Latest / Reach Church Podcast / I Want to Know Christ | Dave Snyder
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome to the Reach Church podcast. This is
- 0:09Speaker 1: Dave Snyder, pastor here at Reach Church. Each week we
- 0:13Speaker 1: share messages from our Sunday gatherings to help you discover
- 0:16Speaker 1: the love of God, be empowered for purpose, and impact
- 0:20Speaker 1: your world. We pray this message encourages you and helps
- 0:24Speaker 1: you grow in your walk with Jesus. Let's get into
- 0:27Speaker 1: today's message. I want to share this message, but again,
- 0:32Speaker 1: I want to share it in just the way that
- 0:33Speaker 1: I feel like God's put it in my heart. And
- 0:36Speaker 1: I want to start with this because I was reading
- 0:38Speaker 1: through Ecclesiastes recently, and I don't know if you've read
- 0:41Speaker 1: through Ecclesiastes lately, but it's a pretty depressing book, isn't it?
- 0:48Speaker 1: If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about.
- 0:50Speaker 1: It's just like he's just kind of Solomon is an
- 0:53Speaker 1: older man at this point in his life, and he's
- 0:56Speaker 1: just looking back at his life saying, What a waste.
- 1:00Speaker 1: My life was just a waste because I was chasing
- 1:05Speaker 1: the wrong things. And I thought how interesting it would
- 1:07Speaker 1: be if there was social media in the time of
- 1:11Speaker 1: the Bible. And wouldn't it be interesting to look back
- 1:14Speaker 1: and see what kind of things some of these people
- 1:19Speaker 1: would put online. And thanks to AI, we're able to
- 1:23Speaker 1: kind of think about what that might look like. And
- 1:26Speaker 1: so we've got a little social media post from Solomon.
- 1:30Speaker 1: And if you can find that slide and put that up,
- 1:34Speaker 1: this is straight from his Facebook page. But it's coming
- 1:39Speaker 1: from Ecclesiastes chapter 2. And let me just read it
- 1:42Speaker 1: to you while you look at the social media slide.
- 1:45Speaker 1: Solomon says this in this translation, anything I wanted, I
- 1:48Speaker 1: would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found
- 1:53Speaker 1: great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors.
- 1:58Speaker 1: But as I looked at everything I had worked so
- 2:01Speaker 1: hard to accomplish, it was all meaningless, like chasing the wind.
- 2:06Speaker 1: There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. Isn't that depressing? Everything
- 2:14Speaker 1: Solomon had did, you could put the slide back up
- 2:18Speaker 1: because he built palaces. He built the temple. He built gardens.
- 2:24Speaker 1: He did all these incredible feats. And yet at the
- 2:28Speaker 1: end of the day, he said, it's all meaningless. I
- 2:33Speaker 1: feel like I'm chasing the wind. I don't know if
- 2:34Speaker 1: you've ever felt like that. Like I'm just chasing the
- 2:37Speaker 1: wind here. And I think the world can relate to this. See,
- 2:42Speaker 1: because sometimes we're trying in the world, we're trying to
- 2:45Speaker 1: fill things, fill the void in our lives with things
- 2:50Speaker 1: that can't fill us, things that can't satisfy us.
- 2:54Speaker 2: And that's kind of what Solomon is saying.
- 2:56Speaker 1: He's like, I recognized, I started, I was trying to
- 2:58Speaker 1: fill this emptiness in my life.
- 3:01Speaker 2: And at the end of the day, it didn't work.
- 3:04Speaker 2: It didn't work.
- 3:06Speaker 1: And as I read that, I was thinking about Paul's
- 3:10Speaker 1: words because he kind of said the same thing there.
- 3:13Speaker 1: And we have a slide from Paul's social media too.
- 3:16Speaker 1: We didn't want to leave him out. But again, Philippians 4,
- 3:22Speaker 1: he said, everything I was chasing, it was, I counted
- 3:29Speaker 1: all his loss. And he goes into his role. You
- 3:32Speaker 1: can just keep that slide up while I read this.
- 3:34Speaker 1: He says, I have reasons to have confidence in my flesh.
- 3:37Speaker 1: I did some great things, right? If anybody thinks he's
- 3:40Speaker 1: got confidence in his flesh, I have more. I mean,
- 3:43Speaker 1: wouldn't that be a great social media? There'd be people
- 3:45Speaker 1: on there like, what are you talking about?
- 3:47Speaker 2: How dare you? How dare you, sir?
- 3:49Speaker 1: You know?
- 3:50Speaker 2: But he says, I had more.
- 3:51Speaker 1: I was circumcised on the eighth day. He starts to
- 3:53Speaker 1: list his credentials. Of the nation of Israel, I'm from
- 3:57Speaker 1: the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was,
- 4:00Speaker 1: according to the law, a Pharisee.
- 4:01Speaker 2: I had zeal.
- 4:02Speaker 1: According to the zeal, I have persecuted the church. I mean,
- 4:05Speaker 1: he just goes into this whole thing about how zealous
- 4:07Speaker 1: he was and how much confidence he could have in
- 4:10Speaker 1: what he had done. As far as the Jewish social
- 4:15Speaker 1: media at the time, I mean, he had it, right?
- 4:19Speaker 2: He had it.
- 4:19Speaker 1: He had it all going for him. But look what
- 4:21Speaker 1: he says again in verse 7. You can put verse
- 4:23Speaker 1: 7 up one more time. He said, although I have reason. No,
- 4:28Speaker 1: that's verse 4. I'll read it from my Bible. Everything
- 4:32Speaker 1: that was a gain to me, I've considered loss. Everything
- 4:37Speaker 1: that was gain, everything that I had worked for, everything,
- 4:41Speaker 1: I recognize all this stuff was chasing after the wind.
- 4:47Speaker 2: It did not satisfy me.
- 4:49Speaker 1: He realized it was wrong because when he met Jesus, see,
- 4:52Speaker 1: that's when he understood something. He understood only Jesus was
- 4:57Speaker 1: worth living for. He's the only thing worth living for.
- 5:03Speaker 1: Everything else is chasing the wind. I mean, Solomon, you
- 5:07Speaker 1: look at Solomon. I think we have two examples. Solomon
- 5:09Speaker 1: chased everything the world had to offer and it didn't satisfy.
