Luke 1:26-33 — Jesus
Main Idea: Accept the rescuing Lordship of Jesus Christ over every broken area of your life.
ACCEPT THAT JESUS IS GREATER THAN YOUR LARGEST PROBLEMS
• Believe that He will deliver you through each trial you encounter.
• Believe that He will give you victory from your temptations to sin.
ACCEPT THAT JESUS IS GOD, AND IS WORTHY OF YOUR WORSHIP
• Worship the God who saved you with your praise.
• Worship the God who saved you through sacrifice.
ACCEPT THAT JESUS IS KING, AND HE CAN COMMAND YOUR ACTIONS
• Obey His commands, & find safety from destroying your life in sin.
• Obey His commands, and bring your Savior joy.
ACCEPT THAT JESUS IS ETERNAL, AND LIVE FOR HIS PURPOSES INSTEAD OF YOUR OWN
• Trust that your investment in His work will be repaid.
• Trust that your current hardships & goals are fleeting.
Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)
Well, today, we are continuing our series looking at the names of Christmas, the names of Christmas, and specifically looking at the titles that are given to Jesus throughout the Christmas story.
Last week, we looked at Matthew chapter 1 and saw that Jesus is Emmanuel. He is God with us. And then this week, we're going to be looking at Jesus, the name Jehovah or Yahweh saves.
And then in two weeks, we're going to look at the name Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one.
And we've not just been looking at these names as far as what is Jesus called, but we've been looking at what does this mean for your life and for my life today. And that is certainly something valuable as we look at the name of Jesus.
We often sing about the name of Jesus. I think even our invitation song last week was Jesus, name above all names. You can think about the very popular song, what a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus.
You can think about the Christmas carol, His name is wonderful, Jesus, my Lord. But often if I were to ask us like, hey, what does the name Jesus mean? We might think about what does it mean to me, rather than what does the name actually mean?
I mentioned last week, I know what my son Bryon's name means, because I know what my name means, and by extension, I know what my dad's name means, because we're all Bryons. I don't know what Evelyn's name means.
I should probably have that memorized at some point. But I named her that because I liked the sound of it. It's a pretty name.
It's one that's kind of coming back. You might have about, you know, 60 years ago or so, found a ton of Evelyn's, and nowadays, the Evelyn's are making a comeback. And so, we'll see if she leads them in a grand army.
But when we think about the name of Jesus, it would be somewhat similar to the name Joshua that we would read in the Old Testament. That is, Yahweh saves, or Jehovah is salvation. God is the one that saves His people.
2:05
Humanity's Need for Salvation
And as we think about the salvation of the Lord, we can think about the fact that we all have times where we need to be rescued, to be saved.
Humorously, you've probably been in conversations either at Thanksgiving or it's coming up during the Christmas season, where you get trapped in a scenario with a big talker and you are trapped there.
I can think, just not too long ago, we were at Chick-fil-A and we were trying to eat dinner with the kids.
It was like after music practice, so it was pretty late in the evening and we were like, man, the kids really need to eat so we can get home and put these kids to bed.
Otherwise, you know, they have the exact same wake-up time, regardless of what time they went to bed. And so we were like, okay, when we really need to go?
And this one gal came up and she started talking to us and gave a childhood story and all of her current life circumstances. And the whole time through, because remember, pastors are just regular people too. I've got two hats on.
One is, I need to be like Jesus in this scenario. And Jesus would care and Jesus would listen. And I also have my parent hat on too.
And I'm like, Mike, sorry guys, my kids are going to go to bed so late. This is going to be a big problem. I need a rescuing from that circumstance.
In a more serious way, many of us recognize that there are moments in our life where we are just hopeless, where we do not know which way is up.
For some people, it's been within a relationship that you don't know how it can be restored or helped or put back to where it should be.
For some of us, it's been a financial problem that we say, God, unless you divinely intervene and get me a couple of thousand bucks right now, I am toast, and I don't know how I'm going to make it out of this.
All of us have times in our life that we need to be rescued, but the greatest rescue that any of us need is a rescue from the condition that our souls are in. Now, you might say, I feel like I'm doing pretty great in the soul department.
Well, scripture tells us this, that God created us, He created us in His image to be like Him and to show the rest of the world who God is and what He does.
