Living Hope Church

Pastor Phil Steiger: If you would turn with us please, we are in Romans chapter 3, verse 1 this morning. Romans chapter 3, verse 1. If you don't have your Bibles with you, feel free to use the one in the chairs in front of you. We'll have scripture on the screen to help as well.

With the turn of the chapter, Paul is broadening his audience again. We've watched at the end of chapter 1 and into chapter 2 how Paul directs his attention to the Gentile world and Gentile believers, and then directs his attention specifically to Jewish believers who now are part of the church as well and begins to speak of the things that they have brought unto the church and what's important and what's not. He will continue to talk to Jewish believers, but then we're going to watch again his focus expand as he begins to talk more and more about the value of the Word of God and the value of the glory of God amongst His people and alive inside of this world.

We're going to ask this question here early on in chapter 3: is there an advantage to having the Word of God? The reason that question is important in this context is that in those last few verses in chapter 2, he's addressing the Jews and their belief that they had an advantage because of the covenant of circumcision. He says, as a matter of fact, that covenant of circumcision is of no value unless it is attached to the law of God, unless it's attached to the obedience of the law of God. But they also have, not just that covenant, they also have the law of God. They have the Word of God.

What's the value in having God's Word, the Bible? It's not just the Jewish believers 2,000 years ago and their grasp and understanding of the books of Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and David's Psalms, and so forth. This is the kind of question that belongs to you and me today because you and I have also been given something of tremendous value and treasure in the Word of God.

Now, if the people of God are connected intimately and permanently with the Word of God, what do we do when the people of God are unfaithful? When the people of God who belong to God's Word are less than perfect, less than true, less than reliable? When we are actually unfaithful, what does that have to do with the character of God? I ask that question because Paul begins to deal with that conflict in the second half of our passage of scripture this morning.

As we read through this, this text can feel a little convoluted unless you're used to this kind of conversation. He's going to ask a question for rhetorical effect, and then he's going to give an answer. The question is going to sound a little strange, but he's going to ask the question and then he's going to give an answer. A couple of times, there are exclamations in this passage where he goes, "By no means!" or "Absolutely not!"

For you and me, sometimes this form of conversation or argument might get us a little bit confused, but Paul is doing it this way to try to drive some of these points home, to try to make them clear to the early church and to those who were griping about the character and the glory of God. The bottom line with what the Apostle Paul is dealing with here in this passage of scripture is the untouchable nature of the great glory of God.

In our passage of scripture this morning, these are the couple of things we're going to pay attention to. First of all, the value of having the Word of God. There is value in keeping it and obeying it. There is value in passing it along because it has been given to us. You and I need to understand the kind of treasure that we have in God's revelation of His voice and His will to you and me here today. Even when we are imperfect, the Word of God is perfect and powerful and faithful. We're going to talk about the value of having the Word of God. Maybe many of us are feeling that way already this morning. I promise you this sermon will get better.

And then secondly, and this is going to be really valuable for us this morning: God is glorified in our forgiveness. Paul is going to let us in on what might seem to us like an odd theological conversation. It might seem a little bit ancient, and maybe some of this will sound familiar because maybe this kind of conversation is the kind of thing that you have had or maybe has been in your heart from time to time.

The kinds of things that Paul is going to deal with, he's going to tell us that some say that we should sin more so that God can just show more mercy and forgiveness. If God's forgiveness is great, wouldn't it be better if you and I just sinned more? Paul's going to deal with that kind of argument. Some are going to say it's actually wrong for God to judge our sin. How does that argument work? What does Paul think about that? There is this confusion amongst many, as Paul deals with it in this passage, about the relationship between the sin that is in my life and the glory of God. Why is this an important set of things for Paul to deal with?

Let's read this passage of scripture beginning in Romans chapter 3, verse 1, and we'll read through verse 8. Friends, this is the Word of the Lord. "Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written, 'That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.'

