Marv's Final Message Part 8

[0:00] Well, I want to have an opening word of prayer and join with me, and then we'll have the video. Thank you, Father, for this time to share and enjoy together.

[0:11] Thank you for the faithfulness of yourself and the faithfulness of Grace People that has made this ministry possible for the past 50-plus years. We recognize only to a small degree how much we are indebted to you.

[0:30] And I trust that as a result of being here today, that will increase and we'll have just a little bit better picture and understanding of why we really do owe you so very, very much.

[0:45] Thank you for being in our midst in a way we often don't understand because you are also in the midst of other believers throughout the world who are gathered together as we are. We pray your blessing now upon us as we view this wonderful rendition of the thing that touches the hearts and minds of all of us, even as John Newton was led of the Spirit of God to pen it so many years ago.

[1:12] We bless you and thank you for it. Amen. If we have the lights, please. Oh, one more announcement. One more announcement. I'm sorry. Parental pushback. You would be surprised how many people think you are not really in charge of your children.

[1:29] The government is. And you are not to be concerned about what your children are taught in school because you are not a pro. You are not an expert. Leave that to the educators. They know what's best for your children.

[1:41] This article is called Parental Pushback. You will find it along with a lot of other articles in the literature rack as you exit the back door if you go out that way. So please make sure that you get them.

[1:52] You will really be enlightened by what's going on in our nation today. These are changing times, and we need to be alert as to what the changes are and what the remedy is and remains.

[2:05] Let's have the video. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[2:43] Amazing grace.

[2:57] How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me.

[3:12] I once was lost, but now I'm found.

[3:24] Was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.

[3:54] How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.

[4:14] Through many dangers, toils, and sins, I have already come.

[4:36] T'was grace that taught me to fear, and grace will lead me home. T'was grace that taught me save the sun, and grace will lead me home.

[4:56] I have indeed, I have opened for two letters. I know I'd be like I'm the Arch. I know I fear the sun, and the refreshing I see. I've always kept lab marvelous. I found you that I make my heart through the shadow. I will come to you and who's gone..

[5:08] haben. I found you. Thank you.

[5:42] Thank you.

[6:12] Thank you. Thank you.

[7:12] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen.

[7:38] Okay, I'm good now. I can go. Thank you. Thank you.

[7:50] You will pardon my... pardon my what shall I say my lack of expertise I've got so many things here that I wanted to include in the order in which I wanted to include them and I've arranged them and rearranged them and rearranged them and it's entirely possible that I'll not be able to get it all in but I can promise you one thing we're going to quit in time for lunch and that's a different kind of food that we'll enjoy upcoming December 10 I'm sorry for me it was December 8 what was the 10th oh yes it was September 10 wasn't it Marie nine okay yeah right nine nine you know as the years pile on the numbers all kind of run together and they just don't make the same sense that they used to but at any rate it was December 8 originally 66 years ago yours truly was involved in a kind of a double union on that day I was joined to my

[9:17] Savior the Lord Jesus Christ and on that same day I was joined to my first wife Barbara we had almost 50 years together just short of a few months and the Lord saw fit to take her quite unexpectedly with a massive stroke with no warning and no symptoms and I lived a bachelor's life for six years and it was the most miserable years of my life until Marie Weinbrenner whose husband Dave passed away a year after my barber did agreed to marry me thank you again honey for being willing to marry me I've often thought to myself boy I was a pastor to this woman and her husband for 40 years and she was still willing to marry me that's really something and sweetheart I can't thank you enough for the new lease on life that you gave me as God's gift and you are so deeply appreciated

[10:27] Marie's son Brent and his wife Lisa are here this morning and they're coming in they've come in from Santa Barbara California really glad that they could be with us today and my daughter Lynette her husband Bill she's my number one daughter and our number two daughter went to be with the Lord in 1995 at the age of 30 and many of you remember Dawn Elizabeth she was the family spark plug we enjoyed her so much and there are numerous other friends that uh and if I start naming them I'm sure I'll leave somebody out but I do have to mention Joyce Fulton and she and her husband Bill who's Bill is with the Lord also were instrumental in Grace Bible Church being able to get started and instrumental in this building being able to be built back in 1973 and we have such fond memories of Bill and Joyce Fulton and Fulton Farms and all that that has meant to Grace over the years and their children I'm thinking of Jim who's been active in pastoral and so on and I cannot leave out Barbara Henderson she and Daryl were our best friends they lived just adjacent yards back to back for many years out here in the northwestern area and Daryl went to be with the Lord as well and Barbara is struggling with some physical issues of her own but that's a friendship that goes way back well over 60 years and these are the kind of things that we really have come to cherish

