I assume this thing is working here. Thank you for having us here today. I'm very glad to have brought my wife Ruth with me here, finally this time. It's worked out here that she could come, and if you haven't said hi to her, please do.
I can't remember everybody's name, but I am thankful for these name tags. We're very thankful to be back here, and we're thankful that you found the switch there for summer. I don't know if you should have turned it up so high, but we're glad that you finally found it here. It's been beautiful.
We've had a great time. We went across to, we were up at Pugwash, and then down to St. John, and then Moncton, and took a quick trip across the island. They took the bridge across and the ferry back, and yesterday we were down just down the coast here.
Absolutely gorgeous. I'm sure you all know that, but it was absolutely gorgeous. So we've had a great time here in Nova Scotia, and we have a few more days here. Tomorrow night, Lighthouse is hosting a dinner at the Swiss chalet at 6 o'clock on Leiswood Street to gather to pray and to learn more about the work that the opportunities here to share the gospel on board, the freighters, and to the cruise ship crew.
If you'd like to come, please let me know all are welcome, but please let me know so I can reserve accordingly. The Lord has been very, very good to us. I have to say that in every way he's been very good to us. He's been supplying our needs, and he's been opening doors, which is just amazing.
Sometimes I get a little fearful, and I think that if the government follows through with this trend or this happens, we could be shut out of the ports, and the ports could close down to crew coming out of off the ships. But you know, my hope has to be in the Lord. Because I can tell you that if Satan had his way, there would be no Christians on this earth. We would be done away with it.
The testimony would be gone, but it's the Lord who keeps us and sustains us. And he is the one that is building his kingdom, not me. He is the one that's building his kingdom. And so my trust is in him.
What tomorrow holds? Well, things could definitely change, but there will still be lots of opportunities through that change to share his work. If you follow a bit of Christian news, you know there's lots of persecution going on around the world against Christians. Many Christians are losing their lives, and we were talking to some people last night there from India, and they were confirming what we have been hearing.
That mission work is in India, is being really tightened up by foreigners. And even by the Indian people, to be able to go around and share the gospel, that's changing a lot. Should that make us go in fear? No, that should make us get on our knees and pray.
That's what we need to be doing, is praying that the Lord would help us to remain faithful, to remain true to him and continue to share his word. And especially, I feel we here, that live in a very peaceful country, we should be praying for our brothers and sisters around the world to know what they're going through, and to be praying that the Lord would be with them. This is exciting times, as far as the gospel, because things are, I feel are polarizing. But you know what?
It just means that there's greater opportunity. There's gonna be less gray areas. There's gonna be less people that are just kind of fall on this fence sitting thing that Canadians like to do. No, they're gonna have to make a decision.
Are they gonna follow the word of God, or are they gonna turn away? Because there could come, easily come a time, in my lifetime, where there could be great persecution. And we know things are changing, but I don't say this to fear, I say this to pray, because that's what the disciples always did. When they were facing persecution, they didn't run and try to sign a petition, or march outside to King's Palace with a big sign.
Know what do they do, they gather to pray. So I trust that this is a praying assembly. I hope that your prayer meetings are overflowing. For those that can make it.
And if you can't make it on the particular night or time, because of other commitments, please be praying where you are, and let the others know that you are praying with them. I remember last time I was here, I got a great prayer list. That's awesome. It's not these just can prayers.
Lord, take care of everybody, thank you, amen. No, these are real prayers, knowing that we are praying for specific issues and cares there. I'm thankful for the work that's been going on here, and I tell you that those of us at Lighthouse in Vancouver, by the way, for those of you who don't know me, I work with Lighthouse Harbor Ministries, which is a ministry to the seafarers on the big freighters. The big freighters bringing in containers, that are bringing in cars, that are bringing in taking wheat.
We're working on board with them in Vancouver, and there's people that have started here, and we're very thankful for this. But there's many ships that are, nobody is going on here. As there is even a Vancouver, there's many ships we don't even get on. So we continue to pray that the Lord would raise up other people that he would lay upon your heart, the desire to share the gospel with these men.
This is a right field of harvest. It truly is. And anybody that does go on board, they're thrilled with the opportunity to do this. One of the fellows that says, be going on board here, Nick took them out on the ship there the first time at Bob Burke.
