Atlanta Bible Baptist Church

Pastor Ray P. Smith: Amen. If you have your copy of the scriptures, or device containing them, I invite you to turn with me to the Book of James. We will continue our trek through the book. We are moving at light speed. Last week we covered one verse, or two weeks ago. Sorry, one verse. We will triple that today. We will cover three verses. Amen.

James chapter 1, verses 16 through 18 says, "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. It comes down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creation."

Father, thank You so much again for this day. Thank You for all that we have been able to sing, and to see, and to say. I thank You for the strength that You supply in allowing us to sit at Your feet now and hear from Heaven. That's what we desire. We want to hear Your voice. We want to know Your will. We want to draw close to Your heart and have You fill and thrill our hearts with Your truth. So we ask even as Samuel was instructed to do by Eli to say, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening." We want to hear. We want to use the grace that You give abundantly to listen to You attentively, showing your worth to us. That we might know Your will. That we might do Your will.

We thank You. We only ask that You will shut the mouth of the evil one. They have no part in what we do or say or see for the next few minutes. We plead the blood of Christ over this place and over my lips, over our hearts. And as always, we will be careful to give You the praise and honor and thanksgiving that You so richly deserve. We ask in Jesus's name and for His sake. Amen.

Part, whom you don't know, I'm sure, he was reflecting on the fact that one day his son came to visit them. And he was going on a trip with some friends. And so, what he did, he drove his car to his parents' house and left it with them as they went on about their business. And he said, "You know, just being a really kind, gracious, loving father, I drove my son's car just to make sure it was okay."

And I thought to myself, "You know, only a really good father would do something like that. And I, you know, I think I'm doing pretty well." You know, being able to to take care of my son and provide him with this gift because, you know, the the car was something we gave him. And and while he was patting himself on the back, the Lord reminded him of something.

You know, his wife's uncle, when he was a little older, he had gotten to a point where he could not drive. And so he had a car that he had sitting up. And so, he called them up and said, "Listen, I, I'm not going to be driving anymore, and I don't want this car to just sit here. Would you like the car?" And he he gave them that car, which they subsequently gave to their son.

And as he was patting himself on the back, the Lord reminded him, "You know, you received that car as a gift. And you passed it on only because it was given to you." And so all of his boasting had to dissipate.

You know, God does the same thing. God, God gives us of His goodness. He showers us with His blessings. And then sometimes, you know, we get to feel in ourselves a little strong, and we say, "You know, I am really a good Christian because, you know, I give this, and I accomplish that." Without realizing that everything that we have comes from God. And everything that we do is empowered by Him. All of the goodness has come from Him.

And lest we forget that, James tells us about that very thing. In this particular section, he wants to talk about three things. First of all, recap. Last week, well, it wasn't really last week. I'm that was a misprint of my part, because it was two weeks ago. Last week was Youth Sunday. And Pastor Toby reminded us of well, I won't preach the sermon again, but he reminded us of some great things.

This, well, two weeks ago, we talked about temptation. And we walked through the steps of temptation. And that's an important thing for us to remember. We don't blame God when temptation comes and we give in. We won't say it's God's fault. He set us up, because He doesn't.

So, having said that and having looked through verses 13 through 15, this morning, I want us to look at verses 16 through 18, and I want us to talk about the unchanging goodness of God, the unchanging goodness of God. And of course, I put the verses down, and I only, I want to begin by looking at verse 13. He says, "Don't be deceived, my beloved brethren. I don't want you to be deceived."

Now, just like before, when you said, "Well, don't say in your heart when you're tempted, I'm tempted by God," because God cannot be tempted and He himself does not tempt anyone. Don't blame God for the things that go wrong in your life. It is not His fault, right? Don't you be deceived. Don't be deceived about the character of God. He is by definition, next slide, a good God.

You don't want Satan to hop on your shoulder, whisper in your ear, and say like he said to Eve, "You know, God doesn't have your best interest at heart. God's holding out on you. God's not giving you the real skinny. It's he's not as good as he's making himself out to be. Don't be deceived by the evil one."

You know, I was reading, I don't know why, I read these random things, and I happened to come across this little article. It was saying that there is the the Greek word in uh sincere, it's our English word for the Greek word. And the word means judged in the sunlight, judged in the sunlight. It actually comes the Latin translation is sine cera, which means without wax.