[12:10] I know even though you folks don't know that I have a much better appreciation than you do of how valuable and how critical your board of elders that you elect to that office have been to this church and to me and I cannot say enough about the support and encouragement expertise, sensitivity, love for learning love for the Lord and for the word how much these men have contributed in supporting me and you all these years and I am so deeply grateful to them and I don't mean to single out anyone but I just have to mention this because Ron Gannon has been my go-to guy he's been my backup and I've needed him many times through the years and he's always been able to step in on a moment's notice and deliver something that is honoring to the Lord and I do appreciate that and I know where Ron's real talent and abilities come from they come from Joyce and that's the way it is with most of us guys we might as well admit it you know this idea of a self-made man is complete nonsense especially if you're married and you married the right one you are a woman-made man and be thankful for it because it's a priceless gift that God has provided for us so Ron and Joyce have been pillars of this assembly almost from the very beginning and I cannot begin to tell you how many hours and effort they have put in over the years and you know

[14:00] I cannot recall one single complaint from either of them about anything at least not before me and that's remarkable and I want to say a special thanks too for Nathan Rambeck and the family that comes with him Nathan and Jamie and their children Nathan you give me such you give me such comfort and relaxation for knowing that it's okay to walk away from here and I have no concern and no fears for and you know when Nathan was voted on the vote was unanimous do you have any idea how rare it is for a congregation of people to be unanimous about anything the vote was unanimous

[15:03] Nathan I love you these people love you and Jamie you're going to take good care of them and they're going to take good care of you you will be enriched and blessed in so many ways Terry and Lee Fisher Terry has manned our webpage from the time we had one and he does it so masterfully and I cannot tell you how many times I've had to call him because I'm so technologically challenged and he's always managed to come to my rescue and walk me through things and he's managed the church webpage forever and if you have any questions about anything available on it he's the guy to ask because he's been involved with that and he knows all about it Marla Beck and Chris Bilo have put up with me for quite some time now in the office and I appreciate their efforts so much and they too are a couple of ladies that I've never heard complain about anything now they may complain about me to each other and I

[16:15] I don't know that's understandable if they do I couldn't I couldn't expect anything else but they the attitude with which they do their their job and the expertise with which they do it is just priceless and I appreciate these dear ladies so much and all of their efforts and I don't know how many times I've told Marie so I'll say it to you that it's only because Marie does what only Marie can do that I am able and have been able to do what I do she's been my enabler in so many ways and this just goes to show you in living proof what the Lord meant when he said it's not good for man to be alone I will make a helper who is meet who is appropriate for him and he gave to Adam Eve and he gave to me

[17:17] Marie after those years of single life and I have been so richly blessed by her encouragement and her cooking too and everything else that goes with being a wife and a homemaker you read that last chapter in the book of Proverbs and that's that's Marie that's Marie all over so I've heard that there are cases and I'm sure that there's some truth to it that when a pastor leaves a church there are a number of people that leave also I'm counting on that not being the case with grace because I realize that I'm prejudiced but I think grace people are cut from a different bowl of cloth and over the last 50 years you've demonstrated that by your attitude your generosity your support you're just you're just everything

[18:25] I I've been in a number of pastors meetings where guys get together and they talk and pray about each other and for each other and share some problems and burdens they have and everything and there's a lot of heartache in congregations out there a lot of heartache and a lot of division and sometimes when it came to be my turn I I was often often at a loss to say because I just seemed like I had a different group of people than what they had to deal with and it just made me so thankful for y'all being who and what you are that just made my job a joy it's been a trip of joy for me for 50 plus years and I know the Lord is at the center of it all but you know I also know the Lord uses people but he uses people who are usable so thanks thanks grace for being usable and for making yourself available at the call of the Lord

