Beyond the Mirror: Moving from Self-Help to True Transformation

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:04:55] Well, good morning, Unified City Church family. We are so sad to be missing two Sundays with you in a row, but we do have something really special planned for you guys today.
[00:05:05] So our first announcement that we have is actually our baptism that we are going to have this Sunday is canceled, unfortunately.
[00:05:13] So we'll be reaching out to those that were planning to do baptisms today.
[00:05:18] We'll be reaching out to you guys via email to let you guys know when we're going to be rescheduling that day.
[00:05:23] And so stay tuned. We'll give you guys a future date for those baptisms.
[00:05:28] All right. This next announcement is for our kids building space.
[00:05:32] I'm happy to say that we've actually moved everything out of our current kids building space and we moved it into our new temporary one.
[00:05:40] We've got some amazing volunteers that helped us do that, and we are going to be totally set up next Sunday, February 8th for the kids to be able to be in there.
[00:05:50] so really exciting if you'd like to go check out that space you can have a tour next sunday as well if you'll just park in the back of that building next up we have our first mom small group meet up
[00:06:04] at dom bakeries it's going to be saturday february 7th from 9 a.m to 10 30 a.m so if you'd like to come meet some new people have some coffee then please come and check it out if you'd like more
[00:06:17] information on that you can go to our grow tab on our website and you can email Jada about that. And lastly we have a business meeting on Sunday, February 15th at 6 p.m. Everyone's welcome to attend. We'll talk about financials,
[00:06:33] important business, and building updates as well. Well hey before we dive into worship I'd really love for us to be able to read a Bible verse. Philippians 2, 8 through 11 says, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death
[00:06:50] on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and
[00:07:04] under the earth and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father and I was thinking about names and I was thinking about whenever we say the name of maybe
[00:07:17] a loved one or a spouse or a child or maybe a political figure a president's name all of these different names bring to surface and bring to mind emotions if we have any history with that person
[00:07:31] it brings emotions on with that and so what happens when we say the name of Jesus we believe as Christians that there is power in the name of Jesus. There's healing. There's freedom. There's rest in the name of Jesus. And so as we go into this worship set, I'd love for us to just be
[00:07:50] remembering and calling to our minds all the times that we've called on the name of Jesus, the history that we have with Jesus, and that we would remember during this worship set that there really is so much power as we sing the name of Jesus this morning. Would you guys pray with me?
[00:08:08] Jesus, we thank you that there is so much power in your name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.
[00:08:17] Every knee will bow one day, Lord.
[00:08:19] God, we just open our hearts and we invite you in to this worship set, that you would speak to us.
[00:08:27] We're listening.
[00:08:28] We love you.
[00:08:31] And we can't wait to hang out with you and spend some time with you this morning.
[00:08:35] In your name also, I pray, Jesus.
[00:08:36] Amen.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:08:36] to fixate it on you who are it says in psalms blessed are those who observe justice and

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:28:01] righteousness lord we are blessed because we get to look at you lord and look at all your beautiful deeds that you've done the countless times that you've been faithful all of the good things lord
[00:28:17] the things that we can't even keep track of because of how good you are lord we are blessed And we are honored to be able to sing to you in this space, be able to pour out our hearts to you and say, Lord, you deserve all the applause.
[00:28:37] You deserve all the honor, all the praise, all the glory forever and ever and ever.
[00:28:46] Lord, we could live a whole lifetime here on earth and it would never be enough.
[00:28:51] Lord, we get all of eternity to be able to give you praise and honor and glory.
[00:28:56] Jesus, as we've sang many times, we love you, we love you, we love you, and we thank you and we worship you with our hearts just poured out before you.
[00:29:18] In your name, Jesus, that we pray, that we sing, that we worship.
[00:29:23] It's in your name. Amen.

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:29:31] Well, hello, good morning.
[00:29:33] It's great to see you all and great to have you joining me again.
[00:29:36] If you're watching this from your living room again this morning, it's because we're doing this again.
[00:29:42] We are still experiencing some winter storm, and so we could not all gather together.
[00:29:48] And so I hate that we can't be together in person.
[00:29:51] Hopefully, we will see you all next Sunday back together in one place.
[00:29:57] But I'm so glad you could be with me this morning this way, and we're going to have a good time together, even though there is a camera between us this morning.
[00:30:07] But I also wanted to say how much I hate that we had to postpone our baptism service.
[00:30:13] And so you guys stay tuned.
