Accepted Series: Part 4

"Just as you can put right things in your body, you can put the right things in your spirit," Pastor Todd Beal said in this final message of the "Accepted Series," titled "Grace upon Grace." 

Todd Beal and his wife Sonjah are the founders of New & Living Way Church in Kelso, Washington, where he serves as lead pastor. Since the church's beginning in 2012, their desire has and is to see breakthrough in the lives of God's people and for the local church be a fresh, loving and vibrant community of people who are passionately serving God

Transcript

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Welcome to New and Living Ways Podcast, where we pursue the presence of God, the truth of His Word, and the life of Christ working in and through us. We pray today's message strengthens your faith, refreshes your heart, and draws you closer to Jesus. Here's today's message.

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We are in a series called The Acceptable Series. This is the final message, and the name of the message is Grace Upon Grace. I'm gonna give you some scriptures. There's a theme here. So we're gonna talk about things tonight that are acceptable to God. And like I shared with people before, the Lord asked me, how many times could I hear his name abused in a movie before I would walk out? In other words, how many times do you think it is acceptable to God for you to hear his name abused? Right? So everyone says, Well, none. Okay, so then we can do things in our life that will help us to do things that are acceptable to the Lord. Amen? And one of the best ways to safeguard yourself is to go to pluggedin.com. So before you watch any movie, you can go to plugged in.com. It'll tell you if there's going to be any swear words, any nudity, any witchcraft, any compromising situations. Isn't that a blessing that you had someone watch all the garbage so you don't have to watch it? And then they can tell you, you know, how you can do that. And when you start feeding on good things, how many of you know your life will change? It's the same way. If you eat a bunch of garbage, you eat a bunch of uh fast food, a bunch of bad per food, and you just put it in your body, eventually your body will say, uh, no. It'll say, Stop doing this, stop feeding me this. And uh, and that's where a lot of uh sicknesses come from, a lot of diseases come from, a lot of things in our society is based on our food supply. So the same way you can put the right thing in your body, you can put the right thing in your spirit. Amen. So I just want to encourage you. Um, when you're at home, Lord, is this conversation acceptable to you? Lord, is what I've got going on in my mind, in my heart, is this acceptable? That's kind of where this series was birthed out of, is where the Lord says, let the in the word, the psalmist said, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord my God. So so we want not only the things we do, but we want the things that we think, the things that we meditate on. We want that to be acceptable to the Lord. Amen. And uh there's grace for that. We're gonna get into that. Now, what we're gonna talk about is things that are acceptable to God that might be a little different than what you might think. So we're gonna go to 1 Timothy chapter 2, and we are gonna look at this uh in verse 1. We're gonna read in verse 1, and it says this there. You can read along if you like. Therefore, I exhort or encourage, first of all, that what supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, okay? Be made for who? Okay, so we know here that we all have a ministry, and that's not just to pray for yourself. Uh, in fact, sometimes we can pray for ourselves, and we're like, Lord, I don't feel like we're we're getting getting anywhere with this. And the Lord may say, Well, why don't you pray for someone else? And you start praying for someone else, and you start praying for someone else, and you start praying for someone else, and before you know it, your prayer got answered. And so, and so you're like, Well, how is that? Well, you reap what you sow. So, if we sow prayers of blessing over people, guess what? Those blessings can come on our life as well. And uh, and so uh, Maria, it is so good to have you back from the Philippines. We love you so much. God bless you. Welcome home. So, so I want you to say, so a supplication is kind of uh a petition before God, and then you have, of course, prayer, and then you have intercession. Now, intercession is a is a deeper form of prayer uh where there can be some heavy stuff going on, and uh you just don't even know what's going on, and uh you might have had this feeling you're washing dishes, you're vacuuming, you're at work, and you're like something just hits you. Whoa! You need to pray, you need to intercede. And you literally are standing in the gap for someone. One of the best uh examples I can have, I have, it happens to be my own life. I was in Zimbabwe uh and um I was staying with a pastor, and uh I was sleeping with the light on uh because the spiders were this big that would come in the room and I would spray raid and the holes, and I slept fully clothed on top of the bed sheets because it was bugs in the bed. And so I'm sleeping fully clothed with the lights on, right? And uh then all of a sudden, uh before I went to bed, Sonia called me. She says, She says, Are you okay? I said, uh yeah, are you okay? And what had happened is in the middle of the night, she heard a knock at the door, and my dog didn't bark. Which does not happen. Ginger would always bark. And uh so she knew it was intercession. So she went, she hit her knees, and she starts wailing in tongues, and she starts, she starts praying for