Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.
We're so glad you're here,
and we hope this message inspires you,
builds your faith,
and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.
Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible
and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.
So welcome and enjoy the message.
If you have your Bible, please open it with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and a message I'm calling Walking with Jesus.
Today we come to the end of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Thessalonians.
And as Paul comes to the end of his scroll, he ends by talking about the main thing,
which is our personal relationship with God.
Now, we're going to see that included in that are a bunch of rapid-fire commands that he gives us,
but really all of those commands, in one way or another,
Relate to our personal relationship with God.
You see, God desires a personal relationship with you.
That's the Christian message, that because of our sin, we've been separated from God
so that we don't have a personal relationship with Him.
But God loved us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to reconcile us to God,
that is to reconnect us to God in relationship.
And so as Christians, you and I, we are offered a personal, intimate relationship with Almighty God.
Now, there's a number of metaphors in Scripture that describe this relationship.
Jesus said in John chapter 15, He said,
I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides or remains in me will produce much fruit.
The Bible is filled with metaphors like that.
that help us get our minds around what it's like to have a relationship with the Lord.
Metaphors like Jesus is our shepherd and we are his flock.
Jesus is our bridegroom and we are his bride.
God is our potter and we are his clay.
On and on we could go.
But perhaps my favorite metaphor, which also happens to be the most prominent within Scripture,
is the metaphor of walking with God.
Adam and Eve, before they sinned, while they were in the Garden of Eden, they walked with God.
And throughout God's Word, God invites His children to walk with Him.
Now, I love going on a walk with my wife, Kelsey.
It's like our relationship just lights up.
Our communication goes to another level as we walk and we talk and we laugh and we spend time with each other.
Well, God invites us to walk with him.
Now, before Jesus ascended back into heaven, after the resurrection, he said, I am with you always, he tells the disciples, even to the end of the age.
And so Jesus is with you and I through his spirit.
So sometimes I like to think about our personal relationship with God as walking together.
With Jesus, because I can kind of visualize that, visualize Jesus walking with me.
So let's look at how Paul begins wrapping up his letter in verse number 16.
He says,
What an amazing verse of Scripture.
Paul says, this is God's will for your life.
And then he rattles off three quick commands.
And all of them are very closely related.
The first thing we see is that walking with Jesus involves having a joyful attitude.
Paul says, rejoice always.
Now, this word rejoice and the word joy come from the same root word.
Rejoice means to rejoy, meaning to have joy over and over again.
Now, I think everyone loves having joy, but the kicker is this little word always.
Have joy over and over again in your life, always.
Always.
Well, how can we have joy?
How can we rejoice when bad things happen in life?
How can we rejoice when life is full of pain and trouble?
Well, I think we need to realize there's a difference between joy and happiness.
Happiness is connected to the happenstance of life, the circumstances of life.
Well, when circumstances change, that means our happiness changes.
But joy is different.
Joy is anchored in something that never changes.
Happiness is based on what's going on around us.
Joy is based on what's going on in us.
And more specifically, it's based on who.
is in us. Philippians chapter 4, verse number 4 says, "'Rejoice in the Lord always.'" Again, I will say
rejoice. Notice, our rejoicing always is rooted in the person of Jesus. Rejoice in the Lord.
You see, whenever we're walking with Jesus and He's walking with us,
that changes our perspective, doesn't it?
It changes our outlook on everything.
And He puts a spirit of joy in us.
You see, joy is actually a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible compares our life to a tree on a number of different occasions.
Psalm chapter 1 says,
Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord.
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
whose leaf does not wither, and whatever he does, it prospers.
That means his life is fruitful.
It is productive.
Our lives as Christians are to be rooted in the rivers of life, rooted in Jesus, so that we produce the fruit of the Spirit.
And as you know, that as a Christian, God expects the fruit of the Spirit to remain on our tree, on our life, even in the midst of the storms.
Now, the fruit can fall off if we let it, but it doesn't have to fall off.
Paul says, rejoice always.
Choose the fruit of joy for it to remain in your life even in the storm.
And so when Paul says rejoice always, he isn't saying fake it.
You know, as Christians, you've got to put this plaster of this smile on your face,
even if you're grieving, even if you're deeply troubled by these circumstances of life.
No, he's saying there is real, actual, legitimate reason to rejoice.
Not in your painful circumstances of life, but in the Lord,
who's walking with you, who's present with you in your life.
Now, Paul also gives us a command. He says, pray.
without ceasing. We learn here that walking in Jesus involves ongoing prayer.
