What Happens When Grace Comes
by Jeremy Painter
September 15, 2024 · Christian Life Church, Heath, Ohio
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Luke 5:4-8, Job 1, Job 4:12-19, Romans 7:21-24, Romans 8:31-34

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/jeremy-painter--what-happens-when-grace-comes
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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A very good morning to you. God bless you. Thank you, Pastor uh for welcoming me back to CLC. It's a privilege and an honor. Would you open your Bibles to Luke the 5th chapter, St. Luke 5, and I'd like to read verses 4-8. Now when Jesus had left speaking, he said unto Simon, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a drought." And Simon answering said unto him, "Master, we've toiled all the night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net." And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net break, and they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. And when Simon Peter saw it,

he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." He was astonished and all that were with him at the draw of the fishes which they had taken. I'd like to uh preach this morning from this passage of scripture and uh I'm uh specifically speaking on the subject of what happens when grace comes. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for your help this morning. I pray for the congregation that their hearts would receive your word faithfully preached. I pray that you would help me to teach faithfully whatever you would have me to say in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. I'd like to spend quite a bit of this time over the next few days today and over the next few days speaking on the subject of the grace of God

and the righteousness of Christ. And more specifically as we proceed, uh, I'd like to spend some time speaking on the subject of idolatry as an obstacle to the grace of God. Um, but that is in the days and the evenings to come. But for today, the grace of God, the power of the grace of God. Um really I I this is the second service. And I understand that typically there's a second iteration of the same sermon and the same songs. And I I suppose you could say that this is the same sermon. It's just same the same in the sense that Luke and John are the same. um they're telling the same story but in different ways. Our text depicts Jesus calling of Simon Peter. This is Peter's introduction really to Jesus. And he does not yet know who he really has encountered here. Peter

doesn't. Uh but he uh suspects that he is a uh a man of great power and wisdom and he even calls him uh curios or lord uh which is a polite and respectful way sometimes of referring to uh superiors but also to people you're not all that familiar with. It is not the lordship, the full devotion that you will have at the end of the gospel. It is at this point more polite and respectful, but but uh this first encounter gets off to a really shaky start from Peter's perspective. Jesus has been teaching all through the day. Um this particular day is the fullest itinerary that we have of any one single day of Jesus life except for the night and the morning of the passion. We are able to track across the four gospels what he was doing at the very beginning of the

day in the middle of the morning in the late morning in the early afternoon noon the late afternoon the early evening and then on into the late evening. we have his fullest itinerary. He has been I I take it that this day is a representative day in the life of Jesus. Uh that this isn't uh an anomaly. This isn't him uh performing or u uh uh filling his itinerary in ways he didn't normally. But this is his typical day. But he has been teaching, preaching the kingdom of God. He has been healing. He's had probably at this point thousands of people come before him and ask him to pray for them. He has exorcised demons. He has healed many lame. He has touched the blind. He has encountered opposition from people who have opposed him in his teaching. and he has been uh also opposed

by his own family on this day. On this day, it seems that some of Jesus's brothers um uh uh accused him of being insane. Um the Pharisees accused him of working on behalf of the devil. Um needless to say, this has been an extraordinarily exhausting day. He has come to the side of the lake and he begins to teach. Um he teaches here um needing a little bit of distance between himself and the people he's teaching to. uh for whatever reason. Um uh it it is a uh sort of a a truism in faith healing ministries that uh anyone that gets a reputation for being a faith healer uh will ultimately be somebody who u uh will in every service be asked to pray for somebody. almost ignoring the teaching and the preaching and going straight for the miracle. Um, this happened with Amy Simple

