WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.320 Okay, so we're going to do something slightly different this morning, not typically in a 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:15.320 sermon I would preach week to week. 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:19.359 I am going to look at the passage that we read together from John's Gospel, chapter 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:25.519 4, but I'm also going to spend longer than I would normally do applying it because on 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:31.439 your way in you would have got this kind of information card and a bookmark. 00:00:31.439 --> 00:00:37.320 So it's really just something as leaders we've been thinking about and dealing with 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:42.679 for quite a while that we want to, well and everyone to have a summary of who we are, what 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:49.159 we believe we are and our vision, our priorities, our goal as you see in our commitment. 00:00:49.159 --> 00:00:50.799 So I'm going to speak a little bit about that. 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:58.959 I hope that you'll take these with you, that you'll recognize that the hour in these headlines 00:00:58.959 --> 00:01:07.039 are, include you, that it's not their church, it's not the leader's church, but it's our 00:01:07.039 --> 00:01:08.039 church. 00:01:08.039 --> 00:01:10.879 This is what we are, this is what we're trying to be together. 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:15.560 And so I want to just, again we're still in January, we can still count that roughly as 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:21.600 the beginning of the year that we're going to look at this vision and a little bit and 00:01:21.600 --> 00:01:29.920 our mission in the light of who Jesus is and how important He is for us in our lives. 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:30.920 Okay? 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:36.159 Kind of scene setting in a sense, in a scene setting for the year. 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:41.000 But what I want to do first is just remind ourselves about Jesus and remind ourselves 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:48.519 about Jesus' life, Himself being driven by spiritual vision. 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:54.079 And I've just taken a snippet of Jesus' life from one of the gospels, from John's Gospel 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:55.079 chapter 4. 00:01:55.079 --> 00:02:00.960 It's part of the story of Jesus meeting with the Samaritan woman and it's towards the 00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:01.960 end of that story. 00:02:01.960 --> 00:02:08.560 And I just want to think about one or two things here about Jesus and His vision and 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:15.360 His mission that we can learn from and take for ourselves, I hope, in our lives. 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:24.479 Not in a technical, not in a corporate legislative kind of way. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:30.640 I don't mean that, I mean in a really personal way as we seek to understand how much Jesus 00:02:30.640 --> 00:02:37.480 Christ is the author of love and of grace and how that motivates everything that He 00:02:37.479 --> 00:02:40.560 is and everything He does and how much we need that. 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:46.359 How much we need that in our own lives and as we share that with other people. 00:02:46.359 --> 00:02:49.759 So we see that Jesus' life was driven, the first thing I'm going to say is Jesus' life 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:54.319 was driven by spiritual, by a spiritual vision. 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:59.639 In other words, it wasn't just flesh and blood that drove Jesus on, it wasn't just what He 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:02.159 saw and what was around Him. 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:09.439 I think that comes across very clearly in verse 32 where He says that He's hungry, okay, 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:11.000 and the disciples are hungry. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:14.840 And so while He was speaking to this woman at the well, the disciples went into the town 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:17.079 to buy some food for them. 00:03:17.079 --> 00:03:21.479 And they come back with the food and they said to Him, Rabbi, eat. 00:03:21.479 --> 00:03:28.319 And He said, but He says to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:31.400 So the disciples say to one another, they don't really understand what He's eating. 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:33.640 Has He got a pie? 00:03:33.640 --> 00:03:36.960 Has He got something tucked away that no one else knew about? 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:37.960 Has He got food that we do? 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:41.360 Was there a carryout further down the road that we missed? 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:42.360 He got, no. 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:48.680 He said, look, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work. 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:51.000 So you see, He's got a spiritual motivation. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:57.379 He is physically hungry, but He's got a spiritual motivation in His life and He uses His physical 00:03:57.379 --> 00:04:04.639 hunger to get across a spiritual message about Himself, about not just Himself, but about 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:06.879 us as well. 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:10.719 His spiritual food and drink is to do what His Father has sent Him to do. 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:12.120 That's His food. 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:17.159 Previously, earlier on the chapter, and we didn't read this, when the Samaritan woman 00:04:17.159 --> 00:04:20.040 that He speaks to, and I'll say a little bit more about that in a minute, when He speaks 00:04:20.040 --> 00:04:25.480 to her, and she offers Him water from the well, He says, I've got water that you don't 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:30.319 know anything about, living water, and if you drink from that water, you'll never be thirsty 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:31.319 again. 00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:40.360 And again, He's using her physical thirst to try and open up in her life a spiritual truth. 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:43.439 He's using her physical reality to get across spiritual truth. 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:50.400 In other words, He's saying that forgiveness, in reality, a broader way of saying it, forgiveness 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:56.279 and a relationship with the Father through Him is what will slake our thirst and will 00:04:56.279 --> 00:05:01.759 give us the satisfaction that the ordinary food and all that it represents can't do. 