The Simplicity That Is in Jesus Christ

I'm looking forward to bringing this message. Once again, I'd like to invite those that are here, perhaps for the very first time in the United Church of God Los Angeles, also those that are joining us on the webcam, and knowing that some of you will be hearing this that are listening right now down the line or watching it. I'd like to invite the congregation to please open up Scripture, and let's go to 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11, and build upon some of the thoughts that Mr. Zajac brought out in his message, and perhaps hit it at a little bit different angle.

I'd like to go to 2 Corinthians 11.3 because it speaks to a concern that the Apostle Paul had about the Corinthian church. There is a concern, there is an admonition, and he defines what they ought to be centering on as a church. It says in 2 Corinthians 11, O that you would bear with me in a little folly, and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste, or we might say pure and clean, holy, virgin, to Jesus Christ. But I fear, he had a concern, lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it.

Very interesting that the Apostle Paul had a concern for the Corinthian church. He had written a previous letter to the church. We call it 1 Corinthians, now 2 Corinthians.

This church was newer. At the beginning it was very excited, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God had come to it.

But that church had veered off for different reasons. They began to be at church. They thought that they were in the body of Christ, but they were in a sense worshiping others, men.

Even men of God. The names were given in 1 Corinthians 1. They would be worshiping perhaps, quote-unquote, truth, or their own outlook on truth.

They might be worshiping their understandings. Likewise, they might be worshiping, never thinking that they were, but worshiping those gifts that might have been given to them through the Holy Spirit.

And it's very interesting, Paul was concerned because you can be so near and yet so far. And many in the Corinthian church had become tangential. They were off the mark. They had forgotten the good news. They had forgotten the first time somebody had sat down and told them what God above was doing through His Son Jesus Christ.

That was 2,000 years ago. That can still occur in the church today. We can be so near and yet so far. We can even be caught up in activities and assignments, thinking that we're doing God a favor.

Or we can be talking things regarding Scripture and thinking we're doing God a favor. Or we can be sharing a certain insight and think that we're doing God a favor. But here Paul brings the Corinthian church back to a specific focus, and it is to that that I would speak to you today.

The title of my message is, The Simplicity. The Simplicity that is in Jesus Christ. Even those that are in the body of Christ, those that are members, those that call themselves Christians, we can become distracted. We can become displaced in our thoughts and in our hearts as to the activity and the work that God's Spirit is to do in our hearts and our minds and our lives.

We can even at times think that we're doing God a favor, and yet we're far apart from Him because we're off the center. And that is why God gives us the festivals in the course of the year, the festivals to bring us into spiritual alignment. Not only with the purpose, not only with the plan, but with the love and with the pleasure of God in our lives and why we have been called. And thus we look at this subject, the simplicity, which is in Christ. We have a challenge as Christians. We can become distracted or displaced by being within a body or being within a church and even being active in a church, but not spot on the center. And not only that, then we have the world around us that has all of the different things and all the different items coming into our life more than ever. We recognize in this age there are so many voices. You have them right on that little box that's in your pocket or in your briefcase. People ready to tell you this, people ready to tell you that, people wanting you to respond. And with all the information and all the intelligentsia that would have made the Museum of Alexandria look small. And so we have all of these things coming at us. And yet, during this time, God wants us to center. And He wants us to remove ourselves from the images and the distractions that are upon us every day. And there is one picture that He wants us to have, and I'd like to share that picture with you. I do have to warn you, you know, like on television, it says, here comes a warning. The things described may be graphic. So I will discuss it a little bit. I will not be more than graphic than need be. Because the one picture that God wants us to contemplate as we come up to the New Testament Passover, and not only save it for a festival of God, but should be in our mind and in our heart and in our entire existence every day, is what happened on a mount outside of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. And He wants us to picture that mount. He wants us to stand on top of that mount and be square and to be right in front of a young man, 33 years of age.

And that young man is nailed, nailed like an animal, into a piece of wood.

His feet are not touching the ground. His feet are also nailed to that piece of wood. It's hard to even describe what he looked like because he had been beaten all night long.

