I want to direct your attention again back to the 11th chapter of the book of John. John chapter 11. Our scripture lesson today is going to come from the 17th through the 27th verse of John chapter 11. Without anything by way of introduction really at all, we just want to read the passage and move along as God would direct. But we do want to encourage you, as we always do, to follow along if you have your Bible with you. And if and that you would give heed to the word of God. Now, when Jesus came. He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him. But Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. Last week, we spoke on the first 16 verses of this 11th chapter, and we talked about the death of a believer, how that it is different in just about every way from the death of an unbeliever. We talked about the fact that the death of a believer is one in which there is, of course, sorrow at parting, but there is joy in knowing the reality that that person is at that point enjoying in heaven. We talked about all of those things with the reality as those first 16 verses of this 11th chapter told us about the death of Lazarus and how he had become sick and a messenger was sent to Jesus and Jesus remained where he was and Lazarus dies. This week, instead of talking about the death of a believer, I think in these verses we find an excellent example of the life of a believer. And that'll be our title today is the life of a believer. What is life? What is it? That's a question I think that maybe immediately upon hearing it, we think that we know the answer to that question. That seems like a question that we would have an immediate answer to. But if someone were to come to you and ask you that question, what is life? What would be your answer? I suspect that you would find that answering that question is actually a little harder than it might seem to be at first notice. What is life? What does it mean to be alive? If you look up the dictionary, there's a couple of definitions I want to give you. The first one is Life is the property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism. That's quite a mouthful. Another definition, it's the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being from a dead body. Those are the first definitions in a couple of different dictionaries that I looked up. And I actually looked up the 1828 Webster's Dictionary, and it wasn't very long before he began to insinuate what really life was. But in these definitions, it talks about merely the physical. It's basically saying, these definitions are, that life is the manifestation of a physical reality where we have life in these bodies. In some ways, you can say that these definitions are saying that life is the functioning, a functioning body. But is it? Is that life? Is that what it means to be alive? To have a body that functions rightly? Well, if this is the case, then how can it be that those who have bodies that don't work, how is it that we still know that they are alive? The paralyzed person or others who struggle with some disease or some injury that makes it such that their bodies don't operate correctly, and yet we know that they're alive. It's not just about the physical, is it? It's not just about what happens externally, is it? It's not just that I got up this morning, enjoyed the extra hour of sleep and woke up and began to move about. Is that really the indication that I'm alive? That's what a lot of people want us to think today. And history shows that when people begin to think that life is defined by merely physical function, History shows us how dark a road that leads to. With eugenics and the proponents of eugenics from Plato to Hitler to the present day people who want to say that life is just an external reality, that it's just the physical reality. We find an even deeper question. We find that the question of what is life is a deeper question. It's not just the physical. We know this. I think innately, I think instinctively, if we might use that word, we know that life is something far deeper than the physical manifestation of life that happens around us. These bodies, the world, physical world that we live in, I think innately there's just something within the human heart that knows that there's something deeper that is the answer to what is life. Because our external circumstances change and they change frequently. Yours does, my health does, your health does. We all run into different struggles in our life about that. And as we age, the function of the body becomes less and less. And yet, are we no less alive? I think instinctively we know that there's something greater to consider when we answer the question, what is life? But I want you to think of the people in your life today. your co-workers, your friends, maybe your family, the average person on the street, if you want a straw man to think about. Just so many seem to interpret life as just being about the physical and this world. And yet if you were to truly ask and truly dive deeper, I think we would all admit, no, there's something more. There's got to be something more. So what is life? What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to have life? This is a deeper question. And I want to tell you before we move on that there is someone who doesn't want you to know the answer. The enemy of our souls does not want you to know the answer to this question, what is life? He wants to obscure it from your view all throughout your natural life. all the way through it. And as long as he can keep it from your understanding and your awareness, he will. And he will bring to bear all of his tools and all of his methods and all of his distractions. And he will try all that he can to prevent you from understanding the answer to this most important question, this basic question, what