David Jeremiah - The Final Prophecy: The Triumph of the Gospel
Back in 2018, as the Easter season was approaching, the SiriusXM channel came together with the Billy Graham organization to play Billy Graham's messages 24/7 throughout the entire Easter season. This was advertised as a limited-time agreement and when the Easter season ended the messages by Billy Graham went away. But the response to the great evangelist's preaching must have been very positive because he's back on SiriusXM, and this time it is a full-time, every day, 24-hours-per-day permanent agreement. You can now hear Graham's messages on channel 460 around the clock, and I have been listening. Each message is introduced, and it's located by the date on which it was preached. Some of the messages were recorded live from his huge stadium events and some of them are replays of his weekly 30-minute radio program, which he recorded in a studio.
For over 70 years, for 7 decades, Billy Graham preached, and we can listen to what he preached. He preached during times of war. He preached during times of peace. He preached during times of racial unrest. He preached when our nation was going through serious financial crisis. He preached in the aftermath of the assassination of President Kennedy and when we landed our astronauts on the moon. He preached through the administrations of 12 United States presidents. He preached during the terrible days that surrounded 9/11. He preached when his children were growing up and when his wife died. No matter what was happening in our world or in his world, Billy Graham preached.
I'm always surprised when people say, "You know, all those people that go forward in the Billy Graham crusades, they don't all come and accept Jesus". And I don't know whether they all do or not. All I know is everywhere I go all over the world I meet people who got saved listening to Billy Graham preach, so whatever he was doing, it was making a difference. But I tell you about how long he preached because I want to remind you about the subject that he preached. I cannot begin to tell you how my heart has been stirred over these last several weeks as I have listened to his sermons. In spite of the myriad of issues that confronted him, he confronted them all with one thing: the gospel of Jesus Christ. He never wavered. He never changed. He never apologized. He seemed to get stronger and better as he got older. As I have listened to him, I have found myself thinking of the words that Paul wrote to the Corinthians when he said, "I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified".
As we head into these post-COVID days in our churches and in our pulpits, I believe that it is the gospel alone that can triumph over the many challenges we're facing in our culture at this hour. That was what was confirmed to me as I listened to this great evangelist on the radio. He believed the gospel was the answer to any question, and he preached that gospel as if it were our only hope because it is, so I want to talk with you first of all about what this means. In that respect, Billy Graham followed the great Apostle Paul, who, according to Romans chapter 1, was a servant of the gospel. In the book of Acts it gives the history of Paul's preaching and in his many epistles that contain the content of his preaching it is the cross and the Resurrection. It is the gospel that is at the center of it all. One of the best illustrations of Paul's focus on the gospel is found in his letter to the Colossians. In Colossians, he defined the gospel like this. He said, "God has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins".
That's the gospel. That's what he preached. That's what the world needs. Without Christ, we're still in Satan's grip, but because of God's great love for us his only Son, Jesus, shed his blood to redeem us from our sins and give us full forgiveness. He rose from the dead, he ascended to heaven, he resumed his position of supreme authority, and when we believe and receive his good news he instantly conveys unto us his family and takes us into his kingdom. That is the triumph of the gospel, the victory of Jesus on our behalf. As we survey the book of Colossians, there are several truths about the gospel that jump out at us. First of all, the message of the gospel is transforming.
I have a friend, as many of you know, who's the pastor of the largest church maybe in the world. I think it is, but he pastors the Calvary Church in Hyderabad, India. Every time he preaches he does this. He holds up his Bible, and he says, "All books are informational, but this book alone is transformational". And he does it in his slow, dramatic, Indian way. That is the truth. That's the difference in the gospel. The gospel changes things. I've had the joy of being the pastor of this church for 40 years, and for 12 years before that I pastored in Fort Wayne, Indiana, so I have had a chance to watch what the gospel does generationally. And I've seen how the gospel changes people's lives and changes spouse's lives and changes children's lives and changes grandchildren's lives and changes whole families. Changes everything. It's not often that I quote a press release from an atheist society, but just as the pandemic was fading from the headlines this news item caught my eye.
