Many know the commands of Scripture exhorting believers to glorify God in the pattern of our lives. But do you know that it also calls us to consider how we die? Romans 14:8 says, “for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord” (LSB). What does it mean to die for the Lord? How does the death of a believer differ from that of an unbeliever? In this message, Chris Law will show how our answer to these questions will reshape our outlook on this temporal existence and set in place a Christ-exalting eternal perspective.
Well good morning. If you want to take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 14. When I was living and ministering in California, Scott had asked me to speak at a father's conference and he gave me Eli to preach on, the father who did not correct his sons. When all of the other men were preaching on these good examples, I got the one that was the negative one. And there seems to be a trend with this that the topic today is not something that necessarily on a Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
It's like yes I'm excited to consider this yet the more I've thought about this topic the more it's become dear to my heart as a pastor to consider how to shepherd people how to prepare people because when we realize that every single one of us experiences death. We all walk alongside with others who die. And so as we've considered this topic to glorify God, What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And so we see those commands in 1st Corinthians 10 31 whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Back home in Wisconsin we were preaching through Colossians and just a couple weeks ago, we were in Colossians 3 17, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. And thinking through this, just considering how often do we think about intentionally living in such a way so as to glorify God in our death. And I prayed that today would be a day that really would grow our love for our Savior, that would be a tool to minister to others but most of all to our own hearts. Romans chapter 14 Verse 8, for if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
Let's pray. Our gracious God, we thank you for your word. Lord where else can we go? For you have the words of eternal life. And Father what more important things than to consider the state of our eternity, the state of our souls before you.
Lord, that we would live differently in this world and that we would die differently in this world. And so Father, Remove me through the foolishness of preaching. May you be glorified. May faith be strengthened that we would grow in our love for our amazing Savior. We ask in His name.
Amen. As a pastor, I've had people tell me, you can't counsel me if you've not been in my situation. Well if you've not struggled with X, Y or Z sin, you can't counsel me. If that's true, how could anybody counsel somebody on dying? But the sufficient word gives us a truth that we can look to.
Back in 2017, a survey was taken. 23% of Americans said they feared death. A fairly informal study taken in 2022 said 47%. What happened between then? The reality of death was before our eyes, more than it ever had been in many of our lives.
For we've not been in the seasons of the great wars or the great plagues. But death was put to the mortality of mankind and yet it brought about great fear. It brought about great fear that depression is on the increase. And I believe it's rooted in this fact that we fear death and upon this topic to consider if we are to glorify God in our death what does a believer's death look like in contrast to the world? Simply stated, how can a Christian's dying differ from the world so as to give glory to God?
Because what would you say to someone if they said they only had 10 minutes to live. What would be your words? What would be the words that you would put before them that would be maybe that thing which changes how they were to die? Kids here, you probably don't think much about death. Many adults, we go through life day by day not thinking about death.
But it is a wonderful thing to consider Because there's not one area of the Christian life that is not to be lived for the glory of God. But as we heard last night, Josh Byss was preaching and I was almost ready to stand up and to tell him to stop preaching because he was hitting on my topic. But when you're considering doing things for the glory of God you can't cut it all nice and clean. And so I was joking with him afterwards but yet consider the truths of the quotes that he shared or things like William Tyndale as he was being burnt at the stake saying, Lord open the King of England's eyes. Jesus himself saying, Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
John Huss, one of the pre-reformers in Fox's book of martyrs, describes him that as he was being martyred, he began to sing with a loud voice these words, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And when he began to sing the same thing the third time the wind blew and the flame in his face so much that it choked him to death and we look at these people and we think of the Apostle Paul and people who die with great confidence and we say how do they do that? Because that is the contrast from the world that clings to life so much that will do everything so much so that the cryogenics movement to freeze our bodies to find a way to extend life. I think it's Ponce de Leon, looking for the fountain of youth to find life forever. How can it be that the Apostle Paul could say in Philippians 1 21, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Those words come from somebody that the world would say he needs medication. But we understand these truths differently. If I had to try to put forth one main point is this. Christians glorify God in our dying through a display of God-given peace. The opposite may be being stated that we have a lack of worldly fear.
