review

I think that there were some notes that were going to be out. So some of you were not here. Jean and Beverly and Steve and Vicki weren't here when we went through Chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians. Were there notes there this morning for you to get? Didn't see any. Okay. I think Sue has gone in to copy some more. She's gone in to get them. Super. So they'll be coming. And everybody else? should have notes for Chapter 3, and if not, if you don't have them, please certainly grab some so that you can have some for your records and your files at home for this, your resource for further study.

So what we're going to do is go back through Chapter 3, and I don't think we're going to get through the whole chapter today. We'll do, we'll go as far as we get until the the bell rings us and then we'll stop. The idea here is to go through it, not necessarily to re-teach the whole thing that we have already taught several months ago, but to go through it and to hit some of the high points, hit some of the truths that were very meaningful. They're all meaningful, but some of the high spots. And also to have some more time of interaction with some of the texts and with some of the truths that we have. So that's kind of the purpose. Please feel free to share your thoughts that you have, and we can interact over the text that we have today. So maybe we can get some to Steve and Vicki, and then to Jean and Beverly. Yeah, super. So as you see, we didn't regenerate new notes.

These are the notes that Hal had from when he We started this off in chapter 3 and then we'll work through the ones that I did kind of the middle of chapter 3 and then we'll go through the ones that Bob did as he did the latter part of chapter 3. So we're just going to go through some of these things. As we get started though, let's just read through the whole chapter and it'll set the stage for us here as we get going. So chapter 3, I'll read from verse 1 all the way down through verse 18.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. In 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.

For if the ministry of death and letters 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 in glory.

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 very day at the reading of the old covenant, the 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. Now the Lord is a spirit. and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as an emir the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit." Okay, let's just go to verse 1 and let's look at this verse a little bit. Again, some things we'll go through quickly, some things we won't even hit, some things we're going to really camp out on and talk a lot about.

So the idea here is, do we need commendation? The verse says, are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need some letters of commendation from you? Or the idea is a presentation of worthiness to minister. And the good news is simply that the Lord is the one who commends us, or to present us, who presents us as worthy. And an awesome verse, we look at that later on in chapter 10, For it's not he who commends himself that is approved, but it's the one who the Lord approves or who the Lord commends, who is considered as worthy.

Good thoughts there. Let's look at that. Just continue. The results of his ministry through us is a proof of his commendation. representing the Pharisees needed a letter of commendation or of authority. That's an interesting contrast there. When he was representing the Pharisees, he went with a letter of commendation. Remember when he was going to persecute the Christians or to kill the Christians, he had this letter.

But here he says, no, I'm not going to give you any kind of a letter. When they're asking for the letter, no, at this point, I'm not going to give you any kind of a letter. So there's just some comparison and contrasting going on there. Paul nor we, representing the Lord, need such a letter to minister. Why is it that we don't need a letter to minister? Because the Lord is the one who commends us. The Lord is the one who approves us.

In a sense it would be like somebody asking for a letter of commendation from one of the elders here at Holly Hills. And they say, you know what, a request for Can you give us your credentials? Can you give us your history? Can you give us your success in the ministry? And the guys probably would say, no, we really don't want to give you that.

We really don't want to tell you what it is that we've done, but look at the lives of the people in the church. Because the lives of the people in the church are the fruit of the Lord, are the fruit of our ministry. I think that's kind of the example of what we see that's going on here.

We're not going to give you a letter, verse 2 says, you are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Being manifest is that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. Not on towels of stone, but on towels of the human heart. So they are the people, are the letter of commendation.

The changed lives. God working through them to change their lives are the letter that they're looking for. Any thoughts there? Okay. Okay. So, literally what it means here is that you are an epistle or a letter of Christ being manifest or being made known. Let's pull this up a little bit here.

And ME, it's an essence verb, and notice this, it's the position in which you continuously exist. You are a letter. So not only was Paul writing this directly to the recipients of this letter in Corinth, but we are continually these these letters of witness. It's a continuous action, moment by moment, and the action is through the subject. So, we are continuously a written message or a letter, which identifies the subject, the predicate nominative, this is who you are, an epistle of Christ.