However, all of us have wandered away from the path of God, and instead we've chosen rebellion against Him and His nature in His command, something that the Bible calls sin, anything that we think, say, or do that breaks God's law.
As a result of our sin, instead of our world operating where God's goodness and flourishing happens all across the globe, and people are kind to each other and loving and seeing great new things happen, most of the time we recognize that there is
great evil in our world. You can turn on the news and you can see war story after war story. Heard even this morning as I was talking with someone about a horrendous situation of animal abuse.
And when we look at, you know, even, I don't know how many of you are in local like community Facebook groups, even right here in the Essex area, basically a time or two a day, you're going to see some new catastrophe or evil thing that has befallen
someone. And the truth is humanity at large, we need a rescuer. We need someone to save us from the mess, not just that our world is in, but that we ourselves have made of our own lives.
5:38
Angelic Announcement
And it is into that brokenness that Jesus came.
Beginning in Luke 1 and verse 26, we're going to look at the announcement that the angel made to the young virgin Mary as he proclaimed that she would have a son, and as he told her what this son's name would be.
Verse 26, he says, In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth. To a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph of the house of David, the virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel came to her and said, Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this would be.
For most of you, you are not greeted at work by, Greetings, favored Nate, the Lord is with you. That's not normally how we are greeted. And so certainly as Mary here is encountering an angel, she's greatly concerned about it.
Then the angel told her in verse 30, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him. What's that name?
Verse 32, he will be great, and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.
Today, we're going to look at those statements are made. Jesus, Jehovah says, the fact that he is great, he is called the son of the most high, he will inherit the throne of his father, David, and his kingdom will see no end. It will be everlasting.
And we're going to see today in 2025, what does this mean for Bobby or for Ron or for Sherry? Will you pray with me this morning and ask for God to speak to your heart even as we study? Dear Lord, thank you for your goodness to us.
God, we pray that what we say and do and think this morning would be exalting to you. Lord, you have given yourself to us. There is no greater thing that you could have ever given us.
Lord, may we recognize that because you have saved us, you deserve all of the accolades, all of the glory, all of the obedience and worship that we can bring. Lord, may we not balk at that. May we pursue it and may we love you for it.
God, we love you and we pray this in your name. Amen.
8:20
Overcoming Life's Challenges
Today, as we look at these various four areas, I want us to understand one truth. We need to accept the rescuing lordship of Jesus Christ over every broken area of our life.
Accept the rescuing lordship of Jesus Christ over every broken area of your life. Jesus' salvation was not simply something that He did so that one day when you die, you would be rescued and safe and fine with God.
He rescued you so that every single day of your life, you can live in light of God's nature and God's commands and God's character and live for His kingdom and not for your own.
Let's look at this first and accept that Jesus is greater than your largest problems. So Jesus is the one that is the Savior, and because He saves us, the very next thing that Gabriel tells Mary is that He will be great.
And our great God, this great Savior Jesus Christ, is greater than any problems that we encounter.
First there, if you'll notice on your handout, if we're going to accept that Jesus is greater than our largest problems, then it means that we need to believe that He will deliver us through each trial that we encounter.
A trial in scripture, maybe if you're kind of new to Christianity or Bible terms, the trial that's referenced here is not, I went speeding way too fast on 695, and so as a result, I am now in front of a judge.
That's not the kind of trial that it's talking about. Trials are the hardships in life that you go through.
It's, well, you love this other person, something happened, and now you're at odds with them, and you don't know how to reconcile the relationship.
It can be that at the end of each month, you've come up just a day late and a dollar short over and over again, and it's starting to result in some actions that you say, God, I am in desperate need of you to work in circumstances that I can't
control. I can't fix this on my own, and so I need you to deliver me. I want to tell you this morning that Jesus is able to save you from every hardship of this life, whether in the here and now or in the sweet by and by.
Now, scripture tells us that God brings trials into our life or allows trials to come into our life so that we would know him more, so that we would become more like Jesus, so that we would recognize the need that we have for God.
When everything is going great, we tend to forget God. We forget to pray, because we are not looking to him in the moment by moment to say, God, listen, my day has been going really well. I woke up with the alarm.
My coffee didn't burn. My kids got up, you know, when they were supposed to get up and not earlier, and they didn't climb into my bed at 3 a.m. True story.