Now, I think it's important for every Christian to have some dedicated time of prayer with the
Lord, where we go into the prayer closet, so to speak, as Jesus described, and we spend some
dedicated time with Him in prayer. But this verse isn't talking about that. It's talking about the
It's not talking about that as much as it's talking about having this ongoing dialogue with the Lord beyond our prayer closet.
It's talking about recognizing that God's presence is in our life and that we speak to him because he's with us.
We speak with him all the time.
Not in vain repetitions as Jesus condemned, but in honest dialogue.
I know some people in our church who at the end of their prayer time each morning, they don't say amen.
Because for them, amen means the prayer time's over.
And so they don't say amen, so they're reminded that this is ongoing prayer.
My prayer time is not over.
Now, so what does this look like, pray without ceasing?
Well, it looks like inviting God into every aspect of our lives because he's already there.
recognizing that there's no aspect of our lives that are unimportant to Him.
Sometimes people feel like, even Christians feel like,
well, I don't feel like I should bother God unless it's something that's really big,
like a really big issue in life.
Then I can bother God.
Listen.
There are no big issues to God.
So every issue that we might bring to him is a very small issue in his mind.
It's worthy of his attention, but it's very easy for him to accomplish.
You see, the Bible teaches that God delights in hearing from us.
Jesus said, what father doesn't love giving good gifts to his children?
He also said that we have not.
Why?
Because we ask not.
That means there are things in your life that you do not have simply because you have not asked God for them.
So praying without ceasing is bringing every aspect of our lives together.
To him. Asking him for advice when we need it. Asking him for help all the time. You're driving
down the road and someone cuts you off and you start boiling with anger. Well, tell the Lord
about it. I mean, he already knows about it, so talk to him about it. Lord, I'm so mad right now,
I can hardly think.
Lord, would you call me? Would you give me a peace that comes from you? Or maybe you're faced with a
challenging situation. Lord, would you give me the wisdom to be able to navigate this situation
with your wisdom, to see it as you see it, so I can make a wise decision? Or maybe you're
struggling with anxiety at a particular time in life. Lord, would you
Would you please calm my nerves?
I've recognized I'm so nervous about this because I don't have control over this issue.
But I know you have control.
Lord, so I'm trusting you with it.
I'm just going to let go of it.
And I'm going to let you take it from here.
Or maybe you're just walking along and you see this beautiful sunset.
Lord.
wow, you really outdid yourself today.
What a beautiful sunset that you have given us to enjoy.
What I'm saying is start talking with God.
Keep talking with God and never stop talking with God.
Now, Paul also gives a command.
He says, in everything, give thanks.
Imperative.
A command.
Now, notice he doesn't say, give thanks for everything.
That would be ludicrous.
He says, give thanks in everything.
In every circumstance of life, find something to be thankful for.
You see, walking with Jesus, it involves having a grateful attitude.
Now, how many times...
Do we overlook all so many of God's blessings
because we're focused instead on what we don't have
instead of what we do have?
I know I'm certainly guilty of that at times.
So I'm trying to remind myself more and more
that even in the midst of my challenging circumstances
to look for things I ought to be thankful for
and when I locate and identify those things
to articulate it to God.
Thank you and be very specific about those things.
Now, I've tried to start doing that more with the little aches and pains I have in my body.
My boys are wrestling and I have not yet fully come to grips with the fact that I'm getting
quite a bit older.
And so, I'm still trying to get into the wrestling room and to wrestle some.
And so, it seems like every time I get in there, I hurt something.
Two years ago, I hurt my right shoulder.
Last January, I hurt my left shoulder.
This fall, I hurt my knee and my hip.
And about six weeks ago, I hurt my ribs.
For the last two years or so, I nearly every day doing some form of YouTube-guided physical therapy because stuff hurts.
I'll tell you, sometimes I wake up in the morning feeling sorry for myself.
This hurts.
That hurts.
Man, I can't move quite like I used to.
If I'm not careful, I'm not inviting.
I don't invite the Lord into my painful situation.
Subconsciously, I think that my self-inflicted pain is too trivial for Him, which goes against
everything I'm trying to teach our church family.
He wants to hear about it all.
when I don't bring it to Him,
I end up being way more discouraged
than I ought to be.
So I'm learning more and more
to come back to thankfulness,
to thank the Lord for the mobility I do have.
Thank you, Lord, I have a shoulder.
that has the ability to ache.
Thank you, Lord, that while my knee hurts,
I can still walk and live a very normal life.
