Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Good morning. 945.
Good morning. All right, before we get into our message, I'm so excited because we have the privilege to install two new deacons here at the village church, Ryan Weiss and Ben Rossborough. And before we have them come up and before we do that, I want to take a couple minutes and I want to open up God's word with you and talk about, okay, so what biblically are deacons? All right, what is a deacon? First, a deacon. In scripture, it's one of two, what we call church offices or positions of leadership. One would be elders and the next would be deacons. And so Jesus has given elders and deacons to be the spiritual leaders over local churches. And even though they have different roles and responsibilities, really, you can see so much of what a deacon is by just looking at the word. In the Greek, it is the word diakonos, which means servant. And so the deacons are responsible for two big primary things. Number one, they are serving the local church, their local church by meeting both the physical and the spiritual needs of that local church. The second thing that they do is that they serve the elders by taking off some of the on the ground shepherding needs so that the elders in any local church can focus on the spiritual leadership, they can focus on prayer, and they can focus on the teaching of God's word. So we, I gotta just tell you that the amount of work our deacons do behind the scenes is extensive. And 99% of what they do, you are never going to hear about because they are jumping into really often challenging and complex situations and bringing wisdom from God's word, I word and resources. And they oversee our care team so that when something actually does go on, if there is more help that is needed, they have the ability to mobilize village church to real time meet needs on the ground that are happening. One Timothy, chapter three, verses eight to 13. They tell us the qualifications of a deacon. Here's what it says.
Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience and let them also be tested first. Then let them serve as deacons. If they prove themselves blameless, their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderous, but sober minded. Faithful in all things.
Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons, gain a good standing for themselves. And I love this line. And also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
So as a local church, we have ourselves two responsibilities, two toward our deacons. And the first is this. When there is a need that comes up in your life or in the life of somebody in this church that you are in orbit with, it is our joyful responsibility to give one of the deacons a phone call, a text or an email and say, hey, we need some help. And depending on what's going on, they do have the ability to mobilize a whole bunch of village churchers to actually meet real time needs on the ground. And so if you are in a position where you're like, listen, I'm just overwhelmed. I'm in over my head. I don't even know how to take a next step. Our deacons are the front line. They love hearing from you and being able to enter into your circumstances to help you get through whatever it is you're going through. The second thing that we can do for our deacons is we can commit to praying to for them because they are on the front lines of spiritual leadership. They co lead village church with our elders. And here's what we know. The moment you enter into spiritual leadership, into a church office, you already are going to be on the front line of attack because the evil one hates you because he wants to destroy you. And the most effective way to do that is by going after elders and deacons. And so you can commit to praying for them, especially as they walk into very challenging situations that they would have the wisdom that they need to love and to shepherd and to care well for the people that they have the privilege of ministering to. All right, so at this time I would like to invite up Ben Rossborough and Ryan Weiss. These are our prospective deacons, as well as all of the elders and deacons at the village church. You guys can come on up front. And so if you don't know who our elders and deacons are, our deacons are Ryan Cheney, Alex Dawson and Jeff Antiojo. And then our elders are myself and Kirk for household and Liam Burkett. So what I would like to ask you to do is in a moment, not yet, but in a moment, I'm going to ask you to stand and reach out your hand, if you are comfortable, and pray over them. But first, let me tell you a little bit about how these guys got to this place. So we have an elder deacon development class and a handful of you in the room have gone through this. And so we explore what the scriptures teach about being an elder and being a deacon. And then we explore what does that look like, you know, practically on the ground at village church? After they get through that class, if they are interested in becoming an elder or a deacon, then what they do is they submit an application and we get that. We get to interrogate them theologically, make sure that they're all that they say they are. Just a whole bunch of process that goes into that to really make sure that they are indeed qualified deacons. And if you remember from one timothy three, one of the qualifications is that they need to be tested first. And so what we do is we have them sit with our elders or our deacons for a pretty extended period of time. They get to serve with them, and it's an opportunity just to get to know them, get to know their spirit, confirm their calling. And so Ben and Ryan have been meeting with the deacons, I think, for about the last year and a half or so. And then Ryan had