John 12 Part 2

Gift of grace is Jesus my redeemer there is no more for heaven now to give he is my joy, my righteousness and freedom, my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace to this I hope my hope is only Jesus for my life is holy bound to his oh, how strange and divine I can see all but through Christ in me night is dark but I am not forsaken for by my side the savior he will say I labor on in weakness and rejoice for in my knee his power is the sway to this I hope my shepherd will be through the deepest valley with me all the night has been one and I shall overcome in me the future show the price it has been paid for Jesus for my father and he was raised to overthrow the grave. To this I hope my sin has been defeated Jesus now whenever it's my dream all the chain I can see I am free and not I want to cry in me for the throne to get I hope my hope is only deeper all the when the race is complete in my shall we be Christ when the race is complete till my lips shall receive Christ in me yet not I but through Christ in me yet not I but through Christ in me there's a place where streams of grace flow deep and wide?

Where all the love I've ever found? Comes like a flood comes flowing down at the cross, at the cross I surrender my life? I'm in all of you? I'm in all of you? Where your love ran red and my sin washed white?

I owe to you, I owe you, Jesus?

Where my heart has peace with God and forgiveness?

Where all the love I've ever found? Comes like a love comes flowing down? At the cross, at the cross I surrender my life? I'm in all of you? I'm in all of you?

Where your love ran red in my I owe to you, I owe you? Here my hope is found here on holy ground here I bow down here I bow down here? Arms open wide? Here you save my life here I bow down here I bow at the cross, at the cross my life, I'm in all I'm in all your love and red my sin was wide? I owe, I owe to you, Jesus, Jesus, the world your love ran your love, you lord.

Lifting holy hands and worship.

We will not bow down to the gods of man. We will worship the God of Israel. You are holy, holy. There is no one else like you? You are holy, holy.

There is no one else like you. As for me and my house, we will serve you, Lord. Lifting holy hands and worship. Oh. We will not bow down to the gods of man.

We will worship the God of Israel. You are holy, holy. There's no one else like you. You are holy, holy. There is no one else like you.

There is no one else like you.

There is no one else.

Choose to stay whom you will serve. Come on. Choose to stay whom you will serve. But as for me and my house. We will serve you, Lord.

We will serve you, Lord. Oh, yeah. We will not bow to the God of man. We will not bow to the gods of men. Will worship the God of Israel.

We will not bow to the God, to man. We will not bow to the God of mental worship, the God of Israel. We sing it. We will not bow to the God, to man. We will.

I bow to the God of middle worship, the God of Israel.

Goddos godo shout out and Kamoka I don't know you are holy, holy. There is no one else like you.

Holy, holy. There is no one else like you.

We will not bow down to the gods of man. We will worship the God of Israel.

Father, we thank you for the stay that you have given us. We thank you, Lord, for your goodness. And Lord, we just worship you today because you are holy and you alone are holy. Father, I pray as we come together today, Lord, that you will prepare our hearts to hear from you, to hear from your word. And Lord, that we won't just hear your word today, but we'll leave here and be doers of your word that we'll leave here.

And we will glorify you as we obey what your word has said, as we allow your spirit to reach the inner depths of our heart. And Father, we thank you for it's at your cross that we have been saved and redeemed as your chosen people. As your people, Father. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

We're going to continue today where we're actually going to back up a little bit from where we left off last week. So last week we left off where we were going to pick up on verse 28. And I want to back up again this week and cover a little bit of what we covered last week, starting in verse 20 again. And I'll tell you why. I just got home 2 hours ago from Salt Lake.

I was there all day Friday, all day Saturday, and I was there until noon today. And I left at noon to drive home and got home just a couple hours ago right before church. And we spent three days talking about. We had one question, and that question was, what is it going to take? And that question revolved around the mission that God has given us to reach people, particularly here in Utah, to reach people, to raise up leaders and to complete the vision that he gave us to the point where it would continue on with or without our input anymore.