But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I'm speaking in a human way. By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just."

What an incredible and interesting passage of scripture, but there are powerful things inside of this for us to understand. Not just inside of the context as Paul is moving his way through this book—he's building his argument—but for us to understand this morning about our relationship with God. He begins again with this thought that in essence rounds out some of the things he dealt with in the last chapter. What advantage has the Jew and the covenants and the gifts that they have been given by God?

Remember, he says that circumcision has value in the context of keeping the law of God. But the bottom line with all of that with them was the surpassing value of having the Word of God. Their particular group of people in their language, God has identified Himself as their God and the God of all creation, and He's revealed Himself to them. He has spoken to them.

If you were with us as we went through the book of Exodus, you may remember how this unfolded as God pulled His people out of the land of Egypt. They had for generations lived inside of a nation that was pagan and they had pagan practices, pagan holidays, pagan worship, pagan moral structure, and these gods just saturated their daily lives.

As God pulls them out of Egypt, he's not just physically taking them out of Egypt, he's theologically taking them out of Egypt as well. He begins to reveal Himself to them. He says, "I'm not like those gods. In fact, through the plagues, I showed you I'm more powerful than any of them and all of them. This is who I am. This is what my character is like." We get that most clearly in the story of the Ten Commandments as God reveals those things through Moses to God's people.

God is saying, "This is who I am and what I am like." This is what I want my people to be like. This is what our lives are going to look like now. It's not just the Ten Commandments, it's the rest of the laws as it gets expressed through Moses. God is revealing Himself in His will in His Word to His people. The bottom line to that is that this is who I am and so this is who my people should be.

God gives them the law, the law through Moses and the prophets and His people, and Paul says they were entrusted with the Word or the oracles of God. They were given and they were given responsibility for the very words of God. So there is an advantage in being a member of the people of God.

Paul is saying here in this passage of scripture, it's wrapped up in the value that there is in the Word of God, the treasure that there is in the Word of God, the wisdom, the truth, the beauty, the things that are found about God Himself in His relationship to us inside of this Word. There is value there because we have been entrusted with the oracles of God, meaning that you and I need to understand the kind of value that there is in it and to learn how to understand it, learn it, pass it along, to love it.

When we think of the law of God with the people of God in the Old Testament and the role that it played inside of their world, it's very easy to immediately think of sort of this encapsulated world where the people of God sort of focused their attention on the temple in Jerusalem and the pilgrimages and the sacrificial system and the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is absolutely the case, that that group of people were intended to pass along the law of God from generation to generation to generation amongst themselves.

But then it's also true inside of scripture that God intends His Old Testament people to be this kind of beacon and light to the rest of the world, that the way that they follow the Word of God would become a light to the nations. God says several times, "May the nations come to you to learn about the law of God." Then there are times where God says, "And the law of God is going to go forth from Mount Zion to the rest of the nations."

As the people of God know the things of God, the Word of God, it's a light to the nations and it's an act of mission to everyone as well. I want us to see a couple of these passages that are actually identical but spoken by two different prophets. This is how important this concept is to God's people in the Old Testament. Micah chapter 4, verse 2 says this: "And many nations shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

May it be the case that the people around us, the nations around the people of God, view the temple and Jerusalem and the people of Judea. May it be the case that the world around the church of Jesus Christ sees the church and they think, "Let us go there and learn what they have. Let's go and listen to the law of God so that we may learn how to walk in the ways that God has taught them how to walk as well."

Isaiah chapter 2, verse 3, the Prophet Isaiah says the same thing: "And many people shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." There's passage after passage like this, that God intends His people to be this kind of light because of the transformative work that there is in the law of God.

God intended for His people in the Old Testament to be this kind of beacon to the nations around them because God's law is good and it's true. It's life-transforming, it's culture-transforming when the law of God is followed and valued and treasured and actually lived out. Of course, it's not just the people of the Old Testament, but God fully intends the same thing for you and for me.

