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Jesus is Lord

Tom Pennington Selected Scriptures

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You know, it's amazing to me how you can see something every day and not really see it. There are a lot of examples of that, but perhaps the chief one in all of our lives is the sun. The sun that marches across our sky every day, that lightens our world, it enables us to see, and yet, how little do we pay attention to that massive ball of gas that brings light and heat to our planet? You know the basic idea; the greatest source of power in our solar system is the sun. It is a star, as the universe goes, not that large of a star. It is a huge ball of gas with a diameter of 865,000 miles, a hundred and nine times larger than the planet on which we live. It contains some 75% hydrogen, over 20% helium, and the other 5% is made up of more than 70 distinct elements. Its heat and light are the products of a constant nuclear reaction at its core. Scientists estimate, and that's the best we can do, that on the surface of the sun it is a cool 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. At its core they estimate it is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. Its average distance from the earth is 93 million miles. Think about what that means. That means when light leaves the surface of the sun traveling at a speed of 186,000‑miles a second; it takes eight minutes and twenty seconds for it to reach Southlake. The sun absolutely dominates our solar system. In fact, 99.8 % of the mass of our solar system is the sun.

And yet, remarkably for more than a thousand years, Ptolemy and his disciples taught that the sun actually revolves around the earth and that the earth is the center not only of the solar system but of the entire universe, and then Copernicus showed up and sparked a revolution. The true center of the solar system remained completely unchanged, and yet, our understanding of the center was radically and permanently altered.

Can I say that today's Christian church has forgotten its center? It, too, needs a Copernican revolution. A revolution in which we come to understand that everything revolves around the center and that center is Jesus Christ.

Our summer series is entitled, Hold Fast: The Forgotten Truths We Must Always Remember, and today we come to the forgotten truth that Jesus is Lord. He is the center of everything and in control of everything.

Now this concept of absolute sovereign Lord has always been difficult for us as Americans, because as a people we have always resisted the idea of someone ruling over us. After all, one of the slogans of the revolutionary war was: We serve no sovereign here. But the problem is far deeper than our politics. As fallen sinners, each one of us resents and resists the rule of Jesus Christ in our lives. By nature, this is who we are. This is why the psalmist in Psalm 2 -- in Psalm 2, I should say -- describes the rebellion of mankind. He says all of the rulers of the world and all of the peoples of the world are united together in their plotting and scheming "against the Lord and against His Anointed," [that is His Son], "saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!"

That's a picture of human rebellion against the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And it is on the front page of every newspaper, on the front page of every website that brings the news to us every day. But whether we like it or not, whether we agree or not, Jesus is Lord.

The New Testament says this again and again. Even at the announcement of His birth in Luke 2, verse 11 to the shepherds, what does the angel say? He says, "Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." In Acts 2, in Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, in verse 36 he says this to them, "… God has made Him both Lord and

Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified." This was the theme of Peter's gospel message to Cornelius in Acts 10:36, he says, "Jesus Christ … (is Lord of all)"

In 1 Corinthians, 8: 6, Paul says, there is "… one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things," [that is He created everything that exists], "and we exist through Him." He sustains everything. There is one Lord, Jesus Christ. The Bible even ends with the affirmation that Jesus is Lord. In Revelation 22:20 and 21, we read this, this is Jesus speaking,

"He who testifies to these things, says, 'Yes, I am coming quickly.'" [John the apostle responds], "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen." [And the Bible ends. Jesus is Lord.]

Now it's popular in some Christian circles to refer to making Jesus Lord. And I understand the sentiment that they mean; it's just sort of an imprecise way of speaking. But let's be clear about this, you don't make Jesus Lord; He is Lord. You either acknowledge His right to rule you, or you continue in your rebellion against Him, but He simply is Lord. He is unaffected by what you think and how you respond. You see, Lord is the title and position that He owns by right as God. And it is the title and position that the Father gave to Him as a reward for His earthly obedience according to Philippians 2. Jesus is Lord.