me. Thank God for godly wife. And she says, she called me and she says, Are you okay? And she says, The Lord gave me this song. And she said, and I can remember that song to this day. Lord, you are so beautiful, Lord, you are magnificent, Lord, you are so glorious, something like that. I give my life to you. And she just sings this song over me. I said, Thank you, sweetie, thank you so much. I went to bed, and a few hours later, uh, three or four Africans, I can't even remember now, three or four Africans, but I think it was three, busted into my room. One of them had a big rusted axe, like a machete type thing. I'm sorry, there was two guys. One guy had an axe, one guy had a machete, and then someone else had like a tire arm or something like that. So, so they I jumped out of bed and uh they robbed me, uh, and uh and I was starting to hyperventilate. I wish I could tell you, I was just so full of faith, but I was you know, but I sensed that they were not gonna kill me, but I was still hyperventilating. And uh they said some uh words to me, and uh while I was sitting there on the bed, uh uh they said, You need to sleep. And uh and I said, How can I sleep if you're robbing me? And they said, We're not robbing you, we're thieves. And so I didn't quite get that, and then he he said something, cut some kind of term against me. But while I was sitting there on the bed, I just I heard that song, Lord, you are so beautiful. And it was a song of deliverance. And so, and so there are times when God will just move on you to pray, and you don't even know exactly what it is, but that's intercession. And you move into that, and that's where there's some serious power that's released. So the Bible says that there's these different types of prayers: supplication prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks. Can you say giving of thanks? This is so important because God wants you to be a professional at giving thanks. You wake up out of bed, you say, Thank you, Lord, for the bed I slept on last night. And uh, if you're a little sore, if your arm's a little sore, you don't complain about that. You go, Lord, thank you that I have an arm. Because some people woke up this morning that didn't have an arm. And then you get and you get dressed and say, Lord, thank you for the clothes. Thank you for the shower. Hallelujah! Thank you for the electricity, thank you for the water. You go in the refrigerator, you got food in there, thank you for that. And you just you just thank God for everything. In fact, you make it almost impossible to complain about anything. And if you start living your life with gratitude, things will begin to shift in your life. Because gratitude and thanksgiving is the language of heaven. Complaining and grubling comes from the other place. Okay? So you just have to decide what language you want to speak today. And so this is amazing because it says you pray. All these special prayers be made for everyone. Can you say everyone? So we need to be willing to pray for anyone. Okay, now watch this. Verse 2. For kings and all who are what? In authority, that we may lead what kind of life? Quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and reverence. So God does not want you complaining about the president, complaining about the governor, complaining about the politicians. He wants you praying for them. Okay, let me try this side of the room here. God does not want you complaining about these people. Okay, we're we can be here all night if you want. God does not want you complaining about these people. You can, if you, if you have a beef with them, you take it to the Lord or run for office. Hallelujah. But how many of you know they've even taught you there's two ways you can do campaigns in the even in the political world. You can do a positive campaign or you can do a negative campaign. Right? And you can give people hope or you can trash talk everyone around you. How many of you know we need to be people in the kingdom of God that know how to do things in a way that glorifies God? Right? And give people hope. Anyone can curse the darkness, but it takes someone that is anointed by the Spirit of God to declare a word of hope and healing. Amen. And that's what we're here to do. And so you're telling me I need to pray for the governor? Yes, I'm telling you you need to pray for the president. And you pray, and that prayer is so that there can be uh things released in your life. We don't like the praise, price of taxes or gas or whatever. Lord, I pray that the governor would hear the word of the Lord. Hallelujah. That you would surround them with prophets and prophets, prophetesses, and whoever it is, and Lord, you put your leaders in office that need to be there, Father God. But I can pray this without getting all negative on all this stuff. You know, the church needs to be full of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Can someone say amen? It's time for us to be full of righteousness and peace and joy. And that is the mark of a Christian, not negativity and complaining and yang yang yang. It's someone that is full of the joy of the Lord, and you can declare the truth of God, and you can even warn people in the love of God, and you can even have this word of fire come through you, but it still inspires hope. How many of you know Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world? But he came that they might be saved. And so, so part of us, now watch this. We're supposed to pray for all these people that are in authority. Okay? That can be your boss, that can be your coworker, it can be people in your family, but especially those that have been given positions of authority in the earth, right? Out of all godliness and reverence. Right? Reverence, which people don't know a lot about, that's of a high form of respect. I may not agree with what someone is doing, but I can still show them respect. And now watch this. For this, let's read it. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God. So, in other words, me giving thanks and me praying for people in authority, right? And making prayers for them and not complaining, then that is acceptable and good to the Lord. So if we want to do something that is good and acceptable, we begin sharing our heart of gratitude for the things that we do have, that the freedoms that we do have. How many of you know we still have some of the best freedoms that is on the planet today? We still live in the one of the greatest nations, if not the greatest ones. In 1 Timothy, in a different translation, it says, this is good and uh in 2 Timothy 2, yes, this is good and pleases God, our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and understand the truth. You see, this is this ties into what we were sharing earlier about evangelism. Your witness to your neighbor is so important. Your witness to your coworker is so important. It's not come to church, show them the church, show them what Jesus looks like. Show them what Jesus looks like. They should already know what church looks like. Just a bunch of people that look like you. A bunch of people that are on fire for God, that are not complainers, that are not grumblers, that aren't talking bad about this person, but is declaring a word of hope. And you say, hey, God wants everyone to be saved. And so you can share that with people everywhere you go. This is a beautiful, think of it this way: this is a beautiful way to please God by praying for the governor. You want to please God? Pray for the police officers. Pray for the first responders. Uh, this night of hope and healing, we're so excited because we're gonna have all these different segments, some for the uh uh first responders and the EMTs and the chaplains and the police officers and all this. And we are so grateful for all of the people that are in this community that are serving this community. And they might say a lot of things about Longview at different times, but I can tell you this Longview is a city that is full of love, care, and compassion. And I can prove it to you because just in the last several weeks, hundreds of thousands of dollars came forth from the community in the midst of tragedy to show these families and show these people we love you. And that's a demonstration of the love and care of God. And I think it's amazing. Different businesses had fundraisers and had thousands of people show up. How many of you know we need to be on alert all the time and be ready to witness and minister to people? So there is a grace, if you're taking notes, there is a grace to pray for leaders. There is a grace to pray for leaders. So you wake up in the morning and you don't like the price of gasoline, you say, Lord, I need grace to pray for our government. And then you just begin to pray, Lord, and if you need whatever you need to do, Lord, if you need to move some people around, that's okay. But we are gonna declare a word of grace and healing and victory over it. Amen. Hallelujah. Now, um in 1 Timothy, uh 1 Peter chapter 2, I want to say this. Now, this is wild. This is back when there was a lot more servants, even some slaves. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, but only not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. You can say it this way Employers, employees, be submissive to your bosses. Right? With all respect, not only to the good bosses and the gentle, sweet bosses, but also to the mean ones. Thank you for this. Oh, I'm feeling so much love right now. If you want to know how to please God, if you want to know how to have grace in your life, we're gonna talk about this just a little bit. Verse 19. We're gonna go a little King James on us here tonight. For this is what? Thankworthy. Now that's an interesting word, thankworthy, if a man for conscious towards God, in other words, you're trying to serve God, if a man with conscience towards God endure what? Grief. What does it say? Suffering what? Wrongfully. Okay, in other words, God knows that there's going to be times in your life where you suffer wrongfully. For verse 20, what what good is it, or what glory is it, if you're beaten for your faults and you take it patiently? Like if you've done something wrong and you pay for it, well, big deal. But what if when you do well and you suffer for it and you take it patiently? This is what's the word? Acceptable to God. So you realize, whoa, there's that word again. So what is this? And so uh we see here that there's two words I want to point out. Verse 19, it says this is this is thankworthy. Okay, this is thankworthy. The actual word that is used here is the word caris, which is where we get the word grace. Which is where we get the word grace. So, in other words, there is a grace upon your life when you begin to be treated wrongfully. There is a grace to come upon your life. Hallelujah! That's a good thing. And you can be like, well, man, I know that this customer is yelling at me. I know this person is yelling at me, I know my boss is yelling at me, but I sense a grace upon my life. Hallelujah. And then if you look in verse 20, what good is it? If you're uh beaten for your faults, you'll take it patiently. But if you do well and suffer, you take it patiently. This is, what's the word? Acceptable. That word acceptable is also the word grace. Okay? So, in other words, what that means is it's grace when we endure grief when we've done nothing wrong. And then we can have patience in the midst of suffering, and that is also God's