God, everything's been going great today. Would you be with me? Would you guide my thoughts and my words and my actions?
Most of the time, it's only when we are at the end of our rope, it's only when we're going through a trial that we say, God, I need you to give me this day my daily bread. I need you to provide for my needs today. God, would you help me?
Would you help me to say the words that I'm supposed to? So often, we need the trials in order to recognize our desperate need for dependence on God. We need him all of the time.
But trials help us to realize that we need him.
I have loved reading through the Psalms over and over again that as David thinks about the trials in his life, and because of the time period in which he lived, he was hunted by his father-in-law who wanted to kill him because he was really popular
with the people, and his father-in-law was scared that David would steal the kingdom away from him. I don't think any of you have to deal with that as one of your trials in life, but David went through that.
David over and over again was betrayed by his own countrymen, people that should have loved and cared for him, but instead they sold him out time and time again.
He was constantly encountering people who were enemies of his people and would try and harm or kill him. He even experienced times when he had family members that were kidnapped and taken away.
And in all of David's trials, what you read in the Psalms is he asked God to deliver him, not just ultimately from the penalty of sin and death, which is hell, eternal separation from God forever, but he prayed, God, would you save me from this
situation? And can I tell you, as we encounter the trials and difficulties of this life, God is not going to scorn you for going, hey, God, I really don't like this financial trial that I'm going through right now. I'd like to keep my home.
I'd like to keep my vehicle. God is not put out by you asking for deliverance. Now, some trials God has in our life permanently.
You can look at the life of the Apostle Paul, who said that he prayed three different times for the Lord to deliver him from what he calls his thorn in the flesh.
Some people think that it might have been an eye problem that he couldn't see very well as a result of like a desert bug that would have gotten him when he was in the wilderness kind of north of Israel for a few years.
And even the Apostle Paul, with all of his faith, all of his belief in God, all of his great holiness that we'd think of, God told him no when he asked to be delivered from a trial because he says, my grace is sufficient for you because my strength
is perfected in weakness. So we can pray, Lord, deliver me. And he might deliver you from a trial in the here and now. He might have that kind of last minute save.
He might make that relationship restored.
But even if he doesn't, when you lose the vehicle, when that person cuts you off and you never speak to them again, when you have a health difficulty that will not go away, realize that it's not that God doesn't love you.
It actually might be this is the way God shows you how much he loves you because he sustains you even through these hardships. But realize this, every hardship has an end date.
Either when Jesus returns, when you pass, or it might just be here on earth. But can I tell you, Jesus saving us is not just forever, though he certainly saves us forever.
It can be in the here and now, but rely on his will and be willing to listen to what he has to say. I think of my son this past Friday.
We were going to be watching a movie together as a family, but we got there a little bit too early, and so we had to kill some time. And so we were walking through Barnes and Noble first, and then we were walking through Old Navy.
And by the time we were at the end of our Barnes and Noble thing, he's like dragging his feet and he's going, is this going to be forever? I just want to see Zootopia. And so as we were going through, he thought this is never going to end.
But the truth was there was going to come a time when he no longer had to walk through all of the stores.
For you and your hardships and your difficulties and your suffering, this is not to downplay any of what you're going through, but realize that it has an expiration date. And your father one day will take you to Zootopia.
Your suffering will end as God is there for you. As a point of application, just pray for God's relief in your hardships, like David praying in the Psalms for the downfall of his enemies, for health, for safety, and for provision.
Next there on your handout, you can see, believe that God will give you victory from your temptations to sin. Jesus came not just so we wouldn't have to deal with hardship in the here and now. Jesus encountered so many hardships in the here and now.
But He came so that we would be able to see victory over sin, so that we would be forever delivered from the penalty of sin. And so Jesus has given away so that you do not have to be defined by the ways in which you are unlike your Creator.
Instead, you can be defined as a child of God walking in the will and the way of God. You're not trapped in your anger, in your bitterness, in your lust, or in your lies. Christ has come so that God can save you.
1 Corinthians 10 tells us that no temptation has come upon you, except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful.
He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation, He will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.
God wants to help you see victory in your life, in the ways in which you are not currently like Jesus, in the ways in which how you interact with people deters people from seeing the Lord, the ways in which you harm others or you harm yourself.