Now all of us here this morning, I think most of us here anyway, would affirm the truth of that, but I'm not sure that we always understand it or live in the light of the implications of it. And so for the next few moments as we prepare our hearts for the Lord's Table, I want us to really consider two important issues about this profound truth that Jesus is Lord. Two important issues.

First of all, I want us to consider this, what does it mean? What does it really mean? Well, if you've been a Christian any time at all, even if you don't know much Greek, you may know the Greek word for the word, lord. It's the word, "kurios". That's the Greek word for lord, kurios. The leading Greek lexicon says that the primary meaning of this word, quote, relates to possession of power or authority. It's about power or authority. Now with that basic definition in mind let me show you how it's used in the New Testament.

The word "kurios" is used in the New Testament in three primary ways. First of all, it's used as the master or owner of property. Here is one who has authority. Remember the basic definition? Here is one who has authority because something belongs to him. He has authority over it because it's his. The word kurios is used this way of a house, the kurios of a house in Mark 13:55. The kurios of a vineyard in Matthew 20:8. The kurios of a harvest in Matthew 9: 38 and even the kurios of animals in Matthew 15:27. This is someone who owns it and therefore is the master over it, has the right to dispose of it as he chooses.

A second sense of this word kurios in the New Testament, a second use, is of any position of authority over someone else. Here is someone who has authority, not because he owns something, but rather because he has been placed in a position of authority. It's used in this way of a father. A father is the kurios of his children according to Matthew 21:29. It's used of a husband's response to his wife and responsibility to his wife in 1 Peter 3:6. It's used of government officials in 1 Corinthians 8:5 and in Acts 17:14. It's even used of Pilot; he's called the kurios in Matthew 27:63. It's used of the Roman emperor in Acts 25:26. It really functions in some places as a kind of synonym for king. For example, in Revelation 19:16, Jesus is called the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He is the supreme authority.

But by far, the most common New Testament use of the word kurios is the third one, and that is as the master of slaves. It's used this way countless times throughout the New Testament. I'll give you one example, Ephesians 6:5, where Paul is talking to actual slaves in the congregation in the church in Ephesus, and he addresses them and their masters, and he uses the plural for kurios, of the plural of kurios, your masters.

Now when it comes to our relationship to Jesus Christ as our Kurios, this is the primary sense in which it's used. Jesus Himself explains this. Turn to John 13. John 13, you remember the context here, it's the night of Jesus' betrayal, the night of the Last Supper. The events have just begun. Jesus, you remember, gets up, and in verse 4, from supper, took a towel and He ends up washing the disciples feet for two reasons; one, to teach them about the difference between having their souls bathed in justification and having their feet washed in ongoing confession and forgiveness, and to teach them a lesson about service, menial service of one another. Look in verse 12.

So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I've done to you?" [Now watch verse 13], "You call Me Teacher," [Didaskalos], "and Lord;" [Kurios, you call Me Kurios], "and you are right, for so I am." [He says it's absolutely right for you to call Me Kurios.] Verse 14, "If I then, the … [Kurios] and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you should do as I did to you."

Jesus isn't here instituting a third ordinance in the church that we ought to have baptism, the Lord's Table, and foot washing. Instead He's teaching us a basic lesson that we are to be involved in the menial service of one another. If Jesus could take the position of the lowest slave and wash the feet of His disciples, then we ought to serve one another in such menial ways as well. But then watch what He says in verse 16, "Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave," [a doulos], "is not greater than his [kurios]," his master. This is the point. To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that I am His doulos, and He is my Kurios, my Master. I am His slave; He is the Master.

Paul uses this word the same way in Colossians 3. Look at Colossians 3 22, again writing to actual, physical slaves who had been converted to Christ, were in the church in Colossae, he says, verse 22 of Colossians 3,

Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters, [that's the plural of kurios] on earth, [your earthly masters], not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Kurios. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the [other "Kurios rather than for men, knowing that from … [that Kurios,] you will receive the reward of the inheritance, [for, here he defines it], "it is the … [Kurios Messiah] … whom you serve.