an additional responsibility. We asked him for the last. So it's six to eight months to sit with our elders as added accountability. Another voice in the room. And so we've gotten to see these guys in a whole bunch of different contexts over the last year and a half. And you, if you've been around a bit, you've heard me say this. We take a really, really long time before we actually call somebody to be an elder or a deacon. In fact, this has been about a year and a half for them. And all the guys behind you can testify. It is a ridiculously long process. We don't do this because we're mean. We do this because we love you and we love them. And one person on this team who is not qualified or the right person can create unbelievable havoc for us and you. And so we go through this process and I just appreciate the scripture's clarity on the qualifications and even says, take a while. Let them be tested. Don't be hasty to lay hands on somebody. And so after a year and a half brothers, we get to stand here with great confidence and all of us stand behind you and next to you and say, we love you. You are qualified men for the office of Deacon. And I can also look at you and just say, you are great friends. You are truth tellers, you are strong, you are servants. When I read that list, you guys are that list. You are not perfect. You are sinners. Right? But I'm telling you, you are great men. It is a privilege to lead with you. And I wish. I wish all of you could get to know this group of mendenne like I've been able to get to know them over the last years. You're being led by really phenomenal men who love the Lord, know his word and are grounded, imperfect, but humble. And I just could not be more grateful. So at this time I want to ask, would you stand and if you're comfortable, would you extend your hands? And myself and Alex Dawson are going to pray over these guys.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we come before you. Lord, we are so thankful today to bring before you a pair of approved workmen that we can bring before this church, this body that is your church, that is your body and show them as ready for the office that you have called them to. Lord, we praise you for that. But Lord, we also lift them up as they are not without need. Lord, we pray for their own relationship with you, God, we pray for consistency. We pray for time spent just praying with you, praying with their families and leading well. Lord, we pray for peace in their households as they seek to offer support in this church, in this body and amongst others. Lord, we just pray that your hand will be on that. We also pray, Lord, for the unity of the deacons and of the leadership of this church. Lord, you have blessed us so much with that unity and with that alignment. And God, I just pray that as these men just come even farther into the fold, Lord, that you will ensure that we have unity of spirits, that we are able to speak, speak the truth in love to each other and that you can maintain the team that we have and that we can do a great work for this church and for your heart. Lord, we also just finally just pray for these men as they go about now that they are known and visible. Lord, we pray that you will protect them. We pray for protection over their, their hearts, their minds, their souls, Lord, as they are now, will be more of a target of the enemy. And Lord, we pray that your spiritual protection will be upon them. We pray that your hands of protection will be upon them. And Lord, we pray that they will not shy away from that protection but lean deeper into it. Lord, we are excited and we pray all of that in your name.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Father, I just am thankful for my brothers. I am thankful that at the right time they confessed their sin to you and believed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I'm thankful that you didn't just call them away from hell, but you have saved them for ministry. And Lord, in this next season, thank you for raising them up to the office of Deacon. I thank you, God, that we're able to recognize the kinds of things that they've been doing the whole time. I'm thankful for their heart of ministry, of service, and for the wisdom that you have given Ben and Ryan. I just stand here very, very much filled with gratitude to you and to these men and for what you have done in their life. I am thankful for the last year and a half to just see confirmation after confirmation that these men are the right men, that they are qualified, and that you, most importantly, are asking them to walk into this next season. I just agree with everything Alex prayed. And, Lord, may you give them continual wisdom. Would you give them courage? Would you give them power? Would you keep the word of God and the gospel close to their tongue and the wisdom from your holy spirit and your word that they might continue to bless? Lord, I know that there are so many in this room where Ben and Ryan have entered into some of their hardest circumstances, and you have used them. God, may you continue to empower them and use not just them, but our deacons and our care teams, to meet the real needs, physical and spiritual, in this church. Lord, we are so thankful, and we love you, and thank you for bringing them to this church into this office. And so it is our joy and privilege to install Ben and Ryan as deacons at the village church, and we do this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Village church. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Dude.
You guys can take a seat. And if you have a bible, they'll be up here for a few minutes. So if you have a bible, would you guys open up your bibles to two corinthians, chapter two?
Ben, I didn't get a hug.
