Springs Lighthouse Church

Pastor Brian Michaels: Turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. We will continue in our verse-by-verse study through the Gospel according to Matthew. I will say, by the way, I ask for this, and it seems self-serving, but when I travel, I ask for your prayers. Everybody has been saying, "How was your vacation?" We did get some days to be able to rest and relax and lay on the beach, and that is good. I did not take those days when I was younger, and it cost me. So, heads up young people: take your vacation time and your time off. Don't let yourself get to my age wishing you had done so as your body begins to wear out.

The Lord has opened up a number of ministry opportunities as well in the area where we generally go down to try and vacation. I will probably have to pull back a little bit the next time we go. My wife tried to accompany me to everything that I was doing, and at the end, she was just worn out. She said, "I just can't keep your schedule." But the first week was a lot of ministry opportunities: School of Ministry at the Rock Church, I took my harmonica rig—and how appropriate that we rocked "Amazing Grace" at the Rock Church—and just had a lot of fun with that and sitting down with pastors and their wives. I taught at a brand-new church plant, not even a year old, down in a place called Cape Coral, Florida, just by Fort Myers, and had a great time with their fellowship down there. I ran into a lot of folks from Colorado that have escaped the blueness of our state. Some of us feel called to stay and to fight the fight, and others are released by God to go other places and be used by him there. It is amazing how many people I am running into from Colorado in that area.

It is a big area for Ukrainian refugees as well. It seems like every trip I run into four or five people from Ukraine, and I think I am almost running into as many Colorado refugees down there as Ukrainian refugees. But do pray for us when we go on these trips because the Lord does open doors for ministry, and you all get to partner with that as the Lord somehow uses this crazy individual to be a blessing to anyone. And we did get rest. I did work on my tan. This morning I looked in the mirror and realized this crease on my forehead doesn't get any sun. I just happened to do this, and there is like a big tan line right down the middle of my face. So no, I won't show it to you after the service.

Matthew chapter 16. We came as far as verse 19, so that is where we will pick up. Father, we ask that you would be our teacher. That by your Holy Spirit, you would challenge us and speak to us. Lord, that you would minister your gracious goodness to us. Even when it is challenge that we need and even when you need to convict us of something in our life that is displeasing to you, Lord, we know that you do it with gentleness and love. So give us hearts to respond to your love, not to earn your love, but always in the expectation that you demonstrated your love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. May that overshadow everything that we look at today—the simple love that you have for us that you have shown to us in the person of your Son. It is in his name that we pray. Amen.

As we pick up our text, Jesus and his disciples have gone up to the northern region of Israel to a place called Caesarea Philippi. You can see from the slide on your screen, it is a beautiful area. There is lots of vegetation and a spring there that bubbles up out of the ground and ultimately becomes one of the main headwaters or tributaries to the Jordan River. You get the sound of the water flowing and the wind moving through the rushes; it is just a peaceful, calm, serene place. It is not near any big communities or cities. This is the place that Jesus has now brought his disciples.

The Romans had set it up as a place of worship for one of their primary gods in their mythology, the god Pan. Thus, it took the name Paneas after Pan, the god that they worshiped. You can see in the rock face that stands behind all of this, on the next slide, there are all of these little alcoves that you see in the rock. They would have statues of various gods and goddesses that were placed in those alcoves. Obviously, the statues are gone at this point, but if you were to have been walking there in Jesus' day with his disciples, those statues would have been there. The primary grotto used for the worship of Pan, but then those other statues of gods and goddesses placed around it.

Some of you may have heard of this place called the "Gates of Hell." I just want to mention that it was not referred to as the Gates of Hell at that time. It is only referred to later as the Gates of Hell within the church community because Jesus makes reference in that place to the Gates of Hell not prevailing against the church. Even today, the name carries with it a connotation of the historical worship of Pan there in that place. It is called today Banias. In Jesus' day, it was referred to as Caesarea Philippi. Herod Philip named the place, and he invoked the name of the Caesars to honor them. Problem was, there was already a place named Caesarea. There is a big city on the coast of the Mediterranean known as Caesarea generally, also Caesarea Maritima, or Maritime Caesarea. It is right on the banks of the Mediterranean; it was a seaport. So when Herod names this place Caesarea, obviously to avoid confusion, he adds Philippi. But this is Herod Philip, so he has just added his own name in an extreme place of arrogance, joined it with the Caesar's, and calls this place Caesarea Philippi.

