Pastor Skip Heitzig guides us through First
and Second Peter in the series Rock Solid. We're doing a series in the book of First
and Second Peter called Rock Solid. Peter was one of the early disciples of Jesus. Imagine
getting to hang out with him, and listening to him, watching him. And so we've had the
privilege of studying what he has to say in First Peter, chapter 3. How many of you have
toddlers? Raise your hands, I want to see. Okay, just notice all the people so you can
pray for them. [laughter] How many of you had toddlers? Okay, you've had them. How many
of you are toddlers? Raise your hand. [laughter] Just kidding. You know, toddlers have their own rules. You
know that, right? There's like a whole set of laws just for toddlers. And the following
are the "Property Laws for Toddlers": Number one; if I like it, it's mine. If it's in my
hand, it's mine. If I can take it from you, it's mine. If I had it a little while ago,
it's mine. If it's mine, it's must never appear to be yours in any way. Number six; if I'm
doing or building something, all the pieces are mine. If it looks just like mine, it's
mine. If I saw it first, it's mine." "If you're playing with something and you
put it down, automatically mine. And, finally, if it's broken, it's yours." [laughter] Although
it says here in parentheses, (No, the pieces are probably still mine.) Hey, that's fine
for toddlers, but it's certainly not fine for mature believers in Christ. As followers
of Jesus the watchword isn't mine, but yours; not me, but you; not self, but others. The
title of my message this morning is "How to Attract Flies." Yeah, that's exactly it, "How
to Attract Flies." Let me tell you where I'm coming from. Back
in 1744 a saying was written in Poor Richard's Almanack attributed to Benjamin Franklin.
It's the old saying that says, "You'll catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar."
Now, anybody from a developing country visiting America would scratch their heads at that
little saying like, "Why would you ever want to attract flies to begin with?" But the point
of that is simply this: when you have a sweeter approach, a nicer approach, you are going
to be more successful in achieving your goals than if you're mean and cantankerous. You'll catch more flies with honey than you
will with vinegar. So why am I calling the message "How to Attract Flies"? For this reason:
the entire section that we have been studying the last several weeks, beginning in chapter
2, verse 11, all the way to where we are now is all dealing with how we as believers live
our lives on the stage of this world. The unbelieving world is watching us very carefully.
And it could be, it could be, that by the way we live our lives in all of those areas,
we actually attract the antagonist and attract the adversary. And so he's already told us
some ways to do that. We continue in chapter 3, verse 8, where he
says, "Finally," or to sum up what I've been saying. "Finally, all of you be of one mind,
having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;
not returning evil for evil, reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing
that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For 'He who would love
life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking
deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it." "'For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who
do evil.' "Now let me just bring you back up to speed to where we've been studying the
last few weeks. You know that Peter has been talking about the three major areas of social
interaction: in society, or our relationship to government; at the workplace, or our relationship
to our employer; and in the home, husbands' and wives' relationship to each other. That's
what we've been talking about the last few weeks. We have also noted that Peter says the general
role for all of us in all of those roles can be summed up by one word. Remember what it
is? Submission: submit to authority, wives submit to their husbands, servant to their
masters, etcetera. Now Peter takes us to a fourth area of social interaction. And this
is restricted now only to the Christian believer, and that is, the church. As believers we live
in society, we have jobs, we have marriages, but we also have a family of believers. That's
why he says, "Finally, all of you," verse 8. He's writing to Christian believers who
interact with each other. Now, the world is going to watch us in our
relationship to government. And they're going to be able to see us in our relationship to
our employer. And they're going to be able to look into our marriages and see how we
do that. But most of them are not going to come into the church and check us out. Now
some will, some will come to our meetings, but certainly they're going to see how we
deal with each other when we're out in the world. And it could be, it could be that we
are so compelling in our testimony that we actually attract those unbelievers by the
way we treat each other. Listen to this: in the second century A.D.
a guy by the name of Tertullian, a church historian, said that the Roman government
was so suspicious of churches because they were growing so rapidly that they would send
spies into the church to check them out. One of the spies reported back to the Roman government,
and I'll quote it to you: "These Christians are very strange people. They meet in an empty
room to worship. They have no image. They speak of one by the name of Jesus, who is
absent, but whom they seem to be expecting at any moment." And they concluded by saying, "And my, how
they love him and how they love one another." What a compelling, attractive testimony to
be able to see in the lives of believers. So looking in these verses I want to look
at three sweet things that can attract flies. Number one is our attitude, number two is
our response, and number three is our motive or motivation. So, first of all, we do so
by our general attitude; second, by our gentle response; and third, by our genuine motivation.
