Bound by Truth: The Humility of Grace

• Church Mission and Community Life [00:08:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The speaker outlines the church's mission to glorify God, share the gospel, and strengthen the community, while acknowledging recent community events like a wedding.
• Confession and Absolution [00:11:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The congregation recites Scripture together, confesses sin, and receives assurance of forgiveness through Christ's work on the cross.
• Catechism and Scripture Memory [00:24:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor reviews the Westminster Shorter Catechism regarding the chief end of man and the rule of God's Word, followed by memorizing Proverbs 1:7.
• Prayers of the People [00:31:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor leads intercessory prayers for specific church members facing health challenges, cancer, and family struggles.
• Church Discipline and Repentance [00:55:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains Paul's warning to the Corinthians that failure to repent will result in severe discipline, establishing the context for why truth is binding.
• The Nature of Biblical Truth [00:57:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that God's truth is not a matter of preference or debate, but a binding reality that cannot be ignored or altered.
• Martin Luther and the Diet of Worms [00:50:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > An historical illustration used to demonstrate the necessity of standing firm in truth despite pressure to recant.
• The Binding Nature of Truth [00:56:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that truth is not optional or debatable but binds believers to reality and God's Word, using the analogy of a green apple to illustrate objective reality.
• The Danger of Lies [01:01:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor illustrates the lethal consequences of believing lies through the analogy of a pilot who believes he is flying a boat, causing him to crash an airplane.
• Historical Witness (Wilhelm Busch) [01:03:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the story of German pastor Wilhelm Busch and youth who stood on God's truth against the Nazi regime, highlighting the question of who determines truth.
• Humility Through Truth [01:09:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that being bound by truth humbles believers, exposing their sin and dependence on God's grace, allowing them to be content with perceived weakness if it leads to others' restoration.
• Humility and the Gospel [01:15:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that true humility comes from grasping the Gospel, stripping away pride and the need for human applause, exemplified by Jesus' prayer on the cross.
• The Power of God's Word [01:20:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that Scripture has real power to transform and restore, citing Martin Luther to emphasize that the Word itself does the work, not human effort.
• Communion and Church Discipline [01:27:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the Lord's Table as a meal for the repentant family of God, inviting non-believers to pass by while encouraging believers to partake for strength and remembrance.
• Communion / Lord's Supper [01:32:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor invites the congregation to partake in the blood of Christ and drink in remembrance of him.
• Thanksgiving and Cleansing [01:35:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor leads a prayer of gratitude for the blood of Christ that cleanses believers from unrighteousness.
• Worship of the Risen Christ [01:35:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor prays that the congregation will leave the table worshiping the risen Christ.

• Sermon Illustration [00:09:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor thanks the congregation for dismantling the wedding setup for Anthony and Brianna, noting the ceremony went well despite Brianna needing to step up and down stairs.
• Sermon Illustration [00:31:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of parched land needing rain to describe the congregation's spiritual need for God's word and grace, noting the literal rain occurring that morning.
• Sermon Illustration [00:50:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the historical event of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521, where he refused to recant his writings on salvation by faith alone, stating 'Here I stand. I can do no other.'
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of a green Granny Smith apple to illustrate that truth is binding and objective; one cannot claim a green apple is red, just as one cannot ignore God's truth.
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a green Granny Smith apple to demonstrate that reality is objective and binding; one cannot change the apple's color by preference, just as one cannot change the truth of God's Word.
• Sermon Illustration [01:01:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a story of a pilot mid-flight over the Atlantic who decides he is the captain of a boat instead of an airplane; because he lives according to this lie, he crashes the plane, illustrating the danger of believing lies.
• Sermon Illustration [01:03:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a historical anecdote from the autobiography of German pastor Wilhelm Busch, describing how he taught youth to stand on God's Word against the Nazi regime, leading to run-ins with the Gestapo but demonstrating the power of standing on truth.
• Sermon Illustration [01:24:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor observes his children playing on an inflatable water slide on a hot day. He uses this as an analogy: just as the children embraced the truth of the heat to enjoy the cold water, believers should embrace the 'burning heat' of their sin to dive into the 'cold and refreshing water' of God's grace.

• Pastoral Charge [00:18:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > Confess sin to God in silence
• Pastoral Charge [00:19:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand to sing
• Pastoral Charge [00:25:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > Recite memory verse together
• Pastoral Charge [01:08:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > To actively stand firm on the truth immediately.
• Pastoral Charge [01:07:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > To proactively stand on the Word of God while freedoms remain.
• Pastoral Charge [01:24:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > Engage actively and persistently with God's Word as a source of power.
• Pastoral Charge [01:28:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > Seek out elders (specifically the pastor or Michael) for guidance on placing faith in Jesus.
• Pastoral Charge [01:32:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > Partake in communion (drink the blood of Christ) in remembrance of Jesus.

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:08:33] Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Harbor Church. Here at Harbor, we exist as a family of God, bound together to glorify and enjoy Him.
[00:08:43] We do this by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, strengthening each other in Him, and showing Him to our community and to the world.
[00:08:50] Go ahead and join us in that mission this morning.
[00:08:54] First of all, I just want to give a special shout-out and thank you to all of y'all who were able to put together I'm super impressed by how y'all took apart the wedding setup that we had yesterday for Anthony and Brianna.
[00:09:10] The wedding ceremony went off without a hitch.
[00:09:14] Even when Brianna had to step up and step down from the stairs, lots of prayers about that.
[00:09:20] But they are hopefully enjoying their honeymoon right now.
[00:09:24] So thank y'all for, I know, the big crew that helped to set up and take down.
[00:09:29] I appreciate y'all.
[00:09:30] A couple quick announcements before we get started.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:09:33] Officer Non on Saturday at 8.30 to 12.

