​The First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday, July 2, 2023)
Rev. Dwayne M. Doyle, Guest Preacher
 
 “The Pearl of Great Price”
1 Kings 3:3-15, Matthew 13:24-52
If you could have anything you wanted in the world, what would you ask for?  And you can’t ask for a million other wishes either.  Would you ask for a long life? Good health? Riches? Wisdom?  To be famous?  Solomon was asked that very question by God after becoming the King of Israel.  He didn’t ask for the things that most people ask for, instead he asked to be able to have good judgment to rule the kingdom that was handed down to him by his father, King David.  God was so impressed with Solomon’s answer that he blessed him with great riches and a long life (with the condition that he followed God’s Commandments), as well as good judgment or wisdom (discernment).  We know that Solomon had great wisdom by those that reported visiting him like the Queen of Sheba.  He also demonstrated his good judgement by how he dealt with difficult situations, like the two mothers who claimed that each one of the other killed their baby in the night, or switched their dead baby for the live baby.  In the morning one of the babies was dead and the other alive.  They brought their case before Solomon who said the answer is, “I will cut the baby in half and give each of you your half”.  The true mother said, “Don’t kill my baby, give my baby to the other woman”.  Solomon reasoned that that was the true mother.  And all Israel marveled at his judgement.  Solomon wrote many of the Proverbs, the Book of Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.  He was known as the wisest, richest kings in all of the world!
Yet Jesus said that in His coming to the world there was something greater than Solomon here.  Matthew 12:42 The Queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon.  Now someone greater than Solomon is here-but you refuse to listen.
The Book of Proverbs speaks about seeking after Wisdom, Sophia, as you would seek after hidden treasure.  Our scripture in the New Testament today is about the Pearl of Great Price.  A man went out to seek for a pearl of great price, when he had found it, he sold all that he had to get it. What would you be willing to do to get wisdom? 
When I was in college, I determined I was going to be like Albert Schweitzer, a great missionary doctor in the deepest parts of Africa.  That plan didn’t work out.  Instead, I began studying the Bible and eventually ended up as a minister.  While in college I determined that if I could spend the rest of my life studying the Bible, and make a living at it, I would be the happiest person in the world.  What is it that you would be willing to sell or give up to have the most important thing in the world?  Some people would say that love is the most important thing to have in the world.  The Apostle Paul said in 1Corinthians 13:1-3 that you might have everything, but if you have not love, you have nothing.
He said, “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.  If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”  How true, how true. 
Love conquers a multitude of sins. And perfect love casts out all fear.  Where would we be without love?  And Paul concludes, three things will last forever: faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love.  1 Cor. 13:13.
Maybe we should ask what or who is Wisdom.  If we are talking about knowledge, or intellect, or common sense, we may not be looking for what we should really be looking for. 
Proverbs 2:1-12:  “My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.  Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.  Search for them as you would for hidden treasures.  For the LORD grants wisdom!  From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.  He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.  He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him.  Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go.  For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.  Wise choices will watch over you.  Understanding will keep you safe.  Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted.”
Matthew 6:33:  “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
James 3:17:  “But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.  It is also peace-loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.  It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds.  It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.”
1 Corinthians 1:17-30:  “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!  But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.  As the Scriptures say; I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” (Isaiah 29:14)
So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters?  God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.  Since God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would never know Him through human wisdom, He has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.  It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven.  And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.  So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.   But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength. 
Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.  Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.  And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.  God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.  As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. 
God has united you with Christ Jesus.  For our benefit, God made Him to be wisdom itself.  Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin.  Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “if you want to boast, boast only about the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:24)
Point #1 Seeking after wisdom
Point #2 Acquiring Wisdom
Point #3 Practicing lessons learned from wisdom
Point #4 Sharing the wisdom we have learned with others
The kind of wisdom God has revealed to the children of God is not of this world.  Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  The human race was in a state of separation from God the Creator, and the only way that the relationship could be fixed was for God himself to fix it.  The way He fixed it was to come Himself as one of us.  He lived the perfect sinless life.  He was punished for the sins of the world.  Jesus died for us and on the third day rose from the dead.  All who put their faith in Him, whether Jew or Gentile, will be saved!
This is the gospel or ‘good news’.  To understand this truth is true wisdom. 
We must first understand that we live in an imperfect world.  It was created to be perfect, but it became flawed.  God was upset with the human race and destroyed almost everyone but Noah and his family.  He started over with Noah and then selected one man, Abraham, and his wife Sarah to begin his mission to redeem the human race.  Through the faith of Abraham, He would one day produce a Savior, Jesus of Nazareth.  Although Jesus came specifically to His own race, His mission was much broader.  Anyone who put their faith in Him would be saved.  This kind of wisdom does not come from the world, but is from above.
I went to a liberal arts college and received a good education.  I studied philosophy, politics, economics, science, math, art, music.  I have been fortunate to have traveled to see different places where people practiced other religions like Buddhism, Islam and different forms of Christianity.  I have studied world religions and have studied Christianity.  I studied about Community Development and how to help people in places where they are not so well off as we are in the United States.  I am thankful for the education that I have and would encourage anyone to get an education and continue to learn all that you can to be helpful to people, animals, and our creation.  Knowledge is amazing.  I thank God for doctors, dentists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, engineers, lawyers, politicians, astronomers, physicists, musicians, actors, dancers, artists, etc.  We need you all.  But the most important thing that I have learned about is to know Jesus and to make him known.  With this knowledge I know where I will be spending all of eternity.  This knowledge to too precious to keep to ourselves.  There is a world dying to know it. 
Some of our famous Presidents also knew that they needed to ask God for wisdom when they took office.  Two such historic figures were President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln.
 
