by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
I. This song declares the praises of our Savior<\/p>\n
A. What is meant by saying this is my story?<\/p>\n
B. The foundation of this song is II Corinthians 3:1-6<\/p>\n 1. The Christians in Corinth were the living proof of the work of the apostle\nPaul.\n 2. They have confidence towards God, not from themselves, but from the\nability of God.\n
II. A reason to praise Christ is our assurance of salvation<\/p>\n
A. Can a person know they are saved?<\/p>\n
B. John speaks of “knowing” 29 times in the book of I John<\/p>\n
1. I John 2:3-5 – If we keep his commandments<\/p>\n
2. I John 3:14-19 – By our love<\/p>\n
3. I John 3:24 – By keeping his commandments<\/p>\n
4. I John 4:2 – By our confession<\/p>\n
5. I John 4:6 – By our acceptance of the truth<\/p>\n
6. I John 5:2 – When we love God and keep his commandments<\/p>\n 7. I John 5:18-20 – Because we avoid sin and because God has given us\nChrist.\n
C. What is meant by “Jesus is mine”?<\/p>\n
1. Galatians 5:24 – We belong to Jesus<\/p>\n
2. Galatians 3:26-29 – We are baptized into Christ, so we belong to him<\/p>\n
D. What is meant by a foretaste?<\/p>\n
E. Heirs of salvation – Romans 8:15-17<\/p>\n
1. That passage in Galatians 3:29 also mentioned being heirs of promise<\/p>\n 2. Made heirs according to the hope through the washing of regeneration –\nTitus 5:7\n
3. Revelation 7:13-17 – Washed in the blood of Christ<\/p>\n
4. Acts 22:16 – Wash away sins through baptism<\/p>\n
5. Romans 6:3-4 – Baptized into his death<\/p>\n
F. Purchased of God<\/p>\n
1. I Peter 3:18-19 – We were purchased by the blood of Jesus<\/p>\n
2. Ephesians 1:7 – Redemption through his blood<\/p>\n
G. Born of the Spirit<\/p>\n
1. Ephesians 1:13-14 – Spirit given as pledge (guarantee) of our inheritance<\/p>\n
2. John 3:5 – Must be born of water and Spirit<\/p>\n
3. John 1:13 – Born by the will of God (who is Spirit)<\/p>\n
4. I John 5:1 – Born of God<\/p>\n
5. I John 5:6-8 – The three witnesses to salvation: water, blood, and Spirit<\/p>\n
III. The next reason for praising Christ is our submission to God’s mercy<\/p>\n
A. Submission<\/p>\n
1. Submission is the willingness to follow someone else’s lead.<\/p>\n
2. Christians are told to be in submission to many things<\/p>\n
a. Romans 13:1 – Submission to government<\/p>\n
b. Hebrews 13:17 – Elders<\/p>\n
c. Ephesians 5:21 – To one another<\/p>\n
3. But most important is a willingness to follow God – James 4:6-10<\/p>\n
B. How does submission lead to happiness?<\/p>\n 1. David showed this with his repentance over his sin with Bathsheba –\nPsalm 51\n
2. Trust in God brings joy – Psalms 32:10-11<\/p>\n
3. Romans 15:13 – God fills us with joy through hope<\/p>\n
4. Jesus is our example – Hebrews 12:2<\/p>\n
5. Our trials are also our joy – I Peter 1:6-9<\/p>\n
C. “Angels descending”<\/p>\n
1. Allusion to Jacob’s dream – Genesis 28:10-12<\/p>\n
2. What do the angels bring?<\/p>\n
a. What is an echo? (a “shadow” of a voice)<\/p>\n
b. Hebrews 2:1-3 – What did angels bring? When?<\/p>\n
c. Colossians 2:16-17 – A mere shadow.<\/p>\n
3. What has been God’s message?<\/p>\n
a. His love and his mercy on mankind.<\/p>\n
IV. Finally, we praise Christ in our contentment to wait for him<\/p>\n
A. How does submission bring rest?<\/p>\n
1. Contentment in whatever circumstance – Philippians 4:11-13<\/p>\n
2. It comes from preparation:<\/p>\n
I Can Sleep at Night<\/p>\n
\n A farmer needed a hired man. After trying several workers, all of whom failed to meet his\nstandards, the farmer began to feel desperate.\n Then another worker applied for the job. The farmer asked him, “What qualifies you for\nthis job?”\n
The man answered, “I can sleep at night.”<\/p>\n That didn’t sound too promising, but since he was desperate, the farmer hired hte\nnewcomer.\n That night there was a terrific thunderstorm. The farmer awoke, ran to the hired man’s\nroom and tried to arouse him. He could not.\n Muttering to himself something like, “I’ll take care of him in the morning,” the farmer\nwent outside into the night and the driving rain. He found the barn doors securely closed, the\nhaystack well covered and the tractor put away in the shed. There was nothing he could do but\nreturn to the house and go back to bed. Then he understood why his new hired man had said, “I\ncan sleep at night.”\n
John Van Schepen<\/p>\n
B. The preparation in the song is being in my Savior.<\/p>\n
1. “In” to enter and join. <\/p>\n