And the reason that it came about is because sometimes you would you would have sculptors who have been hired by people of means to make a statue or to to chisel something that resembles them. And sometimes what would happen as the sculptor was chiseling he he might accidentally chisel a little hard, he might break something. You know, like the nose may may he may break that off.

And of course, he didn't want to start all over. So what he'll do, he'll pick up the nose, I can't go down that far. He'll pick up the nose, and then he'll he'll get some wax. And he'll stick it on and he'll put the wax around it. And the wax is is invisible. You can't see the wax. And so, then he puts it back on there. And then later on, after you paid your money and after you put the thing in your home and the heat in your home rises up, the wax melts and the nose falls back off.

So, after that happened to a few people, then what they did, they got in the habit of of getting the article, the sculpture, and they would take it outside into the sunlight. And then they would carefully examine it. And when they examined it, they could see if there were any waxy areas on it. And so the the statement, sincerity means without wax. You're getting the real deal. No one has scammed you, get out in a minute, or con you.

Today they say you you better get the car facts, right? Because you look at the car in the lot, and it looks like a good deal. And when you get it home, you discover that it's not a good deal, and you paid too much for it, and there are problems. Satan offers you a lot. He says, "Listen, God isn't in your corner. God is not good. But listen to me, I'm good and I'm offering you the deal of a lifetime."

And you can believe that. And if you don't carefully examine what he's offering you, if you don't compare with what the scripture says is really true, you'll get gamed up. And you'll be the loser in the end. Paul is saying, "Don't be deceived."

God's goodness is seen in His gifts. God's goodness is is seen in His gifts. Verse 17, it says, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights." There are three things mentioned in this particular verse, I'm not going to look at other words. There are three things mentioned in this verse that I want us to notice.

Number one, God only gives good gifts. Why? Because He's a good God. God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good. We say that. But do we live that? Do we believe that? Do we act as if that is really, really true? God only gives good gifts. And we need to understand that because God gives good gifts, it's because He's a good God. Everything God does flows out of who He is. Because He is intrinsically good, it's not possible for God to give anything that is not good.

Because God is love, it's not possible for Him to do that which is unloving. Because God is because God is just, it is impossible for Him to be unjust. What He does flows out of who, excuse me, who He is. He only gives good gifts because He is a good God. Not only that, number two, look at the the way God gives is good. The way He gives is good.

Now, the reason that I make that distinction is because in this passage, there in the English, it says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." But there two different words there in the Greek, right? And so what what we see, you you've got the first word when it says, "Every good gift," the word there, dosis, it's it's it literally means every act of giving. It's not saying the gift itself, it's saying the even the manner in which the gift is giving is given, that comes from God.

God only acts in a way that is really good. And the second word then means the thing itself that is given. Let's see if I can make make sense of that. I told you before, my my pastor back in in in Pennsylvania, when we were in seminary, uh Bill Boulet. Bill Boulet was an avid golfer. In fact, he was good enough to play in the pro-amateur golf tournament in the year in which he was a senior in college.

And of course, because he played golf all the time, he asked his father if he would give him for his birthday a really nice set of golf clubs. He had scoped it out. He gotten the name of the clubs and he you know, the price. It was, you know, a little pricey. But this is what he wanted. And so when he asked his dad, "Can I get this?" His dad said, "No." He was not happy. In fact, he was in his feelings all the way up until his birthday.

Um and he, you know, tried to to to petition his dad, "You know, I I get good grades and you know, I'm not messing up and you know, acting out and you you know, just can I get?" He said, "No, son, I am not giving you that set of clubs." And he was crushed. And so when the day of his birthday came, he thought, "Well, maybe dad will be nice and change his mind." His dad didn't. What his dad gave him was a much more expensive, far better set of clubs than what he had asked his dad for.

The gift, the dorema, was much better than what he wanted. The act of giving when his dad says, "I'm not going to I'm not going to give you what you want." Even that act was an act of goodness. He didn't feel like it was an act of goodness because he didn't understand what his dad had in mind. Looking back, he says, "When my dad said no, it was the best thing that he could have done, because saying no to what I wanted, he'll be able to give me something even better."