[19:39] I am truly blessed chief objective that I have sought to accomplish here at Grace Bible Church for more than the past five decades can well be summed up by the following I have endeavored to teach so that we may learn I'm not a preacher you know that you know that I've never been good at preaching and there is a huge difference between preaching and teaching but I have sought to teach and we learn in order to become and we become in order that we may do and we do in order to accomplish and make a difference in our life and in the lives of others and to me that's what it's all about that's everything about the pastor wrapped up in a nutshell through it all I have related to you from time to time my two greatest fears fears and I suspect that all grace people know what those two great fears are but for those of you who are visiting today not normally here on

[20:55] Sunday I want to tell you and remind others of what my two greatest fears have always been and the first is that people will not believe what I say and if what I say is true and they don't believe it the consequences are terrible and it gives me great cause for concern and my second fear is that people will believe what I say and that too has a danger I feel a tremendous burden in connection with that and it's what leads me to study and prepare and pray and consider because my greatest fear is communicating something to unsuspecting people who are expecting truth and they get untruth do you realize that the pulpit is a ready made place for manipulation and it's easy to justify manipulation because the pastor who manipulates and there's a lot of it that goes on you know as well as

[22:17] I do the pastor who manipulates can comfort himself by saying well maybe I shade the truth here a little bit maybe I exaggerate here maybe a little bit but it's for their own good no it isn't if it isn't true it isn't for anyone's good it's got to be true and when we exalt Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life then we're on the right track the pulpit is ready made for manipulating people for laying guilt trips on people because too many people consider the pulpit and the pastor the voice of God and let me be the first perhaps to tell you it isn't it isn't it is a voice for God or at least is supposed to be but only as that voice adheres to the principles set forth in the scriptures as they are rightly divided only then is it really the voice of

[23:27] God and worthy of believing it is really easy for pastors to sell people a bill of goods and tell themselves it's for their own good you know but it isn't it isn't and we need to the writer of Proverbs says buy the truth and sell it not and that means you are supposed to be willing to pay the price whatever it is for truth but you ought not to be willing to sell it no matter how much you're offered for it because it's priceless buy the truth and sell it not I have taught with the full assurance that I have undiscovered wrinkles in my doctrine and theology I know that I know I do I say undiscovered wrinkles what do you mean by that

[24:28] I mean when you discover them you iron them out you change your mind that's the metanoia word repent you change your mind this is what I used to believe but I've come to the firm conviction and I've been wrong about that so I need to make the correction and I don't mind telling you it doesn't do a pastor's ego any good to have to make the correction to the congregation but that's what's required that is what is required and you know what they already suspect that you don't know everything anyway they already suspect that you don't have all your ducks in a row anyway who does nobody does nobody does we all have wrinkles in our theology and I'm always on the search for mine because soon as I find one I want to iron it out get rid of that wrinkle and when we get to heaven we're all going to get straightened out and some of us have a lot more straightening that needs to be done than others but if you're right about Jesus

[25:37] Christ and who he is and what he did and why he did it it doesn't make any difference what you're wrong about that's the big item and that's the beauty of grace as we shall see do I have any do-overs oh my goodness the should have would have could have I can think and I'm not going to tell you what they are but I can think offhand of a dozen things that if I had them to do over again I'd do it differently I would have said it differently or not at all or I would have done it differently or not at all and I cannot tell you how thankful I am that all of my stupidity and all of my wrongheadedness and all of my stubbornness and all of my whatever else was negative that surfaced over the last 50 years is all under the blood that is amazing that is absolute well El Devo sang about that to take back or reword things that

