- Well, good morning.

- [Congregation] Good morning.

- Good Morning. Thank you for joining us this morning. My name is Seth Fagerland I am joy and privileged of serving as one of the pastors here at Rockpoint, and it is just so good to see you all here this morning. As Anna just shared, like, we want to know who you are. So if you are new with us, a special welcome to you. And if you've not, I know the challenge sometimes of getting connected, join us, connect in the Next Moves booth out in the gathering area even now. Or if you are online, welcome. If you're watching us online or a future YouTube version of somebody, welcome. But there's people online that we wanna connect with you as well, so please, we want to know who you are as we seek to multiply disciples in a healthy church. Well, we will be in II Timothy chapter two this morning, so if you want to start turning there, you can. We'll get there in a little bit. Well, one of the fun things I get to do whenever I get a chance to speak is to kind of embarrass myself a little bit more and let you know who I am, 'cause that's the best way to help you is to embarrass myself. No, just kidding. No, it's just to say, hey, this is just what I've experienced in life. And so something a lot of you don't know about me is that I actually used to do triathlons. Long time ago. I know, like what happened, right? Like dad bod, right? Let's just uh, let it go. But it's all right. No, I enjoyed them. This was years ago. This was back when in my single days and I wanted to be healthy. But I came across this. I started training with a friend and did these for six years. And I found this weird satisfaction in, obviously, the amount of time and pain it caused my body. But what I loved about it was it was never about how fast I was or winning anything. That was not why I did them. I did them because I started something hard and I wanted to finish. I was motivated. I was driven to have that goal in front of me saying, you know what, that's what I want to do is I want to cross that finish line. Now, I think we're all this way. No, I'm not saying we're all enjoy, like, biking, swimming, and running. That sounds like torture to, I think, most people right? It's what I thought before I started doing these. But I think all of us are wired this way. And we have this thing in front of us that we are willing to be driven by. We're willing to try hard. We're willing to work hard for. We're willing to put in the effort so that someday, someday we may get the thing at the end of the finish line. Some examples. I work with students. I work with high school students, so especially this time of year graduation is just, like, just staring our seniors in the face, which is a good thing. They're like, I just, I just got to get to graduation. Like, they're ready to get there and be ready to be done. But this is, they know it's not the finish line of all finish lines. They know there's way more to life, but there is this sense of like, hey, I did that. Hey, I, almost like I finished this season of life. I'm no longer this kid. I'm becoming this adult. So this graduation finish line is a big thing in front of our students. Maybe for you it is a sport. Maybe you played sports back in the day. Maybe you're just a big sports fan. Maybe your bracket is busted, like most people's. Like, we enjoy getting into sports and things like that because, what is it? Yes, we enjoy the regular season, but when does it get exciting? The playoffs. And then especially the championship time when they're, and even before that, there was all the practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. And you did that so that your team and yourself would be the best that you could be when, what, when it mattered, when you actually wanted the thing that you were going for, the big trophy at the end. Snow is melted. Amen. There's so many of you green thumbs out there that just can't wait to get into the soil and to till the ground, and fertilize, and water, and hours upon hours, and the dirty knees, and the scratched up hands, and the sore back. For what? To hold those vegetables. To pick those flowers. To have people gather around your table and to enjoy something that you worked so hard for. You find great satisfaction in that. Or there's so many examples from work, right? We all have to work. And, yes, we're all driven either by ourselves or people above us with goals, and benchmarks, and profit margins, and quarter reports, and end-of-year reviews. And even at the end of all that is what? Retirement, right? When we get to do something else. Hopefully, right? We are driven people. We were made this way. And it's good. I think God has something in mind when he wired us to have something bigger than ourselves driving us to motivate for, to work for. And even if you find either yourself or people you know that might be more aimless or more lethargic in life, I think even that is evidence that this is true. To not have something that is driving your life I think is evidence that we were made to be driven, right? We are driven people. But the question I want us to ask this morning is: What or who is driving your life? I believe we were made to be driven. We were made to have this overarching thing, I think, motivating our lives. A finish line of some sort that we are, have a trajectory of our life. But what is it that we are driving towards I think is important. And so in our passage today, I believe we will discover more of a deeper meaning of what or who we were designed to be driven towards. And with that in mind, would you pray with me? Lord Jesus, open our eyes that we may see the