn't called us to lead armies in the battle. God has asked us to live a holy life pleasing unto him to open our mouth and to tell others and be a witness of our savior Jesus Christ. To do good works, to bring glory to his name.

To bear much fruit. He said to Timothy in first Timothy two fifteen, study to show thyself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Study, what is that? That takes dedication.

Dedication. Paul says, dedicate yourself. You must be dedicated, Timothy. This isn't going to work. As we dedicate ourselves to the Lord, to the task he's laid before us, to his word, to his service, we will get victory over the flesh.

We will witness for Christ and see souls saved. We will be able to participate in the ministry of our church. We will learn to be a good father, a good husband, a good wife, a good mother, a good son, a good daughter, a good servant of Jesus Christ. That needeth not to be what? Ashamed.

If we will dedicate ourselves. If you're not dedicated fully to these things, you will not succeed in them. This is what God was telling Joshua. You have to be dedicated to this. It's not enough to just say, hey, well, I read here a little this or a little that and I went to church every once in a blue moon.

Doesn't work that way. There's a lot of Christians out there that aren't sitting in these pews or any other pews for that matter today because they did not want. They've not dedicated themselves to his service. Instead, they're watching TV. Instead, they won't show up for other reasons for maybe they just are tired and they need extra rest or whatever maybe.

There is undoubtedly an epidemic in Christian circles today of complacency and indifference to the spiritual battle which rages around us and our responsibilities as soldiers of the cross. As a result of our lack of commitment and dedication in Christ's service, the spiritual fruit in our life is also lacking. The fruits of the spirit as we walk in the flesh and not in the spirit. The fruits of righteous works which bring glory to God, the fruit of our witness, and the salvation of lost souls. What is the problem with our society?

What's the problem with The United States Of America? Why is it that we seem to be going further from God? Well, the root problem if you want to trace it back is not the world. It's us. It's the church Many who call themselves Christians aren't living like Christians.

They dedicated themselves to other things. Or to nothing. The world sees and the world is not impressed neither is the Lord. If it is to change, it will take effort and dedication on our part as well. Dedication and faith in our savior and in what he has called us to do.

In his word, and the promises that he will never leave us nor forsake us. Conclude with this verse this morning. It's one of my favorite verses. Galatians six nine and let us not be weary in well doing. For in due season, we shall reap.

If we faint not. The harvest is just around the corner. And sometimes you feel like you're spinning your wheels. And the devil wants you to give up. He wants you to throw in the towel.

He wants you to say, oh it's not worth it. I'll get to heaven. That's all that matters. Please don't listen to him. There is.

There is prize. Waiting at the end of the race. There is joy to be found in serving Jesus. There is yet a task before you. That task may have changed a little in your life from what it was twenty or thirty years ago.

But it is there and it is here in his word. Let's dedicate ourselves. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord For the privilege of serving you. And Lord, we thank you for what you did for us on Calvary's Cross and what you're doing in our life every day.

Lord, forgive us. For our often lack of dedication and focus on those things. Forgive us of sin that may have crept into our life. That is a hindrance. To those things.

Lord, forgive us for thinking that it isn't our responsibility to put forth effort and to dedicate ourselves. To you, your service, your word, your mission, and Lord, help us to refocus and rededicate ourselves. This day, this week, this year, in the service of our king. We know Lord You've said in your word. You will give us joy and peace beyond all understanding.

In service of you. Lord, thank you for the privilege today of serving you here. Lord, do a work in our lives. Help us, Lord, to respond this day and all this week. We pray Lord most of all, if there's one here that doesn't know you at all as savior and Lord.

That they might put their faith in you this morning and come as we give this hymn of invitation. In Jesus name, we do pray.