Friends, historically, one of the phrases that describes the Christian church is that we are people of the Book. We are people that belong to this. We are people whose lives are formed and shaped by this thing. Christians are, again to use Paul's language, we are entrusted with the divine oracles of God. We have it sitting in our laps, we have it up on our phones, we have it in our chairs, we have it at home. We've been entrusted with it, and to be entrusted with something is a responsibility. It carries responsibility for these things.

It's important that you and I know the Word of God. It's important that you and I on a regular basis learn to read and understand and apply and walk out the Word of God. It's incredibly important that you and I learn how to pass the Word of God along, from brother to sister and sister to brother and generation to generation. It's important that not just we as individuals, but we as a church, we as a local body of believers, that we know it and love it and are formed and shaped by it, that we carry the responsibility of the Word of God well.

The church was intended by Jesus Christ. The very last thing he told his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, he said, "Look, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth and I'm going to be with you until everything is done. So here's what I want you to do: I want you to go out into the nations and I want you to make disciples of everyone that you can possibly find. I want you to present me to them. I want you to make them folks who follow me instead of following the way of sin and the way of flesh." Jesus says, "Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you to do." This is part of the responsibility of being entrusted with the oracles, with the very Word of God.

We see these kinds of things in the New Testament as well, how important the Word is. As the New Testament writers, as they're laying the foundation for the early church, in the foundation of the early church is the Word of God, that we have these things. We need to know them and understand its value. In 2nd Peter chapter 1, verses 19 through 21, the Apostle Peter says this: "And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."

Until that day when we see Jesus, this is how I want you to treat the very Word of God, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. He says what you have in the Word of God has not been concocted by individuals. It hasn't been made by just human beings who thought these things up, thought they were important, wrote them down, and they just kind of stuck. He said all of this prophecy or all these things that have been given by God have been breathed out by the very Spirit of God, and so this is what we have now. This is how we approach this, this is how we treat this, this is how we're responsible for these things.

It's a beautiful thing to realize, friends, that this is what we have until that day when we will see Him face to face. Then every word that is in this will be placed in the light of glorious and eternal truth that you and I cannot imagine until we are there. All of this will not disappear because it was useless; all of this will simply become fulfilled in the glory of God as we are with Him. This is preparation for our eternity with God. This is preparation for the work of the Holy Spirit inside of our lives here and now. This is the value of having the Word of God.

Paul writes to this young pastor Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter 2, one of the very last things Paul writes before his death. 2nd Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 and 2, he says, "I charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching." The most difficult phrase in this for me is "with complete patience," but that's just me.

Listen, after this life that Paul has led, his missionary endeavors, the team of pastors and missionaries that he has trained, he's been all over the Mediterranean, he's been shipwrecked a number of times, he's been flogged, he has probably died and risen from the dead at least once on his missionary journey. All of these things that Paul has done while he sits in prison, one of the last things he wants a pastor to hear is "preach the Word." This is what we have been given. This is valuable. This is full of the treasure of God.

In the rest of that passage, Paul goes on to say, well, because people are just going to keep on believing stupid things all the time. They're going to wander after myths, they're going to find teachers that scratch their itching ears, they're going to wander away from the truth of God. So here's what I need you to do: you bring them all back together and you preach the Word of God so that it is clear and so that we know, we as a group know that this is what is true and right and good.

We touched on this kind of thought recently, but in this context again, it's important to hear this. The Christian is tasked with confronting what is false with what is true. We're tasked with it. We're tasked with confronting the things that are false inside of me, the things that are broken inside of me, the ways in which there is still darkness inside of this soul has to be confronted by the Word of God. Then the things that are in this world that are false and destructive and dysfunctional and tear people's lives apart, we've been given the responsibility of the Word of God to speak it as well and as clearly as we can, to confront what is false with what is true. Right?