Just think about that for a moment. That's who we are. Because God has placed us into Christ, because we've been baptized into the body of Christ, because we've been identified with Christ, we are continuously an epistle of Christ. That's something that's worth thinking about. It's worth letting that sink in for a little while. Take that a little further and say that since Christ isn't here on earth at this time, But we are, in effect, his emissaries, or not emissaries, but ambassadors. Harry just mentioned that, that's a good word, ambassadors.

Instead of people seeing the Lord. And I think it's also kind of interesting, we really don't have a picture of what Christ looked like. A lot of people paint pictures. If you want to see what Christ looks like, look at Christians. That's right. Right on. Exactly. We are the ambassadors for Christ. We are who people are going to see when they want to see Christ. Hopefully they can see that through believers. Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't. Sometimes Christians are due the worst damage to Christianity. But that shouldn't be the case. It should be that... Exactly right. Exactly right.

Is Christ here in a physical form anymore? No. He was for a period of time, but no, he's not here anymore. But we are in Christ, and we are the epistle to the world of Christ. God has chosen in his plan to simply use believers to show himself to the world.

Yeah. And what is our part in all of that? Simply to walk by faith and allow Christ to manifest himself through us to the world, to our co-workers or to our friends or to our neighbors or to our family. Sure. Any other thoughts? That was a good thought, Jack.

Let's notice here how this epistle or this letter is not written, and then let's notice how this epistle or this letter is written. Let's just read it again, verse 2. In our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifest that you are a letter of Christ, cared for us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the human heart." So this just explains to us and tells us how it is that it was not written, and how it is that it was written. Not written in ink, or with ink, and not written in tablets of stone. but it was written in the hearts of men by the Holy Spirit.

So the question is, what is the distinction between ink or tables of stone in man's heart? Isn't God's Word written both in ink and on the tables of stone? And if you remember how we went through some of this, you know, it's been several months ago now, but very interesting how I drew this out.

The difference is simply between objective truth and subjective truth, which I thought was really interesting. So the first, written with ink and written on the talus of stone, is of the objective truth, and it's of God's Word, which is factual, concrete, real, impartial, unbiased, and unaffected by emotions.

A person can read about God's objective truth and have knowledge of it, but it may not be written on his or her heart. It may not be a part of their life. You can understand it intellectually, read it on a paper, but it might stop there. It might not be personal.

Objective truth, it is the glory of Christ. So that's the first, what is written on the talus of stone. So let's look at the next one, which is the subjective truth. Subjective truth is God's objective truth which was written in ink or on tablets of the glory of Christ which you behold and believe and you trust.

It's not just intellectual, it's not just something that you can read on a page, but now it becomes personal. Now you receive it personally, you believe it personally, you trust in it personally, you're dependent on it personally, now that takes on a whole different role. And we're going to look at 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, where we, with an unveiled face behold him, as in the glory of the Lord are changed from glory to glory. We'll look at that extensively again next week.

So, upon believing the Holy Spirit writes the glory of Christ in your heart, and dwells there permanently, this is full knowledge, or subjective truth. So it goes from the objective truth to the subjective truth. So the Holy Spirit will manifest the glory of Christ through you as an epistle of Christ, through us as an epistle of Christ.

And Jack, this is just what it is that you were saying a moment ago. That we may be the only epistle or letter that someone may read about Christ and His glory. And God has chosen to set it up that way. God ascended, sent the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is reproducing the life of Christ in us as we're walking by faith. And we may be the only epistle or letter that someone may read about His glory. Any thoughts? Kind of frightening. Yeah? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I was just thinking on the subjective truth, written in ink and tablets, that makes it pretty final.

There is no new revelation that's written once and it's final. So that just about makes that for the believer. Since the unbeliever, that's foolishness. Him revealing through us is what they see because they can't see this. How important it is to be in God's glory. That's right. And this is how God is fulfilling His eternal purpose of revealing His glory. God is revealing His glory to the world. by us as he's living his life, and also through creation. It talks about different things, how God's glory is revealed to the world.