grace through us in keeping our hearts full of love. So, in other words, there's a grace for people to mistreat you, and there's a grace for you to endure it patiently. Hallelujah! You see, just say this with me. There is a grace from God for me to go through things even if I haven't done anything wrong, and to walk through it in grace. So, so so you have to understand there's a grace for you. And your mind is going, oh, but your spirit is like, no, there is a grace. Why? Because the Bible talks about it. How many of you know the Bible is true? So even though my mind goes, well, how can that be? The only way you can go through something when you are being persecuted unjustly is by the grace of God. There's a grace for you. Hallelujah. If you're doing the right thing, but you're being treated unfairly, or you suffer and you take it with the right attitude, remember, this is grace. This is acceptable to God. Sometimes we think, I don't know what we think. We think God is impressed with our voice, or you know, hallelujah. And God goes, Oh, this is so wonderful. And yeah, he is. But you know what the greatest praise sometimes can be is when the enemy is throwing everything he can at you, and you still, Lord, this is really painful, but I give it to you, and I am thankful for you giving me life. I'm thankful for you giving me breath, and Lord, I just give you praise, and I thank you for the grace to go through it. Man, that is ex that is an acceptable sacrifice to God. You know, the the the attitudes of our heart are like an aroma that the Lord can can sense and and and uh receive in his heart. And so when you, you know, it's this it's the cliche, you know, make lemon made out of lemons, right? When when when the enemy comes at you, you just say, Lord, I'm gonna turn this into a song of praise. You say, Well, well, how do I do that? Read the book of Psalms. Read the book of Psalms. If you read the book of Psalms, I'm gonna summarize dozens of Psalms at the beginning of the Psalms. It sounds like this Help! Help, help, help, help, help, help, help me, God. Right? And there's a few in there that call it Psalms where David's like, Lord, make them childless, Lord, break their teeth, Lord. You know, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's going through it. But then if you read towards the end of many of these songs, he's saying, Lord, help! He goes, but you, oh Lord, are my strength. You are my shield, you are my strong tower, you are my fortress. You I, oh Lord, I'm gonna trust you. So you can read a ton of Psalms, which they're songs. Basically, the book of Psalms is a lyric book, just so you know. And so you read it, it's like, whoa, this dude is going through it, man. This is major. But then all of a sudden, so God knows when you're going, pour out your heart to God. Okay? You do not have to do it on Facebook, I promise you. You can do it to the Lord, hallelujah, and it'll actually produce kingdom results. Hallelujah. How many of you know that's what we want? Where we pour our guts out to God, and he says, I see that. And friends, I can tell you that that uh I've had bosses in my life that were just literally would get this this far from me, slam their hand down, swear, make me feel, make me. Want to cry. You know? And uh boy, did I need that job. People don't know what that's like today. You know, to have to really stick it out. When you have that situation, a lot of people they just say, Well, I'll just do something else. But I want to tell you something. There's something about aroma that comes into your heart when you take it. Some people say, You don't have to take that. Well, you don't have to take it, but if you do take it, it's an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. Come on now. This is good. This is good. And uh thankfully we get lots of practice for things like this. Do we not? And I'm just I'll just I'll just leave this right here. The people that are driving around you, especially in front of you, they cannot hear you. I just thought I'd throw that in there. He says, Lord, thank you for this driver in front of me. Because Lord, they must be just so enthralled with you and just caught up in your presence that they're making me late for whatever I'm trying to get through. My friends, you can find anything to thank God for. Did you know that? You can you can find anything, you can take any situation that you have and you can you can turn it into a praise. How many of you know the enemy specialized in trying to get us to complain? And I'm just gonna tell the enemy no more that he cannot use my mouth anymore by the glory of God. Now, um, look at this. John 1, 16, this goes with along with this beautifully. And of his fullness have all we received. And what does it say? Grace for grace. There's actually a scripture in the Old Testament, you can look it up, and it talks about this mountain. Who are you, mountain? And there's gonna be a shout to that mountain that says, Grace, grace to that mountain. When you are facing with tough situations, friends, I know, please, please don't think that I pretend that I've got it all together and that I never go through problems and just I never struggle with anything. I want to tell you this we all have to get a hold of the grace of God. And yes, the Lord will let us cry and complain and uh feel sorry for ourselves, but at some point he'll say, Are you ready to accept my grace? Come on. Are you ready to accept the grace that I've portioned for you? How many of you know every day God has new mercy, new grace for you every day? Hallelujah. Now, in 1 Peter 2, it says, For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and you patiently endure unjust treatment. This is beautiful. Now I want to talk