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:09:52] Doing the new members class doesn't require you to join.
[00:09:55] It's just a really good time, a deep dive into the information about what we stand for as a church.
[00:10:02] We've also got an ice cream giveaway.
[00:10:03] Unfortunately, they're scheduled at the same time.
[00:10:05] But one of the things that we do throughout the summer is we get a whole bunch of ice cream, go out to Hope Park, and we just hand out free ice cream.
[00:10:15] It's wonderful.
[00:10:16] And what it is, is a bit of a laboratory for evangelism.
[00:10:22] So you're giving away something that people, and particularly kids, think is valuable.
[00:10:26] So it kind of brings the edge down a little bit.
[00:10:28] And then just have conversations with folks.
[00:10:31] It's a wonderful opportunity.
[00:10:32] If you are scared about doing evangelism, show up to one of these Saturdays.
[00:10:37] If you need more information, see Don right there.
[00:10:41] And he would love to talk to you about what that would look like.
[00:10:45] The family ministry end-of-year cookout is going to be, is it this Wednesday?
[00:10:50] No, it's next, June 3rd.
[00:10:52] My dates are all messed up, so June 3rd.
[00:10:56] We also have a singles inter-church event with evening of singing and fellowship and light refreshments as well.
[00:11:05] That's going to be on Saturday, June 20th from 530 to 830.
[00:11:08] We've already actually announced that to our entire presbytery, a couple of other churches as well.
[00:11:13] I talked to Andrew Shogar at Cottle Creek.
[00:11:15] So if you know of anybody who's Christian, who's single, please invite them to that.
[00:11:21] And if you want more information, where's Charity?
[00:11:23] There's Charity.
[00:11:24] See Charity?
[00:11:25] Yes, I know.
[00:11:26] I love embarrassing people.
[00:11:28] There's Charity.
[00:11:29] Go see Charity if you want to know more information.
[00:11:32] All right, I think that's everything.
[00:11:34] There's a lot more information, but please look at that in your announcements.
[00:11:38] The Lord calls us to worship this morning.
[00:11:41] he calls us near to him he is present with us so would you please stand as we recite God's word together I'll begin with and if you would respond in the bold and underlined the Lord is near to all who call on him to all who call on him in truth he fulfills the desires
[00:12:01] of those who fear him he also hears their cry and saves them the Lord preserves all who love him but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh
[00:12:15] bless his holy name forever and ever. Let's pray together. Lord God, if it was not for your grace, if it wasn't for your mercy, Lord, we would be the wicked who would be destroyed. Lord,
[00:12:30] you went to the cross for us and were counted as wicked, though you knew no sin, and were judged for our sins so that, Lord, we could know eternal life. Lord, I pray, please, that you would be
[00:12:42] near to us this morning. Lord, that you would channel our hearts to you, that you would retune our hearts so that we would sing your song. Lord, that we would love what you love, hate what you
[00:12:53] hate. Lord, that we would do battle with our sin by the power of the Spirit. Lord, that we would hear truth and believe it and rejoice in it and live it out. Lord God, we pray that you please
[00:13:05] preserve us, preserve our faith. Lord, if you were to let us go for even for a moment, we would be lost. So, Lord God, please, please fulfill your promises to us, and please be with us in worship.
[00:13:19] Lord, everything that we have is a gift from you, and so, Lord God, to remind us of your great and glorious mercy, we now say the Lord's Prayer together as one people, as we say out loud
[00:13:31] together. 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
[00:13:46] our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. As you stand, let's sing together. Let's sing.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:14:02] My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:14:11] I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but in Jesus' name.

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:14:20] On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
[00:14:28] All other ground is sinking sand.
[00:14:32] When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace.
[00:14:43] In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.
[00:14:51] On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
[00:14:59] All other ground is sinking sand.
[00:15:04] His hope, His covenant, His blood Support me in the whelming flood When all around my soul gives way Even as all my hope and stay On Christ the solid rock I stand All other ground is sinking sand
[00:15:36] I shall come with trumpet sound

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:15:42] Oh, may I then be found Dressed in His righteousness alone Faultless to stand

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:15:52] Christ the solid, like I stand All other ground is sinking sand Can we sing it again?
[00:16:09] On Christ the solid rock I stand

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:16:14] On all things sin You may be seated.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:16:32] As we approach the Holy Lord God, we are faced with this one inescapable reality.
[00:16:40] We approach Him not as those who have lived our life perfectly, but as sinners who stumble often.
[00:16:50] That's why we confess our sin together out loud at Harbor every single week because there's not a single week that we come to worship God, that we do not need to come to Him confessing our sin
[00:17:02] and clinging to Christ by faith.
[00:17:06] So let's confess our sin together now out loud.
[00:17:11] Loving Heavenly Father, Your love for us is relentless and unstoppable.
[00:17:16] We thank You that our remaining sin cannot shock you or cause you to reject us or abandon us, even though we continue to sin against you day after day. We confess that while our minds understand your great power, sovereignty, and love,
[00:17:35] and while our lips claim to trust you, we are easily undone by very small trials and difficulties.
[00:17:43] Mere trifles cast us into despair and anxiety, and we behave as though You do not care or will not protect, defend, and provide for us.
[00:17:54] Forgive us, O Lord, for our unbelief.
[00:17:58] Take a moment now.
[00:18:00] Go before the Lord in the silence of this moment, confessing your sin to Him.
[00:18:20] Father, I confess to You how so often such small, trivial things can cast me into a moment of doubt.
[00:18:30] can throw me into worry or anxiousness.
[00:18:36] Small moments that just pass in a few seconds can linger on and cause trial all day long.
[00:18:46] Father, please forgive me.
[00:18:48] Forgive us for our unbelief, for not trusting that your word is fully true.
[00:18:57] And when you tell us you care about us and you are in control, you tell no lie.
[00:19:03] Father, we pray that as we come to you And as we confess, you would meet us with the glorious grace of Christ in which we stand.
[00:19:12] And in whose name we pray. Amen.
[00:19:16] When you come to the Lord and you confess your sin to Him openly and trusting in Christ by faith, you need to know that you are really and truly forgiven.
[00:19:29] Hear God's assurance of this forgiveness from 1 Timothy chapter 1.
[00:19:33] The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.
[00:19:48] Amen.
[00:19:49] Would you stand as we continue to sing together?

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:19:56] This is Psalm 73. Let's sing.

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:22:45] We're going to confess our faith together from Westminster Shorter Catechism.

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:24:25] This builds off of the first one, which is, what is the chief end or what is the chief point of any human's life?
[00:24:32] It's to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
[00:24:35] The next question is necessary and logical.
[00:24:38] Well, what do I do? How do I do that?
[00:24:41] We don't create for ourselves out of our own imaginations ways to glorify and enjoy him.
[00:24:47] No, he gives us how.
[00:24:49] So I ask you, Christian, what rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
[00:24:56] The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
[00:25:07] I think that's a wonderful segue into our memory verse to treasuring up God's word in our hearts and in our heads so that we can use it throughout the day. So we've been memorizing various verses.
[00:25:21] This month is Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7. Let's say this all together. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:25:33] Have mercy on me, O God. Have mercy on me, O God. I am calling on your kindness in accordance with your love and mercy on me, O God. I know, God, that I have sinned. It's you I have sinned
[00:26:16] against. Would you blot out my transgressions? Would you come now and forgive? I know, God, That I have sinned Broken You will not turn Open I'd sing you As white as snow Lost child, hold
[00:27:15] A clean heart And break this heart of stone God wash me As white as snow We'll sing Your redemption And we'll sing Your mercy, God, restores The joy of my salvation renews We'll sing for redemption
[00:28:47] We'll sing for your mercy Mercy on me, O God In your kindness, in accordance with your love Our scripture reading this morning is from John 14, 1-7.