Sometimes I need to understand that when God doesn't give me the thing that I think I want, the thing that I'm asking for, the thing that I'm craving after. Sometimes God says, "No, that's not for you." I can be in my feelings. But if I understand that, "Listen, the no comes from a good God. And everything He does is good." So, I'm going to be good with his no. And then I'll find that the no becomes the pathway to something even better. God is good.

And so, when what He gives what He says doesn't feel good, I have to trust that it still is good. The third thing of the three facts, is that God gives continually. God gives continually. Why do I say that? Because it says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift, the act of giving and the gift itself, they come down from the Father of Lights."

When it said the the thing is, and you know, I hate to keep running Greek at you guys, but in order for you to understand what he's saying, the word is in the present active tense, Toby, as you no doubt understand. And because it's in the present active tense, the present active tense in the Greek means it's something that continually happens.

God isn't a sometime-y. He doesn't give you something nice today and then say, "You know what? I'll no, not today. Come back later." God is not sometime-y. He's not wishy-washy. He's not maybe yes, maybe no. He's good all the time. He is consistently good. And because He's consistently good, I can consistently expect good things from Him.

Now, now compare the previous verses, talking about temptation. It says, "Every man is tempted, excuse me, when verse 14, each of us is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire or lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And then when sin is fully grown, it brings forth death."

But in this instance, what God has given, even His act of giving is good. So, the thing that God gives is good. And because it is not possible for Him to lie, cheat, steal, or do anything that is not designed for my good, I can always trust what He does. I can always say amen to His will.

If you doubt the goodness of God, I dare say it is not because God has not been good. It's because you've been listening to the evil one who's lying to you about the goodness of God.

Not only is God good all the time. Not only does God give good gifts. Not only is God's goodness seen in His gifts, but God goodness is seen in His unchanging nature, His unchanging nature. I I really, I really love this. When you look at verses verse 17, the latter part there. It says, "With whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." The idea there comes from the constellations. You know, you look up in the sky and you see the sun and the moon and the stars. And you know, it looks like they move, right? The sun rises in the east. I told you, we went to Japan and we laid down at 12:00. And at 4:00, the birds were singing and the sun was up, 4:00 in the morning. I was insulted and I was just, "What are you doing up?" You know, but the sun rises in the east, right?

But the sun it it moves, or it appears to move, right? It's not that the sun is moving, it's just the earth is moving. The earth revolves around the sun, and as it revolves, it appears to move. And the stars, as they go across the sky, because the earth is revolving, it appears that they move. And then they they make those shadows. Sometimes, uh, remember Hezekiah when he asked that God would heal him, and Jeremiah, uh, Isaiah says to him, "Make a poultice. God's going to hear you. How will I know?" He says, "Ask a sign. You want the the sundial to go forward 15 degrees, or backwards 15 degrees?" He said, "Well, it's it's easy for it to go forward. Make it go backwards." And God made it go backwards 15 degrees, right?

So, he was able to say, "Oh, see, really God's going to keep His word because look what He did," right? God is faithfulness is able to to confirm what He wants me to do. He's able to demonstrate His goodness to me and I can rely on Him. I can trust Him. He's not a God who today does one thing and tomorrow maybe He'll do something different. He's not like the sun that appears to move and cast shadows. With God there is no shadow. It is consistency forever.

Malachi, God, three God says, "I'm the Lord. I I don't change." And because I don't change, then you can rely on me doing exactly what I say. When Isaiah, when Jeremiah says in Lamentations, "This is of the Lord's mercy that we're we're not consumed because His compassions, they don't fail." God doesn't say, "You know, I'm done with you, you knucklehead." God knew all about your knuckleheadness before you got here. It's not going to catch Him by surprise.

That doesn't mean you can keep your knucklehead. Well, what that means is if you're knuckleheaded, then you're going to run into a brick wall and He's already got the brick wall waiting for you. But the thing is, because He is consistently, constantly good all the time, you can you can trust Him. You can rely on Him. You don't have to believe the lie that, you know, how sometimes you you you start off, you're doing okay, then you drop the ball, and then you run and hide because you're ashamed. And you think God is He's going to punish me. God is angry with me. And I I did it. I picked it up and dusted it off. And he didn't say anything. He saw me, but now I dropped it again, and He's going to be really, really, really, really, really angry. And He's going to cast me off.

