to have you here worshiping with us. Just a couple of announcements today. The first of which is if you're new to First Press and you want to fill out a visitor card, there's one in the P right in front of you. We encourage you to take a moment now and do that and drop it in the offering plate when that comes around. And we also want to invite you to come back tonight. We're doing a special series on questions that people will ask us about the faith. And tonight we're going to talk about does science disprove Christianity or Christianity and science at war with one another? How does how do those things work together well? How can you as a scientifically minded person or witness to people in your family who are scientifically minded in a way that's faithful to the truth of the gospel and also engaging with that thought? We encourage you to come back tonight. That's at 5.30. Take a moment now to prepare your hearts as we prepare to enter in to worship of our living God this morning.
Because we stand to worship of mighty God. Our worship is our giving of honor and service, immutable which means unchangeable and our loving God. And so enter into his presence with me in the power of the Spirit as you participate in this call to worship. But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. For I am the Lord, your God, the holy one of Israel, your Savior. We come to worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You have not taken us out of this world, but you have left us here, but you are with us. You walk with us through our trials. You gather us to yourself day after day. You hold us near though the waters are deep in this world. You are sufficient for us. We find that we cease from our struggle and we rest in the work of Jesus Christ alone for his people. And so surely we make our morning prayer of prayer ev'reration. And we make our morning songs, songs that are full of gratitude and joy. May these words reflect the depth of our love for you, Lord Christ, as we sing in Jesus' name. Amen.
We look at our effort. What is your only comfort in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ? He has fully paid for all my sins 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 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 assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him. You may be seated. One of the phrases that we sang together in that great hymn, Rock of Ages, is we are asking the Lord our God to cleanse us from the guilt of sin and also the power of sin. When we first trusted in Christ for our salvation, we were objectively cleansed from sin. We were justified and yet sin so often cleansed to us. And so we pray that the Lord our God would also sanctify us by the power of the Spirit that he would make us more and more like Christ. And part of that process is confessing our sins together, acknowledging that we are not now who we will be. We will be one day perfect, cleansed completely. And until that day, we confess our sins together. And we'll do so this morning using the words of Psalm 51, and after which we'll have a time of silent confession of sin. Let's read this confession of sin responsibly. Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
Let's go to God now in silent prayer. O Lord our God, we pray that you would hear our prayer of confession this morning, and that you would cleanse us from our sin, but we pray not in our own name, but in the name of our Savior, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I encourage you to look up and hear God's words of assurance from John 3. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Let's go to God in prayer. O great God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for this promise that we have in the gospel, that if we would simply believe in you, Lord Jesus, if we would simply trust in you for salvation, you will most assuredly forgive us of all of our sins, every sin that we have committed in thought, in word, and indeed, that you will forgive us for things that we have done that are evil and wrong, that you will forgive us for the good things that we've left undone for the ways that we have failed to love our neighbor as ourselves for the many times where we have lived our lives as if you were not in it and if you were not real and with us, Father, forgive us. Remind us of the gospel. If there's anyone here this morning who was waited down by sin, I pray that they would hear these words of forgiveness and hear these words of assurance that we have been made clean, not based on our efforts, not based on our efforts to climb the ladder to heaven, but based on what you have done in climbing down the ladder to us. Lord Jesus, hear our prayer before we make it in the matchless name of Jesus and we do so, joining our words together with your words, Lord Jesus, praying together the prayer that you taught us to pray. Our Father, who are in heaven, how would be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever on the stand. You may be seated. We have the privilege this morning of having three baptisms, which is an exciting thing for me. If you know me at all, you know that one of my favorite things in the world is baptism. It is such a beautiful picture of God's grace in our lives and so we have the privilege of welcoming the Gutierrez family and the Whitaker family, if you want to come forward as well. The Gutierrez family is accompanied not only by our elder Mike Austin but also Jerry Gutierrez, Nathaniel's dad who was a missionary in Peru with our church and the Whitaker family is joined by Steve Hawkins whose Susan's dad and an elder at the church and I'm guessing by the clothing in the choir. Are you in the choir? Is that okay? Well, he's in the choir. He might just wear weird clothes. Who knows? You always gotta ask these things. We're thrilled. We're thrilled to join your families this morning in the sacrament of holy baptism. For those of you there who are watching this and witnessing this, you