does it mean to be alive? He does not want you to know. He does not want you to see it. So I would ask you, and I ask the Spirit of God as well, to help us to understand and to laser focus our attention on the answer to this question. Because it's the most important question. What does it mean to be alive? The answer to the question In many ways, I believe, and this is the thought that God has brought to us today, however long we might speak about it or however short we might speak about it, it is simply this life. Is belief. And I'm going to need to explain that, I know. Because before I go on, don't think for a minute that I'm a motivational speaker here to encourage you to just believe and it'll become true for you and real. That's silly. The silly ideas in our day of you believe something long enough and hard enough, it will become true. Well, that is to completely dismiss the truth that there is reality and there is unreality. And no matter what you believe, if it's wrong, it's wrong. So this is not going to be about a motivational speech to get you to believe whatever you want to believe and to believe that life is what you want it to be and we'll all go along our happy way and we'll not be bothered inwardly. That's not what this is going to be. I didn't ask you, what do you think life is? Did I? I ask you, what is it? Not what you think. not what you want it to be merely. But what is it? Have you thought about it very much lately? Have you considered this most fundamental question? What does it mean that I have life for these years on this earth? I don't know how many I'll have so far. I've had 46 working on 47. I don't know that there'll be a 48 or a 49. I don't know. What does it mean that today on November 3rd, 2019, I'm alive? What does that mean? And what does it mean for you? Your life. Is based the foundation of it is what you believe. Your life will rise no farther, no higher than the height of your belief. Your whole life is built upon what you believe it is. This is not nearly so controversial as some would like to say. There may be some, if this were an open forum, and we invited a lot of people here today, and many, many people came, there would no doubt be someone who would stand and say that that's wrong. That what you're saying is wrong. That life is not, this is controversial what you're saying, because there are things that I know. I would say there are, really, things that you believe. And through that belief and faith, you can come to know. But it all rests on the bedrock of belief. All of it. The atheist might stand up if he were in the crowd today and say, No, there is no God. I know that there is no God, the atheist says. And to that one, I would say, Do you? How is it that you can say such a thing? How can you say such a thing except this? You believe that there is no God. You cannot say it with certainty, with a definitiveness, or with the proof. It is what you believe. And the answer might be, because I have not seen him, I do not know him, therefore he is not real. But that is an illogical leap in rationality. Just because you don't know him does not mean he doesn't exist, does it? I know people that you don't know. I grew up among many people in Mount Vernon, Missouri, that no one in this room knows. Does that mean they don't exist? Of course not. And you might say, well, it means that I don't know for myself that they exist, and I would say, absolutely, you're right. But even your belief, or even your lack of knowledge of them doesn't remove from the fact that you may not know for yourself, but still yet they exist. The atheist readily admits his own human limitations, his own reality that he can be in one place at one time, and he cannot know everything, and yet he boldly claims there is no God. And I ask, how can he know that? And the answer, of course, is he can't. So why does he say it? Why is that part of his life? It's because he believes it. It's because he believes it. So what is life? What does it mean to know God? What does it mean to be alive? The agnostic, recognizing the weakness in his atheist friend's argument, would say, okay, you're right. I can't say that there is no God, but I can say we can't know whether we can ever know about him or not. And that's the difference between atheism and agnosticism. An agnostic tries to take a step back and maintain some level of intellectual honesty and say, I don't know if he does or not, but I can't know. Men cannot know. And I would say to them, of course you can. and how can you say you can't know? Just because there are people I know that you don't know doesn't mean you can't come to know them. It doesn't mean that you can't meet them. It doesn't mean that you can't become friends with them. It just means you don't know them now. So to the atheists and to the agnostic, I simply say, maybe, perhaps, can it not be that you say there is no God or you say you cannot know that there is a God or not, not because there isn't, but because you simply don't know. And therefore your statements are not statements of fact, they're statements of belief. Life is belief. And I would say this, you live long enough or you go with life, you go on with life without belief, belief in something, belief in some greater thing than your own life. If there's not something in your life that you believe so strongly that you're not that you're willing to die for it, I would ask you, is that life? Or is that just a waiting game for death? Nothing in your life that you believe beyond just the day-to-day, beyond just the next meal, beyond just the next job, beyond just the next thing that will bring you some temporary satisfaction. I would say to you that those who have left and lost belief in anything would likely be the first to tell you that they're not really living. They're