Worship at Highland 9-26-21 9am

[Music] you o lord are my refuge by your mercy you cover me under the shadow of your wings lord in your presence i'll remain you are forever more the same you are my refuge [Music] my only refuge you are lord on my refuge it is you i will trust you're my light in the darkness [Music] by your mercy you cover me by your mercy you cover me by your mercy you cover me like a river flowing down to the sea like a rushing wind me like the falling of the snow like the blood that makes me whole is the love of god that flows into me and like a river you come flooding through the desert of my heart and like the wind you come rushing blowing life through every part and like the snow you're falling on me with the blood of your own son and like the sun you come shining making darkness run [Music] like a river flowing down to the sea like a rushing wind you've blown into me like the falling of the snow like the blood that makes me whole is the love of god that flows into and like a river you come pouring out your love upon the field and like the wind you bring harvest down to take your yield and like the snow you come to winter touching hearts and making warmth and like the sun you raised a mighty light to calm the storm like a river flowing down to the sea like a rushing when you go into me like the falling of the snow like the blood that makes me whole is the love of god that flows into me is the love of god that flows into me more than anything more than anything i love you jesus more than anything more than anything more than anything i love you jesus more than anything nothing in this world can take your place forever take your love away someday i will see you face to face look into your eyes and say more than anything more than anything i love you jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] how good and pleasant it is when god's people dwell together in unity let's celebrate that today stand and let's worship sing to the king who is coming to reign glory to jesus the lamb that was slain life and salvation his empire brings joy to the nations for jesus is king come let us sing a song a song declaring we belong to jesus he's all we need lift up a heart of praise sing now with voices raised to jesus sing to the king for his returning we watch and we pray we will be ready the dawn of the day we'll join in singing with all the redeemed is vanquished and jesus is king come let us sing a song a song declaring we belong to jesus he's all we need lift up a heart of praise sing now with voices raised to jesus sing to the king come let us sing a song a song declaring we belong to jesus he's all we need lift up a heart of praise sing now with voices raised to jesus sing [Music] amen amen you can be seated church good morning we are glad you're here we want to remind you of a couple things um we are still doing individual wrapped communion and so if you walked through those doors or those doors and forgot to get one you can go back there any time in our worship service and go get that we are collecting prayers of the people still and so if there are prayer cards in front of you we would love for you to fill one of those out and to submit those so that we can be praying over your needs and hearing of the things that we can be lifting up to god i want to do something this morning that might seem a little odd as i welcome you into worship i want you to think about something troubling in your life i want you to just for a moment and i have your best interest in mine i promise i want you to think about something that maybe you have not yet been able to resolve on your own what is something troubling you and in the midst of that i would like to read you from the gospel of luke chapter one the song of zechariah blessed be the lord god of israel for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them he has raised up a mighty savior for us and the house of his servant david as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from old that we would be saved from i lost my spot we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us thus he has shown the mercy promise to our ancestors and has remembered his holy covenant the oath that he swore to our ancestor abraham to grant us that we being rescued from the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all of our days highland our savior is already working out our salvation and we are here this morning because we are disciples and discipleship just means that we pattern our lives through rhythms of prayer and service and community as though god's promises were already true this morning we come together and we celebrate because we believe we are the ones on earth who believe god is already answering his promises he is already going before you in those things that are troubling you and he is working out your salvation now let's stand and continue to worship be thou my vision o lord of my heart not be all else to me say that thou art thou my best thought by day and by night waking or sleeping presence my light be thou my wisdom and thou my true word i [Music] thou my great father thine may i be thou in me dwelling and i want with thee high king of heaven my victory one may i reach heaven's joint heaven heart of my own heart whatever be full still be my vision [Music] what gift of grace is jesus my redeemer there is no more for heaven now to give he is my joy my righteousness and freedom my steadfast love my deep and boundless peace to this high hold my hope is only jesus for my life is holy bound to his oh how strange and divine i can sing all is not i but through christ in me the night is dark but i am not forsaken for by my side the savior he will stay i labor on in weakness and rejoicing his power is displayed to this high hold my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley he will lead oh the night has been one and i shall overcome yet not i but through christ in me no faith i dread i know i am forgiven the future sure the price it has been paid for jesus led and suffered for my pardon and he was raised to overthrow the grave to this high hold my sin has been defeated jesus now i never is my please oh the chains are released i can sing i am free yet not i but through christ in me with every breath i long to follow jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day