And you know, that perspective of thanksgiving,
it completely changes my attitude about a lot of things.
You see, pain is inevitable.
Misery is a choice.
You don't have to be miserable.
You're gonna experience pain and suffering.
You don't have to choose misery.
Why?
Because Jesus is with us.
He's dealt with our biggest problem
of being separated from him because of our sin.
He's walking with us, we're walking with him.
Perspective matters.
I heard about a donut shop that had a sign on the wall
that said the secret to life is to focus on the donut
and not the hole.
Well, that's pretty good advice.
What are we focused on here? Now, these three commands, rejoice always,
pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, all three commands are very closely related to
each other. And the key to all three, the key that's going to unlock these three
things within your life is to develop a conscious awareness of God's presence in your life.
to be consciously aware that God is with you.
God is with you right now.
As you hear his word and you're receiving,
he's right here, he's with us.
As you leave this building in a moment,
when our service is over, you walk out to your,
he's there with you.
You go and you grab a bite to eat,
you lay down for a nap, God is with you.
He is with us all the time.
And when we have an awareness of his presence,
it then becomes very, very natural to rejoice always.
to always be thanking him for this and that because he's with us giving us those things
and to always go to him for help verse number 19 he gives another command he says do not
quench the Spirit. We see here that walking with Jesus also involves not quenching the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Now,
what in the world does it mean to not quench the Spirit? The word quench
literally means to put the fire out,
to extinguish and smother the fire.
See, when we get saved, we
The Holy Spirit, he comes upon us and he starts a fire in us.
And Paul says, don't you put that fire out.
Don't you quench that fire.
Now, that means, first of all, that it's possible for us to put the fire out.
And second, it means that if the fire does go out in our life, we're the ones who put it out, not God.
Now, the flip side to quenching the Spirit,
the opposite of that, the more positive way to say it,
is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And the word filled is a nautical term.
It speaks of a sailboat that is out at sea,
and it lifts its sails in order to be filled with the wind that's blowing.
For the Christian, the wind of the Spirit is always blowing in our life,
and we've got to lift the sails of our own volition, lift the sails of our will,
so we're filled and empowered by the Spirit of God in our life.
And if we don't, we are choosing instead to extinguish the fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Sometimes a Christian will wonder,
How did I get like this?
I mean, I used to be so on fire for the Lord.
I used to be so close to God.
What happened?
I'll tell you exactly what happened.
At some point, you quenched the spirit.
God convicted you of something.
You chose to ignore that conviction.
You smothered the Holy Spirit's fire in your life.
I heard about an old farmer whose wife would ride with him in his pickup truck everywhere he went out on the farm.
And one day as he was driving along, she said to him from the passenger seat, she said,
Well, what happened to us?
I mean, we used to be so in love.
We used to be so close.
Whenever you'd be driving, I'd snuggle up against your arm.
I'd put my head upon your shoulder.
What happened to us?
The farmer said, Well, I never moved.
Ha!
See, if we're no longer on fire for the Lord and we're no longer close to Him in an intimate relationship,
we're the ones who smothered the fire.
We're the ones who move away from God, not Him.
He is exactly where you left Him.
Verse number 20.
He says, do not despise prophecies, test all things.
You see, walking with Jesus involves testing all prophecies, not despising them.
See, God is a God of truth.
He cares deeply about truth because truth comes from him.
He is truth.
Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
The devil is the opposite, though.
The devil is a liar.
There's no truth found in him, which means as Christians,
because the devil also is giving messages as God is,
it means as Christians we must be very, very careful.
when we're listening to someone who's speaking on behalf of God.
And that's what a prophet does.
They receive a message from God and they speak.
They deliver that message to others on God's behalf.
So what does God mean and the Apostle Paul mean when he says,
don't despise prophecy but instead test the prophecy?
Well, I think we need to understand the context in which 1 Thessalonians was written.
At that time in history, God was speaking new revelation of himself to the church through the apostles and the prophets.
That's how we have our New Testament.
Some of that prophecy, it was written down.
It became scripture after much testing.
And Paul says, I don't want you to despise it.
Don't reject this new revelation, this new scripture that God gave you.
This is a wonderful, wonderful blessing.
but you do need to test it.
It needs to be compatible with the other things that God has revealed of Himself.
It needs to stand under careful scrutiny.
Why?
Because there's false prophets out there.
In fact, we know that the Apostle Paul said in his second letter to the Thessalonians,
he referenced one of these false prophets who had actually written to the Thessalonians a letter,
claiming himself to be Paul when he wasn't.