McFersonson in the early 20th century to the point that she ended up resenting the faith healing ministry uh because people weren't really listening to her preaching. Um, Jesus has needed a little bit of space now so that he could teach and a couple of fishermen are nearby. And it seems that at some point one of them loaned him his boat so that he could launch out a little bit off of the uh off of the seashore, get a little bit of distance and stand in the boat and teach about the kingdom of God. It's a beautiful little parable. Also, there's kind of a uh something very clever going on here. Remember, he's going to call Peter to be a fisher of men. And Peter gets to see here a demonstration of Jesus fishing for men. He's standing in a boat and teaching. Uh, nevertheless, by

the time that Jesus is done teaching, and of course, I'm I'm taking uh part pieces of at least three gospels to try and give a profile of this this whole encounter. And uh uh by the time Jesus is done teaching, Peter has seen he's seen quite a bit. and he's himself is out there uh uh fishing and he hears the one who's been teaching say, "Throw your net on the other side." And um Peter says, "Well, we've been fishing all night and or we've been fishing all day and and uh we've caught nothing, but I've seen your word in action essentially." Okay, very well. I'm the fisherman. I'm the expert here. but out of respect and to humor you perhaps I'm going to go ahead and let this net down. And so he did. And all of a sudden the water is alive. Silver fins,

thousands of them flopping in the sea. The net is brimming. And Peter the fisherman calls over for his help. And other boats draw near and they help bring in this net. And you can almost hear the net snapping. There are pieces of the net that are snapping. They probably lose a little bit of fish. And they pull it in. And when it's all said and done and he's able to reflect on what's just happened, Peter turns around and looks back at the shore. at the one who told him to put his net on the other side and he sees himself. I thought I was doing him a favor by lending him my boat that day to stand and teach him. magnanimous, generous me doing him a favor. And then I listened to him teach and he taught great and wonderful things. But that wasn't enough

for me. I still thought that I was in the advantageous position. I knew more than he did and I objected to what he said and I let the net down just to humor him. Peter has no doubt dealt with a lifetime of ready, fire, aim sort of mentality. He he he he doesn't quite think before he speaks. And this is yet one more instance. He jumps out of the boat. He rushes to the shore. A scene that's strangely reminiscent of something from the end of John's gospel. And then he says to Jesus at he's as he's down on his knees, depart from me. Now, those are not the words I would expect to see right here. I would expect to see thank you. It's wonderful. The answer has arrived, Lord. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for looking past what I've done. Thank you

for being gracious. But that's not what the text says. It says that he said, "Depart from me. I'm a sinful man." In other words, in the grace of Jesus, he has seen his own sinfulness. So leave. Um in ancient very ancient Greece going back to times even before Christ there were a um in in mythological stories um uh villains sometimes villains in the stories they were they were called the furies uh typically three goddesses with serpents for hair and they were seductresses but also uh their role goal in Greek religion was to balance nature. And so if nature was out of balance, the furies were unleashed to balance nature. In one instance, there was a wife who killed her husband and the furies were unleashed against her uh because a crime had been committed against nature in the uh the killing of the husband of

the home. Um, but in time, for reasons we don't quite understand, historians and mythologists don't really understand, the furies or as they were called um uh at at the time they they ended up being called the humanities. That is, they ended up being called the graces. We really don't know why this transition from an awful name uh signifying terror to a name that signifies its opposite. Uh but there is there are some possibilities and I just want you to walk with me for a few moments as I uh uh uh try to uncover the nature of grace. Grace has a frightening side. In my own experience, grace can be every bit as awful to receive as it is wonderful when I first encounter it. It can be hard to live with the knowledge that we don't deserve something. Um, it's difficult enough living with uh

undeserved suffering, but even worse to live with the knowledge that we're having to live on someone else's grace. If you really want to torture your enemy's soul, lavish him with kindness. This may be why Paul's doctrine of salvation has been so repulsive to so many, why almost a parenthesis has been put around Pauline texts and Pauline doctrine of salvation. Um, we want to know that we've paid our our our uh away in life, that we're not squatters on someone else's land, that something in us merited our place at this table of honor. Who wants to be reminded that we could never deserve God's gracious gift and that the only way we could have ever had it is if he gave it to us freely. It's not a compliment to our sense of self-worth. It's very difficult sometimes to reckon with this teaching. Um, so there

is right next to grace and hope there is a kind of fear side. And really if you think about it though, it's not that unusual to find hope so close to fear. Um, I think you can make a historical case for where there is one, the other is usually nearby. The relationship between hope and fear may be as intimate as warmth is to light. Um, in the 1970s, world leaders dreamed of clean and endless energy resources. They founded in nuclear energy. It's renewable. It's ridiculously cheap. It's inexhaustible for all intents and purposes. It's clean. Um, no carbon waste. Uh but right next door to this great hope that would power the nations and end poverty for good was Chernobyl. And the memory of Chernobyl is still with us today and is probably uh keeping most of the world or at least a good portion of