And so the question was, what is it going to take? And as we talked for three days about what is it going to take? There were a few common things that came up over and over and over again. And one of those things we hit on last week in verses 20 through 27. And I think it's critical, important that we hit on it again.

So just as a reminder of what we read last week up to that point, we started the chapter six days before Passover where we saw Mary anoint the feet of Jesus with this very expensive perfume and gnard. And then we saw Palm Sunday as Jesus five days before his crucifixion, as he rode in on the crowd and was welcomed by the people. And we found it very interesting to see it was the same people who shouted, Hosanna. Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel in verse 13 was the same people who later on will be chanting, crucify him in just five days.

Well, that's going to catch us up to where we are today. And I want to pick up again in verse 20 and do a little bit of backtracking. I think we need to go deeper into this passage before we move on than what we were able to do last week. So verse 20 through 27 says, now some Greeks were among those who went up to worship at the festival. So they came to Philip, who was from Bethsdia in Galilee and requested of him, sir, we want to see Jesus.

Philip went and told Andrew. Then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus replied to them, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.

The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me where I am. There my servant also will be. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him. Now my soul is troubled.

What should I say? Father, save me from this hour. But that is why I came to this hour, Father, glorify your name so real quick. It appears that our scriptures are still down and we can't get them up. So I apologize.

You'll just have to follow along in your own bibles today. So some Greeks, we pointed out last week that these were people who were not, at the very least, were not mainstream jewish worshippers. They could have been hellenized Jews, they could have actually been Gentiles, but these are not the mainstream worshippers. So people outside of the Jews are beginning to want to follow Jesus. They hear of him and the miracles he's doing, his teachings, and they want to come and know Jesus.

And they come and they talk to Philip and they say to Philip, we want to talk to Jesus. And Philip tells angel, and together they go and they talk to Jesus and let him know, the Greeks want to see you. Now, at this point, Jesus does something different. Rather than saying, bring them to see me, he goes into some dialogue, and I think he does this knowing their hearts and the heart, saying that it is. He starts, he says in his dialogue, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.

And this is critical. The hour is here. We're five days away from his crucifixion. Up until this point in the book of John, we have seen Christ continually say things like, the hour has not yet come or my time is not yet here. The time is not yet right.

And Jesus says here that the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. In the other gospels, at this point, what Jesus says is, I have completed my, actually, we talked about that this weekend up in Salt Lake. Jesus says, I have completed my work before he went to the cross. Now on the cross, he says something different. He says in most english translations, it is finished.

And if we take the greek word tilios, what it really means, it is paid. So Jesus says this in two separate occasions. And we know that the cross was the fulfillment of his work. So what does he mean here when he says, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified? And in the other Gospels, when he says, my work here is complete, this is jesus'no.

Place left. Statement. No place left. Jesus has traveled the region of Galilee, Jerusalem, Judea. He's even been into Samaria.

He has preached the gospel. He has gotten disciples. He has taught them, trained them, sent them out, and there is no place left in the region for jesus to do his work. It is now time for him to go to the cross and to be glorified, to do ultimately what he came here to earth to do.

As we look at the statement of Jesus, even right here, that I have completed my work what would it take for us to say the same thing, that we have completed the task that God has given us? Well, let's read. He says, truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit, a grain, a seed for wheat, for corn, for barley, for any plant, really, that does not yet first die, will it ever produce fruit? The answer is no.

That seed has to die. It has to fall to the ground, and it has to fully give way to death.

It must give itself over to the ground and allow the ground to transform it, to begin a process that it cannot perform on its own in order for it to really come to life and to produce fruit. A seed that has never died and been transformed has never been alive to begin with.

But the same is true for us, and the same was true for Jesus, especially if we look at this in the way that it was said, it remains by itself. If God did not empty himself of the glory that he had in heaven, to leave that throne and fall down to the ground, come down to earth in the likeness of man, and then fully give way to death, to die upon the cross, God would have remained alone. The very creation he made, that he loved and cherished and desired to build a kingdom to live with him, would have been unable to enter through those gates. But the same is true for us. We read earlier in John several months ago, now that we are not alive until we're alive.