may wonder, what is baptism all about? Why do we baptize our infant children? Well, we believe that baptism is a sign and seal of the covenant of grace. It's in essence a picture of the gospel when we were saved Jesus washed us with his cleansing blood and so that is one of the main symbolisms of this sacrament. It's a picture of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ that washes us and cleanses us from all of our sin. It's a sign in that it points to what Jesus has done for us on the cross. Jesus when he was with his disciples said, I have a baptism to be baptized with and he was referring to the moment when the waters of death would wash over him but he would not die. He would raise up from them into newness of life. It is also a seal in identifying these children as part of the visible people of God. From the earliest days when God called Abraham and said, I'm going to make you a mighty nation. I'm going to give you descendants as many as the stars in the sky as many of the sands in the sea. He said, you're going to mark out your children as part of this people as part of the promised people of God. He did so using the sacrament of circumcision and we following his lead and the lead of Jesus Christ who said, go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We too mark out these children as part of the visible people of God, those who have been bought by the bullet of Jesus and those who will one day claim the promises made in the sacrament as their own and will one day make a profession of faith. I have some questions for you as parents. I'm going to ask you these questions and if you do, please say yes. Do you acknowledge your child's need of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit? Do you do you claim God's covenant promises on their behalf and do you look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation as you do for your own? Do you now unreservedly dedicate your children to God and promise in humble reliance upon divine grace that you will endeavor to set before them a God the example that you will pray with and for them, that you will teach them the doctrines of our Holy religion and that you will strive by all the means of God's appointment to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Do you? We have a question now for the congregation. If you were a member of the congregation, would you answer this in the affirmative? Do you as a congregation undertake the responsibility of assisting these parents in the Christian nurture of their children? Do you?
Jerry, I'm going to ask you to go ahead and baptize Little Gabriela.
We look forward to invest in what we are, what we know, what we can and what we have on Gabriela Rosalia Ghearest for the sake of Jesus and His name, Amen.
That was a bad move that was a bad move at times it's OK that's okay that's all right I forgive you you. You'll learn that. You'll learn that. That's part of what we do here. Rose Whitaker, child of God. I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let me pray for you. Oh, Lord Jesus, what a wonderful thing it is that you call us out of darkness and into your marvelous light. What a wonderful thing it is that when we were still helpless you saved us. Lord God, may this sacrament be for Rose, a picture of the great grace that you are working even now in her life, blessing her, putting her in a Christian family where she will learn your ways, Lord God. I pray, Father, that we as a church would come alongside the Whitakers, that we would be there to help, that we would be there to teach her, that we would be there to model what it means to be Father, your grace is too amazing for words and so we simply thank you and we do so in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. You may be seated. Would now ask for those who are coming forward for new membership to come on up. We read in the scriptures of Romans 10-9 that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. There is value that we see in the scripture of making a public profession of your faith, making it your own. We are called to the Christian life individually but we are never called to live it alone. We're called to live it corporally so we're so excited you all are here today to answer these questions and become part of this body of Christ at 554 McCauley Avenue. We have with us of course Tim Bond who's coming for baptism, Tyler Roe, Rebecca Roe and Maddie Parker. Tyler Maddie have come through the Communicates class where we are thrilled to have them having gone through that process and learned what it means to be a member of this church and I'm going to take a moment of personal privilege for Rebecca and say Rebecca comes and she obviously is Robert's wife but believe it or not God crafted her and made her as an individual as well she is not just a conduit to Robert. She is someone that you are called to love and care for and cherish and I want to challenge you all especially to do that. Do you acknowledge yourself to be sinners in the side of God justly deserving his displeasure without hope save his sovereign mercy? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of sinners and do you receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel? Do you now resolve and promise and humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ? Do you promise to support the church and its worship and work to the best of your ability? Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the church and promise to study its purity and peace? I'd like to welcome you as new members to First Presbyterian Church. For Tim Bond he is coming also for baptism this morning. It is an exciting time I would ask for Elder Bob Franklin to come and join me. This baptism is no different than the ones you just saw. I wear a wedding ring on my hand. It is not my promise to my wife. It is actually my wife's promise to me. If you remember the exchange of vows with this ring I the Wed coming to baptism is embracing the sacramental promise of Jesus Christ. If our salvation is built on what we do we are lost but our salvation is built on what Christ did for us. There is nothing mystical Tim about kneeling for baptism but it helps the vertically challenged pastor. What is your full Christian name? Timothy Watson Bond. I baptize you in the name of the Father in the name of the Son and in the name of the Spirit. Father we lift him up to you in this baptism and claim the promise of which you've made that if we profess with our mouth and believe in our hearts not what we do but what you have done raising Christ from the dead that we are saved. Lord for Tim place around him. Paul's and Peters that might usher him and lead him and mentor him in the faith. Place around him peers who will hold him accountable, who will walk alongside with him, who will worship with him. Place around him Timothy's and Mark's that he might grow and mature another generation until you choose to come back and Father may he like all of us in our hearts yearn for that to be soon and to see you soon. Lord we ask it in the name of Jesus Christ where there is no other name under heaven and earth by which we can be saved. Amen. I would now invite you to get up and welcome those around you and be sure to welcome these new members of our church. We come now to the time in our worship service where we continue to worship the Lord by giving our tides and offerings. We do so acknowledging that everything that we have comes from the Lord our God we do so with a joyful heart knowing that the Lord our God is able to provide every need for us. He takes care of us day by day. I'm gonna do something a little bit different in this prayer that I did in the first service as well. This week I'm sure many of you know many of you are aware of. Our church was struck by a terrible terrible tragedy. Jane Stokes who was a member of our church for many years. Seven years ago joined this church she was murdered this Wednesday. It's ways heavily on my heart as her pastor and as her friend I'm sure perhaps it ways heavily on your heart as someone who perhaps worshiped with her and knew her was involved with TLC with her was involved with missionary trips with her and so we're gonna take this time to pray for her family and to pray for strength for us as a congregation. So let's go to God in prayer now Jesus our rock our firm foundation our great and mighty God Lord I pray this morning for the Stokes family for Amy and Jennifer James daughters for her granddaughter who's a student across the street. Lord I pray that you would comfort them with the Holy Spirit who is our comforter Lord God we are so thankful that when you Jesus ascended to heaven you said it is better than I go for you sent your spirit to live within us and that our bodies have become temples of your presence where heaven and earth meet in us as your people what a wonder that is and what a comfort it is to know that we belong to you and what a comfort it is to know that Jane belonged to you what a comfort it is to know that when she died her soul immediately went to you Lord God and that she is even now assuredly as we see one another face to face in this room as assuredly as those listening on the radio hear my voice assuredly as I live in breathe she is with you Lord God I pray that into this tremendous darkness you would shine as the light of life Lord God I pray for justice to be done I pray for those who have committed this horrendous crime that you would enter into their darkness for Lord just as our only hope is in the light of your salvation so also it is for them I imagine that they are in a very dark place right now as much as what they have done angers us offends us we know Lord God that they are in your hands as we are and we pray that your will be done I pray for those friends of Jane who are weighed down with grief that you would be with them and put us in their lives to be at your voice in their life to comfort them I pray for those who are perhaps of the same age as Jane was when she was murdered that they would not fear that they would not be anxious that you would calm their hearts and calm their minds that they would not replay this incident over and over again but when they are tempted to do so I pray that you would so impress upon them your presence with them by the power of the Holy Spirit that they would be relieved I pray Jesus for Jane's neighbors who I am sure are greatly grieved I pray Lord God that your will would be done in their lives as well Lord God in moments like these when words fail me when the situation overwhelms me and I'm sure so many people here we draw great comfort in knowing that you holy spirit are able even to pray within our spirits words that we're unable to formulate with our mouths and in our minds as it hits us more and more the reality of this broken situation we're thankful that you are a God who is making all things new Lord we long for the new heavens and the new earth come quickly toward Jesus we ask this in the matchless name of Jesus our rock our redeemer our Savior and in the power of the spirit our comforter would you please stand for the reading of God's word our scripture lesson today is found in the book of Jonah predominantly in chapter 2 but I'll begin reading at the end of chapter 1 Jonah chapter 1 beginning in verse 17 and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish saying I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me out of the belly of she all I cried and you heard my voice for you cast me into the deep into the heart of the seas and the floods surrounded me all your waves and your billows passed over me then I said I'm driven away from your sight yet I shall again look upon your holy temple the waters closed in over me to take my life the deep surrounded me weeds were wrapped around my head and at the roots of the mountains I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever yet you brought up my life from the pit oh Lord my God when my life