He wrote me a little comment one day. He says, I've never had a Red Bull, but he says, there's no way it can compare with the thrill I have of sharing the gospel on board the ships. And it is so true. No way does Red Bull compete with the thrill that you have downtown, putting the light of the word of God into a dark, dark soul.
That is searching for something. They're searching. They're looking. Oh yeah, there's lots of people that are blowing us off.
But even many of those are only doing it because of the crowd they're in. But they're walking away knowing that there is something else. So I say continue on, continue on. You know, I think of Canadian geese.
And I understand, I know they fly in a V formation. And you can hear them coming along, they're honking. And there's like a busy intersection, there's all this honking going on. And as I understand the way they fly is there's a lead one, and the ones in the back are honking.
Keep it up, keep going, keep going. And then they will trade places. And somebody else will lead. And the others are honking.
And I think that's the way Christians ought to be. Not honking each other, but encouraging each other. Sending out a little text, how did it go? I love to see when Warren or John post that all the responses that they get on their preaching, trice, and Halifax website.
It's encouraging, let's keep going. Let's keep doing it. And don't always look for one person to lead. Come alongside them, come in front of them, and help lead them.
The Canadian geese, they always trade places leading. And I wouldn't want anybody to always just to be trusting in me or trusting in you. We're in this together. And we need to be encouraging each other to continue to go out with the gospel.
Yeah, so if you'd like to come on tomorrow night at Swisschlet to learn more, to pray with us, we'd really appreciate that. But please let me know. I want to turn to the book of Ephesians. And this is where we'll be spending our time here in the book of Ephesians.
As I read through my daily readings, I love when it's time to read Ephesians. To me, it's just like walking through a garden on a spring morning. It is so beautiful. It is so encouraging.
For myself, you know, when I read the Bible, we have a beautiful backyard in the summertime. My wife keeps up a beautiful backyard. But you know what? When I go out to read, I actually have to go to my corner.
Because I just find it, the beautiful things around me sometimes are so distracting. And John's got a nice couple of rockers out front of his house. And it's nice to sit there. And for myself, actually, I kind of have to go to the basement because not because he makes me go there, but because I need to focus on the Word of God.
And it's so enriching. It's so beautiful. And I want to tell you first off here, as we go through, just read some parts of Ephesians, just some simple thoughts I have. I want to encourage you to go home and read it yourself.
I am not going to do just, I'm not going to justify the book of Ephesians today by any means. But if you go home and read it yourself and meditate upon it, I guarantee you will be blessed as you read what God has to say. You know, I read here. I read about peace with God.
For years I had the burden of my sin that was dragging me down. It was just a heavy load on my back. My sins that I had committed, they were dragging me down. But now I have peace with God.
And since I have peace with God, that burden is gone. It is so wonderful to know that you don't have to fear meeting God. I have peace with other believers. We have unity.
Romans chapter eight and verse one starts with this verse. And I'll just read it to you here. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. See, for 19 years of my life, I walked in the condemnation of my sins.
I'm a sinner. Nobody had to convince me of that. I knew that. You know, what you see on the outside is the best of me.
The deeper you go, the worse it actually gets. But you know what? There's therefore now no condemnation. And that to me is so beautiful to know that I am at peace with God.
In Ephesians chapter one, verse two starts with these wonderful words, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God speaking to you, grace to you and peace. That's wonderful. You know, when we meditate upon us and you realize that our troubles, our fears are gone.
Grace to you, God says, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a wonderful, good news to share. Can you imagine if you're standing before a judge, you've been charged with something. You know you're guilty.
You're waiting for the verdict. That's not a very nice place to be in. If you were like me, I do a lot of pacing. I don't sit still.
I'm going to do a lot of pacing waiting to find out. After you're writing an exam, waiting to find out how you did on it, you know there's a lot of pacing going on and a lot of questioning. This is what he says to us, grace to you and peace. You know the world is just a turmoil of problems.
A turmoil is just simmering with all kinds of problems. What does God say? Grace and peace. I think that is just beautiful.
A little bit later, we're going to just jump ahead with this verse here. But Ephesians two and six says this. He raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why?