God wants to help you see victory in that. In his letter to the Romans, Paul said that your sin is dead. He calls it the old man or the old person that you used to be is dead, and now you are to be alive in Christ.
He says, sin is dead, so don't bring it back up to play with it.
Some of you guys have seen pets, dogs or cats will do this often, where they'll kill like a mouse or a squirrel or something, and they'll bring it to you, and there is this dead thing that they're bringing to you, and you go, oh, no, that's nasty.
I don't want that. Like, thank you for killing it, but don't bring it to me.
And so often in our life, we bring up our old sins and the old ways in which we used to talk to people and the language of the vocabulary that we used to use before Christ, and we bring it back up, and we say, oh, yes, this is so much fun to play
with, but it is a dead thing that we ought to leave in the empty tomb. May we look to Christ to find victory from temptation. Act according to your belief that Jesus will give you victory over sin.
Take steps towards killing your sin, like what the Bible calls it. Through memorizing the Word of God, Psalm 119 says, I have hid your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you.
When Jesus encountered temptation, he didn't just tell Satan no, though he certainly had the authority to do that. Instead, every time Satan brought him a temptation, Jesus responded with the Word of God.
So, when Satan tempted Jesus to make the stones bread because Jesus was hungry, Jesus responded with the words of Deuteronomy, where it says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
I'm not going to do something that my God has not commanded me to do.
You can think about the temptation, where he says, okay, I'm going to put you on the pinnacle of the temple, jump off, because Psalm 91 says, he'll give his angels orders about you, so that you do not even dash your foot against a stone at any time.
And Jesus said, it's also written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. He says, I'm not going to force God to act on my timetable. I am going to listen to him.
Or the final temptation, where Satan told Jesus, all right, here's all of the kingdoms of the world, and if you bow and worship me, I will give it all to you. You don't have to go through the cross. You don't have to go through suffering.
And Jesus said, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. He says, my response to temptation is the word of God. If you have been consistently failing and falling to temptation, can I encourage you?
Use the word of God, which Paul calls the sword of the Spirit. You want God's Holy Spirit to fight temptation on your behalf? Then memorize the word of God.
It is a trustworthy weapon to fight against Satan. You can also kill your sin through confessing to a friend. James 5 and verse 17 says, Confess your faults to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.
You want to find that kind of soul-cleansing healing? Use the body of Christ. Use the brothers and sisters that God has placed around you to shine a spotlight on to your sin.
Kill it. Exit it from your life. Cut off the things that lead you to sin.
Set up some boundaries in your life so that you aren't tempted by the same things anymore. Change, perhaps, your input so that the words that come out of your mouth are different than the words that you're currently saying.
Choose to believe that Jesus will give you victory from your temptations to sin.
21:17
Worshiping Jesus
Next today, not only do we see that Jesus is great, but we also read that he will be called the Son of the Most High. He is the Son of God. So secondly, today, accept that Jesus is God, and he is worthy of your worship.
Okay, how do I worship him? Well, worship the God who saved you with your praise. Now, when you hear praise, you might think of like, okay, a praise team or praise music, and certainly singing to the Lord is one great way to praise him.
But it's not just in singing. It can also be in your words, in your language, and how you talk to other people, and what you talk to other people about. We praise what we love.
If we love a particular sports team, we might wear their hat to church. I actually can't see if that's a Raven's hat or if it's just purple, and I know. If you love something, you praise it, you talk about it, you tell it to others.
Do you talk about your God? God is worthy of you talking about him with others. He left heaven, he took on humanity, he was hungry, lonely, betrayed, brutalized, all so that you would be rescued eternally.
He is worthy of you talking about him. We often talk about everything else but Jesus because we practically love everything else but Jesus. We love some pizza John's, some people in the room.
We love the Raven's, some people in the room. We love a particular politician or we love a particular band or we love our own accomplishments. And we love telling everyone about the great things that we did.
But how many times do we talk about our God and what he has done and what his word says? Worship the God who saved you with your praise. But we should also worship the God who saved us through sacrifice.
Now, Alex, that does not mean you got to find a goat and, you know, slaughter that thing and light a fire. That's not the kind of sacrifice that we have. Instead, in the New Testament, what we are told is that we are to be a living sacrifice.
You might say, well, what does it mean to be a living sacrifice? It means my entire existence.