the world in poverty. We also dreamed of a global economy. We figured out that when nations trade with each other, when they trade goods, port, import, export, um those nations tend to get along and don't fight with each other and don't go to war. We also found out through the study of economics that a nation that is in debt to another nation financially, typically those two nations don't go to war with each other. Sounds a little bit counterintuitive, but history says it's true. For the most part, um the uh the powerful country has every interest invested in making sure that the nation that owes it is able to pay. Uh global economy, one currency for the whole world. we wouldn't have just as we're breaking down uh uh linguistic challenges and walls just as we're we're able to communicate with people when we're able to

communicate with people in one language we tend not to go to war with each other. Uh and and also if we can have one currency it's all going to u a lot of these differences are going to subside. uh there will be a new era of peace if we can just have a global economy. Not a United States economy, not a Japanese economy or a Chinese economy, but a global economy. But right next to this great hope, well, we ended up as a direct result of the global economy with COVID hope and fear right next to each other. It was believed that genetic treatment could be used to rid the human genome of inherited diseases. Fibrosis or cystic fibrosis, cickle cell anemia, heart disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, some forms of cancer, Marin syndrome, Down syndrome, Huntington Huntington's disease. Um, we could tinker a little bit with

the human genome and rid the human genome of all of those inheritable diseases. It really probably is possible, but at what cost? Right next to this hope, there is the terror, the horror of eugenics. The sorcerer's apprentice has a problem familiar to the revolutionary. He can start the magic, but he can't stop it. Um, these things have a mind and will of their own. Democracy was supposed to w rid the world of tyranny, but in the 1900s, novelists began to see that democracy could be used against the human race just as easily as monarchy. Thus were born novels like Lord of the Flies in 1984 in The Brave New World. There's a a verse of scripture in Job chapter 1 that I I find haunts me. It says that on a certain day that all the sons of God came before the throne of God

to give an account. And then it says, "And Satan came also." Um, you have the most beautiful creations in the universe, all assembling in their holiness to stand before the flawless, sinless throne of God to give an account. What a scene it would have been to behold this. I cannot imagine if I saw one angel in my life in the angel's glory and not in disguise. I don't think I could contain myself. And yet all of the angels came. But then also a shadow comes and Satan came also. is highly instructive. I try to keep this in mind whenever I endeavor to do anything, especially anything good or great. I may have the intention to start a great family. But remember, Satan comes also. Um, I may I I I I'm just took a a pastor in the state of Washington. I have all kinds

of great ideas. But I shall not forget that Satan will come also. Um, when I It's a It's a strange It's a strange strange thing that with all the most beautiful things, there's this there's this intrusion. It it it happened in in in heaven, didn't it? It happened in heaven. Uh, Lucifer fell in the glory of heaven. And you can build a garden of Eden, but Satan comes there also. The snake is in the garden before long. I remember when my first son was born and I couldn't wait till the day he arrived. I dreamed of the day when I could brush his hair, I could kiss his forehead, when I could call him by his name, and when I could see this incarnation of my and my wife's very being right here. I wanted to teach him to talk, teach him how to walk.

I wanted to be with his with him always. And um I couldn't imagine that such a fairy tale could come true, that my own boy would be there for me to hold. And the day came and then it didn't. And then the next day came and then it didn't. Trips back and forth to the hospital. And I thought at times, childishly of course, fairy tales not meant for me. But the day came. I went back to work and I worked an hour away and I got a call. It's time. And I went in. The baby was born. And I wanted to hold him, but there was something wrong, deeply wrong. He couldn't breathe. And so they took him away for 4 days. We couldn't hold him. And then I lay in the hospital bed in the room and my wife and I together lament. I

just fell asleep one night. Still the dream would not come true. And in the middle of the night, I just heard my wife say, "Jeremy, I have somebody for you to meet." I opened my eyes and she was pushing him in his cart and I could lean down and I could I could run my fingers through a full head of hair. Not mine. We kiss his forehead and call him Ethan. It wasn't long before I got to hold him. And I did what I was dreaming of doing of holding him to my chest and the two of us falling asleep together. And I could I had my hand on the back of his chest and I could feel his lungs inhale. Exhale. And at one point he inhaled but no exhale. And I was following this rhythm so closely, marveling at the mystery of life,