wonderful things in your Word. And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Well, we are in II Timothy chapter two. We're continuing this series called "Multiplying Disciples." Our mission statement here at Rockpoint, multiply new disciples in a healthy church. So let's pick up where we left off last week. So we'll be in verse eight, II Timothy chapter two. "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, "the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, "for which I am suffering, "bound with chains as a criminal. "But the word of God is not bound! "Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect "that they also may obtain the salvation "that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. "The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, "we will also live with him; if we endure, "we will also reign with him; if we deny him, "he will also deny us; if we are faithless, "he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself." This is the Word of the Lord. Let's look at this passage in, in its just short five, or a handful of verses. I want to look in, like, three sections this morning. Okay, let's go back to verses eight and nine, all right? Paul starts off by saying, "Remember Jesus Christ." Remember Jesus Christ. Now, can we remind ourselves that Christ was not Jesus's last name. Right? We say it so often. We grew up saying it. We hear people say it in a bad way. We just always start to assume first name Jesus, last name Christ, right? It's just something that is just, we get sometimes, but we forget that Christ was not Jesus's last name. Christ was a title. It was a position. It was actually a promise that God had made. And so today is Palm Sunday, right? I forgot to say that at the beginning, but happy Palm Sunday. It's a great day, right, but to remember what took place on this day. We so often forget Palm Sunday sometimes because we know, okay, Good Friday's coming. We know Easter Sunday's coming. We tend to jump to the end because we know what's coming. Right? We know the end. Well, the end of the story, the end of the events. But Palm Sunday did take place. So do you remember what happened? Here Jesus, Matt referenced it during the worship time, Jesus riding in on a foal of a donkey, but he's coming into Jerusalem at the time of the Passover Feast. And Jerusalem, which at best was maybe, you know, 80,000, 100,000 people, swelled to well over one to two million. Just became a huge, like, it spilled out of the city. People gathered just out in the, on the surrounding area, you know pitching tents and makeshift groups of people as best as they could. This massive crowd had gathered for the most important time of the year for the Jewish people, and that was Passover. And here Jesus comes in on the foal of the donkey. People are grabbing these palm branches. And remember what they were shouting? Hoshana, Hoshana, or Hosanna we say, which literally means, save us now, save us now. They wanted this Christ, this Messiah who they thought it was gonna be to come in and set them free from their Roman oppressors and set them up to thrive abundantly on this earth. That's what they wanted. That's what they were desperately looking for, this promised Christ that God has said he would come and fix everything that got broken. And in less than a week, this same crowd that was shouting, "Save us now," was shouting, "Crucify him," because Jesus wasn't who they thought he should be for them. You see what the crowd missed was that the promised King, this promised Messiah, this promised Christ that was gonna come, who was gonna descend from King David, wasn't going to set them free from just those earthly oppressors. It wasn't just about beating up the Romans and putting themselves back at the top of the food chain where everybody just flourished with all the money and things that they could ever imagine. That's what they thought. No, the descendant of King David was gonna set them free from the spiritual oppressors of their hearts, which was sin, and set them up to flourish and abundantly thrive, not just on earth, but for eternity with God. You see, the Old Testament makes sense when we actually see it as one storyline. That God had made this promise from the beginning, right after Adam and Eve, and he had to kick them out of the Garden of Eden. He said but one day I'm gonna send somebody who's gonna fix everything that's broken, and he's gonna bring you home. What two people long for heaven more than Adam and Eve who had it and lost it? And you can bet things got passed on. A descendant would say, "Don't forget, God promised. "Don't forget, God promised. "Don't forget, God promised." And Jesus was the promised one. And he did take our place as the substitute for the payment of our sin that was in our hearts, that did separate us from our eternal home with God. And Jesus defeated not only sin on the cross, but he defeated death itself. Which is why Paul says, "Remember Jesus Christ, "risen from the dead." So he's the living one, but he's also the offspring of David. He is this forever King on the throne of heaven, victorious, which is why Paul also says in I Corinthians 15, he says, "Where, oh death, is your victory? "Where, oh death, is your sting?" So often we think that death is that final finish line that defines our life. And Paul says death doesn't have that power. Death isn't the final thing. There is so much more. Which is why verse 56 of I Corinthians 15 he says, "The sting of death is sin. "The power of sin is the law. "But thanks be to God. "He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." My friends, this is not a