Now do you see what Paul does here? He makes an analogy. He said to the real physical slaves there in the church in Colossae, you're to serve your earthly kurios, but all of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, are slaves of a heavenly Kurios, that's the nature of the relationship when we say He is our Lord. Again and again in the New Testament, and I wish I had time to show you just a sampling, there are so many references I can't even begin to do so, where New Testament followers of Jesus are called His slaves and He is called the Kurios. So, when you examine the meaning then of the word kurios and its use in the New Testament, the fact that Jesus is Lord means that He has the right to rule you and me.

To summarize it in these various senses of the New Testament uses of the word kurios: He is our rightful owner, because He made us. He sustains us. He is our ultimate authority, the highest authority in our lives, and He is our Master, and we are His slaves. And if that sounds offensive to you, let me just remind you that every person in this room is a slave to something. Jesus said he who commits sin is the slave of sin. You're either a slave of your sin or you're a slave of Jesus Christ, but free you're not. This is what Scripture means when it says He is our Lord. He is our rightful owner, our ultimate authority, He is our Master.

Now that brings us to a second issue that I want us to consider. And that is, what are the major ramifications of that? What are the primary implications of the fact that Jesus is Lord? What are the main ways that the New Testament applies this truth to you and to me? Now, I have to tell you this week I made a list of somewhere between 12 and 15 implications of the fact that Jesus is Lord. I'm going to give you two today, all right, because they're the most important. They're the two that jump out again and again from the pages of the New Testament.

Because Jesus is Lord, major implication number one, major ramification number one: confessing Jesus as Lord is a necessary condition for salvation. Confessing Jesus as Lord is a necessary condition for salvation. Now if that makes you uneasy, let's look at it in Scripture. Turn to Romans 10, Romans 10. Paul begins this chapter by contrasting two ways, two kinds of efforts to be right with God. One of them is by your own law keeping, by your own works, by your own efforts, verse 5. Romans 10:5,

For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness, [the right standing before God] that is based on law shall live by that righteousness. [In other words, you got to keep it perfectly. That's what you're going to do, you got to keep every command and, of course, we find out practically and in the rest of Scripture, that's impossible. You don't end up being right with God by your own efforts; it's impossible. So what's the other approach?] Verse 6, But the righteousness based on faith…. [it doesn't demand that kind of thing. So what does it demand?] … Verse 8, … What does it say? THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, it's IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART, that is, the message of faith we are preaching.

Paul says here is the message of faith we're preaching, what it demands is something in your heart and something in your mouth] Verse 9, here's the message of faith Paul preached,

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; [you will be spiritually rescued], for with the heart a person believes, resulting in [a right standing before God in] righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Now clearly what Paul is talking about here is how we're made right with God, how a person gains salvation, that is spiritual rescue from their sins, and he lays down two conditions for salvation.

Now I want us to look at the second one first, as Paul himself does in verse 10. The first condition to be saved, or to receive a right standing before God, is in verse 9, "if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead." The first condition is faith. And by the way, this isn't some sort of mystical feeling, I just have faith. True saving faith has content. Notice what Paul says, if you believe that. So, what content must we believe in order to be saved? If you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. Now that points to the centrality of the resurrection in the gospel message and in -- in Christianity.

But that's not all that's in the gospel, not just Jesus' resurrection, so why does Paul choose that? Well, because the resurrection is the proof of everything else. Do you remember Jesus Himself said this? When He first cleansed the temple in John 2, they came up to Him and said, By what authority do you do this? Who gave You the right to do this? Do you remember Jesus' answer? He said, "Destroy this temple," speaking of the temple of His body, John says, "and I will raise it up in three days." In other words, here's My authority, the resurrection. If I'm not raised from the dead then don't believe anything I've said, anything that I've taught, but if I am, then that's the authority that ought to lead you to believe in Me. You see the resurrection proved Jesus' claims to deity. The resurrection validated His teaching. The resurrection proved that God had fully accepted His death as a substitute for sinners.