Jesus does not say we pass from life unto death, but he says, we pass from death unto life. We are not born. We are not really alive.

We're spiritually dead. When we come into this world, we're spiritually dead until the moment that the spirit of God gives us birth, that he quickens our spirits, that he fills us with his presence, and it is then that we pass from death unto life. So if we're already the walking dead, as it were, Shawnee's laughing because there's a tv show called the Walking Dead. So if we are already the walking dead, as it were, we're already dead, then the problem is that we do not give way to death.

We're not willing to fully commit to that death, to fully die and to be transformed. But the spirit of God is unable to transform us into what he could do for us until we are fully willing to die to ourselves. I had a quote last week that I read. I would like to read it again just as a reminder. It says, if the seed refuses to die, the quickening power refuses to act, and the holy spirit, the quickener, can only work in the newness of life, where there is death, this new divine life begotten out of the death of the self.

Life is the life that glorifies God in bearing much fruit. He that soweth to the flesh shall reap out of the flesh and out of poisoned soil will reap corruption.

We have to die before God can do a work in us. We have to be willing to let go of our life, let go of who we are, let go of everything that we are, so that Jesus can come inside of us, and he can be the life that lives. That's what Paul means when Paul says, and yet it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Paul had totally given himself up, totally given way to his life, and allowed Christ to live through him, Christ to control him. And that's what it takes to be quickened.

As a willingness to die to ourselves, Jesus gives another parable. He says that the one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me where I am, there my servant will also be. So what does Jesus mean? Let's look first at the life of Jesus.

We know who jesus is. He's God incarnate, God in the flesh.

And yet he was found here among men, in the likeness of men, in the likeness of sinful flesh. And what did he do here? Right? If he's God, what did he do here? Was he served here?

Did he have a volley of servants who waited on him hand and foot?

Did he command legions of armies?

No. Jesus was constantly found in the service of others. Constantly. He was found feeding people, teaching people, healing people of sickness, of injuries, whether it's blindness or lameness or other injuries. Leprosy of demons, casting out demons, even, on an occasion, raising someone from the dead.

He was found continually in the service of others. And he says, where I am, there my servant will also be. So Jesus can be found continually in the service of others, and we are his servants. Then we will be found where? Continually in the service of others.

That is what people will find us doing. If Jesus was found continually abiding in love, then we also will be found continually abiding in love. For where Jesus is, there we also will be. But remember that the service was not self centered. Jesus emptied himself, is what we're told.

He emptied himself of his glory. He left it behind when he came here for us to do this. We must fully empty ourselves. We must die like the seed and empty ourselves. Another quote says, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself.

Christ says that in Matthew 1624. Right to if we would follow Christ, we must deny ourselves. He says, to go after a self denying Christ is impossible without the denial of self. We can't follow after a man who gave up everything. If we ourself will not give up everything.

It continues here. It says, we must deny our own thoughts, our own will, our own power and interest, everything that would hinder the will of God and his power and his interest from being accomplished in us and by us.

Let's see what Jesus says. I've got two verses, two passages here, and I want to start in Luke 1417. So Jesus says here, if anyone loves his life here, he'll lose it. What is our life here? It's filled with corruption and greed and self service and pride, gluttony, lust.

It's also filled with pain and sickness and death and sorrow and depression and all of these other things. He says, if anyone loves his life, if we love that sin and that corruption and that self will, he says, you will lose your life. You will die. But if anyone hates his life, if anyone despises these things, they will keep their life. They will find it.

He takes it further in Luke 14.

As we read here, let's read about the people who are not the people Christ is looking for. Verse 18. He says, without exception, they all began to make excuses. The first one said to him, I have bought a field and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.