So, that's us, and how to get that to sink in. is that we are the letters, or we are the epistle. People are asking Paul, give us this letter of commendation, give us some sort of written thing that's going to verify who you are, verify your ministry, verify your credentials. And Paul says, these people are it. You are the letter. You are the epistle. Because what it is that Christ is doing in and through you, you are it. And just to let that How do we put that in words to really get that to sink in?

I kept coming back to the leaders of this church. If someone were to say, Hal, give us a letter of your credentials, or give us a letter of all that you've done in the past, and Hal says, no. But look at the body of believers at Holly Hills Bible Church. They are the letter. They are the epistle. look at their lives, and that's it. That's what I kept coming back to. So yeah, it's interesting.

It can be scary, as Vicki pointed out, but as we're walking by faith, and as we're trusting the Lord to live His life in and through us, people are going to see Christ. We don't want them to see us. We don't want them to see the self-life. We don't want them to see the flesh. We want them to see Christ being lived out through us as we're walking by faith. That's going to happen.

And where the Spirit of the Lord is, where did that verse say? In verse 17. I love this verse. In verse 17. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Or there's freedom. So as we're walking in the Spirit, there's going to be freedom. Which is the opposite of And in Timothy, I think it says that God has not given us a spirit of fear or of bondage.

So, yeah, it can be frightening. If we're taking this burden, in a sense, upon ourselves, boy, God has given me this responsibility to be a letter, or to be an epistle to my neighbors, or to my co-workers, or to my family. Boy, that is a huge responsibility. And boy, it just creates, it can create fear.

But, when we're walking in the Spirit, then there's going to be freedom. there's going to be liberty and it's going to be a restful productivity, if that makes sense. It'll be resting, there'll be peace, we'll be abiding, but at the same time the life of Christ will be manifested through us for all those around us to see of this letter and to see of this epistle. Any thoughts? That epistle is written on our hearts.

Yeah. What do you think that means? What does that mean? You want to elaborate, Jack? Well, it's a kind of completed action. Okay. Present results. Okay. That kind of takes the scariness away because it's his responsibility. He did the writing. Sure. And he's going to do the revealing. We just need to trust him. Yeah.

So it's a past completed action that God has already done. And Wayne's pointing out that God has done the writing, God has done the revealing, God has done the communicating of it to us. So then what is our part? Allow Him to walk by faith. Our part in the whole thing is just simply to To walk by faith. In that case, could you ask about the heart?

Could you also translate that as it's now our nature? In light of the new nature, sure, yeah, that's right. That's who you are. That's right, right. So as we're walking by faith and we're walking in the Spirit, the new nature, the life of Christ, is going to be seen. by those around us, sure.

That's interesting to see if written on our heart, written in our hearts, how does that tie into, or does it tie into the new nature in the life of Christ. Let's look at those verses there, I think this will shed some more light there. Let's look at John, John 16. John 16 and 13 through 16.

But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak of His own initiative. For whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. he shall glorify me for he shall take of mine and shall disclose it to you all things that the father has are mine therefore I said that he takes of mine and will disclose it to you a little while and you will no longer behold me and again a little while and you will see me you will no longer behold me and again a little while you will see me so notice there that Notice in verse 13, that when the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. Now that's a truth we could have a whole other study on. That the Holy Spirit is the one who guides us into all truth.

And notice it continues on. He doesn't speak of His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. What does the KJV use there for the word disclose? In verse 13, and then also in verse 14, and verse 15? Show. Okay.

So the Holy Spirit is going to show to us what is to come, and Christ is going to glorify the Father, in verse 14, He will glorify me, For he shall take of mine, and will show it unto us. So, the Holy Spirit is showing things or communicating things to us. And as we're walking in the Spirit, it talks about that in Ephesians. Walking in the Spirit, we're walking by faith. The life of Christ, the glory of God is going to be shown to the world.