to you just uh briefly again, then we're gonna have a time of prayer for a few people, actually everyone, but some special uh prayer needs tonight. Um, in Revelation 3, 4, and I want to talk to you now that you have a grace upon your life. Can you say this? I have a grace upon my life to live my life in an acceptable way. And so I can't blame, well, this is just who I am, I'm Italian, this is just who I am, this is how I was raised, this is just my personality. No, because that is not who you are. Who you are is a child of God. Who you are is a new creation in Christ Jesus. Who you are is someone that God has redeemed and changed from the inside out, and old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. So you can't go back to your old person anymore. Hallelujah. That is not who you are. And now Jesus is talking to the churches in Revelation, and this is the church of Sardis, and Jesus is correcting the church, and then he said, Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes or gotten their clothes dirty. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. In other words, there's a lot of people that have been given garments, but how many of you know that even though on the inside we've been made the righteousness of God, that there is a walking out to what God has given us to do. And so this is why it's so important. Keep your garments spotless. Keep your heart, keep your mind, keep your thoughts, right? And if you feel like the enemy's trying to throw something at you to get soil on you or get dirt on you, you say no in Jesus' name. And how many of you know that we can go before the Lord and that we can confess our sin and that he will make us clean and white as snow again? People may try to remind you of your past and your mistakes, but Jesus is the one that redeems you and forgives you and chooses to forget your sin. Hallelujah. And we would be good to do that with other people. So there's a grace to keep ourselves from getting our clothes dirty. Now, Revelation 19, verse 7, this is beautiful. It says, Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. Let's read it. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. So this is what so if you want to know, well, what is the church doing in the earth today? We are getting ourselves ready for a wedding. Now, what do what does a bride do when she's getting ready for a wedding? What does she do? Is she out uh just wasting a bunch of time? No. Man, they have one, all the ladies are going, no, no, no. The ladies are like laser focused on one thing. I've got my wedding day coming up. Well, can we do this? Can we do this? Oh no, I've got my wedding day coming up. And how many of you know that she's gonna make sure that that wedding garment is perfect? That it is spotless. Why? Because she wants to present herself, right, to her husband and also to all the all the world, that she has prepared herself as a bride. Do you know that's what we're doing now, friends? You wake up in the morning, people say, What do you do? Man, I'm preparing myself for Jesus. Well, how do you do that? Man, I'm making myself ready. People have said things like this before. Like I've heard people say this, well, I'm just ready to leave this planet and I want to go see Jesus. Right? Now, I I'm just gonna be honest with you. Now, some people can say that. I can't say that right now. Because I I'll be very transparent with you. I feel like there's more things that I'm supposed to accomplish in this life. And that I'm not supposed to leave this planet until I have done what God has called me to do. And I feel it's very important that we have that take that even though we want the Lord to come in our lives, man, I want to, I, friends, I'm I I've got to hear these words. Well done, good and faithful servant. You are faithful with a little, I will make you ruler over much. I want to live my life in a way to where I leave nothing undone. Amen. And I feel like all of us have so much that God has called us to do. It's just like when we when we answered that question, how many of you believe God can you know win one soul? What if God has challenged you to win a hundred souls this year? You know, it's not a it's not a heavy thing. It's like, whoa, I'm going to tap in to the grace of God so that I can do what God has called me to do. And people will try to distract you, and people will try to discourage you, and people will call at the weirdest times to get you to do the weirdest things. But God will keep you on task just like that that uh that bride that is making herself ready. I want to tell you, friends, that there is a grace, as we've shared, there is a grace that comes upon you to pray for people that you don't agree with. There's a grace for you to be thankful for all these things. There's a grace for you to be mistreated, and there's a grace for you to be uh thankful in the midst of that, but I want to tell you, there's a grace for you to get ready for the coming of the Lord. There is a grace for you to not even be thinking about this planet, because you are like ready in your heart to be with Jesus. Hallelujah. And your heart is so ready that your heart is actually closer to heaven than it is in the earth. Is anyone hearing what I'm saying? I mean, that's why the television and phone can be such a distraction, because all it's thinking about is the here and the now and what's going on on this planet. But the Bible says to be heavenly minded is to be, is to have life and peace, to be carnally minded, just always focused on the natural carnal things. There's no life in that, there's death in that many times. And yet, if we have spiritually, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. So sometimes myself, I can't, I