the wonder of creation. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. And then the pause and then a cold shiver went through my entire body. He breathed again. But it was the first time that it really settled in to me, settled in my heart. That in this child coming into my life, what I loved so much now was my greatest. I I was never in more danger. I had never faced such fear for he could be taken away and I wasn't in control of these breaths that someone else was. And I can't tell you unless you've had the child yourself how very disorienting that can be. So with this great hope, I never knew fear like this. I had w I had welcomed fear into my life. Sort of reminds me of that old Garbrook song some of you Gen

Xers might remember. Our lives were better left to chance. I could have missed the pain, but then I'd had to miss the dance. could have missed the pain. But then the dance, these two, hope and fear, grace, hope, fear, all mingled together. Next to the tree of life is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Jacob, Jacob, we prize, we esteem. You made the right decision. You made a bowl of soup and gave it away to your clueless older brother. Your older brother makes stupid deals. He gave away an inheritance for a bowl of soup. Wise Jacob. Clever Jacob. Silly Esau. But hold on, Esau. Do you know? We give him a hard time. Do you know what you're giving up? You're giving up the miracles in Egypt. You're giving up Moses as your descendant. You're giving up the promised land. You're giving up

David and Solomon and the temple. And you're ultimately even giving up you're giving up this inheritance includes the Messiah being born from your family. But hold on, hold on. No. From another perspective, look what Esau is trading his inheritance for. A bowl of soup. From another point of view, Esau is also, in addition to those things, he's giving up, he also is giving up the destruction of the temple, the captivity in Babylon, the oppression of the Assyrians. He's also giving up the destruction of Jerusalem. He's giving up the Inquisition. He's giving up the Holocaust and Ashvitz and Dao. He's giving up October 7th. Hope and fear are oftentimes mingled together. From the same throne of God will issue these two phrases. Well done, thou good and faithful servant, and depart from me. I never knew you. Jesus promised that there would be sown amongst the

wheat also tears. This is why I believe God's most common refrain to the human race as testified by scripture is fear not. Fear not. In fact, there are 103 times in which God or one of God's angels says to people, "Fear not." Fear not. Peter prayed that Jesus would depart because Jesus was too good. And it is this particular fear that I'm addressing. And I understand these kinds of sentiments. They have holy precedents. When Isaiah the prophet encountered God in the temple, you would think he would have been elated. You would have think you would have thought that that that this would have been his dream come true. But you find that the words that issue from the mouth of the prophet are so strange. He says, "Woe is me, for I am undone." When Gideon encountered the angel of God, he shook with fear.

Over and over and over again, you find this particular sentiment. See, when grace, when the holy shows up, the human being, the human being, his nature tends to shrink back. You would think we would embrace the call of God, the mercy of God, and the grace of God that we would come running for it. But often times the most common human impulse is to run away because there's a sense of unworthiness, a sense of shame, a sense that we can't do this. We're not good enough to be here. This kind of thing, this kind of sentiment was echoed in another chapter in the book of Job when Job, it seems, encountered none other than the accuser himself. Elephaz is giving words to Job and Job says, "God is treating me unjustly." God is allowing unjust things to happen. I didn't deserve all of this suffering.

And Elephaz can't take it anymore. He's basically the kind of guy that says he he doesn't say good things when bad things happen to good people. He's his his point is when bad things happen to good people or when uh good things happen to bad people. He just thinks human beings are on the whole totally totally unworthy and the correct theology is the correct theology is hate yourself. God doesn't have any business with you. And he thinks that this is going to comfort Job. And here's what he says. A word was secretly brought to me. My ears caught a whisper of it amid disquing dreams in the night. When deep sleep falls on people, fear and trembling sees me and made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could

not tell what it was. And then a form stood before my eyes and I heard a hushed voice. Now Edgar Allan Poe had nothing on this guy. I heard in a hushed voice, "Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his maker? If God places no trust in his angels, if he charges them with error, how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth. Between dawn and dusk, they're broken to pieces. Unnoticed. Unnoticed. Unnoticed. And they perish forever. Who's speaking here? That's the accuser right here. Satan came also. In other words, even God can't stand the sight of his angels. They're too lowly for his eyes. Imagine how immaterial and insignificant you made out of dust are. Now, who are you

