Paul in Rome pt. 2

Amen. Amen. Amen.

And we're going to be doing versus, oh, hi. Where did you come from? Verses four through six. Okay, shh, okay. All right. "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord." This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for being able to gather here today together and to worship you together and to sing and shout for joy on all the things that you do for us and how you take care of us and provide for us. We thank you so much for your word and that we can be reminded each week of your promises and your goodness and how dwelling in your house

is good for all the days of our lives. And just be with our service today and allow it to glorify you. In Jesus name. Amen. All right, we're going to start by singing "The Battle Belongs." When all I see is the battle, you see my victory. When all I see is the mountain, you see a mountain. And as I walk through this shadow, your love surrounds me. There's nothing to fear now, for I am safe with you. When all I see is the mountain, you see a mountain moved. And as I walk through this shadow, your love surrounds me. There's nothing to fear now, for I am safe with you. When I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you.

And if you are for me, who can be against me? For Jesus, there's nothing impossible for you. When all I see are the ashes, you see the beauty. When all I see is a cross, God, you see the empty tomb. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. You can remain standing if you want, or you can sit. And just a quick little announcement thing, we have snacks and coffee in the

back that are for anybody if you'd like some. And we have communion and handouts on the back of the table there if you need that for our service today. And so we're going to move into our prayer and share time. And if you're watching online, there will be a slide up with a phone number for you to text if you would like to send us a new prayer request or anything you'd like to share. Just text that number and we will share that here. And then we're going to be muted during that time. So just give us a few minutes and we'll be back after our time together with that. So our next song we're going to be doing is "How Great Is Our God."

The splendor of the King. Oh, the majesty. Let all the earth rejoice. All the earth rejoice. He wraps himself in light. The darkness tries to hide. He trembles at his voice. He trembles at his voice. How great is our God. Sing with me how great is our God. Oh, see how great, how great is our God. How great, how great is our God. And page to page he stands. And time is in his hands. Beginning and the end. Beginning and the end. Beginning and the end. The Godhead, three and one. Father, Spirit, Son. The Lion and the Lamb. The Lion and the Lamb. How great is our God. Sing to me, how great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our God. Oh, see how great, how great is our God. How great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our God. Oh, see how great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our God.

Oh, see how great, how great is our God. Name above all names, worthy of all praise. My heart will sing how great is our God. How great is our God. Name above all names, worthy of all praise. My heart will sing how great is our God. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, we'll see how great, how great is our God. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Amen.

He became sin, who knew no sin. That we might become His righteousness. He humbled Himself and carried the cross. Love so amazing. Love so amazing. Jesus, Messiah, name above all names. Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel. The rescue for sinners. The ransom from heaven. Jesus, Messiah. Lord of all. His body the breath. His blood the wine. Broken and poured out all for love. The whole earth trembled and the veil was torn. Love so amazing. Love so amazing. Yeah. Jesus, Messiah. Name above all names. Blessed Redeemer. Emmanuel. The rescue for sinners. The ransom from heaven. Jesus, Messiah. Lord of all. Jesus, Messiah. Messiah. Lord of all.

I sent Greg a text a minute ago with a picture of the front, and I said, "Hey, guess where the little boys are?" So, we'll see what he has to say.

We're so thankful for our little guys. They bring a life to us, right? Some humor and some joy, and we're always reminded, right, that Jesus was very specific about what he said about kids, right? He said, "Let the little children come to me." So, we are very thankful for our little ones. I was getting dinner ready earlier this week, and I was sitting in the kitchen, and I got the meat out, and I started cutting open the packaging, and then threw it away, and I turned around, and there's two very large dogs, both of our not very well-behaved dogs, standing there just eyeing the trash can because they heard, you know, stuff happening in the kitchen, their favorite place. They heard things being unwrapped and rustling, and so there they were, standing next to the trash can, wanting that piece of plastic that the meat had come out of. And as I was thinking about that situation, the remarkable thing was, you know, three feet away on the counter, sitting on the cutting board is this big old chunk of meat, right? It's not a piece of plastic with some leftover scent and juices in it, right?