So that at the very least, the Word of God gets out there into the air. How important this kind of thing is, that we know and love and understand the value of the Word of God. When people are confused or when people are frustrated or when people don't know exactly what to do with a situation or a teaching or something they've read, or people are just flat-out adversarial about the Word of God, how much more important is it that you and I are rooted and grounded in this thing that we love and that we know?

That's a lot of what Paul does next in this passage of scripture. So if the Word of God has this kind of value and it reveals a perfect, glorious, and great God, but then His people are far from perfect, what do we do with that? That's where this string of questions and answers begin in this passage of scripture.

Paul's actually going to deal with a handful of objections to Christian theology, to the Word of God, a few frustrations with faith and understanding the relationship between broken human beings and God and His glory. In verse 3, he just says this: "What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?" Paul's immediate answer is "No! By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar," and then he quotes the Old Testament: "as it is written, 'That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.'"

What should we do with the idea of a glorious, holy, righteous, and perfect God if some of His people have been less than perfect, if they have been faithless? Another way of putting it is this: does human frailty mean that God is frail? Does our frailty mean that God is frail? Does our imperfection mean that God is imperfect? Does our unrighteousness mean then that our God is unrighteous? Paul wants to just nip that one in the bud, and he says, "By no means! That's not what this means at all."

He says, "Look, let all of us be considered liars, let all of us be considered unreliable or faithless; recognize that it is God alone who is always true." He said, "Let's just grant the fact that every one of us in this room is going to be unrighteous and unreliable." He then says, "So let us look at God for what He truly is. He's true." It's this really great word that he uses, and it's used often in the New Testament as the word "true," and it's a word that can mean—it can apply to a character or personality. It means to be completely reliable.

Sometimes we might use that kind of phrase of someone, that their character is true. We might say that if we find no guile, no anger, no frustration inside of that character. They're a reliable human being; their character is true. That's what Paul is saying. You and I are liars, we are untrue, but God in His nature is perfectly and absolutely reliable all the time.

He quotes from Psalm chapter 51, verse 4. If you go back and you read that chapter, what's happening is this: the image is that we are being judged because of our sin, but some are turning around and they are accusing God, or there is this inclination that we might accuse God or judge God. The Psalmist says, and then Paul repeats it: every time God is accused of unrighteousness, He comes out perfect. He comes out completely justified. There's no shadow in the character of God; there's no imperfection in the character of God at all. He cannot be judged as wrong or frail or imperfect.

This kind of thing is important to us, even in our own hearts and minds, but as well as we work through this life with other people, but to project our imperfection onto a perfect God is to misunderstand who He is. In fact, it's to misunderstand how the order of the universe works, and we're going to get to that thought a little bit later on. You and I, though we are made in the image of God, we are fallen and broken image bearers. He is not a projection of human frailty on the sky. We are broken image bearers; He is not our frailty projected on the universe.

Paul goes on to say in verse 5, and again he's dealing with the things that he and the church are dealing with: "But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way," he says parenthetically. "By no means! For then how could God judge the world?"

If our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, then isn't He wrong to judge us? Here's how argument or gripe number two works. If my sin—and listen to this, this is interesting—if my sin is part of God's plan to reveal His glory, then isn't it wrong for God to judge my sin? In other words, my sin is not my fault, and if it makes God look great, then it's wrong for God to judge me. So there. That's how that one works.

Paul dislikes this one so much, he adds a little parenthetical statement. He goes, "I know this sounds crazy," but he says, "I'm just using a human argument." This is just how people think. This is especially how frustrated or unregenerate people think, or people in their confusion think about the relationship between their sin and the glory of God. Then he says again for the second time, and depending on your translation, it's all kinds of things: "By no means! Absolutely not!" The Old King James, I think, just simply says, "God forbid!" That is not the case at all.

He says, "Well, then how, if that's the case, then how is it that God is going to judge the entire world?" You see, God is the judge of all things, of all humanity, of all created beings, physical and not physical. He is the only being in all of creation who has both the power and the right to do that. This is what it means to be God in perfect righteousness and justice.