And another said, I have bought five yolk of oxen, and I'm going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me. And another said, I just got married, and therefore I'm unable to come. And the servant came back and reported these things to his master. Then, in anger, the master of the house told a servant, go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city and bring in here the poor, the maimed, the blind and the lame.

For context, Jesus is giving us a parable about a party that he had invited people to. And this party and the parable is heaven, and the people are the Jews. And when it came time to go to the party, all of the people who were invited began to make excuses. They said, well, I can't go because I've got this or this or this.

And the party master became enraged. And the same as having the Jews, they said, we can't accept the gospel that you prepared for us because we have Moses and we have Abraham and we have these works and all these other things. And so Jesus said, go out. Bring in anyone who will hear it and respond and come.

And then he says about these people, right, this immediately follows this. We're going to jump to verse 26. It immediately follows the people making excuses. Jesus says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn't first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, saying the man started and was unable to finish.

He then says, or what king going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with 10,000 to oppose a one who comes against him with 20,000, if not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace in the same way. Therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

If we go back to the meat of this, Jesus does not literally mean that we have to go and sell everything we have right now. Right? But what he's getting to is our heart. That's what he's getting to, our heart. Are you willing right now if God should ask of you to give up everything, are you willing to do it?

Are you willing right now? If God says to you, I want you to leave tomorrow morning, you're not going to take your car, you're not going to take your laptop or your phone or your video games or your house, you're going to leave and you're going to get in a plane and you're going to travel to Africa and you're going to start ministry there and forget everything that you have here? Are you willing to do that at the command of God?

I am rewording what Jesus says here in my own fashion. But that is the essence of what he is saying here. When he says, if you do not renounce your possessions, if you are unwilling at the command of God to forsake everything, he says, you cannot be my disciple. He says, whoever would come to him and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, or even hate their own life can't be his disciple. And what he means is if you love your life more than Jesus, if the love of your tv, your video games, your football or soccer or whatever else it is, and he includes your mother and father and wife and children, whatever it is, if your love of them and for those activities is stronger than your love for God, that you're unable to do what God has asked you to do because he says, you can't be my disciple.

There is a cost for following Christ and that cost is very simple. Jesus says to us, he says, I know you cannot, you can't do it. There is a holy law handed down to us from God. And this holy law condemns each and every one of us to hell because we have all broken it. We have all violated it.

And Jesus says, look, I know that you cannot do it. I know that you can't keep the law. I know that on your merits, you can't enter heaven.

So what was the cost? The cost was that Jesus died for us and traded his righteousness and life for our wickedness and our death. But the cost to us is that we are willing to forsake our life, that we're willing to leave it behind to have the life that Jesus died to give us. We cannot have both. It's not possible.

We could have one or the other. There's a story of a guy who dies and he goes to the pearly gates. And at the pearly gates they tell him that he did not make it into heaven. And he says, well, I never decided for Jesus or for God. I've been on the fence the whole time and now I'm deciding.

And at the end of that story said, yeah, but that fence is owned by the devil, right? If you are on the fence, the fence doesn't sit on the boundary of God's side and the devil's side. The fence is fully on the devil's side. We cannot have it both ways if we're straddling that fence, both of our feet are on the devil's side because the fence is far enough into his territory that both feet are still in it. We cannot have both.

Jesus died knowing that we were unable to do it for ourselves, so he did it for us.

But we cannot have both. We can have eternal life paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ and gifted to us of his own goodwilling grace. Or we can have our sin unto condemnation. That is our choice as we look further. My last one here in Matthew eight, jesus has a large crowd.

Here in verse 18. There's a large crowd and then it continues. It says a scribe approached him and said, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Don't we all say that? Right?

We all come, and we all say we are willing. We'll follow you, Lord. We'll do what you want us to do. I'll follow you wherever you go. Here's what jesus said to him.

He said, foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests. But the son of man has no place to lay his head, right? If we follow jesus wherever he goes, keep in mind he had no place to lay his head. He had no home.