[00:29:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:29:48] Bear in mind the context here.
[00:29:50] Christ is speaking to his disciples.
[00:29:55] He's not speaking to rabble-rousing Pharisees.
[00:30:00] He's not speaking to any women at wells.
[00:30:03] He's speaking to his own.
[00:30:06] In fact, the chapter before, the context is really set.
[00:30:10] Jesus knew that his hour had come. And then a few more words down, he loved them to the end.
[00:30:17] He's talking about his disciples. So chapter 14, verse 1 starts like this.
[00:30:24] Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
[00:30:39] and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also, and you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him,
[00:30:56] Lord, we do not know the way to where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
[00:31:12] If you had known me, another translation of this says, since you know me, you know my Father.
[00:31:22] From now on, you do know him and you have seen him.
[00:31:27] Let me pray for us.
[00:31:28] It is a privilege to pray for y'all.
[00:31:30] I mean, it's one of our responsibilities as elders here.
[00:31:34] It is also a great joy to pray for the body of Christ this morning.
[00:31:39] So with that in view, let me pray as soon as I find my notes.
[00:31:52] Father, we're grateful for this day.
[00:31:54] Lord, we are, all of us, in some way this morning, we're parched land.
[00:31:59] We need the rain.
[00:32:00] Fortuitous that we're getting the rain for real, literally this morning.
[00:32:04] Our souls need the rain.
[00:32:07] So I pray that you would, and we trust that you will, you already have through scripture and through prayers, already you've met us, you've watered us and fed us, and you'll continue to do so this morning.
[00:32:21] We trust you for that.
[00:32:23] Thank you that you hear our prayers.
[00:32:24] We pray for Ken Cross and for Lynn.
[00:32:30] Lord, thank you for Ken's speedy-ish recovery from his skin cancer surgery and that he's on the upswing.
[00:32:39] And pray for them both as they are still battling through health things that have been with them since the winter.
[00:32:46] God, pray that you give them grace.
[00:32:48] I pray that you give them joy.
[00:32:49] I pray that you bring them back to this body soon.
[00:32:52] Bring them back to Harbor so that we can worship together.
[00:32:56] And pray that they would trust you for these things.
[00:32:58] I pray that they would be strong and that they would rejoice even in the hard times of recovering and of not feeling well.
[00:33:09] Thank you that Tim Colvard's ear is better.
[00:33:11] Thank you.
[00:33:12] Praise you that he got a sooner post-op follow-up appointment than he originally had scheduled.
[00:33:20] Grateful for your doing what you needed to do, your maneuvering the surgeon's schedule such that Tim could get in sooner.
[00:33:28] So I pray that there would be a good report and that he could move forward with his summer activities of swimming and all the other things that that ear issue got in the way of.
[00:33:40] And I pray that the surgery site continues to heal and heal completely.
[00:33:48] Thank you for Kent's healing from cancer, Lord, through surgery and chemo.
[00:33:56] I pray that he will continue on, remain cancer-free.
[00:34:01] Thank you for his testimony of your kindness and your care.
[00:34:06] And you're meeting him in a multitude of ways through the process of your making him well.
[00:34:13] Thank you.
[00:34:15] Pray for Jennifer Roy's daughter, Emma.
[00:34:17] Pray that she would continue to heal.
[00:34:19] Pray that you would say, if she does not know you, Father, I pray that you would chase her down through all of this, through the hard stuff that you'd save her and that you'd keep her.
[00:34:29] Everyone you save, you keep.
[00:34:31] I pray that that would include Emma Roy.
[00:34:33] I pray for grace and for strength and for joy in you for Emma as she comes alongside and stays alongside her daughter through all of this.
[00:34:45] Thank you that Rick Wildeman's sister is home from rehab.
[00:34:47] I pray that she continues to heal from pneumonia and sepsis.
[00:34:52] I pray that she stays well.
[00:34:54] And I'm grateful for your hand in her healing and for getting her out of the hospital and then out of rehab.
[00:34:59] I have continued prayers for Marty Layden's friend, Dorothy, who was in a car accident back in February.
[00:35:07] I pray that she is home from the skilled nursing facility and pray that you make her stronger and keep her strong and protect her.
[00:35:17] Thank you that we got to get to pray for her.
[00:35:20] Thank you for Marty's care of her and her bringing her to you, not just in a corporate setting, but I'm sure in her frequent prayers.
[00:35:31] I'm going to pray for Bennett Mitchell, who's had a bit of a turn this week, different kinds of seizures, more question marks than answers for Ryan and Emily.
[00:35:42] God, I pray for complete healing from that.
[00:35:47] And that complete healing is going to be according to your perfect timing.
[00:35:51] I pray, especially for Ryan and Emily, that there would be grace for your timing, that they would be patient.
[00:36:00] They are patient.
[00:36:01] I pray that you would grow them in patience, grow them in grace, We'll give them strength for parenting.
[00:36:08] Continue to protect Bennett from his seizures.
[00:36:12] God, I pray that they would be fewer and farther between.
[00:36:16] That you would eradicate them sooner than later.
[00:36:18] That's what we ask.
[00:36:20] Pray that you would make that happen.
[00:36:24] I pray that we would also trust you for how you work in and through that situation.
[00:36:32] Pray for Lindsay's sister-in-law, Barbara.
[00:36:34] Pray for Crystal's father, Janice Carrera's uncle.
[00:36:38] all battling cancer at various degrees and of various types.
[00:36:42] God, I pray for healing.
[00:36:45] I pray that in all of those situations, in the hard, you would get at hearts, not just of the folks with the cancer, but of family and of friends.
[00:36:55] And I pray that you would use all the bits and pieces of grave illness in some situations, in most situations.
[00:37:03] You would use that to soften hearts to the gospel of Christ, that you would draw, that you would keep, and that you would save, that you would grow people, family members, and their relationship with you,
[00:37:21] that they would cry out to you regularly, that they would pray without ceasing, as we all should do, Father.
[00:37:30] Pray that you would remind us, and I feel like you do this increasingly, at least for myself, that we are only human.
[00:37:39] We are frail on a good day, pretty frail.
[00:37:42] thank you for the reminders. I pray that not in a morose way, but in a very real and helpful way, you teach us to number our days, all of us in this room. God, I pray for our missionaries
[00:37:58] this morning, Marshall and Amy Childers with Greater European Mission. Lord, their ask, and it was a simple ask this week through an email, but it was profound.
[00:38:10] Pray that their house deal would go through. That's kind of profound. But they ask that their their marriage and family life, that they would thrive and not just get by.
[00:38:22] God, I pray that for the children.
[00:38:26] I pray that for all of us, that we would, our marriages, which we'll pray for here in a second, our marriages in this church would thrive.
[00:38:36] We wouldn't just limp by or get by or struggle on, but that we would thrive, protect us, strengthen us as husbands and wives.
[00:38:48] would grow us as husbands to protect our wives to pray over and with and for our wives to wash them in your word with your word to get better at that pray for local schools and home schools as the school year ends soon or has for some
[00:39:11] entities I pray for grace for the summer months of head of summer months ahead where everyone is together all day most days I pray for grace for parents and And for children, as they spend hours in cars, going on vacation, pray for traveling mercies.
[00:39:30] I pray that you'd protect physically, spiritually, emotionally, all the ways.
[00:39:34] Our students, pray for the local schools, that you would put people in teaching and administrative positions who are good at what they do, and more importantly, who love Jesus.
[00:39:50] And that they would have hearts for their kids.
[00:39:54] I pray for every teacher and teaching assistant and everybody in those processes.
[00:40:02] I pray it'll be a restful summer, rejuvenating and refreshing and restoring, and prepare them to be at it next fall.
[00:40:13] Lord, I pray for Goshen Presbyterian Church in Belmont, Pastor Steve McCullough and his session and his diaconate.
[00:40:20] I pray for that small church body, that you would grow them, that you would strengthen them in you.
[00:40:25] I pray that the gospel would be preached in stout fashion today and pray that they would be a light in the community of Belmont, shine through them, grow them in wisdom and discernment as they preach to the community
[00:40:42] in the various ways that they are connected.
[00:40:44] Thank you for them and their presence in our presbytery.
[00:40:49] Lord, thank you for the wedding that we had here yesterday.
[00:40:52] Pray for Anthony and Brianna on their honeymoon.
[00:40:55] We are grateful.
[00:40:56] weddings are awesome they're fun they are such a flash forward to the marriage feast of the lamb thank you yesterday for the opportunity to look forward to celebrate with anthony and brianna and their families to be able to support them as a church moving forward and thank you for the flash
[00:41:19] forward to the day when you make all things new when we sit down to the marriage feast with Christ, our husband. I pray that we would not lose sight of that any day, and especially in
[00:41:38] contexts of marriage relationships and of weddings. So thank you for the opportunity yesterday. God, I pray for our neighbors as we think about outreach. I pray particularly for Christine and her family to our left in our neighborhood, for Pablo and Taylor to our right, for Michael
[00:41:55] across the street. Every one of us has neighbors in some form or fashion. We pray for them all.
[00:42:01] give us hearts for them, Father. I pray that we would not, I pray this mostly for me, I would not just get my work done, go outside if I have to, and then disappear back in the house.
[00:42:15] I pray that we would make most of opportunities that we have, connections that we have in our neighborhoods, to point our neighbors to Jesus. I pray that we would have the courage to do that.
[00:42:25] pray that we would love them enough to do that. Lord, get us, get my eyes off of myself, my self-absorption and self-focus enough to see the people around me who need Christ, who do not know him. Pray for church planting, finally. I pray that as Carolina's church
[00:42:49] planting collective moves forward and works to plant, as we get to plant as Harbor, eventually, I pray that you would give us wisdom in the sermon, pray for the right guy in the right place
[00:43:02] in the right time. Thank you for Michael's work as the chairman of the collective, and I pray that you would strengthen him and Dean Faulkner and Zach Groff as they do the hard work, the logistics,
[00:43:16] the prayer, all the things to enable more gospel churches to be planted. I'm thankful in advance for our opportunity to be a part of that as Harbor Church.
[00:43:29] Pray that we would not lose sight of it in our prayers.
[00:43:32] Help us to trust you for that process, for the things that it will ask of us, that the process will ask of, that you will ask of us as a church, financially and physically, and through our prayers,
[00:43:47] all the ways that we will be a part of that.
[00:43:49] I pray that we'd have faith for the process, faith in you for the process, and we are grateful in advance for the opportunity.
[00:43:56] We pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen.