- 5:15Speaker 1: Paul chased everything religion had to offer. And it still
- 5:19Speaker 1: left him empty because they found something. Paul found something
- 5:22Speaker 1: only Jesus is worth living for. He said, I want
- 5:27Speaker 1: to know Christ. And so all this that Paul had,
- 5:31Speaker 1: the whole resume, he had everything that he had that
- 5:33Speaker 1: looks so good. He traded it all for, I mean,
- 5:37Speaker 1: you look at his life. He traded it all for
- 5:40Speaker 1: persecution and suffering and heartache. And all these problems. And
- 5:45Speaker 1: everywhere he went, people wanted to kill him. But he
- 5:48Speaker 1: wouldn't have it any other way. He said, all I
- 5:50Speaker 1: want is to know Christ. You can do whatever you
- 5:53Speaker 1: want to me. You can have my life. All I
- 5:55Speaker 1: want is to know Christ. See, he recognized something.
- 5:58Speaker 2: Only Jesus is worth living for.
- 6:02Speaker 1: Put that up one more time. Because I want you
- 6:05Speaker 1: to think about this scripture this morning. In verse 10.
- 6:08Speaker 2: Sorry, I didn't tell you what verse. Verse 10.
- 6:13Speaker 1: I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power
- 6:18Speaker 1: that raised him from the dead. And I want to
- 6:21Speaker 1: suffer with him, sharing in his death, it says in
- 6:24Speaker 1: this translation. Verse 11. So that one way or another,
- 6:30Speaker 1: I'll experience the resurrection from the dead. Now, listen to
- 6:35Speaker 1: what he says. I want to know Christ. He doesn't say,
- 6:39Speaker 1: I want to know more about Christ.
- 6:42Speaker 2: That's different. I want to know him.
- 6:46Speaker 1: You know, if you're married and when you started dating
- 6:50Speaker 1: your spouse, you probably didn't say, I wish there was
- 6:52Speaker 1: some books about this person. I wish there was a biography, right,
- 6:56Speaker 1: that I could read and learn more about this person.
- 7:01Speaker 1: You wouldn't have said that because that's not how you
- 7:03Speaker 1: get to know somebody. That's how you get to know
- 7:05Speaker 1: about somebody, right? I've read the biography of John Wayne.
- 7:09Speaker 1: Great biography, but I've never met John Wayne. I don't
- 7:13Speaker 1: know John Wayne. I have no opportunity because now he's dead,
- 7:15Speaker 1: so I can't know him. I can only know about
- 7:19Speaker 1: him by reading about him. That's not the same experience
- 7:23Speaker 1: you have when you come to Jesus. Yes, we read
- 7:25Speaker 1: about him in his word, but it goes beyond that.
- 7:28Speaker 1: I get to know him personally by spending time with him.
- 7:33Speaker 1: I can know him as a person. I can have,
- 7:35Speaker 1: that's what we talk about. This isn't religion. When you
- 7:38Speaker 1: come to Jesus, this is a relationship because you have
- 7:41Speaker 1: an opportunity to have a real relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, again,
- 7:50Speaker 1: this is the apostle Paul. And I think if anybody
- 7:53Speaker 1: could say, Hey, I know Jesus.
- 7:56Speaker 2: It's Paul. I mean, right.
- 7:58Speaker 1: He, He had that encounter with Jesus on the road
- 8:01Speaker 1: to Damascus. He's going down the road. He's going to
- 8:03Speaker 1: persecute Christians.
- 8:04Speaker 2: And what happens? The light comes from the sky. He's blinded.
- 8:08Speaker 1: And the voice of Jesus says, why are you persecuting me?
- 8:12Speaker 1: He has the whole encounter with Jesus, and it changes
- 8:15Speaker 1: his life. So he met him personally. He starts serving Jesus.
- 8:19Speaker 1: I mean, right away, he starts studying. He starts preaching.
- 8:21Speaker 1: He's a passionate follower of Jesus. And yet at this
- 8:29Speaker 1: point in his life, he says, I just want to
- 8:32Speaker 1: know him. He already knows him. He already knows.
- 8:35Speaker 2: He met Jesus.
- 8:37Speaker 1: If you met Jesus face to face, would you say,
- 8:39Speaker 1: I just want to know him?
- 8:41Speaker 2: You'd say, I met him. I knew him. No, see,
- 8:44Speaker 2: that's where a lot of us get messed up. I
- 8:46Speaker 2: knew him. I met him once. He spoke to me once.
- 8:51Speaker 2: I had an encounter once.
- 8:52Speaker 1: I was in a church once and I came to
- 8:54Speaker 1: an altar and I gave my heart to Jesus once.
- 8:57Speaker 1: Praise God for that. You need to do that. But listen,
- 9:00Speaker 1: if it stops there, you're missing the point. The point
- 9:04Speaker 1: isn't I knew Jesus. The point is I know him. See,
- 9:08Speaker 1: I want to know him. I want to know Christ.
- 9:12Speaker 1: Paul knew what it was to be a servant of God, right?
- 9:16Speaker 1: You think about his ministry and all that he did
- 9:20Speaker 1: and the suffering, all the things he went through, the
- 9:22Speaker 1: churches he planted, the great things he did. He knew
- 9:25Speaker 1: what it was to serve God. And yet he said,
- 9:29Speaker 1: I want to know him. I think here's the problem
- 9:33Speaker 1: is sometimes we confuse serving God with knowing God. We confuse,
- 9:38Speaker 1: and I do this in my life because I like
- 9:41Speaker 1: to be busy. I don't know about you guys. I
- 9:43Speaker 1: like to be busy. I like doing things. I like
- 9:47Speaker 1: to be active. And so for me, it's like when
- 9:49Speaker 1: I serve, I feel close to God. I love preaching.
- 9:55Speaker 1: I like studying. I like doing these things for God.
- 9:57Speaker 1: I like serving in ministries. I like doing all these things.
- 9:59Speaker 1: And so sometimes those things can become a substitute for
- 10:03Speaker 1: knowing him. No, listen, he didn't say, I want to
- 10:07Speaker 1: serve Christ. That's part of it. But that's not what
- 10:11Speaker 1: he said. The greatest thing in my life is serving. No,
- 10:14Speaker 1: the greatest thing in my life is knowing. The greatest
- 10:17Speaker 1: thing in my life is knowing him. And so, see,
- 10:22Speaker 1: I have to be careful because if I'm not, I
- 10:25Speaker 1: can let things that I do replace knowing. Jesus, you know,
- 10:32Speaker 1: I think about the story of Mary and Martha. And remember,
- 10:35Speaker 1: we talked about that last week, Mary and Martha. And
- 10:38Speaker 1: when Jesus was in their home and Martha was serving
- 10:42Speaker 1: and she got upset with Mary because Mary wasn't serving.