But there's a resting, there's a peace that is not anything that the world can have. But how can that be? Practically speaking, and that's what I've appreciated about Scott Brown's encouragement of sometimes there can be these doctrines and these truths that we throw out as nice platitudes but how do we actually then build up those in our lives to see the grace of God producing those things? What is the source of that peace? Big picture, this truth, the sovereignty of God.
The sovereignty of God is probably being spoken of the most in this, that we glorify God through our suffering in the life because we recognize the sovereign hand of God in all things. Jeff Johnson in his book The Sovereignty of God shows us how big that is. So maybe more specifically, where does the sovereignty of God encourage the believer without fear? That's what I want us to look at today. What truths under that umbrella of the sovereignty of God can be those things which the believer holds on to?
Which are the comfort and balm to the soul in those last moments, maybe last years, or as we walk alongside and are the words to then share with others. To contrast it, There's a resting in the life of the believer, contrasted to that of fear of the world. Now as one who has walked alongside people who have received terminal diagnoses, I'm not here to say that the last days of life are always pain-free. That they're not always easy. That they're not left without a real sense of loss.
For scripture even tells us that we mourn those who have died. Yet we mourn as those who are unique from the world because we do not mourn without a hope. And so we, under this big topic of honoring God in our dying, there's so much that could be covered but I kind of want to keep in a particular lane here to encourage us because that actual process of dying is very unknown. Nobody is here to say, here's what it's like. And so even in the life of the believer, even in the resting, there can still be a uncertainty because of what are those last breaths like.
And so I want us to consider, even in light of those things, what does the sovereignty of God look like? And first of all, we, in the sovereignty of God, rest in His plan. This year, in our homeschool, our family was memorizing Matthew 6, and they were looking at it, and it's that illustration that Jesus is saying, you know what, don't worry about what will happen because the sparrows and the lilies of the field. But in the midst of it, Jesus says, And which of you by worrying could add a single day to his lifespan? Or to his stature, as sometimes the different translations.
Consider the sovereignty of God that's being enforced in our minds that Jesus is saying, rest in this, that you don't need to worry about the future. You don't need to worry about what day that is, how many days have been numbered in your life, because your worrying will not change that. As the psalmist so beautifully declared about the Wonderful work of God in his life. He says, Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they were written the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. Job would say that since his days are determined and the number of his months is with you, you have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass.
Brothers and sisters, the days of our life are determined. Does that mean that we ignore Josh Byss' sermon last night? To not take care of our bodies? No. We see tensions within the commands of God, but to recognize that all the toiling, all the worrying, all that we do will not change that day.
But rest in this too. If you have lost a loved one, that often we say their life was cut short, we're actually questioning the plan of God. For the days numbered even in days of tragedy are days that we can rest and to say God had that determined. Though we can stand in awe and wonder and question the secret things that belong to the Lord, why those days were shorter, we can rest and know with confidence nothing would have changed that. Those words were a great comfort to families who lost loved ones during the COVID crisis.
Well, could we have done this? Should we have done this? Or a cancer? Well, could we have done this treatment or that treatment? And while we can pursue those things, we rest and to know our days are numbered.
Yes, we're called to number our days that we may fear the Lord. There's that warning but there's also that comfort. I can't tell you how many people I've sat saying but could we, should we And this is the comfort to us. The comfort that then changes if we are the one in that position or we are the one counseling others. Don't fear.
Don't fear, for the Lord has planned this. Yes, there are the things that we don't know, but there's a great resting in His sovereign hand and in His plan. And in His plan. This is not a call like last night to not care for our bodies or to do things that would jeopardize our life But it is that comfort by which we calm our soul when we want to fear. Hope in God.
Why? Because He has numbered our days and nothing will change that. Because he is the sovereign God. He is the sovereign God over all things and therefore we do not fear though the mountains be thrown into the heart of the sea. The psalmist says we will not fear for God is our refuge and strength.