That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. That amazes me that God is waiting to show us his exceeding riches to us in Christ Jesus. I want to tell you, if you have not trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're not sure where you stand before him, you're missing out. And I say that respectfully.
You are missing out. And I can testify to that. Because I was missing out and others can testify that if you've not trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are missing out on the greatest thing. And you know, if you are have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, but you're not reading his word and you're not meditating upon it, you also are missing out.
I miss out. When I get busy and neglect to read God's word and neglect to meditate upon it, I am the one that gets hurt. I am the one that misses out on it. God has got so many rich blessings for us.
This book is rich of grace. Grace is mentioned 12 times. Brothers of glory, riches of Christ. You know, I think of a child.
A child may say that he is rich. What to a child is rich? Well, maybe he's got a lollipop to him. He's rich.
He's got the world by the tail because he's got a lollipop. And then maybe you get a little older and you've got a nice new car. You've got the world by the tail. You've got a nice new car.
And maybe as we get older, we want that summer home or something. And we think, well, we're rich. But you know, if there's one person that truly knows what riches is, it has got himself. He knows what riches truly are.
They are far above anything I can imagine. And what does he say that he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus? If God says it's exceeding riches, you can be sure it's far above anything that I could possibly even imagine. And he has blessed us so much.
Let's read from, let's read along here. If he's in chapter one, if you have a Bible with you, if he's in chapter one and verse three, it says this, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundational world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself. But in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him.
In him we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with a Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession to the praise of his glory. That's a lot. And I'm not going to be able to expand on that and tell you what's all there, but I encourage you, go home and read it and meditate upon it.
The riches that we have in Lord Jesus Christ. It starts off by saying that he has blessed us. Well, who greater than God to know what a true blessing is? I may think that I've given you something, it's a blessing.
But you know what, maybe it actually turns out to be a curse. Many people have won a million dollars. They think it's a blessing. A few years later, they'll tell you it was a curse.
But God, when he blesses us, he knows how to truly bless us. He just doesn't see the now, he sees the future. It was a good pleasure of his will. And he redeemed us.
We have been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, in one, all things in Christ, everything is in Christ. He is everything. And we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
You know, that God didn't say, I will cosign with you your salvation. So it's not my signature and his signature. He didn't cosign. No, no, he signed it.
He signed it himself. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory? You see, he had depended upon me. I would fail.
Sooner or later, I'm going to fail. I just got to wait an hour or less with me and I will fail. But it doesn't depend upon me. He is my guarantee.
The Holy Spirit is the guarantee. It's not based on ourselves. We don't keep ourselves. I soon realize how weak I am when I am trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, we were talking in Moncton last Sunday there. We stopped at a Bible study there. And we were talking about the word hope. You know, I might say, well, I hope to pass my exam.
I failed many of them, I can tell you. But I might say, I hope to pass it. What is my hope in? Well, hope is that I studied hard enough and knew the subject well enough that I would pass.
My hope wasn't in the teacher because he's going to grade me according to what I have done. But we can say that our hope is in the Lord. And it's not as if we're just kind of saying, well, you know, I hope be really, you know, it's not crossing my fingers here. No, we have given him our hope.
All of our hope is in him. He is the one that we are trusting in. And will he ever fail us? Never.
He will never fail us. You know, we need to remind ourselves of this. I need to remind myself of this because many times I'll leave from here. You get a phone call, bad news, situation, whatever.
What happens? You immediately go to a fright position. But no, we need to put our trust in the Lord and be reminded of that. And when we see each other going through trials and problems, we need to come around each other and turn our eyes towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's where our hope is. In Colossians 1 and 27, it says this, to them God will to make no one. What are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Our trust is in him. You know, it amazes me how that my feeble thinking, and we heard this morning about sheep and how they're just stupid. And that's me. I can fit into that.
You know, I should know better, but I don't. You know, but we keep going along this way. And I continually think that I'm in control. I'm the one that's deciding which way to go.
And it's up to me. And I got to do my best job. Well, there's nothing wrong with doing your best job. But trust me, it's not about us.