He forged a letter as a false prophet.
And so Paul's saying here, he said, not all prophecies come from God.
Some are.
So don't despise when you hear someone claim to have God's word, but you better be testing it.
Now, what does this mean for you and I, since we're living during a time where Scripture is complete?
God said in the book of Revelation, let no one add or take away from this book.
I think some natural application for you and I could be the preaching and the teaching of God's Word.
When someone teaches and preaches God's Word, the Holy Spirit's at work, right?
The preacher explains.
He elaborates.
He applies the Word.
Well, whenever that is happening, don't despise what's being said.
But you absolutely should test it.
In other words, everything that comes out of my mouth.
As a church body, you're responsible to test what I'm saying with the Word of God.
Now, there are some who become hypercritical in the church.
My dad used to call these people heresy hunters.
All they do is look for things they can attack the preacher on.
They're parsing every verb.
They're looking for every little slip of the tongue that might be close to something that could be problematic.
I don't think Paul is saying look with a hypercritical attitude at the preacher.
Because that's not going to be good for your soul.
I think what he's saying is make sure that what he is saying is tested with Scripture before you receive it and ingest it into your life.
Verse 21, he moves on to some more commands.
He said, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.
Now he starts praying.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.
And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming, the
parousia of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
Now, the word sanctify that Paul prays for here, it means to be made holy,
to be set apart for a specific divine purpose, to be set apart to God.
So let's follow what Paul is saying here.
First of all, he says abstain from every form of evil.
Get rid of that.
Stay away from it.
Cling instead to everything that is good.
He's saying here, be holy.
Be set apart from sin, dedicated alone to God.
And then Paul prays.
He says, now may God...
sanctify you and set you apart as dedicated to him.
So which is it?
Do we set ourselves apart to God or does he set us apart to himself?
Well, it's both.
Yes, it's the answer.
Philippians 2, verse 12 says,
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.
In context, this is talking about sanctification.
Paul's not saying work for your salvation.
He's saying work out the implications of your salvation.
Live out what God is already doing and has done in you.
For it's God who works in you.
So we cooperate with the Spirit of God as He sanctifies us.
But while we cooperate with Him, ultimately speaking, it's God who does the heavy lifting, right?
Because what Paul says here, he says,
He who calls you is faithful, He will do it.
Look at Philippians 1, verse 6.
It says, being confident of this very thing,
that he, that's God,
who has begun a good work in you
will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
He didn't say he might complete it.
Maybe he'll complete it if you are really good.
No, he says he will.
He will complete it.
You see, walking with Jesus,
it involves being fully dedicated to God.
That's what Paul is saying.
He's saying abstain from evil, cling to that which is good,
and allow God to completely satisfy your life, your soul, your spirit, your body,
the totality of who you are.
Some Christians have a little bit trouble understanding this fancy word sanctify.
So I want to give you a couple examples of being sanctified and being fully dedicated.
The first is that of a wedding dress.
A wedding dress is purchased and then it's set apart.
It's dedicated for one use.
It's only to be worn by the bride on her wedding day.
I mean, all this money is spent on the wedding dress.
It's the most beautiful dress that a woman will ever own, yet she completely sanctifies it.
She dedicates it completely, exclusively to be worn on her wedding day.
Well, we are to be dedicated completely to God in a similar way.
Now, I've heard Pastor Brian compare being sanctified to a toothbrush.
And it's now my favorite illustration about being sanctified.
Think about your toothbrush.
Your toothbrush is set apart and dedicated for one person, right?
You and no one else.
Your toothbrush also serves only one purpose.
It serves as a tool to clean your teeth.
It's not to be used on the ground and the tile floor in the bathroom.
It's not to be used to scrub the toilet.
It has been sanctified by you, right?
It is exclusively dedicated to clean your teeth and only your teeth.
God says throughout his word, you're my child.
I've made you clean.
I've cleaned you from all the filth that you were in.
I'm setting you apart for me, dedicated for me alone.
Now, in Pastor Brian's illustration, we're actually the toothbrush, aren't we?
And God is us in that illustration.
He sets us apart for himself, and yet, unlike the toothbrush,
since we have a will of our own, sometimes we walk back to the toilet of life, don't we?
And Paul is saying, don't do that.
God has cleansed you.
He's sending you.
Don't go back to the filth.
Don't go back to that nasty stuff.
Come to God.
Let him sanctify you completely.
Now, verse number 25, he gives us another command.
He says, brethren, brothers, pray for us.