to demand justice of God? David would say, "When I think of the sun, the moon, the stars, the work of thy hands, thy fingers, what is man that thou art mindful of him?" But what but what uh Elephaz didn't have that David did had it have is yet thou hast crowned him with glory and honor. There's this paradox in all of this. Um on many occasions I have prayed for healing. When I was a boy I had problems with constant migraine headaches. I remember I'd get on the school bus and I would lean my head up against the window as it was real cold and for just a few moments it could relieve a little bit of that migraine and I would start to pray, God, take away this headache, God. But the next thing that would happen to me would be, but do you

really believe that he can heal? Do you have enough faith to believe that he can heal? And if he didn't heal you, it must be because you didn't have enough faith. And I would walk down that dark spiral of the mind. I would stop praying. This would always abort my prayers. And then I would also think, who am I to ask? There are people all over the world that are hurting and suffering and more righteous than I am. Who am I to ask? Maybe you prayed for a situation on the job or if you're in the ministry, prayed for a problem in the church to be fixed. And all the while you thought, "What business have I to ask the Almighty for such things?" You start going through your life and asking, "Does he even hear me? Look at me." My mother recently told me

a story about her Hungarian grandmother. It completely shocked me. Uh, mom said that when grandma became an invalid and grandpa had to carry her everywhere, he carried her to the breakfast table. Uh, he carried her to the bathroom, to the couch, he carried her to the car, to the sink. And grandma decided somewhere along the way to make his life even more of a living hell by every time he tried to pick her up, he would go she would go limp. Instead of helping him out with what strength she did have to make it easier to carry her, she would throw her weight around as much as she could. And then she would roll her eyes and this poor senior citizen, my grandfather, here he is in his late 60s trying to carry around carry around an adult. Um, she would roll her eyes from

side to side and curse at him day after day, night after night. Why? Because she was living by grace. She was fed by grace. She was upheld by grace. She was loved by grace. And one of the unintended consequences of grace is that it tends to highlight our weaknesses and make us keenly aware of them. Remember the first act of grace. It's uttered in that second verse of the song Amazing Grace. To us grace that taught my heart to fear. And then the grace my fears relieved. But fear comes first. Grace is nice in theory, but many of us will do almost anything never to need it. Give me grace, but not amazing grace, please. And so, this was my great-g grandandmother's revenge upon grace. If she had to live by it, she'd turn it into a tyrant. As if grace were dragging her around,

unwillingly, picking up her body, making every act of kindness look like a forced relocation march. She took what was a beautiful picture of grace and then marred it, making it as horrible as she could manage. She turned grace into disgrace. You know what she was saying to my great-grandfather? Depart from me for I am a sinful woman. I overheard a conversation once between a minister and a man. We were sitting on a ferry and I could hear in the next booth over. I shouldn't have listened. I couldn't help myself. And the man said, "You'd never believe it, but seven years ago, I was completely paralyzed." The pastor said, "No way. Here is this very fit, very strong, very competent and capable man, handsome in the middle of his youth and vigor really." And uh he said, "What what happened?" And the man said, "I was

in a terrible car accident. I was paralyzed from the neck down and I sat in traction for some time and I had to be taught to walk again. And it took a couple of years for me to even begin to have uh the capability of holding a conversation uh and walking at the same time." And he said, he said, "Preacher," I called him pastor, I think, or reverend, I can't remember, but he said, "Uh um, also my my my wife was the one who uh uh was there by my side the whole time. She was uh essentially the nurse who gave me uh therapy and and she took care of me. In fact, she ended up quitting a high-paying job in order to take care of me. And she was never able to get that quite to that level of attainment again in her career.

