If you got a bible, go ahead and turn with me to two Corinthians, chapter four. If you don't have a bible, we'll have it on the screen, but we encourage you to bring your bibles with you. Second Corinthians, chapter four. As you're turning there, we're getting close to a new year. How many of you have kept your New Year's resolutions from this year? We're ten months in. I see one hand. There was one hand at 08:00 a.m. too. So we got two for the whole year. Guys, that's pitiful, you know, hey, guys, if you have space in the middle of your aisle, it'd be great. If you move to the middle of your aisle so people can find a seat. We have plenty of seats. They're just like, random one, two, three's here. So that'd be helpful. All right, so most of us have not kept our New Year's resolutions ten months in. I think we could have probably. I could have probably asked that same question week two into the year, and we would have the same response. Right. But when it comes to New Year's resolutions, why don't we keep them? Cause I don't think we have a big enough why if the why is okay this year. Because it's a new year, I'm going to go to the gym more. Like, what happens two days into the new year? We get six inches of snow overnight, and it's cold and dark. Like, a great motivation is not going to be, well, it's a new year, I'm going to the gym. Right. You need something deeper than that. Right. And I think the same thing can be said about our faith, especially when it comes, like, outwardly living our faith, when it comes to proclaiming God in our lives, we all set out and like, oh, I would love to do that more, but then it seems to fail pretty quickly. And I think the. The reason why is we need a better why. We need a better why. Like, how many of you would love to proclaim God more often in your life? Okay. More than one person should raise your hand at that point. Like, that's. That's an easy one. Lob for you. Softball for you. Like, I hope that we would all go, man, I want to do that more consistently. I want to do that more faithfully. I want to talk more openly about my faith. Talking openly about your faith. I want you to think more broadly than simply, like, getting in a public debate with somebody or knocking on a random door and telling somebody about Jesus. There's nothing wrong with those things. But I want you to think about it more broadly this morning. Like how many of you would love to talk to your kids more regularly about the gospel? How many of you like would love, when your kids go to bed, for you to talk with your spouse about the gospel more regularly? Maybe you want to talk to your friends and your coworkers and your neighbors about Jesus. I think most of us in this room will go, yeah, I would love to be able to do that. So why is it that our proclamation efforts often fall short? I think we have a why problem because I don't think we need more stats about how lost our world is. I don't think we need more pictures of dreadful suffering in the world to go, okay, now that I've seen how awful and horrendous this world is, now I'll go share the gospel more, right? We don't need more of that. You look around for five minutes in the world and you go, man, our world is lost and broken. I don't think we need more of that kind of stuff. I don't think we need more intellectual knowledge of why sharing the gospel is important. Most people in this room would go, yeah, I know it's important. I would even argue that we don't need more techniques and strategies in how to talk about the Lord. Like if we got new ones, that's great. But plenty of christians throughout history have come up with great ways to talk about God with others. And I think our issue isn't that we get better techniques and training and stats and all that kind of stuff. I think we need a better why to talk about our faith. So how can we, as followers of Jesus, become more faithful in talking about Jesus with those around us? How can we become more faithful in talking about Jesus with, with those around us? What I think Paul's going to do this morning in two corinthians is give us the bigger why. So let's read two corinthians chapter four, just three verses this morning. So 13 through 15, 2nd corinthians 413. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke. We also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence, for it is all for your sake. So that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So Paul is saying, let me tell you why I am faithfully proclaiming God. Let me tell you why. I continue to boldly speak about God, and I'm going to give you my summary of it right from the beginning. Devotion to Goddesse results in speaking about God. Devotion to God results in speaking about God. What Paul does in these three short verses is he gives us deeper motivation and a more grand, glorious vision to share the gospel, to speak about God. To talk about God. And so for the rest of this morning, what I want us to do is flesh out this idea that Paul puts before us. So let's go back to verse 13. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written. I believed, and so I spoke. We also believe, and so we also speak, since we have the same spirit. Now, who is Paul saying he's sharing the same spirit with? And this spirit here is not the Holy Spirit, just a disposition about his life. Who is he sharing this disposition with? The person who wrote this quote. I believed, and so I spoke. Now, some of you are like, I don't know where that comes from. It actually comes from psalm 116. We're gonna read some of that in a second. But Paul is making a connection between his ministry and what the psalmist, who we don't know the specific author of this psalm, he's making a connection, and we'll figure out why in just a second so he makes this connection. Let's read a little bit of psalm 116, verses three through ten. The snares of death encompassed me. The pangs of Sheol laid hold on me. I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord. O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous, and our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. When I was brought low, he saved me. Return, o my soul to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you, for you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. And here's the quote. I believed even when I spoke, I'm greatly afflicted. So here's this psalmist saying, I was encompassed by death. I was in distress, I was in anguish, I was low, I was crying, I stumbled, I was afflicted. But God, in the midst of that, you preserve me, in the midst of that, delivered my soul from death. And he's saying, this suffering and anguish that I'm experiencing in my life cannot stop me from speaking. I believe something, and so I'm going to keep speaking about it, even in the midst of affliction. I'm not going to stop. So this is why Paul makes this connection, because if you remember what's happening in the church in Corinthe, if you haven't been here, let me summarize what's going on. Up until this point, Paul has been defending, having to defend himself and his ministry to the corinthian church, because when they look at his life, they go, you're really weak. When I look at other worldly leaders around us and I look at you, Paul, you look really weak. You're really bold in your speech, but you look really weak and you don't seem like a great leader. And so he's having to defend himself and his ministry and his apostleship all the way up until this point. And then in chapter four, what we've looked at is the power of the gospel message, that there is power in the gospel, but there is weakness in the gospel messenger. We have this treasure in jars of clay, and we're the jars of clay, like we're fragile. And what was the issue? Right, go back. It's not going to be on screen. But if you just turn back, chapter four, verse eight, it says, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. Then it skips down. So death is at work in us, but life in you. So for Paul, he's going, man, death is at work. I'm afflicted, I'm suffering. This is hard because of my faith. So he makes this connection back to the psalmist who is suffering, who is in affliction, who was in death, was knocking at his door, basically. And what did the psalmist say? I believe, therefore I spoke. And that's what Paul says in verse 13. He says, I have this same spirit, this same disposition as the person who wrote I believe and so I spoke. We also believe and so we also speak. So what keeps Paul embracing this life of ministry? And more importantly for us this morning, what keeps him going and continuing to be bold in his speech even when there's so much affliction and death at work? He says, I believed and so I speak. Belief, a trust his faith caused him to speak. There's a direct connection that Paul is making here between faith in God and speaking about God. Like these go hand in hand. When you have conviction in your beliefs, you're going to talk about it. The idea of a silent faith or a private faith, guys, isn't biblical. I think for a lot of people who call themselves christians, they're like, well, I have my beliefs and I'm going to keep them to myself. I just have a really strong private faith, guys, that's not a biblical faith. Now, there are times that the authors of the Bible, God himself, would say, live a quiet life. But the idea of a quiet life is to not draw attention to yourself, not make a big deal about yourself, and not bring unnecessary attention to your life. But the idea of a silent faith is not a biblical faith. It's not a biblical faith. So when Paul has this great devotion that comes from his belief in God, I want you to consider your devotion. Are you as devoted as you think you are? Do your kids know that you come to church, but they don't know that you believe in Jesus? You might not be as devoted as you think you are. You might be more devoted to Veritas than you are to Jesus. Do they know? Oh, your co workers, they know you love this church, but they don't have a clue that you actually believe in Jesus. You may not be as devoted as you think you are, guys, if your personal belief in the Lord doesn't flow, flow out through your speech, you may not be as devoted as you think you are. Cause what Paul's saying here is, I believed, therefore I spoke about it. I believed, therefore I spoke. And guys, this is a mark. It's been the mark of christians for all time. Like, we believe something and we talk about it. The early apostles were this way in acts, chapter four. We're gonna read a portion of it in just a second. Peter and John, early apostles, they are the Holy Spirit has come upon the church. The church has started. And they're walking into the temple one day and there's this person that can't walk, and he says, hey, can you help me out? And what they say. And this is obviously Michael's summary here. Hey, silver and gold, I don't have it, but what I do have is so much better than what you think you need. Take up your mat, like walk, like, come on. And he's healed. And. And it's awesome. And the other religious leaders in that day don't like it because it starts drawing tremendous attention to this movement of Jesus. And so these religious leaders, they detain Paul, I mean, Peter and John. And this is what the religious leaders decide. Acts, chapter four, verse 17. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them. So this is the religious leaders warning Peter and John to speak no more to anyone in this name. So they called Peter and John and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them. Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. We can't help it. I know you're telling us that we shouldn't talk about Jesus, but because of what we've seen and heard of, we can't stop talking about it. Like, I know that you would say, just cease and desist. And they're like, we can't help it. And so much of our proclamation falls short of that because so much of our desire to share the gospel is a. I have to share the gospel. And that's not a big why, guys. It's not a big enough why to keep you going, I have to do this. And I think it even moves past, like, well, I get to do this. If you can move from I have to to I get to because it's a privilege to do it. To talk about Jesus, that's awesome. But I think Peter and John actually take it a step further. It's not I have to talk about Jesus. It's not even I get to talk about Jesus. But they're saying, I can't help but talk about Jesus because of what we've experienced. I can't help but talk about it. It is incredible news, and I can't help but talk about it because this is what devotion to God looks like. But I think so often in our lives we fail to speak about Jesus because we haven't spent any time with Jesus. There is no Jesus to overflow out of his mouth because our hearts and souls are empty. It's not a big enough why to just say, I have to, or even I get to. But wouldn't you love to get to a place where, like, man, I've spent so much time experiencing the Lord that I can't help but talk about it. I can't help it. Now, I think most people in this room this morning, you would go, yeah, I believe. I believe in the Lord. So why is it such a struggle? Like, what does this devotion to God really look like? Let's go to verse 14, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus, will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence again, let me remind you of this context, that death is at work in Paul's life. He is dying to himself regularly for the glory of God. I'm going to put my agenda, my life here and now, like Jake talked about last week, my life here and now. I'm going to keep dying to that so that God would be glorified. But death is at work among him and his ministry partners and in the church in Corinth. So what does he say? I believe, therefore I spoke, knowing there was a knowledge that he had, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us. It wasn't just this intellectual knowledge about Goddesse. It was knowing the truth of the resurrection that drove his speaking about God. Truth about the resurrection. This was the reason that Paul continued to be bold in his ministry, because Jesus rose from the dead. There you go. One person gets it right. Jesus Rose from the dead. This is amazing news, guys. That's why Paul's like, yeah, I'm going to die every day. But guess what? Jesus Rose. Jesus Rose. I'm gonna keep talking about it. This is the good news. Not simply that Jesus died for our sins, but he rose to give us new life. And Paul said it this way earlier in the first letter to the Corinthians, that we have first corinthians at the end of it, chapter 15. This is what he says about the resurrection, just this gospel. Now, I would remind you so this is what he is wanting to remind this church of. I want to remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. So I want to remind you, Corinthians, of something, and this is of first importance, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried. And he doesn't stop there, does he? Because this good news of first importance is that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. This is the good news. Jesus died for us, and he rose to give us new life. But if you want to be unmotivated, to share your gospel, forget the resurrection part, because you can go to a lost friend one day and you can say, hey, Jesus died for your sins. That's great. That's a good thing for you to do. All right. But what if your lost friend looks at you and says, great. I really like my life, though, and you've just proclaimed the death of Jesus. Well, Paul is saying there's something more. It's not that Jesus just died for your sins, but he rose to give you a better life than the life that you think you really like, than the sinful life that you think is fulfilling and satisfying. He died for that life, and he rose to give you a new life. Like, what greater motivation? Now, please don't hear me saying that the crucifixion is not important, all right? The crucifixion is extremely important. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of our sins. Without Christ's death, we don't get his righteousness. So the crucifixion is important. But for Paul here, he says, I don't just know the crucifixion, but I want to know about the resurrection. I want to know about Jesus rising from the dead. And this knowledge about the resurrection is what's motivating him more than just knowledge about God, because I think oftentimes we go, man, if I just knew more, I would go talk about Jesus more. If I just were more equipped and better trained and had more knowledge about God, then I would go talk to my kids about the gospel. Now, I think that is true on a lot of levels. I think that's a great excuse on a lot of levels, too, because Paul's not saying I need more knowledge about God. He's like knowing the resurrection, knowing that Jesus rose from the dead. That's why I'm going to go talk about Jesus, not because I have this great head knowledge of incredible theology. Now we're going to teach theology. We're going to teach you how to share the gospel. We're going to do all those things. We're not stopping equipping you like, that's our role as church leaders from Ephesians chapter