I just want to encourage us that, as we’re finishing this course, we must put on that full armor of God daily, not bits and pieces, the whole armor of God; amen?  "That we might be able," the Scripture says, "to stand in this last day" (Ephesians 6:13).  Having done all to stand, we stand, praise God.

What’s next for the church?  I don’t know.  We already saw what big cowards the churches were during COVID.  There was such little conviction to do the Word of God in adversity.  That was a test for the church.  How did we do?  We have to look at ourselves as individuals and say, “How did I do in the midst of that?”  We all experienced different opportunities to doubt, to fear.  We all faced different opportunities to have to choose how we would respond in the secular realm.  Everybody had to work out their own salvation.  That was such a little thing, I’m talking about for the average individual, as a trial.  The COVID trial was so little.  What did it cost you?  Some of us who got it were asymptomatic.  Didn’t feel anything.  Others got sick.  What are we going to do when the real trials come?

As trials come in the last days, the psalmist tells us He’s going to laugh at the dilemma that they’ve brought upon themselves.  That’s a powerful insight into the person of God.  Let me remind you, God is love and God is just and God is good and God is kind and God is gentle and God is righteous, but the story doesn’t end with God being mocked; amen?  Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He’s Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.  Can we possibly reach a remnant?  Can we let these last days move our hearts to the place where a soul matters?  Maybe more, even, than a raise or a new title or another zero on our account?  Could we ask the Holy Spirit to make real to us the value of a soul?  Can we change our thoughts that we’re under compulsion to have to share with somebody and actually move out of a compassion and a thanksgiving and a remembrance of who came to you?  Somebody brought you the gospel.  Somebody showed us a way out of a devil’s hell.  Somebody showed us the escape from that miserable bondage of loving ourselves and living under the bondage of deifying our thoughts, our goals, our perspectives, and taught us to do it God’s way; amen?  “Here am I; send me.”

Father, we thank You for Your Word, Your life in us.  We thank You for the opportunity to gather and just remind ourselves how great You are, how majestic You are, how holy You are.  Father, I didn’t seek You, I was serving myself.  I was loving myself.  I was consuming life on myself, and You sought me, while I was a sinner, You loved me and died for me.  When I experienced regeneration and found the great Pearl, I would never have let a thought enter that would change my gaze from that great Pearl to another prize, but maybe we’ve been making other investments lately.  Maybe other things have become beautiful to us.  Maybe there’s other things that have become of value.  Things we used to count dung are now looking valuable to us again, instead saying like Paul, "It’s all become dung, that I might win and know You and all of Your excellency."  Remind us of our hearts, where we are today.  By one choice, we can turn ourselves back onto this straight-and-narrow path and allow all of these temptations, all of these weights and sins fall at our feet because of the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.