Good morning. Would you all stand? How many of y'all are there? There are. I want to welcome all those who are watching and joining us through technology online and all that, and those of you here live with us at Calvary Chapel, we want to welcome you this morning. Father, we ask for your blessing now on our service, that you would be glorified, that we would sing this unto you, that we would just be able to just rest in you this morning,

knowing you are in control, that we can trust you in every area of our life. I just ask for your blessing on our service, Lord, in Jesus' name. Your grace, Lord, I would ask, Lord, that you would strengthen those beatitudes, recognizing our depravity without you, Lord. We're simply nothing without you. He says you begin to build us and renovate us, Lord, as we present ourselves as living sacrifices.

You make us from day to day. Those people you want us to be, working in us both the will and the will of God. Washing up with selfless faith, with selfless faith.

Save us now. Praise you, Lord. We give you thanks this morning. Oh, for the work of the cross and the resurrection. Oh, how it moves us, Lord.

Would you stand as we do the... Where Jesus quenched in tears, there's a Messiah still. And all his inside is transfixed on Jesus' face.

For the work of the cross and rising from the dead.

Saw you, quite a gaze as you ascended up into the intercession. We give you praise and thanks, Lord. And, oh, Father, as Rick comes forth to teach your word, anointing by the fire of your Holy Spirit, Lord, that he would just simply... The work teaches your word. We give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Have some fellowship now.

Good morning.

I think we're going to start out by letting Ross come do his thing on getting us ready for the Christmas stuff that's coming up.

Come on down.

Good morning. Hey, I'm up here for the weekly reminder for Operation Christmas Child. We have a couple announcements. Remember, when are shoeboxes due? 14th, right. And that is when? Next week, right? It's going to come up really quick, right? Whoops, I got one of your notes. I was wondering where they went. I have some things here for shoeboxes. And Jana is going to have a bunch of stuff in the back for shoeboxes today.

So there's some filler materials that will be back there. And some boxes, I think we still have some boxes left. So please come back and get those. And then we're also going to be talking to the children today in Children's Church. We'll be wearing our boxes and going in and showing the children what they can be doing to get involved. So we also have, we're working on the dates to go to the distribution center.

We don't have the dates we want yet, but Jana's working on it. We do have some alternate dates. So we have a sign-up sheet that's going to be back here in the back. Please. Please sign up if you are interested in going to the distribution center in December. All right? And then we have, do we have some videos? Here's one video of Operation Christmas Child. Switch any box will work.

Really okay.

You want it to be for a boy?

Looks like we're going to be packing for a boy this year. First, you can choose a wow item such as a soccer ball or a stuffed animal. And you can choose other fun toys. Two, hygiene items, and school supplies. There are, of course, some items you cannot pack.

Items related to war, live animals.

If this is finished, you can write a letter and include a photo.

You can make your shipping donation online through Follow Your Box. Simply print off your tracking label to see where the destination of your gift will be. And don't forget, it's important to pray for the child that is receiving this gift because packing a box is a lot of work. Because packing a box is a lot of work. This is a simple way to share the gospel with kids all around the world.

Now that your box is done, it's time to get moving. Transport your box to a nearby drop-off location near you. These will be open all across the U.S. on National Collection Week, the third week in November. Drop it off and voila. You packed a shoebox. Goes great with a glass. They do a lot of effort to put together some great videos for us. We have one more quick video.

I want to show you, and let's remember Glenn.

This is us at the collection center in Dallas, a group of us. And Glenn has been our cheerleader, so you get to see him do the cheer for those of you who have missed it.

If it'll play.

Full box, ooh-ha-ha. So we shout that every time we fill a box full of shoeboxes. So that's it. Please come see us after the service, and we'll get you fixed up with whatever you need. Thank you. Hey, guys. We got a couple announcements. Pretty much the usual for our weekly announcements. We have the men's study, ladies' study on Monday nights. We have home fellowship on Tuesday nights.

We have college careers, and then we have youth group, and we also have a Wednesday night Bible study. Currently going through the book of Exodus, and it's a very awesome time. We also have women's fellowship breakfast this Saturday at 8 a.m. at Bricks. Welcome. We're all female, all women, rather. And then we have men's fellowship breakfast on October 16th in the Agape room.