So brothers and sisters rest in that. But underneath that other sphere of his sovereignty, and this is probably kind of the main heart of that what I want us to to I pray walk away with today is to rest in God's payment. Consider this, in our death I believe the result of the greatest fear is that fear of what is in what is in the future, what is eternity. I believe we might know these things, but I think this is what we forget. The sovereign God through the finished work of Christ for his children has paid the debt, the security of one's salvation.
I appreciated Paul Washer on Thursday nights talking about our life is changed by gazing upon the glory of Christ upon the cross. And you take that application, it's not just in our life but it's in our death as well. That our eyes are not just fixed upon Christ as we walk this life, it's in our death as well. The greatest need is for us to see God's love for us in Christ and the sufficiency of that and to rest in his death. To rest in his payment is this idea of our salvation being secure in Christ.
The reality that Christ's death is sufficient to pay for our sin is enough. That he purchased it with his own blood, defeating death. I love how The author of Hebrews says, speaking of Christ, Inasmuch then as children had partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the shame, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Hear those last words, all their life subject to bondage, what? A fear.
The fear of what? Of death. And what has Christ done? He has abolished death. That's why Paul could say in 1st Corinthians 15, O death where is thy sting?
O victory where is thy grave? O grave where is thy victory? Excuse me. That fearing death is the bondage. Yes, the world should walk around in the bondage of fear.
But for believers, there is no reason for fear. There is no reason to be in that bondage of fear for Christ has defeated it. But we keep forgetting it. Because our eyes turn away from our Savior and His sufficiency and we turn to the things of this world, we turn to ourselves. Peter says in 1 Peter 1 18, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ is of lamb without blemish and without spot.
As I talk with people struggling with the fear of death often the root of that fear is a lack of assurance of salvation. That they're not sure when that day comes are they really going to stand before God covered in Christ's righteousness. And you know the reason for that? Because we're looking to ourselves. We're looking to our own performance.
We're looking to say, well, did I do enough to stand before God? The answer is we never will. And that's why I believe we need to stand under this umbrella of the sovereignty of God in His covering of us in our sin through the work of Christ. For those who are believers, we can stand secure in his salvation. Whenever I run into a Jehovah's Witness I like to ask them a specific question.
Do you know that you have eternal life? You know why? They can never know. Well I hope, I think I've done enough. But isn't that true in the Christian life as well?
We allow the workspace righteousness to creep in, the man centered, well I have to accomplish my salvation or it's Jesus plus my good works can come in but hear me our salvation is by grace through faith not of what? Works. But as one who shepherds people, this is the lie we buy from the devil. No, it is works. You're not holy enough.
You haven't been applying the scriptures enough. We can't. Is that an excuse to live in sin? No. But it's to rest in Christ and not feel the guilt and the pain of weighing over us that we can die confidently because we're not looking to ourselves, we're looking to our Savior who declared it is finished.
It's kind of like that debt being paid but we keep picking it back up saying no I need to pay it. And so we live with the guilt. We live without the joy. We live with the fear because then it undermines the hope that we can have in Christ in our death. Not only is the payment provided in Christ the forgiveness.
I don't think there's one person who won't stand at the last days of their life and look back and say, wow, I wish I wouldn't have. Oh, why didn't I do this? Or why did I do that? Brothers and sisters, if you're in Christ, you're forgiven. Does that mean the sin was not real?
That there weren't real consequences? Absolutely not. That it's real. That's why Christ died. But consider Paul's words in Philippians 3, forgetting those things which are behind and pressing on toward what is ahead.
In the context of all that, he's not saying who cares about Christ. He's saying in light of Christ, the sin of my past, it's forgiven. And so we can stand on those last days looking unto our death knowing that we don't stand in our works but we stand in the finished work of Christ. Yes we know 1st John 1 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just But do we live like it? Because he doesn't just say forgive, but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Because It is upon that day that we must be clothed in his righteousness alone. Not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but only that is received by faith. And so we rest and we have confidence in our dying that we would glorify God in the peace that covers our hearts as we rest in his plan and his payment. But thirdly, I didn't mean for all these to be peas, but they worked out. To rest in his preservation.