Ben. Ben, I didn't get a hug.
There we go.
I'm a hugger. All right, all right. Second Corinthians, two. Everybody have your bibles open up. We're gonna shift our brain to God's word. All right. So after having written three letters, two of which are lost, the apostle Paul has finally been reconciled back to the corinthian church. They had an enormous amount of conflict. Paul and the corinthian church were at odds with each other. The corinthian church was in deepen sin. In the process of their deep sin, Paul was hurt very deeply by this church. Paul showed up to the church to confront them to their face, of which they did not receive well. And so Paul took a different route. He decided he was gonna write them a letter and praise God. They received the letter, they repented of their sins, and they are reconciled back to each other. So the book of Second Corinthians is written after all of this drama between Paul and the corinthian church. And so if you were just reading the book of Second and you parachute into this, you're going to be like, what is going on? And so, understanding the context of this book is just so unbelievably important. But positively, when Second Corinthians is written, Paul and the corinthian church have reconciled. They are at peace with each other, and they can now move into the future, serving and building the kingdom of Jesus. But we cannot forget this one fact.
Just because Paul and the corinthian church are reconciled to each other just because their relationship has been restored does not change the fact that the corinthian church is a very spiritually immature church. I know this is gonna sound crazy, but immature people do immature things.
So in the midst of all of this hurt and all of this dysfunction and all of this pain and all of this mess, not surprisingly, there is someone in the corinthian church that sinned in a very big way. Whatever this person did, it impacted the entire church. Relationships were broken. People were hurt. And the net effect was that the pain was severe enough that the majority in the corinthian church considered their actions unforgivable. And so Paul is addressing this. He's gonna jump right into it. And this is the context for two Corinthians, chapter two, verse five. Paul is talking about the person who has caused everyone in the church pain. And here's what he says.
Now, if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it. Not to me. It's not his issue, but I, in some measure, not to put it too severely to all of you.
And then he says, for such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. Okay, so what is Paul talking about? Okay, here's what we think we know, and I'm gonna do pastor math again. I'm gonna go 58% probability that we know what this is. So high chance we know what it is. But if I get to heaven and God's like, no, it was actually a different circumstance. It doesn't actually change anything that we're really gonna talk about here.
Most people think what Paul is referring to is a circumstance that happened in the book of first Corinthians, chapter five. So if you have a bible, flip back one book. I'll put it on the screen also. And here's what happened. In one corinthians, chapter five, verse one, Paul says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans. And here's the sin for a man has his father's wife. Okay, so there is an adult son in the corinthian church, and it seems that the son's father is also in the church. We don't know what happened to his mother, but the father remarries and the son is found out to be having a relationship, an inappropriate relationship. Sleeping with his father's new wife. Good or bad, go bad. Okay, and here's the deal. This could be some arrangement where there is an open marriage, but judging by the amount of pain it caused in the church, it seems like this was not an open relationship, but this was sin on every level. And here's. I'm going to catch this. The church knows about it, is well aware of the pain, and they're not doing anything about it.
So Paul says in verse two, and you are arrogant.
Ought you not rather to mourn?
Let him who has done this be removed from among you. Listen, jewish law forbade this. Even pagan roman law forbade this. Common sense forbade this. Even the pagans knew. You just don't do that to your dad. This is low. The church is tolerating it. So Paul intervenes, and his thing is this. Listen, this person is not repentant. They don't love the Lord. You need to remove this person from the church, because it wasn't just that the person did something evil, but the person was unrepentant and perpetually doing the evil thing. Look at verse five. In verse five, he says, this is powerful language. You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
In other words, you got to take this person out of the protective sphere of the local church, that there is a level of spiritual protection that happens for the soul in a local church community. But the person who wants to have the protection of the spiritual community of a local church, but also wants to live like the kingdom of Satan. Like, you can't have both. And so we've all done ridiculous things, and hopefully we've been confronted and we repent and we realign ourselves. But this person's like, no, I'm going to keep doing this. And I want the protection of the local church. And Paul's like, no, this is not what we do. Deliver this man over to Satan, which is the domain of Satan, which is outside, anywhere outside of the protection of the local church. So what's interesting is when the corinthian church received this rebuke, in one corinthians, they actually obeyed Paul. The majority of them did, and they cast this person out of the church.