Clubbed, punched, the Roman whip with the metal in it, he looked like a raw piece of hamburger.

Probably very hard for him even to see with all of the secretion and all of the blood coming off of his face. As you and I, as you and I face and look at that, for it is you and I that have been invited to look at it and to gaze upon it. It is something that humanly we want to turn away from. Humanly, humanly, it's repulsive.

Humanly, we can't even believe what is stuck on that piece of wood.

We want to look anywhere but there. But it is to there that you and I begin the story of the simplicity which is in Christ. It is a story that was told through Bithynia and Cappadocia and Galatia, through Asia, through Thrace, through Macedonia, through Greece. It was shared to the strangers at Rome as they came to Jerusalem on that first Pentecost. It would go to Egypt. It would go to Cyrene in what is now Libya. It would go around the world and people would sit down and hear that story. And once they understood who was on that stake and who was on that cross, who was on that beam and on that piece of wood, and what it was all about, they came to understand something very incredible. That as much as they were repulsed, as much as it was so graphic and horrible, it also was about the greatest love story that was ever told. And sometimes, as Christians, busy in reading the Bible, busy in helping one another, busy in busy work in the church, busy on the lanes of the freeways of Los Angeles, we can forget why we were called and what was given to us, that we have, by God's grace, by His Spirit working with us, come to understand that visual picture that I just explained and to recognize that if nobody else at all was standing on Golgotha, that that would have been done, had to have been done for you and for me. Join me if you would in Hebrews 12 and verse 1. In Hebrews 12 and verse 1, this is what we are told to fix our eyes on and to consider through the words of the author of Hebrews. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded in verse 1 by so great a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. But how? What is the framework? What is the lens that we might be able to run that race and know that it was run well before us? Who is the pace-setter? Who sets the example? Looking then unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down now at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

So we are to consider that. Dear friends, we are to consider it and face it squarely, and to recognize that this is the foundation of our faith, that God sent his Son to this earth, that which was divine, later divine and encapsulated in flesh, with a heart, with two legs, that walked the Galilee and through Samaria to Jerusalem, even as those psalms that we heard, that we sang today, were sung as he came in, and yet he would be betrayed within just a couple of days and meet the most incredible, horrible death ever devised by man.

How important is this simplicity, which is in Christ, and the basic message? Because there are so many things in the Bible that we can think that we need to get into. And yes, by God's Spirit, there are things to get into regarding prophecy, regarding understanding, regarding what the original translations are.

And this is all well, and this is all good. But those are branches that extend. The trunk of the tree is a simplicity which God ordained in Christ. A perfect life, an ignominious death, a glorious resurrection, and the hope of the Second Coming. This is what Paul spoke about. Join me if you would in 1 Corinthians 15. In 1 Corinthians 15, again, reminding and trying to get the Corinthian church and all of us since then to get back on track, to get to the trunk of the tree, and what the good news of the Gospel is about.

More of our brethren, verse 1, I declared to you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and notice, in which you stand. This is indeed the sure foundation by which also you are saved.

If you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain or for nothing. He's saying, remember when you came out of the villages of Galatia. Remember when you came out of the great cities of Asia.

Remember when you left your family. Remember when you left your culture. Remember when you left your religion. And you went after that pearl of great price. What was that pearl of great price and what is it that God offered us? What is the foundation? What is the simplicity of the purpose, the plan, the pleasure and the love of God?

For I delivered to you, in verse 3, first of all, in other words, other translations, the RSV, the NIV, will say those things of first import and or importance, the foundation. For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received. Well, who did he get it from? He got it from none other than Jesus Christ. As he was literally taught by him that Christ died for our sins. According to the Scriptures, as we heard in Isaiah, and that he was buried, and that he did rise again on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen by all the others as a witness.