[00:44:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:44:06] As the deacons prepare for the taking up of tithes and offerings, I'd like to regularly bring to your attention that in the bulletin, it says that we worship God by giving tithes and offerings.
[00:44:20] Friday, Savannah and I were at a graduation celebration for a girl that was in the youth group with me probably six years ago.
[00:44:30] And their family, they're farmers.
[00:44:33] And they're, I think, I think they're third or fourth generation farmers on this farm.
[00:44:40] So they've been farming the same land for about 100 years.
[00:44:42] And I asked the dad, his name's David.
[00:44:45] I said, David, how you doing?
[00:44:46] He said, well, doing better now that the rain's coming.
[00:44:52] And it kind of struck me.
[00:44:53] He's like, he recognizes his work and success is totally dependent on if God sends him rain.
[00:45:02] And I started thinking about that in how we worship God by giving tithes and offerings.
[00:45:08] We're able to worship him when we recognize that every blessing we have comes from above.
[00:45:17] And just like my friend David, we're doing good because God keeps sending rain, not just outside, but he keeps showering us with blessings.
[00:45:28] And so if you're a visitor here with us this morning, we want you to know that as we worship God this way, we don't expect anything from you.
[00:45:35] We're not going to peek over with one eye to see how much you may or may not put in the plate.
[00:45:40] We just want you to know that we're grateful that you're here.
[00:45:43] We're grateful you've come to worship the Lord.
[00:45:46] And whatever you do choose to give today, as someone who has been blessed by God, would you give with a cheerful and a joyful and a worshipful heart?

[00:45:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:45:58] All right, we get to sing again.
[00:46:00] Guide me, O thou great Jehovah.
[00:46:01] This is the hymnal version that we'll sing.
[00:46:04] And your first note, I'm pretty sure, is...
[00:46:08] I'm doing this for myself.
[00:46:15] Let's do it.

[00:46:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:46:16] Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,

[00:46:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:46:21] pilgrim through this barren land.
[00:46:25] I am weak, but thou art mighty.
[00:46:30] Hold me with thy powerful hand.
[00:46:34] Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more, feed me till I want no more.

[00:46:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:46:50] Open the crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow.
[00:46:58] Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through.
[00:47:08] Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, be thou still my strength and shield.

[00:47:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:47:18] Be thou still my strength and shield.
[00:47:22] When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anguished fears subside.
[00:47:34] Death of death and hell's destruction, and we say, song, song, give to thee.