[00:30:15] I know we've talked about that in the announcements, but stay tuned.
[00:30:18] We'll let you know as soon as we know when we're going to reschedule that.
[00:30:22] And if you were supposed to be baptized today, again, I'm really sorry we had to postpone that, but we will get you baptized very soon.
[00:30:30] So you guys stay tuned.
[00:30:31] And something else to be looking forward to is starting the first Sunday in March.
[00:30:37] We're going to crank up Sons and Daughters again.
[00:30:40] Going to have Sons and Daughters 1, Sons and Daughters 2, and Sons and Daughters 3.
[00:30:46] We'll be having all of those on Sunday afternoons.
[00:30:48] And so stay tuned.
[00:30:50] If you guys have never been a part of those, we would love to have you be a part of them.
[00:30:55] Or if you did Sons and Daughters 1 last time and want to come to Sons and Daughters 2 this time, That'd be great. Looking forward to seeing you.
[00:31:02] And also, if you've done Sons and Daughters 1 and 2, please consider joining us for Sons and Daughters 3.
[00:31:08] We'll be looking forward to doing that.
[00:31:10] That, again, starts the first Sunday of March.
[00:31:14] And so looking forward to seeing, hopefully, a lot of you there with that.
[00:31:19] All right. Well, this morning I want to talk about something that we've talked about some before here at Unified.
[00:31:24] If you've been here over the years, you probably have heard me discuss this some.
[00:31:30] But it's something I want to talk about again.
[00:31:32] I think it's really important to keep this fresh in our spirits and fresh in our hearts and to remind ourselves of this.
[00:31:40] I'm going to read a couple of Scriptures to us.
[00:31:42] I'm going to reference some more.
[00:31:44] And so I'm going to give you a list of some that you can write down and read later on.
[00:31:49] But I want to start in Genesis 1 in verse 26.
[00:31:54] And this passage here has been really kind of foundational over the years at Unified.
[00:31:59] I'm going to read verses 26 and 27.
[00:32:03] And it says here, now this was right at the time of creation.
[00:32:07] God is getting ready to create the first person.
[00:32:10] So He's already made the world. He's made the stars, the sun.
[00:32:14] He's made all that we can see. And now He's about to make the very first person.
[00:32:18] So this is what He says, Then God said, Let us make man in our image.
[00:32:24] And he talks to himself in the plural because God, as we know, is a triune God.
[00:32:29] He's one God, but He has three distinct parts that make up who He is.
[00:32:35] He's God the Father, He's God the Son, who we know is Jesus, and He's God the Holy Spirit.
[00:32:41] And so he says, let us make man or mankind, talking about people, humans, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky
[00:32:55] and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
[00:33:02] Then verse 27 says, God created man in His own image.
[00:33:07] In the image of God, He created him male and female.
[00:33:11] He created them.
[00:33:12] So here we can see that when God first began to create us, Both male and female, He made all people in His image.
[00:33:21] We've been made in the image of God.
[00:33:23] It also says we've been made in His likeness.
[00:33:26] So there's two aspects to that.
[00:33:27] I think they're very similar but also a little bit distinct.
[00:33:31] We've been made in God's image and we've been made in God's likeness.
[00:33:37] And this is what I believe that means for us now.
[00:33:39] And we get into this a lot more in Sons and Daughters, so another good reason to join us for those classes as well.
[00:33:46] But the fact we've been made in God's image, I believe, means that we look like Him.
[00:33:52] And we don't know fully yet what that means because we've never yet seen Him fully as He is.
[00:33:59] One day we will, and the way that we look like Him will make a lot more sense.
[00:34:03] It'll be way more obvious to us. So we know we look like Him.
[00:34:07] But also, God has made us in His likeness.
[00:34:11] And I believe that means that you and I have the ability to become like Him.
[00:34:17] So we look like Him, but also we have the ability to become like Him.
[00:34:22] Not in our own strength, but through the grace of Jesus, the grace and the help of the Holy Spirit, we can become like Him.
[00:34:31] And we're going to discuss that some together this morning of how we become like Him.
[00:34:36] And I want to start by talking about someone that we're all, I'm sure, familiar with, Jacob.
[00:34:42] So Jacob here, his story also is in the book of Genesis.
[00:34:46] I want to talk about a few things from his life that I believe illustrate for us some really important principles that help us understand how we grow more and more like the Lord.
[00:34:57] Now Jacob, as many of us are aware, his name means trickster and shyster and usurper.