The actual meat is over there, but here they are, focused on that trash can, the absolutely wrong thing. And I think very many times we sort of have the same thing happening in our lives, right? We have all of the goodness and the glory and the joy that's offered by the good news of the gospel that's given to us by God through His Son, empowered in our lives by the Holy Spirit. And here we are, instead of desiring the right thing, desiring the absolute wrong thing. In 2 Chronicles, the 15th chapter, there's an account of what's happening in the southern kingdom of Israel in Judah. There's a new king, and he comes to power, and God speaks to the new king, and revival breaks out among all of the people. Not just the king is revived spiritually, but all of the people.

And in the middle of all of this, the people rededicate themselves to God, and I want you to hear what they said. It says, "All of Judah rejoiced over the oath." The oath is their recommitment to follow God. "For they had sworn with all of their heart, and they had sought Him with their whole desire, and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around." You see, one of the things that happens when we chase those wrong desires is that our life feels oftentimes like it's falling apart, because we're chasing the thing that will never satisfy our soul. And so we chase after something, and then when we get it, we find that it doesn't meet the desires, and so we chase something else, and then we chase something else, and our whole life is this chasing after ultimate emptiness. But here these people turn their lives, and they

fix their desires upon God, and ultimately He gives them rest. And so as we come to the table this morning, we're reminded that this isn't just a reminder of the Gospel, but it's also a time for God's people to evaluate themselves, to consider our desires. What is it that we are chasing? What is it that we are hoping in? Because ultimately, as we just sang, our hope is in the Gospel. That Jesus gave His life on our behalf. So I'm going to pray, and we'll read some Scripture, and then we will partake together of the Lord's Supper. Father in Heaven, help us to evaluate our desires, to look at our hopes and our dreams, and where we are finding our joy, and may they be fixed and centered upon You. I thank You for Jesus. I thank You for grace. I thank You for hope. We thank You for Your Spirit that is within us, strengthening us and encouraging us.

May this be a moment of evaluation. May this be a moment of hope. May it be a moment of joy in the Gospel. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jesus, Paul, recording what Jesus said, will say this: "What I received from the Lord, I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, also, He took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." And then Jesus will close this meal by saying, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes."

This morning's reading is from Acts 28, and it concludes a rather astonishing journey that began in the book of Genesis, and we're sort of closing out the narrative history part of Scripture, and it's kind of astonishing if you think about it for a minute. When the local leaders of the Jews had appointed a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in great number. From morning till evening, Paul expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. And some were convinced by what Paul said, but others disbelieved. And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement. The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers, through Isaiah the prophet, "Go to the people and say, 'You will indeed

hear, but never understand; and you will indeed see, but never perceive.' For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen." Paul lived there two whole years, at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God, and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. All right, we have spent a lot of time in the book of Acts over the last year, and I was thinking about that because for us that seems like a lot of time in the book of Acts over the last year.

And I was thinking about that because for us that seems like a long time because most of us can sit down and if we spend a little bit of time, we can read through the entire book of Acts depending on how quickly you read. We can read through it fairly quickly. In terms of a book, it's not a long one. But we've spent, I think, a little over a year walking through the book of Acts. But the remarkable thing about this is we often don't realize how time passes in Scripture. Because Acts here, it's not just a minute-by-minute account from chapter 1 to Acts chapter 28. It is little glimpses of the church here and there and over here. And so from the time that we started in Acts chapter 1 till now in Paul's imprisonment,

we're somewhere between probably 25 and 30 years of the history of the church. And so we come to sort of the close. We talked a little bit about what we have seen God with His people and in His people and through His people for the good of the gospel. Last week as we sort of began to wrap up the book of Acts this morning, I want to talk as Paul sort of delivers or we sort of get a glimpse of his last sermon and sort of take away some things that I think the church can use and be helped by. So let's go ahead and have a word of prayer and then we'll just jump right into this section. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and for grace. We thank you for your word.