As Barnabas, as Sylvanus, as Titus, as Timothy, as Paul, who would wander through the cities of Asia Minor, and Peter and James talking to the Diaspora and talking to the Jews in every city, would say that Messiah has come, but not in the way that you thought, not in the way that you expected, but in the way that God intended. Join me if you would in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 15. I'm going to be doing a lot of Scripture reading today because I think God says it so much better than we to enable us to understand the focus, not that Robin Weber wants you to have, but what God's Word, which is the inspired word of God, wants us to understand.

Let's notice how Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 15. Let's actually go down to verse 17. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel and or the good news, not with wisdom of words, not in the Hellenic manner, not in the philosophical manner, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. It's really very simple once God begins working with your mind. He did something beautiful. He did something wonderful.

He did something loving. He gave no less than a son. You can know all the Hebrew. You can know all the Greek. And it does not take away from what God did, the greatest love story that was ever told. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?

Where is the disputing of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God. And of course, he embellishes that in Romans 1. Did not know God at all.

But it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Now notice verse 22, For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom. But now notice verse 23, A simplicity which is in Christ, the foundation of our faith. It says here, But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those that are called both Jews and Greeks Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. It was foolish to the Jews, and it was foolish to the Greek community. To the Jews it did not compute. The Jews for nearly 1,400 years had been taught what it says in the book of Deuteronomy. Cursed is he who is hung on a tree.

And then you have somebody coming through saying, By the way, Messiah was nailed or hung on a tree. It did not compute to them. And not only that, but, excuse me, wasn't he supposed to come and save us from the Romans and the Gentiles? There's something not computing. To the world of antiquity abroad, it seemed foolish. Why would that which is divine come down below the clouds of Olympus and take on the form of a man and stay down here and be killed by them? That's not how the Greeks wrote the story. That's not how the Romans borrowed the Greek story. The gods would come and go and have their pleasure and go up above the clouds. But they wouldn't give themselves. They had no love. They had no sacrifice for man. And that is why Paul goes back and says, Be careful lest you go off kilter with the Gospel with this incredible news. And not only that the man died, but he was resurrected. And that's why God provided so many witnesses afterwards regarding that story. What does this mean to you and me? For you and I, if we are confronted, as we think visually in our minds, of being confronted with beholding Messiah, Angalgatha, in the shadows of Jerusalem, and we look at that, in a sense we think it's vile. We think it's horrible. It's not to be looked upon. And yet we also recognize that when it is all said and done, that it's about the love of God. Join me if you would in 1 John 3 and verse 1. And I want to share a thought with you. It's a beautiful thought. And the New Testament Passover, as it comes up, should be encouraging to all of us. Of what? By God, by His grace, and by His design that He has shared with us. Notice 1 John 3 and verse 1. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we shall be called the children of God. And therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Behold what manner of love? When you go into the commentaries, what it basically says, if you read what manner, and you go into the background of the Greek, it says, That kind of love is not from around here. It's not from around here. It wasn't hatched in this neighborhood on earth. This is beyond earth. This is beyond humanity.

The love that is being spoken here is the love of God, which only goes out, only moves forward, without thought of return. Without thought of, well, I'll scratch your back if you scratch my back. This was something that was completely friends, unconsidered in humanity. It was from somewhere other than here. Behold what manner of love the Father has for us. As we come up to the New Testament Passover, and as we're about to once again renew the covenant by partaking of the bread, by partaking of the wine, are we just going through ritual? Are we just, well, it's that time of year, and we sit, we go through verse, we go through the motions, or do we recognize that we have been a part of the greatest miracle that has ever occurred on earth, and that God above our Father has intervened and made a pathway, created a door, a bridge for us to return to Him, to have relationship, as was designed and hoped for in Eden. That's very important to be able to consider.

Join me if you would in John 1.29. In John 1.29, the Gospel thereof, we find the words of the Baptist out on the Jordan. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

People were looking around. Where's the little Lamb? Lambs were known well and dear to the people of that area. They raised lambs, and they took the one that was the best out of the flock.