Now let's go back to second corinthians. This appears to be the context of what he's going to say next. Second Corinthians, chapter two, verse six. And something actually really awesome happens.
He says, for such a one, this is the unrepentant sinner.
This punishment, disassociation, kicked him out of the church by the majority is enough.
So it appears that when Paul wrote to them, you can't have any more to do with that person. The majority of the church obeyed. But I want you to look again at verse six. It says, for such a one, this punishment is enough. So when is the punishment of disassociation enough?
When they repent? Guys, I don't know if you're picking this up.
The guy, it appears from one corinthians five repented and this guy came back to the corinthian church and owned his error. Apologized, apparently benefit the doubt to the relevant parties. Asked the church for forgiveness, wanted to get out of the domain of Satan and back into the local church.
This is beautiful. Can I just take a minute before we go any further?
You might be newer here, but like, know this church pretty well. You are sitting next to some men and women who, by the way, it's most of us have caused pain to other people in this church.
And you were sitting next to men and women, a whole bunch of people who have owned their stuff, apologized and reconciled. Like, part of just being in a church is sometimes we hurt each other's feelings and sometimes, sometimes things happen. And this is just one of the most beautiful parts about a local body of Christ. You're a family and things happen. And like this, this is so beautiful, sitting here and watching the amount of people have had to have talks and one on ones and conversations and who have worked through stuff. It is actually a beautiful thing. Now, do you remember last week, the week before I preached, I told you how grateful I am that you are not like the corinthian church.
Praise God. Because do you know how they responded to the sinner who repented and asked for forgiveness?
They refused to accept his apology.
And you're like, how do you refuse to accept someone's apology? Like, it takes guts for this guy to own his stuff and to come back and to stand before the church. Look at verse seven. Paul says, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
There are few things that are more painful than trying to reconcile and ask forgiveness and be rejected, let alone from your church community. And so we could call this experiencing overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So Paul, in verse eight, he pleads, he says, so I beg you, can you tell the corinthian church is not super excited about forgiving this person? He says, I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.
So let me ask you a question, which is easier when you're deeply hurt.
Punishing somebody or forgiving someone?
The answer is punishing somebody, by the way. And for those of you who say forgiving is easier, let me just tell you, that is the Holy Spirit's work in you. And that took probably years of growing that muscle. The vast majority of people punishing somebody is way easier than forgiving them. And when Paul said, disassociate discipline, got it good, they did it. And now he's coming back to them and he's saying, okay, you did the easy part. Now the hard part is to reaffirm your love for the person who repents of their sin. And they are not excited about this.
If you've been with us in 2024, there's actually been a couple times where forgiveness has come up in the text, and I get a funny response. People are like, you're talking about my life and my circumstance, aren't you? And I'm like, I'm literally just preaching through the text. Things come up, it appears, by the quantity of people who need to forgive. This is a pretty relevant subject. And so I'm going to share with you a couple portions of messages that I've given earlier in the year, but apparently we can't hear this too many times. Okay. There are two primary words for forgiveness in the grit greek language. The first is the word ephemi, which literally means away from it, is to let go or to release. And it's the act of releasing something that you have been holding onto tightly.
Ephemy is used primarily in two contexts. The first context is when someone does not ask you for forgiveness, and the command is for you to let it go, because if you hold onto it, it's going to destroy you.
The second way that this is used is when somebody does ask you for forgiveness, and you are commanded to let it go and to be at peace with that person.
The second word for forgiveness is the word charizomi. And charizomi actually comes from the root word charis, which is grace. And so charisma is the verb form of this, and it means to offer reconciliation at a speed and to a degree one does not deserve. And this is primarily used in the context of when somebody sins against you or hurts you, they come to you and apologize, and you respond with charisma. You respond with such forgiveness that it can only be described as grace in action, that you forgive them with such speed, with such effectiveness, that you're able to look at somebody and say, I forgive you. And right now, in this moment, you and me are at peace. Look at verse ten. The word forgive comes up four times, and every time it is charisma. Paul says, anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I forgive, if I forgive it, anything has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.