A group called the Atheists in Kenya Society in Nairobi issued a press release dated May 30, 2021. Listen to this. "This evening, regretfully, the secretary of the Atheists in Kenya Society, Mr. Seth Mahiga, informed me that he has made the decision to resign from his position as secretary of the society. Seth's reason for resigning is that he has found Jesus Christ and is no longer interested in promoting atheism in Kenya". The press release went on to say, "We wish all the best in his newfound relationship with Jesus Christ. The position of secretary of the society has been rendered vacant". The statement went on to ask for applicants for the position. We cannot imagine how many people like Seth are saved by the blood of Christ. Every single day in this world a miracle like that happens over and over and over again, and the ones that are the most fun for me are the people that some folks come and say, "Even God couldn't change his life," and then God changes his life. And isn't that the wonderful thing about the gospel? Isn't that the way the gospel works?
Paul told the Colossians, "We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel". And to the Thessalonians, Paul wrote something similar. "Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power. You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God". What an incredible thing the gospel is. It is the number-one change agent in all of the universe. Nothing can change people or personalities, individuals or families like the gospel. The message of the gospel is transforming. Here's the second thing: The work of the gospel is expanding. Paul went on to say, "The gospel has come to you, as it also has in all the world, and it brings forth fruit".
Even in Paul's day he saw the gospel spreading and expanding like concentric circles throughout the entire known world. Jesus said, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come". I don't know how you feel about what's happening to the gospel. There are some discouraging things that we could discuss, but given everything that's going on and taking a global perspective, a 30,000-foot look at the gospel, from my experience I can tell you I've never seen a moment in my lifetime in which we are reaching more people, witnessing more conversions, touching more nations than now.
I remember coming into this auditorium for the first time on a Saturday night after we had been told that we couldn't have church. Now, you know, I don't know what to do when you can't have church. I go to church. That's what I do. It's my life, but I came in here and I preached in this auditorium. There was a camera person, and there was a person with the video scroll, and a couple of my friends. And I told my wife after that was over, "I hope I don't have to do that again. That was so hard". And I was so discouraged. I got back to the green room afterwards, and they started to tell me what was happening from the internet. And the messages were coming across during the time I was preaching. When we got it all done, we found out that that first week that I preached to nobody I preached to over a hundred thousand people on the internet. Can you imagine that?
And, obviously, we didn't hold those numbers through the whole thing, and I will suppose that today. We would average a little over 30,000, but many of the people who joined us then are a part of our online congregation. They listen, they write, they support us financially, and many of them tell us the story of their life being changed because of the gospel. It's hard to be discouraged with the headlines when a bigger story is unfolding. We can't fully document it, but the gospel is yielding unprecedented fruit all around the globe. The triumphant gospel is penetrating new areas, going places where it never would have gone before.
Perhaps you've heard rumors about the growth of Christianity within the borders of Iran, of all the places you would think the gospel would never go. Well, the rumors are true. One report said the gospel is spreading through that nation at a sizzling pace. Another report said the Holy Spirit is on fire in Iran. We're on television in Iran on a network called the Malakut Channel, and that takes us into the country, and I preach and a scroll goes across the bottom with the language that they observe there. It's amazing. These people, they can't tell anybody that they're listening 'cause they'd get in trouble. We often get emails from them saying, "We wanna say thank you, but please don't send anything back to us". Most people that we get in the United States, they want you to send everything you can back to 'em. But the people in Iran would just as soon you not respond, but they wanna tell you what the gospel is meaning in their lives.
Plans are unfolding right now for Billy Graham to preach in Iran. Can you believe that? Dr. Graham's sermons are being dubbed into Farsi and broadcast into the country. It's believed that his sermons will reach over 20 million Iranians in the safety of their own homes. I often think about that. I think there's a verse in Hebrews 11, verse 4. Here's what it says, "He being dead still speaks". And that's true. Billy Graham still speaks. Everywhere you go there's somebody listening. It's on the radio. TBN runs a Billy Graham classic thing every Saturday. I love watching that. It's so funny to see how people dressed back in the '40s and '50s.