It is another misunderstanding. God's judgment, friends, is the final reckoning for all of humanity. But God's patience means time for repentance and salvation. Think of it more like this: God's patience doesn't make my sin great. God's patience shows me how great His patience is.

It doesn't make my sin great. This is maybe what the twelve-year-old thinks about mom and dad: "I'm going to give them a chance to learn patience this afternoon," right? Years ago, deep in the recesses of the eons when I first came here to church, there was a young man who was part of the church. He was a single father, he and his daughter. It was really fun. God really had gotten a hold of his life. He was coming to services, he was coming to midweeks, he always brought his Bible, he loved reading his Bible. He had these fascinating glimpses of insight into the Word of God, and it was just really cool watching him develop and grow. It was beautiful to sort of watch that.

There came a period of time where, in interaction with him, it just became obvious he had started to get into drugs. Marijuana had been legalized, and so he decided to start taking marijuana and he just disappeared from church altogether. His daughter disappeared from the youth group altogether. That happened for a little while. Easter was coming up, and so I thought, well, I'm going to ping him and I'm going to just try to reconnect with him and say, "Hey, Easter's coming up, we haven't seen you in a while, I'd love to see you back."

He almost immediately wrote me back. You know sometimes when someone writes you back, you can feel the emotion inside of what they write back? He almost immediately wrote me back and it felt very frustrated. He said, "I cannot worship a God who sends people to hell." That's what he said: "I cannot worship a God who sends people to hell."

What Paul is dealing with here is the trap that he fell into. That's a complete misunderstanding of both our sin and God's glory and His righteousness. God doesn't send people to hell; sin sends people to hell. It is God who offers mercy and patience and the opportunity for repentance for literally everyone who believes. Everyone who believes.

When people decide to live their own lives and fall into these kinds of traps and get angry at God because He doesn't let them do what they want to do and still go to heaven, they fall into these traps. "I can't worship a God who is so mean as to not allow me to live my authentic self." Well, people tend to live their authentic selves straight to hell. I don't mind saying that. Hell is real, hell is eternal, and the mission of the church of Jesus Christ is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ so as few people as possible go there. This is how the patience of God works.

This relationship between my sin and the patience of God does not reflect poorly on God; it in fact reveals the glory of God, that He doesn't just immediately send me to hell. "By no means!" Paul says. For then how could God be the one who is righteous enough and wise enough and powerful enough to judge the world? Certainly, He has that power to judge this human soul.

Then he goes on to say this in verse 7: "But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?" This is argument or gripe number three: if my sin makes God's glory great, I should keep sinning to make God's glory even greater.

Imagine inside of our lives the process of forgiveness. If someone has slighted you and it's fairly straightforward and simple and it was a mistake, and you have a brief conversation and there's genuine apology and repentance, the forgiveness is, "Oh, yeah, absolutely, I forgive you. Let's just keep on walking." The forgiveness is real but it's light.

Imagine, though—and many of us in this room can tell these stories—the kind of offense that's been done to us that nearly destroys our lives. The act of forgiveness is sometimes longer and it's more involved and it takes more work, and the act of forgiveness is great on our behalf. We're told in the Word of God, those who have sinned much have been forgiven much. If the forgiveness of God just reveals how great His forgiveness is, I should just keep on sinning so He can keep on forgiving me. This is the argument.

Paul dislikes this one so much, he says we are well within our rights to condemn those who make this argument. "Their condemnation is just" is how he puts it. This is a kind of "the ends justify the means" sort of argument, this kind of reasoning that even unethical or sinful or harmful means can be used to produce something good. "I can sin even more so that we can see the forgiveness of God even more." Paul says this is absolutely ridiculous.