In other words, corinthian church, forgive them to the degree that God has forgiven you.
Do you remember that moment for the very first time?
And you went to God and you had sinned against him and you and God were not reconciled and you were destined to hell. And actually Jesus had to die on a cross for your sins. Talk about consequences. And you remember the first time that you went to him and you said, I am so sorry, will you forgive me? And did he look at you and go, let me think about it?
No.
He looked at you and said, the moment you ask, you are forgiven.
Does that mean that everything is perfect? No. Does it mean you have, like, some room to grow? Oh, yeah. But does it mean that you and him in that moment are at peace with each other? 100%.
I want to be crystal clear.
Giving forgiveness to those who ask should result in reconciliation, but not necessarily full restoration. Do you see the difference?
Reconciliation is this.
You and me can be in the same room together.
If we go to the same church, you and me can worship together.
Restoration is different. Restoration is things are back to normal. Usually restoration takes a long time, if at all.
But reconciliation, two believers who have hurt each other and take ownership should be able to say, truth, peace, let's coexist together with joy.
Right? So reconciliation, maybe not full restoration. And forgiving somebody who sincerely asks doesn't mean that there isn't a season of repair, of growth, of hard conversations, of healing. That's normal.
Forgiving somebody who asks doesn't even mean, I know it's going to sound crazy that you need to be friends again, but it does mean that you need to be at peace.
But, Pastor Michael, you don't know what they did to me.
You're right. And I am not going to excuse their bad behavior, but I am not going to let their evil corrupt my soul.
The pain stops here. The corruption stops here with me.
I'm going to ophia me. I'm going to let it go. And if they ask, I'm going to charisma immediately. And I'm going to give them, in that moment, just a snapshot of the grace and the kindness that God gave me the moment I trusted in Christ. Okay, Pastor Michael, you don't know what they've done to me.
Okay? Humor me for a moment.
When you trusted in Christ for the first time, did you understand the depth of what you did to him?
Did you understand the full depth of your sin? Did you understand the full cost of the trinity? Did you understand the full cost to your family, to your friends, to your future, to your children, to your grandchildren, the generational sin they're all going to inherit? Did you understand the full weight of your sin?
And yet, even though you only understood a fraction of what you did to God, his hand was extended and peace was given to you. That can be called nothing short of grace.
And so then he looks at us and says, when somebody comes to you and owns their sin, your hand of peace is extended to them. It is striking to me that the very grace we demand from God the moment I ask for him to forgive me or after I'm a Christian and I mess up, oh, my God. No. Your job is to forgive me. Your job is to always overlook my sin is to be nice to me. Your job is to forgive me every time I ask. And yet that very thing we demand of God, we're like, I'm not sure if I want to give that to someone else.
So Paul's not done. In chapter two, verse eleven, Paul tells us why withholding forgiveness when asked is so spiritually dangerous.
We're commanded to forgive so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs.
Here's Satan's design or his trap or his scheme.
Create chaos, hostility, and division and perpetuate it through unforgiveness.
So Satan, if anybody ever told you this, but he's very smart.
He baits you with the delicious taste of retribution.
But it's poison.
So let me just say this very bluntly.
If right now there's a face or a name, right, and you are harboring hate, spite, disdain, coldness, or bitterness towards somebody, you fell for it.
You've been duped.
Satan is officially smarter than you.
He got you. Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit is up to something very different. The Holy Spirit wants peace, unity, and forgiveness. And so he looks at you and me and commands us to forgive, to lavish grace upon those who may have hurt us.
So is it okay to struggle to forgive? Is it okay to still have heavy and hurt feelings even after I. And of course, the answer is absolutely. Forgiving somebody doesn't just automatically change all of my emotions.
But I'm not controlled by my emotions. I'm controlled by my faith and my principles. Okay, but what if they don't understand the depth of pain that they have caused me? And, guys, they never will until Jesus shows them.
So I want to take a minute or two, and I want to share with you something that, again, every time I talk about forgiveness, I want to go through this. If it's your first time, wonderful. And if you've heard this 15 times, I pray that it continually challenges and encourages you. Forgiveness is not always six things. Forgiveness is not always forgetting. I don't know about you, but I'm not God, and I remember things.