[26:45] I have said to redo or do differently things that I have done that only became apparent after the fact time and again I have reminded myself I am but a fallen being in desperate need of God's saving grace for which I am so very grateful and I have sought to remind you all of that from time to time as well I suspect that most of the time I didn't have to remind you that I am a fallen man because all too often it probably appeared rather obvious to you wasn't too hard to figure that out we're all cut from that same bowl of cloth and the only thing that redeems us is the finished work of Christ I told you that the message this morning would be a condensation of last week's plus some things that I wanted to add to it only because I have sought to boil down and then boil down and then take all that I have boiled down and boil it down again and try to give it to you in some kind of a fashion that you could grasp it easier so the quantum leap is from law to grace and this is from what you must do to what has been done for you the contrast between those is incredible what you must do has to do with those things that are demands placed upon you by the law do this and thou shalt live the law says and grace says live and thou shalt do complete reversal because of that bad news and good news many today still live in and operate under the bad news and its misery in failing to heed to the good news and the good news is so good that upon first hearing the natural reaction is that's too good to be true that can't be true because you have to do this you have to do there are certain there are certain hoops that you have to jump through in order to be acceptable to

[29:06] God and grace says no there aren't hoops to jump through there's just one thing to believe and that's where grace comes in believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and that's a wonderful saved rescued I must tell you this story grace people know it you've heard it before but it bears repetition Marv Rosenthal who is with the Lord now was a young Jewish boy working in his family delicatessen in Philadelphia Pennsylvania this would have been back in the 1950s and one day a little lady who was a regular customer and was considered by most people to be what they called a home missionary there to people in Philadelphia and as was her custom she had lunch at this little restaurant where the

[30:08] Rosenthal family was operating and Marv Rosenthal was a teenager at the time and he was assigned to the cash register and he was the one that took all the customer's checks and made the change etc.

[30:18] and this sweet little lady came up to him and said Marv Rosenthal I want you to know that I am praying for you he was taken back and he said you're praying for me what what are you praying for me for what do you mean what are you praying for me for and she said I'm praying that you might be saved saved lady the only thing I want to be saved from is nuts like you but she kept praying and she kept praying and through circumstances Marv Rosenthal that young Jewish boy there in Philadelphia Pennsylvania came into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and changed everything but Jesus has a habit of doing that you know he never leaves anybody like he finds them and eventually he became the head of

[31:20] Friends of Israel that published the magazine that you see here he moved on from that and started an organization in Florida called Zion's Hope and as a committed Christian who is Jewish in his background he has authored a number of publications and has been responsible for ministering in Israel to his own people many many times and Marv Rosenthal is with the Lord now I had the pleasure of meeting and fellowshipping and having lunch with him many years ago at Word of Life up in Scroon Lake New York the only thing I want to be saved from are nuts like you but the Lord Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost and you know you can't be saved if you don't know you're lost and if you've never been saved you are lost take it by faith scriptures make it really clear two kind of people in this world saved and the lost redeemed and the unredeemed only you know which category you belong to and only you can do something about it for a few moments we have left

[32:37] I would ask you to turn please to Acts chapter 13 in the New Testament Acts 13 and be aware if you will this is a book that occupies approximately 30 to 35 years of history so it is something that is unfolding over three to three and a half decades and that is why we call it progressive revelation because it is developing and changing and growing and there is new information being added to the old just as we read that the law was given by Moses grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and the grace that came through Jesus Christ provided a quantum leap huge leap from law to grace from things demanded of you to things provided for you as great a contrast as you can get and yet after 2000 years this remains a best kept secret it is remarkable how many people have not heard or picked up on grace and there is a reason for that in fact there are several reasons and we will enumerate them as quickly as we may in

[34:08] Acts chapter 13 we've got the account of the first missionary journey of the apostle Paul and be advised he did not begin this journey did not make his first journey until about 15 years after the Damascus road experience when he came to faith in Christ one just kind of automatically thinks that he just got right with it no he didn't he spent several years away from Jerusalem in fact he got to be such a hot item and was so much threatened that his fellow Jews had painted a big bullseye on his back and they were out to get him and when Barnabas and others heard about this they came and found him and they said Saul you've got to get out of town and they put him on a ship and sent him back where he came from back to Tarsus so he would be out of harm's way we don't know exactly how long he was going to be there but when things started happening in Antioch in Syria it was Barnabas who said these people are not

[35:08] Jews what's going on yet they as Gentiles are coming to faith and believing in a Jewish Messiah who was crucified and raised again the third day these are Gentiles and I recall Paul Saul of Tarsus being called of God to be the apostle to the Gentiles I've got to find him so Barnabas set out he went to Pisidia and found him and brought him back to Antioch in Syria two different Antiochs and they began preaching and teaching and the number of non-Jews increased greatly and the number of Jews who were believing that Jesus was the Messiah began decreasing and it wasn't long until the thing was pretty lopsided there were more believing