And Satan says to you, "Not only is He going to cast you off, He's going to give you the boot too." And you believe all of that stuff. You doubt the goodness of God instead of stopping to say, "You know what? I'm I'm going to run to God. I'm going to run to Him because," as David found out, "His mercies are great." And He pities me. He remembers my frame. He knows that that I'm just dust.

I put down, uh, you see it there, "God never changes." Never. Circumstances change, right? A lot of things change in life. Feelings change. You know, I was talking with a couple that I'm doing premarital counseling with. And and from Michigan, but by Zoom. And I was telling them, I said, "You know, um, God puts unlike people together," right? "So He can work on both of you at the same time."

And I said, "You know, the old saying, opposites attract." And then after five years, opposites attack. You know, the thing that drew you to that person really gets on your last nerve, right? And and it happens. Feelings change. Sometimes people say, "Well, I used to love him, but I fell out of love." No. Love is not a feeling. Love is an action. You know, you can like somebody. That's a feeling. But love is other focus and meeting the needs. You know, even when my beloved, it's hard to believe. Even when she was angry with me, you know, she still cooked.

So the amazing thing, she still cooked for me. She still washed the clothes. She still did all the things that I needed done, even when she wasn't speaking, but she was still cooking. Oh, I told you that, you know. Feelings change. They they they circle around and and then they come back, you know. People change. You know, those of you that have all those rippling rippling muscles, enjoy it.

Because that will is waiting for you, right? You know, those those muscles are going to drop down, man. It just happens. Life is like that. Those beautiful looks that you have, ladies. Uh, someone said, "Time is a great healer." But it's a lousy beautician. Man, you just in the long run, you you're not going to keep those looks. You have to you have to replace the changing looks with character, deepening your character. Character makes an even greater impression.

Time changes people. But in spite of the fact that circumstances change, feelings change, people change, you know what? God never changes. He remains the same. You can you can trust Him to do the thing that He said He would do. And every single time God is faithful like the the couple that were planning their wedding and they said to the minister, "Here is the the itinerary, and I want you to map it out so that exactly 6:22 you pronounce us husband and wife."

And you know, it seemed like a strange thing to him. In fact, it was strange that they would have the wedding so early in the morning. But you know, at exactly 6:22, when he pronounced them husband and wife, the sun came up. And they knew that that would happen because, you know, scientists are able to track the movement of the sun, and it changes daily by exactly seven seconds. And they were able to map it out and they said, "Well, at 6:22, the sun is going to break over the horizon." It happens every single time because God doesn't change. God is able to keep things right the way He said they would be.

God never gets a bad mood. Aren't you glad about that? God never gets in His feelings because of your waywardness. God is is is like a is like a lighthouse that that, you know, there's a lot of lighthouses in Michigan. And they guard the Great Lakes. And you can see the lights way in the distance. And they're there for safety and for guidance. And they're there constantly. The lighthouse never goes out. God never goes out. God never changes. He's steady when the storms of life rage. God is still there and you can rely on Him. You can lean on Him. You can trust Him.

I put in my notes, "God's goodness remains constant amidst life's uncertainties." You don't measure the goodness of God by the circumstances that come in your life. You measure the circumstances by the goodness of God. And you say, "Because I know God is good, even though I don't understand why He allowed this circumstance, the God who allowed the circumstance is a good God." Therefore, all things, and that includes this thing. All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. You may not understand right now what the purpose is, but you can always trust that this God who has you in His hands is working out a good purpose.

You know what the the greatest example of God's goodness is? It's it's the new birth. God's goodness is seen in the new birth. You look at verse 13, uh, excuse me, verse 18. It says, "In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth." So that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. And it's amazing how uh, as often as the biblical writers write, they always manage to pack three things into every verse and every passage. And so, John, excuse me, James is making three points. The main point is this, God is love. God is love.

And when you understand that God is love and when you recognize that God is love, then your heart calms down when the storms rage in life, because you're not worried about it. You say, "Listen, God's got this." What about facing, is it it seems like a difficult trial. Maybe there's something going on with me physically. Maybe there's something going on with me emotionally. Maybe there's something going on with me financially. Maybe there's something going on, I can't figure it out. But I stop and I say, "You know what, God, You got this. You got it. And I'm not worried about it."