[00:35:07] That's what his name meant. And that's exactly what he did for much of his life.
[00:35:12] Now, we know that God changed his name later on, but Jacob, that's exactly what his name meant. Someone who's tricky and a usurper, a shyster. And we can see from studying his life that that's what he did
[00:35:25] for most of his life. Some common examples of that, we know that he persuaded his brother Esau at a kind of a vulnerable time to give him his birthright in exchange for a bowl of soup.
[00:35:38] So the inheritance that Esau, being the oldest of the two, would have gotten when their father passed away, Jacob kind of swindled it away from Esau.
[00:35:49] Later on, Jacob tricked his father and took Esau's father blessing as well.
[00:35:55] And so we can see this pattern in the life of Jacob.
[00:35:59] Well, whenever he tricked his father and took the blessing that rightfully should have been Esau's, he had to flee.
[00:36:05] had to flee for his life because Esau was going to come get him.
[00:36:08] And so we know that he went to live with his uncle Laban.
[00:36:12] Well, he continued his tricky ways even there, but also he encountered somebody who tricked him as well.
[00:36:20] Laban also was a tricky guy.
[00:36:23] And so Laban tricked Jacob into marrying both of his daughters.
[00:36:27] And then also he began to require Jacob to work for him for very little pay.
[00:36:33] And Jacob oftentimes would say, I'm not really getting paid what I'm worth for what I'm doing here.
[00:36:39] And Laban didn't always treat him fairly.
[00:36:43] And so the trickster Jacob took matters into his own hands.
[00:36:46] Let's talk about what he did for a few minutes.
[00:36:49] Now this is one of those things that if it was not in the Bible, I probably would not believe it.
[00:36:54] And we won't read this passage together for sake of time, but it's in Genesis chapter 30. You guys can check this out.
[00:37:01] So Jacob spent years taking care of all of his uncle's livestock.
[00:37:06] And he was making his uncle Laban a very rich man, but his personal wealth was not growing.
[00:37:13] And Laban was not always paying him fairly, as we talked about.
[00:37:17] And so Jacob had an idea.
[00:37:19] He went to Laban and made a proposition.
[00:37:22] He said, listen, I've been working for you for a long time, and your livestock has grown and grown, and my personal wealth really hasn't. So let's make a deal. I propose that whenever a baby sheep, when a lamb or a baby goat was born into Laban's flocks,
[00:37:41] he said, let me keep all the ones that are spotted or speckled. And all the ones that are just one solid color, you can keep those. Well, Laban realized that the vast majority were going to be a solid color. So he thought, well, this is a
[00:37:57] pretty good deal for me. Sure, I'll agree to that. And so Jacob though figured out a way to kind of flip it to where the majority of the lambs and the baby goats that were born
[00:38:09] were born spotted and speckled. And here's how he did it. And again, if this wasn't in the Bible, I'd have a hard time believing it. But what he did was he took, the Bible tells us there in Genesis 30,
[00:38:19] he took rods from poplar trees and almond trees and plain trees and he stripped the bark into the pattern that he wanted the baby sheep and the baby goats to have.
[00:38:32] And so he stripped the bark and put stripes and spots and speckles on those rods of wood.
[00:38:40] And then he put those in front of the sheep and the goats.
[00:38:45] And so the Bible tells us that whenever they would mate, they were looking at these spotted and speckled and these striped pieces of wood.
[00:38:53] Well then, what happened is, before long, they began to have babies the lambs and the baby goats, those baby animals began to come forth spotted and speckled.
[00:39:04] And before long, Jacob had way more animals and Laban was getting very few.
[00:39:11] And so here we can see Jacob, that shyster, that trickster, he was doing what he did well and he was growing his own personal wealth.
[00:39:19] And we can see in there a principle that's important for you and I to understand now.
[00:39:23] You know, this happened thousands of years ago.
[00:39:26] there's a principle there that we can see that we're going to become what we spend our time focusing on. We're going to become, we're going to look like what we behold. People have used the phrase, we become what we behold. That's what
[00:39:42] happened with these sheep and the goats. Well, the same thing's true of you and me.
[00:39:46] Whatever we spend our time focusing on, we spend our time looking at and really giving our attention to, our lives are going to begin to look like that.
[00:39:57] Let's take this principle of becoming what we behold and let's apply it to the fact that you and I are made in the image and likeness of God, so we know we look like Him,
[00:40:08] but also, as we discussed, we have the ability to become like Him.