It's all about the Lord. And our hope needs to be in him. You know, as I read the book of Ephesians here, I say the whole gospel. It's better than any romance story.
You know, in most romance stories, the handsome prince has chosen us. And he comes along and he chooses this person like Cinderella. And he chooses Cinderella because you know what? She's just a rough diamond.
She just needs a little polishing and out comes her beauty. Does that describe me? No, not at all. I'm not a rough diamond.
Matter of fact, if anything, I would be considered a worthless lump of coal. But you know what? It's what God has put into us. Cinderella, she was his hidden beauty.
And not me, I'm a sinner through and through. But you know, my hope is in God. He is the one that is putting the value upon me, not me. He's transforming us into his beautiful bride.
Romans 12 talks about the renewing of our mind. Yeah, that's what he is doing. He's renewing us. He has lifted us from the rubbish heap.
He's washed us inside and out. And he is giving us the ability to do the things which we know we should do. Interesting. When I was on the street with John and Warren and Ruth on Friday night, I met many international students.
I was talking to those international students. We have lots of them in Surrey. And I was talking to one young fellow there from India, very nice young man. And I talked to him about sin in his life and a problem with sin.
He said, no, it's not only a problem. He says, I learned from my mistakes. And then I improved myself. And I thought, well, I hope when you go home, your own words will convict you.
Because you see, actually, I learned from my mistakes too, but then I do it again. I learned that it's wrong. And I learned that what I've done is dumb and it's not the way I want to go. But I do it again anyways.
But you know what? Those of us who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ can testify that He gives us the strength, the power, the wisdom to actually stop doing those things. And living the life that we know we should live. You know, I look at many people struggling with addictions of any form, whatever it is, they know it's wrong.
They know it's not right. But what do they do? They continue to do it. I've had a couple of Chinese captains tell me this.
In China, number one, money. But we know it's wrong. We know that's not everything, but they do it anyways. But you know what?
The Lord Jesus Christ, He's transforming us. I had no desire to be like we were this morning to worship the Lord. I had no desire before, but now I have a desire to worship Him. Why?
Because He's everything. He's all in all. You know, we know that there's bosses in this world and there's leaders. You know, they talk about in the business world where a boss is the one that's at the back, pushing you, we're leaders and the one he's leading you, right?
Well, which one would describe our Lord? Well, He's a leader. We're followers. He wants to lead us.
He's a beautiful leader in a way that He wants us to lead us. And we will, we are to follow Him. And when we follow Him, oh, He leads us into passive righteousness. He gives us great peace when we follow Him.
I was talking to a sailor the other day. I was talking to a number of hours with him over a few days. And he told us that he has two autistic children, nine and seven. Well, that's a big burden for him and his wife.
He's away at sea for nine months, trying to raise enough money to support the family. His wife's at home with the autistic children. But this is what He said to me. He said, they're huggers.
He said, when they hugged me, my fears and my worries melt away. I thought that was beautiful. Here's a spell. Instead of looking at his children as maybe an additional burden, being autistic, he says, he just enjoyed them so much.
When they hugged me, my fears and my worries melt away. You know what? When we allow the Lord to hug us by meditating on His word, our fears and our worries just melt away. We can wake up in the morning, end of the day, whatever it is, and be full of worries and fear.
But when we allow the Word of God to come into our soul to meditate upon it, they just melt away. It's beautiful. It's so encouraging. And we know that in John 10, he tells us that he wants us to have an abundant life.
That's what he wants for us. God just doesn't want us to have a good life. He wants us to have an abundant life. That's what he wants to bless us with.
And we need to be trusting in Him and reading His word and obeying it. I want to read a few verses from chapter 2. Time is going. Your clock is faster.
Chapter 2, verse 1. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among whom also, we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Whereby grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in Him.
You know, we who were dead spiritually, dead, lifeless, no capability to do anything, absolutely dead. We are now alive in Christ. We are alive in Christ. Can you believe that?
Puny little man, stupid little man as we heard. Powerless. You know, we were at the ferry there the other day and this guy is walking around. Sorry, I was going to park in St.
John. This guy has obviously been at the gym and his arms are huge and he's just, you know, can hardly walk. He's so big. Don't you just hate that.
