[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Good morning. Glad to see all of you here, especially for those who are visiting with us. Man, thank you so much for being here. We're starting a new series today and we've been excited about this for a long time. I think a couple years back we did the kings and the judges, and if you'll remember, we had these trading cards that were made that were so, just, I don't know, so enjoyed. And we thought, man, there's got to be a day coming down the road that we do more of that, either with the prophets or some kind of thing. And, and so we're excited that we're going to be handing those out today. And so kiddos, remember you get one of these after the lesson by sharing some of the things that you learned from that today. Make sure you go find an elder. They're going to have on tags that say shepherds look for them. Make sure you tell them a little bit about what you learned today and they'll give you one of these trading cards and you guys will have each one of them. We're going to have about 12 or 13 of these. We're going to be looking at all the minor prophets in the Old Testament, and it's just going to be a great time. We're going to hear all kinds of messages of warning. We're going to hear about prophecies about things that are coming. We're going to see the Messianic prophecies where it talks about Jesus coming down the road. And so it's going to be a lot of excitement. We're going to be able to piece a lot of the story of God from these particular prophets. But also one of the things that we really want to do in this series is to point us to things that are practically applicable to us today, things that we can kind of move forward in our own lives as we take these stories, apply them in their time frame, but then also remind us of how God sort of has multi layered messages in the scriptures that help us even understand how to live today as a Christian. So we're excited about this, looking forward to it. Today we're going to be talking about Obadiah. And Obadiah is a fun name to say, and I wish I could tell you a whole lot about exactly who this guy was. But to be honest with you, the Bible doesn't really clarify exactly who Obadiah is. We know there are 12 or 13 of these cats listed in the scripture and each one of them have different roles that they've played. It could have been one of those guys, but most likely, probably maybe another guy named Obadiah who was sent by God as a messenger to share different things and to issue a warning specifically about Edom. You'll notice in this text that it doesn't really address Israel or Judah, even though he talks about them and mentions them in some way. But it's really, it's a message that was sent out to declare Edom guilty of some things, but also to share with them what ultimately is going to happen to them in their own destruction. And so it's a very interesting book that we're going to get into. And hopefully through this we'll make some connections and understand it a little bit better and see how God is working through the generations to bring us to where we are today.
So first of all, let's get into this first verse and it says, the vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom again. So we know that this is zeroed in on Edom and those who are in their kingdom. And so he's going to really address them specifically here. He says, we have heard a report from the Lord and a messenger has been sent among the nations. And this is the message that has been sent among the nations, which is not just Edom, but other people as well.
Rise up. Let us rise up against her in battle.
So if you're imagining this and you hear that the Lord of Heavens has issued a decree. He sent out a messenger not just to Edom, but also to all the surrounding nations to say, hey, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna rise up against the nation of Edom. Now, if you're Edom and you know of the glory of God and you know of all the powerful things that have been done, then this could be one of those things where you're kind of fearful and afraid of what might be coming as a result of that. So it probably is a good thing for us to figure out who Edom is as we look at this. And to begin with, just to let you know, there, that little part below the Dead Sea, you'll see it southwest of the Dead Sea. They're kind of in this wilderness area. They lived up into the mountains. And Edom is also known in the New Testament as Idumea, which is kind of the Greek term for Edom.
So you kind of see those things together. And what we're going to learn about them is simply this. They're sort of enemies of Israel, or at least rivals of Israel. And you see it in a lot of different ways. If you remember when the Israelites were coming back from Egyptian slavery and they were returning through certain areas, they would ask for passage through certain areas. And Edom was one that did not allow them to walk through their area.
There was hostility between the two of them. And they actually had a battle set up in array against them. And I won't get into all of these different examples, but basically what you see in scripture is that Edom is constantly looking to assault, attack, revolt against Israel all the time. And so there's several different examples of this. And so that makes them sort of one of these people that, you know, is kind of a thorn in the flesh of the Israelites.
And so here, what we're going to find out is that they built themselves up into the mountains and they had a big stronghold there. And so this scripture in verse three says this.