We see here that walking with Jesus, it involves praying for others.
And Paul knew very well the power of prayer.
In chapter 1, he begins his letter by saying, I am praying for you.
And now he ends his letter by saying, will you pray for us?
I hope that you regularly pray for your loved ones, those in your family, those in your life group,
those in whatever ministry you serve in, those in our church family.
And may I be so bold to be like the Apostle Paul and to ask, would you, brothers and sisters, pray for us as your pastors?
I know many of you do, and we're so very thankful for it.
Verse 26, he says, another command, greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
We see here that walking with Jesus involves warmly greeting other Christians.
Now, I wouldn't suggest that you go around kissing people in the church.
That's a good way for you to meet our security team.
Let's not do that.
But greeting with a kiss was part of their culture.
It was part of their greeting culture.
It still is in many parts of the world.
The point, though, is not the kiss.
It's that it's a holy greeting.
And it's directed towards those who are brothers and sisters in Christ, part of the family.
I believe that a warm greeting from one Christian to another is a ministry that is often neglected.
Do not underestimate the power of a warm smile and looking someone in the eye and saying with your eyes and saying with your face,
I love you, I care for you, you matter to me.
I believe God can use a handshake and a high five and an appropriate hug, a greeting to minister to a person's soul.
I've been thinking about it for a while, and here at some point, we're going to try something
we haven't done for a long time at Valley.
We're going to set aside a little bit of time in our service to give some warm greetings
one to another, those people that are sitting around us.
Now, I know that makes those of us introverts a little nervous, okay?
Okay.
You're interested? Just sit on down, okay?
You're fine. When that time comes, just sit down.
We have plenty of extroverts who are going to find you, okay?
When that time comes, let me encourage you.
We're not going to keep doing it if it's just perfunctory.
No, no, no.
What I'm talking about is let's warmly greet one another.
Let's let people around us know we love them and we care for them.
We're interested in their life.
Greet one another, he says, with a holy kiss.
Verse 27, he says, I charge you by the Lord that this epistle, this letter, be read to all the holy brothers.
That's what we're doing right now, over 2,000 years later, because this is Scripture.
For several months now, we've been reading this letter out loud and walking through it together.
Paul ends in verse 28, the very last verse.
He says,
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Here's the last point, and it is the most important point.
Walking with Jesus is only possible by the grace of God.
Now, it's been a few months,
since we started this letter, but do you remember how Paul first started the book of 1 Thessalonians?
The very first verse of his letter says, grace to you. And now the very last verse of his letter
says, the grace of Jesus be with you. From beginning to end, 1 Thessalonians is all about
God's amazing grace, and that is because the Christian life from beginning to end is all about
God's amazing grace.
Amazing grace.
Now,
if your Christian walk with Jesus
is a burden to you,
if you hear all these additional commands
and you're thinking,
man, that's going to be so much work
to do this and do that,
and you feel weighed down
and you feel like that's a burden,
then you don't get the grace of God.
You missed the point.
But,
If your Christian walk with Jesus is a delight, if it's a delight, now you understand grace.
What is grace?
Well, grace is unmerited favor.
It's when we get something that we don't deserve to get.
When we get God, we don't deserve to get Him.
We get His forgiveness.
We don't deserve that.
You know, most people think that God simply gives us what we deserve,
so that we've got to work really hard to live a good life so God is going to accept us.
The problem with that is that none of us have lived good enough.
Not even close.
We have all taken our lives into the toilet of sin and we've been stained by sin.
We're not worthy of having a close relationship with God.
We're filthy into God's pure, holy presence.
And so what we need is we need to be cleaned.
Cleansed by the washing of the blood of Christ.
The message of the Bible.
Is that even in our sin, in our filth, in our unrighteousness, that God looks on us with love.
And He loves us.
And even in the midst of our corruption, He loves us.
And so He sent His Son, Jesus, His only begotten Son.
And He came to die on the cross for our sin.
So that we can be forgiven by Him and be made clean.
The Bible says that if we confess our sins, our filth,
He, God, is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
There is nothing like being clean in the presence of God.
There's nothing like it.
Because we don't experience that
until we come to faith in Christ,
until we have a relationship with Him.
What we experience instead is guilt, shame.
All these failures, they start piling on us.
The more we live, the heavier it gets.
And so we carry around all of this burden
The message of the Bible is that Jesus came to take the burden off our shoulders,
our sin, our guilt, our shame, to take it.
And he wore it upon the cross, paying for the penalty of our sin.