And tonight we have intercessory prayer as well. So that's about it.

Can you hear me? Okay. We're going to do Psalms 51 for our reading this morning. And I'll do the odd numbers, and Louis will do the even numbers, and you just follow along with Louis. So once you find Psalms 51, we'll... We'll go ahead and read.

Okay. Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness. According to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you speak.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part you will make known wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a new life. Give me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain me with a willing heart. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation.

Then my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips. That my mouth may declare your praise. For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God. You will not despise. By your favor, do good to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem.

Then you will delight in righteous sacrifice, in burnt offering, and whole burnt offering. Then your bowls will be offered on your altar. Lord, I just ask that you just be with us this morning, and the thing that you desire, Lord, is just for us to have a contrite and broken spirit, that we can just be able to worship you, and to draw close to you, and be used by you. I just ask that you just be with us this morning, just speak to us, and just be glorified now in Jesus' name.

Amen. You can be seated. And I'm going to be seated as well. I am not a spontaneous. I'm not a spontaneous person, and it wasn't until Friday morning that I found out I was going to be here today, and usually if I speak someplace, I usually have a few weeks' notice to kind of get ready, so this was very short notice. I was raised in a family where everything was structured.

We had supper at five. Nothing happened without a schedule to it, and after I married Christy, my father-in-law would call on Friday night and say, hey, let's go out to eat, and I would just fall apart because it was spontaneous. I didn't know what to do. And so after a few years, my father-in-law got to know me, and so he would start calling me two or three days ahead of time and say, hey, you want to go out to eat Friday?

And I'd say, yeah, that'd be great.

So we're going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 this morning, and those of you that know how I teach, I like to compare scripture to scripture, so I bounce all over the place, and I don't expect you to follow with me. I think she's going to put the scriptures up as we go. So in case you want to write them down, I've cheated a little bit because I've got a lot of the scripture references typed out, so that way I don't have to flip to them myself either. I can just go ahead and read them.

But there was one other thing I wanted to bring out before we get started in the study, and that this is Pastor Appreciation Month, and I've been a believer for over 45 years now, and I've heard a lot of really good teachers across the country. And I think we are blessed to have one of the best teachers in the country that I've ever heard in the last 45 years. We have an awesome pastor, an awesome teacher, and the best way you could show your appreciation to him is to apply the things that he's teaching to your lives. That's the best thing you could do.

Something else that would help is the fact that being a pastor is a very lonely position, and I don't know if you've caught it. His messages are not, but he talks about how the more you're walking with the Lord, the fewer people you have with you. And if you would just every now and then send him a text and tell him that you love him, tell him that you appreciate him, I know that he would be encouraged by that, because he needs to know the encouragement of his body. He needs to have that.

So it's just out there. This is the month of October. We're going to show him appreciation somehow. I don't know how we're going to do it in his body yet. But just do it. Just you on your own. Just if you get a chance, just let him know that you really appreciate him, because God has really blessed us with a really neat pastor. So, okay, we'll get started in 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

It starts out, it says, We are beginning to commend our, are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need as some letters of commendation to you or from you? These letters of commendation back then in the early church, they would have letters that would be sent with speakers. Because they were going from church to church, because everybody would be saying that they're associated with Paul, but they may have not been. And so you had a lot of false teachers running around, a lot of false prophets.

And so Paul would give out these letters of recommendations. A couple examples of them. One is in Romans chapter 16, 1 and 2. Paul gives this recommendation. He says, I commend to you our sister, Phobie, who is a servant of the church, which is at Seturah, which is just south of Corinth, that you receive her in the Lord in a manner of worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever manner she may have need of you.

For she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well. This is one of the first recommendations that Paul gives in the New Testament. And it's a woman that he gives the recommendation to. And I think that's pretty neat, because God, sometimes we don't realize how much God uses women in the church. But Galvin has all of the tree ministries. What's her name?