The pride of your heart has deceived you. In other words, maybe they thought too much of themselves. Maybe they felt like they were better than Israel. Maybe it was just that they felt like they had the grounds to be able to be condescending to them and attack them and to, you know, to look at them in kind of a disparaging way.
But God notices that arrogance and that hostility. And he says, hey, the pride of your heart has deceived you, Meaning you've kind of built up yourself as something that maybe you're not. He says, those of you who live in the clefts of the rock in your lofting dwelling, who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground? Well, so let's look here at Edom. Some of you may recognize this from a scene in a movie, the Last Crusade, I think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This is one of the buildings that was used to film. It was kind of described as the temple there in that movie. But really, this is Petra this is a formation that was in the land of Edom, and it was pushed up against the mountainside and in the rocks. And if you look a little bit closer, you're going to see kind of this reddish tinged rock, which is kind of an interesting connection. You'll find out here in a minute. But they built their houses and their structures and their facilities all up into the mountains. And so they had this unbelievable stronghold. It was a lot of a difficult passageway to navigate. I mean, they had a hard time people getting into there. And so they were able to put, you know, a few soldiers here and there and really keep people out, because yet they had to squeeze people into an area to be able to approach them. So they really had like a militarily advanced approach to things. They were in this high place where really they thought they, you know, because they had built themselves up this way that they were, they were strong and they were mighty and they were able to withstand anything that might come their way. But it's interesting that the Lord says this in verse four.
He says, though you soar aloft with the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord. I love. This is like spiritual smack talk right here, right? I mean, like, wherever you put yourself up, however you build yourself up, however you think of yourself in this high regard, just understand, no matter where you put yourself as high as you could possibly imagine, I, the Lord can bring you down from there.
And so let's talk who are the Edomites? And a lot of you are already ahead of me. I know some of our children already know this because they've been studying it in their Bible classes. But who were the Edomites? Well, it kind of goes back to a sibling rivalry that you're all going to be familiar with. And that is Jacob and Esau.
You remember back in their times, the Bible talks about how in the womb of Rebecca, there was this wrestling match going on, that these two brothers in the room, these twins were going at it all the time. It was kind of like, you know, look here, brother. You know, it's like WWE type stuff, you know, kind of crazy and fun and they're having at it in the womb. But it's interesting, even in the birth, it says that Esau was born and then, you know, Jacob was grasping onto the hill like, no, you come back. I'm not ready, you know, not ready for you to get out of here. So it's kind of an interesting story there about that. And when you see Esau, you know, only a mother could love a face like that. I think probably, you know, hairy, fuzzy all over. And in fact, the word Esau itself means roughly felt.
It's the idea that he was hairy, okay? And so we may think of that as hilarious. Like, they called him Harry all of his life. Yeah, not H a R R y but H A I R y. So they kind of came, you know, a way to identify who he was. He was a guy who had, you know, that rough skin. He was a man's man. You know, he was an outdoorsman. He was a hunter, he was a gatherer. He, you know, rode a truck with a big lift package or something. You know, he. He was a big guy. Probably listened to Luke Combs or something like that.
So you got. You got this guy who's a man's man, who's out there, he's rough and all that stuff. And his brother Jacob is like, smooth skinned and watching hgtv, you know, that kind of guy. He's a little bit more sensitive and all those kinds of things. But when Esau came out, obviously this was something, you know, that they took notice of his. His covering, okay, the way he felt. And so in the womb there, you see this battle raging and then they come out and they're such distinct personalities.
But if you'll remember, in Esau's world, one of the things that he did was he was the firstborn. So he was to be given the birthright, right? And this was like a double portion of blessing. It was when the father passed away, you know, that son, that firstborn son would be the patriarch of the family, the leader to guide them spiritually in all these different ways. But if you'll remember, Esau dismissed that, right? He thought of it as something casual that he could get rid of. And of course, Jacob was a little bit opportunistic. He's at home making this beautiful red lentil stew, and Esau is out hunting and gathering. And he comes back and he's famished. And in that impulsive moment, that moment where he makes a decision on the spot, he.
He says, hey, give me some of that red stew. Basically pour it down my throat.