four, to equip the saints for the works of service. We're going to continue to equip you to do that. But we could do all the greatest equipping in the world, and if you miss the resurrection, you're not going to talk about Jesus. I was talking to a former pastor just this week, and he was talking about when he was at his church and pastoring this church, how he wanted his church to proclaim Jesus. He wanted them to share the gospel with those that didn't know the gospel. And he would often, like, gather them together and they would go through all these different books, the newest book about how to share the gospel and this church, they did all these things. But he said he still struggled, the church still struggled to share the gospel. They had been trained over and over and over, but still struggled to share the gospel, because we can have a lot of knowledge about a lot of things, but if we miss the miracle of the resurrection, it's going to be a struggle for us to proclaim Jesus. You gotta find a deeper motivation. And the motivation is, I believe this, and I believe in the power of the resurrection. And what does that knowledge bring, though, back to verse 14, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence? So it's not simply a knowledge of Christ's past resurrection. There's a hope in a future resurrection because of that. There's a hope in a future resurrection. Paul's going, guys, you want to know why I continue to be bold, even when you question it? Because I believe that because of the resurrection, one day, me and you, we're going to be in the presence of God together. There's hope. There's hope in a future resurrection where we share in Jesus resurrection with new bodies that are imperishable, and they're glorious and powerful and transformed, and that doesn't happen without the resurrection of Jesus. So, like, what's going to motivate us to tell people about Jesus, this resurrection that brings us great hope, this devotion to God, this anchored in resurrection, hope that's not anchored in what this life brings? You imagine it this way. Imagine you're a parent, and you decide, I'm going to take a kid to a sporting event. Football season. We'll just go with football. You take your kid to the football game, and your team, after three quarters, is down three touchdowns, and they cannot move the ball. And it's just bad, all right? And you just. I'm not, like, trying to say anything about an offense. I'm nothing. But it's bad, okay? Some of you are like, I don't get football. I don't even know what he's talking about. That's good. You're better off for it. So your team's down. You're like, they're not coming back. And all you can think of is if we get out after this next drive, because I know they're not going to score. We can beat traffic on the way home, and we can get to bed at a decent hour, right? And you look to your kid and like, hey, if they don't score on this drive, we're gonna head out so we can get home early. And your kid looks at you like you have lost your mind. What? There is still hope, dad, we can do this. But there's traffic, too, right? Like, that's what dad might be thinking, because it doesn't matter what's going on right now. And I know it's hard, it's awful. But let me tell you, there's still hope. We're going to stick this out. And if your motivation to share the gospel is just a focus on what's going on in this world, it's going to fall short. But if you go, man, Jesus resurrected, now I have a chance to participate in this resurrection. There's hope. I'm going to tell you about that. We're not leaving this game early. No way. No way. But you want to be unmotivated to share the gospel. Just focus on the here and now, like Jake talked about last week. Just focus on the suffering and the pain and the affliction. Because what that's going to do is make you want to crawl into a hole or get really angry. But we're not people marked by this life here and now. We are people marked with a gospel hope and a future resurrection. And that's why we keep talking about it. In fact, in one Corinthians 15, we read the first four verses. I would encourage you this week to read that whole chapter because there are incredible implications of the resurrection. I'm just going to summarize a few of them from one corinthians 15. If Jesus doesn't rise from the dead and there's no future resurrection, Paul says, our preaching is in vain. Our faith is in vain, our faith is futile. We are still in our sins. And if that doesn't happen, we hope in this life. And if we just hope in this life, Paul says it himself, we are to be pitied. If your hope is in this life and this life alone and Jesus doesn't rise from the dead, we are pitiful. There's not just, like some harsh words for me. Paul is saying this to this same church. The resurrection has major implications, guys. You cannot miss it. Christ, Rose. We have hope. Our faith is not in vain. And our speaking about God matters, guys, let that fuel your proclamation for God. But there's more motivation for Paul. Look at the beginning of verse 15. For it is all for your sake, all the sum of Paul's ministry, all this, all this bold proclamation, all this dying and death, it is all for the Corinthians sake. He says. He says it's to your benefit that I'm doing this. It's to your advantage that I'm doing this. Why? Because he loves them. He loves the Corinthians. He cares enough about them to tell them the good news of the gospel, it wasn't simply something he believed. It wasn't simply this knowledge of Christ's past resurrection. It wasn't simply a hope and a future resurrection where they would be together in God's presence. But he said, I did all this for your sake because I love you. But so many of us, like our