[00:48:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:48:00] Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
[00:48:05] Father, we are thankful for all of the many, many blessings that you give to us.
[00:48:13] So many of them, Lord, we fail to give you thanks for.
[00:48:17] and so we stop in this quiet moment to say thank you, oh God, that you constantly care for us, that you constantly bless us, that each day that you give to us is a blessing from heaven
[00:48:33] and so Lord, I pray that you would take these gifts, these tithes and these offerings and that you would use them, Lord, that you would multiply them, not according to our earthly math but according to your heavenly math,
[00:48:47] that you would multiply them for your kingdom, that through what has been given this morning, there would be many who praise the name of Jesus.
[00:48:57] From now on, for all of eternity, we ask these things in his great name.
[00:49:03] Amen.
[00:49:05] Would you stand with me as we praise God together by singing the doxology?
[00:49:46] You may be seated.
[00:49:50] As we're wrapping up this sermon series on 2 Corinthians, We come in our text to 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verses 8 to 10, just a few verses this morning that we'll look at.
[00:50:03] And I confess to you that because it's such a short number of verses, it's a little bit topical this morning, which is not my comfort zone.
[00:50:15] So if you walk away from this sermon and you say, man, that was a dud, I'm trying to grow in the way that I preach to you.
[00:50:24] So, 2 Corinthians chapter 13 is our text.
[00:50:30] Before we get there and read the text, I want to bring to you a familiar scene.
[00:50:36] It's one we've explained from this pulpit before.
[00:50:40] It's the, how if you are German, or if you speak no German, it's the Diet of Worms or the Diet of Worms.
[00:50:50] This is Martin Luther in April of 1521.
[00:50:55] Martin Luther was the German reformer who led the Protestant Reformation in many ways.
[00:51:01] And so come with me to this moment in the spring of 1521 when Martin Luther is standing before the emperor and he's been accused of heresy.
[00:51:15] He stands before this council with a stack of books before him.
[00:51:19] And the council really wanted him to do just a few simple things.
[00:51:24] They wanted him to acknowledge that that stack of books was his writing, and they wanted him to recant of it.
[00:51:32] That means to say or admit that what he had written and published and preached was wrong.
[00:51:39] What he had written and published and preached on salvation, by faith alone, in Christ alone, According to the power of the Scriptures alone, all he had to do was say that everything he had taught about that was a lie.
[00:51:55] Just recant.
[00:51:57] And so at risk of his life, Martin Luther responded to the charges this way.
[00:52:03] Some of you may be very familiar with this.
[00:52:05] I consider myself convicted by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, which is my basis.
[00:52:16] My conscience is captive to the Word of God.
[00:52:22] Thus, I cannot and will not recant because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound.
[00:52:31] Here I stand.
[00:52:33] I can do no other.
[00:52:35] God help me.
[00:52:38] Amen.
[00:52:38] You see, truth matters.
[00:52:45] Lies have consequences, and no matter how hard we may try to deny reality, it still exists.
[00:52:58] And in a world that encourages and presses us more and more to live by lies, we must, as God's people, be strengthened by and stand in the truth of God's Word.
[00:53:19] And that brings us to our text, 2 Corinthians chapter 13.
[00:53:22] We're going to back up just one verse to verse 7.
[00:53:26] Hear God's word this morning.
[00:53:31] But we pray to God that you may not do wrong, not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, that we may seem to have failed.
[00:53:43] for we cannot do anything against the truth but only for the truth for we are glad when we are weak and you are strong.
[00:53:57] Your restoration is what we pray for.
[00:54:00] For this reason, I write these things while I am away from you that when I come, I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me
[00:54:12] for building up and not for tearing down.
[00:54:19] Oh God, would you take your word, would you press it into our hearts.
[00:54:27] Let people forget anything in this sermon that is not of you.
[00:54:32] Let us cling to Christ and stand firm in his truth.
[00:54:36] Work this in us now, we ask, by his great power and the power of your Holy Spirit.
[00:54:42] Amen.
[00:54:44] Now if you're a kid out there and you're listening and you want a couple of things to listen out for, I've got three things for you to listen for.
[00:54:53] The first is I want you to listen for an airplane.
[00:54:57] Listen out for an airplane.
[00:54:59] Number two, a bag of worms.
[00:55:03] A bag of worms.
[00:55:06] And number three, a water slide.
[00:55:09] Water slide.
[00:55:10] Okay, so an airplane, a bag of worms, and a water slide.
[00:55:14] As we begin to look this morning at the idea of the truth, we're going to see three realities of the truth.
[00:55:29] And we're just going to dive right into the first reality, which is this, that the truth binds us.
[00:55:37] The truth binds us.
[00:55:41] Paul has been warning the Corinthians that if they do not repent of their ongoing sin, that He has warned them about over and over again.
[00:55:52] If they don't turn from it, then when He comes to them soon, He will have to discipline them according to church discipline.
[00:56:02] He will come rather severely to deal with sin.
[00:56:07] And He's telling them in these warnings that they have not been living according to God's Word.
[00:56:14] They haven't been living according to the truth.
[00:56:19] And because Paul is a minister of the truth, it's his obligation to bring God's people back into alignment with God's Word, with God's truth.
[00:56:34] And so it's here that we see that the truth binds Paul and the truth binds us.
[00:56:43] Look with me at verse 8 as the text says this, For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
[00:57:02] Paul doesn't say here that when it comes to what's true in life, God has recommendations, but not requirements.
[00:57:13] He doesn't say that what is true and good and right for you is up for debate.
[00:57:21] God doesn't have optional wisdom for you.
[00:57:28] He has truth.
[00:57:31] And truth is not something that you can pick and choose what you like and what you don't.
[00:57:37] Truth is not something that you can try and fashion into something that meets your preferences.
[00:57:44] Truth is something that we are bound by.
[00:57:49] You see, we recognize this reality in some sense in our daily life.
[00:57:56] If I were to bring up with me this morning a green Granny Smith apple, that apple is only one color.
[00:58:06] It's green.
[00:58:08] And the fact that that apple is green binds us to reality.
[00:58:13] You can say that that's a red delicious all day long.
[00:58:18] But because we can't exist in anything other than reality, that apple will only ever be green.
[00:58:28] We're bound by the limitations of truth.
[00:58:34] Not only can we not live outside of reality, we're bound by it.
[00:58:40] But we are also bound by the truth in this.
[00:58:43] There is no other way for you to live as a Christian.
[00:58:49] You are bound by the truth.
[00:58:52] God's call for you is one thing and one thing only.
[00:58:56] Live, no lies.
[00:58:59] Live according to the truth.
[00:59:02] And so Paul says with very strong language, Corinthians, in my ministry to you, there's only one thing I can do.
[00:59:12] I can only do what is true.
[00:59:14] I can only tell you what's true.
[00:59:16] I can only work in you the truth.
[00:59:19] I am bound by it.
[00:59:20] Paul doesn't say, or he says it this way, just to use a few other words, he's unable to do anything other than the truth.
[00:59:33] It's impossible.
[00:59:35] He's bound by it.
[00:59:36] Matthew Henry says it this way, Paul could not, would not, and dared not act against the truth.
[00:59:46] As we consider what truth is, many people much wiser than I I could give you a long philosophical definition of truth.
[01:00:00] Tried to boil it down for you as simply as I could.
[01:00:04] Truth equals reality.
[01:00:07] There's your definition.
[01:00:08] If you've ever wondered what's the definition of truth, truth equals reality.
[01:00:15] And Jesus says in John 17, as he prays for his disciples, sanctify them by the truth.
[01:00:26] Your word is truth.
[01:00:28] If you want to know where to go to understand reality, to understand your life, to understand what is true about the world around us, you go to one place as your sole and final authority.
[01:00:43] You go to God's Word.
[01:00:45] Sanctify them by the truth.
[01:00:47] Your Word is truth.
[01:00:52] At first, it may not seem like a big deal whether or not we believe what's true or we believe something that's a lie.
[01:01:00] At some level, we all believe certain lies about life.
[01:01:08] But why this matters is because lies are extremely dangerous.
[01:01:16] Let me give you an example.
[01:01:18] Perhaps you're flying on an airplane.
[01:01:25] And in your flight, you're somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.
[01:01:32] The pilot decides mid-flight, he's had a change of beliefs.
[01:01:38] He no longer believes he is the pilot of an airplane.
[01:01:42] He now believes he is the captain of a boat.
[01:01:50] Lies aren't dangerous, right?
[01:01:52] Oh, no, no, no.
[01:01:54] If this pilot believes that he is no longer flying an airplane but captaining a boat, a fact that you know is true as you soar through the clouds, He will live according to those lies.
[01:02:11] And He will dip that airplane nose first towards the water.