- 10:47Speaker 1: And she said, Jesus, tell Mary to come serve with me,
- 10:50Speaker 1: come work with me. He doesn't rebuke Martha for serving, right?
- 10:54Speaker 1: There's moments, there's times that we need to serve. Every
- 10:58Speaker 1: one of us need to serve. If all we do
- 11:01Speaker 1: is know and never serve, we're missing another aspect of
- 11:03Speaker 1: the Christian life. But he doesn't condemn Martha for serving.
- 11:07Speaker 1: He condemns, doesn't really condemn, but he rebukes her because
- 11:11Speaker 1: she's putting that above knowing, above the relationship. He said, no,
- 11:16Speaker 1: Mary chose what's right. There's one thing that's necessary that
- 11:20Speaker 1: won't be taken away from her. Don't substitute all the
- 11:23Speaker 1: other things for the one thing. There's one thing that's necessary. See,
- 11:30Speaker 1: Paul could have let his serving become another form of religion, right?
- 11:35Speaker 2: He had a religious background. He knew what it was
- 11:37Speaker 2: to serve God.
- 11:38Speaker 1: He knew what it was to spend time serving and
- 11:42Speaker 1: working and doing things for God. And if he would
- 11:45Speaker 1: have let it, it would have become religion for him,
- 11:49Speaker 1: where I just work and I just serve and I
- 11:50Speaker 1: just do things out of religion.
- 11:52Speaker 2: But not out of knowing him.
- 11:56Speaker 1: I think about Moses and the relationship he had with God.
- 12:01Speaker 2: I want you to see this verse.
- 12:02Speaker 1: Look at Psalm 103, verse 7. It says, God revealed
- 12:08Speaker 1: his character to Moses. Another translation says he revealed his
- 12:13Speaker 1: ways to Moses. and his deeds to the people of Israel.
- 12:18Speaker 1: And it's an interesting contrast, right? Moses knew God. The
- 12:23Speaker 1: people knew what God did for them.
- 12:26Speaker 2: All right?
- 12:28Speaker 1: Israel knew what God did. He knew that he was
- 12:30Speaker 1: the provider. They knew that he was taking care of them.
- 12:33Speaker 1: They saw the miracles. They saw the signs. They saw
- 12:36Speaker 1: the things. And they knew what he did. They knew
- 12:38Speaker 1: his hand, but they didn't know him. Moses, on the
- 12:43Speaker 1: other hand, knew God. He got to go up on
- 12:47Speaker 1: the mountain. He got to spend, remember, 40 days up
- 12:49Speaker 1: there on top of the mountain just in the presence
- 12:52Speaker 1: of God. And it says that he would talk to
- 12:54Speaker 1: God face to face like a man talks to his friend.
- 13:00Speaker 1: I mean, he knew God. The people knew what God
- 13:03Speaker 1: did for them. And Moses said, when God was angry
- 13:09Speaker 1: with Israel, he said, you all go on.
- 13:11Speaker 2: I'm going to stay here. And Moses said, no, no.
- 13:15Speaker 2: We're not leaving here unless your presence goes with us.
- 13:21Speaker 1: Because what he was saying is, look, without God, the
- 13:24Speaker 1: promised land is not enough. And in your life, without God,
- 13:28Speaker 1: whatever you're chasing, it's not enough. Without God, success in
- 13:32Speaker 1: life is not enough. Without God, listen, even doing good
- 13:36Speaker 1: things for God, even having a full church, it's not
- 13:39Speaker 1: enough without his presence. We need his presence, come on,
- 13:42Speaker 1: in our lives. We need his presence in our church.
- 13:45Speaker 1: We need his presence in our families and in our homes.
- 13:48Speaker 1: It's not enough without him, is it?
- 13:52Speaker 2: And see, the.
- 13:53Speaker 1: Danger is we can get more interested in what God
- 13:55Speaker 1: can do for us, right? Like Israel, he can fix
- 13:59Speaker 1: our problems. And yes, he can. He can heal our disease.
- 14:03Speaker 2: Yes, he can. Yes, he's still the healer, and I
- 14:05Speaker 2: understand all that. Yes, he can provide for our finances. Yes, this. Yes, that.
- 14:08Speaker 2: All those things God does, and we preach about those
- 14:11Speaker 2: things sometimes.
- 14:11Speaker 1: Those are good things that God does, but don't miss
- 14:14Speaker 1: the one thing because you're looking for the other things.
- 14:16Speaker 1: Don't miss knowing him because you're looking for the hand,
- 14:22Speaker 1: the hand out, right? But knowing Christ means I want
- 14:26Speaker 1: to know him more than I want what he can
- 14:28Speaker 1: do for me. And again, Moses talked to God face
- 14:33Speaker 1: to face, face to face. And, you know, I'll be honest,
- 14:37Speaker 1: I can be a little jealous of that. You know, like,
- 14:40Speaker 1: wouldn't it be nice to go up on a mountain somewhere?
- 14:44Speaker 1: And just that by itself sounds great. Nobody else is around.
- 14:48Speaker 1: That's my dream. There's no kids asking for anything. Hey, guys,
- 14:53Speaker 1: I'm with God right now. But you're up on the
- 14:56Speaker 1: mountain with God, and God's talking to you. Like you
- 15:02Speaker 1: would talk to your friend, just having that conversation.
- 15:04Speaker 2: And I could be a little jealous of that. But
- 15:08Speaker 2: you know what? The relationship that we have with God
- 15:13Speaker 2: is greater. Because God doesn't call you his friend. He
- 15:18Speaker 2: calls you his child. And in fact, you don't have
- 15:21Speaker 2: to go up on a mountain to meet him. Right
- 15:24Speaker 2: where you are. Right in your home. Right in your...
- 15:28Speaker 2: place at work right in your car you.
- 15:30Speaker 1: Can have an encounter with god you can talk to
- 15:34Speaker 1: him because of what jesus did for you you have
- 15:38Speaker 1: access to the throne room amen amen but see the
- 15:47Speaker 1: question is what are we doing with that what are
- 15:52Speaker 1: most of us doing with that we we hear about
- 15:55Speaker 1: it on sunday praise god and we go home we
- 15:57Speaker 1: forget all about No, listen, he's got to become first.
- 16:02Speaker 1: He's got to become the center. I don't want to
- 16:04Speaker 1: be satisfied just knowing about him. Singing songs about him
- 16:10Speaker 1: is wonderful, but I don't want it to stop there.