religion. This is not an idea. This is not morality. This is not a system of belief that we say, "Oh, I believe those things." This is a person, a living being. So why did Paul say, "Timothy, remember Jesus Christ"? Do you think Timothy forgot? Well, maybe. Like, you and I tend to forget, right? Sometimes our connection to what was when Jesus was so real in our lives, we tend to forget that. But more so I think, why did Paul say, "Hey Timothy, remember Jesus Christ," could it be that the circumstances that Paul found himself in kind of showed something else? He showed his chains. It showed that, hey, Timothy could have been tempted to think like, hey, maybe Jesus isn't who he said he was. Maybe Jesus isn't that good King who's in control of everything, that is ultimately gonna take care of us. I'm guessing Paul at the end of his life had to say, "Timothy, remember Jesus Christ," because he reminds him, the one that he's proclaimed his gospel, for which I am suffering, I am bound with chains as a criminal. My friends, to whatever degree you have chosen to trust and follow Jesus with your life, eventually, in big ways or small ways, our circumstances will change. And we will be challenged to, what we really believe that Jesus was who he said he was. 'Cause again, eventually it's some type, a chains moment comes in your life. And I'm not saying that you're gonna be arrested and thrown in prison. I'm saying there's gonna come a moment in your life where you're gonna be like, whoa I didn't sign up for this. Wait, wait, wait, this, this, this wasn't, this wasn't the way things are supposed to be. This is, this is not the way things are supposed to go. I said yes to Jesus. I said Jesus is King of my life. And look, look at my life. Does this reflect that Jesus is good? Does this reflect that Jesus is King? That he's in control? Which is why Paul mentions, Hey Timothy, remember my chains. But then he proclaims to Timothy, "But the Word of God is not bound." But the Word of God is not bound, which immediately made me think of this verse in Hebrews four. Hebrews 4:12 it says, "For the Word of God is living "and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, "piercing to the division of the soul and of the spirit, "of joints and of marrow, discerning the thoughts "and the intentions of the heart." Yes, the Word of God is our Bibles, but the Word of God is a person, it is Jesus. Which is why John starts off his gospel with, "In the beginning was the Word. "And the word was with God. "And the word was God." When we engage with God's Word, we are encountering Jesus himself and we allow him to pierce that part of us that only he can go to. That place that gets down to the intentions and even the motivations of our heart before we even act, and we have these emotions that usually cause our actions, there is this place, this thought, this intentions, these motivations of, inside of us, what we think is truly real, what we think is true, what we think is most good. Because that's what we respond to. That's what we react to. That's what our actions come from. And if we allow Jesus to go to that place inside of us, He will reveal to us what is truly driving us, what we truly believe will satisfy that longing of our hearts. And that's not just for us individually. It's meant for other people. Which is why Paul says in verse 10, he says, "Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect "that they also may obtain the salvation "that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." Endure. Endure. When we remember Jesus Christ rightly, we can begin to see our circumstances for the sake of others. 'Cause yes, circumstances will come. Hard times will come. It is part of living on this earth this side of glory, my friends. Usually what happens when things get hard, we tend to zero in on ourselves and say, why me, or what do I need to do to get rid of this, because it is never fun. But Paul quickly says in those moments it's not just about what God's doing in you. What's God doing in you for the sake of other people? Because so often God uses those broken moments to help and reach other people. Enduring is required when things get hard. When we have to endure, in those practice moments, when things get hurt, when things hurt, we have to endure. Why? Because I believe when we endure, it reveals that deeper thing that we're actually driving towards. I believe when we have to endure harder things, whether it is just time, or pain, or whatever it is, what gets revealed in us is that deeper longing of our hearts, what we think we really want. And our God is a redeeming God, friends. He is holy, he's without sin, so God never causes sin, and he never tempts with sin, but God can redeem brokenness. And there are so many great lines in that worship song we sang, "Graves into Gardens," so good. Our God is a redeeming God. What is Paul saying here? He is saying that when we remember who Jesus really is, it not only inflows into our lives and is everything that we need, but it overflows into the world around us and especially those that are closest to us, our family, our friends, where we live, where we work, where we play. What spills out over us spills into those relationships. And God says that's what I'm doing in a bigger thing, that phrase. And he says that, so that others may obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory, and that phrase gripped me as I prepared for our time together. Eternal glory. 