So, when Paul here says we must believe in the resurrection, that's shorthand. It's shorthand for believing Jesus' claims to be the Christ, the Son of God, something He clearly claimed again and again. It's shorthand for believing Jesus' death to be as a substitute in the place of believing sinners, and it is believing in the reality and the historicity, the physicality of the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And notice Paul says in verse 9, you must believe these things in your heart. That is, with your entire inner being: your mind, your emotions, your will. To gain a right standing before God, to be rescued from God's coming judgment against your sin, you must believe the facts of the gospel message. You must believe that.

But salvation is more than merely believing the facts. In fact, Scripture tells us the demons believe the facts of the gospel message, and so Paul adds a second condition in verse 9. He says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord. Confess literally means to say the same thing. In this case it's to say the same thing about Jesus that God says. It means to declare openly, to publicly acknowledge, that Jesus is your Kurios, your Master, your Lord. By the way this was the earliest confession of the Christian church. In the early church in order to be baptized, before you would actually go under the water, you had to publicly say, Jesus is Kurios. He is my Kurios.

But what does it mean to confess Jesus as Lord? I think you understand it's not merely mouthing the words, it's not like this is some mantra, or mantra, that if you say you're going to be suddenly in, because Jesus Himself says in Matthew 7, that on the day of judgment, "Many will say to Me in that day, Kurios, Kurios … and I will say to them, depart from Me, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness." So, it's not just saying it. Remember, you have to believe in your heart. And it's out of that belief in the heart that comes this confession of Jesus as Lord.

Now look again at the confession itself, Jesus as Lord, or Jesus is Lord. What does it mean to confess Jesus is Lord? Well, we've already learned that. Jesus defined it for us in John 13. Jesus means you must acknowledge His right to rule you. It's like saying, Jesus, You are my rightful Master, and I am your doulos; I am your slave. Of course, it includes as the rest of the New Testament underscores, it includes what Jesus calls repentance, repenting of your sin. It includes belief, that is trusting in Him alone for salvation. It means submitting your will to His will. You are my Master. So, the two conditions for salvation, then, that Paul outlines here, are you must confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and you must believe in your heart the content of the gospel message.

But what I want you to see is these are not really two separate conditions. In reality, they're just two different ways to describe the same content of faith. Notice in verse 9, confessing and believing produce what? Spiritual salvation. In verse 10, believing results in righteousness, that is a right standing before God, and confessing results in salvation. Do you see how Paul mixes it all together? In other words, the two conditions are really one condition. This is what true saving faith looks like. These are just two sides of the same coin. Truly believing the facts about Jesus with your heart, if you truly in your heart believe that, you will confess Him as Lord.

And by the way, verse 13 explains that confession and belief then express themselves in crying out to God in prayer, and Paul says this, I love this promise in verse 13, "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord," like this, what? "Will be saved." The divine promise. Now what I'm -- what I'm teaching you, sadly, is a largely forgotten truth in today's church. Many evangelical churches preach a weak gospel, and as a result, churches are filled with people who sit there and think they have forgiveness from God, who think they're Christians because they prayed a prayer at some point in their past, but they have never truly confessed Jesus as Lord.

That's not how the Christian church has always understood the Bible. I wish I had time to walk you through the several pages of quotes from church history that I have and was tempted to bring more of, but let me just give you a couple of representative examples. Here's Charles Spurgeon, "You cannot have Christ for your Savior unless you also have Him as Lord." You cannot. R. A. Torey, the former president of Moody Bible Institute, wrote in his textbook on evangelism, "Lead the person as directly as you can to accept Jesus as personal Savior and to surrender to Him as his Lord and Master." Griffith Thomas, who was one of the cofounders of Dallas Theological Seminary, sadly Dallas has taken a different course, or many professors there have, but here's what one of the founders of DTS wrote,