Jan Markell. And Billy Graham's daughter. There's a lot of women who are ministering to a lot of people across the country and around the world. And God uses women as well as men. Also, he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 3, when I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem. So these letters were something that they did on a regular basis.

He says in verse 2, you are our letter. Written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Paul didn't need to have letters of recommendations for himself. But he said that his letters of recommendations were the lives of the people who were changed. Today, we would use, say, ordination papers as an example. Pastors that have ordination papers. But the papers themselves aren't really what qualifies a pastor.

It's the changed lives, the peoples whose lives have been affected by his ministry. That's really his letter. And it says in verse 3, Paul's kind of trying to clarify here that Paul's not the one who's doing all the changing in people's lives. He's not trying to draw attention to himself. He makes it clear that Christ is the one who's doing the changing. So, Christ does the changing.

We're the paper on which the writing is taking place. Paul is simply the pen that God was using. And the ink is the Holy Spirit who leaves a mark on our lives. So, Christ is the one who changes our lives. We're the paper that's being written upon. And God has used Paul as a pen. And the Holy Spirit is in Paul to write upon our lives. And the Holy Spirit is the one who leaves a mark on our lives.

As a result. What Christ is doing to us. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7, it says. Excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7, it says. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. We don't have the ability within ourselves to do anything for God. It's got to be him that's working through us.

We're just all just people. Ezekiel 36. 26 through 27, it says. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And you will be careful to observe my ordinances. God wants to take the hard, cold, stone heart that we had before we were a believer.

And when the Holy Spirit comes in, he gives us a new heart. It becomes a heart of flesh that's able to respond to the Holy Spirit. It says in Jeremiah 30. Verse 31 through 33. Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and on their hearts I will write it. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. It's God that does the work. It's God that does the work in our lives.

And in verse 4 through 6 it says, And such confidence we have through Christ towards God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. We are not adequate of ourselves to be used by God. But God.

God wants to use us right where we're at. I've been a Christian for over 45 years. And I got saved when I was 16. And I can guarantee you since I've been a Christian, I have sinned more since I've been a believer than I ever did before I was a believer. I still struggle with lust. I still struggle with cussing. I still struggle with pride. I don't have it together.

I'm just a human being. And I'm as dependent upon the blood of Christ today as I was when I was 16 years old when I first got saved. I still need the blood of Christ to cleanse me every day. God wants to use you right where you're at. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have it together. He wants to use you to touch somebody's life for Jesus just where you're at in your walk right now.

Before I got saved, there was a man, a guy by the name of John Dunn. John Dunn. And he used. He used to take me and a friend of his, of mine, and we'd go riding in John's car. We'd listen to the Moody Blues, Smoke Pot, and John would tell us about Jesus. John hadn't been saved very long. And some of you, I think most of you remember the Moody Blues. So, but I'm not advocating that we all go out now and go smoke pot so we can go tell people about Jesus.

But I'm telling you this because John got saved and he wanted his share. Jesus with the people that he knew. And he shared right where he was at. He didn't wait until he had his life together. He just, he shared where he was at. And there's people that God has placed in your life that only you can speak to. There's somebody that will listen to you, but they won't listen to anybody else.

And you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have it together. In fact, the fact that you're being real with them is going to speak more to them than if you try to come across as somebody that has it all together. Because. Because none of us have it all together. I heard the other day on the radio talking about, we're always hearing people give their testimonies after they've beaten something.

But we never hear people giving their testimonies while they're going through the midst of the trial. And how much more effective that might be if we were more open about the things we're going through. Now, in saying what I'm saying, I'm not saying that go out and do it. Do whatever you want to do. In Jude, it talks about, he gives a warning not to turn the grace of God into a license to sin.

That's not what I'm saying. In Titus chapter 3, in Titus chapter 2, verse 11 through 14, it says, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and the peace of God. The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly and righteously and godly.

That's what God's grace does. You know, I smoked pot and stuff for two and a half years after I was a believer. And God was using me, but he finally took that out of my life. And he said, God, I'm not going to do that. And he said, God, I'm not going to do that. Each of us are at different places in our Christian walks. We're not all at the same place. Some of us were raised in churches and are familiar with the Scriptures before we ever got saved.