A PRAYER BY GEORGE WASHINGTON:
Almighty God:  We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large.  And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation.  Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.20803000/?st=text Library of Congress 07/30/2023
 
Abraham Lincoln once expressed the importance of seeking God in prayer for wisdom.  He said, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go.  My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”  Abraham Lincoln
https://awaa.org/blog/national-day-of-prayer-abraham-lincolns-prayer-for-our-nation/  7/30/2023
 
A PRAYER BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people, the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endow with Thy spirit of wisdom those whom in Thy name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
https://awaa.org/blog/national-day-of-prayer-abraham-lincolns-prayer-for-our-nation/  7/30/2023
What is your ‘Pearl of Great Price’?  What are you willing to give up to get wisdom?  Sometimes God does call us to give up everything like St. Francis of Assisi.  What are you willing to give up to get to know Jesus better?  Remember our task is ‘Seek after Wisdom’, ‘Acquire Wisdom’, ‘Practice the principles learned from Wisdom’, and to ‘Share that Wisdom’ with those around us’.  Knowing Jesus was never meant to be just a personal thing or for our church.  There is a world out there just waiting to hear about the hope that we have found in Jesus Christ.  Think about it.
I hope that you all have a wonderful week.  Pray that you will meet someone this week that you can share your faith with.  I will be looking forward to seeing you when I come back next time.  God Bless. 

The First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday, July 16, 2023)
Rev. Dr. Scott Morschauser, Guest Preacher
  
“RADICAL FAITH-RADICAL CHURCH”
Acts 2: 37-47
  “The Chapel bells were ringing/In the little valley town/And the song they were singing/Was for baby Jimmy Brown. . . And the little congregation/Prayed for guidance from above/‘Lord lead us not into temptation/May his soul find the salvation/Of thy great eternal love.’”
       Perhaps some of you remember that song.  It’s still sung occasionally by religious groups, but it was a popular hit in the 1950s in America.  It spoke of the church with the deepest affection and without the least bit of cynicism.  The lyrics celebrate the importance of faith throughout life’s journey - from birth to marriage, through death; each step accompanied by the hope of salvation “of thy great eternal love.”
 