[00:40:14] We also are going to become like whatever we focus on.
[00:40:18] And so as you and I focus on the Lord, our lives will bring forth fruit that looks like Him.
[00:40:25] Now, the greatest trickster of all is the devil.
[00:40:28] So here's what he does.
[00:40:30] Now, just like Jacob was a trickster, the enemy is even more so.
[00:40:33] He understands this principle that you and I will become what we behold.
[00:40:39] And so here's what he often does.
[00:40:42] As you and I look at the Lord, as you and I keep our eyes on Him, we become like Him.
[00:40:48] So the enemy knows, well, if I can take their image of God and I can change it and I can distort it, they're going to look at not the true image of who God is,
[00:41:00] but a distorted image of who God is.
[00:41:03] And then as we do that, our lives bring forth fruit that looks more like that.
[00:41:09] Let me give us some examples.
[00:41:10] And these are some things that probably all of us can relate to.
[00:41:13] And this shows us kind of the enemy's tactics in how he approaches us.
[00:41:18] He knows that whatever we focus on, we're going to become like that.
[00:41:22] Our lives will take on the image. Our lives will take on the likeness of whatever we spend our time looking at.
[00:41:29] And so, he will make it his goal to cause us to focus on an image of God that is not genuine. An image of God that is not true to who God really is.
[00:41:42] And here are some examples. If you and I have an image of God that He is condemning, we're going to tend to feel condemned. We're going to see a God who's condemning and bring forth the fruit of feeling condemned. And that be the lens that we see God through,
[00:41:58] and then as a result, the lens that we see ourselves through as well.
[00:42:02] So if that's our image of God that He's a condemning God, we're going to feel condemned.
[00:42:08] And here are some more examples.
[00:42:10] If we begin to see a God who is intolerant with us, then we begin to feel like we're falling short.
[00:42:16] We begin to feel defective and deficient.
[00:42:20] If we tend to look at a God that we see as being impatient, we're going to always feel pressure to strive.
[00:42:28] We're going to always feel like He's not pleased with us, that we're always coming up short.
[00:42:32] And we're going to feel this pressure to strive.
[00:42:35] If our image of God is that He's demanding, then we're going to begin to feel inadequate.
[00:42:41] And that'll be a lens that we see the Lord through and see ourselves through.
[00:42:46] If we see God as being unforgiving, we're going to tend to see ourselves as guilty and ashamed.
[00:42:52] We're going to feel guilty and feel ashamed.
[00:42:55] If we see God as unloving, we're going to feel unloved.
[00:43:00] If we see God, which many people do because of legalistic teaching that can be so common. If we see God as more of a taskmaster, we're going to feel like we're slaves.
[00:43:10] That's going to come from us viewing a distorted image of the Lord.
[00:43:15] If we see God as being partial and a God who plays favorites with people, we're going to feel overlooked and left out.
[00:43:23] Now God is not any of those things, but as we tend to see Him that way, this is what comes forth. Just like that principle that we saw Saul with Jacob and those stripped bark rods that he used that caused those goats
[00:43:38] and those sheep to bring forth the fruit of their lives looked like those rods.
[00:43:45] If we see God as being untruthful to us, we're going to think we can't trust Him.
[00:43:50] If we have an image of God that He's always angry, then we're going to be always fearful of being punished by Him.
[00:43:58] We're going to want to hide from Him.
[00:44:01] And there's a lot of other examples, but here's one more.
[00:44:04] If we tend to see a God who's not present with us or one that's not interested in our lives, we're going to feel devalued and question our worth in His eyes.
[00:44:16] Now again, God is not any of those things, but the enemy makes it his goal to convince you and me that He is.
[00:44:23] And He'll use whatever He can.
[00:44:25] He'll use previous relationships with our parents, with siblings, with teachers.
[00:44:30] failed relationships, whatever it is.
[00:44:33] I mentioned legalistic teaching. He loves to use that.
[00:44:36] And all of those things can form a lens that we see God through.
[00:44:41] And as a result, our lives begin to look like this distorted image of God that is not really true of who He is.
[00:44:50] So let's talk about for a few minutes here the reality of who God is.
[00:44:54] Because as you and I understand that, And we choose not to any longer behold a distorted image.
[00:45:02] But we decide, okay, we're going to keep our eyes on the true image of who God is.
[00:45:08] Our lives will begin to reflect that image.
[00:45:11] And so there's two very important questions for us to ask ourselves.