Because God God is love. Okay, notice these three things in this verse. Number one, salvation originates in God's will. It says, "Of His own will, He gave us birth." Now, now, listen, that statement when says of His own will, it's it's a um, it well, anyway, I won't go into the tense in the Greek. But the the tense in the Greek suggests that it's something that originates within Himself. It's not it's not like God looked down the course of time and saw you and said, "You know what? Uh, Walter is going to believe on me when he hears the gospel. And because Walter's going to believe on me, then I'm going to write Walter's name in the Book of Life."

That's not it. Because he says, "It's of His own will that He brought us forth." It was not that God saw that Walter would believe and then wrote his name down. No, is that God decided that he would write his name down. And then Walter believed because that's what God determined. He determined to save you before you came into the world. He determined that you would belong to Him, that you would be filled with His spirit, that you will receive His gifts. God determined that He would love you before you came into the world. And if He determined to love you before you got here, there isn't anything that you can do that's going to change that.

You say, "Well, I can do anything I want." No, you won't want to. Because when God chose you, when He called you, He gave you His spirit, and the spirit of God in you won't be satisfied walking in sin. It won't be satisfied going against His will. You won't be able to live like that. And if you can live like that, you don't know the Lord.

Salvation originates in God's will. New life comes through the word of truth. So, if I give people the gospel, you have to share the word of God. You know, when I um, do talk to people, I I I try to leave them with what the word of God says because the spirit of God, He will take the word of God and He will turn the heart.

God says this in Isaiah, He says, He says, "Just as the the rain comes down from heaven and it it doesn't go back without water in the earth and and bringing making the plants grow and the the flowers bloom. That's how my word is. It will not come back to me void without accomplishing the reason the purpose for which I sent it." God says, "I'm going to give my word, and my word is going to accomplish my will." He didn't say your good thinking will accomplish His will. He didn't say your intelligence or your clever illustrations will accomplish His will. He says, "My word will accomplish my will."

So, when I'm talking to people, if if you want to encourage somebody when their heart's down, you give them the word of God, right? I was in the hospital not myself physically, but I was visiting someone in the hospital. Um and when we were in the hospital, when I was in the hospital, then my side, "Would you like for me to read you some scripture?" And she said yes. And so what I did is I opened Psalm 23, and then I began to read the verse, "The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need." And I began to explain to her how a shepherd cares for his sheep. And it going through the verse and saying, "This is what God is saying about you." And her heart was thrilled with that.

So much so that when her her uh roommate, you know, they used to have two people in a room at that time. When her roommate came back from wherever roommate was, she says, "Hey, listen, uh why don't you read the verses and explain some things to you about what the Bible says." She was excited. I'm like, "Okay, I got to go back and do it again."

So, you know, it was the word of God that just thrilled the heart. And so when you give people the promises of God, you give people the will revive a down-trodden heart. You give people the word. And then you can you can you can talk to that person who tells you off and calls you names and just doesn't like you. You can give them the word of God and walk away. And and as you're walking away or even if they're walking away, you know what? The word of God is still right there. The spirit of God is still nudging them.

I told you about the guy. You we were going out and um Bob Kalman and I, you don't know Bob, but when we were getting ready to plan our church, we went through the neighborhood um around the church around the building existing. We were knocking on doors and telling people that we were going to start a church and blah, blah, blah, blah. We knocked on this guy's door and we told him who we were and we were going to start a church. The man said, "It's too many churches around here. I don't need no church." I'm like, "Ah, it's cool." I said, "Listen, there are a lot of people around here who need the Lord. If you're not interested, that's that's okay." You know, we walked and we left.

And I told you, you know, probably two years later, you know, that guy went to the church building, not they had sold the church and we had moved. But he went to that church building looking for me because I said to him, "You know, there are people who need the Lord. And if you're not interested, that's you know, fine. We're moving on." But my God got hold of his heart with that. And he came to church. And that's what we'll give people the word of God. God, God, He will take their hearts. He'll crush their hearts. He'll turn their hearts. He'll dissolve the hardness of their heart because you've given them His word.

The word of truth is the thing that God uses to touch hearts. And then I I love this last part. "Believers are His precious possession." Um, notice what He says there, the end of verse 18. He says that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. You know, the the first fruits was, uh, when the Jews were commanded by God that when you go into the land and you harvest the land, the first fruits you would offer to the Lord. The first fruits were the ones that you you looked at and they told you what the rest of the harvest was going to be like.