Jesus and his disciples come to this area. Surrounded by the worship of false gods and goddesses, the statues and statuettes of the idols that were there in those alcoves, he says to them, "Who do men say that I am?" He questions his disciples about his identity. What are people saying about me? We looked at this in our study last week. "Who are people saying that I am?" Well, one says you're this, and another says you're that, this person and that person. Then Jesus asks them the question that all of us ultimately must come to grips with: "Who do you say that I am?" It is Peter, of course, who speaks up and says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Jesus responds to him in verse 17. He said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." Then verse 19, where we pick up our study today: "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Keys are a symbol of power and authority. We still use them that way today. When we moved into our house, and then one of my daughters bought a house fairly close by, she was like, "Can I have a key to your house?" and I said, "No." In an emergency, she can get in using a code, but she asked why I wouldn't give her a key to our house. I said, "Because it is to help you, dear. It is me blessing you because I would hate for you to come in unannounced on 'No Pants Friday.'" Now that your mom and I don't have any kids in the house, if we want to have No Pants Friday, we'll have No Pants Friday, and you're going to walk in on that and you will never be the same.

But they are a symbol of power and authority. We still use it in the sense today; you've heard of someone receiving the keys to the city. When a municipality wants to honor an individual and recognize them and give them appreciation for something they've done for the community, they'll give them the keys to the city. But in this day, it was even more important because remember the cities in this time were surrounded by large walls with towers. They had gates in the walls of these cities that would be shut at night or any time that they perceived a threat. They would shut and bar the doors of the city so that threat could not enter into the city. Someone having the keys to the kingdom had access when others would not.

So it was a great symbol of power and authority that Jesus now says to Peter, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." You say, "What does that mean?" I'm not entirely sure, so let's move on to verse 20. No, I'm just kidding. I will point out a couple of things. First of all, as we mentioned last week, the Catholic Church uses this passage of scripture to build their idea of apostolic succession in their Pope down to the present day. My intention is not to bash Catholicism today. In a few moments, we'll talk about our Pentecostal friends, and my intention again is not to bash anyone. It is to look at doctrines that are pervasive through the church and be able to hold them up in the light of scripture.

If our tradition doesn't line up with scripture, which do we go with? If our tradition and scripture don't jibe, we always have to go with the scripture. Understand that from this passage, there are those—that branch of the church, Catholicism—who look at this and say this is where we get the doctrine of apostolic succession. Jesus said to Peter that he was the rock upon whom Jesus would build his church, and then he gave him the keys to the kingdom for binding and loosing. By the way, all of the St. Peter jokes begin here, too, about us getting to the pearly gates and there is St. Peter standing at the pearly gates. I am not expecting to give an account to Peter. I do realize that we will give an account to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

But let's talk about this for a moment. We talked about it last week, the misunderstanding that arises if you think that Jesus was saying he was building the church upon Peter. Peter wasn't even the head of the Jerusalem church when you study through the Book of Acts; James was. Peter made this profession: "You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God." It is upon that profession of faith that Jesus builds his church. We are all today who have expressed faith in Christ part of the church. Why? Did it have anything to do with Pete? No, it didn't. Through our profession of faith in Jesus Christ, that's how we came into the body of Christ. So the church is built not upon Peter, but upon the profession of faith that he made.

Catholic scholars will point out to us that when Jesus says here, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth," and at the beginning of verse 19, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven," that "you" is singular. He is in fact telling this to Peter. We have to acknowledge the reality of that. He is talking to Peter in this moment. But here is the problem with that understanding: we're going to talk about this more when we get to Matthew chapter 18 because Jesus says the same thing again, but the "you" there is plural. He is not talking just to Peter; he is talking to all of his disciples with the clear indication that it's not even just for the 12, but that it goes on in perpetuity throughout the church in successive generations. We'll talk more about this when we get there because we'll get more understanding and insight when we put the passages together. Yes, here he is talking to Peter at this particular moment, but it has nothing to do with apostolic succession and an infallible Pope that is descended down from Peter. That is completely nonsense as far as the scripture is concerned.

Now let's look at another doctrine that is built from these kinds of scriptures: our Pentecostal friends. I appreciate our Pentecostal friends; I'm not trying to bash them either. I will tell you this, I enjoy sometimes going to Pentecostal churches and worshiping with them. There is just more of a freedom. There is more of a freedom to respond even when I'm teaching. If I'm teaching in that environment, there is more freedom for them to say, "Amen," to say, "Preach it," to say, "Yes," which sometimes, quite frankly, I wish you would do. Thank you. Even if it is, "Help him, Jesus," something! Let me know you're still paying attention.