[00:45:16] One is, how do we view the Lord? And also, how do we think He views us?
[00:45:24] How do you and I view Him and what do you think He thinks about us when He looks at us?
[00:45:29] Those are two very important questions for us to answer.
[00:45:33] Now, here I'm going to give you a list of Scriptures.
[00:45:36] Now, we're not going to put these fully on the screen.
[00:45:39] We'll give you the references like I'll give you right now so you guys can jot these down.
[00:45:44] And the beautiful thing about the way we're doing this message today is you can pause this and you can make sure you complete your list.
[00:45:50] Now let me give you a handful of Scriptures from God's written Word that tell us who He truly is, that tell us how He truly sees you and me.
[00:46:01] So these can help strip away those misunderstandings.
[00:46:05] These can help strip away those distortions that the enemy loves to put in front of us that cause us to see God differently than who He really is.
[00:46:16] The first one is Romans 8, verse 1.
[00:46:20] This is a verse that we talk about together quite a bit because we need to remind ourselves of this.
[00:46:25] It's the one that says there's no condemnation for those who are in Jesus.
[00:46:29] So God is not a condemning God.
[00:46:31] You and I, if we are God's people, there's no more condemnation for us.
[00:46:35] That's Romans 8, verse 1.
[00:46:38] 1 John 3, verse 1 says, Behold, how great a love the Father has for you and me, that you and I should be called the children of Him, the children of God.
[00:46:51] 1 John 1, verse 9 says that God is faithful and just to forgive you and me.
[00:46:59] John 15, verse 15 says that Jesus calls you and me friends.
[00:47:06] Jeremiah 29, verse 11 says that God has good plans for you and me.
[00:47:11] John 14 verses 16-20 tells us that God will be with us forever.
[00:47:19] Not just with us, but also in us.
[00:47:22] And Jesus said in that passage He was never going to leave us as orphans.
[00:47:27] So we're seeing now through His written word the truth about who He is and the truth about who we are as a result.
[00:47:36] Deuteronomy 31 verse 8, God said in that passage, In that passage, He would never fail us and never forsake us.
[00:47:44] Never going to leave us alone.
[00:47:46] Matthew 28 20, Jesus said that He would be with us until the end of the age.
[00:47:54] 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 says that God has not given you and me a spirit of fear, but one of power and love and a sound mind.
[00:48:06] Romans 8, verse 28 tells us that God causes all things to work together for our good.
[00:48:13] That shows us what His ultimate goal for us is, what His heart for us is.
[00:48:17] In that same chapter, Romans 8, in verse 32, it says that God did not spare even His own Son for you and me and therefore would freely give us every good thing that we need.
[00:48:31] We can see again God's heart for us.
[00:48:34] One of the most common verses in our part of the world, John 3.16 says, God loved the world so much and God loved the world in this way.
[00:48:44] He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but would have eternal life.
[00:48:52] There's many, many more we could share. Let me share one more.
[00:48:55] Psalm 139 verses 17 and 18 talk about the kind of thoughts God has toward you and me.
[00:49:05] King David wrote that chapter and said that, Your thoughts to me, O God, are precious thoughts.
[00:49:11] And he says there's so many of them, he could never count them.
[00:49:14] They outnumber the number of grains of sand in this world.
[00:49:18] We know we could never number that.
[00:49:20] But if we somehow could, the number of good precious thoughts that God is thinking about you and me would still be more than what that number would be.
[00:49:29] So, in closing this morning, I want to thank you again for joining me.
[00:49:33] I want to pray with us.
[00:49:34] And I want to end by just encouraging you and me.
[00:49:37] Let's be deliberate in looking at, focusing on beholding that God.
[00:49:44] That's truly who He is.
[00:49:46] He's a loving Father.
[00:49:47] He's a patient Father who forgives us, who loves us, offers us His help.
[00:49:53] He's not this demanding, impatient, legalistic God that the enemy wants us to think that He is.
[00:50:01] And as you and I focus on the God that His written word reveals Him to be, our lives will begin to bear fruit that looks like Him.
[00:50:12] You and I will look like Him even more every step of the way, becoming like Him even more as we look at Him, as we behold Him.
[00:50:22] We're going to become like Him.
[00:50:23] So before we pray, let me share one more scripture with us.
[00:50:26] This one will be on the screen.
[00:50:28] This is 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. This is what it says.
[00:50:36] This is 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. It says, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
[00:50:55] just as from the Lord the Spirit.