Not just the finished work, but the security of Christ's work. A benediction that is often read in our services comes from Jude 24. Now to him who is able. How does it go? To keep you from stumbling and to present you how?
Okay, to present you faultless. But do you believe that? Again, it's our intercessor, it's our intermediary, it's our high priest who presents us faultless. But I love the next line, before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Where is that joy rooted in?
Self? No, Christ. That it is He who purchased us and continues that work and brings us to the Father, secure in Him. Jesus says in John 10 28, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand.
The next verse, My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hands. So if you want to consider this, God the Father, God the Son have you in their hand and both of them neither one can be snatched out of. So where is our fear based upon? Lies. Because if we're in Christ that is our hope, that is our joy, that is our confidence.
The security of the work of God the Father and God the Son. So that Paul can say that I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things that come nor height nor depth nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let me put those together and ask it in the form of a question. Can death separate us from the love of God? No.
But again, fear is rooted in not believing those truths, not resting in those truths, Not allowing ourselves to be recalling that to our minds, putting it into the front, frontlets, as frontlets upon our eyes. But again in all, in all of this, The security of our salvation is not based upon us. It's upon our wonderful Savior that the grace of God shown to us through Christ. What a beautiful picture it is that God would place our sin upon the undeserving Son of God. That in our place He would stand condemned, that He who knew none of sin would be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in who?
In him, not in ourselves. And again, we keep turning our focus upon ourselves and that's why we have no confidence in looking towards our death. So we rest in that sovereign work of God, in His plan, His payment, His preservation, but lastly in His promise. His promise of what? Eternal life.
Of eternal life with Him. Genesis was the beautiful picture of God dwelling with man. Sin is what separated us from God. But God was the one who provided that covering. Do you notice when God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden, he commanded them to do nothing.
But he covered them with those skins of the dead animal as a picture of that covering that would come. But we see that redemptive picture coming to fruition in Christ being fulfilled in him. But those words that we often hear in John 14. Turn with me there. Consider these words in light of our topic today.
Let not your heart be troubled. What amazing words of comfort. Jesus continues, you believe in God, believe in me also. In my Father's house are many mansions, are many rooms is probably better translation. If it were not so, I would have told you so.
If I go and prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus is in the last days of his life here. The last, think the last night even of his life. And we see these things. Jesus calling his disciples to say, if I go I will come again.
We on this side of the scriptures, where has this taken place or not? Jesus is gone. And he says, if I go, I will come again. And so that promise is that Christ is returning. But why did he go?
To prepare the place. To make that way. As the bridegroom would go and prepare the home and come and get his bride and take him to his home. That beautiful picture of what Christ is doing. That we rest in his promise.
His promise of eternal life. The promise that was given to us there in John 14, but is also kind of reiterated in a little different sense in 1 Corinthians 15. When it speaks of Christ being the first fruits, the firstborn among the dead. Seven and a half years ago we moved from the coast of California to the Midwest to Wisconsin. I had never seen such large-scale farming.
In this picture here of first fruits has become a lot more, I've understood it better. That you go out in the first piece of that crop that you take, it's a picture of that which is yet to come. If you're seeing that it's dead and it's unhealthy, more than likely the rest of your crop is going to be that way. But this is the picture of those who are in Christ. When Christ who is risen, He is that first one to be risen from the dead, He says all those who are in me are going to follow in that same likeness.
That we do not need to fear death, for death is but what the scripture calls sleep. And it's not even just kind of a euphemism, like a joking word, it's truth. Because death is not the end. Death is not the end for believers and unbelievers. Do you realize that all will have eternal life of some sort?
One to everlasting judgment and one to everlasting life. But Jesus says we can rest in his promise because he was the one risen from the dead. He was the one not just risen, but he is the one who has ascended and is coming again. That our hope is not just here in this world. For Paul says, if this world is all that we have, believers are the most to be pitied.