i know he will renew me until i stand with joy before the throne my hope is only jesus all the glory ever more to him when the racist is complete still my lit shall repeat yet not i but through christ in me when the race is complete still my lips shall repeat yet not i but through christ in me would you pray the lord's prayer with me our father who art in heaven hallowed 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 this is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen later in luke's gospel jesus is going around his hometown preaching and healing and then he says i must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of god to the other cities also for i was sent for this purpose later he will teach his disciples as we just did to pray thy kingdom come and then he will send out seventy and he will say to them this is your message to all of the cities the kingdom of god is near later he'll say the kingdom of his god is within you and then on the night when he is betrayed he will say to his followers i will not eat of this street eat of this bread and drink of this cup again until i eat with eat it with you in the kingdom we are the people who believe jesus's promises and jesus clearly believed he was sent to establish a kingdom that is already in his coming in fullness and that the power of god that raised jesus from the dead is the same power and love that can look at our problems and the things that we cannot solve on our own and says to us i will redeem this too i will resurrect this too my kingdom is here my kingdom is near it is coming and we are the people who pattern our lives around that as though it were already true and so today highland this is the body and this is the blood of jesus broken for you but not just broken redeemed and one day we will eat it with him in god's eternal kingdom would you pray with me lord we thank you for your promises they are new every morning great is your faithfulness may we be people of hope and faith who know that the patterns of violence and hatred and power have been broken by the cross of christ and all of these things that seem to work against us are in fact just suffering until the day when you come in your gratefulness and everything is made new and so god we take our problems and our troubles and we lay them at your feet knowing that you will redeem them too it's through christ's name we pray amen so jesus calls us [Music] [Applause] day by day his sweet voice sounded saying christian follow me jesus calls us from the worship of the rain world's golden storm from each [Music] savior make us hear thy call give our hearts to thine [Music] servant love the best of all lord i give you my heart i give you my soul i live for you alone every breath that i take every moment lord have your way in me lord i give you my heart i give you my soul i live for you alone every breath that i take every moment lord have your way in me lord have your way in me i am not my own i give up control you can take me where [Music] or laid aside for you i am empty to be filled on the altar [Music] [Applause] now forever i am laying down my [Applause] life for your glory may my song be i am only all for christ if i have all things or if i have nothing only you have all my life now in heaven [Music] [Applause] you are my now forever [Applause] [Music] for your glory may my song be i am only all for crying [Music] christ is enough for me christ is enough for me everything i need is in you everything i need christ is enough for me is christ is enough for me everything i need is in you everything i need i have decided to follow jesus no turning back no turning back i have decided to follow jesus no turning back no turning back the cross before me the world behind me no turning back no turning back then cross before me the world behind me no turning back no turning back in christ is enough for me christ is enough for me everything i need is in you everything i need i have decided [Music] to follow jesus no turning back no turning back i have decided to follow jesus no turning back no turning back no turning back no turning back amen okay hyland if you have a child uh ages birth through fifth grade i do this every time kindergarten i can't i have children who have done this but i cannot remember it three through kindergarten you can take them back to his kids worship right now uh because that's happening back there with miss ashley and ms suzette uh you can also um if you would like to give to the things that are going on going on here in highland the work that god's doing there are three ways that you can give those are up there on this slide behind me lastly if you are a visitor or if you have been visiting and want to connect more deeply with highland we really want you to grab one of the connect cards in front of you if you fill that out and turn that into one of the boxes in the back we are really really really wanting to make sure that the connections that we have at highland run really deep and if that's not something that you want to do if you want to be on the journey to god's kingdom with us uh we want you to know that we want you on that journey with us along those same lines today after second service we are having a connections lunch back here in the atrium that's why uh jeff has worked so hard for the atrium to look so fancy and fall and festive it looks great back there if you are a visitor have been visiting uh want to get connected more deeply or know somebody who needs to get get connected more deeply please bring them to that or come to that and we have a jason's deli box for you and more importantly than that we want to get connected with you and we want to give you every opportunity to get connected to what god's doing here at highlands so with all that said we are going to hear from the word of the lord so would you please stand uh while we hear god's promises for us let the same mind be in you that was in christ jesus who though he was in the form of god did not regard equality with god as something to be exploited but emptied himself taking the form of a slave being born in human likeness and being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross even death on a cross even death on a cross therefore god also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name so that at the