[01:02:16] And you and I know that no matter how much that pilot believes that he is inside of a boat, it doesn't matter what he believes.
[01:02:26] What matters is what's true and what's real.
[01:02:29] And so yes, lies are extremely dangerous because we order ourselves according to what we believe.
[01:02:39] And if we believe lies, we will live according to lies and we will drive our life down.
[01:02:50] You see, we are bound by the truth and it matters what we believe.
[01:02:57] I want to take you to another scene in Germany, this time in 1943, in the first year of Hitler's beginning to reign.
[01:03:16] This comes from an autobiography of a pastor whose name is Wilhelm Busch, a German pastor in essence who ministered all through the rule of Hitler.
[01:03:31] And so he had many run-ins with Hitler's regime and with the Gestapo.
[01:03:37] At the beginning of his ministry, he was a meager youth pastor, and on Sundays he held a small meeting of 700 to 800 German youth who would come to hear him teach for hours. He writes in this autobiography that in the first
[01:04:01] year after Hitler came to power, no one really quite knew who had what kind of power. He said The Gestapo didn't quite know at that time how far they could go to take away people's rights.
[01:04:17] And so in this season of turmoil, he describes, as things begin to unfold, a question began to rise to the surface.
[01:04:31] Who has the power to bind man's consciences, he writes.
[01:04:39] Which is another way of saying this.
[01:04:41] Who gets to say and enforce what's true?
[01:04:47] He writes that as the years would progress, the Nazi party would proclaim, we determine what is true.
[01:04:57] We say what is right and what's wrong.
[01:05:01] And as he had these meetings every Sunday with these 700 to 800 teenage boys, he was teaching them that their conscience is held captive by the word of God.
[01:05:16] He actually explains in his autobiography that one of the stories he used to teach them was Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms.
[01:05:27] He's teaching them the authority of God's word and that they must stand on God's truth.
[01:05:34] And so in this first year, as the Nazi party begins to gain power, these youth began to have run-ins with the Gestapo.
[01:05:43] And it happened on Sunday mornings, because these teenagers, held captive by the Word of God, were convinced that a Sunday morning was for worship of the Lord in the Lord's house.
[01:05:58] And so while the Nazis were requiring the teenage boys to come to the young men's youth rallies, these Christian young men were bypassing the rallies to go worship in God's house.
[01:06:14] And Wilhelm describes two truths that stood out to him in this first year after Hitler took power.
[01:06:21] The first one was this.
[01:06:22] He said, these boys understood that from the very beginning, you must stand on the truth of God's Word.
[01:06:34] I pray, I pray that if we ever faced a situation like that, it would be said of our boys, of our teenagers, that they understood from the very beginning that they were called to stand on the word of truth.
[01:06:52] And I pray that you would as well.
[01:06:56] The second thing he said stood out to him in this first year was this, how unprepared we all were to face this question, who gets to say what's true?
[01:07:10] We're very blessed to live in a land and in a time where we don't have secret police stopping us on the way to church.
[01:07:22] But let us never become a people who don't know how to stand on the Word of God until all of our freedoms to do it are taken away.
[01:07:33] We are, brothers and sisters, bound by the Word of Truth.
[01:07:42] Our freedoms have not been taken away to that point yet.
[01:07:45] And we're very grateful as we celebrate this Memorial Day weekend for those who have died to make it so.
[01:07:53] But we do live in a world full of lies.
[01:07:57] A world where Satan, the father of lies, is very active.
[01:08:04] Let us not wait for tomorrow to stand firm on the truth.
[01:08:09] Let us stand firm today.
[01:08:12] And it begins not standing firm in the public square for all to see.
[01:08:17] It begins in the quiet closet of your room when you determine on your knees that I will stand and live for the truth.
[01:08:27] And so if that means confessing my sin to the Lord, I will do it.
[01:08:31] If that means confessing my sin to my family, I will do it.
[01:08:35] If that means changing my life according to the truth, oh, by God, may we be the people who are bound by and live on and stand in the truth because living by lies is incredibly dangerous?
[01:08:52] Ask the Nazis.
[01:08:54] They'll tell you.
[01:08:56] The second reality that we see in this text is this.
[01:09:00] We are bound by the truth and the truth humbles us.
[01:09:08] The truth humbles us.
[01:09:11] Verse 9, Paul writes this, For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong.
[01:09:19] Your restoration is what we pray for.
[01:09:22] All through this letter, the Corinthians have been accusing Paul of many forms of weakness.
[01:09:28] You look weak, you talk weak, your visits are weak.
[01:09:33] You're just a weak pastor.
[01:09:34] You don't look like those super apostle pastors.
[01:09:38] Paul, you're just weak.
[01:09:39] Paul says this, because I am bound by the truth, I'm okay to look weak before you if it means you turn from your sin and cling to the truth.
[01:09:57] It's a result of being captivated by the truth of God that allows us to live less for ourself and more for others.
[01:10:11] So how does it work?
[01:10:12] How do you become the kind of person that can say, I really don't care if people think I'm weak or faulty or frail.
[01:10:23] If it means through my supposed weakness, they're empowered by God's grace.
[01:10:29] How do you get there?
[01:10:31] There's two things.
[01:10:34] We're humbled in the truth by God.
[01:10:40] The truth humbles us before God.
[01:10:44] The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12 and 13, that the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow.
[01:11:03] It's discerning the thoughts and intentions of the hearts.
[01:11:06] And no creature, no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.
[01:11:18] The truth of God exposes us.
[01:11:22] And when the truth of God exposes us, it doesn't puff us up in pride.
[01:11:30] It brings us low in humility.
[01:11:34] So what I want to do for just a brief moment, I want to remind you of some of the core truths of the Bible and of the Gospel.
[01:11:44] And as I explain to you these familiar truths, I want you to see how these truths humble you.
[01:11:54] You see, there is a God in heaven.
[01:11:59] And He created everything.
[01:12:02] And when He created everything, He decided that this world was not complete with mankind and with you in it.
[01:12:13] And so He creates mankind.
[01:12:14] And He invites us into a relationship with Him.
[01:12:22] And He invites us into this relationship so that we would glorify and even enjoy Him.
[01:12:30] But we can't approach Him on our own without His invitation and His way.
[01:12:34] And we don't even make it one generation without rebelling against Him, choosing our own way, denying His truths over His.
[01:12:49] And so we broke everything.
[01:12:51] Yet, even though our sin deserves, every sin deserves death and punishment, by His grace and mercy, He doesn't destroy us.
[01:13:05] In fact, instead, He makes a covenant with us, a covenant of grace to be our God, and that we would be His people forever, no matter what.
[01:13:19] and he even promises in this covenant of grace to Abraham, Abraham, if you and your people break the covenant, I won't make you pay with your blood, I'll pay with my own blood.
[01:13:38] And so he puts into effect a plan to make everything right.
[01:13:43] And the plan to make everything right and to dwell with us begins with sending His one and only Son.
[01:13:52] He sends Jesus who empties Himself, humbles Himself, takes on human flesh, suffers weakness and betrayal and temptation and weakness, and as He does it, He does it perfectly.
[01:14:10] And as He perfectly walks His life in righteousness, He walks right up the hill to climb onto a cross and die for your sin, where He absorbs the full wrath of God for His children.
[01:14:28] Every drop that you and I deserved went on Christ so that He could then offer to you forgiveness free of charge.
[01:14:40] That He could offer to you salvation only by His works.
[01:14:45] that He could bring to you eternal life with Him in heaven.
[01:14:52] That everyone who would trust in Him, not by works, but by faith, would be purified of every sin, adopted into His family, and one day glorified of even the desire to sin, that we would dwell with Him forever.
[01:15:16] It's all of God.
[01:15:18] It's all of grace.
[01:15:22] Oh, God, make us humble people.
[01:15:26] The truth humbles us.
[01:15:30] It humbles us before God.
[01:15:32] And when we're humbled before God, it humbles us before man.
[01:15:39] Honest humility before God strips us of any need to live for the applause of man.
[01:15:48] So Paul says, I can even be happy if you view me as weak.
[01:15:55] If it means through my weakness, you cling to the truth and find strength.
[01:16:05] Consider the deep humility of Jesus who taught us on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.
[01:16:13] I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
[01:16:24] But He doesn't just teach us that, He lives it.
[01:16:26] And in Luke 23, we read these words that Jesus speaks on the cross as He's hanging there, bleeding, breathing His last breath.
[01:16:36] Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing.
[01:16:42] One commentator put it this way, that on the cross, the Son of God assaulted heaven by His prayers for His tormentors.
[01:16:54] Only humility can do that.
[01:16:58] Only humility can bypass that personal pain for the good of others.