Some of us have never heard anything about the Scriptures. Some of us have been abused. We've gone through a lot of hardships growing up. We're all in different places in our lives. And one person could look at somebody else and say, well, they're not living for the Lord very well, but you don't know where they've come from. You don't know what God has already healed in their life.

We're all at different places in our walk. And none of us have it together, but God wants to use us just the way we are. In Isaiah 42, it says, down in verse 6, it mentioned how that we are servants of a new covenant. In Isaiah 42, 6, it says, I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will hold you by the hand and walk over you. I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations.

This is God speaking prophetically to Jesus, that God is going to, make him a light to the nations, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people. Jesus himself is going to be the new covenant. Now, the definition of a covenant that I like is the definition that says, where it says, abiding in agreement, a covenant is abiding in agreement between two parties, where at least one of the parties is making a solemn oath to keep a promise that affects the other party. Okay, I'll say that again because it's kind of wordy.

A binding covenant is a binding agreement between two parties, where at least one of the parties is making a solemn oath to keep a promise where at least one of the parties is making a solemn oath to keep a promise that affects the other party. But Jesus, so a covenant involves two parties, but Jesus is both parties in one. Jesus is 100% God and he is 100% man. He represents both parties in this new covenant.

And the only way you can enter into this new covenant is by entering into a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's the only way you can enter into the new covenant because the covenant is bound up in him. In Romans chapter 3, verse 19 and 20, it says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight.

For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. God didn't give us the law, the Old Testament covenant of the law, so that we could follow the law and become good. That's not the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law, is to show us that we don't measure up. It reveals the righteousness of God, but it also reveals that we are not righteous. We don't have it together.

In Galatians 3, 23 through 28, it says, But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed. Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free man. There is neither male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The law acts as a tutor. In other words, until you know that you're a sinner, until the law does its work in your life, and you realize that you don't measure up, you will never come to Christ, because until you know you're a sinner, you'll never see your need for a Savior.

You've got to see your need that you're a sinner first. You've got to see your need. He says in Romans 8, 1 through 4, it's talked about in verse 6, for how the, we are of the new covenant, not of the letter, but the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. In Romans 8, 1 it says, verse 1 through 4, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law, might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. In Romans 10, 4 it says, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Christ made it possible for us to live. We are not righteous in ourselves. We are righteous because of Christ, what Christ has done for us. And in verse 7 through 11, it says, But if the ministry of death in the letter engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of His face fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed, what had glory in this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is with glory. It's to have glory.

It's talking about Moses is putting on a veil and the glory is fading. So I'm going to look at Exodus chapter 34, verse 29 through 25 and read that to you about what it's talking about. It says, It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand. As he was coming down from the mountain, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him, speaking with God.

So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him and Moses spoke to them. Afterward, all the sons of Israel came near and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take off the veil until he came out. And whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel, what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the faces of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So Moses replaced the veil over his face until he went to speak with him again, to God again. At first it sounds like he put the veil on so they wouldn't see his face glowing.

But if you listen, he spoke to the people first with his face glowing and then after he spoke to the people, then he put the veil on. And then when he went into the presence of the Lord, he would take the veil off and he would come out and his face would glow and he would speak to the people again with his face glowing. After he spoke to the people, he would put the veil back on. The reason he put the veil on wasn't so that they couldn't see his face glowing.

The reason he put the veil on is he didn't want the people to see that the glow was fading because the Old Testament law wasn't going to last. God was going to bring in the new day of the story and it's maybe a little off. It's going to cuff a little bit. But Christy and I went to Colorado Springs several years ago and we visited a church there called Springs Chapel.

It's not associated with Calvary Chapel Ministries. The pastor was Gary Wilkerson. He's the son of David Wilkerson. And I don't know how many of you remember David Wilkerson, but he wrote the cross and the switchblade and had the vision and God used him quite a bit. He was a pastor in New York, led gang members to Christ. And Gary was sharing a story about his dad

and his dad went up into the Appalachian Mountains to just spend some time with God. And he got up there and he just, he was spending time in the Word, spending time praying, spending time just meditating on God's Word and just worshiping God. And he was up there for weeks just spending time with God, just worshiping. And one of the things that he wanted to have happen in his life is he wanted to be able to come down from that mountain from spending time with God and he wanted to, he wanted his face to glow like Moses's did.