Let's look at our attitude. Verse 8, "Finally," or to sum it up, my final
words in this subject, "all of you," all of you Christians believers that I am writing
this letter to, "all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as
brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous." Now, we have a five-fold description, and
I'm going to unravel quickly each one of those for you. But the five-fold description of
the general attitude of the believer, it could all be summed up in one word, one word---love.
Just like Jesus summed up the whole law in one word, love, so our relationships should
be summed up by this one word, love. But we have a five-fold description. Notice
the first: "Finally, all of you be of one mind," or the word "like-minded" some translations
say, "be like-minded." Now, just think about this for a moment. Is that possible, "be like-minded"?
You know what most of us define like-mindedness as? You agreeing with me---that's like-minded.
"This is what I think and you should agree with that." No, no. That's not unity, that's
just uniformity. The Bible never calls us to that. There are differences of opinions
that we have. If we right now were to open up a discussion
on politics, or on styles of clothing, or on what shows are appropriate to watch on
television, or what styles of Christian music are appropriate to listen to or have at church,
we would open a can of worms and we would have one huge disagreement. It's the way we
are. We don't agree on everything. I had a friend of mine say, "If two people agree on
everything, one of them isn't thinking." [laughter] I have certain views on eschatology, on the
end times. I have views on the rapture, on the tribulation, on the millennium. I have
views about the Holy Spirit. Some of you may not share those views, that's
okay. I always want to be gracious enough to allow you to be wrong. So that's all right.
[laughter] The early church didn't always agree, did they? There were disagreements
and arguments and divisions over things like meat sacrificed to idols, over keeping the
Sabbath, over which days are appropriate to worship, over which widows should be taken
care of by the church finances. Paul and Barnabas argued over John Mark. The twelve apostles
argued over who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I mean, there are---there's a litany of disagreements
even in the New Testament. Someone once said, "The church is a lot like Noah's ark, were
it not for the flood on the outside, you sometimes couldn't stand the stench on the inside."
That's because we are fallen humans all gathered together to be like-minded. Now, listen, we
don't have to think alike, we do have to have one mind. We do have to have one mind. Having
one mind or like-mindedness, I would describe as this: cooperation in the midst of diversity,
cooperation in the midst of diversity. Best example I can think of, your human body,
the very example Paul used of the church, "the body of Christ." There's different parts
with different operations, there is diversity, but there is cooperation in that diversity.
And that's the very thing Jesus prayed for. He said, "Lord, Father that they may be one
even as you and I are one that the world may believe that you have sent me." So, here's
the deal: there are some core issues, let's call them "essentials." There are nonessentials, but there are essentials
that we must all agree on: the nature of God; the person and work of Jesus Christ that he
is God in human flesh that he came to this earth, that he took our place dying on a cross,
that he rose physically from the dead, and that he's coming again. There are core issues
that you must believe in to even be a Christian. We are of one mind with those issues. Secondary
issues, well, they're secondary issues. We are of one mind. Second on this list: "having compassion,"
compassion. Here's the word in Greek: sumpatheis/sumpathés. We get the word sympathy from it. It comes
from two words: pathos, pathós, which means to feel or it means to have an emotion or
to hurt, pathos; sum or sun [soon], together, to feel together. It literally means "feel
the same thing." So it's interesting, he says, think the same things, "be of one mind." Now
he says feel the same things. Here's the best definition I've ever found to have sympathy:
your hurt in my heart; your hurt, your pain, your hurt in my heart. In other words, I can't be callous, I have
to share your joy and share your sorrows. Romans chapter 12 verse 15, "Rejoice with
those that rejoice, weep with those that weep." Or First Corinthians 12:26, "If one member
of the body suffers, we all suffer; if one member is honored, we are all honored together."