But she she kindly stepped aside and she took care of me. And and the the pastor said, "That's wonderful. How long have you all been married?" And he said, "Oh, we're not married anymore." Really? Well, that's the that's the part I I'm ashamed of, preacher. You see, uh a few years ago, I um I had an affair. You had an affair. Yes, I had an affair. How did that happen? Well, when I was with my wife, she always it was always a reminder that she was my mother for five years. She taught me to walk and to talk again. She did so much for me. Every time I saw her, I saw her. I saw my own deficiencies. And the only way I could ever feel good about myself was not being with her anymore. Oh, it was a horrible conversation over here. You know

what he was saying? Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. I preached this this morning because someone might not pray for fear that you don't deserve answering. You might not seek the Lord for fear that you are too sinful and too broken. You might not come to a church like this on a regular basis because you don't like how you feel amongst so many good people. In other words, that which compels one man to pray, to seek salvation, to come to a church becomes a pretext for staying away. The Apostle Paul said, "I find a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, waring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin

which is in my members. Oh wretched man that I am. Who shall save me? And if you read through chapter 7, it's all very dark, very poetic, but very dark. And then chapter 8, the light comes on. Jesus shows up. And here's the scene that Paul asks you to imagine in so many words. We stand before God one day in glory and the record of our lives is given out of the book that records everything we've done. And there is an accuser, a prosecuting attorney. He steps forward, and he's the best of eternity attorneys. He can tell a story like no one else. He's the preeeminent storyteller. He can tell a story about you and about me that makes heaven tremble. He can he can he can stand there next to the bar. And his most punishing, the darkest part of his story is when

he shows that even when we're at our best, it's still bad. That's the story he can tell. Boy, he can tell stories that make heaven hush. And everyone would want to hide their eyes and close their ears and say no more. And the rest of eternity eternity cry shame. But the prosecuting attorney, the accuser of the brethren, doesn't have the last word. For you have an advocate. He's sometimes called the high priest. More often he's called the savior of the world and he comes and stands before the throne. What story does he have to tell? Is he going to tell about how good we were? No, he doesn't need to. And thank God for the great story is show and tell. All the eloquence that he would need would be to show the nail prints in his hands. For this coming into the light and

your advocate is the very son of God. And Paul says, "If he's for you, who can be against you?" If there had been a million nos that would keep you out of heaven, it only takes this one yes from the son of God. Just one. Whose voice do you think the throne of God sympathizes with? the accuser of the brethren or the son of God. This day have I begotten thee. In thee am I well pleased. And so look at this jury room. It's a terribly rigged system. For here is the truth. And this is what Paul's driving at. Ladies and gentlemen, there's only one person in this entire cosmos that can condemn you. It just so happens though to be the case that this one person is the one who died for you. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who

shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Oh my goodness. My goodness. Ladies and gentlemen, you have a savior. There are no orphans of God. As the song says, "Come ye unworthy. Come ye unwanted." Your first reaction to the grace of God might be. I'm not worthy. And you might want to run run somewhere where you'll feel like you fit in a little bit better where your your your shortcomings don't stick out so much. But come come to the grace of God. It was made for this. That's right. There was an old song, draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. Would that be your prayer? Draw me nearer. I want to run away, but draw me nearer. Draw me nearer. Now, um I remember one

time I was walking walking down a street and I looked in the window and I saw a reflection of myself and I never felt so ashamed. Just sudden condemnation. Sudden. It was so heavy on my soul. worthless. I remembered something that an elder had once said. Brother JT Pew had once said, "You don't have to be guilty to feel guilty." Whenever that wave of condemnation comes, I hear the voice of the Lord say, "Fear not, my child. Fear not. Come, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as wool, though they be red like crimson. Come to the river of life and drink of it freely. Come all ye who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come. Whose voice will you give a say in your life? The enemy

that says stay away or the one who says come. Would you stand? Praise God. God, you break strongholds with your word. The gospel has been preached, Lord, and I pray that bondage would be broken. Jesus, that we would run to you, that we would fly to you. Like Peter, even though we have depart from me on our lips, we still come and kneel down before you. And you say, "Fear not. I will make you fisher of men. Praise God. Praise God. Would you come to the altar today before you go home? It's a really, really good practice to come to the altar. Come and receive the grace of God. Praise God. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. Hallelujah. Draw me nearer. Nearer. Blessed Lord to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me near, Lord. Draw me near. Would you sing

this as a prayer? Draw me near. Jesus, Jesus, blessed Lord to thy precious bleeding side. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.