- 16:12Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
- 16:13Speaker 1: I mean, serving in church is wonderful, but I don't
- 16:16Speaker 1: want my relationship with God to be about serving in church.
- 16:20Speaker 2: And then I die.
- 16:21Speaker 1: No, I want to know him now so that when
- 16:22Speaker 1: I get there, I don't have to reintroduce myself.
- 16:25Speaker 2: And nice to meet you. What's your name again? Oh, yeah, Jesus.
- 16:28Speaker 1: I heard about you once in Sunday school. No, I
- 16:30Speaker 1: don't want to have that kind of relationship with God.
- 16:31Speaker 1: I want to know him. I want to know his voice.
- 16:39Speaker 1: Jesus said, my sheep know my voice, right? I want
- 16:42Speaker 1: to recognize his presence in my life. I want to
- 16:46Speaker 1: become more like him. And that's what Paul's talking about
- 16:50Speaker 1: in this next part of the verse. is becoming more
- 16:53Speaker 1: like him. Because when you know Christ, you don't just
- 16:56Speaker 1: get to know him, you start to become like him.
- 16:59Speaker 2: Look what it says again, verse 10.
- 17:01Speaker 1: I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power
- 17:06Speaker 1: that raised him from the dead.
- 17:07Speaker 2: We'll stop there.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Let me talk about the power, the resurrection power, right? Again,
- 17:15Speaker 1: he doesn't just say, I want to know about the resurrection.
- 17:17Speaker 1: I want to experience it. I want to experience his power.
- 17:22Speaker 1: You can experience the power of God in your life.
- 17:25Speaker 1: Listen to what he says in Romans chapter six, verse four,
- 17:30Speaker 1: and he talks about baptism. And I think it's appropriate
- 17:32Speaker 1: since we had a baptism today. So thinking about what
- 17:34Speaker 1: you just saw, therefore we were buried with him by
- 17:38Speaker 1: baptism into death. That's what baptism represents. It represents death.
- 17:43Speaker 1: When I went into the water, the old man died
- 17:46Speaker 1: and a new man came out. So when I died,
- 17:50Speaker 1: the baptism of death in order that just as Christ
- 17:52Speaker 1: was raised, so too, we may also walk in, say
- 17:57Speaker 1: that with me, newness of life. You're supposed to be
- 18:03Speaker 1: walking in a new life. That's resurrection power. You know,
- 18:10Speaker 1: sometimes we're looking for the, you know, we talk about
- 18:13Speaker 1: resurrection power.
- 18:13Speaker 2: It can mean a lot of things.
- 18:14Speaker 1: It could mean the power of God to do something,
- 18:17Speaker 1: some something you need in your life or some kind
- 18:20Speaker 1: of healing, some kind of thing, and praise God for that.
- 18:22Speaker 2: Yes, that's absolutely true.
- 18:23Speaker 1: But in this passage, what resurrection power means is I
- 18:28Speaker 1: don't have to live the old way I used to live.
- 18:30Speaker 2: I don't have to be the old man I used
- 18:32Speaker 2: to be because that man died.
- 18:35Speaker 1: Right? You think about Paul. Paul used to persecute the church.
- 18:39Speaker 1: He would go from town to town. In fact, it
- 18:41Speaker 1: says he would torture them to try to get them
- 18:43Speaker 1: to blaspheme and speak against the name of Jesus. This
- 18:47Speaker 1: is a pretty evil guy. And yet later in his life,
- 18:51Speaker 1: he says, I've wronged no man. What do you mean
- 18:54Speaker 1: you wronged no man? You were there, you gave your
- 18:55Speaker 1: thumbs up when Stephen was executed. You tortured Christians. What
- 19:00Speaker 1: do you mean you wronged nobody? No, because that man died.
- 19:03Speaker 1: And a new man came to life. And so he
- 19:06Speaker 1: didn't have to live the old way. Now he's living
- 19:09Speaker 1: a new way. That's resurrection power. And again, Paul saw
- 19:13Speaker 1: some incredible miracles in his life. And what he's saying is,
- 19:17Speaker 1: he's not saying, I want to see more incredible miracles.
- 19:21Speaker 1: He's saying, I want to experience the resurrection power in
- 19:26Speaker 1: my life so I can walk the way God's called
- 19:29Speaker 1: me to walk and live the way he's called me
- 19:31Speaker 1: to live. It's the resurrection power. Listen, it's the power
- 19:35Speaker 1: to change the way you think. You don't have to
- 19:38Speaker 1: think the same old way. You don't have to think
- 19:41Speaker 1: the same old thoughts that you used to think. You
- 19:43Speaker 1: don't have to get stuck in those things. You can
- 19:45Speaker 1: live a different way. See, the resurrection power can change
- 19:51Speaker 1: the way I respond to people. Come on, somebody in
- 19:54Speaker 1: this room needs to hear this because you've been responding
- 19:58Speaker 1: like the old man. Somebody says something to you and
- 20:01Speaker 1: you just write, you go, you lay into them. That's
- 20:05Speaker 1: not resurrection power at work in your life. God has
- 20:09Speaker 1: given you the power To start living the way you're
- 20:12Speaker 1: supposed to live.
- 20:15Speaker 2: I'm going off script.
- 20:17Speaker 1: He's given you the power to treat your spouse the
- 20:20Speaker 1: way she's supposed to be treated. And the way your
- 20:24Speaker 1: husband is supposed to be treated. He's given you the
- 20:27Speaker 1: power to treat your children. I'm talking to myself now.
- 20:33Speaker 1: To treat my children the way they ought to be treated.
- 20:35Speaker 1: Because sometimes they annoy the junk out of me. Can
- 20:38Speaker 1: I just be real with you? I mean, all day long.
- 20:41Speaker 2: Just push. They find my buttons and they push them.
- 20:45Speaker 1: But resurrection power means I don't have to treat them
- 20:48Speaker 1: the way the old man would treat them. I can
- 20:50Speaker 1: treat them a different way because of what Christ.
- 20:53Speaker 2: Has done in me.
- 20:55Speaker 1: See, I want the resurrection power to shape my life.
- 20:58Speaker 1: I don't know about you. Before we met Jesus, our
- 21:02Speaker 1: old lives were broken. Can anybody relate to that? Maybe
- 21:05Speaker 1: you were broken, messed up. You did some things you
- 21:09Speaker 1: shouldn't have done. You were living life the way you
- 21:12Speaker 1: shouldn't have been living it.