      I recently heard this tune on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Fifties Station.  It stuck out like a sore thumb against the rock-and-roll culture that was emerging, but especially to our present time.
 
      “The chapel bells were ringing. . . ”
       There’s a church about half a mile away from my house, and every noon it would ring its bells to hymn tunes, until one of my neighbors complained.  It offended him, he said.  Predictably, those chapel bells aren’t ringing any longer for little Jimmy Brown or anybody else in my town.
       We might ask what has happened?  Why is it that the church which was so present in the lives of so many Americans, now absent, avoided, verbally attacked by some, and sadly enough, physically assaulted by others?  Sociologists look at this issue all the time, but it is central to our Scripture reading for today which addresses what the church is to be in the world and to the world.
       Some preachers hold up our verses as providing the model of the church, and they even call it, “the Acts 2 church”.  They will challenge congregations to compare themselves to what Luke shows us asking, “Are you an Acts 2 church?”
       This episode itself can be divided into two parts.  The first section presents the impact of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost.  The second part shows its application:  how the proclamation of the Gospel was put into practice.  How the church of the Word is also the church of action - the church of Acts if you like.
       Notably, the apostle concludes his address with the counsel, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation,” which would have rung bells among his listeners.  It evokes the story of Noah and the Ark, when God instructed the patriarch to build a ship to preserve his family from the moral anarchy, which would unleash a flood upon the world. 
       The apostle is making the equation that the community of the baptized is, in effect, an ark.  Not surprisingly, in the earliest Christian art, the ark is a prominent motif.  The church was to be an ark. The church is an ark.
       There are some modern theologians who object to this imagery.  “No!  The church is not to shut itself off from the world!”
       Yet Peter’s reference is not to condemn the world, but to save God’s beloved creatures from “this crooked generation.”  Again, this is another Scriptural allusion.  “Crooked generation” refers to the age that has turned away from God’s covenant and has chosen to embrace the beliefs and practices of the surrounding culture.
       But let us make no mistake, this “crooked generation” is not anti-religious, at all.  On the contrary, it is as religious as it can get.  Everywhere one looks there are monuments to its deities.  It extols any god, and all gods, except The Saving God.  Disregarding God’s commandments, it holds firm to its tenets, enforcing them with vigor.  Rejecting that it is under the gracious lordship of God, this “crooked generation” would declare itself God and seek to shape the world according to its image.
       Later on, the apostle Paul will unveil what results from exalting the deities of “the crooked generation.”  It is not a pretty sight:  immorality, discord, envy, violence, exploitation, greed, and naked ambition.  That was their creed, that was their song.
       “Save yourself!”  Peter and others will counsel.  It’s not to lock out those suffering, but the invitation to enter the door opened to everybody, drowning, floundering, sinking, who cries out “What shall we do?”  And then, hearing that Christ provides refuge, an ark for those drowning in the chaos of the “crooked generation,” an anchor for those who would be swallowed up in its whirlpool.  Hearing what Christ has done amidst the roaring and ranting of the age.
       Acts then relates the impact of Peter’s message:  “and there were added about 3,000 souls.”  Which is matched by the changed conduct of their lives:  “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching . . . and all who believed were directed toward the same goal, all held everything the same; and they sold their goods and possessions and distributed them to all, as any had need.  Day by day, they persevered together in the Temple, and breaking bread at home . . . in exaltation and with singular hearts.”
       It's hardly unexpected, that many people today view this passage through a purely economic lens.  In fact, Karl Marx took one of its verses, “each according to his ability, each according to his need,” to create a system without God, but would elevate the all-powerful state to the status of deity.
       Yet, that sort of entity was in existence as Peter was speaking.  It assured people that it would take care of you from birth to death.  It would provide you with welfare, food, offer diversions to keep you entertained.  That was the promise of Rome - “bread and circuses.”  All you had to do was to give this state -ever present, all powerful - your allegiance, your loyalty, your soul.  Everything.
       But if you read these passages carefully, you’ll discover this isn’t the language of business; it’s about covenant.  About being bound together in Communion with Christ, and through Him, and because of Him, with one another.  Christ is the center of the covenant community, and the first law of its economics is “to love your neighbor as yourself”; that person in need is your neighbor. 
       However, the whole purpose is for the church - the Acts 2 church - to disentangle, disenthrall, distance itself from the powers and principalities that would claim everybody and everything as their possessions, to be bartered and sold as objects.
       The community that has been freed by Christ is the community that is freed from and free of the idols of the state, and free for each other.  The community dependent upon Christ and which follows his Way is the community independent of “this crooked generation.”
       I just read an article about a letter written by the ancient author, Pliny the Younger.  Dated to the early second century, Pliny was a Roman governor in what is now modern day Turkey.  He had been asked to investigate a strange group that was called, “Christians.”
       Pliny discovered that at their meetings held on Sundays, these Christians read the Ten Commandments, recited an early form of the Apostles’ Creed, sang hymns, and they swore to be honest - not to get into debt, and to pay all debts owed - followed by a meal taken together in the name of this Christ, whom they worshipped.
       Apparently, this was an Acts 2 church, in its form and in its function; in its preaching of the faith, and in its faithfulness to its preaching.
       Pliny’s letter has been known for centuries, but a scholar recently pointed out that the reason why Pliny had to look into the Christians, was that the temples in his jurisdiction had complained that people had stopped sacrificing to their deities; stopped following the dictates and customs of their cults.  They were leaving behind “this crooked generation,” and heading towards the church - to get on the ark which is Jesus Christ.
 