And if anyone calls upon the name of the Lord, they will be saved.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will.
This is a holy moment in the life of our church.
If you don't have a personal relationship with God by His grace,
I want to invite you to experience His grace right now.
Maybe you have an awareness,
an awareness of your sin.
Maybe you haven't even known the right words to call it,
but you sense it.
You've known it.
Something's not right.
You've longed for meaning and significance and purpose.
You've longed for life to really matter, but it hasn't.
Not really.
You've pursued significance in things that are outside of God, and it's left you wanting.
I want to invite you right now to admit the sin in your life.
To fess up.
To recognize and acknowledge how...
dirty you are because of your sin
in God's eyes who is pure and clean.
I want to invite you to turn from the filth
and to turn
to Jesus in faith.
Maybe
you're listening and you are a Christian.
You have a relationship with God
but
Somewhere along the way, that wonderful relationship with God that started by grace has now turned into a lot of effort on your part.
Self-effort.
I've got to do more.
I've got to be better to prove I'm a Christian or to be what I'm supposed to be.
And it's become a burden because you keep falling short.
Maybe as a Christian, you need to renew your sense of understanding about what grace is.
That it's not about your effort, it's about what Jesus has already done.
And that we walk freely and with a lightness because of what Jesus has done for us.
And that our obeying of the commands of God, whatever they might be,
some of the commands here of rejoicing and being thankful and greeting one another warmly and things like that,
that's not a burden, that's a delight.
That's the greatest thing in the world, to walk with Jesus in that way.
But somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like a delight and became a burden to you.
I want to invite you to renew your understanding and your invitation into your life to fully acknowledge the grace of God.
Because our Christian life, it starts with God's grace.
It continues with God's grace.
And it ends by God's grace.
Maybe you're a Christian, but you've never gone public with your faith.
You've never been baptized.
Or maybe you'd like to join our church family.
Well, in just a moment, we're going to give you a time to respond.
I'm going to pray, and then we're going to stand to our feet.
And as we stand, we're going to sing a song together.
And there's going to be pastors and other leaders and prayer partners here at the front.
And we're going to invite you to step out from wherever you're at, wherever you're at in the building.
Walk down one of these aisles.
Walk down one of these staircases.
And if you don't have a personal relationship with God by grace,
I'm going to invite you to give your life to Jesus.
Just come as you are.
Say, you know what?
It's time.
I've heard about Jesus.
I've known about Jesus.
But now I need to personally meet his grace.
Come.
Let us know.
We'd love to pray with you and help you about that.
Maybe you want to join our church or be baptized.
We'd love to visit with you about that.
Maybe, just maybe, you don't need someone to pray for you.
We would love to pray for you, but also you can just come pray at these steps and let them serve as an altar.
My heart's desire is that we'd have more movement at the time of the invitation for people to feel free to get up and go to these steps and pour out their heart to the Lord.
I think some people are nervous about doing that from time to time because they think, hey, people are going to be wondering what's going on in whose life or her life.
Listen.
Why don't you just come up here and pour out your heart of gratitude to the Lord?
Maybe there's not some big sin that you need to be confessing at the steps.
Maybe you just need to be thankful.
and articulate to the Lord, let this serve as a meeting place between you and him in our church
family, in the midst of our church family, and just say, thank you, God. Thank you for this.
Thank you for that. Thank you for all that you have done. However God leads in a moment,
I want to invite you to come. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much.
for your amazing grace from beginning to end and everything in between.
We only can walk with you, not based on how good we are, but based on what you did for us.
You came to us.
You sought us out.
We love you because you first loved us.
And so we want to say thank you.
And we want to acknowledge your presence.
Lord, how rude.
How rude for someone to live in our constant presence and for us not to acknowledge that person.
And how rude it is for Christians, for those of us at times, when we don't acknowledge that you're with us.
Help us develop an awareness of your constant presence in our life through your Son and through your Spirit.
And I pray, Lord, that that would change everything.
That relationship that we have would change everything
about how we see the world, the good and even the bad.
Help us, Lord.
I pray that you give people the courage that's going to take the step out and come
and give their life.
to you. Give them the courage, Lord. We love you. We dedicate and sanctify this time
to you and you alone. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thanks for listening today.
We hope you enjoyed this message.
And if you did, we would be so grateful if you left us a review.
Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast
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If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith
through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait.
reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988.
That's podcast to 88988
or connect with us on one of our social media platforms.
You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org
to find even more great resources.
No matter where you are in your journey,
know that we love you.
We're praying for you
and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.