Message: "Our Only Hope" by Pastor Joel King

They keep drivers from drifting into danger, especially when the roads are wet and Californians who aren't used to weather are driving like Californians. And the catechism functions much the same way. It summarizes biblical truth so that when our emotions run high, culture shifts, or suffering clouds our thinking, we are not left guessing what is true. We don't go off, if you would, the spiritual road. [00:02:11] (34 seconds)  #CatechismKeepsYouOnTrack

So let me let me just put it this way. Imagine you borrow a friend's car. For whatever reason. Yours is in the shop or maybe you're traveling or whatnot. You borrow a friend's car. Now you may drive it, enjoy it, and benefit from it, but you will treat it differently than if it were your own. I'm not talking about a rental car because you treat that worse. I'm talking about a friend that you actually like. [00:12:39] (23 seconds)  #TreatItLikeABorrowedCar

To live to the Lord means that our days, our decisions, our vocation, our relationships, and our ambitions are no longer centered on self, but on Christ. Not even a a good moral code, but on Christ. This does this does not mean that every Christian life looks the same, because he he does. He gives us different gifts and a different different purpose, or at least we carry out that purpose differently. But it does mean that every Christian life has the same center or the same Lord. [00:15:10] (35 seconds)  #ChristAtTheCenter

Death is the great fear humanity tries to avoid, tries to deny, or control. But scripture speaks of it honestly, and guess what? Hopefully, hopefully, for the Christian death is not separation from Christ. It is not abandonment by Christ. It is not the end of belonging. Even in death, we are his. It is actually an arrival into his arms, if you would. [00:18:18] (30 seconds)  #DeathIsArrival

We do not belong to our past. We do not belong to our failures. We do not belong to the approval of others. Most of our resolutions is so we can get approval of others. We're honest. We do not even belong to ourselves. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. We belong to Jesus Christ, body and soul. [00:23:19] (23 seconds)  #NotDefinedByMyPast

And this belonging is not fragile. Check this out. It does not depend on our consistency. It asks for it, but it doesn't depend on it. This is like our children, our adopted children. Our adoption of them did not depend on their consistency. We went through a time, we were like, we were stupid for adopting. But we didn't quit. We didn't say we're unadopting you. It does not dissolve in suffering or sin. Again, like I said, when we hit that tough time, we didn't dissolve the adoption. [00:23:42] (30 seconds)  #BelongingIsNotFragile

``Now many people want Jesus as savior. Right? But they hesitate to call him Lord. It's like many people want to do I have a lot of money, but they wanna win the lottery. They don't wanna work for it, go to school for it, sacrifice for it. But Romans 14 reminds us that Christ did not rise merely to rescue us. He rose to reign. [00:25:14] (27 seconds)  #JesusAsLordNotJustSavior

and when we've decided to live our own way, the question is, do you have the stamp? Do you have the stamp? Do you belong to him? Do you belong to him? We belong to God and to our savior, Jesus Christ. And because we are his, we can live with confidence, we can die with peace, and we can rest in hope. The question is and we're gonna get as we go into more and more questions. The question is, do you trust the one you belong to? [00:33:23] (26 seconds)  #DoYouHaveTheStamp