      Despite the fact that these Christians treated one another with simple dignity, that they were honest, and that their behavior demonstrated their belief in their Christ - for Pliny, that was a little too much.  The governor was instructed that upon arresting a suspected Christian, he was to offer them the choice of pledging their allegiance to Caesar - to entrust their body, soul, heart, and mind to the ruler of the age.  The emperor noted, “A true Christian would not do this.”  The choice was simple:  rejoin “this crooked generation” and save your life - for a while.  Or refuse to abandon the Ark and lose your life - but save your soul.
       Pliny was astonished that not many would jump ship.
         The theologian and preacher, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, having been arrested by Hitler, wrote a series of letters from prison.  In one of them, he posed the question, how does one preach the gospel, to “a world come of age.”  That phrase has been debated endlessly, but it should have rung some bells.  It comes from a writer of the 18th century Enlightenment, and it referred to a generation that had now asserted its total independence from God.  The “world come of age” was the mature world, that had cast aside all the wisdom and learning of the past.
       The world come of age, took its own path, charted its own course, decided its own destiny.  This is the modern world - it is also the “crooked generation.”
       How can the church get through to this world, that would close its ears to Scripture; a world to whom God’s Word was more and more unfamiliar and unknown?  A world that would seek to silence any and all chapel bells and sing its own songs.
       Bonhoeffer concluded two things:  one is that to even such a world - this world come of age - this generation wandering a road crooked and lost - even to these Jesus Christ comes.
       The second thing is that if the spoken Word has no effect, then the Word lived out, does.  That the church - the Acts 2 church - the church whose members hold Christ as their center; the Church that declares its common faith in Christ; the Church that “perseveres in the temple and breaking bread at home” - that in public and private it shows its integrity - that it is integrated into Christ, and that it lives wholly from his claim …
       That while the present generation may no longer comprehend the Word of God in Christ, it can see that we do.  It can see that we take the Word seriously.  And that might get them to think, and begin to listen, and go through the door to the Ark.
 One day, some of my students were speaking and yearning about being “revolutionaries,” that they wanted to change the world.  I listened quietly and began to smile.  One of them asked me why I was reacting in the way that I did.  I replied, “You want to be a revolutionary?  The greatest act of revolution - the most counter-cultural gesture you can make nowadays - is to go to church.”
       When you answer the summons of the chapel bells when they are ringing, when you pray “for guidance from above, ‘Lord lead us not into temptation,’” and rejoice and live by “the salvation of Christ’s eternal love.”  You are an Acts 2 church.  You are the real radicals; you are true revolutionaries. 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ July 9 2023)
MATTHEW 11:25-30
Rev. Dr. Debby Brincivalli
 