That's having compassion, feeling together. Look at the third on the list: "love as brothers"---stop
right there. I grew up with three older brothers, so I read something that says, "Love as brothers,"
and it doesn't, like, lift me up to some lofty place. [laughter] Because I love my brothers,
but I also, like, chased a couple of them with a baseball bat from time to time. I mean, we were brothers. It says, "Love as
brothers." I'm going, really? A better translation would be, and it's helpful for guys like me,
"Love one another as brothers should." Now that's helpful. Peter wrote this and I can't
help but feel that Peter had his own brother Andrew in mind when he wrote this. Andrew
was a good brother, a loving brother. He was the one who led Peter to Jesus Christ. So
love one another as brothers should love. By the way, it's one of the proofs that you
and I are saved. You want to attract flies? Love your brother and your sister in Christ. How on earth can you love an unbeliever if
you can't even love a brother or sister? It's a proof that we are saved: First John, chapter
3, "We know that we have passed from death into life, because we love our brothers."
Look at the fourth thing in this description in verse 8, "be tenderhearted." Now, I just
gotta tell you, that's a very difficult word to translate. Because the original word, "be
tenderhearted," the original Greek word is a word called splagchnos, and it actually
means your intestines, your kidneys, your guts, your heart, your liver. That's what
it refers to, splagchnos. And a literal translation of this reads this
way: "have good bowels." [laughter] "Did I just hear that in church? Did my pastor just
tell me to have good bowels?" That's what it says. And here's why it says that: because
a couple thousand years ago in the ancient world it was believed that the deepest emotions
that a person feels is in the intestinal region. We still, we still talk it that way, don't
we? We say, "So, what is your gut saying?" Or we speak about intestinal fortitude: "I
feel it in my gut." If I were to get some of you to stand up here
and face a crowd because you're just like, you're---some people are just so petrified
of standing in front of people, you would have what are called---what?---butterflies.
You feel all queasy in your intestinal region, your stomach. "What is that? I feel weird."
Some of you would actually feel nauseated. So the deepest emotions were felt in the intestinal
region. So even though it's hard to translate this, it would better be rendered, "You must
be deeply concerned for others." Let me put it to you this way: the church
ought to be the place where the walking wounded feel at home. People who are wounded and beat
up by this world should be able to come because we revel in being tenderhearted with each
other. It's something we should be great at. If you're on the staff of this church, or
you're an usher or a greeter, or you're on the security team, and you see people come
in and---let me just tell that you I thank God for your service, but we have to guard
against the tendency to see another person with another issue, another problem. We're around this stuff as pastors all day
long, and easy for us to just say, "There's another death, another divorce, another catastrophe
has happened." We have to really guard ourselves from leaving this beautiful, sweet spot of
being tenderhearted toward one another. The fifth description is "be courteous." I'll
just be honest with you, this doesn't really help me a whole lot. In fact, I don't think
it's a great translation. Other modern translations do a better justice to this word "be courteous."
When I---I hear my mom right now, saying, "Say 'please' and say 'thank you.' " That's being courteous, right? A better word
is "be humble-minded," be humble-minded. Now, tell you why this is such a shocking statement,
because when Peter wrote this in the Greco-Roman era, humble-mindedness was not considered
a virtue, it was considered a weakness: "Only weak people are humble people." When the Greeks
conquered people, they turn them into humble-minded people---"They're our slaves." The Greeks
loved such qualities as self-confidence, self-esteem, self-assertiveness. They would have loved
the swagger of the modern hip-hop artists, or Clint Eastwood, "Go ahead, make my day." The Greek would have said yeah! Peter goes,
"Nooo, rather than that, a humble-mindedness." Humility is the grease that keeps the gears
of relationships running smoothly. I read something by F. B. Meyer, where he said, "I
used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other, and the taller you grow
in Christian grace, the more easily you could take them. I have now come to realize that
God's gifts are on shelves---one below the other. And it's not a matter of growing taller,
but of stooping lower." Humble-mindedness. So all five of these form a beautiful description
of the general attitude of the believer, which is love. Okay, that's fine. We're okay. Chapter
3, verse 8, got that down, we're good at that. "Okay, I'll work on that, Pastor, thank you."