just waiting for death. Life is built and is based upon your belief. And of course, specifically, what I'm talking about is your belief in Jesus Christ. That's life. That's life. Belief in the Son of God. The Christ, the anointed one, the chosen, Belief in Him, that is life. Nothing less than that is. Belief in anything else, anyone else, will not lead to life. It leads only to death. And Jesus tells us in this passage of Scripture, this long narrative in the 11th chapter of John about the raising of Lazarus. And we've not even got there yet. But so much is told to us on the way to Christ, calling Lazarus out of the tomb. We dare not go past it without noting it. And the question today is, what is the life of a believer? What does the believer believe? What is his life like? The answers are here. Jesus tells us there are things that a believer believes. And should believe and does believe in the 25th verse, Jesus said to her, that is to Martha. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection and the life. This is the fifth of seven. I am statements of Christ in the Gospel of John. He has said, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door of the sheet fold. I am the good shepherd. And here I am. I am the resurrection and the life. There is a brand of Christianity in the world today that makes Christ a means to an end. Turns Jesus into a ticket to heaven. turns him into a recipe for a good life. But Jesus in no place in the New Testament and nowhere in the Old Testament do we read about him where it talks of him in that light, that he's just a means to an end. He's not just the means to life, he says, I am the life. He's not just the means to heaven. You don't just go and make some simple intellectual decision for Christ and say, I've checked the box. I now have my ticket. And now that I have my ticket, when I die and I leave this world, I'm going to turn in my ticket. And Jesus is my means to heaven. No, that's not the words of scripture. That's not the way the scripture talks about him. It says that he is life. Heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. Heaven's not heaven because there's streets like gold and mansions on the hilltop and beautiful gates and walls of the city and all these wonderful people. That's not what makes heaven heaven. Heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. And if you're not longing to go to heaven because Jesus is there, there's a misguidance. There's something wrong. I'll just say it that way. There's something wrong. That's not what heaven is about. It's not what this is about. It's not what life is about. It doesn't mean that we believe that Jesus is the means to heaven. We understand that he is life. Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. So a believer, first of all, believes that Jesus is the life and the resurrection, and he also believes that though he die, Christ is still life. And that's what Jesus is saying. Lazarus has died. But all of those who believe in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Belief in Jesus does not waver in the face of death. It shouldn't. Belief in Christ does not grow weak in the hour of death. It should grow even more and more certain and more steadfast. And it should be the same way with every year that passes in our life as believers in Christ. Less and less holding to this world and more and more clinging to Christ. Because He, though we die, yet we shall live because of Him. And that's what we believe. And as we began at the beginning, do not say for a moment that because it's belief that it ought to be dismissed, because if you're going to dismiss things based upon the fact that they are mere beliefs, you'll dismiss everything. But the child of God, what does it mean to be alive? It's belief in Christ that he is my life, that his resurrection guarantees mine. that even though I'm going to pass from this world, yet shall I live. I believe that. I believe that with all of my heart. I believe that when I lay this life down, I yet shall live with Christ and that death has no longer a hold over me. That's what I believe and that's what life is. I don't merely have a life that I think is going to count for something here in this world. I don't want people to name buildings after me. I don't want people to think of me in that way at all, even if there was an opportunity, which there will not be. But I want people to know the Lord that I know. And I want people to understand that I, though I have died, yet I'm alive in Christ forever. And I have no fear. of what's going to take place when that last breath of air fills these lungs and that last and final beat of my heart that this body has died, but I yet live and will live forevermore. That's the life of a believer. And that's going to have some ramifications and some impacts on our life that we'll talk about just briefly in a moment. But Jesus says this, these are the things that a believer believes and ought to believe. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. The life of a believer is a life that knows he will live forever. I know this is Christianity 101. I know this is things that you all have been taught from the time that you were in Sunday school, most of you, the time before you could even remember. But I think we can know things so second nature, it can become so second nature to us that sometimes we don't just set it out on the table and remind ourselves just what we know. I'm going to live with Christ in heaven forever. Though I die, I'm going to live forever this life. What is life? Well, life's not temporary. Life's not temporary. It's eternal. Life's not just 80 years on this side, it's eternity. Belief in Jesus leads to eternal life, not just a good life here, but an inexpressible, glorious life for all of eternity. Belief that understands the eternal context of life. A life that does not understand this, by the way. A life that does not understand the context of eternity is a life lived in devastating spiritual myopia. just nearsightedness spiritually that prevents us and prevents you from seeing afar off. You just see what's right in front of you. I do. And when we ask the question, what is life? Life is not about just seeing what's right in front of us. Life is about seeing what is beyond it. Eternity. Unendingness. Presence with God in heaven. We might be able to avoid most of the dangers on a day to day basis with this spiritual myopia. But it is an exhausting activity that saps our strength and does not allow us to ever rest because we grow accustomed to reacting to each temporary challenge rather than looking forward with great anticipation to the eternal home God is preparing for us. Life is not about the day today only. This challenge that is in front of me now, it's about eternity. What goes beyond? What goes past that? I am like you, no doubt, and we're all very similar in this way, that when we come up against a struggle in our life, it's difficult, isn't it, to see past it? It consumes us, doesn't it? And it seems like, well, if I could just get past this struggle, I don't know what it is. We all have them. And we think if I could just get past this and we suffer from spiritual myopia, seeing only what's right in front of us and not taking a moment and stepping back and seeing what's beyond it. I'm telling you, living your life spiritually with nearsightedness is not life. That's just being like the ball in a, can't think of the game, pinball machine, just pouncing around from one thing to the other. And we think again, get past this one struggle. Anybody old enough now, and there are some of us here, no doubt today, that realizes this struggle gets behind me, guess what? Another one coming right around the bend. Just hitting us wave after wave after wave. But it's not life to just live in those realities. We have to tend to them, I know. I said in the beginning this is not a motivational speech. I would be terribly equipped to give such a thing. But don't get bogged down, that's not life. Now there are some things that Martha says that she believes that we see that a believer also believes and therefore is part of a believer's life. in verse 27. Wait, can you imagine, by the way, as we back up for a moment to that 26 verse after Jesus says these things to Martha that I am the resurrection, I am the life. If you even if you die, you shall live. Everyone who believes in me shall live and never die. And then he looks at her and says, do you believe this? I will never be able to say it like he did. But I ask you, do you believe this? And you might say, no, I don't. And I would say, all right, then what do you believe? What do you believe? You say, I don't believe anything. I believe what I know. I know this or I know that. And I'd say, the longer we spoke about it, the more you'd realize, no, no, you don't. You just believe in something else. Martha talks about the things that she believed about Christ in 27th verse, she said to him, to the Lord, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ. There are no others. With this title. She does not say to Jesus, Lord, I believe that you are a Christ. Lord, I believe that you are one of those ways that men can get to heaven. And Buddha is another, and Hinduism is another, and Allah is another, and paganism is another, and my way is another, and this one's is another. She says to him, Lord, you are the Christ. And I will tell you today that one of the greatest challenges that Christianity has in our time is to maintain and stay true to the fact that this is an absolute religion that we follow. It is not relative. You are a Christ. It's your opinion and mine. It's someone else's. It's not their way. But they're still good people or whatever that we might say. She says to him, you are the Christ. For the Christian, this is belief in Christ. Everything in life centers on their belief and trust in Christ, which is the anointed one of God. That's what Christ means. She says, I believe not only that you're the Christ, I believe that you are the son of God, the very son of God among men, Emmanuel, God with men. The Christian believes the son of God left heaven and came to earth. That's what life is for a believer. He knows that God himself in the sun has come and dwelt among men, and he bled and he died on the cross of Calvary, taking upon himself the sin of the world, my own and all others. And I know that he is the son of God in eternity past. He was with God when he created Adam and Eve in the garden. when he called forth all things that were in creation, as John has already told us previously in this same gospel, the believer in God, the child of God, his life is consumed with the reality that Jesus came to earth. And because he did, I have hope and everyone else can have hope to. That's what life is. It's life that's built around the reality that there can be hope in the world because Jesus came here and Martha looks at him in the midst of her struggle. And she says to him, yes, Lord, I believe you're the Christ, the son of God. Who is coming into the world. The very son of God, again, among men, this one who came into the world. The life of a believer also includes the reality that Jesus is coming again. And He's going to right everything that is wrong. He's going to judge every evil deed. He's going to bring the whole world before Him. You and me. We're going to be there. when the son of God comes again and you say, I don't believe this. And I say, I pray that you soon do because you believe something else. You're going to be there, I'm going to be there, we know the life of a believer is is full of the it should