In all seriousness, I enjoy their freedom of worship. Some things are done not decently and in order, and I can pick that apart, but I enjoy the freedom that they have to lift their hands. I'm not a dancer, and we don't want people dancing around; one of our security guards will start chasing you if you're dancing around during worship through the aisles and all of that. But the freedom is not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing to be able to express your praise and your adoration and your love to the Lord. I'm not putting that down. But from this scripture, many of them come up with the idea that we can bind and loose Satan at will. I hear them running around all the time: "Satan, we bind you. We bind you, Satan, we bind you." Here's my question: if you're binding Satan, can you use a shorter leash? Because clearly, he's still getting a lot done out there. So if we're going to bind Satan, let's tighten up the leash and the chains a little bit, shall we?

This context does not bear that out. This has nothing to do with spiritual warfare at all. What is important—and again, remember, we'll talk more about this in chapter 18—but this is really important for us to hear now. The language here, if you go back and you can look at the original languages, if you're not a Greek scholar—which I clearly am not—you can look through Strong's Concordance and some of these things. But the original language carries with it this idea: that whatever we would bind on earth will have already been bound in heaven. Whatever we would loose on earth will have already been loosed in heaven.

So whatever is specifically being meant here, it is not heaven responding to us. We do not order the heavenly realm around. This is really important because a large segment of Christianity seems to have the idea that we can "name it and claim it"—I say "blab it and grab it"—and that God has to do our bidding. He does not. That reverses our roles completely. He is God; we clearly are not God. Two things are true in this world: death and taxes. I have two other things that are true in this world: there is a God, and we aren't him. We are not the Lord.

We don't have to necessarily understand right now everything that is meant in this because I'm not entirely sure I do. But I do know this: the context is Peter has just responded to Jesus by the leading of the Father. Nobody taught him this; it was direct revelation from the Father God. In his proclamation of Jesus' identity, he is yielded to the Father, and in that context, this issue of binding and loosing is brought up. But Peter's not going to order heaven around. All of this is done in the context of our walking with God and in submission to him.

Verse 20: "Then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ." Peter's proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the Christ—and just a reminder, Christ and Messiah are interchangeable words. "Christ" from *Christos* in the Greek, "Messiah" from *Mashiach* in Judaism, in Hebrew. They both mean the same thing: "Anointed One." So whether we say Christ or Messiah, it is the exact same thing. Jesus has just proclaimed that he is the Messiah, the Son of God. Peter proclaims this about Jesus. You think the disciples didn't get excited hearing that? "You're the Christ, the Son of the living God!" and they're all like, "Yes!" especially when Jesus says, "Simon bar-Jonah, you are blessed because you didn't get this from man; your Father in heaven revealed this to you."

Well, what does that mean? If Jesus is in fact the Messiah—he has clearly said this plainly now—this must mean we're going to Jerusalem and we're going to throw out these hated Roman occupiers. He is going to usher in the kingdom right now. This is the reason why Jesus is telling them, "I don't want you to go out and proclaim that I am the Christ," because they so misunderstood whom Messiah was and what his mission was. If they would have gone out and said, "Let me tell you about Jesus, he is the Christ, he is the Messiah, let me fill you in on all these details," they would have gotten them all wrong.

So don't tell anyone that I am Jesus the Christ. In verse 21, from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised the third day. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord; this shall not happen to you." Good job, Pete. I'm sure he thought what he was doing was so magnanimous because he pulls Jesus aside. Jesus is starting to talk now; he says, "Listen, here is how this is going to work. Don't go telling anybody that I am the Christ, that I am the Messiah, because there's some things you don't understand. We're going to go to Jerusalem. I'm going to be turned over to the religious leaders. They're going to beat me, they're going to scourge me, they're going to pluck out my beard, they're going to hail me as King of the Jews in a mocking way, and then they're going to crucify me, nailing me to a cross, and I'll die there."