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:07.120 And that's a really important reminder to us in our church and in your life as a Christian 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:11.399 that as we go from day to day in our lives, maybe away from the church, remember I said 00:05:11.399 --> 00:05:16.479 at the beginning, church is like a window into eternity, but it's not like that for 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:22.560 us every day, is it, life, but Jesus reminds us we're not just human animals. 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:24.879 That's one of the things He's reminding us here. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:29.000 We're not just, it's not enough for us just to have food and drink. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:33.240 It's not enough for us just to eat and to be satisfied and to drink and live for the 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:34.240 next meal. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:39.759 Now, please don't misunderstand me, eating and drinking isn't wrong and isn't unimportant, 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:41.120 obviously, clearly. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:43.640 That's the case, not the case. 00:05:43.640 --> 00:05:45.560 It's an important part of life. 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:50.839 We're God's gifts and we give thanks to Him for His gifts, but it's not the sum of living. 00:05:50.839 --> 00:05:51.879 It's not why we live. 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:54.040 We don't live for the next meal. 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:55.639 We don't live for the next night out. 00:05:55.639 --> 00:06:02.480 We don't live for the next pleasure or satisfaction that we can get in this life, the nourishment 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:07.759 and joy, and even the health that all these things represent, important though they are, 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:09.759 it's not the sum of our lives. 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:12.040 It's not the sum of living. 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:17.520 And Christ, our lives have more significance and more importance, and that's what Jesus 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:25.200 is reminding us here that His life, hungry though He was for bread, was more than just 00:06:25.200 --> 00:06:27.240 food and drink. 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:33.000 He had a spiritual dimension that He'd come to bring alive in all of us through His work 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.720 that He was doing on His Father's behalf. 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:37.560 So it's not just flesh and blood. 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:39.439 We're not just flesh and blood. 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:44.000 It's not just that we live to wake up the next morning for whatever that morning will 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.040 bring. 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:50.719 But also we see that He was someone, because of His mission and His passion and His grace, 00:06:50.719 --> 00:06:53.040 He broke with convention. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:54.839 He didn't do, He wasn't conventional. 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:59.600 In the beginning of the first verse that Mary read was just then His disciples came back 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:02.240 and they marveled that He was talking with a woman. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:05.240 But no one said, what do you see here? 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:07.439 Why are you talking with her? 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:12.079 The woman herself was surprised when Jesus initiated conversation earlier in the story. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:17.639 She says, why are you, she said, a Jew speaking to me a Samaritan? 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:20.199 So it was something they didn't do. 00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:21.199 They didn't mix. 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:24.199 There was no mixing between these two races. 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:31.959 And as a religious leader of the day, it was very atypical, very unusual for Him. 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:40.839 In fact, it was quite outspoken for Him to be speaking to a woman at all. 00:07:40.839 --> 00:07:48.000 He shouldn't have been doing it in His culture and in the religious and cultural mores of 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:49.120 the day. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:53.759 And yet He sees beyond that, because Jesus is never conventional. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:08:01.159 You go back to Jesus again and see how unconventional so much of His life was, even in His culture 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:03.520 and the religion of His day. 00:08:03.520 --> 00:08:11.960 He spoke to this woman because He loved her, because He saw that she was spiritually blind. 00:08:11.960 --> 00:08:17.560 She didn't get what He said about slaking her thirst with this living water. 00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:19.720 She said, you know, give me this living water. 00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:22.200 She said, so I'm not need to come back to the well again. 00:08:22.200 --> 00:08:26.480 You know, she couldn't really see that He was speaking about something that wasn't physical. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:30.240 She thought it was a kind of elixir that she could drink once and then never be thirsty 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:31.240 again physically. 00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:33.279 It wasn't like that. 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:35.200 She was spiritually blind and she was lost. 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:37.399 She was in a bit of a mess in her life. 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:38.639 And he knew that. 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:40.320 You know, she'd been married several times. 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:46.080 She was probably ostracized from her community, which is why she was gathering water in midday 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:48.440 when none of the other women were there. 00:08:48.440 --> 00:08:52.519 And there's all kinds of unspoken things that may have been in her heart and life that we 00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:53.519 don't know. 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:58.759 But he wanted to speak to her because he loved her and wanted to offer her real life, life 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:03.279 she had never found, because she was estranged from God. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:07.919 He was willing to be shocking and surprising and risque. 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:12.319 You know that because elsewhere, you know this, you know this, because in Matthew chapter 00:09:12.319 --> 00:09:19.000 11, you know, don't you, that Jesus was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton because 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:21.080 he ate with tax collectors and sinners. 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:27.840 That's again breaking the culture and the religious expectation of his day because he 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:32.680 was driven by a love for people, by a love for the outsider, by a love for the person 00:09:32.680 --> 00:09:37.720 who was rejected by the culture and the religion of his day. 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:39.320 This is the Son of... 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:44.519 Can you imagine anyone accusing Jesus of being a glutton and a drunkard, the Son of God? 00:09:44.519 --> 00:09:47.360 God in the flesh. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:48.480 He broke with convention. 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:52.960 And I do think that's worth considering and I do think it's worth discussing. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:58.000 I've written out questions from today like we did a couple of weeks ago for Thomas's 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:02.240 sermon, and they're the basis of the discussion on Wednesday at Citigroups. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:12.120 So do take time as we discuss this sermon on Wednesday if you're able to go. 00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:17.879 Think about your life and think about your life in the church and think about your life 00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:18.879 in the world. 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:29.840 Do you think that together or individually that we're just altogether to tame? 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:31.600 That we just have... 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:37.679 We've tamed the gospel and we're people-pleasing conventionalists. 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:42.519 It's all about sticking with convention in the church and in the world in which we live 00:10:42.519 --> 00:10:44.360 because we want to be safe. 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:47.399 We're not willing to take risks for Jesus' sake. 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:51.039 We want to be accepted and be acceptable. 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:58.039 And to not break with convention in our workplace or in our families or in our churches because 00:10:58.039 --> 00:11:02.360 we want to go with the flow and we don't want... 00:11:02.360 --> 00:11:09.480 We maybe don't have that burning, sometimes that burning passion for Jesus and for people 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:14.519 that allow us to be risque for Him in His kingdom. 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:17.360 That's a great discussion to have. 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:20.800 But we also see from Jesus that He was willing to... 00:11:20.800 --> 00:11:23.680 He was sent to finish a task, wasn't He? 00:11:23.680 --> 00:11:25.360 In verse 34 we're told that. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:27.440 Jesus said, My will is to... 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:32.639 My food is to do the will of Him who sent me to accomplish His work, His Father's work. 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.960 He humbled Himself as God, eco with God. 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:37.960 We saw that when we were looking at the Trinity earlier on. 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:41.159 He's eco with God and power and substance and glory. 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:49.039 And yet He emptied Himself of that in order to take on flesh, to become a human being. 00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:50.679 This great Son. 00:11:50.679 --> 00:11:57.199 And the Father sends, the Son goes, the Father and the Son send the Spirit. 00:11:57.199 --> 00:11:58.399 The Spirit sanctifies. 00:11:58.399 --> 00:11:59.399 They all have their roles. 00:11:59.399 --> 00:12:00.399 They all have their work. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:02.480 Equal persons, different roles. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:05.240 But Christ's meat and drink, isn't it? 00:12:05.240 --> 00:12:15.039 Christ's resondettra is to do His Father's will, which becomes His will. 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:20.759 And that is the only way for us back to the Father, isn't it? 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:29.759 Because on the cross, at the end of the darkness, at the end of the time on the cross, He says, 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:30.759 It is finished. 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:32.840 He's come to do the Father's will. 00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:35.519 I've come to finish, He says, accomplish His work. 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:37.639 And on the cross, He says, It's done. 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:39.200 It's finished. 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:42.840 So something hugely significant happened on the cross. 00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:45.759 He finished what the Father had sent Him to do. 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:50.200 Our sin and our failure, which He takes in Himself, becomes His on the cross. 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:56.560 He takes our hell and He pays the price for it on the cross. 00:12:56.560 --> 00:12:58.280 Accomplished, finished. 00:12:58.280 --> 00:12:59.280 That's what He came to do. 00:12:59.280 --> 00:13:00.960 That's the unseen work. 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:05.960 Not just to have a bacon sandwich, not just to have food and drink, something much more 00:13:05.960 --> 00:13:07.240 than that. 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:12.200 He comes to do the Father's will to finish the task that He'd come to do. 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:13.320 Amazing. 00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:16.480 And we're all involved in that as believers today. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:18.519 We're part of that finished task. 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:20.920 Our names are engraved in His hearts. 00:13:20.920 --> 00:13:28.080 And that is true for any who will come motivated by outstanding love for us. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:30.440 So He was sent to finish His task. 