proclamation efforts, aren't marked by a lack of, aren't marked by a love for others, but by a love for ourselves. A love for ourselves. Like, imagine if you went to your spouse and you're like, hey, I'm going to give you a hug today because I have to. How love does your spouse feel? Not very. Right? Hey, I'm going to serve you today because if I don't, I'm going to feel really guilty, like, that doesn't feel very loving, right? But isn't that how our gospel proclamation efforts often think? Well, I'm obligated. I guess I got to do this, God, or I guess if I don't do this, I'm going to feel really bad about myself. Paul goes, no, no, no. You're missing it. You're missing it. I love you. That's why I'm going to tell you great news. But we are often way more concerned about how we feel or the fear that we may have or the rejection that we may experience. And all of our insecurities come up and they bubble to the surface because we really love us. And Paul is going, wait a second. No, no, no. I don't love me. I love you. And that's when I'm going to tell you the good news. This is the deeper motivation to talk about God with our spouse and with our kids and with our neighbors and strangers. There's such deeper motivation than I have to or I'm going to feel bad if I don't. But there's more. Let's read all of verse 15 for it is all for your sake. So that, so this is the purpose. So that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. What is the purpose of proclaiming and speaking about God? So that grace, God's unmerited favorite, the favor that we never deserved, and he poured it out onto us, onto us in abundance through Jesus, this grace, Paul's hope is that this grace would extend or spread dynamically to more and more and more people because we will not be motivated to talk about Jesus if we are apathetic toward grace. We will not be motivated to talk about Jesus if we are apathetic about grace. If it's not a big deal to you, you're not going to talk about it. Right? We do this often in life, or we don't do this often in life. I guess, like, you don't wake up in the morning, I don't wake up in the morning. I get my clothes on, tie my shoes, go wake my kids up and say, kids, good morning. Guess what? I just tied my shoes and they're gonna go, cool, dad. Great. I'm glad you can do that. Me too. Right? Cause you don't just talk about ordinary things in life. You don't come home from work and say, honey, I had the best day. I sent an email today. I actually sent 50 of them. And she's gonna look and be like, cool. That's great. Welcome to the world. Right? Cause we don't talk about just ordinary things in life. If you think you earned your salvation, that's pretty ordinary. If God graciously gave your salvation to you when you had nothing to offer him, that's amazing news that you talk about, right? But I think we often fail to talk about the Lord because we fell to recognize grace. We fail to recognize the grace that elected us when we couldn't cast a vote for ourselves. We often fail to recognize the grace that declared us righteous when the sentence upon our life was unrighteous. We fell to recognize the grace that redeemed us when we were ashamed and guilty, the grace that adopted us as sons when we were enslaved to sin, the grace that reconciled us back to God when we were far away from him. And we will not share the grace of God with others if we fail to recognize that grace is the only thing that makes us alive when we were dead in our sins and trespasses. Like, those are incredible gospel truths that we see all throughout the New Testament, all throughout all of scripture. Like, these are incredible things, but we've made it ordinary, so we don't talk about it, but we talk about extraordinary, amazing things in life. Two Thursdays ago, I got a text, like, after 09:00 one night from my mom, who lives in South Carolina. And I was like, what's going on? Why? She texted me this late, right? And she was like, look at this picture that your brother just sent me, who lives five minutes away of the northern lights that we just saw. I lived for 22 years in South Carolina. I never saw the northern lights. I've never seen the northern lights before this night. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Like, I love creation. I love all that God does. You gotta be kidding that my mom and my brother in South Carolina are seeing the northern lights. So what do I do? I, like, the kids are all in bed. Erica, I think, is, like, reading, like, half asleep upstairs, maybe. I jump in my car. I just take off. If they can see this, I can see this, right? So I'm driving up, going past, like, hunters ridge golf course, and, like, the last streetlight goes out. And I look and I can see this faint, like, green in the sky. It was awesome. I got, like, giddy. All right, so I get so giddy that I turn my lights off while I'm driving because I want to see it better. It was a terrible idea. So I turned them on really quick. Again, nobody was injured in the process. So go. And I'm like, this is going to be amazing. I get all past county home road, finds this dirt road. I pull off on the side. I jump out of the car, and I look up in the sky, and it's awesome. It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. I take three pictures. I was probably there for a minute. Now everybody else is in bed. I could have been there for another hour. But I jump back in the car immediately call Erica. You've got to see this. It's awesome. And she knows I was shaking. Giddy. This is amazing. Because you look at it, it's cool. Then you take a picture of it, and you're like, oh, that's really cool. I couldn't see that, but it was incredible. I call her, go wake up Jeremy right now. I know he's asleep. You need