So someone else comes to him and says, lord, first let me go and bury my father, right? Just let me go home and bury my father. And he says, follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.

If we were to read in another gospel, Jesus will say that the one who would put his hand, his shoulder to the plow and then look back is not worthy to follow him.

If we would say, lord, I will follow you. And at the same time, we're looking back, desiring what we've left behind, we're not worthy to follow Jesus. And that is the cost. Whatever it is that God has told you in your life, whether it's just following him, the cost is the same. Or whether he has put you in charge of a church, to lead it where he has put it on your heart to reach your city or your county or your state, and to preach the gospel until there is no place left.

Or he has put it on your heart to go and to serve the poor, or whatever it is that Jesus has put in your heart. To do it requires a full and true commitment to Jesus to accomplish it. Jesus said. He said that unless the grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. And the one who loves his life here will lose it, and the one who hates his life will find and keep it.

Jesus says, Father, glorify your name in verse 28 of our chapter today, Father, glorify your name. The life and mission of Jesus was to glorify the Father. And he did that. Then a voice came from heaven and says, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again. God the Father speaks from heaven at the conclusion of this and says, I have glorified it, and will glorify it.

And Jesus says, the voice, it came not for me, but for you. The voice from heaven. Jesus already knew that God was glorified, but the voice came for the benefit of us. For one, the voice from heaven came so that we would know that he is the son of God, the messiah. But it also came so that we would know that his works were the works of God.

And it says, now, here is the judgment of the world, that the ruler of the world will be cast out, right? Satan will be cast out and bound up. And as for me, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. Jesus foretells right here, he says, I will be lifted up and draw all people to me. And he's done that.

All people groups, Jews and Gentiles, those from the Middle east, those from Europe, from Africa, from Asia and Asia Minor, from the US, from Canada and Mexico and Peru and Brazil, all people groups throughout the world have been drawn to him because he was lifted up.

And the crowd says, how can you say the son of man must be lifted up? Who is the son of man? And they say this because it says, we have heard from the law that the messiah will remain forever. So they're confused. They say, the law says that the messiah will live forever.

He will reign forever. So how can you say that he must be lifted up? Right? Because they missed that. He must first die and resurrect, and then he would usher in his kingdom.

And Jesus says. He says that the light will be with you only a little longer. Jesus said, I'm the light. So he says, I will be with you only a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness does not overtake you.

And the one who walks in darkness doesn't know where he's going. While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become children of the light.

Let's tweak the context a little bit for us, because he was referring to the fact that he would die and be taken away. He would go up to heaven after the resurrection and not physically be with them. Maloka told him, he says, believe in the light so that you will become children of the light. Those who followed Christ had the light within them.

Even though Jesus was not here physically anymore, he was within them, and he was a guide to their feet.

And so the same is true for us. If we are walking in darkness, we don't know where we are going. In fact, if we do not get the light within us, darkness will overtake us. Darkness will drag us down to the pits of hell unless we believe in the light.

But the glorious thing is, when you believe in the light, you become children of light. And if you become children of light, then you are what I call a light reflector or a lighthouse. And other people see Jesus in you and other people get saved.

It says that these things were said. Jesus went away and hid from them after this. And then it says, even though he performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. Jesus did all these miracles, and the end result was they would not listen to him. And this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah, the prophet who said, lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

This is why they were not able to believe. Isaiah said this. He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they would not see with their eyes or understand with their hearts. They would turn and I would heal them. Isaiah said these things because he saw God's glory and spoke about him.

Nevertheless, many did believe in Jesus, even among the rulers. Right? Nicodemus is an example among the rulers who believed in Jesus, but they would not confess him. And there is the key right there. Even those among the rulers believed in him.

But out of fear of being banned from the synagogues, kicked out of their clubs, losing their jobs, they would not confess him. And it says this, for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

A mere belief in Jesus is not enough to save you. Even the demons know the name of Jesus and shudder, and yet they are not saved. A mere belief or acknowledgement. But it is truly confessing him.