We have to acknowledge Christ as our Lord. Sin is rebellion, and it is only as we surrender to Him as Lord that we receive our pardon from Him as our Savior. We have to admit Him to reign on the throne of the heart, and it is only when He is glorified in our hearts as King that the Holy Spirit enters and abides. There should be no gap, no interval, between the acceptance of Christ as Savior and the surrender to Him as Lord. His full title is Jesus Christ our Lord, and the full extent of its meaning, though, of course not its full depth, is intended to be realized from our very first experience of His saving presence and power. [And then he writes this,] This initial act of surrender, however, is but the beginning of a life of surrender. The act must develop into an attitude, [and he ends this way,] this has been recognized by God's true children in all ages.

Martin Lloyd Jones writes,

You cannot receive Christ as your justification only, and then later decide to refuse or to accept Him as your sanctification. He is one and indivisible. You cannot receive Him as your Savior only and later decide to accept or refuse Him as your Lord.

These are just a couple of many voices that speak through church history on this issue. Listen, Jesus is Lord, and you must confess Him as Lord in order to become a Christian. My question to you this morning is not, did you pray a prayer at some point in the past? Did you walk an aisle, sign a card? Did you throw a stick in the fire at some camp? My question to you this morning, and it's Jesus' question, is have you ever truly confessed Jesus as your Lord, as your Sovereign, as your Master? Have you ever said, "Yes, Sir," to Jesus Christ? If you have not, then you are not a Christian, because this is the essence of true saving faith.

Now there's a second ramification that comes out of the fact that Jesus is Lord, and I've chosen my words very carefully here, I want you to note them. Obeying Jesus as Lord is a necessary consequence of salvation. Obeying Jesus as Lord is a necessary consequence. Confessing Jesus as Lord is a necessary condition for salvation, but obeying Jesus as Lord is a necessary consequence of salvation. If we've made the confession that Jesus is Lord, then we should and we will live in submission to His will. Colossians 2:6, "As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him." Second Corinthians 5:14 and 15, Paul talks about Christ having died for us and he said, "He died for us," [listen to this] "so that," [here was part of the purpose Jesus had in dying for us], "so that they who live," [that is who live in Christ] "might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."

Listen, your life does not belong to you, Christian. You don't get to decide what you want to do with it. You don't get to decide what you want to do this coming week. You have a Master, and it's not you.

So, what if we claim salvation, but we don't live in submission to Christ as Lord? Where does that put us? Well, Jesus answered that question very clearly. Turn with me to Luke 6. Luke 6:46. These are penetrating, sobering words from Jesus. Luke 6:46, "Why do you call Me, [Kurios, Kurios; Master, Master;] Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?" He said, what's that about? That doesn't even make sense. I'm your Master and you're My slave, and you say I'm not going to do what You tell me? That's illogical, and He says it's absolutely incongruous with truly calling Me, Kurios. Now what's interesting is here in Luke, Christ refers to their current claims. He said that while He was on the earth there were people who came up to Him and called Him, Kurios, but then didn't do what He said.

Matthew, in a related passage, it wasn't exactly at the same time, but it's certainly parallel in one sense, Matthew tells us that Jesus says that in the future, on the Day of Judgment, people will show up and say, Kurios, Kurios. And Jesus will say to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." In other words, calling Jesus, Kurios, and not doing what He says is completely incongruous, and it evidences the reality of your relationship to Him. In fact, in both Matthew and Luke, Christ launches from that statement into an illustration. Let me read it to you here in Luke. Luke 6:47,

"Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted … is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed and the ruin of that house was great."

Here Jesus describes two similar houses with one crucial difference. The two houses represent two people, both of whom claim Jesus as Kurios. Kurios. So, you have two professing Christians. Christ's point is that these two people don't both belong to Him. What's the difference? Notice one house has a foundation and the other doesn't. And in Jesus' illustration, what's the foundation? What does Jesus say is the only difference between these two professing Christians? Look in verse 47, one of them acts on Jesus' words. Literally, the Greek text says, who does them. He does Jesus' words. He practices Jesus' words. Verse 49, the other one is one who does not act, again, literally does not do them, that is, Jesus' words.

