Charles Spurgeon wrote: "The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ". Thus, both the heart and essence of our redemption is our Redeemer Jesus Christ. God demonstrates his own love toward us.  Present tense.  Ongoing action. It is not that God showed His love for us 2,000 years ago, which of course He did! That’s past. That’s history. That is fixed, objective, unchanging. The idea here is that God commends His love today through the past, historical, objective fact of the death of his Son for us.

Our study today presents us with the most important aspect of the Christian life; namely, living for the glory of God. Unfortunately, to speak of the glory of God has become a phrase that is used so much that it has become trite and void of any depth of meaning. To live for the glory of God simply means that I no longer live for myself. That is it in a nutshell. This living for the glory of God affects how we eat, drink, work, pray and serve. Living for the glory of God is living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Ponder this thought beloved. Any problem that you and I have in our walk with Jesus; be it in our marriage, our vocation or even in how we relate to on another here at Koinonia is a Lordship problem.

Every single follower of Jesus Christ is going to face times of depression and discouragement. It is inevitable. Until we are with The Lord in glory, we will face trials that test our faith in God to the limits. Our study this morning reminds us that the people of God have always had to deal with circumstances and trials that brought them to tears day and night. Can you relate to that, beloved?