name of jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father to the glory of god the father to the glory of god the father to the glory of god the father [Music] please remain standing for the reading of the word from philippians 2. therefore my beloved just as you have always obeyed me not only in my presence but much more now in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is god who is at work in you enabling you to both to will and to work for his good pleasure do all things without murmuring and arguing so that you may be blameless and innocent children of god without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in which you shine like stars in the world it is by holding fast to the word of life that i can boast on the day of christ that i did not run in vain or labor in vain but even if i am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith i am glad and rejoiced with you and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me the word of the lord please be seated good morning highland it's good to see you here whether you're in our auditorium with us or online watching it's good to have you here if you missed last week i got to tell you you missed a beautiful moment in the life of this church where we took those ribbons and we wrote on them what's that place that god is calling us to this week and we we carried them up here and we placed them on the mural and as you can see second service showed up as well and they placed a lot of ribbons and i i imagine what the impact was in our city this week as we held our commitment to what we said we would do in the name of jesus and i want to encourage you because i've read some of these ribbons and and some of these commitments are a lot bigger than just one week or one meal or or one kind of act of kindness some of these are lifestyle changes and i am so grateful for what you've committed to god to and so hang in there and don't quit don't give up don't get tired of doing the good thing that god is is willing you to is pushing you to one time i was hiking in uh in california it's it's in this uh this beautiful open space called fremont older and the thing you need to know about fremont older is that it is a very steep hike and i was going with um two very fit people a wife my wife and one of my our friends and and they were they were way ahead at least like a hundred yards ahead of me going on the switchbacks up these trails uh and we were going to this summit and we and we got to the top of it and and i looked around and you could see the city of san jose city of san jose is in this valley and we're up on the edge of the the hill that surrounds it and you could see downtown and you could see you could see almost to the bay and you could see all the way down south it was beautiful and i thought we've arrived we're finished we can go home but then i turned around and realized that was just the first summit and my wife and our friend we would not be satisfied with just one summit behind us was even a higher hill that i was gonna have to climb i was thrilled and uh so then we began again and it was it was like we started over another hike more switchbacks but when we got to the top of that summit we could not only see the city if we turned our backs we could see the ocean off in the distance and it was glorious and we're going through this sermon series together and in some ways that hymn the early hymn that paul quotes to talk about what does it mean to be like jesus christ that gave everything up gave up heaven became a human being not only a human being a slave not only a slave but to die to die on a cross and because of his obedience to god god's faithfulness raises him up and gives him the name that's above every other name that every knee and every tongue shall confess that jesus is lord and it feels like you just crossed the summit there because it's a beautiful statement about the wonder of god the obedience and the gift of jesus christ the power of the spirit working and moving in our lives but then we turn around and we look and we realize paul's not done paul's not done this was as i loved what mike said two weeks ago this is the bedrock story that paul is gonna build other stories on top of and and before the every what it meant was that every knee and every tongue and and everyone will declare that jesus is lord it's kind of this eschatological vision of what god's love is going to do in this universe but when we turn around and we realize that we have more hike to take with paul that the every is going to change it's not just the eschatological vision it's the promise of the church you see paul wants to use this bedrock story to tell us another story it's a story of a church in conflict it's a story of a church that's not getting along there there are factions and there are divisions there are leaders at odds with each other there are people that are are gossiping and complaining there's maybe even outright kind of rebellion happening in the midst of this church and this is the church that paul loves and this is the church that loves paul so much that they'd spent money to take care of him while he's in prison and the last thing in the world that paul wants to imagine is that church which he has cared for that god has nurtured is about to fall into pieces every used to be in every tongue and every knee the name above every other name but as as we turn the corner and we head to the next summit in this text we realize that paul is talking about every one everyone has a place at god's table everyone has a voice in what the spirit is doing in the midst of the church everyone deserves to be loved and has dignity because because they bear the image of god every person is worthy of love and respect and so we've hit the first summit the promise of god's expected future but now we're heading to the second which is how do we live together as we wait for that promise to come true will you pray with me please heavenly father we're grateful for being gathered together here we're grateful for the power of your word that confronts us and transforms us reminds us and comforts us we're grateful for the spirit that convicts us and leads us into paths of greater righteousness and father now as we turn our minds and our hearts to your word i pray that you pour through me the gift of