Okay, now it gets hard, because in verse 9 he's turning from people who are nice to you,
and brothers and sisters---"Hi brother, hi sister, love you, tenderhearted, sympathy"---to
people who are not, who are mean to you. What do you do if somebody is really grouchy and
gripy or insults you or tries to hurt you? Well, I'm glad you asked. Verse 9, this is
our gentle response: "Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the
contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing."
Okay, so I don't know here, I don't know if he's referring to unbelievers who are in the
world persecuting the believers who are in the church, or, or he could be speaking about
fellow believers in your church who are just simply hassling you, you have a disagreement
with. Either way it's all the same. How do you treat them? You don't hit back,
you don't fight back, you don't yell back---you bless back "that you might [obtain or] inherit,"
he says, "a blessing." I gotta tell you, I think this was very close to Peter's heart.
I think Peter, when he wrote this, had a very specific thing in his mind from his past experience.
Because there was a time in Peter's life where he did try to fight evil with evil. He did
try to fight back. Remember the time when Jesus and his disciples were in the garden
of Gethsemane and they came to arrest Jesus, and the Roman soldiers came, and remember
what Peter did? Remember he got down on his knee and was really
humble and he said, "O Lord, just whatever your will is. I just want what your will is,
because whatever you want"? He did that, right? He did not do that. What did he do? He took
out a sword. He took out a sword and he saw the servant of the high priest, and thank
God he was a fisherman and not a swordsman, because he was trying for his head and he
missed and got his ear and cut it off. And Jesus said, "Peter, Peter, put away your sword.
Don't you know that those who live by the sword will"---what?---"they'll die by the
sword." "Put it away, it's not how you fight this,
Peter." So when Peter is writing this, I believe that's still fresh in his memory. You don't
return evil for evil or reviling or reviling, but blessing, knowing that you were called
to this, that you may inherit a blessing. Now, this is such a hallmark of the Christian
faith, and if you were looking for something that is the dividing line that separates Christianity
from every other belief system, this is it: we love our enemies. That's what separates
up from every other belief system in God---we love our enemies. It was unheard of, it was
unheard of. Even the Jews had in the Old Testament what
was known as the lex talionis; that is, the law that says the punishment fits the crime.
You've heard it before, it's in Exodus 21. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, foot for foot---that's the lex talionis. By the way, it's usually misinterpreted.
Do you know why that was given? To limit vengeance, because human nature would want more than
just an eye or a tooth or a foot. "You took out one of my eyes, you're going to be blind
in both of your eyes for life." "Oh, yeah. You took out one of my teeth in that fight,
you'll wear dentures forever." That's human nature. So, to limit that the
lex talionis was given: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, limb for limb. But this, to bless
someone? Now, I gotta tell you, here I am up here with this microphone speaking to you,
and I just gotta tell you, this is so easy for me to preach about, this is so hard for
me to do. Anybody can preach on this, it's good preaching. "Love people." But I tell
you the honest truth, put me behind the wheel of a car, [laughter] it's a different situation. There was one time when I'm on the freeway
here in town and I tell you, I just---I've always thought Albuquerque's the place where
all the bad drivers come and we all live together in one city. [laughter] I'm on the freeway
and somebody drives and pulls right in front of me and then slows down. I wanted to follow
him through town all day long! [laughter] That was in my heart. Just yesterday I'm in
Uptown, I see a parking space and it's right up by the Apple Store. It's like, "This is
from God." So I'm seeing it, it opens up, I'm about to turn in, blinkers on, I'm waiting." I'm waiting for him to get out. I'm thinking,
"Thank you, Jesus." Just then, right before I turn in, somebody sees it and scoots right
in and takes my spot. I so wanted to mess his mirrors up and put his windshield wipers
up, and . . ." It's not easy to do. Easy to say, easy to talk about, easy to preach about,
easy even to listen to, perhaps, but to do this is tough. I was reading in the Psalms---have
you ever read these psalms in your Bible called "imprecatory psalms"? Ever heard of those?
It's a theological way to mean not-nice-guy psalms, vengeance psalms. It's where David calls down God's wrath from
heaven on his enemies. Ever read psalms like that? They're in the Bible. And I remember
when I first read these I was sort shocked and I was drawn to that kind of literature.