Like when people would offer sacrifice in the Old Testament, you would light the animal on fire, and you would smell that cooked, they were not allowed to cook pig, so they wouldn't smell like bacon.
But say it's the cow, and you smell, I smell some nice ground beef. And there's this good fragrance, this good smell that goes up.
Our entire life is intended to be something that smells good to others about our God, that our entire existence, the way in which we love other people, is a sacrifice to God.
That though we would say, I have a right to hold this grudge against another person, God says, no, my friend, you are called to sacrifice your wants, your rights, your desires, so that God would look good, so that God would be praised.
Scripture talks about a sacrifice of praise to the Lord, that we would sing to Him, that we would tell others about Him.
The Bible talks about a sacrifice of prayer, that as a holy priesthood, in accordance with Jesus' priesthood, we are to pray for one another. We are to pray for the lost. We are to pray the Lord's prayer.
We are to pray, and that is a sacrifice that we offer to God. Can I tell you, offering a sacrifice of prayer is a lot easier than offering a sacrifice of a pigeon, or a goat, or a lamb. But how seldom do we bring our prayer requests to God?
How often do we think, eh, God doesn't really care about it, or I've got to talk to my sibling, my spouse, my neighbor, and my 15 closest friends?
Oh yeah, then I guess I should probably talk to God about this when we should go to God first and realize, God, I'm going to offer you this sacrifice of prayer. I'm going to pray for someone else that is in need because this is what I'm called to do.
We're called to make a sacrifice of evangelism. The Apostle Paul in Romans 15 talked about the fact that even as he was leading other people to faith in Christ, he says, this is a sacrifice of the Gentiles to God.
He says, God, I'm offering you these people. Again, not a human sacrifice. This is a, as they enter into relationship with God, this is something that is pleasing to the Heavenly Father.
We're called to make sacrifices of generosity that we give of our time and our talent and our treasure to the Lord, as well as to others that are in need. And those are all avenues through which we can sacrifice. The world sacrifices to its gods.
And really, in many cultures, no one bats an eye when someone gives up some large amount of possessions or money to their thing that is their God.
But today, as the people of God, when we say, God, you're not just going to get like some portion, some segment of my life, you're going to get all of me.
And God, like maybe I'll give some to your work at Tabernacle, but God, it's not that I give you 10% and the other 90% belongs to me. It says, God, I'm going to give you what you're worthy of, and I'm going to give my entire existence.
So my meals are not just about me. I'm going to spend time investing in other people. God, my home is not just for me.
I'm going to invite other people in that they would join with me, and I will show them what it's like to be loved by God through how I love them. Can I encourage you, worship your God? He is worthy of all the worship that we can bring.
27:10
Jesus Our King
Thirdly, today, accept that Jesus is king, and he can command your actions. We read that Jesus will inherit the throne of his father David. That is his ancestor.
It's not his immediate father, but his ancestor David. And Jesus is king of kings and lord of lords. There is no one above him.
There is no rival throne or kingdom to his. We do not have to follow the laws of the United Arab Emirates because that's not our nation. It's not our kingdom.
There are things that we're able to do here in the US that they can't do in Britain or in Canada because we're part of a different nation.
And on the flip side, there are things that we are able to do or we are not able to do here in America that people can do in other places. Jesus is our king, and the kingdom of heaven is our eternal hope.
And so God has laid down his law, his word, so that we would know what we are to do and what we are not to do.
So as we accept that Jesus is king and he can command our actions, he's the descendant of David, who is king of kings and lord of lords, wants to see that as we obey his commands, we will find safety from destroying our life in sin.
The apostle Paul said, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. In that letter, the letter to the Romans, Paul isn't talking to those that don't know the Lord.
And actually, all of chapter 6, he's walking through the difference between, you guys followed the Lord, you followed Jesus even in believers baptism, but now you are acting like you're still a part of the world.
You're bringing up those old sins, and you're continuing to live in them. He says, don't do that, because the end result of the actions that are taken contrary to God and his character, it always leads to death and destruction.
You can ask Adam and Eve, was it worth it to rebel against God? They would tell you no. You can ask David, was it right to take Bathsheba and to send Uriah to die in the battlefield?
And he would say no. You can ask those that through lies or through adultery have made havoc of their lives. Is it worth it to live your life in sin?