We thank you for your people that encourage us and help us. We thank you that we can gather here and that we can open your word, that we can read your Scriptures, that we can partake together around the table, that we can sing together. So be with us this morning. May your spirit teach us and help us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And so as Paul has begun to speak, what's interesting is his message is that much different from what we've seen him preach, both to the Gentiles and to the Jews. He has preached that Jesus is the hope. He's taught people about the kingdom of God, and now he is speaking sort of the last recorded sermon of Paul in the book of Acts. He's speaking to his Jewish brothers. And one of the things that we immediately see, and we've seen this throughout the book of Acts,

and in a minute we'll see it throughout the entire Bible, is that Jesus is at the center. Listen to what Paul says, what Luke says about Paul, "From morning till evening he had expounded to them." And so expounding means that he was taking the Word of God, the Old Testament, and sort of unpacking it to them, letting them sort of see from what God has said, testifying to the kingdom of God, and trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, right? And so Paul's desire, since he has become a Christian, is to tell everybody that he can about Jesus. And what's remarkable about this is that this includes his enemies. These people who he is speaking to Jesus about right now, when he gets to Rome, he sits down, he's been there three days,

sits them down and says, "I'm here because of the Jewish brothers in Judea who have attacked me, they've tried to kill me, they've made false accusations for me, and now I am standing trial before the emperor." And they go, "Well, we haven't heard anything about you, but we've heard nothing good about Christianity." And so Paul sees an opening and says, "Well, let me tell you about Christianity." And he begins to tell those who have so frequently opposed him about the good news about Jesus. And what's remarkable about this picture of Paul placing Jesus at the center is that it's not remarkable in the book of Acts. Everywhere you turn, you see Jesus at the center. In Acts chapter 2, as the church began, it begins with Peter preaching about Jesus. Acts chapter 3, Peter and John, they heal a lame man, and when everybody starts gawking, Peter says, "It's not about us, it's about Jesus."

Acts chapter 4, they're before the Jewish religious authorities, and they began to speak about Jesus to them. And these religious leaders will say this, "They called them, charged them not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we've seen and heard." They said, "We're not going to stop and to speak." Acts chapter 5, they are led out of jail to preach about Jesus. Stephen, as he is being murdered, preaches about Jesus. And more than that, it wasn't just sort of the religious Christian leaders, the apostles and those first deacons like Stephen, but in Acts chapter 8, it's the ordinary Christians. As they leave Jerusalem, it says,

"Those who were scattered went about preaching the word." And what you see is it doesn't just stop there, but everywhere in the book of Acts, you find Jesus being proclaimed. In fact, this is why Luke writes, both Luke and Acts, he'll start Acts like this. "In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles to whom he had chosen." And so he starts by saying, "Hey, my first book, that's the book of Luke in your Bible, is all about what Jesus began to do. Now I'm going to write you a book about what Jesus continues to do through his church." As we look at the ministry of Jesus, what we find is Jesus says the same thing in Luke 24:27.

It might be Acts 24:27 in your handout, but that's not right. "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all the things in Scripture, concerning himself." And so Jesus, speaking to two of his followers, will say, "All right, let's start at the beginning of the Old Testament, and I'm going to tell you how everything in the Bible points ultimately to me." And so I'll just give you a couple of examples. Adam, the very first man with the first woman, they sin and everything breaks, right? Relationships shatter. Our relationship with God shatters. Sin enters this world. Creation shatters. There's weeds. There's struggle. There's hurt. And you have this picture of Adam as the Bible begins. And what does Paul say in Romans? He'll say in Romans chapter 5, "For as by one man's disobedience," that's Adam,

and he says so in the verses right before that. "We're made sinners, so by one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." And so Paul, as he looks back to the Old Testament, sees Adam and sees how everything was broken by Adam, he will say, "There comes another Adam who will make everything right," and that Adam is Jesus. If you go just a few more chapters, Adam and Eve have two sons. And their sons begin to struggle and fight as brothers do, but ultimately their son Cain kills their son Abel. And in Hebrews chapter 12, it says this, "You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to the God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made

perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, speaking about the blood of Jesus, that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." And so when Abel is murdered by his brother, God will go to Cain, and he will say, "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." What he's saying is, "Your brother's blood cries out for vengeance." What the writer of Hebrews says is, "There came another Abel, whose blood doesn't cry out for vengeance, but cries out for our forgiveness, and for our redemption." And it doesn't stop with Cain and Abel. Throughout all of Scripture, you find everyone pointing to Christ. Abraham points to Christ. David points us to Christ. The prophets point us to Christ. Sometimes in their words, and sometimes in their actions. Do you know the only place Jonah,

the prophet Jonah is mentioned in the New Testament? Several places, but the only reason he is mentioned is how he points to Jesus. Jesus himself will say, "Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale." And he says, "That's a prophecy about what ultimately would happen to me." What you find is the Lamb of the Passover points to Jesus. The prophetic work of the prophets points to a better prophet, Jesus. The kings of Israel point to the true King, Jesus. The priests that stood between the people and God point to Jesus, our new and better priests. What you find is that everything throughout the Old Testament points to Jesus. And Paul has had Jesus at the center. The apostles, as they preach, had Jesus at the center. Luke, as he writes, has Jesus

at the center. And rightly so, because Jesus says, "All of the Scriptures point to me." And the forgiveness that is found through what I have done. So I'd ask you this, what is the mission of the church? Jesus will say this, "All authority has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." Disciples of Jesus. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, that's Jesus, in the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I, that's Jesus, have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. And one of the struggles in the church, I think, is that we get sidetracked from our primary mission of following Jesus, proclaiming Jesus, and living for Jesus. That in many ways, in the church, it's so easy for us

to get sidetracked by some other mission rather than following Jesus. And often times, we're not chasing something that's bad, we're just not chasing something that's ultimate. Ice cream is good, but if you eat ice cream for every meal, that's not good. Work is to us work as a way of being involved in His world, but if all we do is work, right, we can lose so many important things. Rest is good. God mandates us to rest and to recharge and to rejoice and enjoy His creation, but if all we ever do is rest, what happens? It all falls apart. Those things are all by and of themselves good, right? Ice cream is good. Work is good. Rest is good. But if we make that ultimate, what happens? Everything begins to fall apart. And in the same way, the church

oftentimes pursues things that are good at the expense of what is ultimate which is ultimately following Jesus. And so one of the things that we find the Mark's doing for the church is calling us to evaluate what is at the center of our hearts? What is at the center of our mission? Where is it that we are going? How are we getting there? And the answer is Jesus. That we follow Jesus. And that task seems large, right? Because as Paul has followed Jesus, it has not been easy. He's been persecuted. He's been shift wrecked. He's been beaten up. He's had people insult him, attack him, falsely accuse him. And so if we say our mission is to follow Jesus, when we look at the strength that we have, we will say, "I don't know that I

can do it. I don't know if I'm strong enough." It's like the one who goes to Jesus and asks for his son to be healed and he says, "If you believe." And the man says, "I believe, but I don't know if I'm strong enough." And he says, "Help my unbelief." God does not give us something that he does not equip us to do. Look at what Acts says about the church. Jesus will say this, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." Jesus will say to the church, through the apostles, that I'm going to empower you with my spirit for the mission of proclaiming me to the nations. And what you find is through the Holy Spirit

the church is given what it needs. Look at the very first example in Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And it divided on tongues of fire and appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And now what was the purpose of this gift? We find in the very next verses there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at the sound of the multitude came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them

speak in their own language. And so Jesus says, "You need to proclaim the Gospel to the nations." And they say, "How do we do that?" And so they're praying about how to do that. And the Holy Spirit comes and they begin to speak joyfully in other languages that all these people from all different parts of the world, from Rome, from North Africa, from East and West and North and South, all come and they hear the Gospel proclaimed in their own language. And God gifts us so that we can proclaim the Gospel, sometimes miraculously, sometimes through the gifts. One of my favorite pictures is in Acts chapter 5. Peter and John, the disciples, are in prison. And in the middle of that chapter, they're arrested. And in verse 19, "During the night, the angel of the Lord opened the prison doors,