[01:17:08] Can I just say to you this morning, if you're here as a Christian who knows a lot of God's Word, if you've studied deeply the theology of God, if you know much of church history,
[01:17:26] if you can explain much of the Bible and those truths puff you up in pride so that you look down your nose at a struggling believer, can I say to you, you have not yet fully grasped
[01:17:40] the truths that you think you know.
[01:17:43] Because the truth of the Gospel makes you humble before God and humble before others so that you can even look at them and say, it doesn't matter if you think I'm smart.
[01:17:53] I don't care if you think I'm well spoken.
[01:17:56] I just want you to cling to Christ.
[01:18:00] That's what humility looks like.
[01:18:03] Humility doesn't look like accolades and degrees and praise from others.
[01:18:08] Humility looks like I will take pain so that you will press on in faith.
[01:18:15] The truth does that kind of work in us.
[01:18:19] And so if you want more humility, I encourage you to go to the wellspring of truth.
[01:18:29] I encourage you to open up your Bibles with an open heart that says, God, show me not where everyone else is failing, but show me my sin.
[01:18:44] Because as the assurance of forgiveness reminded us, This is a faithful and a true saying that Christ came to save sinners of whom I am foremost.
[01:19:01] Oh, that God's truth would humble us.
[01:19:06] The truth binds us. The truth humbles us.
[01:19:09] And lastly, the truth restores us.
[01:19:13] Paul says in verse 10, For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come, I may not have to be severe in my use of authority that the Lord has given me
[01:19:27] for building up and not tearing down.
[01:19:32] For building up and not for tearing down.
[01:19:35] The whole reason Paul is writing his letter to the Corinthians is as a minister of the truth, he desires that they would not be torn down, but built up in the truth.
[01:19:49] He desires that they would be restored from the lies that they have clung to and be built up in the truth.
[01:19:57] But that's not just the desire of Paul to the Corinthians.
[01:20:02] That's the purpose of all of God's truth.
[01:20:05] All of God's Word is to build us up and strengthen us.
[01:20:15] And the reality behind this lies in these words.
[01:20:19] Truth has power.
[01:20:24] Truth has real power to transform.
[01:20:31] It was a year after Martin Luther stood at that council.
[01:20:36] Now in 1522, he's responding to people who are beginning to call themselves Lutherans because they followed after his teachings.
[01:20:49] And as he's responding to this, he's reflecting on how the Protestant Reformation has swept through Germany and is sweeping through Europe.
[01:21:00] And as he's reflecting on his own part in that reformation, here's what he has to say.
[01:21:08] What is Luther?
[01:21:11] The teaching is not mine, nor was I crucified for anyone.
[01:21:18] Poor, stinking bag of worms that I am.
[01:21:25] I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's word, I did nothing.
[01:21:35] The word did everything.
[01:21:41] God's truth has power.
[01:21:46] It is not weak.
[01:21:50] It is not limp.
[01:21:52] It is full of glory from above, empowered by the Holy Spirit to transform God's people.
[01:22:02] Truth, God's truth has power.
[01:22:05] What am I? Who are you?
[01:22:07] God's Word does it all.
[01:22:10] The truth restores us.
[01:22:13] There is freeing power in God's Word.
[01:22:17] It's what Jesus tells us in John chapter 8.
[01:22:21] If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
[01:22:32] The truth will set you free.
[01:22:38] Have we forgotten this morning that God's Word is actually powerful?
[01:22:49] Have you begun to order your life according to the lie that God's Word can't do anything for you?
[01:22:59] Has the truth of God's Word become to you nothing more than an activity on your checklist to make sure that you're a good Christian?
[01:23:10] Or is it the means by which we take hold of the power of God to meet with Christ and be transformed in glorious power?
[01:23:21] Because those are two very different things.
[01:23:24] A checklist to be good and a source of God's gracious power.
[01:23:32] If we've begun to believe that lie, I invite you back this morning to engage with God's Word as a source of power.
[01:23:46] Are you in need of change this morning?
[01:23:50] Are you in need of freedom?
[01:23:55] Do you need encouragement to press on?
[01:23:59] Do you need hope for an uncertain future?
[01:24:03] Do you need reassurance of your forgiveness from your guilty conscience?
[01:24:10] Do you need faith because you're full of doubts?
[01:24:13] If you need these things, The Word of God is the place that you go to be strengthened in them by the Almighty.
[01:24:24] Run to it.
[01:24:26] Cling to it.
[01:24:27] His Word is powerful enough to get the job done.
[01:24:34] As we come to a close, as I was writing this sermon, my office is just outside the backyard.
[01:24:44] And I looked out my office window and took a moment to watch the kids as they were playing outside.
[01:24:50] They were playing on a little inflatable water slide.
[01:24:56] And so as they're playing on this water slide, I look outside and I hear all the happy squeals and I see the water splashing everywhere.
[01:25:04] And I'm just kind of taking in this moment of watching their childlike joy as they play in the cold water on a hot day.
[01:25:16] And as I looked, I was struck by something.
[01:25:18] It was kind of the beauty of this moment They weren't trying to argue with one another and philosophize whether or not it was hot outside.
[01:25:32] They didn't try to avoid the fact or run from the fact that it was hot.
[01:25:38] But because they simply embraced the truth that it was hot outside, they were able to enjoy with childlike fun the refreshment of the cold water on this little water slide.
[01:25:54] Some of us are spending so much time avoiding the truth and the reality of God's Word.
[01:26:03] Running from the heat that we know the conviction of the Holy Spirit will bring when we open the Bible.
[01:26:11] Brothers and sisters, I invite you this morning to stop running from the truth.
[01:26:20] Embrace the burning heat and reality of your sin so that you can dive into the cold and refreshing water of God's grace in Christ.
[01:26:33] He, Christ, is the way.
[01:26:35] He is the truth.
[01:26:37] He is the life.
[01:26:39] May we be a generation who is bound, humbled, and restored by Him.
[01:26:52] Amen.
[01:26:53] Let's pray.
[01:26:54] O gracious Heavenly Father your truth is what we need show us O God the lies that we cling to give us faith to know that when we run to you and cling to Christ he will not cast us away
[01:27:15] we ask for this O Lord in Jesus great and holy name Amen as the elders come forward as we prepare to come to the Lord's table this table represents the truth of God.
[01:27:35] It represents the only way to truly come to Him.
[01:27:40] That by believing in His body given and clinging by faith to His blood shed for us, we can truly be made right with God.
[01:27:52] And I want to encourage you, this is not the perfect Christian's table, but it is the Christian's table.
[01:28:01] And so if this morning you find yourself not to be a Christian or if you've never placed your faith in Jesus then I invite you to let these elements pass you by.
[01:28:12] Not because we want to judge you but because this is a family meal for the family of God.
[01:28:19] And the Bible says that if we eat and drink it without having trusted in Jesus without understanding the body and the blood that we drink judgment on ourself.
[01:28:29] And so let it pass you by.
[01:28:30] But as that plate may pass you by, cling to Christ today.
[01:28:37] Today can be the day of salvation where for the first time you come to the truth of Christ.
[01:28:43] If you don't know how to do that, come find one of these elders.
[01:28:47] Come find myself or Michael after the service and we'd be happy to talk you through it.
[01:28:54] This is the Christian's table, but it is not the perfect Christian's table.
[01:28:58] It is the repentant Christian's table.
[01:29:01] And so, there are many things, many lies that we have clung to.
[01:29:07] Perhaps even lies that we need to confess this morning.
[01:29:11] But if you come to Christ confessing your sin to Him, this table is for you.
[01:29:15] Come, eat, and be strengthened by it.
[01:29:19] It was on the night in which Jesus was betrayed, He took the bread and He broke it, and He said, this is My body given for you.
[01:29:26] Eat of it, all of you, in remembrance of Me.
[01:29:31] Here at Harbor, we serve family style, which simply means if you'll hold on to your bread until we've all been served, then we'll all partake together.
[01:29:41] As we embrace this moment of silence, take this time, pray to the Lord, open the truth of God and see what He might have for you.
[01:32:04] The body of Christ given for us, let's eat in remembrance of Him.
[01:32:14] After the supper, Jesus took the cup.
[01:32:17] He said, this cup is my blood in the new covenant shed for many for the forgiveness of sins shed for every lie we have ever clung to and believed and lived out the blood of Jesus cleanses them all
[01:32:33] here at Harbor we serve both wine and grape juice wine is on the outermost ring juice is on all the inner rings and just like with the bread if you'll hold on to your cup until we've all been served
[01:32:47] then we'll all partake together the blood of Christ shed for us let's drink in remembrance of him Oh God, we are thankful and grateful people.
[01:35:25] We're thankful for the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
[01:35:30] We pray, oh God, that we would go from this table worshiping the risen Christ.
[01:35:36] It's in his name that we pray, amen.
[01:35:39] Would you stand with me as we sing our closing song together?