And Jacob's like, hey, be glad to. How about that birthright?
And so Esau says, well, what good's a birthright gonna do to me if I die right here of hunger? So he sells him the birthright for that red stew. And it's interesting that from that point forward, you know, Esau would get this nickname, Edom, and Edom means red. So red became, you know, the way he was known and the name that would last with his people for many, many years.
So you see, this takes place.
And while Esau had sold off the birthright, it had to be verified and had to be blessed by the Father later. And so I don't know if you remember this in Scripture, but Isaac is getting older and more aged and not able to see very well. And so in that weakened state, Rebekah and Jacob conspire against Esau to take that blessing from him. And if you remember, it just gives you a little bit more of just how hairy this guy was. You know, they took goatskin with the hair on it and put it on the back of Jacob's neck and on his arms.
And so, you know, as Isaac couldn't see who was in front of him, he could feel. He says, well, it sounds like the voice of Jacob, but it's actually, you know, it feels like Esau. So he bestowed that blessing upon Esau.
Well, you can imagine as Esau got more and more infuriated about that over years, how that became more of a deeper part of that sibling rivalry. Now, I was told by my brother Chad, I could not use him in a sermon, so I'm not going to. I will talk about my other brother who is not here to defend himself. And Chad is happy with that. All right. Me and my brother Chris had this kind of rivalry, okay? And I don't mean, like, killing each other type rivalry, but we were 18 months apart, and we competed against each other. And he was always little for his age, and I was always big for my age. So really, we kind of grew up about the same.
And he was always so athletic, and I wanted to be so athletic. I could never beat him at anything. I just wanted so badly to beat him. So many things. I can identify with sibling rivalry, and I'm thankful now that. That all of my brothers, we're all close, and we love each other, and we have that special relationship and bond that we're hoping to make each other better now. But if you're not there to make each other better, sometimes that rivalry can turn into bitterness.
And ultimately, we see this happening with Jacob and Esau.
So ultimately, they're broken off into two separate nations. You got Jacob, who later became Israel, meaning striving with God.
Then Esau became the Edomites.
And for whatever reason, those two had such issues.
We read in Genesis, chapter 33 that though they had this rivalry, Jacob was approaching Esau and wanted to kind of Talk to him and these kinds of things. And Esau heard that Jacob was coming, so he puts together 400 men worth of an army. And he approaches after Jacob as well. Jacob is scared in this moment. He falls to his face and he asks for his brother's forgiveness. And he falls down. And Esau goes and picks him up and hugs him and kisses him. And they seem to have, like, a moment of restoration, which is great.
But there were still, like, if you read a little bit further, there was still some hesitancy to stay closely connected. So the hurt that they experienced together, the betrayal that they experienced, created this distance between them. And perhaps even though the two of them may have kind of restored that relationship, there was still some, you know, some just fear toward the other, frustration toward the other, animosity, those kinds of things. And that began to grow and to develop, not just with them, but with their descendants to follow. You know, Esau himself didn't take revenge on Jacob, but later his descendants would begin to do this. So when we see all these things and you hear all the ways that they've been a problem, you get to this moment where. And we talked about this in the book of Lamentations, where, you know, the Israelites were taken off into captivity in Babylon. And in the middle of all that, it turns out that Edom was a part, at least an accomplice in some ways, or at least a person who stood by and sort of cheered on these kinds of things. So you've got these passages, like in Psalm 137, verse 7, it says this. Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites in the day of Jerusalem, how they said, lay it bare, lay it bare down to its foundations. You see what's happening. The Edomites were there watching all this take place.
The city being ravaged, the temple being torn down, people being taken off in big droves. And they stood by and they watched this. And not only that, but they were kind of cheering it on, like, lay it bare, cut it down to the. To the foundation, absolutely scrape it clean. And they stood kind of from a distance looking at this.
But then In Ezekiel, chapter 35, God is also warning the Edomites and making a declaration of how they were guilty. He says, I will deal with you according to the anger and envy that you showed because of your hatred against them. Talking about the Israelites, he says, I'll make myself known among them when I judge you.
And you shall know that I am the Lord.