was fainting away I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple those who pay regard to vain idols for sake of their hope of said fast love but I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay salvation belongs to the Lord and the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land this is the word of the Lord you may be seated we have a problem immediately in our text because God's will and Jonah's will have had a collision Jonah didn't understand a principle that I believe is critical to our walk with the Lord and this could be a pivotal moment for you even as you hear these words but you must believe Christian that God has your best interest at heart you must believe that though we have difficulties in our life he is with us in those difficulties strengthen in us given us an understanding of who he is in a way that quite possibly we would never understand without these difficulties Jonah did not trust that God had his best interest at heart and they ran into a big problem it ended up with Jonah being tossed off of the ship for which he had paid to fare in order to escape from the Lord sometimes in our difficult moments we we we do have time to reflect time to reflect a friend of mine and Dallas she and her husband usually spend their summers in Colorado and early in June a few years ago Terry was out for a walk and a bicyclist came racing around that mountain path and crashed into her and she had to go to the hospital and required surgery and spent the entire summer recuperating from her injuries and when I caught up with Terry I just leaned in and asked that question hoping for an honest answer and thinking that it would be negative and said Terry how are you doing and she said I'm doing great I said really how so and she said I really had time to reflect I've had time to reflect on the Lord and his goodness to me and the way that he has blessed me in salvation through Christ and what I have found is that when we have time to reflect God's goodness in our lives then it's time for us to reflect God to other people and we see him in the hearts of those who spend time reflecting on the Lord now Jonah took time to reflect on the Lord but he did so in the midst of his disobedience he was cast into the water he was tossed in and over and I want you to notice something about Jonah that in some ways warmed my heart his prayer was a last resort to the Lord his prayer was after he had tried everything he knew how to try to get away from the Lord he finally reached the point in his life when it was so bad he decided to pray that marks many of our lives we do everything we can we work in our own strength as hard as we can to avoid the submission and the surrender to a sovereign God if you were to look at a little book of Jonah and you would put on your theological eyeglasses I think you would say this is a wonderful picture of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility for evangelism and those have crashed together in this little book of Jonah and we find Jonah finally after trying his best he cries out to the Lord I want you to notice it's not unusual for people to try their hardest before they submit to the Lord if you look in chapter one you'll notice that after it's been a figured out that Jonah is the problem look at verse 12 he said to them to the sailors pick me up and hurl me into the sea then the sea will quiet down for you for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you now listen to this word nevertheless the men rode hard to get back to land you see what they did they immediately went to trusting in their own abilities they would not submit to the sovereign hand of God they just rode harder and I want to ask you a question are you in the midst of rowing hard do you recognize the sovereign hand of God in your life in such a way that it allows you to find a rest and a trust and to say Lord I'm not going to row hard in my own strength I'm going to rest in you I'm going to rest in the work of Jesus Christ on my behalf I came across an article this week that I found quite fascinating it's an article that's titled type A's hurry up and learn patience was written by Jennifer Nelson she quotes a man named herb Palmer who's an admitted type A personality you might identify with this he says I was a classic angry guy in rush hour traffic beeping the horn all lines made me mad said Palmer of 40 something from New Jersey if you have trouble waiting in line become annoyed and yell at other drivers in traffic please nobody elbow their mother or father and yell at other drivers in traffic and go ballistic when the person in front of you at the 10 item or less checkout counter has 12 items then you can relate patience anyone maybe you've cataloged your lack of patience as a sign of being high energy hard charging successful individual and you're probably right but make no mistake it comes at a great price to your health research has shown that these type of individuals are prone to heart disease hypertension and more medical problems across the board then they're laid back problems the medical field has come up with a little phrase that describes type A people the problem is and they call it time urgency impatience time urgency impatience and what happens to a type A person is they are we are so committed we are so committed to efficiently using every moment of every day that what happens to us is we become driven obsessively concerned about time we want to maximize every moment of every day back to the article when every minute is that sense of panic and rush it triggers the classic fight or flight response where hormones flood the body and brain which is fine in a life or death situation but not so good when it's turned on all day every day after a while impatience leads to irritability which leads to anger which leads to clogged arteries down the road everybody thinking they don't have enough time to do this or that tells the brain at least in its deep emotional hub that