As followers of Christ, we read the news differently than other people. When you hear reports of the Iranian nuclear deal or the Ayatollah's apocalyptic threats, just remember when you're listening to that there's more going on there than meets the eye. The Lord is at work behind the headlines. The gospel is moving into every corner of the earth, and its message of triumph is spreading all over the world. So, the message of the gospel is transforming, and the work of the gospel is expanding, and the followers of the gospel are maturing. The Apostle Paul told the Colossians that he was praying. This is one of the best prayers in the New Testament. "That you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; and that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy".
Paul prayed for the Colossian believers not just that they would become Christians, but they become mature Christians. And he used these wonderful words: Might and power and patience and longsuffering and joy. How many of us need a lot more of those qualities in our lives? Paul asked God to strengthen the Colossians, and we need that, and God is doing that. While the world is worsening, the Lord's servants are increasing, and his churches are advancing. When I look at the students and young adults in this church and in our schools, I'm not discouraged. I'm encouraged. We have a young generation whose growth and zeal and godliness surely will be tested, but which will triumph in the years ahead. Despite all of the anguish and the abuse of our age, the gospel is going to triumph through the church as we mature in Christ and bear fruit in every good work.
Never underestimate the power of your local church. If this isn't your local church, make sure your local church is a big part of your life. That's something God has promised to bless. I know we have many parachurch organizations, and I applaud them all, but there's nothing that God has promised to bless like the local church. If you listen to me on the radio you know every Friday I tell people, "Go to church. Don't stay home and watch us on television. Go to church," because the church is what God has promised. He says the gates of hell will not prevail against the local church. How many of you know the gates of hell are at work today? But the church of Jesus Christ has the promise that it will stand strong, so why shouldn't you be a part of the church? And maybe this is a good place for me to insert my little promotional. If you're not going to church because you stopped going to church during COVID and you've gotten comfortable going to church in your pajamas, it's time to go back to church. And the church needs you, and you need the church.
So, the message of the gospel is transforming, and the work of the gospel is expanding, and the followers of the gospel are maturing, and the author of the gospel... oh, the author of the gospel is preeminent. One more thing we must remember. And that the author of the gospel is our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to Colossians 1. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence".
Richard Chin is the national director of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students. He has a profound ministry with young people on multiple continents, but it always wasn't that way. Back in the early part of July in 1983, Chin was a student whose Christian experience was barely existent. One day, while attending a conference, he heard the speaker ask one question. Here was the question: "Is Jesus Christ number one in your life"? He knew he was a good number two or three, but he was not number one. Sometime that week, he said, "I joyfully received Jesus as my Lord, and I moved him up from number three to number one". And he began to study his Bible, and he was drawn to the book of Colossians. He was so infected by this book he memorized the book, and he was amazed at the triumphant picture of Christ found in its pages.
As we see Jesus more clearly, men and women, the gospel gets bigger and bigger in our hearts. His death becomes more wonderful. His resurrection becomes more astonishing. Sin becomes more disgusting, and the devil seems more evil. The restoring work of the Spirit gets mightier, the global extent of the gospel becomes more important, and the connection between everything in the Bible becomes clearer. Our yearning for eternity becomes greater, and the love of God becomes more delightful in our lives. When you put Jesus number one, everything else starts to get in its right place. "Jesus is preeminent in everything," wrote Chin, "He rules everything in this creation, and he rules everything in the age to come".
The question that changed Richard Chin's life is profoundly important now. Is Jesus truly preeminent in your life? Is he number one? If he's a good two or three there will be nothing victorious about your experience. Someone said long time ago, "Only in the Christian life does surrender bring victory," so surrender your life to Christ. Make sure he's number one. That's gonna be more important as we move through these days that are in front of us. And then, the theme of the gospel is energizing. Another triumphal note in Colossians sounds like a blast from the trumpet. Here it is. Colossians 1:27, "Christ in you, the hope of glory". What a slogan. What a motto. Taken together this is the triumph of the gospel, and you can make it your own. Christ in me, the hope of glory.