​The First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday, July 2, 2023)
Rev. Dwayne M. Doyle, Guest Preacher
 
 ‘The Importance of Daily Choices’
Joshua 24:14-15; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Rom. 6:12-23
If we are working against doing the wrong things in our lives then we are doing well.  It is when we stop striving to do the right things and feel no sense of remorse over doing the wrong things then we need to be concerned.
Most of my life I have spent trying to do the right things. I was given fantastic parents that guided me the best way they knew how.  I had an older brother who was literally my hero. I had teachers who taught me how to read and write and graduate from school.  I had Sunday school teachers and pastors who guided me to a knowledge of God and spiritual things.  When I was in high school my girlfriend encouraged me to read Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.   Little did she know that this would be an important turning point in my life, because after reading these four gospels I concluded that if Jesus wasn’t the answer to all of the world’s problems, I didn’t know who else could be.  That was in the summer of 1980, the year I graduated from high School. Other important decisions I made were to go to college, asking Jesus to be my Lord and Savior, meeting and marrying my wife, and the decision to be a missionary.
Daily choices we make each day may have eternal consequences.
Our choice to follow Jesus is one of those critical decisions in our lives.  For when we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, all the angels of heaven rejoice. God and his angels are rejoicing and Satan and his demons are crying.
How are we to combat such a force as Satan and his demons?  Satan also knows our weak points.  Remember when he came to temp our Lord Jesus I the wilderness; He came after Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, when he was at his weakest.  He will come to us when we are tired and weak.  He also will try to keep us separated form other believers.  The second biggest decision is to commit to following Jesus every day.
Joshua, the leader of God’s army after Moses died encouraged the Hebrews to make a decision. Chose who you will serve this day, but as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord!
Joshua 24:14-15
On July 4th, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the colonies’ separation from Great Britian.  The following are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence.
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.  . . .
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The 56 signatures appear on the Declaration of Independence.
Declaration of Independence 1776 https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/declaration-of-independence 6/30/2023
By signing their names to this document these men also were signing their death warrant if the colonies were to lose their war with Great Britain.  In a sense, we have signed our own death sentence says the apostle Paul with our allegiance to our old Nature.  We have pledged our lives to follow Jesus unto death so that we may also reign in newness of life with him at the resurrection.
Jesus challenged us to follow his teachings and that if we did we would be building our lives on a firm foundation, one that could withstand the storms of life. Jesus is our rock.
And God never meant for us to go about our journey alone.  One strand is good and well, but two are stronger, but three stands woven together are even stronger.  (my paraphrase).  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. 
In our scripture text today in Romans 6:12-23 we read about the theology of the apostle Paul.  He is trying to help us understand the battle we are all up against in life. Some of you here today are going through difficult struggles.   God knows all about it. Some of you may be dealing with life-or-death decisions.  The body of Christ or church was established by Jesus himself to be here for you.  Jesus said, that he would will build his church and the gates of hell would not be able to stand against it.
We must daily make our decision to again follow Jesus, no matter what the world may say.  In all that we do, think or say, Jesus must take top priority.  Let’s recommit ourselves today to reaffirming our faith in him.
 
I'd Rather Have Jesus
Song by Jim Reeves
I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold
I'd rather be His than have riches untold
I'd rather have Jesus than houses or land
I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin's dread sway
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today
I'd rather have Jesus than worldly applause
I'd rather be faithful to His dear cause
I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame
Yes, I'd rather be true to His holy name
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin's dread sway
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Rhea Miller / George Beverly Shea
I'd Rather Have Jesus lyrics © Word Music, Llc