They would take the one that was without blemish. The cute little one. The one that was not the rogue, the one that had not gotten dirty and sullied by being in the briar patch or whatever. They would offer that up as a sacrifice. They would take it to temple, and it would be sacrificed for them. The thought of a lamb and death and blood was not foreign to that audience. Here, John is saying, Behold the Lamb of God. He was introducing his cousin, Jesus. But what that was all about was when you look at John 1.29, you have to connect it with Genesis 3.15. Join me if you would there for a moment. Genesis 3 and verse 15 is at the stage for what happened on Golgotha. Genesis 3 and verse 15 is the first prophecy that is mentioned in Scripture. It is interesting because it is God's words to the serpent, but it is recorded here to understand basically what the plan of God would be like through the rest of Scripture.

He is saying, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise your head. He shall bruise your head. Speaking of the seed of the woman, Eve, meaning Christ, and you shall bruise his heel. Now, there is a difference, and you know it, and I know it, between the bruising of a heel and the bruising of a head.

All of us that have ever been bitten by a dog, and I am one, that is an old story I won't get into. That was exciting. There is a difference between being bitten, though, on the heel and being crushed on the head. So, this sets up the whole story that we know that Satan and his devices, and those elements that he would use, and stirring up the people of that day, and stirring up even the Romans that were there occupying that area. Yes, indeed, that they would bruise the heel of the descendant of Eve, being Jesus. But that in the same sense that there would be a victory, there would be a triumph, there would be that perfect life that would be sacrificed. The sacrifice would be made in a way and at a stage that was not asked of Abraham and Isaac, who also were in the hills of Moriah, a father and a son and a sacrifice. But God the Father and Jesus Christ took upon themselves that which they did not even ask of Abraham and Isaac, the son of promise.

That there would not be another goat, there would not be a way out, but that behold of the Lamb of God and Jesus Christ would be sacrificed. And if there were nobody else on earth, if there is not another human being for you and me to be able to have relationship, and to be able to walk back through in that sense those carobes and eden that blocked humanity from the tree of life, Jesus of Nazareth would have had to have died for you and for me and none other. But he died for everybody, as the book of Hebrews says, once and for all. Romans 3 and verse 19 builds on this story. Romans 3 verse 19. Let's read it together to see what God has to say through the Apostle Paul.

And let's pick up the story if we could in verse 19.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God notice through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference. For they have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace. Grace means God's initiative. He started it. It means God's invitation. He offered it to each and every one of us.

It means, by God's sustaining grace, his ongoing involvement in our life, once we have repented, once we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, as our High Priest, as our Lord, as Mr. Zajac brought out, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness.

Because in his patience, in his forbearance, in his long-suffering, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just.

And the justifier of the one who has the faith, not only in Jesus, but other translations will say, the faith of Jesus. The faith of Jesus. I just wrote an article on this that will be appearing in a couple of months. I find sometimes that this is the challenge that we have as people of the book, people that believe in the Bible, people that believe in the blood of Jesus Christ, believe in the gift of our Heavenly Father, understand as much as possible about the purpose of God. But there is indeed a difference between having faith in Jesus Christ and having the faith of Jesus Christ in us.

The disciples walked with Jesus for three and a half years. There is a difference between walking with Christ and allowing Christ to walk in us.

You say, well, what is that difference? Thank you for asking that question. Join me, if you would, in Galatians 2, verse 20. Join me there in Galatians 2, verse 20.

The Apostle Paul nailed this, and no pun intended when it comes to the matter of crucifixion, but he did nail this point, and it is about a nail, and it is about crucifixion. And notice what it says in Galatians 2, verse 20.

I have been crucified with Christ.

I've given my life away.

When I came to baptism, and the minister asked me, have you repented of all of your sins? I said, yes. And he asked me then, and have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? I said, yes. He then said, I therefore baptize you not into any church, sect, creed, or denomination of this world, but I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, for the remission of your sins.