And after spending weeks up there in the mountain and worshiping God, he came down and they were eating breakfast at this little breakfast restaurant. And he noticed the waitress was just staring at him. And he was thinking, she could see it. She could see that glow on my face. And he was getting all excited about, you know, the fact that she, somebody had noticed

this glow on his face. And they got finished eating breakfast and she came up to him and she goes, sir, I want to apologize for staring at you the whole time you were eating your breakfast. But aren't you Hugh Hefner?

Now, for those of you who don't know who Hugh Hefner is, God bless you.

But now, get my thought back on here. The Old Testament covenant law reveals the righteousness of God. But the New Testament of God, of grace, does what the Old Testament couldn't do. In Hebrews chapter 10, it tells us a little, kind of expresses to us what God is, what Christ has done for us. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11 through 18, it says, every priest stands daily

ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins. But he having offered one sacrifice for sin for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us.

For after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my law upon their heart and on their mind I will write them. He then says, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. That forgiveness is so powerful.

And I remember right after I got saved, one of the first things I did, I ran into the park with a bunch of my, my partying buddies and tried to share with them about Jesus. And the forgiveness was just so powerful. To know that I had been forgiven and it was taken care of. That I, that cleansing was in my life. And they couldn't comprehend it. They couldn't understand it.

It says in, in verse 12 through 16, it says, having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech and are not as Moses who used to put a veil over his face that the sons of Israel might not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened for until this day at the reading of the Old Testament covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

The Jews still live under the Old Testament covenant. And we as Christians, Paul talks about in Romans how the, we make the Jews jealous because we claim to have already entered into this new covenant relationship that God has promised them. They haven't entered into it yet, but we have. And we're already experiencing that. And it makes them jealous. Now, the Gentiles also have a veil

on their face. In chapter four, it says, in verse three and four, it says, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The unbelievers, they don't have, they really have no hope. They have nothing to fall on. And as unbelievers, even though Satan is one who blinds their minds, unbelievers also love the darkness more than they love the light. Christ came to his own and his own didn't receive him. Because they loved their evil deeds more.

In John 1, chapter 12, chapter one, excuse me. Let's see.

John chapter one, verse 12 through 13 says, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood. In other words, you can't inherit your salvation, nor of the will of flesh. You can't just will yourself to become a Christian, nor of the will of man. Somebody else can't will it for you.

But it has to be of God. The work of God that takes place in your life can only be done by God himself. Nobody else can make you a believer. It has to be by God himself. In John six, verse 44, it says, no one could come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. No, all of us have a free will, but our free will is tainted by sin. And because our free will is tainted by sin,

we lean towards sin. And that's why, nobody can come to Christ unless the father draws him. It's a work of God because even in your own free will, your free will is tainted. You're not going to come to him on your own. You have to come to him by being drawn by God. In verse 17, it says, let's see, it says, now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is,

there is liberty. Moses had the liberty to take the veil off in the presence of the Lord. And as believers, we don't have to, we don't have to wear a veil because the work of the Holy Spirit is in our lives. We're in the presence of God at all times. We don't have to wear a veil. Every time Moses went into the presence of God, he took the veil off. He was real with God.

We're to be real with God. You can't lie to God. God knows what's going on in your life. You can't hide whatever's going on in your life that you think you can hide from him. He knows already, so you might as well talk to him about it and deal with it. Not only that, but Moses put the veil on, he took it off. He put the veil on, he took it off. And that reminds me of the rollercoaster ride

that a lot of believers get on because we try to live the Christian life in our own strength and we can't do it. And every time we try to do it, we fail. And so we stumble and then we realize that we have to depend on him and we start depending on him. And then we start thinking we're doing pretty good and we try to live it on our own again and we can't do it and we fall off.