The moment we put Christ as our Savior, he comes through his Spirit to live and reign within us, and one day we're gonna see him face to face. One day soon we'll literally walk and talk with him as the disciples did long ago. We will share his glory and have a part in his inheritance, reigning with him over the new heavens and the new earth. The New Living Translation says it this way, "And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory". So, what does this mean and where do we go from here? What do we take away from this that we can unpack in our lives every day? If the gospel is the preeminent, triumphant message, if it triumphs over everything else, if there's no problem that we face in our culture today that is not overwhelmed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and we believe that's true and the Bible says it's true, so what do we do now? How do we respond to that as followers of Christ?
Well, first of all, let me suggest that we preach the gospel with our lips. We must keep preaching Christ. We must keep holding the cross up. Colossians 1:28 and 29 says, "Him we preach, warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I labor," said Paul, "striving according to his working which works in me mightily". I don't know if you know this, but Paul was a renaissance man in many respects. There wasn't anything that Paul couldn't do. He was a great student. He was a writer. He was a theologian. He's the one that basically started all the churches that you read about in the New Testament. He wrote 12 or 13 of the letters in the New Testament Scripture. He was very, very gifted in many areas, but I know this.
If you ask Paul, "Paul, what do you do for a living"? He would say, "I preach. I'm a preacher". And if you go through his writings you can pick that up. In 1 Corinthians 1:23 he said, "We preach Christ crucified". In 1 Corinthians 9:16, "If I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of". 2 Corinthians 4:5, "We do not preach ourselves, but we preach Jesus Christ the Lord". Philippians 1:18, "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice". You say, "Dr. Jeremiah, that's great for you 'cause you're a preacher". Not everybody is called to be a vocational preacher, but everybody is called to be a preacher. Did you know that? We are all called to preach or tell the good news of the gospel.
Naomi Reed interviewed an Asian Christian named, Resham, who told her, "I have Parkinson's disease. I can't walk anywhere. I'm mostly in my bed. I can't leave this room, I can't go to church, I can't visit people, and it's such a change for me. I spent my whole adult life sharing the gospel. Back then, I walked through 72 districts of Nepal preaching the gospel, and we started a Bible correspondence course. In total, we had 700,000 students. I was put in jail three times for my faith, and I was tortured, but I can't walk anymore. I can't get out of bed, and the challenge for me today is in reading Colossians 1:28 and 29". And here's what that says, "Him we preach, warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I labor," said Paul, "striving according to his working which works in me mightily".
Resham continued, "I wanna be like Paul. I know that he used all of his energy to share the gospel, and I wanna do that, too. I don't have any energy in my body anymore, but I still have energy in my heart and in my mind. So, even now people can ring me on my phone, and they ask me about Jesus, and I tell them. I am still taking calls from our Bible correspondence students. I'm still using all my energy even when I'm lying on my bed. All the energy that Christ has given me, I've given it back to him to advance the cause of Christ".
Isn't that the way it should be? So, basically, a story like that takes all of our excuses away. There's a way, that everyone listening to this message, wherever you may be, we all can have a part in preaching the gospel. We can do what God has equipped us to do. He's given us all these various wonderful gifts. Whatever it is that God has equipped you to do that helps move the gospel forward, that's what it means to preach the gospel, so preach the gospel with your lips. Here's the second one: Picture the gospel with your life. In verses 6 and 7 of chapter 2 in Colossians we read, "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving". Paul said, "Okay, you're all Christians. Now live like Christians. Walk like Christians. Don't just be Christians in name. Be Christians all the way through to the bone. Be Christians in all that you do".