It's like, "Wow! That's in the Bible." And I read that psalm where David said, and I
quote, you can tell I memorized it, "Lord, break their teeth in their mouths." I read
that and I said, "Man, I'm going to underline that. [laughter] That baby's a life verse
right there. That's right in the Scripture." "Hey, Pastor Skip, what's your favorite life
verse?" "Oh, here it is: 'Break their teeth in their mouths.' " [laughter] And I'll be
honest, there have been times where I've actually prayed imprecatory prayers. I'm so glad that
God is a good God and he doesn't listen to everything I say. "Uh, not gonna say yes to
that one." [laughter] But I found something---as I prayed for people, my heart began to change.
As I genuinely prayed for my enemies, it might start out very vengeful, but I start thinking
about them, my heart begins to soften, it begins to change. And what Peter says is that you return blessing,
knowing---look what it says, you need to see it, "Knowing that you were called to this,
that you may inherit a blessing," you may inherit a blessing. You will get blessed when
you bless, instead of do what feels right and react. You will be blessed. Persecutions
on earth today will add blessings to you in heaven tomorrow. Jesus said that in the Sermon
on the Mount: "Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of
evil against you for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward
in heaven." I read a book, it impacted my life years ago,
by an author, a pastor named Juan Carlos Ortiz. He was Argentinian. Juan Carlos Ortiz was
in a leadership conference he was writing about. He said, "I saw a man who was in my
former denomination, so I went over to him," he said, "to hug him." But the leader saw
him coming and stood back and he said, "Don't hug me, we're enemies." And Juan Carlos said
to this fellow brother in Christ who said, "Don't hug me, I'm your enemy," he said, "Oh,
well, I didn't know we were enemies." And then he said, "Praise God! Now I have an opportunity
to love my enemy." And he walked up to him and hugged him close
and publicly prayed in his hearing, "Lord, thank you for my precious enemy. Bless his
life, in Jesus' name." Now the guy was shocked, but he said within one year he was preaching
at that man's church. You will receive a blessing. So how do you attract flies? By your general
attitude of love; by your gentle response of blessing; and third, and we'll close, by
our genuine motivation. Let's finish this up. Verse 10, Peter says, "For 'He who would love
life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking
deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For
the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but
the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.' "That's the motivation. Why do you
do it? Here's the mo---here's why. He says, "For," and then what does he do? He quotes
what? He quotes the Old Testament. He's quoting a psalm in the Old Testament. So follow his thinking: do this, don't do
that; because or for; and he quotes Scripture. In other words, he's showing his audience,
"The reason we do anything is because God says so in his Word," quoting Psalm 34. One
of his favorite psalms obviously, because he quotes it at least three times in this
letter, so far he has. By the way, one of the great reasons why I'm such a stickler
about our Wednesday night through-the-Bible Bible studies from Genesis through Revelation
is for this reason: I think it takes the whole Bible to make a whole believer. And understand what God says through all of
his Book adds that much more to your life. Notice what it says, "For 'He who would love
life and see good days.' "Let me ask you something: Do you want a good life? How many of you want
a good life? And you want to have a good day. I get that all the time, "Hey, have a good
day." Want to have a good day, want to have a good life? Here's how to do it. If you love
life, then love people, the good people and the bad people. Do you love life? I love life.
The French have a little phrase, they call it joie de vivre. Joie de vivre describes somebody who loves
life, wakes up every day, "Ah, another day!" that ebullience, that positive attitude, a
lover of life. But there are some people who hate life. Solomon who should love---he had
every reason to love life because he had so much---wrote in his little journal in Ecclesiastes,
"Therefore I hated life, because everything was vanity and vexation of spirit." Some people
hate life. Other people, and I would say a lot of people, just endure life. I know a lot of Christians, they just endure
life. "How you doing? "Okay. I'm making it through. One more day." That's okay if you
do that for like a week, but the following month and the following year---"How you doing?"