And I made that statement, and I made that vow, that I would give my life away, and that I would have the life of the Son of God living in me. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith, notice, in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I realize that sometimes people will say, well, especially as we're coming up to the New Testament Passover, I don't know how God can love me, and I don't know if I should come that night. I feel so unworthy. Well, that's why God put Romans 5 in the book. Join me if you would in Romans 5, and let's pick up the thought in verse 1. It says in Romans 5 and verse 1, Therefore, having been justified by faith, not by our actions, not by our simply doing of the law, there is no amount of human merit or human work here below that grants salvation. I say that the law is beautiful. Romans 7, 14 says that the law is spiritual, but it's not by our works. We notice what it says here, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace, into this love that is not from around here, this grace, in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us. For when we were still without strength, notice, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. He died for us before we were a gleam in our Father's eye. Revelation 13 says that His sacrifice was from the foundation of the world, when He, the Word, and God, purposed what would come about.

For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for our righteous man will one die. Yet, perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were still sinners, He died for us. Sometimes we, as people, even as members of the body of Christ, have got to be reminded that Jesus Christ did not come to this earth to make good men better. Because there's some of that that still rubs off on us about human nature, not quite being what the Bible says.

And we can even be in a room, do I dare say this? I will. We can be in a room like this and say, I'm glad Weber is giving this sermon for the person three seats in front of me and four seats over. Now don't start counting out there.

Or really for the person, because I've got my rearview mirror, I know where they're sitting, four seats back and two seats over. No, that's an empty chair.

There's something in us that everybody else has a problem. And we don't recognize that apart from Christ, the gift of God the Father, we are dead men and dead women walking.

What this is telling us is God knew exactly what we were all along, and He still loved us in spite of ourselves, in spite of our boastfulness, in spite of our sins. He loved us, and He gave Himself for us. How do I know that? Mr. Weber, where is your proof that God did that? Join me if you would in John 3 and verse 16.

In John 3, 16. This is Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a good guy that was on a journey like all of us and wanted to understand more as a Pharisee. He came to Jesus at night, and Jesus had to explain the miracle of being born from above, of an intervention by God so that we could, down here below, have special eyes to be able to see the kingdom of God.

He then continues here, as it says, notice in verse 13, No one is ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Now, my Bible is in red ink. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, These are Christ's words, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

This is probably early on in Jesus' earthly ministry. Even at that time, he was speaking of his death, of that sacrifice. He's speaking of the example back in the Torah, of when there was life and there was death, and the the the pole went up with the serpent's image up there, and it ceased the plague. It stopped the death. On one side was life, on the other side was death.

And Jesus was using that as an example, that again the beam would go up. But not a serpent's head this time. But God, in the flesh, would be nailed. The Creator, nailed by the creation, on the wood that was created by the one that was on the cross. Think that through for a moment. Notice what it says here in John 3, verse 16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And he who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. God so loved the world. He gave.

He and the Word, the one that became Jesus of Nazareth, did this out of love. For you, for me. Sometimes people will say to me as I counsel them, well, how do I know that God loves me? And that's what Romans 5 is all about.

God says, this is why I loved you. This is what Matthew 3 is about. This is to show my love. My love was personified. It was humanly imprinted in body. Set up high so that everybody could see it. My only begotten Son. And I allowed Him, and He allowed Himself, because He gives life and takes life. And He could have called down angels, legions of angels, to save Himself. And He didn't. How do you know that the preeminent, Heavenly Father, loves us? The proof is in the pudding. It's in the man.

It's in the Son of God. It's in Jesus of Nazareth. It is in this simplicity which is in Christ. We say, what does that mean to me, Mr. Weber? Well, let me ask you a question. God is love. God gave. God does things not to condemn, but to open up doors, to open up gates, to bring people to Him. As we come up to the New Testament Passover, how much of the love of God is in your heart?

How much do you give? Do we condemn? Do we put down? Do we vilify? Do we diminish others that are made in God's image and in God's likeness? What kind of a light are we? What are we doing? You see, in Corinth, the reason why, again, Paul brought this out, people were validating what they knew. They were validating what they had as far as, well, I've got this gift or I've got that gift. They were validating what group they were in. Were with the marriage, were with the singles, were with the meat-eaters, were with the vegetable-eaters, were with the tongue-speakers.