Why? Because we die to ourself to follow Christ. Why would we do that if this life is all we have? Therefore the shirt would be true, he who dies with the most toys wins, but scripturally that is false. He who dies with the most toys still dies.
But here we see the promise is that which we can rest upon the sovereign work of God, not just in our salvation, but for all of our eternity. A few years ago at the G3 conference, I heard a song introduced by Matt Papa entitled, Christ Our Hope in Life and Death. At that time, I was not too familiar with the Heidelberg Catechism. And that song's been going through my mind in preparation for this message and so I googled the Heidelberg Catechism question number one. And I only knew the first part of the answer.
The question is, what is your only comfort in life and death? The answer, that I am NOT my own but belong with body and soul both in life and death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. But what an amazing thing is it doesn't stop. Because the comfort in this life and in our death is that we are not our own, that we are our Savior. But then it continues, it says, he has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the power of the devil.
He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head indeed all things must work together for my salvation therefore by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him. In good conscience, that's a summary of my message after I planned my message. What a beautiful picture it is. Why? Because we're pulling from the same scriptures.
What a beautiful picture it is that it points us to the sovereignty of God in the finished work of Christ, the person the preservation of our salvation, the sovereignty of God in all of our situations in his plan and that promise of eternal life. What an amazing truth that is. But why do you think we need a catechism question for it? Because we need to remember. I'm getting older.
I'm feeling a lot older. I have seven kids so I can't feel too old. But I forget. I forget very quickly. I love how Psalm 78 continues to say, we need to remember these things.
But talks about how they forgot. But proclaims the glory of God in His faithfulness. What a joy it is if we put this before our eyes and to consider, and to consider the truth of the question and the one word there, what is your only comfort in life and death? Because many people in their last days will gather all their possessions around them. Can even gather family.
Can hold on to this or that. I remember during COVID, in the kind of strict lockdowns, there's a care facility across the street from our church. And a family brought a horse outside the window of their loved one, trying to bring comfort to that loved one. Are the things of this life good? Yeah.
Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. The people we have around us, the friends and the family, those are good gifts, but they can never be the hope that we have for eternal life. They can never be our confidence. Look at the the wealth and the possessions I've built. Look at what I've done for my name.
Whatever it is that we want to put our hope in this life and in death, if it is anything different than we are Christ's purchased by His blood, secured for all eternity, we are without hope. And therefore we will die in fear. And if we don't die in fear, we are dying without the lack of knowledge. As you look at the life of the Apostle Paul, so much of his writings are focused upon the reality of living now with eternity in view. The gentleman we went to church with years ago used to say, we need to live a life always living in view of eternity.
The 2 Corinthians 4.17, Paul says, this light and momentary affliction is so light because of the weight of the glory that is yet to come. He says it in Romans 8.19 that these present sufferings are nothing compared to what is still yet in store. But does our Love for the base things of this world hinder our hearts affections for eternity. And then undermine the confidence that we can have in our death. Where are each of us in these truths today?
As we consider these truths, I have a feeling that more than likely, if you're fearful of death you're not here. Because we don't want to hear it. We want to shut it out. But if we're fearful of death, we need to consider, are we not God's child? Are we standing in the place of judgment and we should fear death?
We should fear death because there is a day that is appointed for us to die once and then face judgment. And there's a reality that we must take and a sobriety that we must have because we will stand before a holy God. And who of us can stand? None. None of us can stand before the holy and righteous God.
But that fear of death, let me encourage us, it is a common grace of God to prick our hearts, to show us our need for something other than ourselves to stand upon in our death. We were designed to be in perfect communion with God, but sin separated us. In the garden we then walk in that sinful death. Yet God is glorified through the saving. Through the saving of people to bring us out of our sin through the perfect work of Christ.
If you today are fearing death, look to Christ. Acknowledge your sin and fall completely at His feet, declaring that He is sufficient to be your hope in this life and in death. But maybe you're a believer here and I believe we all it's natural to have questions of death and to fear death but sometimes we can become too fearful of death. Let me ask you, are you looking to Christ or looking to yourself for your confidence? I would encourage you that often our fear is rooted in that we're looking unto ourselves not Christ.