"Okay." It's like what, did the spirit of Eeyore take over or what? [laughter] They
just endure life, they're always enduring. Other people try to escape life shirking their
responsibilities and opportunities. They don't love life, they don't endure life, they escape
life. But you can enjoy life and that's where you
realize Sovereign God is in control of me, and even allows the good and the gnarly people
that come into my life to be there for his own purpose, and I'm going to treat them with
blessing and not cursing. That's one motivation. Here's the second, verse 12, "For the eyes
of the Lord are on righteous." You get the idea that God is just sort of peeking down
from heaven looking at you. Not like watching you to see how you're doing, did you mess
up, but he's---the idea of this is he's superintending, he's watching over you with care, he's taking
care of you. He's protecting you and he's paying attention
to you and listening when you pray. That's-that's the picture. "For the eyes of the Lord are
on righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but"---but---"the face of the Lord
is against those who do evil." So here's the deal: I don't have to worry about the people
who do evil to me, God is taking notice of that. He's watching over me and he's going
sort all that out in the end, so I don't have to be the guy to exact revenge. That's a high
motivation. I do it because the Bible says to do it, and
I do it because God is watching over me, superintending my life, taking really good care of me, and
he'll worry about all those evil people. I want to close with this thought: as I went
through this description of sweetness, I couldn't help but think this is exactly what God is
like. Romans, chapter 5, "God demonstrated his own love for us, in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us." While we were sinners, Christ died for us. When
we were unlovely, Christ died for us. When we rejected him, Christ loved us and died
for us. It's just like Jesus. So here we are, we are not the company of
faultless, we are the company of the forgiven, which goes to show and should be proof by
the fact that we open our doors to the unlovely, to the hurting, to the raunchy, and we show
Christ's love. Oh, yes, the standard of holiness; oh, yes, truth; but his love. And that's how
to attract flies. And they want to be attracted, they're just looking for someone and something
sweet. Would you bow with me? Father in heaven, your Word says, "Taste and see the Lord is
good." There really is a sweetness about the character of Jesus the Savior that we love
and serve. There's such a beauty there. We are first
to proclaim that in our own human nature we are not that. We are those people who do get
upset, whether we're driving in a car, or standing in a grocery line, or watching a
news report on television, or listening to a conversation. There's something that wells
up within us, wants us to fight back. I pray, Lord, that like our Father, you, and like
our Savior Jesus, that we would be those who are compassionate, loving, tenderhearted,
humble-minded, and those who give blessing. Because you said to do it, and you said you'd
take care of those who don't. I, finally, pray, Father, for those who are
gathered with us today either outside or over in the Hub, several hundred others who are
not in this room, as well as those of us who are, those listening by radio and any other
device. Lord we come to the end of this service where we evaluate our own lives and I pray,
Lord, you would draw us to the cross. With our heads bowed, I'm speaking now to those
of you who may have come but you haven't come to Jesus Christ yet. You have haven't come
to Jesus personally to be personally forgiven. You may be a wonderful person, even a churchgoer,
a very religious and devoted person, but you have never come to a place in your life where
you have surrendered to the lordship and the authority of Jesus Christ. I want to give
you that opportunity before we leave this morning to do that. Or if you have wandered
from him and you need to come back home, if you're in this auditorium and you desire to
find his forgiveness and his love on a personal level by giving your life to Christ or coming
back home to Jesus, I want you to raise your hand up in the air right now as we close this
service so I can see it and I'll pray for you. Just keep it up for a moment. Lord bless you,
right over here, I see your hand. And right there, sir, I see your hand up toward the
front. Anyone else? Raise it up. You're saying, "Yup, I need to do this. I've been needing
to for a while." Yes, sir, toward the middle; on my right. Who else? God bless you, and
you on my left, and you beyond that. That's right, right on. Anybody in the family room?
God bless you. Yup, I see your hand over there; and on my left toward the back; to my right
toward the back; right over here on my right. If you're outside in the amphitheater or in
Solomon's Porch or in the Hub, there's a pastor there. You slip your hand up and let that
pastor see you there. Lord, I pray, and what a privilege it is to
lift up these men and these women who have come to this place in their lives where they're
doing the smartest thing they could ever do, the wisest choice they could ever make, and
that is, to entrust their lives to you, the giver of life, and the Savior and lover of
souls. I pray, Father, that you would give them now that sense of release and satisfaction
and joy as they come to the cross, and also purpose, Lord. Give them strength to live
each day for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. For more resources from Calvary Albuquerque
and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.