brought them out and said, 'Go stand in the temple.'" This is where they just got arrested that day. "Speak to the people the word of life. When they enter the temple at daybreak, they begin to teach." Jesus equips his church through how he encourages us to share the gospel. And not just, he doesn't give us the tools we need, whether that's the ability to communicate or whether that's the opening the prison doors or maybe what he's gifted you with in your area of service. Right? You find that some are called one way and some are called another way. God has gifted all of us in the church. But he also gives us the courage to use those gifts. In Acts chapter 4, it will say they saw the boldness of Peter and John. They perceived

they were uneducated common men. They were astonished. Here's the important part: they recognized that they had been with Jesus. And then sometimes the Spirit gives us opportunities. If you remember Philip in Acts chapter 8, the Spirit said as he's walking down a road and a chariot comes by with the Ethiopian he says, "Go over and join the chariot." You find that the Spirit empowers us. He gives us courage to use what we've been given and he gives us the opportunity to use it. And so you see this mission of Acts to proclaim Jesus, which is what Paul is doing in these verses, isn't just a mission given, but it's a mission that is equipped by the power of God. We're given a mission, but God gives us the strength that we need. And this is what Paul is doing right here in Acts

chapter 28, right? He's equipped by the Spirit. He's empowered by the Spirit. He's led to share the Gospel. We only get a very tiny glimpse of Paul's final message in Acts. And we've looked at part of it, that he testified to the Kingdom of God, trying to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets, but then he goes to the book of Isaiah, and he gives them this sort of final warning. Go to this people, this is quoting from Isaiah 6, and say, "You will indeed hear, but never understand. You will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they could barely hear, with their eyes closed, lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and

turn, and I would heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen." And so Paul, quoting from Isaiah 6, first of all, is using these difficult words to break through hard hearts. So if you've ever watched any of those home improvement shows where they go in and they're going to transform a house from something that seems like it's falling apart to something that is beautiful and wonderful, and they walk in and the very first thing they do is get out the hammers and begin knocking stuff down. And there's this picture of demolition, and sometimes what happens is our hearts need some demolition. That the Word of God is sometimes a comfort, sometimes a shield, but sometimes it's a hammer. And it goes

after the hardness of our hearts. And as Paul is preaching to these people and sharing the good news of Jesus, there's some who believe and there's others who have hardened their hearts. And so what Paul does is he pulls out, essentially, the Gospel hammer. And he's seeking to soften their hearts with these words from Isaiah 6. It reminds them of God's word to Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah 6 is where Isaiah is in the temple, and he sees the glory of the Lord. And he is given this mission from God. And he says, "Who am I? I'm a man of unclean lips. I come from a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the Lord, and God purifies him in this mission." It would be an exciting thing, until you say, "How is that mission going to go?"

And God says, "I'm going to send you to a bunch of hard-hearted people who haven't heard, who aren't going to hear, and don't want to hear." That's not a very good way to start your ministry. And if you ask any of Paul's listeners, "Are you like those people that Isaiah went to?" They say, "Absolutely not! We love the Word of God! We listen to the Word of God!" And then Paul turns it around and says, "But you're doing the same exact thing that they were doing." This isn't just a hammer for the hearts of these people that Paul is talking to. It's a hammer for our hearts as well. Right? We look at ourselves and say, "Well, I'd never be like that. I'd never not listen to the goodness of God. I'd never not listen

to the wonder of the Gospel." But what we find is that our hearts are so easily hardened. Biblically, our hearts can be hardened by sin. And any time you've done anything that involves manual labor, I remember when I first learned to write, and your finger, you're writing with a pencil, and your finger hurts right where you're holding the pencil until as a kid you developed a callus. Or if you run bare feet and the first time you run barefoot across some gravel and it hurts, but as a kid you keep running and running, and pretty soon your feet have toughened up. The same thing happens to our hearts if we are engaged in ongoing, rebellious behavior against God. Right? The first time our hearts are broken by our sin, and then the next time it's a little easier and a little easier