[36:10] Gentiles than there were Jews and eventually that led to other issues that we haven't time to go into but here in Acts chapter 13 we find the description in verse 2 while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting the Holy Spirit said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul who would be Paul for the work to which I have called them and when they had fasted and prayed and laid hands on them they sent them away they sailed then in verse 4 to Cyprus and now they're on ship and they end up in Antioch of Pisidia this is a different Antioch the other one was in Syria this is Antioch and on the Sabbath day which of course is the Jewish day what we would call sundown Friday to sundown Saturday they went into the synagogue and sat down and what this probably would have been on a

[37:12] Friday night probably around 7 o'clock in the evening when the synagogue services began and after the reading of the law you've got to keep in mind that's all they had the New Testament didn't even exist all they had was the Old Testament and it was called the law or the Torah five books of Moses the Pentateuch and after they read the law and the prophets the synagogue officials sent to them saying brethren now here's a couple of guys Paul and Barnabas are strangers in town just got in town and as Jews they go to the synagogue on Friday night and they are immediately recognized by all of the locals as being a couple of guys who are not local never seen them before who are they where are they from what do they have to say and back in the days when there was no internet thank god people didn't know what was going on in other parts of the world so they would brief these guys and ask them all kinds questions and the synagogue officials come over to them and they extend to them the common courtesy that

[38:26] Jewish synagogue officials give to visitors and that is we're happy to have you with us today is there anything that you would like to share do you have something that you would like to tell the people and Paul says well as a matter of fact and he stood and delivered an incredible message and the people sat there they are electrified at what this man is saying because he recounts the history if you will of Israel and brings it right down to the birth and the presence of Jesus Christ his death burial and resurrection and then he sums it up by saying in verse 38 after saying God raised him from the dead in verse 37 then in verse 38 he says therefore and that word therefore means okay folks in light of everything I have told you up to this point Paul is saying you've heard everything that

[39:27] I've said up to this point now I want you to know what the punch line is I want you to know where this is going and what it all amounts to and he says therefore let it be known to you brethren that through him this one I've described through him everyone Jew and Gentile everyone who believes is freed set loose freed if the son set you free you shall be free indeed and as he wrote to the Galatians it was for freedom that God set us free everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses did you get that do you see the contrast it's stunning it's day and night he is saying grace grace has come to the rescue through the finished work of

[40:38] Jesus Christ and his payment for your sin so that you are loosed from your sin you are loosed from condemnation you are loosed from judgment and justice you are set free in Christ this was the most stunning unheard of thing these people had ever imagined and I'm sure the results of some of them was oh you can't buy that that's that's too easy it is easy you must understand why it is easy it is easy because Jesus already did the hard part that's everything that's why it's easy and the hard part I can assure you was harder and more difficult and more excruciating than anything that we can imagine and yet that's what he endured for just one reason just one reason just so you wouldn't have to it's called amazing grace amazing love if you are not amazed by grace you just don't understand it if it's just a term to you if it's just a song to you and that's all and you don't understand it and more than anything in the world

[42:32] I want you to understand it right now this is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to the human race that the very God of creation he who was before all things and by him all things consist this God he who is the alpha and omega the beginning and this God this God became flesh how did he do that I have no idea how he did that we only know he did that and the seed the angel told Mary that holy thing which is planted in you that seed of

[43:36] God shall be the son of God and you you will call his name Jesus why because he will save his people from their sin wow law came by Moses grace and truth came by Jesus Christ he was on that cross not for his sin for yours for yours for mine God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself those three hours on the cross far as we can tell he was on the cross for six hours he was badly beaten and emaciated before they ever put him on the cross and when they did he didn't last long six hours and the last three hours were devoted to total darkness and an earthquake and the darkness lasted for three hours some have theorized well that was that was that was just a coincidence it was actually it was you know one of those things what do you call it