- 21:12Speaker 2: You were broken.
- 21:14Speaker 1: And even, listen, maybe you were the best person. I
- 21:19Speaker 1: bet there's somebody in here. You say, well, that's not me.
- 21:21Speaker 1: I was pretty good. Before I met G, I wasn't
- 21:25Speaker 1: all that bad. Maybe you were the best secular person
- 21:31Speaker 1: that there ever was.
- 21:33Speaker 2: It's possible.
- 21:35Speaker 1: But even if you were you were still lost in
- 21:38Speaker 1: your sin. You were still apart from God because you
- 21:44Speaker 1: could never be good enough to earn anything with God.
- 21:50Speaker 2: So you were broken.
- 21:52Speaker 1: And resurrection power means what used to rule me, what
- 21:55Speaker 1: used to lord over me, no longer rules me. What
- 22:00Speaker 1: used to have me trapped no longer has me trapped.
- 22:04Speaker 1: What used to be my master is no longer my master.
- 22:07Speaker 1: That means I've got a new master. I want to
- 22:10Speaker 1: know him.
- 22:12Speaker 2: I want to know the power of his resurrection.
- 22:17Speaker 1: See, it doesn't mean, the resurrection power doesn't mean you're
- 22:20Speaker 1: not going to face temptation anymore. You're still going to
- 22:22Speaker 1: face temptation, but now you've got the power over that thing.
- 22:29Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you're not going to remember your past. Yes,
- 22:32Speaker 1: you're going to remember your past. You did not get
- 22:35Speaker 1: your mind completely, like, I don't even know what you
- 22:38Speaker 1: call that, brainwashed or something go through your mind to erase.
- 22:42Speaker 2: Remember Men in Black? What was that?
- 22:44Speaker 1: Then they had the eraser thing. It doesn't erase your
- 22:47Speaker 1: mind from the past. Yes, you'll still remember your past.
- 22:52Speaker 1: But your past does not rule over you anymore because
- 22:57Speaker 1: that old man died. So you can look at your
- 23:00Speaker 1: past and say, yeah, somebody did that. It wasn't me.
- 23:05Speaker 1: I've wronged no person. It doesn't mean you're not going
- 23:08Speaker 1: to face struggles in your life anymore. Resurrection power. Listen,
- 23:13Speaker 1: you're still going to have struggles. Jesus said in this world.
- 23:15Speaker 2: There'll be trouble. But take heart. I've overcome the world.
- 23:20Speaker 1: So you may face struggles, but you're not facing them
- 23:23Speaker 1: all by yourself. I want to know the resurrection power
- 23:28Speaker 1: in my life.
- 23:30Speaker 2: Amen.
- 23:32Speaker 1: Because the same Jesus that came out of the grave
- 23:36Speaker 1: lives in me by his Holy Spirit. The same spirit,
- 23:40Speaker 1: the word of God says, that raised Christ from the
- 23:41Speaker 1: dead lives in you and he'll quicken your mortal body.
- 23:45Speaker 1: That means he's going to make your mortal body alive.
- 23:48Speaker 1: It's a new person and it doesn't have to act
- 23:50Speaker 1: the way the old person did. Now the Holy Spirit's
- 23:53Speaker 1: working in you. Gives you power to forgive people. Somebody
- 23:58Speaker 1: needs to hear that. It gives you power to forgive.
- 24:02Speaker 1: When it'd be easy to hold a grudge, when you'd have,
- 24:06Speaker 1: according to any secular person, according to a court maybe,
- 24:11Speaker 1: you'd have a right to hold a grudge. But God
- 24:14Speaker 1: gives me the power to forgive when it doesn't make sense.
- 24:21Speaker 1: When I feel like giving up, resurrection power starts working
- 24:27Speaker 1: in me and gives me the strength, gives me everything
- 24:30Speaker 1: I need to keep going. Amen. Jesus, listen, Jesus didn't
- 24:39Speaker 1: come for you to be a little bit better than
- 24:44Speaker 1: your old person. Christianity is not self-improvement, right? There's some
- 24:49Speaker 1: good self-improvement books out there and there may be some
- 24:51Speaker 1: helpful ones, but Christianity at its core is not about self-improvement, right?
- 24:56Speaker 1: It's not about Jesus coming to make you a little
- 24:58Speaker 1: bit better person of your old past, right?
- 25:01Speaker 2: He came to make you new.
- 25:03Speaker 1: He came to make you a new person The word
- 25:07Speaker 1: says that your old life was crucified and you've been raised.
- 25:10Speaker 2: Look what it says. Did I give you that one?
- 25:12Speaker 1: Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ. Paul says, I
- 25:16Speaker 1: was crucified. When Jesus was crucified, you were crucified. I
- 25:22Speaker 1: was crucified with Christ and I no longer live. Instead,
- 25:26Speaker 1: it's Christ who lives in me. In the life that
- 25:30Speaker 1: I now live in the flesh, I live by faith
- 25:32Speaker 1: of the Son of God who loved me and gave
- 25:34Speaker 1: himself for me.
- 25:37Speaker 2: Thank you, Lord.
- 25:39Speaker 1: See, he's not telling you, here's what you need to
- 25:42Speaker 1: live a more disciplined life. Now, some of you need
- 25:45Speaker 1: some discipline in your life.
- 25:45Speaker 2: I'm not against discipline. And some of the children need
- 25:49Speaker 2: some discipline in their lives.
- 25:52Speaker 1: And that's our jobs, too. And I'm not against those things.
- 25:55Speaker 1: But he's not telling you here, here's how you have
- 25:57Speaker 1: a more disciplined life. He's not talking about religion. Here's
- 26:01Speaker 1: how you become a more religious person. No, he's telling
- 26:04Speaker 1: you how to be a new person. It's how to
- 26:06Speaker 1: start living like a new person. In Ephesians chapter 1,
- 26:13Speaker 1: look at verse 18.
- 26:16Speaker 2: He says, I pray. So again, this is Paul.
- 26:19Speaker 1: He says, I pray. I'm praying for you, church. He's
- 26:22Speaker 1: talking to the church right now. And he says, I
- 26:24Speaker 1: pray that the eyes of your heart or your spiritual
- 26:28Speaker 1: eyes would be opened. So you can know some stuff
- 26:31Speaker 1: because God's got some stuff for you that maybe you
- 26:33Speaker 1: haven't recognized yet. You know, there might be things that
- 26:35Speaker 1: God has for your life that you haven't even thought
- 26:38Speaker 1: about yet, that you might not have recognized yet.