can't, man, if I want to, I can get depressed real quick if I start thinking about all the bad things going on. Oh, look at what's happened over here, and look at what's going on here, and look at what or I can say, Lord, I just thank you for your testimony. Hallelujah. I thank you for the testimony. I know Mike Lewis is going through it right now, but look at the work that God is doing in his heart. Look at the man that he has become. Look at where he was at a few years ago, and look at the softening, and he came to Jesus, and he's been baptized, I think, and God's moving in his heart, and we still believe that God's going to do a miracle in his life. And you look at all, and people have told me there's testimonies all over the place, is that God is moving in people's hearts and lives like never before. And I know that it's a struggle, friends. I know that you're facing situations that seem impossible. I don't pretend that, in fact, sometimes I feel like I go through some I go through some things, I have barely even preached a sermon. I haven't even gotten off the stage, and I feel like I'm already getting tested on what I just preached. Oh, you need to love everybody. Right? And then and then I don't barely get out the door. And God says, okay, are you gonna practice what you preach or are you just gonna shout it roll out? So I want you to understand that we all have to do this. Now I want to give you this picture in Revelation. It says, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Hallelujah. Actually, I'm sorry, Ralph, uh Ralph. Uh Al, Al, if you can just go back to the verse 7. I saw a new heaven and I saw no. Debbie. Al, you changed. Where's Al? He's doing he's doing youth. Revelation 19. You have a few people, right? They will walk with me dressed in white, for they are worthy. Okay? Next yeah. Next verse. Fine, let's read it. Fine linen, what does it say? Bright and clean was given her to wear. And fine linen stands for the righteousness or the righteous acts of God's holy people. So, friends, God, how many know God is the one that gives you the grace to live in his righteousness? So enjoy it. Enjoy it. Now, Revelation 21. John saw this. I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth, let's read it. Had did you know one day this earth is gonna go bye-bye? Boy, all the earth people that are trying to save the planet, they're gonna be very disappointed. Because one day this planet's gonna be gone. There's gonna be a new heaven, a new earth, and there was no more seed. Look at this. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, let's read it, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. How many of you know that's where grace is leading us? Eternity with Jesus. Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord. We get to spend eternity with him. I know this life has a lot of hurts and pains, but we are gonna get to spend eternity with Jesus. And verse 4, and God, let's read it, and God will wipe away, what's it say? Every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There will be no more pain, for the former things, glory to God, have passed away. Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things. Come on, new. And he said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. Hallelujah. Friends, that is where we're headed. And so there is a grace upon grace that has come upon our life. And just realize this we are going to spend eternity with the Lord Jesus. Is anyone excited about that? And because I know where I'm headed, and that's what you can ask people sir, man, friend, relative, brother, sister, neighbor, do you know where you are headed? Well, I'm headed to the ground, six feet under. No. Do you know where your spirit is gonna go when you die? And you let them know guess what? I know where I'm going because my name is written in the Lamb's book of life. And when you know, and you ask me, is your name written in the book? What book? Man, the book of books, the book of life. You know, someone told me something the other day. I was I was having breakfast with a young man, he's probably 40 years old, and I was telling my brother-in-law this the other day, and I said, I said, Yeah, there's some representatives from Billy Graham that are gonna be coming down to this event, and uh, and they said, Who is Billy Graham? Well, no, wait a second. Do you know how many people do not know who Billy Graham is? And you go, What? No, it's true. It's not just this gentleman, he's just he just represents an entire generation. And I had this sober thought. I thought, wait a second, the gr one of the greatest evangelists of all history, the new generation, doesn't even know who he is? Well, no, what that tells me is how short our life is, and how in just a few generations people can be forgotten. And so that's why it's so important for us to lift up the name of Jesus. Amen. And lift up his name and know that his name is gonna resound throughout all eternity. And we still honor and respect those that maybe people haven't heard of, and we're welcome in the come down. But I want to tell you, friends, the time of the harvest is now. Now is the time for us to bring in the harvest and to be the people God has called us to be.

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Thank you for joining us for this podcast from New and Living Way. For more messages, ministry updates, and ways to connect, visit us online at NewandLivingWay.church and follow us on YouTube and Facebook. And if you're in the Kelso Longview area, we'd love to welcome you in person. Join us Sundays at 10 a.m. and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at 215 Academy Street in Kelso, Washington. May the Lord bless you in a rich and powerful way.