Incredible. Really incredible. Think about a little group of houses that are around our house, wherever it is that you live. Whether we're taking trips to the mailbox, whether we're dragging the trash down to the curb, those are opportunities where the Lord is wanting to show His glory to that little group of houses that are around our houses. or the people that you have close proximity with at work, things like that. That's exciting. That's pretty neat to have that opportunity to be used by the Lord in that way.

We rest and we walk by faith, depending on Him and He does that. Any other thoughts? Okay, another awesome, awesome verses here. Verse 4. Back to 2 Corinthians, we can leave John and go back to 2 Corinthians 3. In such confidence, in verse 4, we have through Christ towards God.

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything that is coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. So, in light of what we just talked about, in light of Wayne pointing out that God has already done that work, God is the one who did the communicating through His Holy Spirit, God is the one who is living His life in and through us, Christ is living His life in and through us, but God is the one who initiated that whole process. Therefore, look at verse 4, "...and such confidence we have through Christ towards God. Adequacy doesn't come from ourselves. He's just kind of reiterating the whole point that this whole thing, our confidence is in God concerning, our adequacy comes from God, not from ourselves, because He is the one who has done the complete work. He has given us this complete package, and our responsibility is simply to walk by faith.

It is really incredible positional truths here that God is communicating to us. So, our moment-by-moment trust and confidence is not in ourselves towards God, but through Christ towards God. Think about that for a minute. I mean, that even takes it a step further. That it is through Christ towards God that we can have this confidence.

Confidence is an interesting thing. I think our world struggles with confidence. Is it self-confidence? Is it Christ confidence? That whole issue is a huge issue, especially for young people. As I think about myself back in some of my adolescent, young adult years, I struggled with confidence until I came to understand and realize that the whole issue was about Christ's confidence. It wasn't about self-confidence, because I struggled with self-confidence. Therefore, I got drug into all sorts of messes, trying to find my confidence in the worldly ways.

So I think about that with Henry. He's going to be coming down the pike here, sooner or later, too. And that's what I want to establish him in right here. That his confidence is through Christ the Lord God. That his confidence is going to be found in the Lord, not in himself. It's going to be Christ's confidence, and therefore, he'll be able to be confident because his confidence is in Christ.

What a profound truth that is. Incredible. So, hopefully he learned that a lot earlier than I did, and it can save him a lot of headaches that I went through. So, any thoughts there? That O wretched man I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death, I thank God through, there's that word again, through Jesus Christ. That's a tremendous reference. But it had to be trial first in this case. And in the case of many others.

It's a hard lesson to teach our children, especially in the world, teaching them, you know, be your own self. Sure. Yeah. And you have one in college and then one in middle school, high school? Middle school. So you, you know, you're right in it. Self-esteem. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, is it self-esteem or is it Christ-esteem? Yeah.

And the real truth is Christ's esteem and not self-esteem. It's a pretty good book called that, just called Christ's Esteem, written by a guy that I've read. It's pretty interesting, pretty helpful. So, we can teach those things, we can know them ourselves, but God is going to work in our lives. to bring down the self-esteem and to show us, boy, Christ's esteem or Christ's confidence is really only where it's at.

It's tough. It's tough to walk in that in light of the bombardment that we have from the world that's throwing things to us every day. But certainly possible, because God is the ultimate enabler as we walk by faith. Verse 5. Again, another just tremendous verse.

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. what a comfort it is to know that in life and ministry we have no sufficiency out from ourselves. The word ek there means out from ourselves.

Now, do you find that to be a comfort or not? Some people would find that to be a comfort, some people wouldn't find that to be a comfort, you know, that there's no sufficiency out from ourselves. Now, if we know God, And if we know his purpose for our lives, and if we know him intimately, then we find comfort in that.