- 26:41Speaker 2: He says, I want you to recognize those things.
- 26:43Speaker 1: You got to have some eyes opened on the inside
- 26:45Speaker 1: so you can know the hope of his calling and
- 26:48Speaker 1: the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints and
- 26:52Speaker 1: the immeasurable greatness of his power.
- 26:54Speaker 2: Listen to that.
- 26:55Speaker 1: The immeasurable. That means you can't measure it. That means
- 26:58Speaker 1: if you've got a measuring tape, it's not big enough.
- 27:01Speaker 1: If you've got two of them put together, it's not
- 27:02Speaker 1: big enough. You can't measure it. It's the immeasurable greatness
- 27:06Speaker 1: of his power. That's that resurrection power, and it's toward us.
- 27:12Speaker 1: It's toward you. The resurrection power is toward you.
- 27:16Speaker 2: Who believe?
- 27:19Speaker 1: Look at the person next to you. Ask them if
- 27:21Speaker 1: they believe. Liberty, come on, look at somebody.
- 27:24Speaker 2: Do you believe?
- 27:26Speaker 1: It's only four of the people that believe. If you're
- 27:29Speaker 1: a believer in Jesus Christ, it's for you. According to
- 27:32Speaker 1: the working of his vast strength. Verse 20, he exercised
- 27:36Speaker 1: this power by raising Christ from the dead and seating
- 27:40Speaker 1: him in his right hand in the heavens. But he
- 27:41Speaker 1: prays that we would understand this because, again, there's things
- 27:45Speaker 1: that we may not see. There's things we may not
- 27:49Speaker 1: comprehend that God has for us. And again, notice he's
- 27:54Speaker 1: praying for the church. And the point is, we need
- 27:58Speaker 1: to recognize we have his resurrection power with us every day.
- 28:04Speaker 2: Every day, every moment of every.
- 28:07Speaker 1: Day, we need to have our eyes open and understand
- 28:11Speaker 1: what God has for us. See, because if we don't,
- 28:16Speaker 1: the danger is we start trying to live in our
- 28:18Speaker 1: own strength and do what we can do and try
- 28:22Speaker 1: to overcome and read the next self-improvement book and here's
- 28:26Speaker 1: how I can stop this and here's how I can
- 28:27Speaker 1: start doing that and all those things may be good
- 28:29Speaker 1: but that's not how you live resurrection life resurrection life
- 28:34Speaker 1: means Christ is living in me and I that means
- 28:39Speaker 1: I got to tell my flesh no that means I
- 28:41Speaker 1: got to know Christ more that means I got to
- 28:44Speaker 1: I got to seek his face But here's the danger.
- 28:49Speaker 1: Sometimes we try to overcome temptation with willpower, right? So
- 28:54Speaker 1: we try to change ourselves and our own strength. We
- 28:56Speaker 1: carry the pressure and the stress and the worries of
- 29:01Speaker 1: life on our shoulders, and we wonder why we're so
- 29:03Speaker 1: wore out. And we wonder why we feel like giving up.
- 29:06Speaker 1: And we wonder why we're not able to do what
- 29:10Speaker 1: we feel like we're supposed to do because we're trying
- 29:12Speaker 1: to do it on our own strength.
- 29:15Speaker 2: But we need his power working in us.
- 29:18Speaker 1: I want you one more time, put up verse 10,
- 29:20Speaker 1: Philippians 3 verse 10, one more time.
- 29:24Speaker 2: And I want you to see the last part of
- 29:26Speaker 2: this verse.
- 29:26Speaker 1: And, you know, as I was thinking about this scripture today,
- 29:32Speaker 1: there's an old song that was going through my head.
- 29:34Speaker 1: Some of you that were around Christians in the 80s
- 29:36Speaker 1: know what song I'm talking about. There was a guy
- 29:38Speaker 1: named Larnell Harris used to sing this song i want
- 29:42Speaker 1: to know christ and you know i it's such a
- 29:47Speaker 1: powerful message but i think that last part of that
- 29:50Speaker 1: verse i don't remember hearing that in the song um
- 29:54Speaker 1: i want to suffer with him.
- 29:57Speaker 2: I want to i want to suffer with Christ.
- 30:00Speaker 1: Anybody anybody want to suffer put your hands down right
- 30:05Speaker 1: no I don't want to suffer and I don't really
- 30:07Speaker 1: think that's what Paul's saying is I want I can't
- 30:10Speaker 1: wait to suffer I hope I get to suffer again
- 30:15Speaker 1: I think we like the first couple parts of that
- 30:17Speaker 1: man I want to know Christ I want to experience
- 30:20Speaker 1: his power but talk about sweet let's just stop it
- 30:24Speaker 1: at raised him from the dead and skip the suffering
- 30:26Speaker 1: part But let me explain this because, again, I don't
- 30:30Speaker 1: think Paul's saying, I can't wait to suffer. He's saying,
- 30:34Speaker 1: another translation says it this way, I want the fellowship
- 30:38Speaker 1: of sharing with his suffering. And what fellowship means is
- 30:43Speaker 1: to share something, right, is to participate in something. So
- 30:48Speaker 1: he's saying, I want to know Christ so much that
- 30:53Speaker 1: I'm willing to follow him wherever I that leads.
- 30:58Speaker 2: If it leads through suffering, count me in because I
- 31:03Speaker 2: want to know him, right? Even if it's in hard times,
- 31:08Speaker 2: I want to know Christ.
- 31:10Speaker 1: Even if it costs me everything, I count all things
- 31:16Speaker 1: as loss because I want to know.
- 31:20Speaker 2: Christ, right?
- 31:23Speaker 1: And suffering is Suffering here, it doesn't mean, because I
- 31:25Speaker 1: think sometimes we get the wrong idea of what does
- 31:27Speaker 1: it mean to suffer, and we start substituting things that
- 31:30Speaker 1: the Word of God doesn't mean. Right? Sometimes we suffer
- 31:34Speaker 1: because we made some bad choices. That's not suffering for Christ.
- 31:37Speaker 1: That's suffering because you are a poor planner or did
- 31:40Speaker 1: some things you shouldn't have done, and you weren't living
- 31:43Speaker 1: in resurrection power. You were living in your own flesh,
- 31:45Speaker 1: and now you're suffering. Right? I'm suffering with, you know...
- 31:53Speaker 1: Just because I'm in a broken world. There's things that
- 31:56Speaker 1: come in this broken world that's not necessarily suffering for
- 31:59Speaker 1: Christ because he paid the price for that. But here's
- 32:03Speaker 1: what suffering means in this context.