'Cause it got me thinking, like, it's important to remember, again, what words mean. Because we're, language changes over time, right? Based upon culture and events, words tend to change meaning as you go along, which is why it's important for us to go back and say, "Well what did that word mean "when they used it in that context?" And yes, that takes a little effort and a little more work for us. We can't just always Google and say, "What does glory mean?" Because when I Googled "What does glory mean?" it says something, it says, it says this. It says: "glory means a high renown or honor "won by notable achievements, "or something that has magnificence or great beauty," which I found incredibly interesting. Because if it is something that can come about through my achievement or if it comes about through a quality that I possess, like beauty, then based on that definition, glory can be, either fade or it can be taken away. Because what if I can't achieve it anymore? And what if my inherent beauty changes? Jokes later, all right? All right. See, glory changes. Like, it can, it can fade away. Whereas the word glory here in the Bible has several nuanced meanings based upon the context which was used. Because obviously when we talk about the glory that God has, that's different than the glory that we have, right? Which is why I want us to zero in here. Here in this passage, the word glory means an exalted state or most glorious condition of blessedness which is promised for true believers in Jesus to fully enter after his return from heaven. Now, I don't usually do rapid-fire verses in a sermon, I think, 'cause sometimes you're turning so fast, you're like, "Wait, which one was that?" and you're trying to cheat on your neighbor's notes of what they wrote down, right? So I included all these in your sermon notes so you don't have to frantically write them down, but what I want, I felt like I wanted to just fire away on some verses of the use of that word glory so that we hear what God is saying through this. Romans 8:18: "For I consider that our sufferings "of this present time are not worth comparing "with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Romans 9:23: "In order to make known the riches of his glory "for vessels of mercy, "which he has prepared beforehand for glory." II Corinthians 4:17: "For this light, momentary affliction "is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory "beyond all comparison." Colossians 1:27: "To them, God chose to make known "how great among the Gentiles are the riches "of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, "the hope of glory." Colossians 3:4: "When Christ, who is your life, "appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Here's our verse, II Timothy 2: "Therefore, endure everything for the sake of the elect "that they may also obtain the salvation "that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." And this is not just a future thing. See, when we hear eternal, we think, Oh, I go to heaven when I die. Eternity starts the moment you say yes to Jesus. He makes you a new creation that will never die. The old is gone. The new has come. You are now a living creature that will live forever, which is why II Corinthians 3:18 says, "And we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory "of the Lord are being transformed," being, right now, transformed, "into the same image from one degree of glory to another. "For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit." This word for glory, it's meaningful. Meaning it matters. There's so many things in life that at the end of the day, they just don't matter. They don't. It satisfies. God has wired you with these core desires in your heart. You cannot change that. You are a human being. God gave you desires to only find satisfaction in him because nothing else can truly satisfy. There's no other ultimate thing. And the best part? It lasts. You don't need to do the new thing the next time, or you need to achieve it again, or you need to keep striving to keep it. It lasts, which is why Paul says that it's an eternal glory. So right here is the litmus test for the things that ultimately, ultimately drive us. And I say ultimately because those other things that I mentioned are totally fine. It is great to be involved in those. I wish, I wish I had the time to unpack how each of those things, the graduation, the sports, the gardening, and even work, God made us for those things. And we find actually deeper truths of who we are, who He is if we peel back the layers of what is actually going on in each of those that truly points us to who He is. But I say ultimate things because those things in and of themselves are not ultimate things. Because are they meaningful? Well, yeah, they're meaningful. But are they the ultimate meaningful things? Do they satisfy? Yeah. We find satisfaction in them for a time. But then we gotta keep going, we gotta keep going. And does it last? Graduations pass. Trophies collect dust. Weeds come back next year. And work seems to never stop. But most importantly, where does real glory come from? Which brings us to our last section and our passage starting in verse 11. "The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, "we will also live with him; "if we endure, we will also reign with him; "if we deny him, he will also deny us; "if we are faithless, he remains faithful, "for he cannot deny himself." When Paul says "this saying is trustworthy," we don't know exactly where the saying came from, but it seems to be, and I think the agreement has been, that it was some form of doxology that was used in the churches that at least Timothy would have been familiar with. It was great, I mean, we sang a doxology maybe many of you grew up singing every, single Sunday. "Praise God from who all his blessings flow." These