2. How do we enter? – Galatians 3:26-29<\/p>\n
3. In Christ are all blessings – Ephesians 1:3<\/p>\n
C. Waiting for God – Psalms 37:7-11<\/p>\n
1. Too often we are impatient to see results.<\/p>\n 2. Sometime look up the passages that speak of waiting for God. There are a\nlarge number of them.\n 3. Moses told the Israelites to stand still and see what God would do –\nExodus 14:13\n 4. Fear makes us impatient and rash. We cannot allow our fear to loose sight\nof our God – II Chronicles 20:15-18, 20-22\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I. This song declares the praises of our Savior A. What is meant by saying this is my story? B. The foundation of this song is II Corinthians 3:1-6 1. The Christians in Corinth were the living proof of the work of the apostle Paul. 2. They have confidence towards God, not from themselves, but from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[757,250,521],"class_list":["post-66951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","tag-assurance","tag-confidence","tag-songs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":86227,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/assurance-in-the-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":66951,"position":0},"title":"Assurance in the Heart","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Christians have some great things in their hearts that others lack but need. First, we have confidence that if we die, we are in a good place. We have a covenant with the Creator and Judge, and Jesus is the surety of the best covenant ever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83273,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/assurance-of-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":66951,"position":1},"title":"Assurance of Salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"So, any Christian who keeps the faith never has to be worried about their salvation. Once Saved, Always Saved is not in the Bible. Assurance of salvation is. We can know that we have eternal life\" [from a comment received]. The key here is \"keeping the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61870,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/blessed-assurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":66951,"position":2},"title":"Blessed Assurance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Hebrews 10:19-26 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you died at this very moment, would the Lord place you in Heaven or Hell? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Most would answer, \u201cI hope it would be in Heaven.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet the answer lacks confidence. They are not certain. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But why not? Who else would know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59522,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-search-for-assurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":66951,"position":3},"title":"The Search for Assurance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Paul Earnhart It was a discussion between preacher friends.\u00a0 We were wrestling with the question of how confident Christians ought to be, moment by moment, about their salvation. Some were arguing for absolute assurance, others for a more cautious one. There is perhaps no concern that weaves its way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84588,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/two-essentials-for-assurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":66951,"position":4},"title":"Two Essentials for Assurance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 15, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark Nitz via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 13, No. 4, December 31, 1987 One of our greatest needs in serving God is a feeling of confidence regarding our present acceptance by God and future home in heaven. Unfortunately, this assurance is sadly lacking among many of God's people. Extremes are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55069,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/assurance-of-our-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":66951,"position":5},"title":"Assurance of Our Salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bryan Sharp \"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}