Here, I think, is the catch or the answer to every one of these, and it involves turning them all on their head. Every one of these makes the same mistake by beginning with me and then trying to understand God. What is this relationship between our unfaithfulness and the faithfulness of God? Well, let's start by thinking about my unfaithfulness. If I am unfaithful, does that make God weak? If I sin, does that make God unjust? If I keep on sinning, isn't that good for God's brand? All of this begins with me.

Friends, the Christian understands the more we understand the Word of God in this life with Jesus Christ, the universe does not revolve around us; it revolves around God. It revolves around God. The center of all creation is the glory of God revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and empowered by His Holy Spirit here and now. That's the center of all creation. So you and I are going to understand our sin and God's glory when we begin with God. Then I can better understand what He is up to, what He is doing, and what this relationship between a broken and weary human being is like with a great and glorious and good God.

Friends, let's recognize this about this passage of scripture, that we can understand this. First of all, God is glorified in our forgiveness. In our forgiveness. A lot of sin does not glorify God; a lot of forgiven sinners glorifies God. A lot of people whose lives have been changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that glorifies God. The mission of the church being entrusted with the Word of God, being active in our work, bearing witness, making disciples—the more that happens, that is what gives glory to God.

Notice this in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 7 and 8: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." This is where we see it, is in forgiveness, "which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight." It isn't the continuation of my sin that glorifies God; it is a forgiven individual who loves Him. This is what glorifies God. A Christian forgiven and transformed is a light-bearer, a witness to the riches of God's grace. Do we understand from the Word of God the riches that He has lavished on you and me in giving us what we do not deserve but He wants us to have: the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

God is glorified in our forgiveness. God is glorified in our sanctification. Sanctification is this fifty-cent New Testament word that means the process of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. God is glorified in the lessening of sin and the increase of the image of Christ in our lives. Christians who persist in sin do not make God great; people becoming more like Christ in a difficult and confusing world do. That's where the glory of God is.

A church that is full of just absolutely normal people who love God, are thankful for the gifts that God has given, and who are learning to love Him and each other bear testimony to the glory of God. I mean, can you imagine if the opposite were true? If you and I gathered together on every Sunday morning and I gave you advice on how to sin more cleverly this week so that God could be glorified? "God forbid," Paul would say. He'd say that pastor's condemnation is just. It's exactly the opposite because that would be looking at this relationship through the wrong lens. We begin with God, then we see and understand who we are.

Later in the book of Romans, chapter 6, verse 22: "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life." You've been set free from sin. Here's now what God is doing inside of you: it's this act of sanctification. He uses this language of slaves because in that context in that chapter, he said before Christ, you were slaves to sin; you had to obey sin, you had no other choice. But now that you belong to Jesus Christ, you've been set free from that, and you've actually become slaves to righteousness. We now can obey the goodness and the righteousness of God.

Do we know the gifts that we have been given? The treasure that we have? The life-transforming truth that leads to sanctification and the end of sanctification, which is eternal life? That one way or another, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ in this room, there's coming a day when you will see Him face to face for eternity.

God is glorified in our forgiveness. God is glorified in our sanctification. And God is glorified in our glorification. God brings us there with Him for all of eternity, and it increases, it reveals, it is part of the glory of God. God is preparing us. He's preparing us here and now through the work and presence and empowerment of His Holy Spirit, and He's preparing us for His perfect presence for all of eternity. Isn't that beautiful? The great judge of all creation is also the triumphant Savior who will safely carry His children through this life into the next. Friends, it is the glory of God to do that.

When we view these things through that lens, then it becomes clear. Then we understand why Paul says that thought is ridiculous; you don't understand who God is and what He is doing. But it is God who is glorified in all these things as we are forgiven and saved and transformed and then finally brought into the presence of God.

Here's how I want us to end. If you would stand with me, I have one last passage of scripture that I want us to read together before we pray and before we sing. It's John chapter 14, verses 1 through 3. Let's just say this together, friends: "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."