to get him in the car. You guys are going to go, and you're going to see the northern lights. So I get home, they're like, sleepy. Standing in the driveway. I don't even turn off the car. They jump in the car. I go in, because we got three other ones sleeping at home. And then, like, while they drive there, I'm sitting. I start. I text Sam Anderson. I was like, sam, you can probably see this from your, like, front porch, like, where you live. He goes, I was, I'm in Arkansas. Don't you remember? He was like, for a wedding. I was like, shoot, I can't even make, like, like, logical thoughts right now because I'm so excited. I text four of my neighbors. I mean, we're talking 939 45 at this point. You got to see this. This is spectacular. I text my mom, look at my picture. It's better than South Carolina, right? I'm just so excited. I'm so excited. Erica calls me about ten minutes later, hey, we don't see anything. It's like, ugh, you gotta be kidding me. But it was so amazing because we don't talk about ordinary things. But when you've experienced the extraordinary grace of God, you can't help but talk about it. You can't help but talk about it. Think the northern lights are cool? Let me tell you about a resurrected savior. Let me tell you about somebody that died for your sins and rose to give you new life. That is incredible news. Why would we keep it to ourselves? This is amazing news, guys. And the hope is that it would increase Thanksgiving. More grace shows more gratitude to our God. More grace shows more gratitude. But Paul doesn't stop there, for it is all for your sake. So that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving. To the glory of God. We talk about Jesus to the glory of God. We don't want to put ourselves on display. No, we want to put God's holiness on display. We want to put all his great perfections on display to our children and to our spouse and to our neighbors and our coworkers and our friends and our family. That's what we want to do. So that he would be glorified, so that his fame would spread. Because we've made sharing the gospel all about the glory of us and not the glory of God. And, guys, there is nothing less motivating. If you're motivated by your comfort, you're not gonna keep sharing the gospel. Your comfort and your reputation and your popularity. We're not gonna keep sharing the gospel. But if you see a grander vision of man, I love these people, and I want them to experience the grace of God. And my hope would be that would then in turn lead to thanksgiving. That would in turn lead to the glory of Goddess. You want to be faithful, more faithful. To talk about Jesus, make it about the glory of God. Make it about the glory of God. He is the ultimate goal. Now, notice what Paul does here. Sometimes I think our ultimate goal is that one day we might get to see our loved ones and be in the presence of God. That is a great hope. Paul said that what happens the day that your loved ones that you share the gospel with don't respond in faith. Jesus still worth it. Our ultimate goal cannot simply be that one day we might see somebody in heaven in the presence of God. Our ultimate goal has to be the glory of God. There's a hope that one day that might happen. But if you're putting your, like, everything into that basket, that's going to leave you falling short as well. Put the glory of God on display. Devotion to God results in speaking about God all to the glory of God. Guys, I want you to just consider that what that could look like if every person, even in this room, not even talking about the other services, every person in this room who says, no, I believe in Jesus and I've experienced this, and we find deeper motivation and a more glorious vision. That means you go talk to your kids in the car line, at mealtimes, at bedtime, you talk to them about the Lord. You talk to your spouse about the Lord. You talk to your neighbors about the Lord because you have hope, you've experienced grace, and you love them. Imagine you talking to your kid about the gospel, and then imagine somebody else in this room has your child in kids ministry on a Sunday morning, and that person is really passionate about the glory of God and talks to your kid about Jesus. And then they get older and they go to youth ministry, and you're a youth volunteer, and you start talking about Jesus and God's fame begins to spread. And then they go to salt company, and there are college students on their campus that are going to proclaim Jesus. They have no idea how many conversations about Jesus have occurred up until this point. And then what if that person responds in faith, they're discipled. And they go, you know what? God's calling me to? God is calling me to go to a place that has never heard about Jesus. And they go tell people about Jesus. They've never heard the name of Jesus, but God used faithful people, like all of you all along the way, that have experienced the grace of God and that overflowed and overflowed to the ends of the earth for the glory of God. That's what we want to be about. Amen. Let's pray. Father, please help us never to make this life about us. May it all be about your glory and your glory alone. And God, we know that there are places where you are not being worshiped in this world. And Lord, I pray that gospel seeds would continue to be planted in our kids ministry, in youth ministry, in salt company, and in car rides and at mealtimes and at bedtimes. I pray these gospel conversations would happen across the fence to the neighborhood. They would happen on our lunch breaks. God, please give us a deeper motivation. Help us to keep this glorious vision of you being glorified everywhere at the forefront of our devotion. Please, God. In Jesus name, amen.