Oh, how we need that today. One of the great rips on Christianity is that so many people who claim to be Christians don't live any differently than the people in the world. And we don't have to be a bunch of weirdos and cranks and all the kinda things that people think that we are, but there should be a qualitative difference in our lives if Jesus Christ is who we say he is. "Walk" is a term that is often used to describe the Christian life. The word is in the present tense, and it means, "continually walking". Someone once told me that the hardest thing about being a Christian is that it's so daily. Isn't that the truth? It's so daily. Every day, you gotta get up and do it over again, but here's the good news. It's daily, but the eternal Spirit of God lives within your heart. And he enables you to do what you couldn't do.
We preach the gospel with our lips, but we picture the gospel with our lives. People need to see Jesus Christ in us. Charles Spurgeon called this adorning the gospel, dressing up the gospel. Here's what he wrote. "What is appropriate to the gospel? Well, holiness suits the gospel. Adorn the gospel with a holy life. How pure, how clean, how sweet, how heavenly the gospel is. Hang, then, the jewels of holiness around your neck and place them as rings on your hands. The gospel is also to be adorned with mercifulness. It is all mercy. It is all love. There is no love like it. 'God so loved the world.' Well, then, adorn the gospel with the suitable jewels of mercifulness and kindness to other people". He went on to say, "The gospel is also the gospel of happiness. It is called 'the glorious gospel of the blessed God.' A more correct translation would be 'the happy God.' Well, then, adorn the gospel by being happy".
How many of you know some Christians just look so sad? The Bible says if Christ is in our heart and we have the joy of the Holy Spirit, what's in our heart needs to get translated to our faces. It doesn't mean we walk around all giddy all the time, but when Christians are walking with the Lord, as Paul has instructed us here in Colossians, there's a quality difference in how we live. We are to walk in the Lord as we have received him. We're to preach the gospel with our lips and picture the gospel with our life and practice the gospel with our love. He says in verse 14 of chapter 3 in Colossians, "But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection". We have this triumphant gospel, but those who share it must be clothed in love and carry in their hearts a genuine burden for their neighbors, as much as they do for their enemies.
Colossians 4:5 says, "Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time". You know, one of the things it says about Jesus was that he was filled with grace and truth, and it seems to me, as you look out at the Christian world today, we have a lotta people who are on either side of it and not as many people who have joined the two together. Jesus said we're to be filled with truth and love, and especially for those of us who are Christians. There are many other instructions for us, but I want to end with a strange little verse at the end of the book. We're to love, and we're never to stop loving. Here it is. Colossians 4:17. Paul said, "Say to Archippus, 'Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.'" Now, that sounds like an extraneous verse. "What's that in there for? Who in the world is Archippus? I never heard of him".
Well, first of all, Archippus was the son of Philemon. I know that. Paul called him a fellow soldier, so he had to be a Christian worker of some sort. But that's all we know. We don't know very much about him, but Paul cared enough about this man that he sent this instruction to him in the letter that he wrote to the Colossians. And here was the instruction: Make sure that by the end of your life you have come to the end of your list. Do everything that you were assigned to do. What a Word that is today. We believe Archippus lived his life that way, but Paul encouraged him. I don't wanna get off on this.
This is one of my pet peeves, that so many of God's people have bought into the idea that at a certain time in life, usually about 65, you check out and vegetate for the rest of the time you're on this earth. I hope you're not among that. I've already proven to you that I'm not, and I don't intend to be, but listen to me. There's so much that needs to be done, and I'll be one to tell you there's a lotta things that I used to do that I can't do, but a lotta things that I can do better because I've learned how to do them over time. And, oftentimes, what I've noticed in the church is that just when people have the giftedness that will make them so effective, they decide it's time for them to go do something else.
You know, people ask me why I keep doing what I'm doing, and I say, you know, when I was 54 I got cancer, and it was pretty serious. It was stage 4 large-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. By all of the measures of life I shouldn't be here, but God brought me through that and I got... yeah. And he gave me a new vision for my life. And people ask me, "Why do you do what you do"? And I say when God brought me through cancer he didn't do it so I could go sit in a beach somewhere. He did it so I could serve him with my life, and I've had so much joy doing that. You know, I don't know if this is true for everybody, but it seems like God has saved the best to last for me. Every day I get up there's something new and exciting that he's doing that I never dreamed would ever happen. I'm glad he let me stay around for all this, 'cause it's really fun.