Forgiveness is not always going back to the way things were. There are actually some circumstances where the harm done to you is severe enough. It is physical or sexual in nature that you should probably never be in a room with that person again. But you can at least extend peace and forgiveness if they ask. Forgiveness is not always trust.
I can be reconciled to you, but trust is going to be earned. Forgiveness is not always friendship. Forgiveness is not always feeling no hurt. And, guys, forgiveness is rarely, if ever, fair.
Psalm 100 310. He God does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
But forgiveness is five things. It's a choice to give generously what has been generously given to me by God.
Forgiveness is a process. It's like salvation. It happens in a moment, but you figure out how to do it over time, right? So I can forgive you in a moment. But now we gotta figure out what does this mean and what does this look like and what do we need?
Forgiveness is essential to obey Jesus. Apparently, if we're gonna be Christ's followers, this is a non option. Or unforgiveness is a non option. Forgiveness is spiritual corruption prevention.
And so what forgiveness is, it is the antidote to the bitterness that corrupts us from the inside out. And I love this. Forgiveness is a savvy spiritual war tactic. When you genuinely play the forgiveness card, demons throw up their wings and they go, we got nothing here. We can't do anything with this. We have to go to another broken relationship where there's bitterness, because that's where I can work. But the moment you play the forgiveness card. All power has been taken away from the evil one to corrupt you, and you have overcome the trap.
All right, three. So what's number one?
Prepare yourself to quickly forgive anyone who asks for it. I don't know what you have to do to get your heart ready again. If you go back to the forgiveness is not. And the forgiveness is, that can put some of that into context for you. You might need to sit down with somebody and get some help processing through this.
But one day, God willing, somebody might come to you and say, I just want to tell you I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? And prepare yourself.
I forgive you.
How could I note after what Jesus has done for me?
So, number two, while you wait for reconciliation, bless those who. And the scriptures command us to bless so many different kinds of people. Bless those who revile you. One. Peter three, nine. Bless those who abuse you and curse you. Luke 628. Bless those who persecute you. Matthew 544. Bless those who don't like you. Bless those who don't love you. Bless those who you don't like. Bless those whom you don't love. Because what happens when you're in a posture of blessing somebody is that you can't form a hard heart. And evil comes from hard hearts. And so when we bless somebody, we are just regularly tenderizing our heart so that we are tender to the spirit and to love.
And so, number three, from whom do you like the grammatically correct way we said this? Should you appreciate that? Thank you, Holly. From whom do I need to ask forgiveness?
I cannot promise you that they are going to forgive you quickly.
But I do know this. Give them the kind of grace you would want them to give you.
But I also know this, that they're never going to have the opportunity to say truce, to say peace, until maybe we go and own what we have to and apologize. And so maybe the Holy Spirit is putting someone on your heart. Maybe it's not about you forgiving, but maybe what the Holy Spirit is asking you to do is to go ask forgiveness from someone that you have sinned against, hurt, or harmed.
I want to say this again.
Thank you for being so gracious and kind. I cannot tell you how many circumstances I've walked into, and I have watched such beautiful, unbelievable reconciliation, rebuilding of trust within this church. And it is truly astounding. And every time someone asks us for forgiveness, we get to look at them and give them just a small portion of what God has given us in Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. God, I am thankful that you don't hide the mess of the churches in the bible of your people, from the Old Testament to the new. It's almost like you highlight them so we can just understand that there's really nothing new under the sun. People are people everywhere we go, in every generation, every millennia. And God, your word is so helpful. It is so instructing. God. We want to be people who give grace so quickly when asked, and, Lord, when not asked, that we are able to let go so that we are not corrupted by hurt and sin.
Father, I am so thankful that we get to celebrate communion here, that, Jesus, you would pay the full price for our sins and in our place. And that because of that, you are extending grace upon grace every moment of every day. Every day your mercies are new. Your grace is poured out upon us. And so, as believers, even though we don't feel like it, principally, we say it is our joy, honor and privilege to give a portion of the grace to those in our lives that you have lavished upon us. We love you, and we thank you for this passage of scripture. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