At that point, every single time, it seems like their brain short-circuits because that's where they stop in hearing Jesus. In many other cases, we read that Jesus also said, "The third day I will rise from the dead." They didn't even hear that. They're fixated on him suffering and being killed. He even says it here: "I'll be raised the third day." Peter says, "Jesus, can I have a moment? Come over here just—you guys stay there. Jesus, can we talk?" And he begins rebuking God. Never a good idea to rebuke God. But he pulls Jesus aside and says, "Listen, I know you're the Son of God and everything I just said, right? But you've got some of the details wrong here. Allow me to fill you in, Jesus, on how this is going to work."

We laugh, but how often do we do this? "No, Lord, certainly that's not your plan. Let me show you how I've got this worked out; I've got a better plan." At least it's better in my mind. I can just see Peter saying, "Remember Jesus, you just said I have the keys to the kingdom. I can bind and I can loose. You just said it yourself. So those religious leaders, I'll just bind them and I'll loose you." No, Pete, it doesn't work that way. But is there any question now why Jesus doesn't want these guys proclaiming that he's the Christ? I wouldn't either.

Jesus responds this way in verse 23. He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan." Ouch. This alone would cause me to seriously reconsider Peter's popeship. Jesus just called him Satan. That's hardly infallible, would you say? Oh, but this was before Peter was filled with the Spirit. Okay, let's take that bunny trail for just a moment. This is before Peter was filled with the Spirit, but after Peter was filled with the Spirit, Galatians chapter 2, Paul records that he had to call Peter out publicly because Peter was acting with hypocrisy that was causing people to stumble. Peter understood because of Acts chapter 10 and the vision that he had received there that it was okay to minister to the Gentiles, to eat with Gentiles or non-Jewish believers. He knew that it was okay, that he didn't have to be prescribing to the dietary kosher laws of Israel. He knew all of that. But when Jewish Christian leaders came down from Jerusalem, Peter withdrew from the Gentile believers and only hung out with the Jewish believers, and that hypocrisy caused people to be stumbled. Paul called him out on it. Not only did he call him out in the church when he was there, he writes it in Galatians chapter 2 to be included in the pages of scripture for all of eternity.

Whenever you start to think, "Man, I just wish I had been alive in Jesus' day. What would it have been like? I wish I could have been one of the 12—well, the 11, let's not count Judas. I didn't want to be that guy. But could I have been one of the 11?" Listen, your mess-ups might have been included in the pages of scripture, which will never pass away for all eternity. I wonder if in heaven we'll pull out the scrolls of Galatians 2, sitting with Peter, and go, "Dude, you really blew it," and he'll say, "Yeah, I did. Good thing for Jesus' grace."

The point is, Peter is a man. How many times have we said it? The best of men are men at best. Peter was a flawed man just like every one of us are. I think it needs to be said, I know I need the reminder: you can be greatly used by God one moment and turn around and completely blow it big time. It is not usually this dramatic, where in one sentence Peter says something, Jesus says, "You're a blessed man, Peter, God the Father is speaking to you," and then the next minute calls him Satan. That's a little extreme. But what's interesting to me is that Peter can't yet tell the difference. He's a man; he's struggling. He's learning what it means to walk with Jesus, to submit to Jesus. His motivations were good: "Lord, we're going to take you to Jerusalem, we're going to make you king." We can't make Jesus anything; Jesus just is who he is. We add nothing to that. We just become a part of his family because of his great love and mercy towards us.

Why does Jesus act in such an extreme way? Was it really necessary to call him Satan? Jesus has seen this temptation before. Matthew chapter 4, we looked at it. Jesus is out in the wilderness, he's being tempted by the devil. Again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to him, "All these I will give you if you bow down and worship me." Peter says, "No, no, no, all of this is yours. You just need to do it my way, not the way of suffering, not the way of the cross." That's why he looks at Peter and says, "Get behind me, Satan," because Jesus addresses the source of the inspiration for what Peter was saying. He says, "You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

This is going to be a test for every one of us. This is a test that every one of us probably have faced already, maybe you are facing right now, but we will certainly face it again: the test of whether we are going to submit to God's plan or insist on our own. I have plans, I have dreams for my future. You young people are going, "You can't have that many dreams. How much future do you have left?" But however many years God may give me breath in this life, I have plans, hopes, and dreams. But I'm hopefully learning to submit them to God's hopes and plans and dreams because his are always best. It is still a constant struggle.