[45:09] I can't even think of the term see this is what happens when you get to be 87 you can't think of things like you're supposed to what do you call those things yeah thank you an eclipse it was an eclipse and I did some research on that I thought could it have been an eclipse and you know how long an eclipse lasts max 17 to 19 minutes this was three hours and the rocks rent split and the earthquake and everybody was terrified and it was during those three hours that the son of God was separated from the father in a way he had never been separated before and he cried out he screamed my God my God why have you forsaken me that's from

[46:10] Psalm 22 you'll find it there thousand years before Jesus ever went to the cross David wrote that why have you forsaken me that was his humanity crying out but you must understand and I wish I could explain it if I understood it I would explain it but I don't understand it either how God can have a son and there's no indication he had a wife and this is a big problem that Muslims have with seeing Jesus as the son of God and they think that God has don't relegate the sonship of Jesus Christ and the fatherhood of God by trying to liken it to some human relationship between father and son because it won't work and you need to understand that God dwells and functions on an entirely different level than anything we humans know but in order to try and communicate something that we finite humans could grasp and understand the father son relationship is used but it's not accurate in that it is so much more involved and so different that the deity that separates humanity has a great gulf fixed between and if you want to know by way of an analogy what would you compare that with

[47:50] I would suggest this that you try comparing a human being with an insect quite a bit of difference that separates the two but I'm telling you the difference that separates deity from humanity is greater than that and yet God has been willing to pull back the curtain and give us a little bit of something on a level that we could at least think about in the intimacy of the connection but we're really at a loss to understand it so when he tells them this they are absolutely stunned and he gives them a warning and he says you need to listen to this message because you could not be justified through the law of Moses but you can by this that through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you do you realize and if you've given us any thought you probably do we as human beings have no greater need in the universe than

[48:57] God's forgiveness no greater need because if there is one unforgiven sin in your life when you die you're sunk you're sunk I mean that because sin to any degree on any level is such an offense to the holiness of God it cannot be permitted in his presence and that's why he had to provide cleansing and forgiveness and pardon for all who are going to be in his presence because otherwise we would just mess it up and God will not have his heaven contaminated so he's made provision whereby we can enter forgiven cleansed pardon and free it's a wonderful thing it is called justification by faith and it simply means solely on the basis of believing that's what faith is and by the way please understand we are not saved by faith we are saved by grace through faith faith is the medium or the avenue or the vehicle that is used to get

[50:17] God's grace to you and it originates in your heart and mind when you exercise your faith and confidence and you take it away from yourself from your church or whatever you're trusting in and you put it solely in Jesus Christ that is what saves so we are saved by believing that's what the word faith means pistuo means to believe and it means to believe with an idea with a sense of commitment to entrust to rely upon to have confidence in the way faith is approached by so many people today it's just believe that everything is going to turn out all right just have faith you know and that's far removed from the biblical usage and what the meaning of faith is it simply means to believe and you believe with your intellect you believe with your will it's an act of the will listen it isn't some special religious thing you have to think or do or say no no it's just an act of the will when you stand before an audience and before a minister and a husband and wife are repeating their vows and they are asked a question do you or will you the answer is

[51:44] I will you exercise your will now we think well that isn't anything special we do that all the time we exercise our will all the time where to go for lunch what to have for lunch what kind of car to buy we do all of that with our will surely you don't mean to use that kind of will to believe yes I do that's the only kind there is yeah that's the same will the same kind of belief the same kind of commitment the same kind of charge exactly it isn't some special religious kind of thing no no it's common ordinary everyday anybody can do it that's the beauty of it anybody can do it well and the exclusivity of Christ for salvation of course is a major point sticking point of

[52:45] Christianity because Christianity is not inclusive you know that's the big word today everything needs to be inclusive Christianity is not inclusive it is exclusive because there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved for he is the way the truth and the life and no one comes unto the father but by him that's as exclusive as it can be and why is it with this I want to close and I want you to be thinking about it why is it why is it that Jesus is the only way all you have to do is ask yourself who else gave their life so that you might live do you have another name do you have another figure that you can plug in there have you ever considered the title savior and thought it could be applied to a whole lot of different people really who there's only one who has the credits to bear that name thou shalt call his name