We're looking to our works. We're looking that I don't have enough to offer God and you know what we don't. Look to Christ. Be reminded of the salvation that has covered you. Run fast after him, following him joyfully.
I've been thinking of this illustration recently as March Madness had taken place with basketball and all these underdogs were winning. And they upset the whole March Madness tournament. Why does an underdog, Why is an underdog so dangerous? They're not fearing failure. Nobody expects them to win.
That they go without this inhibition, this fear holding them back. But shouldn't that be a picture of the Christian's life? If we have been truly covered in Christ's righteousness, we should be going wholeheartedly after God with great joy, without the fear of failure, without that feeling of we're gonna face a father who's displeased with us as we heard the other night? We're called as children. We're called sons and daughters.
When we consider our death, what is the first thought comes to our mind? Is it Christ or ourselves? Let it be Christ and His perfect work. Don't look to ourselves, our works are worthiness. And so we need to meditate upon the finished work of Christ, to meditate upon his sacrifice, because we have forgotten what God has done.
1 Peter tells us that we have become unfruitful. Why? Because we have forgotten. We need to remind ourselves of God's sovereign work. That from our election before the world began to his sustaining persevering grace to present us faultless is all of him.
And to rest secure upon it. We can declare as we look to Christ it is well with our soul because it is not our sin in part but the hole that is nailed to the cross. And we bear it no more. So again, the Heidelberg, question one, what is our only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sin with his precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that the will of my Heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed all things must work together for my salvation therefore by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready to serve him from now on and to live for him. And so we have the opportunity that back in Hebrews chapter 2 we saw that those who are gripped by fear, as believers we are not to be bound by fear, but to be living in faith and confidence in the finished work of our Savior. So that we can boldly, not standing in boldness of ourself, but boldly proclaiming our Hope in Christ at our dying breath.
That with the martyrs of old we can open our eyes to see our beautiful Savior after that last breath. I love the old hymn, When my eyes shall close in death, And I'll soar to worlds unknown, And see thee on thy throne, rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee." That even throughout all eternity we are resting in the merit of Christ. We are dressed in His righteousness. And as we know that reality, we live differently and we prepare differently. Why?
So that God would be glorified. Not that people would say, oh wow, look at that person, they died so well. But that the glories of our Savior would be upon our lips that the people knew why we have such confidence going to our death. Whether it be death through sickness, whether it be death through martyrdom, whatever means God calls us home, He is the words upon our lips. I believe it's that confidence that the Apostle Paul, as he's writing his last letter, from jail awaiting his crucifixion, his own death, martyrdom, in 2 Timothy 4, he says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering in the time of my departure as at hand.
I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith. Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who loved His appearing. Again, I don't believe we finish well because we're looking unto ourself.
We're looking unto our own works. Instead, turn our eyes away to the beautiful Savior who has purchased us. That He would be our only hope in this life and in death. Let's pray. The Lord teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Father help us to recognize that our days upon this earth are great days of joy that you have blessed us with. That you are that shepherd that leads us. Lord and paths of righteousness for your sake. You are the one who leads us through the valley of the shadow of death so we do not have to fear because you are with us. Father help us to see the reality that we would not be blind in our sin to the state of our souls and the hopelessness apart from the grace that is offered to us in Christ.
And Father, we confess our sin. We see the sin that has so easily entangled us. But Father, may we look unto Christ that he alone would be our hope in this life and in death. That we would not look to ourselves for our own forgiveness. Father, give us a passion for your kingdom, to live in light of this secure hope that we have in Christ, that we would be faithful, that we would finish well.
May we find the joy that comes from knowing our salvation is complete in Christ. May with hearts full of gratitude, may we give our lives to serve you. And if it costs our lives, we rejoice in being counted worthy to suffer and to die like our Savior Jesus Christ it's in his name we pray amen Thank you, the Lord bless you.