But listen, there are things we can do to understand what God's plan is. Certainly understand God's plan will never contradict his Word. So if you're wondering, "Is it the plan of God for me to move in with my girlfriend?" No, because that is clearly in contradiction to the Word of God. We test it by the Word of God. We're also told in the scripture to seek godly counsel, and certainly we should do these things. But there is no substitute for getting on your knees and on your face before God and seeking him directly for what his plan is for your life. This is why prayer is so foundational as a discipline to the life of the believer. If we're not spending time with the Lord in prayer, how do we expect to hear his plan from us?

I want to hear his plan as early as I possibly can because here's what I know about me: if God tells me his plan and I'm going to argue with him about it, I want some time to get that out of my system. So if God plans on doing something in two months, please tell me now so I can argue with you now and be done with it and submit to your plan so that two months from now I'm ready to go when it happens. You ever been there? We want to know what his plan is so that we can submit to it because as great as my plans are—and they are—if God's going to change them, I want to be submitted. I balk at it, I struggle with it just like you do, but I really do want to be submitted to his plan.

Verse 24: "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.'" Jesus is dealing with the fact that he's headed to the cross. It was the plan from the beginning. It wasn't an accident that Jesus ended up at the cross. It wasn't a political miscalculation; it was the plan from the beginning. The crucifixion was not an accident; it was in the heart of the Father. But as Peter expresses his unwillingness to consider the plan of God in contrast to his own plan, Jesus then lays out requirements for what it means to follow him. "Peter, if you're going to follow me, this is what it looks like. Number one, you must deny yourself." A person who wants to follow Jesus must deny himself. This is not self-denial. That's a different thing. Anyone can practice self-denial. If you practice martial arts, you practice self-denial. If you are going to the gym regularly, that is self-denial. If you're on a diet, that is self-denial. You can be supremely selfish and engage in self-denial. "I want to go on a diet because I want everyone to see that I really am hot stuff." Still egotistical and self-centered.

But denial of self says that whatever my plans are, whatever I had intended, Lord, I will let those go and I will submit to your plan. My plans, my pleasures, my desires are not the highest priority. Number two, you must take up your cross. Jesus said this when the cross was still seen as an instrument of execution, not as a piece of jewelry. "Oh, I wear a cross on a chain around my neck; I have taken up my cross." No, that is not what this meant. The cross was not looked at affectionately in that day. We look somewhat affectionately at the cross today, don't we? We are grateful for what the cross means to us because it was there that our salvation was purchased, our redemption was purchased at that cross. So we're grateful for the cross. But in Jesus' day, it was not seen that way. It was a place of horrible torment and a slow, agonizing death for criminals.

We don't see the cross that way. What if we changed all of our songs to match that reality and we replaced the cross with current means of execution that we might use? What if we sang the old hymn "The Old Rugged Electric Chair"? I think our hymnal would look a lot different. "There's Room in the Gas Chamber for You." It would change everything, wouldn't it? "The Lethal Injection Before Me, the World Behind Me." No, we're not going to do that. But the cross when Jesus says this, it was identifying with affliction, with suffering, with misery. It means we identify with him in his obedience to the plan of the Father even to the point of suffering, shame, rejection, and death. We identify with the plan of the Father over our own.

And then thirdly: follow me. That just means he leads and we follow. We're not dragging Jesus along behind us trying to get him to submit to our plan. We are not the master; we are not the boss. He is.

Verse 25: "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." What a paradox. We can focus all of our energy on this life, but then what's left at the end of it? If we truly believe that eternity is longer than our lifespan, then which should we be living for? What should be our primary focus? The scripture recognizes we have things to do in this life, we have people to care for and people to lead. I have a wife and children and grandchildren that I need to care for and be concerned with, and all of those things are true. However, where are we investing the bulk of our time and our energy and our talents? Just in this life? Because then what's left at the end of all of that? You hear people make statements like, "I just have to leave everything behind; I have to find myself." What makes you think that when you find yourself, you'll like what you find? I've been on this earth for 62 years; if I've learned anything, it's that I don't want to know me any better than I know me now because I don't like most of the "me" that I know, other than what Jesus has done. Without him, I am nothing.

Traveling around Florida and trying to get to different churches, you use Google Maps. What does it say when you get to your destination? "You have arrived." Remember decades ago, that was a saying: "I just can't wait till I have arrived." At what? My Google keeps saying, "You have arrived," and I feel pretty good about myself, but I know I haven't arrived anywhere. I got to my destination, but when I look beyond that, I have not arrived. I certainly have not arrived at the person God wants me to be. But this is all preparation for eternity and what he has for us in the future.

"Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" What a great question. A number of years ago I read an article about the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. Do you realize that in order to be among the top 400 wealthiest Americans, millions doesn't do it anymore? You have to have over a billion dollars in financial worth. That's crazy. And that's fine, I suppose, if someone is worth billions; wish they tithed here. Just being real. But what Jesus is saying is your soul is more valuable than all those billions. When I read the other day that Elon Musk offered to pay the salaries for all of our TSA workers that are not being paid—the liberal left has made me like TSA workers. I travel too much; I could not stand TSA workers. And I actually went through the line and thanked the dude that was telling me all the stuff I had to do just to go through this little detector, and I said, "Thank you for working when you're not being paid for it." But when I saw Elon Musk offer to pay their salaries—I don't even know if that's possible—but I thought, "How much money do you have to have to even be able to offer to do that?"

And it's not worth your soul. Your soul is so valuable to God. We have no idea how valuable we are to God. Jesus says in verse 27, "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Some of you say, "Wait a minute, they're all gone, and where is he? What do you mean they won't taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom? Was Jesus mistaken?" No. Verse 28 is a prelude, a precursor to what we will read in the first number of verses of chapter 17. You can read ahead, and I'll just let you know because I don't want to leave us hanging here until next week. He's talking about the event that is about to transpire in chapter 17. We'll look into that in our next study.

But his main point here: Jesus is coming back. He's saying this and he hasn't left yet. Think how confused the disciples must have been. He's talking about the Son of Man coming in the glory of his Father with his angels, but he's standing there right with them. But they missed that he's going to die, be raised, ascend to the Father. John tells us he kept saying to them, "Where I am going, you cannot come now," and then he's going to return. And when he comes, he is coming to reward each according to his works. We know that our works are not done to earn salvation. We could never merit our salvation; we could never do enough. Our salvation is a free gift of God when we simply trust in Jesus by faith.

But understanding and appreciating that free gift of God, we now want to serve him. So we do the works that we do to honor him, the way that we do lots of things for the people that we love to show them that we love them. So we do our works, and yet someday God is going to reward us for the works we do saying "thank you" for what he has already done. Is that crazy? That's crazy love, isn't it? And when I think of these rewards—because we're not really given a lot of information in the scripture as to exactly what these rewards will be like—here's all I can tell you without any question: if all of the wealth of the world is not nearly as valuable as your very soul is to God, then what value will he place on those rewards that he gives to you? What valuable things will God bestow upon us as rewards for simply serving him the way that we do in response to his goodness towards us? Amazing to consider, isn't it? Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Father, we look for the return of Christ. We look for the day that he returns and ushers in the kingdom upon this earth, the day that we will rule and reign with you, the day that we will receive our reward, whatever that looks like. But until then, Father, give us leading, guidance, discernment in the ways that you want us to serve you and how we can minister to your people because we know that in ministry to your people, we are ministering to you. And then give us strength to do so. Give us the talents and abilities that we need to be a blessing to others. Give us the listening ear, the helping hand that we might need, that we might do what we do for your glory and for others' good, knowing that we'll receive a reward, but just doing it because we love you who has first loved us.

Father, I pray if there are any here or listening online that have never taken that first step in relinquishing their life into your hands and trusting you by faith, Lord, may this be the moment that they do so. That your Spirit works on their hearts, convicts them of sin so that they realize they could never, ever, ever be good enough. And so Lord, what you did was you sent your Son to be good enough for all of us and yet to pay the penalty for our lack of goodness, our sin, our selfishness, all of our crazy. You laid it all upon the precious body of Jesus at that cross, and our sin was judged there.

Father, I pray that there would be those who understand that this day for the very first time, and that in the stillness of their heart, they would just cry out to you and say, "Lord, that's me. I can't be good enough. I know tradition and religiosity is not good enough. I need Jesus. So Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I turn from my sin, I turn from my old life, I turn to Jesus. I believe that he died for me, I believe he rose for me, I believe he ascended to your right hand for me and is praying for me right now. I believe it all, and I trust him, and I want to walk with him." Lord, set them on the path that you have for them. Seal them by your Spirit. Let your Spirit rule within them that they might know that they know that they know from this moment that they are yours.

Father, for all of us, encourage us. Allow us to be built up in our most holy faith. Lord, as we take communion this morning, may we be reminded of the broken body of Jesus, broken for us, the spilled blood of Jesus, poured out for us. May we give you praise and honor and worship in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, "Right on." Would you stand with us?