preaching i pray that so that i might speak to these people in love and it is through jesus christ we pray amen sometimes we're in philippians chapter 2. if you have your bible or your phone there open it up because you're going to need to look at it uh sometimes when when uh i sit down to write a sermon i like to have a conversation partner just someone to talk to about about the text because some that provides clarity that helps me understand things from a different way and i wanted that fresh perspective this week so i had a chance to meet up with my old friend martin martin luther now not martin luther king jr martin luther the the the father the beginner of the reformation he's the one that posted the the theses on the church door to to try to reform what's happening in in the church in his time and so i sat down with martin luther and i wanted to ask him some questions but but before that you know we just kind of wanted to get to know each other a little better and and so so we told some jokes and so he he said to me you know um do you know how many uh elders it takes to light a candle he would have said change a light bulb but light bulbs didn't exist then how many elders it takes to light a candle and i said no martin luther i have no idea how many elders does it take to light a candle at your church he says none because none of them will do the work there's some theological nerds in here right because i'm not going to explain it and i said well i have a joke just like that it's the same as yours they said how many church of christ elders does it take to change a light bulb and he said i don't know how many and i said change yeah okay maybe we won't do that in a second um here's the thing about this text here's the thing about this text when paul says work out your salvation with fear and trembling we don't know what that means because there's five words in that short sentence that we don't define in the same way that paul does especially at our first glance work out your salvation with fear and trembling we don't define any of those words in the same way that paul is trying to use them for the philippian church because with our baggage where we come from in the church of christ and if you grew up there that's great if you didn't i'm going to give you a little insight to maybe a little bit of the neurosis that happens in churches of christ is that is that we believed we had to get it all right we believed that we could get it all right we believe that if we studied scripture carefully and we found the truths we could pull those truths out and apply them successfully to our churches and if you could figure out the truth and if you could apply it successfully to your church then you would be right and if they weren't doing it exactly like you then you must be wrong and out of this this is this comes from the motive of trying to please god this comes from the motive of trying to be the best possible christian you can be and those are admirable motives but the byproduct of that was not just the sincere desire to seek out god's will and to put it into practice but a kind of judgmentalism that came if you didn't agree with us or a deep anxiety that maybe you weren't quite getting it right maybe i maybe i'm wrong because we're in this this crucible of gotta get it right and so when you when you come to this text with that kind of luggage and you hear the phrase work out your salvation with fear and trembling what it says to you is that god is not safe because if you didn't get it right if you didn't do the right work then your salvation has a question mark beside it and then with fear and trembling puts you in a place that distances you from god doesn't connect you to god because god is not someone that you can come to but i think we miss some of those words because of our our context we hear the word work out and we we think it's some sort of a front to grace because you can't hold the grace we've been saved by grace alone not by works so that none can boast and then work out your salvation and what we have to notice in this text is that paul uses work or a synonym for work over and over and over in philippians chapter 2. it is clear that paul does not think that the work that you do to build the christian community the work that you do to become a better disciple is in any way in opposition to the work that god does to change your heart work shows up all over the place great and grace doesn't free us from doing those things it allows us to partner with god notice what what the work does what god does he changes our will and he gives us the ability and the grace allows us to partner with god to accomplish the already but not yet that god is already doing as as fred craddock said sometimes it seems like the only place that we can defend the god doctrine of grace is from a hammock that the only way that we can rely on god completely for god's work is to not do anything at all but i don't think that's what paul means by work out i think what paul is saying here is because of the grace that god has given you because of the way that you're being transformed not just that you're it's more likely that you're able to follow some set of rules that you created in your head but rather because god has transformed your heart and your will do what god is calling you to do another way of thinking of that is that sin is never the breaking of a commandment sin is always the breaking of a relationship do you understand what i mean sin is never the breaking of a rule sin is always the breaking of relationship now if that's true then salvation grace has a lot more to do with mending the relationship than it has to do with paying the price for infraction paying the fine so paul says work out your the your here is plural and i don't have to spend much time talking about this to a bunch of west texans because this is ingrained in us it would be easier for us to say work out y'all's salvation this is not some sort of question mark in the in your life and in your place where maybe god is furious with you or maybe he's not maybe god is satisfied with the amount that you've given or maybe you haven't maybe god is infuriated by the most recent sin you've committed or maybe god is not that's not what what paul is trying to say him he's not talking to you as an individual he's talking to