They had gotten off course. They'd gotten off course. And they were very sincere in what they were doing, but let's always remember the first syllable of sincere is sin. You can be very well-meaning and be sinning. And Paul was trying to bring them back.

Get on course. There is a simplicity to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God. Jesus had to come to this earth so that we might have a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It could be no other way of Alex mentioned in his message, quoting from the Messiah, Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. What it is speaking about is the mystery of God that is encapsulated in Jesus Christ. For Jesus was fully human and Jesus was fully God. We can't quite fully understand that, but we do know that it says in John 1.14 that the word came down and tabernacled in this flesh.

The word who was with God in the beginning was God, came to this earth, tinted in human flesh. And yes, he divorced himself from much of his divinity, as the book of Philippians tells us in chapter 2. And yet, it is important to understand that he was both because if he was not both, hear me please. Are you ready? If he was not both, then we do not have a bridge.

For a bridge to be a bridge must touch both shores, or it's not a bridge at all. It's a folly. And at times we can, if we're not careful, place Jesus as simply the Son of Man and the Son of Mary and stay in his humanity. And there is a point to learn from that because he was tinted in all manners as we were.

But if we focus over here, then we're wide of the mark. At the same time, if we focus over here and only consider him and focus on the Son of God, then he becomes far from us and distant from us. It's only when we understand and we bring this together that he was indeed the child that was born to Mary, to walk in this flesh as we walk in it.

Yet at the same time as the Son of God, with the wisdom of the ages in him and with the Holy Spirit in him, and that you and I, as we partake of that bread and that wine at the New Testament Passover, in acts of faith that as we take that bread and as we take that wine, we renew that covenant with God Almighty, and we say, God, help us.

Help us to not only have faith in Jesus Christ, but help us to have the faith of Christ in us to surmount the challenges that are going to be with us. For join me, if you would, in Luke 14, verse 27. In Luke 14 and verse 27, Jesus never promised that it would be easy, but he did promise that it would be worth it. In Luke 14 and verse 27, notice what it says here. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

So we have a cross. We have the challenge in this lifetime. Christ bore his cross. That was the cross of salvation. But our cross, nonetheless, will follow in that sense that we need to have that faith of Christ in us. We need to do that. We need to have that. As we begin to conclude, I want to share a thought with you. Join me, if you would, in Hebrews 13. In Hebrews 13.

We're not alone. Jesus Christ said, I will come to you. And he has come to us through the Spirit that has been given by his Father. We notice in Hebrews 13 and verse 20.

There is a simplicity which is in Christ.

That God, our Father, above wants us to understand. I'm going to go to one last verse that just came to my mind. Join me, if you would, in Philippians 2. In Philippians 2. Again, the simplicity which is in Christ. Verse 6.

Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on earth and of those under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Merely to himself? No. But to the glory of God the Father. Consider, as we conclude, what it just said, that every tongue might confess that Jesus is Lord in Christ. I want to rehearse with you for a moment what Alex started with. When we say the Lord Jesus Christ, what does that mean to you? Is that just a bumper sticker? There is power in those three titles. Number one, Jesus. Joshua. Yeshua. As it was pronounced then, means Savior, means salvation. Christ, appointed, not by man, but by God. In a way that baffled the religious community of his day, they didn't really recognize what God was doing. Perhaps more than ever we need to remember that God's ways are not our ways. And ask him for his wisdom, ask him for his understanding. And he was Lord. He was Curios. The same title that was used for Caesar. He was king. He was Lord of our lives. He is salvation. He is appointed by God almighty above. And he is the king of our lives. Long ago, on a hill outside of Jerusalem, a man was nailed to a tree. Thirty-three years old. The worst thing that he ever did was be perfect. Think that one through. Perfect. Behold, the Lamb of God. The greatest love story ever known, ever told. What an honor that we have in our hearts and in our minds and that it can resonate through our being. And that we make covenant again with that as we move forward to the New Testament Passover. One of the shortest verses in the Bible that defines God is, God is love. Let's take that message forward as we conclude with a song entitled, The Love of God.