And we have this rollercoaster ride of a Christian walk. And God doesn't want that to happen in our lives. He doesn't want you to have a rollercoaster walk kind of a ride. He wants you to just be real with him at all times. And don't only be real with him, but be real with the people around you. Sometimes I think we as believers act one way around believers,

but we act a different way around non-believers. And if we would act the same way around the non-believers as we do the believers, the non-believers would listen to us so much more because we're speaking from our heart and we're not trying to just persuade them through some kind of false front. If we just be real with them and let them see Christ in us in our real lives going through all the struggles that we go through that we still have Christ in us and he still helps us through our struggles and makes a lot much more difference in people's lives than trying to come across as though we have it all together because we don't. We don't have it all together.

In verse 18 it says, But we all with unveiled faces beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed in the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord by the Spirit. We are being transformed as we spend our time beholding him.

You need to be spending time with him. You need to be spending time in his word. You need time just to be quiet and sit and allow him just to speak to you and you not say anything. And the exciting thing is when we spend time just allowing being in his presence even if when you're working during the day and stuff if you're just spending time with your thoughts towards God I think we're going to be surprised when we get to heaven to find out how much God used us to touch people's lives without us even knowing it because we were just focused on our relationship with him and God was using us without us even knowing it.

Chapter 4 verse 11. Last couple of verses and I'm going to close with this and I have no idea what time we are or how far we've gone. 9.35 is that clock right? Is that correct? So, alright. Verse 16 through 18 it says Therefore we do not lose heart but though our outer man is decaying yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Most of us in this room know what it means

to have our outer man decaying. My shoulders hurt my knees hurt my back hurts. Things don't work like they used to. But my inner man is being renewed day by day. That time we spend with the Lord. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things

which are not seen. For the things which are not seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal. This life isn't going to last very long. My brother just passed away a few days ago. Pastor Rick. Just passed away. We all know somebody who's passed away. We're going to pass away if the rapture doesn't happen. We're going to be in the same place.

This life is temporal. Nothing in this life lasts. And it's important that you keep focused on the eternal things because that's what's going to last forever. Our relationship with Christ and the things we do for Him. So don't spend your life trying to be perfect because you're never going to be perfect. Just spend your life in fellowship with Him and allow Him

to use you and to mold your life in such a way that He can use you however He wants to. Just be yielded to Him. And that's all I've got to share this morning. So we're going to do communion and we don't have any kids to wait on this morning. But I do want to, before we actually start passing out the stuff, if there's somebody here that doesn't know Christ, because this whole communion thing

is about us spending time in communion with Him for what He's done for us. And if there's anybody here that maybe has been raised in the church and you think you're a Christian because there's a lot of cultural Christians today. What I mean by that is that we're raised up in a culture that is identified as Christian. And so there's a lot of people in the church who identify themselves as Christian culturally.

And I've been reading a lot of articles lately where a lot of Christians don't even believe the Holy Spirit exists. And that's because more than likely they're cultural Christians. They have never really entered into a relationship with the Lord to know that the Holy Spirit exists. So I'm going to pray the sinner's prayer. And you don't have to just pray it exactly like I do,

but if you don't know Christ, you just speak to God. It's between you and Him. And you just speak to Him and let Him know where you're at and that you want Him to be your Savior. And then, and then you will be a believer. So when we take this communion, you won't have to be just taking it as a cultural Christian. You can be taking it as a newborn child of God.

So let's go ahead and pray and then we'll do the communion thing.

Father, I know that I'm a sinner.

I know that I'm not righteous in myself. I thank you for sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins.

I thank you, Lord, that He rose from the dead, that I might have new life in Him. I assume that I'm not to come into my life to be my Savior and to be my Lord. And I thank you for your forgiveness.

And I thank you for your accepting me.

Help me to glorify you with my life. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay. All right, we can pass the communion out now. Oh, Spirit, come make us humble. We turn our eyes and cast down our idols. Give us clean hands. Give us clean hands. Your heart does not lift our soul.

Give us clean hands. Give us pure hearts. Your heart does not lift our soul.

A generation that seeks that seeks your face. Oh, God that seeks your face. Oh, God give us clean hands that seeks your face. Oh, God