every minute of the day is an emergency I want you to think about your life and I want you to honestly evaluate your life and say Lord am I resting in the sovereign rule of your providential care do I find my greatest source of peace not based on what's going on around me but my who lives in me and do you find that rest that comes from him or are you rowing harder are you constantly rowing harder ever seeking to escape from the Lord to escape from his hand and so I call you and ask you a very simple question what does it take to get you to bow in prayer before the Lord what does it take to get you to fall to your knees when was the last time you fell to your knees before the Lord and said Lord it's not my strength it's your strength I want you to recognize something about the the appointments of God in this passage if you read the book of Jonah four little chapters you'll notice that there's a number of appointments that come from the Lord look at verse one chapter of chapter one now the word of the Lord came to Jonah so the Lord appoints his word he brings it to Jonah and he appoints Jonah to go and preach look at verse four because Jonah ran from the Lord it says but the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and where the mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship is threatened to break up so the Lord has sent his word to Jonah he's appointed his word it's gone to Jonah he's appointed Jonah to speak on behalf of God when Jonah ran from the Lord he appointed this storm to come to Jonah and then we notice that when Jonah was in the water and he's drowning it says in verse 17 the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah and then lastly we notice in this passage where the Lord appointed the fish to vomit Jonah so the Lord has created these appointments in Jonah's life and they're these circumstances if you will are they're basically the structure upon which we live out our lives Jonah was placed in a very difficult place in a very dark time and he was placed there to bloom he was placed there to flourish and to produce fruit through the work of God if you were to come into our backyard you would notice that we have a garden and some of the plants are surrounded by a bit of a structure that the plant can grab on to and grow and get higher rather than just staying flat on the ground I'll spread out and the Lord has placed structures in our lives as his people and we must recognize that these structures are not to be kicked against and fought against there to be embraced one of the structures in your life is that God gave you a father and a mother and you have to have a right relationship with your father and your mother if you're going to be in a place of God's blessing now remember the first sermon I preached Jonah was seeking two things he was seeking to get away from God's presence and he was running away from God's word he was denying God's word and he was denying God's presence so his act of repentance he had to come back to the place where he embraced God's word and he embraced God's presence look at chapter two it says then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God he's seeking the Lord you see that's his repentance he's turning back to the Lord and then he calls out I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me out of the belly of shawl that dark place I cried and you heard my voice Jonah waited until the last second look at verse seven when my life was fainting away I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you you see you see Jonah is now seeking God's presence and if you look carefully at these words you'll find that Jonah was quoting Psalms Psalm 185 Psalm 130 let me just read this again he says I crawled out I cried out to the Lord in my distress and he answered me he was quoting these Psalms he turned to God through turning to God's word you see repentance for Jonah meant he had to go back to the place where he got off track you remember the prodigal son in Luke 15 well actually two prodigal sons but do you remember the prodigal son who returned the younger son who returned and and to whom did he return he returned to his father you see it was at the point when he fought against his father's will that he departed and that is the point to which he had to return for repentance he had to come back to his father to find closure restoration reconciliation to receive that blessing that only a parent can give I remember a few years ago I was very disappointed with my father I had been reading some literature that had had placed some responsibilities on on a father and as I read that literature I became disappointed with my father not necessarily for things my father had done but for things my father had not done things my father had left undone and my disappointment eventually led to anger and bitterness and so while I was in Dallas and my father was living in St. Louis I knew I had business to do with my father and so I began my drive I called dad and said dad could I come visit you for a few days and he was like of course he'd come visit me for a few days and so I drove up and on the way up I was thinking I'm I'm just gonna shellac it I mean I'm just gonna sit him down at his little breakfast table and say dad I'm just so disappointed ABCD and as I started to kind of pray my way through the visit as I drove I just had the sense of the Holy Spirit saying no and I said so what would I do Lord what would I do and so I began to recognize that my father had a life too he had to live within the circumstantial structure of God sovereign handed his life and so I committed to saying dad would you tell me your life story and so I arrived in St. Louis and we got to sleep the next morning we started to talk and I said dad I would love to hear your life story and he began to share his life with me and as he began to speak I began to weep because my father he told me that his father abandoned him when he was five years old and he grew up my