[54:17] Yeshua which means savior Jesus savior he specializes in saving and nobody else does today we're in such a generality thing people like their options and their choices you can do this you can and they say well Christianity is just one of many paths up the mountain and God is at the top and you can take any path you want because they all lead to the same place you can go Buddhism you can go Islam you can go this you can go that doesn't make any difference everybody ends up at the top no you don't no you don't you go to the top with Jesus everybody else goes to the bottom in the meanwhile what do we do we love everybody and God will sort them all out later I want to close with a thought that I've derived a great deal of comfort from and

[55:19] I trust it'll give you some too because I've agonized over this connection with my brother who's passed away and I don't know exactly what his convictions were even though I know he heard the gospel and other loved ones who've passed on and you wonder you're going to see them in heaven and I can tell you this in the final analysis when everybody is where they're going to be and is experiencing everything or anything that they are experiencing it will all be on the basis of what is perfectly appropriate for them think of that no one no one will be anywhere that they do not deserve with one particular exception those who are in

[56:31] Christ will be where they don't deserve to be that's the irony of it everyone else will receive their just desserts whatever they are it will be what is totally appropriate appropriate and appropriate appropriate in accordance with the only one who has the wisdom and the right to know what is appropriate so that it'll be absolutely perfect the only ones not getting what they deserve will be those who put their faith in Jesus Christ who died for them that is the gospel that's the grace of God that is absolutely amazing amazing amazing grace let me pray and then we're going to have a musical benediction to conclude our service thank you father for the simplicity of a message that is just so wonderful it remains beyond us every time we hear it and every time we tell it never get tired of it never hope to thank you for

[58:00] Jesus Christ dying on that cross for our sin as being the very centerpiece of all human history we cannot begin to fathom that degree of love that sent him to the cross that made him willing to do it but we're so very grateful that he did and the best way that we can show our gratitude is in rejoicing and loving and serving you and loving and serving each other and to that end we commit these dear folks here should there be anyone in our midst or anyone listening by electronic means who has not made that commitment to Jesus Christ we trust that they will see the necessity for doing that the simplicity in doing it and the amazing amazing reward and blessing that comes from it and to that end we pray in

[59:02] Christ's name amen here is your benediction hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah CHOIR SINGS Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

[60:30] The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of the world and of this world.

[60:53] And we shall reign forever and ever. And we shall reign forever and ever.

[61:13] CHOIR SINGS Thank you.

[62:13] Thank you.

[62:43] Thank you.

[63:13] Thank you.

[63:43] Thank you. Many of you have been here for a long time.

[63:55] Our family five, six years. A big part of our coming here is because of Pastor Marvin, his faithfulness to the gospel.

[64:09] Constantly holding up Christ and what he accomplished for us.

[64:20] That's the way that ought to be in every church. So, anyway, thank you, Pastor Marv.

[64:40] For 50 years, and I know it's not been easy. When you're a shepherd of a church, the sheep get into trouble a lot and cause a lot of problems and difficulties.

[64:59] But for 50 years, you've been staying faithful each and every day. I've seen it myself, and I know many here have.

[65:14] I know there are many here. I've heard the stories. They were at other churches. They've heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the grace of God.

[65:31] And they came and they came and they visited this church. And they heard, some of them for the first time, the gospel of the grace of God. That you can know and be confident that you have eternal life because of what Jesus Christ did for you.

[65:51] And that, above everything else, means so much. So, I know that Pastor Marv doesn't like to be in the limelight.

[66:05] But today, we're going to celebrate him with a lunch. And let's just give a round of applause to Pastor Marv for his faithfulness for so many years.

[66:32] Thank you so much. Well, Scott asked me to go ahead and dismiss Pastor Marv. If you and Marie want to go ahead and go first. And then we'll dismiss everybody in kind of in sections or in parts here.

[66:55] Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Let's pray as they're heading out. Father, thank you so much again for Pastor Marv. We're so grateful for him, for the way he's blessed each and every one of us.

[67:11] Faithfully ministered in this church, this local body for so many years. So grateful for him. Thank you for all the people here whose lives have been touched by his ministry and the ministry of this church.

[67:25] And we bless the food that we're about to receive. And may everything that we do here be honoring to you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[67:36] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[67:54] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.