He's declaring that he's in control.
And this is something for us to be reminded of.
I was just thinking about this. First of all, spiritual leadership is not merely an accident of birth order, but it's a matter of character, values, and choice. And we see that Esau kind of turned in a one direction, his descendants turned in one direction, and. And Jacob kind of turned the others.
I go back to that moment of impulsiveness.
You know, Esau was given a choice to come in and just be a part of the day and maybe even eat that stew for free.
But instead he made that an issue and dismissed something that God had ordained for him and pushed it aside and showed that that impulsiveness was the kind of thing that disqualified him. It. It's like God already knew that this would happen, that there would be something better through the line of Jacob. And so God chooses Jacob ultimately through all of these situations. And ultimately God is in control.
But I want us to look at verse five through nine as it talks about the different things that will happen. And I won't read all of the text, but ultimately what he says is, as a result of these things, in the way you've treated Israel, you're going to suffer these things. You're going to suffer economic ruin, your allies are going to betray you, you're going to lose leadership in your group, and also with that, the wisdom that comes with that leadership. But then you're also going to be completely and totally annihilated as a group of people.
And that's the destruction that is coming from. That's the consequence that God is giving to them. So let's just for a moment think about relationships for a second.
We're talking about a brotherhood here is kind of faltered. And we see that their relationship led to a lot of other different things. And it makes me just want to ask the question, and you can take this kind of in a lot of different ways.
Which way do you want to take it? Do you want to take it in the sense of these nations against each other? Do you want to take it in the sense of brothers, literally blood brothers? Or do you want to take it from the standpoint of spiritual brothers, brothers and sisters? You know, that kind of, you know, disregard for the unity that we must have is a very dangerous thing. And it can cause consequences that last for a long time. In this case in particular, because the will of God was trying to be thwarted by the Edomites, he comes at them. In fact, in verse 10, he says this.
Because of the violence that you have done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.
So let's look specifically into what it was that they did and how they were guilty. Verse 11, first of all, says that they were passive. In other words, they just kind of stood off. He says, in the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. It's the idea that the Babylonians came in, ravaged the place, and they're off in the distance going, oh, man, look at that. That is just terrible. Yeah, come on in. Go on. Yeah, good. You know, and they're. They're standing there giving them the thumbs up, and they're. They're. They're kind of standing back just like, oh, this we could protect them. But no, let's just stay right here and see what happens in all this. See how much God will protect him. He's been warning them for a long time. Maybe. Maybe this is the end of it all. And so they stood aloof. They. They stepped back kind of in a sort of. In a jestful way like that. They would just look and see the destruction that's taking place without offering.
The second thing is they celebrated. They literally. The Bible says that they gloated. And the idea of gloating is that something would be wide open, meaning their mouths would be open, their lips would be turned up on its corners, and they would be, to a certain degree, joyful and exciting about this. Look what it says. Do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune. Do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin. Do not boast in the day of distress. Can you see how they were standing away, looking at the demise of their brethren and celebrating that loss, but also tells us that they robbed them, they looted. They were a part of that. As the Babylonians came in and took everything. And maybe the stuff that they dropped or whatever, that they grabbed those things as well. But here's the point. God was watching all of this and seeing exactly what was taking place. And it infuriated God as he watched these brothers not look out for one another, not protect and actually violate the protection order that was given by him.
But then, number four, they facilitated at least their capture, but probably most likely some of their deaths.
As the Babylonians were coming in, it seems like they kind of, you know, some of them were scattered and they were running off and they were trying to escape the captivity. And it sounds like they stood and Prepared themselves, put themselves in certain places so they could blockade those people and captured them and turned them over to the Babylonians.
So God looks at these things and says, these are the things, if you read Obadiah, that you as a nation are guilty of, and these are the things that are going to bring the consequences.
So I want to say this again.
God hates a broken brotherhood.
And like I said, there could be many, many ways to look at this.
You can look at it from the standpoint of the Edomites versus the Israelites or Judah, and you can say, well, that's terrible that they had that kind of conflict and that God would bring this kind of judgment.