And over and over and over again, those that have seen the results of sin in their life would say no. No, there is no life that is worth living my life in sin. And I love that Jesus here, he cares for us and his commands are not arbitrary.
His commands are for our flourishing. So accept that Jesus is king and obey his commands. When I tell Evelyn not to touch a hot stove, it is for her good.
It's not just because I'm on some sort of power trip that I say, oh no, I'm just going to say Evelyn shouldn't touch a hot stove because I'm a jerk and I want to command her.
No, it is for her good and so it is with our heavenly father that his commands are for our good. There are so many commands in scripture, I could not possibly tell you guys all of them today.
But as I think about Christmas time, two commands that come to mind are to be generous towards others, to eschew greed, that none of us would say, well, all of this money really belongs to me. We would say, God, all of this belongs to you.
What do you want me to do with it? Is there someone that you want me to bless that maybe they might be in need, and I can be a part of helping them to have a better Christmas season? We are to be generous.
Let us obey that command of the Lord. And then we are to show kindness and forgiveness. So often during this time of year, people and their family relationships, even over a Christmas table, it gets real rocky.
Can I encourage you, as Christ has forgiven you, forgive those at your Christmas table, or those that should be at your Christmas table, and have the intention to say, I know that this person doesn't deserve my forgiveness or my kindness, but I
didn't deserve the forgiveness or kindness of Jesus. And so I'm going to choose to obey the command of God. I am not going to walk in bitterness. And then secondly, there are obey his commands and bring your Savior joy.
I love this truth that we don't earn favor with God. He has given us himself. There's nothing more of God that we could garner any favor from, but we can delight our Heavenly Father.
We can bring him joy through the actions and the words and the thoughts that we have. As I think about Bea and Ev, my kids don't earn more of my love, but they constantly give me new joys.
Two nights ago, maybe three nights ago, Evelyn was praying right before bed, and she said, thank you for, she said, Dear God, thank you for Nonny and Poppy and Bryon and Evelyn. May your kingdom come, may your will be done.
She's just mixing in both her prayers, things that she's heard me pray before, and praying the Lord's prayer, and it just delighted my heart. It's not that she grew in favor with me. She's already my kid.
She's never going to be any more my kid, but she brought me new joys. Can I encourage us as the people of God, and may we bring new joys to the heart of our heavenly Father.
32:41
Eternal Kingdom Investment
And then lastly, today, as we close, accept that Jesus is eternal and live for his purposes instead of your own. That's the end of that verse, that of his kingdom, there will be no end.
Can I encourage you, trust that your investment in the work and kingdom of God will be repaid. He is eternal, his kingdom is eternal, and what you invest will be repaid eternally. Two things last into eternity, the word of God and the souls of men.
Jesus told his disciples, truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive a hundred times more.
Now at this time, houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions and eternal life in the age to come. God has promised that what you invest in his kingdom will have eternal dividends.
Some of us hope that our 401k pans out, or we hope that through buying the lottery ticket that we're going to win the Powerball. Can I encourage you? Put your investment into the kingdom of God, because he has a guaranteed return for all of eternity.
Man, just one simple practical application of that. Give to the lotting moon Christmas offering. Giving to the Lord's work is the only investment that you will be glad that you made 100 years from now.
In 100 years, your house will probably be in the dust or bought up by some private equity. In 100 years, your boat, your video game system, it'll be long, long gone. All of the money that you amassed will be gone.
But Jesus, his word, and his people, the people that are reached, they will last into eternity. It's the best investment we could possibly make. And lastly there on your handout, you can see, trust that your current hardships and goals are fleeting.
Don't base whether or not you'll continue following Jesus on if you have hardships. Don't live your life for your own goals. Live every day for the goals of Jesus.
Live for the everlasting kingdom. Don't live for the kingdom of the here and now. Today, Jesus saves, and he can save us from our trials.
He can save us through our trials. He can save us from temptation. He is our good king who gives us good commands and good laws that as we follow, we don't wreck our lives in sin, and we bring our heavenly father joy.
He is the one that is God, is worthy of our worship, and because he saved us, we can praise him and sacrifice to him. And he is the eternal one. He is the one with the everlasting kingdom that we can participate in, even in the here and now.
Today, will you accept the rescuing Lordship of Jesus over every area of your life?