be anyway, daily, the reality that Jesus is coming again. He's going to deliver his people. All are going to kneel in submission to him as the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. Now, these things that we believe as a child of God, as a believer, should they not have some significant impact on our life? Of course they should. And of course they do. And I'm not getting ready to go down a path where we beat one another up because we're not what we would like to be. But I would want to tell you there are some things that attend the life of a believer When we believe these things about Christ and we believe them with abandon and without any hedging in the world and with any hedging of our bets and without any safety net in this life that we believe them and we believe them fully and commit to them. There are things in our life that are different from the unbeliever and let's look at a few of them. Fearlessness. Life of a believer is a life of fearlessness. It could be and it should be in many ways. It doesn't mean we don't have concerns. But I tell you today, what is the world all in angst about? We're destroying the earth. I am gonna be the first in line because Genesis tells us that we are to be responsible stewards of this earth. God gave us the responsibility to steward it, but I read in Revelation that it's gonna be God who destroys the earth, not us. But when we don't believe that there's a God holding this all together, we have great reason to be fearful. Because we look at one another, and what are we doing today? Governments, please help deliver us. Well, they're just men and women. We think for a minute that our hope can be found in them to where we're no longer fearful. Martha said this, Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. the Christ who's coming into the world. Do you think that the scriptures, just so we knew geographically where we were, said that this was two miles from Jerusalem? Remember it said that, it's two miles from Jerusalem is where we are. I believe there's a hint. Do you remember what the disciples said to Jesus when he was considering coming back? To see to Lazarus, they said, Jesus, the Jews just sought to kill you. They had stones in their hands ready to stone you. And you want to go back there? But here's Martha, a scant two miles from the heart of Judaism, saying openly, I believe you're the Christ. Don't miss the courage that took. Don't miss the importance of this and the significance of what that meant. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, fear not those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. So evidently to Christ, life is far more than this body. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in him. The life of a believer is filled, it ought to be, with a certain fearlessness. Because God has us in his hands. Secondly, hopefulness. Even in the face of this terrible loss, Martha expresses hope in Christ. And I read a number of different commentators that some would give Martha a hard time because in the In the following verses in verses 39 and 40, I believe there's this exchange between Martha and Christ when he says to roll away the stone and maybe we'll get there at this point. But I just want to look at her words on face value right now. She knew this and she said this and she had hope in Christ because she said, Jesus, had you been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Some people say that that's a rebuke of Christ. I actually don't think it is. I think she's just simply stating what she believed, that Jesus, had you been here, he wouldn't have died. But even now, Jesus, I know that whatever you ask, God will do it for you. There's hope in that. Do you hear the hope in her voice? Hope in Christ. I know. that you can do whatever you desire to do, Christ. And I'm going to trust you even in the midst of this terrible situation. I miss my brother. I loved him dearly. He is now gone. Not to mention, by the way, all of the realities that it would mean for Mary and Martha, that their male provider has now died and what that meant for them in that society at that time. Never mind all of that. She says to Jesus, I know that you can do whatever, that God will do whatever you ask him to do. And it reminds us again that verse that so intrigues me and so settles over me at times in my life in Job chapter 13 verse 15. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. I would encourage you to have Job 13 15 in your back pocket as you walk through this life. Trust Him. Trust Him even when all signs seem to point to the fact that maybe He's not there because He is. Thirdly, as we move along, it leads to great confidence, this kind of life of a believer, fearlessness, hopefulness, and confidence. Again, verse 22, Martha knew, even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Martha's words that she knew that whatever Jesus wanted to do, it would be done. Isn't that a wonderful thing to live with as a believer in Christ? Jesus, I know that whatever... I remember when I was saved as an 11-year-old boy, I could not have articulated this at the time. But as I look back on it now, I did not know at that moment this was exactly going on, but as I cried out to Christ and he forgave me, he said to his father, this one is ours. My blood is now covering him. He is now mine and yours. We are his. This confidence that wells up in the believer in God, that nothing is impossible with him. Matthew 21, 21, Jesus answered, Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will only do what has been done to the fig tree. But even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. And I know there's been a great deal of misrepresentation of that verse. But suffice it to say, that the life of a believer is a life of confidence in God. If there's