dad grew up trying to figure out I wonder what a dad would do if he were in my life right now and so what my dad became a dad do you know how he spent his life trying to raise me and his other children he kept saying in his mind okay what would a good dad do right now what would a dad who really loved his kids what would he do and as he spoke it broke my heart and my anger melted into sorrow and sympathy and empathy and after a morning of weeping and praying I said dad I came because I've been disappointed in you I was disappointed that you didn't do A and B and C you didn't read the scriptures to me and you didn't stop and tell me son when you go out on a date you should respect a woman and you treat her like this and open the door and the things that a man needs to know to know that Christ is my only hope and strength not my ability to perform in the classroom or on the athletic field or low and behold even in the church and my dad began to weep and he said son I'm sorry and then I said dad the reason I'm speaking to you is because I'm seeing some of the same patterns in me that I saw in you and I feel powerless over them and you know through our reconciliation and our restoration the Lord gave birth to me as a new father and as a new husband and though I'm certainly far from a perfect husband or father I recognize and I want each of my children to recognize that I'm a dad who's crazy about them who's trying to love them with a love of Christ but I do have shortcomings and faults and failures you see of all the things if we were going to decipher what's going on with Jonah we would say Jonah didn't really believe that God had his best interest at heart just like sometimes children don't believe that their father has their best interest at heart and then Jonah came to this rude awakening in the belly of a fish and he says this salvation's in the Lord now he wrote this after he got out of the belly I doubt he had a you know anything to write with or he didn't a belly and he's reflecting back he took time to reflect and in the power of the spirit he looks back and in the belly of that fish he's saying to himself I'm helpless I mean I only hopes a fish what am I doing what am I thinking I'm not the man I thought I was I'm not so strong after all salvation is in the Lord my salvation is in the Lord and he came to that realization and he began to worship the Lord because the Lord became a worthy object of worship for him this merciful kind father who has Jonah's best interest at heart as well as the world on God's heart as well and so Christian you live in this tension with a sovereign God who is seeking through us to reach a lost world where are you in this process do you believe the salvation is only from the Lord do you really believe that salvation is only through the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ then stop your rowing rest in the work of Christ glory and the fact that you have a God who has your best interest at heart and please him seek him to please him to enjoy fellowship with him I'll close with this simple story my little baby boy Jordan was five years old and I was discussing how I didn't have a cash to go out of town this was years and years ago 24 years ago and that was back in a time when you needed a thing called money their little green bills and you actually had to have them in your pocket if you wanted to pay for stuff like gas and food and so I said I don't have any money and I'm getting ready to go speak this weekend at this conference and my five year old Jordan went and broke open his piggy bank and he brought me a dollar bill and he said dad here's some money now I still have that dollar bill it's it's up in my room inside a little wooden box where I keep some treasures and one of my treasures is Jordan's dollar bill because Jordan simply wanted to please his father it was that simple he knew his daddy had his best interest at heart and Jordan in return had my best interest in his heart and so I ask you so I ask you do you believe that God has your best interest at heart and if you do serve him with your life have God's best interest at the center of your life and you will find this wonderful union of blessing and of riches that you've never known before walk with him on this father's day for some of you you need to go back to the place where you got off track go on back there it might include your father or your mother a brother a sister a workmate a classmate go back make that right humbly repent and return to the Lord let's pray together father I cannot begin to imagine the magnitude of the thoughts that occupy you to some level as you have given us this treasure of Jesus Christ and you have entrusted that in the power of your spirit to men and women and boys and girls and Lord God that we would be the channels of your gospel to our world this crash between your sovereign rule and our evangelistic responsibilities are troubling to many of us we humbly bow beneath the the circumstantial lines that you have drawn through your sovereign and providential care we pray that we would bloom where you have planted us and Lord if there are things that need to be dealt with in our life that has prohibited some of that fruit from being produced by your spirit that we would return to the place of our departure and that we would return and seek you through your word as Jonah did return us Lord to your favor and to your blessing as you are our father we believe you have our best interest at heart and we are learning to have your best interest at the center of our life guide us we pray in the power of your spirit for we believe that salvation is only in the Lord we make this prayer in Jesus name and all God's people said together amen would you please stand for the benediction and now may the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord causes face to shine upon you and be gracious to you may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and in the life everlasting amen