[00:50:58] So as we look at Him without those veils there, all those veils that we listed the enemy loves to put in front of us, those lenses that we contend to see the Lord through, as we look at Him without those things in the way,
[00:51:11] it says here with an unveiled face, we are transformed even more so into His likeness and certainly transformed even more so into His true likeness.
[00:51:23] So that list of veils, that list of distortions that we talked about there, probably all of us can relate to at least some of those and maybe many others.
[00:51:36] But the good news is those are not God's heart for us.
[00:51:41] He wants to take those things out of the way, take those veils, those lenses off of our eyes so we can see Him for who He truly is.
[00:51:49] So as we pray together right now, if you felt the voice of the Lord or heard the voice of the Holy Spirit in your heart saying, you've been seeing me this certain way, but that's not who I am.
[00:52:01] Maybe as we were reading that list together, you felt the Lord put His finger on something and He's opening your eyes to the fact that that's never been my heart for you.
[00:52:10] That's always been from the enemy with a design to cause you to see me differently than who I really am.
[00:52:19] And then, again, we see ourselves differently as well as a result.
[00:52:25] So God today, I believe, wants to take these distortions away from our eyes and allow us to see Him for who He truly is.
[00:52:34] So let's pray together this morning.
[00:52:36] And let's every one of us, as I pray, let's all of us put our eyes on Him.
[00:52:41] Let's just choose to focus on Him.
[00:52:44] I want to close this message the way we do most of them when we're together in the same room by every one of us, not just me praying, but every one of us praying and just putting our eyes, focusing, beholding the Lord for who He really is.
[00:53:01] So as I pray, you just do that right where you are.
[00:53:06] So Lord Jesus, I thank you.
[00:53:08] You said that you came to show us the Father.
[00:53:12] And you said that if we have seen you, we have also seen the Father.
[00:53:18] And we can see in your written word, you came here because you came to destroy the works of the enemy.
[00:53:25] It tells us in 1 John 3.
[00:53:28] You came to seek and to save that which was lost, it says in Luke 19.10.
[00:53:34] And you came to show us a loving Father who went as far as He could go to save us.
[00:53:42] He could not have paid a higher price than the one He paid by giving us you.
[00:53:50] And you were willing to lay your life down to save us because you wanted us to be back in right standing and in the right relationship with you.
[00:54:02] And so right now, Jesus, we are standing at a place where we can't fix this ourselves.
[00:54:08] But we just right now, we humble ourselves before you.
[00:54:12] We ask You to take away these lenses that we've been looking at You through.
[00:54:19] These lenses that have distorted the true image of the Father and also have distorted our perspective and our understanding of who we are as well.
[00:54:31] So I pray, Lord, as we are deliberate in looking at You the way Your written Word tells us You are, I pray that you would help us, that we would learn to see you for who you really are.
[00:54:50] I thank you that you have said your grace is always sufficient for us.
[00:54:54] It never runs out just before it gets to us.
[00:54:58] Your mercies are new every single day.
[00:55:01] And so we are standing here this morning as your children, before you, partaking of those brand new mercies, partaking of that grace that enables us to live our lives differently than we could by ourselves.
[00:55:17] And so we ask you just to strip away these lenses, these distortions, and allow us to see you for who you really are.
[00:55:27] I pray that you would make yourself known to us.
[00:55:31] And you've told us in the Scriptures that if we seek you, we will find you.
[00:55:37] So we as your children, we're seeking you.
[00:55:39] We're seeking to know You for who You really are and not a misunderstood version, but who You really are.
[00:55:50] I pray that You would open our eyes to that today, just as we read together there in 2 Corinthians 3, that we would be transformed by beholding You.
[00:56:02] I just pray a blessing over all those watching today, all those listening.
[00:56:06] I pray also for safety for all of us as we travel, navigate these winter storm days.
[00:56:15] I look forward to hopefully next Sunday we can all be back together.
[00:56:20] I ask for your blessings upon us, our families, and our week.
[00:56:24] In Jesus' name, amen.
[00:56:27] Well, thank you again for joining me.
[00:56:29] And again, I hope to see you guys in person next Sunday.
[00:56:32] As long as this weather permits, we'll plan to see you then.
[00:56:36] We'll be back in touch about the baptisms.
[00:56:38] We'll do those as soon as we can.
[00:56:40] And look forward to seeing you guys.
[00:56:41] Hopefully, we can all be together next Sunday.
[00:56:44] You guys have a great week, and we'll see you then.