the philippian church he's talking to the us it's it's plural and so when he says work out your salvation do the things that god is willing in you to do but we're going to do it together as a church this isn't about you and god this is about us together and then he says salvation now salvation can have a big capital s in this text talking about that kind of eschatological point of view whether or not you will be in heaven someday whether you are your soul is secure with god but i don't think this is exactly what paul means because salvation as it shows up in philippians doesn't just mean eschatological salvation it just means saved it's kind of like when you throw a party and you bring a cake but you forgot the knife and you don't you can't cut the cake what is everybody going to do to stick their hands and grab a handful of cake that doesn't sound like very much fun and somebody says oh well i've got a knife and then pulls it out the knife saves the party does that make sense paul may not just be talking about salvation in an eschatological kind of sense of heaven but also might just be talking about the health and the well-being of the church itself that there is a problem that's happening in the church that is the threatening the the life of the church it is putting the church on hospice and what the church needs is salvation smallness so that it can survive and so paul says do the work that god has called you as a church to do to preserve the good health of your church and do it in a posture of fear and trembling now again fear might make us feel fear and trembling i don't know if you've ever felt that kind of fear before the fear that makes your hands shake you can't help it you can't you can't control it you look down at your hands you want them to stop and they can't because your your body is reacting your limbic system is reacting in such a way that that there's nothing you can do about it i don't think that's what paul is talking about here fear and trembling is a reference to kind of an old testament phrase which just means obedience it's not so much that you're afraid or in terror or in some place that that where you question your own survival or am i going to get out of this alive it's more understood as an old testament reference to just being obedient it's the posture of a disciple so paul says do the work that god is enabling you to do as a church to preserve the spiritual and emotional the the health of the church and do it in a way that's obedient to the work of god because it's god doing the work he continues let me make that clear the task of us being healthy together is to seeking the same mind that is to find the posture of the god who stoops the obedience of the son submitting ourselves to one another and to the father that is the task of the work of the church among us because the promise of this text is that god is in our midst and god is doing this work for god's own good pleasure what do you do in your life that's for your own good pleasure it's not for instagram likes it's not because you know it's healthy it's something that you do for your own good pleasure just purely because you love it maybe that's getting out early on the lake and going fishing maybe it's reading those pulpy you know thriller novels those old hard scrabble detective novels and you don't ever tell anybody about these books that you read but you just do it because you love it maybe it's when you're on the run and and you're you're not doing the exercise because you know it's gonna preserve your life but because it just feels good what do you do for your own good pleasure it's not because it's healthy it's not it's not kale nobody eats kale because they want to they only eat kale because they feel like they ought to what do you do because you love it and if nobody wanted to do it with you even if people made fun of you for doing it you do it anyway because you love it that's how god feels about our work that's how god feels about us god knits the sinews of the church together god heals the broken and mends the wounded parts of us so that we're we're stronger together god god does the work of building the church not because god has to but because this is the thing that god loves more than anything else in the world god does this work for god's good pleasure because god is in our midst so paul continues because god is doing this work because god wants to this is the thing god that loves and will do more than anything else in the world don't murmur or argue don't don't complain and and in the book of exodus chapter 16 murmur is connected to grumbling and it's the story of manna and quail now maybe you've heard this story before if you've never heard this story before the the israelites have been delivered from slavery in egypt uh moses has led them out into the desert they've crossed the red sea god has made them safe and created a way for them to live life to the fullest and but they're wandering in the desert right now and they don't have food and they rarely have good water and so god provides them food by giving them manna every morning it's this kind of flaky cake that just appears on the ground that they eat god provides them food where they would have starved and eventually what happens is the people begin to murmur the people begin to complain about it they're tired of mana they want something else they want meat and so they they say let's just go back to egypt where at least we had the safety and security of of good food even though we were slaves and we had to work for pharaoh they grumble against god and so so god provides for them quail now in my imagination most egyptian slaves probably didn't get meat that often but god gives them food the god who loves the good pleasure of feeding and caring for the people who are in the wilderness but if you dial up murmuring then what you end up with is arguing and this is kind of uh what's what you do with those that are closest to you what murmuring does to a community arguing does to friendships what murmuring does it to a community is it it destroys it by hollowing it out and leaves it crippled to any attack from the outside or any crisis from the inside what it does is take the the health and the robust the vitality of a community and it kind of empties it out it's like an immune system that's become so