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[BLANK_AUDIO] ♪ All along, all along ♪ ♪ Was made a race ♪ ♪ To the desert ♪

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♪ The captain's been ♪ ♪ My love, my love, my love ♪ ♪ Oh, will I ever ♪ ♪ Oh, will I ever ♪

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♪ We feel the beat ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ How proud they'll be ♪ ♪ We'll be ♪

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[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] ♪ Oh, when I'm out and about ♪

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♪ When I'm out and about ♪ ♪ When I'm out and about ♪ ♪ Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes ♪ ♪ When I'm out and about ♪

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[MUSIC] [MUSIC] ♪ We will love you ♪ ♪ I will love you ♪

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♪ We will be with you ♪ - Let's all say amen. - Amen. - Would you all stand, please, everyone,

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would you stand and... And repeat these words after me, the focal passage for the message. From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Let me be seated.

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We had messages from the book of the letter to the Galatians for the last several weeks and we continue that series today, both in the eight o'clock service

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and the 11 o'clock service. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. The subject of the message, scars of salvation. Scars of salvation.

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sometimes are made of their surgical scars. Most of us have scars. Scars we have received in the course of our lives. In Paul's apostleship,

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The apostle has made his response. Interesting thing about the letters that we have in the New Testament, many times we have only one side of the letter. We don't know what the other side may have been.

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We can reason what may have been said by the contents of the letter, however. The Galatians have questioned Paul's claim as an apostle, and Paul responds not by merely making an assertion, he declares with resounding certainty, "My body bears the marks of the Lord Jesus."

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So as we stand at the beginning of a new year, it will be well for us to join with Paul in giving the testimony that you have scars of salvation. It's really popular these days, I don't know what to call it, but you see some persons with a ring in their nose, some have certain tattoos on their bodies, sometimes on their

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arms, sometimes on the, well, various places. I've seen them. I won't try to describe them. You know what I'm talking about. And I even see some with these things on their tongues. So I don't know whether there's any place where there is is not a scar as far as some people are concerned.

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So it is said that soldiers who served in the army of Alexander the Great had A tattooed around their wrist, which indicated that they belonged to Alexander.

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So first of all, in ancient times, many times scars referred to in order to denote ownership. Those who had slaves often had certain initials branded, some way of identifying that slave as to ownership.

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So the context in which Paul sees these words is significant. The marks of the Lord Jesus. These marks are manifestations of at least three things which I shall seek to point out

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in this message. The first I have referred to as ownership, and the second is advertisement or advertisement. ownership, advertisement, and then genuineness as to the scars. We have, in the words of the Apostle Paul, we have a defense of his apostleship and his

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defense of his apostleship is based on scars. It's based on the marks that he has on his body. In other words, he tells them, "You're not in a position to judge my apostleship Because my body bears the marks, my body has the scars of salvation. A real apostle, they contended, was one who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry.

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And they said, "Paul, you were not in that group. You never met the Master, and you never went about in that band of twelve. And a real apostle is one who has done these things, one who has been a witness to the resurrection.

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But the apostle writes words that linger with us even into this day and will be lingering no doubt when we are gone. My body bears the marks of the Lord Jesus. I have a scar on my shoulder.

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I was washing dishes as a teenager, youngster, on a hot summer day and we had an old-fashioned wood stove and we would put a nail on the wall and put the skillet and other things behind the stove. And I was trying to get behind the stove and it was hot and my shoulder touched it and it left a scar. You have some scars that you can look at from time to time

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And immediately it comes to mind what happened when you received that scar. In fact it is a way of identifying a person. I have been asked, "Do you have any marks of identification?" My body bears the marks of the Lord Jesus.

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So let number one trouble me, Paul says, about whether or not I am an apostle, because I've got the scars. I've got the battle scars to prove it. Those of us who've been on this journey for a long time have some battle scars that attest

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to our apostleship, that we are followers of Jesus Christ. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. In fact, when we look at Paul's life, he tells us over there in Corinthians that he was beaten with 39 lashes by the Jews.

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doubt he could say this one here I remember and this one over here he says though I was beaten with rods three times I was shipwrecked I remember and for all of these he goes down the list I was at sea for a night and a day this is the scar. It shows that I've had some battle experiences as a soldier of Jesus Christ.

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Oh, I did not mention this scar. This scar, he says, was the one I received when we were shipwrecked in Malta and I was bitten as we were making a fire. I was bitten by a snake.

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That's how I received this scar. What battle scars do we have? We have many battles yet to fight. We've come a long way.