a few things that we could point in contrast to a believer and an unbeliever, it must be these things, fearlessness, hopefulness, and confidence. Confidence in God. Finally today, I want to just make a few words about the fact that this belief of ours, It is a belief that matures with time. It matures with time, or at least it should. Our trust in God should be greater today than the day that we got saved. It should be more mature, more complete. Our confidence in him should have grown Our hopefulness in him should be larger today than it was then. This faith grows and it matures. And in this exchange in verse 39 and 40 that we'll not read today, but this exchange that goes back and forth, it's enough to say that Martha believed Jesus could do anything, but she didn't know precisely what he would do and how he would do it. But that doesn't mean she didn't trust him. Belief in Jesus does not mean that we know the outcomes of our circumstances. That's not what it means. Martha didn't know what Jesus was going to do. Of course, she probably at this point in the 39th verse, by the time we get there, she's starting to get an idea. But here in the verses we've read, she doesn't know what Jesus is intending. But she still yet believes her belief did not give her all the answers to her circumstances. Belief in Jesus again does not mean that we know the outcomes or the circumstances of our life, but it does mean that we know the one who does and that he loves us and that he said he'll never leave or forsake us. That's what we do know. don't know how it's all going to work out. But I know that my Redeemer lives, as Job said, that I'm going to see him in the latter day. Job not suffering from that spiritual myopia that so many of us sometimes suffer from. He's in the midst of his terrible trial, and he says this. I know I'm going to see him looking past this great struggle that was in his present, knowing that greater things were to come. And it is so often only at the points of struggle that we truly find any of this out. If we had any idea just how much of a blessing our struggles are, we would probably pray less. God, get rid of them for us. Oswald Chambers wrote this, God's orders must work up to a crisis in our lives because we will not heed the gentler way. Say that again. God's orders must work up to a crisis in our lives because we will not heed the gentler way. He brings us to the place where he asks us to be our utmost for him and we begin to debate then he produces a providential crisis where we have to decide for or against. And from that point, the great divide begins. You know what I think we're missing the most? Crisis. that sends us desperately to our knees, clinging alone to Christ. If in our life we can cling to something else and be fine and go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning and go through our day and not be aware that if I cling not to Christ, I have no hope. than what we are missing the most is perhaps a crisis to remind us of that. And I wouldn't wish that on anyone, no terrible thing upon anyone, but I wish this. Christ, you are my all in all. You are the son of God. You are the Christ, the anointed one. You are the life and the resurrection. You are the bread of life. You are the good shepherd. You are the door of the sheep. You are the light of the world. You are all of these things to me because you are mine and I am yours. And no matter what happens in my life, I know that you live and I know because you live, I live and that death no longer has any sway over me. And so I thank you, Father, for telling us these things in your word. And I thank you for sending things my way in my life to remind me of that. I'll just say this and I'll be done. There have been times in my life where there has been great turmoil and struggle. But in the midst of them, the sweetest and most just the sweetest fellowship with Christ from one moment to the next. What is the life of a believer? What is life? It is to know God. Doesn't that just make sense? That life is to know God. Can you think of anything else that would better define what life is? To gain the riches of the world? Really? I just wish we ought to have somebody who's gained all the riches of the world. We ought to have 20 of them come in the room and hear 18 of them, if not all of them, say it's not all what it's cracked up to be. What is your belief? What are you believing in? What about the belief of a child of God is not desirable? What will you believe in instead? Yourself, your friends, your work? your family, your money, your job. What is it? What is it? I. I ask you to believe in Christ today. To repent and believe in him, believe what he said about himself and he said about you, which is he came to the world because you were a sinner. And without him, you have no hope. care how good of a person you want to be without Christ. There is no hope. I've said it before. There's not a person in heaven that if you ask, why are you here? None of them will say because I did this or that in life. They're going to say, I know him pointing to Christ and he knows me. Because I met Him one day on this side of eternity, and I committed to Him that I would follow Him, and I submitted to Him in repentance for sin, and cried out to Him for mercy and grace. And I did that, and then there was a point in time when He saved me, and He took away the burden and the fear, and He replaced it with confidence and hope and assurance. That's what I hope for you. said in the beginning, there's one who doesn't want you to know what life is about. And he doesn't. But I want you to know what life is about. There's others here who wants you to know what life is about. But more important than that, God wants you to know what life is about. It's why he gave it to you. So that you might know him.