Now don't miss Jesus' point. He is not saying that obedience saves anyone. It absolutely does not. Jesus saves by grace, through faith. What Jesus is saying is that obedience shows whether your profession of Him as Kurios has a foundation. Obedience shows whether your confession that Jesus is Lord is real. You can't claim Jesus as Kurios and live however you want. Where there is an honest confession of Jesus as Lord, there will be an honest and genuine effort to obey and follow Him as Lord. There will be an increasing pattern of obedience to Him and a decreasing pattern of sin in the life.

If that's not true of you, then you need to examine your heart. If your spiritual pulse is a flat line and has been for a long time, it may be because you've never been truly alive. That that profession of Jesus as Kurios was, in fact, false, it wasn't genuine. So, my question to you this morning is, have you ever truly confessed Jesus as Lord? I mean in your heart of hearts, have you ever bowed your will to His and said my life is Yours, do what you will.

Let me say this, if you've never confessed Jesus as Lord, some day you will, because God has promised you will. Turn to Philippians 2:6 – 8. Jesus humbled Himself by becoming one of us and by dying for our sins on the cross. In light of that, verse 9, God, literally the Greek text says, hyper-exalted Him, God super-exalted Him. How? Notice verse 9, "… by bestowing on Him the name that is above every name…" By the way, that's not the name, Jesus. The Greek phrase, "at the name of Jesus," does not mean, at the name which is Jesus, it means at the name that belongs to Jesus. So, if it's not Jesus then, what is the name above all other names? It's the name, or the title, Lord, in verse 11. That's what Paul is driving to. Kurios.

In the future every intelligent being in the universe will stand before Jesus Christ, and Paul here tells us exactly how they will respond. First of all, with a physical confession, in verse 10, "… so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow." Let me tell you something, every person in this room this morning someday will prostrate themselves before Jesus Christ. You will prostrate yourself before Jesus Christ. There will also be a verbal confession, verse 11, "… and every tongue," [your tongue, my tongue], "… every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Kurios."

You say, are we sure this is going to happen? Paul is quoting here from Isaiah 45, and in Isaiah 45 God says, "I swear by Myself that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Kurios." Oh, it's going to happen. D. A. Carson writes, "Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but it does not follow that every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord out of happy submission." The text promises that Jesus has the last word, that He's utterly vindicated, that in the end no opposition against Him will stand. There will not be universal salvation, but there will be universal confession as to who He is. Carson writes,

That means that either we repent and confess Him by faith as Lord now, or we will confess Him in shame and terror on the last day, but confess Him we will. May God give you the grace to confess Him as Lord in this life before it's too late.

And here's the good news, Paul promises, in the authority of God Himself in Romans 10, that if you will believe the facts of the gospel, and if you will exercise saving faith, the kind of faith that says, Jesus is Lord, He's my Kurios, then you will be saved.

What about those of us here who have already confessed Jesus is Lord? Well let me just ask you honestly this morning, are you living in obedience to your Kurios? Are you? Can you honestly say before the Lord that your life is marked by a desire and a pattern of pursuing obedience to Him? Beloved, hold fast to the truth that Jesus is Lord.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for the time we've been able to spend together this morning. Thank You for these great but sobering reminders from Your Word.

Father, for those of us who have confessed Jesus is Lord, I pray that You would help us to live in light of that confession, that we would be reminded every day that our life is not our own, that we are to live no longer for ourselves but for Him who died and who rose again on our behalf, that we are His doulos, that we belong to Him and He our Kurios.

Father, I pray for those here this morning who maybe have claimed to belong to Jesus, who've made some profession some point in the past but have not lived a life that shows that's an honest confession. Lord, I pray that You would bring them to the true knowledge of Jesus this morning, that they would believe in their hearts the truth of the gospel facts and confess Jesus as Kurios, and that they would be saved.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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