But he's been obviously spent a lot of time at the gym and he's very strong. What? How strong is he? Could he lift the piano?
Maybe. Could he lift the car? No. You know what?
We are puny. And yet what does the Lord say that we are alive in Christ? He is the one that we can depend upon. He is the one that has given us everything.
This is a reminder to us all. Never to think that we are earning it, that we deserve it or that we are more worthy than anybody else. It's all about Him. It's all His grace to us.
You know, when I stand up here, I like to remind people, I'm not standing up here saying I'm better than you or anything. I stand up here so that you can see me. That's the main reason I'm on the ball, but not that I have to be on the ball, but for you to see me. But, you know, I'm not here because I'm elevating myself.
No, not at all. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 12 here, having no hope without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once a far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For He Himself is our peace who made both one and has broken down the middle walls of separation. We were lost. We were hopeless. Helpless.
Nothing we could do. There was nothing that we could earn our way to heaven. You know, I've been thinking about religions. All religions of the world would have this in common.
That to get to the next level, whatever you think it might be, you must be good. You have to have a big pile of good deeds and a small pile of bad deeds. You kind of think it's like a bank account. You know, debit credit, debit credit, long as you got a bank balance there, you can get to have it.
That's the general idea of what they think. And, you know, I mean, in one sense, don't blame them for thinking that. Why do they think that? Well, because their own heart condemns them.
They know their sinners. They know that they are not right with God. So they're trying to make their way to God by being good. And, you know, I, if I didn't know the gospel, I would probably try to do the same thing.
I had a boss. One of his sayings was, I'd rather be fired for doing something than fired for doing nothing. And, you know, I wouldn't sit still. I couldn't sit still.
I would be trying to do something. But, you know, the more we try, the more we realize we're not getting, we're not getting anywhere. We're not making ourselves better. We're not improving ourselves.
We may be seeing the standard, but when we look at ourselves, we realize that we are not even coming close to reaching it. But when the light of the glorious gospel shines into our heart, that is not about us. I tell you, that's the greatest relief. It's so sad when people who are trying to get to Him by being good, and they have to come to the conclusion that they're not, when they hear the glorious gospel and they turn away from it, that is so sad.
For those that hear it and believe in it, this is the greatest news, because their own heart has condemned them to their sinfulness. But now when they hear the message of salvation, that it's not about us. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about us being good and paying for our sins.
It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done. What a wonderful, great message this is. This is better than any fairytale. This is better than Cinderella.
A billion times better than that, because you know what they say in Cinderella? And they lived happily ever after. Not true. They died.
All men die. But you know what? We won't die. Yes, the body will die.
But we will live eternally. We will live happily ever after. We have got the greatest story. It's not a fairytale.
It's not a made up story. It's the word of God. You know what? If I were to hear it for the first time, I would think, this is a fairytale.
It's too good to be true. That's what fairytales are, right? This is too good to be true. But you know, as you look around at the evidence of the world, you look at the evidence of changed lives.
You have to come to the conclusion. It is true. It is true. And it's the best news ever told.
It's the greatest story. And I certainly want to encourage all of us to make sure we're sharing it with other people. Why would we want to hide this good news? Does it not apply to them?
No, it definitely applies to them. They need it. They're walking in darkness. What would you think of somebody if they're sitting on a park bench and here comes a blind person along with their stick, tapping, tapping, tapping.
And you see that there's a manhole that's not protected, the lids off the manhole, and this blind person is about to fall in. What would you think? Would you go, oh, my, oh, mercy, oh, you know, this is bad. Would you do that?
Or would you yell out, stop, stop. Or would you jump up? You'd yell, stop, stop. You'd jump up and lead them around it.
Leave them into safety. You know, when we share the word of God, as we should be sharing it every day, everywhere, we are warning people of danger and we're guiding them around the danger and pointing them to heaven. I love that song, My Lighthouse. I don't know if you sang that for me or not, but I love the name Lighthouse.
And many Christian ministries use it. What does a lighthouse do? It has two purposes. It warns of danger, but it guides to safety.
That's the purpose of a lighthouse. You've got lots on the coast here. They're beautiful. That's what we want to be.