until our hearts are so hard we just seek to justify our behavior rather than repent of it. But there's another way and I think this is common, especially among Christians. Our hearts can be hardened by a lack of thankfulness. Paul says it this way, "For what can be God is plain to them, for God has shown it to them for His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power, divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were hardened." And one of the things that Paul says, and one of the things that I think happens

to God's people, is when God lavishes His goodness upon us. And when we don't give Him the credit, we don't honor Him, we don't become thankful for what He has given to us, our hearts become just a little bit harder. And we can see this in our everyday life, right? Because we live in a world that has some amazing things, if you think about it. If you walk into a dark room and you turn on a switch, what happens? Light comes, and we don't think anything about it. We go down, and we turn on a kitchen sink, and right? Clean water comes out, and we don't think anything about that until what happens. Those lights aren't there, or the water is turned off because of a water main break, or a power outage, and all of a sudden

we realize how wonderful it is to have electricity, and to have running water. And one of the things for us as Christians, if we are not continually thankful, continually reminding ourselves of God's goodness, continually rejoicing in His blessings, we become callous and hard-hearted, and we cease to see the amazing things that God is doing for us. And what Paul says as he quotes Isaiah 6, it's a tragedy. So you're hearing this good news. You're hearing the very thing that will bring healing, but because your heart has been hardened, whether by sin or by ungratefulness, or by just chasing after our own agenda for so long, that we miss the healing that is found in the good news of the Gospel. Because our hearts are hard. And so Paul, as we look at these last few verses, we see

he has the same mission we do: to proclaim Christ. He's empowered by the same power that we are, empowered with the work of the Holy Spirit. But he also leaves us with this warning: to guard our hearts. One of my favorite verses in the book of Proverbs is it talks about how we are to guard our heart with all diligence because from it it flows the river of life. Right? And there's an old cowboy saying never drink downstream from the cattle. Right? Because that's where all this stuff comes from. That's your heart. Your heart is that spring and everything in your life, from your behavior to your thoughts, flows from that spring. And so through the grace of God, Christians, we need to guard our hearts. We can guard it with repentance as we turn from sin.

We can guard it with thankfulness and rejoice in what God has done. But Paul, speaking to his own countrymen, the people he desperately desires to see Jesus, he tells them you haven't guarded your heart and now you're missing the best news of all. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Jesus and for hope. Help us with our plans and our our future and our thoughts and our priorities to seek to follow you with everything that we have. Empower us with your Spirit. Strengthen us for the mission. Help us see the opportunities that you have given us. And help us to guard our hearts. Help us not to become hard-hearted to your goodness and to your love. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to go ahead and stand and we're going to sing about where it is our hope is found and our cornerstone. Let's go ahead and be standing.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong in the Savior's love. Through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all. When darkness to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. My anchor holds within the veil. Christ alone, call us Lord. We pray strong in the Saviour's light, through the storm. He is Lord. He is Lord, Lord of all. He shall come with trumpet sound. Oh, may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone.

Faultless stand before the throne. Christ alone, cold and storm, we've made strong in the Savior's love. For the storm, He is the Savior's love. He is the Lord, Lord our Lord.

Good evening Bible study this week, so we will pick that up in the next couple weeks, but no Wednesday night Bible study this week. And no ladies' class this week? Yes, okay. All right, so ladies' class on Thursdays will begin back in August. A couple of things that we want to celebrate. So I'll let Holly start with the first one. Awesome. Awesome. And we'll send out an email with all this tomorrow. Also, August 14th. So we get to celebrate on the 6th. Holly, graduating with her master's August 14th. We're going to have a meal right after church and spend a little time celebrating Chrissy and new baby Theo who's on his way. So we'll have some more information about that as well. Any other announcements? All right. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. We'll read a verse of Scripture and then we'll sing the doxology.

Thank you so much for your church. Thank you so much for your people. Thank you for how you love us and care for us. Be with us as we leave this place. May we keep our lives built firmly upon your goodness and grace. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul writes this in Ephesians. He'll say this, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or thank according to the power at work within us, for him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." We're going to sing the doxology and be dismissed. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.