It is truly grasping that gift that he gave you and dying to yourself, making him your Lord, your God and king. Right? For those who love human praise more than God's praise, Jesus says that on that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did I not heal in your name and do works in your name and miracles and cast out demons in your name? And he will say to them, depart from me, you lawbreaker, for I never knew you.

And it ends here. By summarizing the mission of Jesus, the one who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And the one who sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and doesn't keep them, I do not judge him.

For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has this as his judge. The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day, for I have not spoken on my own. But the father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said. I know that his command is eternal life.

So the things that I speak, I speak just as the father has told me.

I want to end tonight here by repeating one thing Jesus said here. He said, I came as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness. Jesus came here not so that he could have some friends, not so that he could live and experience manhood, not so that he could just do great things. But he came here so that you would not live in darkness anymore, so that sin would not overtake you, so that you would not be corrupted, so that the law would not condemn you, but that you would have eternal life.

So if you are ready for that, if you're to that point where you know that you've grasped so long to the life that you have and to your addictions or your lust, your love of whatever the world offers you, and you know that it's condemning you and you would die. You would die to it, hide yourself from it, hate your life in this world and what this world stands for and means and does, and confess Jesus Christ as your Lord. He would give that to you.

It begins with admitting that you're a sinner, admitting that something's wrong. And what's wrong is me. I'm what's wrong here with believing that jesus is God in the flesh, the person very being who created all of this, but that he came here in the likeness of man, that he lived perfectly sinlessly, that he died upon a cross, taken the sinner's death in place of ours, and that he rose again. But then confession. Confession is Lord Jesus says, if you confess me before your fellow men, I'll confess you before the Father.

Confess him as our king. And what that really means is taking the crown that we wear off of our heads and saying, I'm no longer in charge or in control. I no longer want to be the person command of my life. But you, King Jesus, are. And he says that he would give you eternal life, that you would be reborn, and that you would pass from death to life.

As we go to our closing prayer, if you're ready for that, if you're ready, I'm going to help you verbalize that to God tonight. Just repeat after me in that first half of the prayer, but also let us know. Tell us a. I want to celebrate that you have done that. But also Jesus says, you must confess him before your fellow men.

So let us know immediately after our closing prayer, we will partake of communion. So for those of you who would like to participate in the Lord's supper with us, I ask you to please wait after conclusion of service and partake of that sacred ordinance with us. Then I'll see the rest of you on Wednesday night at 630 as we continue our study in revelation. Let's pray. Father, I admit that I'm a sinner, Lord, I admit that I'm the problem here.

I'm what's wrong in my life because I've been corrupted by my sin and my self service and my love of my idols.

But, Father, I hate what they do to me. I hate how they corrupt me. I hate how evil and wicked the world is and even how evil and wicked I am.

And I know, Father, that I'm helpless without you. But I believe, Jesus, that you, the creator of all things, stepped here into creation in the likeness of man, in the likeness of me to fulfill that which I could not and to die that which I deserve and to become victorious over sin and death in the grave. And I believe that you did this for me because you love me. And I confess you, King Jesus, my God and my king. Lord, I remove my crown.

I don't want to be in charge anymore. I don't want that responsibility. So I take my crown off and I submit to you, Lord Jesus, not my will, but yours. Be done. And I thank you, Lord, as you enter into me and give me a new life right now.

I thank you, Lord, for what you have done and praise your holy name. Father, I pray as we close here tonight, Lord, that you will put it in our hearts to count the cost, what it really means to follow you, what it really means to do what you have asked. And, Lord, put it in us to wholeheartedly follow you, Lord. Those who are still grasping to the oldness of life, Lord, help them to let go of it and submit fully to you, that they would be saved and experience that abundance of life that you have for them. And, Father, I pray for those who need you now, in whatever situation, Lord, that you would send to them your comfort and wisdom and be glorified.

In Jesus'holy name we pray. Amen.