We want to be Lighthouse's to those around us, warning them of danger ahead and guiding them to safety. And here in the church here, as we gather together, we want to be turning our eyes towards the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to be turning our eyes from the, what we would see are the physical threats around us and turning our eyes to where our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12, I read that one, verse 20, chapter two, verse 20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit.
Are we really, is that our goal today to be a dwelling place for God in the spirit? Or are we just trying to give him a little room, you know, a certain time, but I'm still the man in charge. Or is he really Lord of our life? Can I say he's always Lord of my life?
I cannot. Do I want him to be Lord of my life? I can honestly tell you I do want him to be Lord of my life. But I have this problem called the flesh that I kind of keep trying to take the steering wheel back from him and controlling my things myself.
And when I do, I hit the rough road. But when he takes it, he leads me peacefully. And I want to encourage us here that we focus on allowing him to be Lord of our life, to follow his will, to follow his way. And others will be changed by it.
Others will see it and follow us. Chapter three, verse 10, I'm not going to even get to the end. That's okay. I want you to read it anyways.
But chapter three and verse 10 says this. To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the church, to the principalities and powers and the heavenly places according to the eternal purposes which he accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I like the way the NLT puts it here. God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in his rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
This was his eternal plan which he carried out through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus Christ is the center of everything. He is the center of my life. Just this morning, every day, every hour, I want him to be.
And we need to challenge each other to lift up our eyes that he would be the center of everything. You know, you can be a member of this church, but not a member, not a member of the ecclesia or the church of God. You can pretend, you can attend. But if you've never repented of your sins and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're on your own.
I want to encourage it, if anyone is not sure whether they've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, to talk to someone. Read God's Word. The Bible says that even though we put ourselves many times in a high position and we give ourselves credit for this and think we've done that, I think the best summary of it all is one word, repent. If we didn't need to repent, then we would be going along okay as we are.
But God tells us to repent, to repent of our sins and to trust in him. Today, tonight, this afternoon, I pray that if you've not trusted in him, that you will do so, that you will not miss out on God's so great salvation. It's the greatest thing. I can speak from my own testimony.
I can testify of the change that he made in my life. And I would not change it for anything. Of all the things that I have, I have a wonderful wife, I have a bank account, I have a car, I have a house. I have all these wonderful things.
My greatest thing, peace with God. Eternal life. I don't have to worry about dying. I'm set for life.
Reading the Bible to me is like reading the will of my rich father. All the blessings that he has in store for me. He's not going to spoil us rotten in a bad way, but he spoils us rotten in a good way. He just doesn't give us all the things that we want.
He gives us all the things that we need. And he has this wonderful eternal life planned for us far beyond anything we could ever imagine. I want to encourage those that have trusted in him. Maybe you're not reading the Bible that often.
Yeah, we all fall into that, I think. I want to encourage you. Make sure you're spending time in the word, meditating upon it. Don't be in such a rush in the morning.
For over 30 years, I worked in a shop and I can tell you I was out of the house within 15 minutes, most mornings. And then I would struggle through the day. And I would get home and wonder why my day went so bad. I soon learned why I went so bad.
I hadn't taken time to get direction from God. I hadn't gone to the wonderful counselor. I hadn't gone to him for his help. I want to encourage you.
Don't be like I was. But to be spending time, a few minutes, even just a few minutes to read his word, meditate upon it and come to him as a wonderful counselor. He will give us direction. I didn't finish, but I want to encourage you to read it yourself.
It will bless you. Our Father in heaven, we are in awe. We are so thankful. We know we cannot comprehend all your blessings.
And Lord, we will never be bored in heaven with you, Lord. Lord, you are rich in mercy and grace to us. And you have so much planned, Lord. And it's all to your glory.
And so Lord, this morning, we want to lift up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to bring glory to the Son of God most high. Father bless us this day. And Lord, as we would go out, help us to be lighthouses wherever we are.
That we would be faithful messengers, warning people of the danger of head but guiding them to safety in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the book of Ephesians. Thank you for all your word, Lord. May we be blessed as we read it.
May we read it, Lord, and we know you will bless us. Just remember all of our families. We're ever the art today, Lord. Giving thanks in the name of our precious Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.