You got really luscious tomatoes or whatever Bob in his girl in his garden. Uh, you you will you get a really nice bumper crop. You're excited. Because if the first fruits look nice, you say, "Oh, man, I can't wait to see the rest of it," right? You're excited. We are a kind of first fruits. People look at us and they see the goodness of God. They see the transforming power of God. And they they look at you and they say, "You know, if God can do something like that in her life, He can do that in my life."

If if God can turn around a no-good, low-down so-and-so like him, then yeah, He can do something with me. And that's why He puts you on display that people might see your good works and then glorify God who is in Heaven. All right, my time's gone. What What does God want me to know? What does He want me to feel? What does He want me to do? All right, let me give you these three things and then we're done.

Number one, refuse to believe lies about God's character. When the devil whispers to you that God is doing you no good, tell him the truth. You're a liar and a deceiver because he is. Jesus said in John 8, "Whenever he speaks, he tells a lie because there's no truth in him. He's a liar and he's the father of lies." He can't help it. That's just what he is.

Well, I won't believe him speaking to me about the character of God when God has declared that He's good and He's demonstrated that He's good all the time. And He's delivered His goodness. Number two, praise the praise for His daily blessings. My wife was sharing with me, I asked if I could share this, but she said, um, on the Wednesday night prayer time, uh, one I think, was it, uh, see, I I won't I won't get it right. Was it Olivet? Okay, it's Olivet's cousin. Okay, they've been praying for her for months, right? And she was in a coma. She hadn't done anything. She hadn't opened her eyes. And then one day, she opened her eyes.

And my wife said, "Okay, well, okay. We can't let this go by. I moved those phones, let's give God some praise for His goodness." Praise the praise. When God's doing something good in your life, don't say, "Oh, okay." And go on to the next thing. Stop. Be like the one, not like the nine that went on. Stop, turn back, and give Him some praise for all the goodness that He's done.

Number three, rely on Him. When circumstances change, don't say, "Oh, no, I knew it was coming. I messed up. He's punishing me." No, stop, stop, stop. The scripture says, "If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to do what? Forgive us our sins." And not only that, "He'll wipe the slate clean. He'll cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Only Satan will remind you of the stuff that God's already forgiven you for. Let it go.

And then number four, rejoice in the salvation He's promised through Christ. Listen, there are people right around you that are trying to live their lives apart from Christ. They don't know Him, and they don't know His goodness, and they don't understand how important it is to surrender to His goodness. And then God puts you right there. And they look at you and they see the goodness of God. That's why He has you there. Rejoice in the salvation He's provided you, um, through Christ. And and then and then tell somebody. Share the goodness of God.

My closing uh, words I wrote, "When life is confusing and circumstances are difficult, James reminds us that God remains what He has always been. A perfectly good Father who gives good gifts, who never changes, and who lovingly brings His people into a new life. Every good gift points back to the goodness of God." And that's especially true of the gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ.

Pastor Ray P. Smith: I'm saying this Benz TV commercial has a camera following their car as it collides with the cement wall during a safety test. The car comes through the test amazingly well, far less damage to the body than you would expect and leaving the crash dummy without a mark. A man then interviews the company's spokesman asking him why they do not enforce their patent on Mercedes-Benz's energy-absorbing design, especially since they know that other companies are copying their design. The spokesman simply looks at him and says, "Because some things in life are too important not to share."

The gospel is too important to keep to yourself. The goodness of God is too important for you to hold on to it and walk away. As the old saying, "If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours," right? You can always get another one. Amen. May the Lord strengthen us to share the good news of the goodness of God, especially as found in Christ.

Father, thank You so much again for this day. Thank You for Your goodness. Thank You for Your mercies. Thank You for Your extraordinary compassions. Andre Crouch said it best. "Where would I be if Jesus didn't love me?" I would be woefully undone. Thank You, Father, for sending Him. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for being willing to come and to suffer so great a death for me. Thank You, Father, for revealing all of Your goodness. And there's more to come. May we lean into it. May we look to You. May we trust You. May we find in You more than sufficient for all of our needs.

Father, if there's anyone here today who's never received Christ and the pardoning of their sins, I ask that they will not leave this place today without getting the account squared. May they come out of the red of judgment and into the blackness of peace and forgiveness. Allow them to receive Christ bowing the knee of their hearts and trusting Him today. We ask in His name and for His sake.