But then let's talk about, like, our relationships with our brothers and sisters in the flesh.
I mean, do we sometimes allow relationships, you know, someone to say something that affects us and, you know, maybe offends us, and we don't do anything to repair that?
You know, I understand that there are times where in broken relationships with people, especially family, that we love, that there could be a reason for us to need a boundary to protect ourselves from harm and those kinds of things. But just think about what a blessing it would be if we could find a way to rejoin family members and find peace and find a connected relationship.
But then what about, you know, the connections we may have here in our worship assembly, our brothers and sisters in Christ? You know, we've talked about how important it is to have that sense of belonging and sense of identity, that we belong to Jesus, where we belong to each other and we have that close relationship. But, you know, when. When we do it best, it says that that's a. That's a marker of who we are in Christ. But what happens when we don't do that? Well, we fail to be exactly what God wants us to be. And so that's something that we need to consider as well. God hates a broken brotherhood.
But then we get to this pivotal verse 15, and some. Some scholars will call it a hinge verse. It's the idea that he shifts from a direct focus on Edom and the sins that they've committed, and he pivots to anybody that comes up against God's people. Look what he says. For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations as you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return to your own head. He's saying, hey, let's use Edom here.
But let's kind of address everybody, anybody that comes up against God's plan, God's will and his pleasure, and the things that he's got in place, his sovereignty has put in place. When we go up against those things, we're going to find ourselves on the backside of his wrath and his anger as well. So that's something for us to just think about as we look at this, and especially as I was studying this, and again, I'm not a Hebrew scholar in any way.
I don't necessarily understand all the language. But in my study, there were things that kept getting pointed out over and over that I think were really cool for us to kind of make a connection as he's talking to Edom. What I need you to understand is the word for Edom and the word for Adam or mankind are the same Hebrew letters, same three letters. The only thing that makes a distinction between those are those markings or those accents that give us an understanding of which vowel it's meant to portray in those consonants or in the vowels that are used for that. But then there are also some markings that illustrate where the breath should come and where the emphasis should be. What syllable gets the most oomph, so to speak. And so when you look at this, and this is kind of cool to me, that God can give us not just this singular focus on Edom, but that he gives us an understanding for all of us, and that is that all of mankind is brought into this as well. It seems to me that as I read this, Edom is sort of like this. It's an example or it's like a way for us to look at all of humanity, that anytime we come against anything that God has in mind, that we find ourselves on the opposite into this, that God is paying attention to that. He is aware of our arrogance. He's aware of our vengeful spirit. He's aware of the things that we may do in our hearts and our minds as we look to other people in a condescending, harmful way.
And God weighs those motives and weighs those actions. Listen to Proverbs 24 says, do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. That's tough for us, right?
When we feel so hurt and betrayed by someone, if we see them get what's coming to a man, it just makes us so happy, makes us so just thankful. Thank you, God, for doing that. You know, and what he's saying is that kind of spirit is not of the Father. That's not the kind of attitude that we need to exhibit at all. He's saying here, don't swell up with pride, as if you had something to do with someone's demise. Lest the Lord see it and be displeased, it says, and turn away his anger from him. Fret not yourself because of evildoers and do not be envious of the wicked. That's hard, right? Don't be, you know, fearful. Don't be envious. Don't be all those kinds of things that's tough for us. And don't be looking for their demise. Why?
For the evil. Man has no future.
Catch what God is saying.
The lamp of the wicked will be put out.
This is something for us to be reminded of and it should take us off the hook a little bit. I think sometimes we stir up the emotion and be angry with people that we don't need to be angry with. When we can just let the Lord sort it all out. I think God hates it. When we think it's up to us to level the playing field, when we think it's up to us to execute justice on someone and to put them in their place, that we have to right those wrongs. God is saying, I'm sovereign. I don't take joy in my people, My creation, fighting against one another. No, he wants us to find that unity. He wants us to work together. He wants us to solve the problems, to work out our disagreements and to come to good conclusions. Sometimes I understand that can't be done, but that's what God is calling for and to recognize that he is sovereign and. And that he rights all of those wrongs. Listen to Romans 12.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
That should cause us to just relax a little bit, to not be so easily offended, to not always feel like people are out to get us, but to just know with confidence that God sees all, watches all, and he takes care of everything in the end.