- 32:08Speaker 2: It's suffering. There's a suffering that comes because we follow him.
- 32:12Speaker 1: Right?
- 32:13Speaker 2: There's suffering that comes, maybe it's through sacrifice.
- 32:17Speaker 1: I think about times in my life when I sacrificed
- 32:21Speaker 1: and I gave something up. And I remember when I
- 32:25Speaker 1: was a young man, I was getting ready to go
- 32:26Speaker 1: to Bible college, right? So it was a long time ago.
- 32:29Speaker 1: I had hair back then like Ricky did. And I
- 32:33Speaker 1: was getting ready to go to Bible college and my
- 32:35Speaker 1: uncle got in my face. He said, why would you
- 32:37Speaker 1: waste your life going to Bible college? What a waste.
- 32:41Speaker 1: He said, you should go off. You should go to
- 32:43Speaker 1: school and learn how to make some money. And you
- 32:47Speaker 1: could make a lot of money because he thought I
- 32:50Speaker 1: was smart. He's like, you're a smart kid. He didn't
- 32:52Speaker 1: know me very well. And he thought I was wasting
- 32:57Speaker 1: my life. And I remember in that moment thinking, I
- 33:01Speaker 1: don't want any of that. Because that's not what God
- 33:04Speaker 1: has called me to. And there's nothing wrong with being
- 33:08Speaker 1: in the world and making money if that's what God's
- 33:09Speaker 1: called you to. In fact, I think some people that
- 33:13Speaker 1: are called to ministry, maybe your ministry is going to
- 33:15Speaker 1: be working in a company or owning a company or
- 33:18Speaker 1: doing something for the kingdom of God, using those resources
- 33:20Speaker 1: to impact the kingdom. I've got nothing against that. But
- 33:23Speaker 1: for me, that wasn't That wasn't what God had called
- 33:25Speaker 1: me to. I didn't want any of that. I wanted
- 33:29Speaker 1: what God had for me. Maybe suffering might look like, hey,
- 33:33Speaker 1: I'm giving up some stuff. I'm giving up what I
- 33:36Speaker 1: want so that I can know him. You know, suffering
- 33:40Speaker 1: might be the cost of obedience. Have you ever had
- 33:43Speaker 1: to obey the word of God and it hurt? It's
- 33:47Speaker 1: a choice. It'd be easier to do my own thing,
- 33:51Speaker 1: be easier to ignore God what I feel God telling
- 33:54Speaker 1: me to do, but because he spoke to me, I
- 33:58Speaker 1: want to obey. That's suffering for the cause of Christ.
- 34:05Speaker 1: It can look like rejection. It can look like opposition.
- 34:08Speaker 1: I don't know if you ever had anybody talk about
- 34:10Speaker 1: you because you're a Christian. I remember hearing stories about
- 34:16Speaker 1: my grandfather that he used to, when he got born again,
- 34:19Speaker 1: he was radically born again and he worked at a
- 34:20Speaker 1: telephone company And he was harassed nonstop because in that
- 34:25Speaker 1: place where he lived, there weren't Christians. And he said
- 34:30Speaker 1: they were pretty terrible to him every day, but every
- 34:33Speaker 1: day he'd take his Bible and every day he'd read
- 34:35Speaker 1: his Bible. At his lunch break, he'd be trying to
- 34:37Speaker 1: share the gospel even though people hated him for it.
- 34:41Speaker 1: And I remember being times in my life where people
- 34:44Speaker 1: have talked against me because I'm doing something I feel
- 34:46Speaker 1: God's called me to do. But at the end of
- 34:49Speaker 1: the day, I have to recognize something. I want him
- 34:52Speaker 1: more than I want the praise of men, more than
- 34:55Speaker 1: I want approval from people, I want to know Christ.
- 35:00Speaker 1: There's been times, again, people have misunderstood me, and it
- 35:04Speaker 1: can be hard. And maybe if you've been through that,
- 35:06Speaker 1: just a little of that can make you want to
- 35:08Speaker 1: run away, can't it? It can make you want to quit.
- 35:12Speaker 1: But you have to come to a place where you say,
- 35:14Speaker 1: I want to know Him. Nothing, nothing is comparable. And
- 35:22Speaker 1: I think about Christians around the world, right, who choose
- 35:27Speaker 1: to follow Jesus and it may be a death sentence
- 35:32Speaker 1: for them. It may be they're ostracized from their family.
- 35:38Speaker 1: It may be they're kicked out of their community because
- 35:41Speaker 1: they're choosing to follow Christ Jesus. But they say, I'd
- 35:47Speaker 1: rather have Jesus than anything. I'd rather have Jesus. So
- 35:56Speaker 1: Paul's telling us, hey, suffering is part of knowing Christ.
- 35:59Speaker 1: And he's willing to go through those hard times. You
- 36:01Speaker 1: remember the story of Paul and Silas. They're in prison
- 36:04Speaker 1: in the book of Acts. And in the prison, while
- 36:07Speaker 1: they're still bleeding from being beaten, sitting in this dark,
- 36:11Speaker 1: nasty dungeon, they start worshiping. Not because they're knowing there's
- 36:18Speaker 1: going to be an earthquake. I don't think they knew that.
- 36:21Speaker 1: not because they knew the chains were going to come
- 36:23Speaker 1: off and the prison guards going to get sick. They're
- 36:26Speaker 1: in that place and they're worshiping because he's worthy. Because
- 36:31Speaker 1: in spite of what I've been through, he's still worthy.
- 36:35Speaker 1: In spite of what's going on in my life, I
- 36:37Speaker 1: want him and I'll gladly give up everything for the
- 36:42Speaker 1: sake of Christ.
- 36:43Speaker 2: That's what Paul's telling us.
- 36:47Speaker 1: You know, for them, even before the doors opened, They
- 36:52Speaker 1: were saying, I want to know Christ. And I don't
- 36:55Speaker 1: know about in your life, maybe there's some doors that
- 36:57Speaker 1: you're waiting on to open even before you see the
- 37:00Speaker 1: doors open, even before you see the hand of God,
- 37:02Speaker 1: even before you see the thing that you're waiting for.
- 37:05Speaker 1: Do you want to know Christ? I want to know Christ.
- 37:11Speaker 1: Paul said, I want to fellowship in the sharing of
- 37:12Speaker 1: his sufferings. And look at Philippians 2 verse 8, because
- 37:16Speaker 1: what did it look like for Christ to suffer and die?