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This is the beginning of a new year, and we have more battles to fight, and we may never receive the Purple Heart here, But God has work and battles for us to fight as we face the challenge of this gift of another

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12 months that he has set before us. And he says, "My life is backed up by the discipline of suffering." What are we willing to suffer for? What are we willing to sacrifice for?

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Those are the things that measure our lives. So when we have suffered, we have scars to prove it. You are not moved by doubters, by people who tell you what you've been through. scars are advertisement as to what you have been through. One mother was

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complaining some years ago she said this girl better not talk to me like that after all I went through as a mother trying to get her here. She was talking about the scars, the suffering, the sacrifice that was made. So I say to you, make the most of the opportunities

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that are available and be willing to suffer in order to advance the cause of goodness. The orster has sand, a grain of sand to get inside and it's irritable and the orster would like

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to get rid of that grain of sand, but it cannot. So it embraces it, provides a secretion that brings forth a beautiful jewel by embracing it and enduring the suffering connected with it.

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So life is like that. There's some things we'd like to get rid of. There's some scars we'd like not to have, but they're there.

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And they will be there, and Paul uses them to glorify God. This is the way, he said, I can boast. Most of the time we live in a society where we try to cover up the scars.

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But here is one who reveals the scars, points them out here and there, and says, "I boast of the fact that I received "these scars in working for the Lord Jesus."

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So don't trouble me about what you think I am, my judgment, my body bears the marks of the Lord Jesus. You know, when you read these experiences of those who've gone on before us

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and see what they endured and find people who think that they can become Christians who can't even take it in so. His body is subjected here to pain and suffering

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and he goes through sacrifice his whole life. Well, that was giving me a thorn in the flesh to buffet me. And I went to the Lord and I asked him to remove it, but he said no.

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Three times I asked him. times he said no my grace is sufficient. In other words grace enables you to accept many things that are so painful undesirable we'd like to get rid of them but grace, the grace of God empowers us so that we can live with grace. How

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Amazing it is, God's grace. Well, our acceptance of Christ's kingdom is based on grace. Not that we're so good. This is the 2005 year of grace.

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Grace. It's really more than that, but all of it is a precious gift from God. So, Paul says, "Trouble me not, trouble me not." And then he goes on to say

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that, "What I have done is attested to." There's testimony to my life based on my service to Jesus Christ. Saint Francis of Assisi is known for the stigmata, the fact that he looked at the image of the Christ so that he was transformed so steadfastly, so faithfully was he, so involved was he,

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until the actual nail prints, according to the story, came into his hands and the wound was in his side, the stigmata. to be faithful to Christ so that the scars of that come from fellowship with him

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are there as a testimony to your Christian witness. That's a great experience. So as we face this new year, may it be that we will not only carry the scars

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the scars that we have accumulated from the years that have passed, but that we may develop, if I may suggest it, some new scars. That we may be willing to have pain inflicted in our lives in order to follow Christ. That's what the early Christians did, and that's what we claim to be followers of.

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So when Kierkegaard says the problem is, he says, rather strange that those who live in the greatest comfort are those who can most eloquently proclaim the glories of the cross. But the way of Jesus Christ is a way of suffering, and Paul is boasting of his suffering. I glory not in man, but I glory in the cross of Jesus Christ.

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In the cross of Christ I glory, towering over the wrecks of time. This is what is involved in the scars of salvation. And then lastly, these scars attest to the genuineness of our apostleship, our discipleship. Genuine or not, scars.

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I shall never forget I went off, went with my mother to visit a friend of hers. They left me in the living room alone, and they were carrying on a conversation in the kitchen. And I saw there on the table some artificial fruit, and it looked so attractive.

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And they stayed so long. So I decided that I would get some of that fruit. I didn't know it was artificial at the time. And I reached over there and I got a piece of the fruit and I bit into it and I found

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it was wax. It was not real. But it looked real, so real that it had me fooled. And Paul says to the Galatians, "God cannot be fooled."

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We can be fooled and we fool each other, but God cannot be fooled. So whether we are what we say we are, he knows. And whether we have suffered as we say we have suffered, you have his scars.

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So we say thanks be to God. The journey has been sweet and sometimes it's been difficult, but you have some scars to point to.

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I've been through the fire. There have been some trials and there have been some tribulations. I've been to the fire, I've got scars to prove it.

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I have been beaten by those who are throwing rocks, I've got some scars. And every one of us has some scars to prove that we are followers of Jesus Christ.

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So the scars are evidence, The scars are a means of showing our relationship, our fellowship with Jesus Christ, because we are together in the fellowship of his spirit.