You know, the Edomites I said would come into that area. It would later be known as Idumea, which was the Greek term for that area. I want you to understand the hostility, how it grows over generations and over time, how it can be a problem.
We find out that Herod the Great, who was the Herod when Jesus was born, was an Idumean. So he was an Edomite. Well, now think about that in connection with what was promised in Christ.
All of a sudden these wise men come into Jerusalem and they find Herod and they say, we have come to find the King of the Jews.
Well, the Senate had already given Herod the Great. That title.
And so he's like, oh, good. Well, where might I find this person? If you remember, he asked them specifically, and they were like, well, we don't know yet. So they're going off to follow the star. They go find Jesus. And in the midst of all that, Herod starts getting a little bit nervous about this. A little bit, because the King of the Jews is going to be born. So he pulls in all of these chief priests and religious experts, and he asks them, where does the prophecy say that this child, this king of the Jews, will be born? And they're like, oh, well, it's in Bethlehem. Okay.
So the magi, the wise men, were supposed to come back through and tell Herod that exact spot. When they did not, he issued a decree that all the babies in the Bethlehem area, two years and younger, would be put to death.
Why?
One, because he was fanatical and crazy.
But two, because this is the Edomites and that mentality against the house of Jacob, you understand, isn't that interesting that all of that has some connection together, that the Edomites were just bent on destroying the promises of God through Jacob.
Let's talk about some things that we can take away from this. First of all, a broken brotherhood can perpetuate generational conflict.
You know, let me say it again.
Let's do our best to be people of peace.
I think Romans chapter 12 also says in verse 18, as much as lies within, you live peaceably with all men.
But ultimately, God wants, especially us in our relationships, to draw closer together.
But if we don't get a few things right, that can perpetuate itself. And we just teach that to our children, and they teach it to their children. And that animosity grows and grows and grows, and it can create generation after generation of hostility that we could have fixed by having the right perspective and the right attitude.
But then, spiritually speaking, jealousy, arrogance and vengeance, we've already said this. They're of the enemy. They're not of our Father.
So if you find yourself competitive with someone, if you find yourself in a relationship where you just want their worst to happen, and for you to be rising up above them and for you to kind of enjoy the fact that you have done that, those kinds of things, I just want you to understand, those are of the devil.
That's not who God made us to be. God made us to be people who trust in him. And so the other takeaway is this.
God will right all wrongs, and yet we are urged to overcome evil with good.
Also in Romans chapter 12.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
That's tough for us.
But what God is saying is you don't have to be the one who levels it all. I will take care of all that. If you read the last part of Obadiah, and I won't get into all of the verses, but ultimately it points to a better day where any nation that comes up against God's will is going to be taken down. And ultimately a kingdom is going to be established with a king, the Lord himself, and he will rule forever. I'm reminded of this passage in Revelation chapter 11. It says this.
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. Now that's the brotherhood that we need to be a part of.
And it could be this morning you're thinking, as we're talking about all these things, that this is a book about, you know, Obadiah. It's about the warnings and the destruction that's coming on edom.
But verse 15 kind of pivots to any and everyone who comes into to hostility against God's plan. And so maybe it's that you have been fighting against God, maybe it's that you have not given yourself fully to that. And it may be today that you're having relationship problems with a lot of different people in a lot of different ways.
And when you really stop and think about it, it could be your own struggle inside, your own jealousy, your vengeful spirit.
Or it could be that you just have an envy for someone else.
Well, I would encourage you to make that right and to relieve yourself of that pressure and that responsibility, to just know that God is going to sort things out and for you to not wear that and to bear that all the time.
But it may be that you want to be a part of this brotherhood, this place of belonging, this place of acceptance and love, where the sins that you once had in your life or that you may be carrying right now can be washed away through the blood of Christ.
When we surrender ourselves, we're baptized into him to be forgiven of our sins and to have that new life in Christ. If there's anyone this morning who has any of those needs, please come while we stand and sing.