[01:35:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:35:55] It is good to be clean.

[01:35:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:35:57] When this life of trials tests my faith I set my hope on Jesus When the questions come and doubts remain I set my hope on Jesus For the deepest wounds that I won't heal There's a joy that runs still deeper
[01:36:53] There's a truth that's more than all I feel I set my hope on Jesus My rock, my only trust Who set His heart upon me first I set my hope on Jesus Oh, the shame of drowning in its sea, and the dread of the waves of justice, I would
[01:38:03] cast my life on Jesus, the saddest lie upon me first, I set my hope on Jesus, though the Now cause me to leave my Lord.
[01:38:44] I set my hope on Jesus.
[01:38:51] All its faith.
[01:38:55] I set my hope on Jesus.
[01:39:00] My heart and mind is prone to strain.
[01:39:03] Give me peace enough to fail.
[01:39:08] Worship on that old day.
[01:39:14] I set my hope.
[01:39:21] A couple of reminders before we receive the Lord's benediction.

[01:40:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:40:16] I want to remind you that we have prayer up front here after the service.
[01:40:21] There'll be an elder and a representative of the women's care team.
[01:40:25] They'll be up here if anyone wants to come up for prayer.
[01:40:28] We have snacks and coffee in the gathering room right out the door to the right.
[01:40:34] And we do have Sunday school today.
[01:40:36] I think this is our last regular Sunday school.
[01:40:39] Oh, we have next week as well. Great.
[01:40:42] All right. And next week is prayer. Okay.
[01:40:45] But I wanted to remind you that today it'll be a little bit of a different one for the adults.
[01:40:51] Michael's doing a special Sunday school on biblical meditation.
[01:40:55] and I have personally been working to meditate more on God's Word in the last month or two and it has been one of the most life-giving practices I have experienced.
[01:41:08] So I would encourage you, if you don't normally stick around, stick around for this one.
[01:41:14] With that said, receive the Lord's benediction from 2 John.
[01:41:21] Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us.
[01:41:25] From God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father, Son, in truth and love. Amen.