I just want you to see if you wouldn't put your name in this verse. "Say to David Jeremiah, 'Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.'" Put your name in there and ask God to help you to finish what you have started. Do you know that Jesus said, one of the earliest things that we read about him in the Bible is when he went to the temple with his parents. His parents left him, one of the most human quintessential things that ever happened in his life, and Jesus as a young boy said, "I must be about my Father's business". In other words, "I have a job to do". And at the end of his natural life on this earth this is what Jesus said, "Father, I have glorified you on Earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do".
Now watch what he said and what he didn't say. He didn't say, "I have finished all the work there is to do". Some people try to do that, and they burn out, and they don't have anything left. He didn't say that. No, he said, "I finished the work that you have given me to do". God gives each of us something to do. If we wanna know what that is we can ask him, and he will tell us, and we will know what we're supposed to do. And he's given you certain gifts for his glory and certain tasks for his kingdom. Make sure you complete them. You don't have to get out of this world alive, but you do have to complete the work that God assigned you. And if we do that we will see a resurgence of service among the more senior people in our churches that will be a glory to the church and such a blessing to the younger folks who are coming up and trying to figure out what this is all about.
Why should we make them learn all the hard lessons that we've learned? Let's help them with that. Let's lead them. The Bible is full of instructions that we're to do that. The Apostle Paul said this about his life, he said, "But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for the finishing of the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus: the work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God". So, friends, the gospel is what God has given us. It's this commodity that we have. It's the blessing of being a Christian. We have this wonderful thing called the gospel.
I can think of no one who sought to fulfill this verse more than Billy Graham. He's still preaching and his iconic voice touches my heart and inspires me to be a better preacher. He held more than 400 crusades in his life in more than 185 countries. His final crusade was in New York City in 2005. This is what he said: "I have one message: that Jesus Christ came. He died on a cross, he rose again, and he asked us to repent of our sins and receive him by faith as Lord and Savior. And if we do, we have forgiveness of all our sin". He said that in the first message that he ever preached, and he said it in the last one that he ever preached. He delivered his final sermon in a television broadcast on his 95th birthday. This is what he said, "Our country is in a great need of a spiritual awakening. There have been times that I have wept as I have gone from city to city and I've seen how far our people have wandered from God. Of all the things that I've seen and heard there is only one message that can change people's lives and hearts. I wanna tell people about the meaning of the cross, the cross of Christ. He loves you. He's willing to forgive you of all of your sins".
What a testimony to somebody who's coming along after, to see a man who started preaching the gospel. He just got stronger and stronger, and he preached the gospel. No matter what country he was in, no matter what situation he was in, it was always the gospel. God help us to be that kind of a pastor, be that kind of a preacher in our churches. Of course, none of us are Billy Graham. He was unique, but we all have the same gospel. It doesn't belong to Billy Graham. The gospel is God's gift to all of us. It is the good news of Jesus Christ for you as much as it is for anyone in all the world, and it triumphs all the headlines of history. The gospel is the only beam of light shining in this dark world, but its megawatts are unlimited. The gospel can brighten any life, dispel every shadow.
We're not beaten-down people. We're not on the ropes. We are not an endangered species as Christians. We're not a people worried about where we go from here. We know where we're going because of the gospel. We know him who has prepared the way because of the gospel. We are more than conquerors through our Lord Jesus Christ because of the gospel, the triumph of the gospel, and I hope you've discovered it for yourself. Whatever you're facing, the gospel, because it's Jesus Christ, is your victory. Wherever you're going, he's your guide. However you're feeling, he's your sole and solid hope. Whatever you're worried about by the falling fragments of our collapsing planet, you can look up to heaven and see him who came down to earth for you. He's right now seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us and waiting for when we come through the door to say to us, "Welcome home, good and faithful servant". May that be our hope. Amen.