- 37:21Speaker 1: It says in Philippians 2a, he humbled himself and became
- 37:26Speaker 1: obedient to the point of death, even the death on
- 37:30Speaker 1: a cross. So Jesus surrendered his will to the Father, right?
- 37:37Speaker 1: The people who crucified him, what did Jesus say? Father,
- 37:43Speaker 1: forgive them. They don't know what they're doing, you know?
- 37:48Speaker 1: So you look at what Jesus went through humbled himself.
- 37:52Speaker 1: He said, I could call down legions of angels to
- 37:55Speaker 1: get me off this thing, but I'm going to humble
- 37:57Speaker 1: myself and become obedient. And Paul's saying that's the kind
- 38:01Speaker 1: of life I want. I want my pride to die, right?
- 38:06Speaker 1: I want my selfishness to die. I want the things
- 38:10Speaker 1: that I care about, I want to lay them down
- 38:12Speaker 1: at the feet of Jesus because I count everything a
- 38:15Speaker 1: loss compared to knowing him. And I want to close
- 38:19Speaker 1: with this verse this morning, back to Philippians chapter 3.
- 38:24Speaker 2: Go to verse 12. Because he says, I want to
- 38:28Speaker 2: know Christ.
- 38:29Speaker 1: I want to know the power of his resurrection, the
- 38:33Speaker 1: fellowship of his sufferings. And he says in verse 12,
- 38:37Speaker 1: not that I have already reached the goal or I'm
- 38:42Speaker 1: already perfect. He's recognizing something. I've still got some ways
- 38:48Speaker 1: to go. And in our lives, I don't care how
- 38:51Speaker 1: far along you are. I don't care how old you are.
- 38:53Speaker 1: I don't care how many years you've known Christ. If
- 38:56Speaker 1: Paul still had a ways to go, we've still got
- 38:57Speaker 1: a ways to go. There's still more. You know, I
- 39:01Speaker 1: think Ozzie said it so well last week or two
- 39:04Speaker 1: weeks ago, I think it was, when he talked about
- 39:06Speaker 1: the graduation. None of us have graduated from knowing Christ.
- 39:11Speaker 1: You know, none of us have ticked the box, okay,
- 39:14Speaker 1: I knew him. No, we have to know him. He says,
- 39:18Speaker 1: I make every effort to take hold of it because
- 39:22Speaker 1: I've also been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers
- 39:27Speaker 1: and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken
- 39:30Speaker 1: hold of it but one thing I do and there
- 39:33Speaker 1: may be maybe there's one thing you have to do
- 39:36Speaker 1: this morning he said one thing I do I forget
- 39:40Speaker 1: what's behind you know maybe you got some things behind
- 39:43Speaker 1: you maybe some bad things maybe some good things Maybe
- 39:48Speaker 1: some things you did. See, some people get hung up
- 39:50Speaker 1: on what they did that was good. Well, I used
- 39:53Speaker 1: to do that. I used to serve in my church.
- 39:55Speaker 1: I used to work on this team and do these
- 39:58Speaker 1: things for Christ. So I had those things in my past.
- 40:01Speaker 1: I've got a good resume. You know, maybe your past
- 40:04Speaker 1: is a bad resume. Maybe I did some terrible things.
- 40:07Speaker 1: Either way, I forget those things that are behind because
- 40:11Speaker 1: I'm not finished yet and God's not finished with me yet.
- 40:15Speaker 2: There's still more.
- 40:20Speaker 1: So I pursue. I forget what's behind. I reach forward
- 40:24Speaker 1: to what is ahead. I pursue as my goal the
- 40:27Speaker 1: prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Why
- 40:32Speaker 1: don't you stand with me? Liberty, join us in standing.
- 40:37Speaker 1: And we're going to pray together this morning. And I
- 40:41Speaker 1: know this is one of those messages where it's like
- 40:46Speaker 1: how you respond is maybe different for every person. Maybe
- 40:51Speaker 1: there's people in here you say, well, I feel like
- 40:54Speaker 1: I know Christ, but listen, there's more.
- 40:57Speaker 2: There's more. Maybe God's calling you to more time with him.
- 41:04Speaker 1: Maybe it's just a refocusing of some of those priorities saying, well,
- 41:08Speaker 1: I've made my life about some things that really it
- 41:11Speaker 1: shouldn't be about. And maybe I need to just refocus priorities.
- 41:17Speaker 2: Maybe there's some.
- 41:18Speaker 1: Things in your past you need to forget, some things
- 41:20Speaker 1: you need to let go of, some things you need
- 41:22Speaker 1: to pursue, whatever it might be. This is kind of
- 41:25Speaker 1: one of those things that God has to speak to
- 41:28Speaker 1: your heart this morning. So what I want to ask
- 41:30Speaker 1: you to do is to just bow your heads with me.
- 41:33Speaker 1: Because as I was thinking about this message, I thought, Lord, again,
- 41:38Speaker 1: have I made things, doing things for God? Have I
- 41:44Speaker 1: made serving? Have I made preaching? a substitute for knowing.
- 41:50Speaker 1: The Lord's been speaking to my heart. I want to
- 41:54Speaker 1: know Christ. I want to know Christ. This morning, before
- 42:00Speaker 1: we go any further, let me just pause. With your
- 42:04Speaker 1: heads bowed, your eyes closed, let me ask this question
- 42:06Speaker 1: because maybe there's people in the room that you heard
- 42:09Speaker 1: this message and you say, I don't know Christ. I've
- 42:12Speaker 1: never given my life to Jesus or maybe I don't
- 42:17Speaker 1: I've just been away from God and I want to
- 42:19Speaker 1: come back to him this morning. Paul said that he's
- 42:26Speaker 1: taken hold of him. I want to take hold of
- 42:30Speaker 1: Jesus because he's taken hold of me. And I want
- 42:32Speaker 1: you to know this morning, he wants to come and
- 42:36Speaker 1: take hold of you. Thanks so much for listening to
- 42:39Speaker 1: today's message from Reach Church. If this encouraged you, we'd
- 42:44Speaker 1: love for you to share this podcast with and leave
- 42:46Speaker 1: a review. It helps more people hear the good news.
- 42:50Speaker 1: For more information about Reach Church, our ministries, or how
- 42:53Speaker 1: to get involved, visit us at reachchurch.world. We love you,
- 42:58Speaker 1: we're praying for you, and we'll see you next time
- 43:01Speaker 1: right here on the Reach Church Podcast.