But if you don't, and if someone doesn't, boy, you read that statement, we have no sufficiency. They're going to be like, they're going to crumble. They're going to be immediately thrust into depression, because you begin to share these things with somebody, and boy, it could be scary. you know, have a true knowledge of God, not just knowing about God, but having a true, intimate knowledge of God, and you realize, hey, we have no sufficiency out from ourselves, say, alright, great, that is so encouraging, because boy, I know that I don't have anything, but our sufficiency is only out from God. So if we feel They'd probably just not believe you. Yeah. Rather than to crumble, I think. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So there's probably no point in sharing that with another. Right. Right. Right.

Sure. Well, that sufficiency, does that have to do with our ministry? Our sufficiency? Sure. I think so. I think it has to do with both. Our life and also our ministry. Absolutely. Sure. Yeah. As, you know, as having been written on our hearts, which in that ministry is declaring the glory of Christ. Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, to say, is one sufficient in and of themselves for ministry? I would say no, absolutely not. But as one sees that their sufficiency is out from God for ministry, then yeah, I think we're on the right track. Asking any one of the folks here that are involved in any type of capacity of ministry, I think they all would say that their sufficiency comes from God. concerned in the ministry. Well, we all have a ministry. Absolutely, that's right. I think what's interesting is that we take so much of the physical realm of life and spiritual health, so everyone here has sufficiency or adequacy in what they do. Jack is a former I'm a DC-10 pilot and Merlin is an engineer, whatever. And myself is a former aerospace engineer.

And you know that you can solve problems and you're not worried about the problem. You can get in there and tackle it all over your sleeves. And come to the spiritual aspects of it, you can think of the same thing. You can find this physical principles to the spiritual realm, and pretty soon you see that you don't have any sufficiency in yourself. And that's a wonderful thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right. And then it's interesting how the spiritual affects the physical.

Once we begin to see things spiritually, they affect the rolling up of your sleeves. to do what it is that God has put before all of us to do. So all of us have gifts. Jack, you were, I didn't know you then, but you were, I'm sure, a great DC-10 pilot and you're a great engineer and you as well. And so the ability to do those things, and all of us have areas where we have where God has given us the ability to do things, where we can get some things done.

So take that thought right there, and now that's the physical aspect of it, and then apply the spiritual to it. So the idea of transferring the spiritual truth of our sufficiency and our adequacy, not coming from ourselves, but coming from God, and then laying that over the physical areas that God has given us where we're involved in. Does that make any sense?

That's where I think the rubber meets the road. Okay, take myself for example. I put on doorknobs in houses, and I put on towel bars, and I put on toilet paper holders, and it's become a mindless job. You know, I and Steve, we do similar things with work. That's how we met. And it's getting to be monotonous, and it's getting to be mindless, and it's just getting to be quite boring, honestly.

But it's what God has me doing, and I'm thankful for the job it provides for our family. I could come over and fix it for you. So here's the thing. The more I've done it, the faster I've gotten at it, the more efficient I've gotten at it, I can do it in, say, four hours what used to take me five or six hours. Okay, so the point is I'm able to get the job done. Hal and Marilyn and Jack.

Okay, so I'm not adequate in myself. Okay, we see that's a truth, that's a principle we're talking about here from verse five. So how do I take this spiritual principle and walk in light of that all day as I'm doing my job? See? That's a question, I think, that we need to ask. So, my adequacy and my sufficiency is coming from God. I think it's spiritual and it also overlaps into the physical. I think we need to put it onto the physical. So, boy, how does that play out? I think it plays out something like this.

I'm sufficient to do a good job at putting on doorknobs because God has enabled me to be sufficient. I'm able to do a better job at my job because God is enabling me to be sufficient as I'm walking my faith. Is that make... It's really talking about our daily job services, talking about being able to serve Christ, ministering stuff in our faith. What do you guys, what are your thoughts? Let's take another guy. kind of believer who puts on the turnoffs and strikes and everything else.

And he's just as best as you are. Sure. And you both can get the job done. He has the adequacy and you have the adequacy. Both are sufficient. Both at the same level. And I think the difference is that you're doing it unto the Lord and to honor and to glorify Him in what you do, whatever you do. Right, that's right.