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So we can say, yes, I belong to the Lord. I'm his, he's mine, and I'm his. And we can say, yes, I advertise for him. for him. I'm willing to tell anybody anywhere that I am a child of God. And

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then it's real. It's real. It's real. Some look and say, "Well, why do people act the way they act?" It's because something strange and mysterious, something has happened within them, something that has radically changed their lives, and it's It's real. It's real. In the high mountains of this life, the more difficult they become,

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the more real our experience with Jesus is. It's real. So, thanks be to God. Thanks be to God for his ownership of us. Thanks be to God that we're commissioned by him to spread the word of our love. Thanks be to God that this relationship that we have with him is real, real. Yes God is real, he's real in my soul. It's real, it's not just

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an act, it's real. So as we come to the close of this message we want to extend an invitation to those who would accept him as Lord of your life and unite with the family of God here at Ebenezer. We ask you just to stand where you are, step out and walk down the aisle. This is a wonderful way to begin a new year.

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We invite you to come as the choir leads us in the singing of the hymn. [ Music ] Door of the church is open. [ Music ]

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Come. [ Music ] If we do this, the rest of the servants shall in the world find the Savior's love. ♪ In our new space, we'll take a few leaps ♪

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♪ To understand the universe ♪ ♪ Oh, when I come to the isle of sanity ♪ ♪ The mystery of life, the magic of love ♪ ♪ And knowing what ♪

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♪ Carrying the sadness ♪ ♪ And cost of creation ♪ ♪ He'll understand ♪ ♪ And save the world ♪

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♪ His wondrous truth ♪ ♪ The Savior of sinners ♪ ♪ Come on and walk with me ♪ ♪ He was a lonely child ♪

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♪ Oh, he was lonely ♪ ♪ His father was dead ♪ ♪ God was with us ♪ ♪ But life began ♪

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♪ Oh, when I come to thee ♪ ♪ In the white manning ♪ ♪ Clearly unblinded ♪ ♪ The man who is blind ♪

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♪ And he's most tender ♪ ♪ And most of redemption ♪ ♪ He'll understand ♪ ♪ Most tender ♪

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♪ Sleep when you lie ♪ ♪ On the bitter end of ♪ ♪ And the reward of ♪ ♪ The race you have won ♪

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♪ All the sleep we need ♪ ♪ We've had for the fate of ♪ ♪ This is the last time ♪ ♪ And I'll have no one ♪

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♪ Oh when I come to the end of my journey ♪ ♪ We'll be united to that holy one ♪ ♪ Carrying the sword ♪ ♪ And cross of redemption ♪

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♪ Even if you stand and stand alone ♪ ♪ Only if you try and then if you try again ♪ ♪ Can't go as far from the one you become ♪ ♪ Hang up your phone and make me do the talking ♪

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♪ To me ♪ ♪ He was the Savior ♪ ♪ And Savior of man ♪ ♪ For when I come to ♪

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♪ The end of my journey ♪ ♪ Weary of my pain ♪ ♪ For ever He's won ♪ ♪ Sharing the sun ♪

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♪ And also creation ♪ ♪ He understands ♪ ♪ And says ♪ ♪ Well, I'm home ♪

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- At this time in the church year, we look back on the months of the previous year and we recognize those who have gone on, who have completed the journey,

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who've run their race, who've done their work. So this is a celebration. We celebrate the life they lived, the work they did, the contributions they made.

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You have in your bulletin on the back page the names of those persons who departed this life in 2004. And the church clerk, Brother Steele, will come now and read the names

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and there will be a chime sounded for each one as those names are read. - Brother MJ Anderson, Sr. Brother Louis M. Barrow.

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Sister Mary Helen Bell. Sister Catherine W. Bridges. Sister Annie Mae Cain. Brother Raymond L.

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Godine Jr. Sister Amber Nicole Gratton. Sister Ruby L. Houston, Brother Johnny Johnson, Brother Gentry Overton III, and Sister Vivian Williams.

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Let us pray. Lord God, our Father, we give you thanks for each life that has been mentioned, each life that blessed us and dwelt among us.

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We give you thanks and the praise. For you give and you take away. So give us grace to bless your name for each life that you've given us that went to be with you in 2004. Then we pray that you would empower us and endow us with your spirit as we continue the

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race that you have set before us. Now, oh God, as we prepare to commune at your table, we ask that you will bless the bread the bread that represents the broken body of our Lord, and the cup that represents his shed blood,

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and us, bless us, who partake of it, until that day when we shall all meet together again in a world that has no end. Amen. [silence]

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