things that we just repeat to ourselves again, and again, and again so that it's in us. So we remember it, right? But he says, he goes in and he says, "If we have died with him, we will also live with him, "if we endure, we will also reign with him "in the new heavens and the new earth." My friends, it is Passion Week. It is our biggest event of the year. It is the thing that is at the center of what we believe. This is a great week to remind ourselves of who he is and who he says we are. I encourage you this week, do extra effort, maybe out of your normal rhythm of things, to put yourself in a place to remind yourself. Because we get caught up in our habits of just living life and we don't even think about it. And even some of those things can be good of even reading your Bible plan and maybe even praying at certain times of the day. That's great. But unless we take the intentional effort to remember, and I encourage you, I encourage you not only for your sake, but for your family, for your friends, come back and join us on Good Friday. We do need to remember the cross. Join us for one of the Easter celebration services. There's one on Saturday, a couple on Sunday, or three on Sunday to remember. And this is a great time. It is a great time to invite. So that not only you remind yourselves of the true, everlasting life that is found only in Jesus for you, but also for the sake of others. Overflow into their lives, as well. But then Paul says something really hard. He says, "If we deny him, he will deny us." Freedom is a good thing. Yeah? Freedom is a good thing. And I wanted to put this up here. This is a great video. You can find it. Just Google "Is God good?" And I want to show you the image so that you actually clicked on the right video and not some other, there's some crazy videos out there, right? But this, this was a quick little video that you can find. I love it. It's "Is God Good?" and it's talking about this thing of is God good? And we talked through freedom. It says that humans are to be free, but they cannot be forced to obey God because freedom without choice is a logical contradiction and they cannot coexist. God didn't want robots. He wants real people, which means that we have a choice to say yes to him or to say no to him. Now, God is responsible for the fact of freedom, meaning he designed us to have freedom. But humans, you, me, we're responsible for the acts of freedom, what we do with our freedom. You see, real love, again, ooh, I wish I had a whole sermon just to talk about this, how love is being changed in its definition in our culture more than ever before, real love is being absolutely committed to the good of somebody else, even if it costs you. That's real love. And God, being fully committed to real love, was willing to allow us to have the ability to deny him. Because God wants real love he was willing to allow us the ability to deny him, which means the cost is that he will deny us. God will not force you to love him. 'Cause the moment love is forced, it is no longer love. And then he says, "If we are faithless, "he remains faithful." Now, I took this to be distinct from denying him because that's what he just covered. So I took this a little different in where I think Paul was going with this. He says, he says, "If we are faithless, "he remains faithful." So when Paul says that, I took that to mean when we have very, very little faith, when we have less faith, which reminded me of this, okay? Some of you will be like, what is that, right? Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which is one of the tiniest of all seeds. And when it's planted, it grows into a tree that then bears, not only bears fruit, but it becomes this place that all kinds of birds can gather. I mean, he was trying to help them understand that the kingdom was not gonna come the way that they thought it was gonna come, not the way that they expected. It was gonna start as a small, small seed and grow into something monumental. But why didn't Jesus use a bigger seed? Right? Why, why couldn't he say, and yes, I did Google "What is the world's largest seed?" Okay, this is the coco de mer from the palm tree, the world's largest seed. You can fact check me later, okay? But why didn't he start with that, right? We live in a world where, you know, return on investment, if you start with something small, you get this later. But you started something big, you look what you get later, right? Why didn't Jesus say, well, why didn't you start with the coco de mer seed? Right? I believe what Jesus was trying to say is there's something very truth, very important about faith that he wanted us to know. And it was this: it's not the size or the quantity of your faith that matters, but the object of your faith is what matters. It's not how much faith you have, but who your faith is in that matters. It is in a living person. So you've messed up. I don't imagine when people gather at church on a Sunday morning there's people who've got it all together and they said, "Hey, we've arrived. Let's go to church." You've messed up. Maybe you're even here out of whatever motivation or obligation, you feel disqualified. You feel like you're damaged goods. You feel like you have so less faith. My friends, it's not how much faith you have, but who your faith is in. Jesus remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. God's character and his faithfulness are not dependent on our ability to live the Christian life. Let me say that again. Who God is, his character, and his promises, and his faithfulness are not dependent on our ability to live the Christian life, but it's based upon