But it does say, though, that it goes down here, verse 6, "...who also has made us adequate servants of a new covenant." And so that begins to get into how God has given us this ministry of being servants. What's the word they use for the ministers? They use them in the KJV. And so, I think as we talk about that a little bit more, I think it is also going to include both the spiritual and also the physical, because He's made us able servants or able ministers of this New Covenant. What is that talking about? And as God has made us able ministers and able servants of the New Covenant, how does that seem?

How is the glory of God seen? I'm talking about it in our neighborhoods, in our workplace, with our families. I think, you know, the glory of God is going to be seen wherever we are. And so, as someone sees that what someone is doing is as unto the Lord and not as unto themselves, then they're going to be seeing the Lord. And in fruit of us, they're going to be seeing the glory of God. Therefore, they're going to be, you know, I think it does. But that's the question. How does it overlap? That's always a tough question. How does it apply? How does the rubber meet the road? with some of these things. I think it's good to talk about it. Beverly?

I think in a workplace too, if we do a sloppy job of what we're supposed to do, and we're claiming to be Christians or whatever, that's a terribly poor assessment. Exactly. Down in Colorado Springs there's a company in heating that, you know, they... Christians, Christian Zion and everything and all that. But they have some workers that do really sloppy work. And you tell them about it, and they kind of shrug their shoulders, but to me their ministry is right out the window.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah, yeah. That's right. And so, are they, are people seeing them as letters and epistles of Christ? No. Not at all. And that's, you know, we've been given this ministry of letters and epistles of Christ? And we want to be walking by faith, allowing the Holy Spirit to live the life of Christ in and through us so that people see that.

Exactly right. If you're not going to do an extra job at something, you better not advertise it. Yeah, yeah. That's right. That's right. That reminds me of a joke. Yeah, yeah. That's great. That's great. their signs, their advertisements and everything that they had sort of try to present the kind of letter that Paul said that they couldn't present rather than a living letter in what they do.

When we first moved here, a little over a year and a half now, the first question everybody asks you is, well, why did you move to Colorado? Well, we had to say that, well, we moved to Colorado to go to this little church, called Hollow Hills Bible Church, and so that immediately tells people what you stand for, immediately tells people where you're at, and so that opened up more conversation. That's how Steve and I got talking about the Lord and different things. So, yeah, so there, you know, am I going to do shoddy work? But people, yeah, they know where I'm at, they know what I stand for, and that I'm a believer, and I follow the Lord, and just blow this living epistle and testimony out the window, that would be unwise to do that. Sure.

When you're talking about sufficiency and understanding your sufficiency, it's interesting to look at our scandals like Enron and Quest and some of these companies. Most of these companies were still profitable when they started these accounting frauds. But they weren't profitable enough to suit the management. They weren't living up to their home's goals. They were looking for their sufficiency from the performance of their company. And they were willing to lie and cheat in order to make it appear that they were as profitable as they were telling their investors. While they were still profitable.

That's right. If you have to lie to make it better, when it's basically all right. When it's already fine, yeah. Your shares would be at 82 instead of 92. Right, right. That's right. So in the flesh, it will never be sufficient. It always has to be more. You always have to resort to the fleshly tools of reaching it. That's right, that's right.

Good point. Well, let's stop there. We'll pick up in 6 and we'll review this section. Another awesome section. That's why we chose chapter 3 to kind of go back through because it was so packed full of just good stuff that we could go through again and talk through. So we'll pick up in verse 6 and go through this section of kind of contrasting and comparing the Old and the New Covenant.

So, let's pray. Lord, thanks for this morning. Thanks for our time. and for the thoughts that you brought to mind, and our sufficiency is from you, truly, Lord. And we thank you for providing that for us. We thank you for positioning us in you that makes that possible for the work that you have already done for us. Thank you so much, Lord. We pray that we would continue to walk by faith and dependency upon you in that. And I pray for Vernon this morning and the rest of the service. In your name we pray. Amen.