weak that you're still standing and walking around but the first cold that you get just knocks you out and lays you down because you've been hollowed out from the inside that is what murmuring and arguing can do to a church and that's why paul is so concerned about this by these two elders in arkansas and and two these are the two men they were the first to hear about a pastoral crisis because people called them first they were the first to show up in a hospital room to bring prayer and comfort and they both deeply cared about their people and it was at that point where their similarities ended one of them was like spock he was this very rational logical person that that only thought through things in a very clear and and and you could see his paragraphs forming as outlines uh the other was completely intuitive about everything he had no idea why he felt the way he did but he just knew that's where he felt and these two men couldn't be more different in any other way except for their care for the church and it showed up every time they gathered every time we had an elder meeting they would have arguments about things because they looked at the world so fundamentally different and and they would have discussions when they went out to coffee and if you watch these two guys argue with each other in an elder's meeting or at a coffee shop you would think someone is going to walk away from this meeting with a bloody nose but that never happened it never happened because they loved each other it never happened because they trusted each other it's kind of like john adams and thomas jefferson two of the founding fathers of america they didn't agree on hardly anything in the course of history and what's fascinating to me is is this story that they died five hours apart and even though he was a thorn in jefferson's flesh adam's last hope for the nation was at least jefferson survives even though they never agreed on anything in in their debates and as they wrote letters toward one another and they attacked one another even though they went at each other like like two fighting dogs adams trusted jefferson enough to say at least the future of the nation is safe as long as jefferson lives and what we need to realize is that in order to have a good result we need disagreement those two elders in arkansas they needed the ability to argue and debate with one another and sometimes it would get really hot because but what came out of that was a better a better life but in order to have that kind of disagreement we have to have trust and this text carries that theme from the beginning of philippians 2 to the end it begins with if if there is any encouragement in christ if there is any consolation for love if there is any sharing in the spirit if any compassion and sympathy then if any of these things exist then make my joy complete by being of the same mind have the same love be in full accord and be in one mind that doesn't mean we're always going to agree it doesn't mean that we'll always see eye to eye or that you will have to be lockstep at this church i love the diversity of thought that exists here at highland and if i were to ask some theologically loaded question to any of you it would i would probably get a different answer from every person and i love that that is a gift that god has given us and what does it look like when our community can embrace that i think what it would mean is that we are inoculated to murmuring to complaining to the grumbling i think it would be a people who are emotionally intelligent people who are emotionally intelligent and wise create a sort of herd immunity from the diseases that attack a church i mean what would happen if gospel gossip didn't stick those two elders in arkansas what would happen because i saw it happen there was a time when one of those elders became under attack and it was being accused of things by some of the members of the congregation his first offender was the elder that disagreed with him the most because he knew him and he loved him paul continues shine like stars in a sinful and twisted generation and you can't help but imagine in genesis 1 the story of god placing the stars up in the firmament of the sky each one and there is an undeniable beauty that comes from looking at those stars there is the same undeniable beauty that comes when you witness the living church being healthy with one another it could also mean that the paul is talking about what it means to be light in the darkness and you have to go outside of the city to see this light you can't see it from all the street lights here but if you go far outside of the city then you see the lights and the beauty and the wonder of god i think for certain what paul is talking about is is the lights that the ships would navigate by it is the light that guides others home and if there is anything missing in our culture and society right now it is believers who are attempting to be unapologetically and courageously kind in every moment and every day and every situation and so maybe the word from god today is this try to be kind try to be a transformed person not by your own effort but the power of the spirit in you let's be different and when we follow jesus together when we chase the god who stoops who empties self for others maybe just maybe we become a light in this world will you please stand for our benediction may the god our father of the lord jesus christ who sent his spirit to guide you bless you and keep you this week may he lift his face to shine upon you and give you peace go with god oh lord how majestic is your name [Applause] [Music] magnify your name prince of peace mighty god oh lord god almighty oh lord our lord how majestic is your name in all the earth oh lord our lord how majestic is your name [Music] [Applause] mighty god oh lord god almighty prince of peace mighty god o lord god almighty he is lord he is lord he is risen from the dead and he is lord [Music] every knee shall bow every tongue confess that jesus christ is lord he's our king he's our king he is over us and he's our king we adore and [Music] praise to jesus christ our king you are lord you are

Channel: HighlandAbilene

Views: 127

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 7DC2iwhdvC0

Length: 64min 20sec (3860 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021