who he is and his promise to us. So what does this all mean for us this morning? Again, we are, we are driven people, and that is a good thing. God made us and declared that we are very good. He made us in His image and designed us for how to live and how he made us. So we are driven people, which means we are driven to a big end, a big finish line. We're working hard knowing that someday we'll get the thing at the end when it's all said and done. And the question we asked earlier is what or who is actually ultimately driving our lives. And I love the truth that we sing together every Sunday. And I, I missed the part earlier in the message, I apologize, but I was talking about the only King forever when we were talking about the descendant of King David, but I also wanted to point to this song, "The Graves and Gardens," right? Sings, I want us to connect to what we sing with this, what we discovering God's Word. It says: I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me. Man's empty praise and treasures that fade are never enough. Then you came along and you put me back together. And every desire is now satisfied here in your love. That sure sounds like eternal glory, doesn't it? It's meaningful. It matters. It satisfies. It lasts. And Paul clearly says, "Remember Jesus Christ." So for us this morning, I believe that God wants us to remember our person-driven life. Yes, we have a purpose-driven life, famous book that came out years ago. Many of you read it, I'm sure. Yes, we have a purpose-driven life, but we have a person-driven life. The reason why we are driven in anything is a glimpse that we were made to be in a relationship with Jesus. He is the ultimate longing of our hearts. And as others have said, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you, that there's this God-shaped void inside of us that only He can fill. And Paul was reminding Timothy of this literally months before Paul himself was gonna be executed. Literally, this like, some of the final words Paul was able to write down was in this book. And he says, "Timothy, remember Jesus Christ." Remember your person-driven life. It is a commitment to something bigger than ourselves. It is a willingness to sacrifice and endure for a greater goal. Not only the eternal glory for yourself, but for the sake of other people, that others may hear of this eternal glory as well, and be a part of it. But it's also ultimately about faithfulness to Jesus who is the object of our faith, even if it comes with a cost. So what do we do? What do we do with this? How do we, how do we remember our person-driven life? I was just in the mood of looking up what words mean, again, to remember is to recall, to bring to one's mind an awareness of someone or something that you have known or experienced in the past. So how do we remind ourselves this week about Jesus? And what came to my mind was this encouragement. In the Gospel of John there's this powerful group of five chapters right in a row, John chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and they're actually one moment. We don't always realize this. It's the moment beginning with the Last Supper and Jesus washing the disciples' feet. And he goes on in John 13, 14, 15, 16, and his prayer in 17, all of that took place before he got betrayed, arrested, tried, crucified, resurrection. So here's what, let me encourage you this week. Sometime later, actually starting today, later today, it'll take five to 10 minutes, but quiet yourself enough, sit down, and I want you to read through John chapter 13. Just do that today. Maybe do this with your family. Maybe do it with friends. But then tomorrow read John chapter 14. Then 15, 16, Thursday read 17. And then Friday, let me encourage you Friday, This will take a little more time, it'll take you just under an hour I'm sure, but set aside enough time and remove the distractions where you can sit down and read John 13 through 17 all at once. It'll take a little bit of time, but put yourself in a place of remembering those final words that Jesus spoke because there was some powerful things in there that he wanted not only those disciples to hear, but he wanted to you to hear. But then come on Friday to the Good Friday service and remember the cross. Come back for Easter and remember the resurrection. But then, my friends, never forget and continue to go after your person-driven life and your relationship with Jesus. Well, as we close our time together, the very first verse that we looked at in verse eight said, "Remember Jesus Christ." And the very next verse at the end of our passage in verse 14, it says, "Now remind each other of these things." Okay? So Eric is gonna come back up. He's gonna come back out and close us in a corporate time of worship together again. But in this moment here, let me let me just say something real quick. When we say, or when we sing the word, amen, it's not the period at the end of the sentence that says we get to go now. Okay? The word amen literally means yes. It means let it be so. It means we agree. We agree. That's what the word amen means. So as we sing this song and as we declare amen, you are declaring not only to yourself, but to your brothers and sisters here at Rockpoint, but to this world yes, we agree, let it be so.

- Thanks Seth. Would you guys stand with me as we sing these words as a prayer at the end of this service? Let's sing these words together. ♪ You are the only King forever ♪ ♪ Almighty God we lift you higher ♪ ♪ You are the only King forever ♪ ♪ Forever more you are victorious ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ God we praise you ♪ ♪ God we praise you ♪