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:36.440 And we also see from Jesus here that He wants us to be also people who are sent. 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:44.000 In verse 35, He says, He talks about the harvest and the harvest fields being white. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:49.280 And in verse 38, He says, I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor, others have 00:13:49.280 --> 00:13:51.840 labored and yet you've entered into their labor. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:53.800 And Thomas mentioned that a couple of weeks ago as well. 00:13:53.800 --> 00:13:57.600 That whole day they've been called and also being sent. 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:04.000 And He sends us as Christians, as followers of Jesus, as believers, like the Samaritans 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:07.159 who came to faith here because of the testimony of the Samaritan women. 00:14:07.159 --> 00:14:10.800 He says, now we believe ourselves, not just from what we've heard from you, that this 00:14:10.800 --> 00:14:12.360 man is the Savior of the world. 00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:14.480 That was a remarkable claim. 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:16.639 It's a kind of big claim, isn't it? 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:21.279 Not just that he's a good guy, he's a prophet, he's someone worth talking to, he knows about 00:14:21.279 --> 00:14:22.279 our hearts. 00:14:22.279 --> 00:14:29.600 This guy is the Savior of the world, and these people became ones who were sent out as well 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:34.600 as the disciples, as well as others in the Great Commission to open our eyes and to see 00:14:34.600 --> 00:14:39.839 ourselves and to recognize that life is more than eating and drinking and not all that 00:14:39.839 --> 00:14:40.839 represents. 00:14:40.839 --> 00:14:47.240 That's what makes you different when you go and have your lunch in the canteen this week. 00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:49.639 The eating and drinking isn't your reason for being. 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:55.600 That it's not simply the best meal, the best time, the best pleasure, the best entertainment, 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:58.279 the best joy that we can have in this life. 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:02.600 However much we can praise and glorify, and thank God for that, but there's a spiritual 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:09.159 dimension to our lives that our satisfaction and our identity and our purpose in life is 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:14.840 more than what is put before us on the dinner table. 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:20.280 We're sent, we're sent to do something more glorious and greater than cooking a great 00:15:20.280 --> 00:15:21.280 meal. 00:15:21.280 --> 00:15:23.120 It's more than that. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:28.040 However great and thankful we are for these things, we're called to be sowing and reaping 00:15:28.040 --> 00:15:30.639 a spiritual harvest together. 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:31.639 That's our calling. 00:15:31.639 --> 00:15:36.920 Our calling, not my calling, not the leader's calling, not special people. 00:15:36.920 --> 00:15:38.480 It's all our calling. 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:45.240 It's to live our lives in the places we are with that recognition that our eyes have been 00:15:45.240 --> 00:15:48.440 opened and spiritual life is more. 00:15:48.440 --> 00:15:54.840 Our life is more than just the sum of our parts, as it were, the sum of our physical 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:57.080 parts and all that that means. 00:15:57.080 --> 00:16:01.320 And you know, that's a great thing, especially as you get older. 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:05.800 That is a great thing, especially as you get older, that your life is not the sum of your 00:16:05.800 --> 00:16:06.800 parts. 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:11.679 Even if you fall apart, it's really great to know that that's not all that life consists 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:12.679 of. 00:16:12.679 --> 00:16:17.439 You know, in this life, when you pass 35, there's no point, is there? 00:16:17.439 --> 00:16:19.559 For most people, everything's gone by then. 00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:25.519 If you have nothing beyond what this life has to offer and the brokenness of this life 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:29.240 in this world, and youth is everything, isn't it? 00:16:29.240 --> 00:16:30.240 Youth is everything. 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:34.279 But the great thing about the believer is that we are getting younger every... 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:39.919 I'm getting younger every day inside, so there, to all you young people. 00:16:39.919 --> 00:16:40.919 I'm getting younger. 00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:43.839 And that's a great thing. 00:16:43.839 --> 00:16:50.000 So you've got people like Ken who serve and serve because they're getting younger every 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:55.439 day because they have a spiritual recognition that this life is not all there is in eating 00:16:55.439 --> 00:16:58.480 and drinking is not the sum of what we are. 00:16:58.480 --> 00:16:59.480 So that's Jesus. 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:04.680 And briefly, can I just talk also a little bit about our own vision and the light of 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:07.120 who Jesus is and the light of what He's done for us. 00:17:07.120 --> 00:17:10.480 Some things we often fail to see because often our eyes... 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:13.000 I think sometimes our spiritual eyes are shut. 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:18.360 And we're not really looking spiritually from day to day. 00:17:18.360 --> 00:17:23.559 I think sometimes we think that of ourselves, spiritually is in a waiting room, waiting 00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:26.640 to catch that midnight train to eternal life. 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:29.840 You know, when God calls us home, we get on that midnight train and then bang, we're in 00:17:29.840 --> 00:17:32.440 eternal life. 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:36.000 But what Jesus is saying here, eternity starts here and now. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.040 The harvest is right now. 00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:41.400 And often we fail to see that. 00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:43.720 And that's why we can be unconventional. 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:45.360 That's why we can be rebellious. 00:17:45.360 --> 00:17:53.600 And that's why we can aim to not live like everybody else in the workplace or everyone 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:58.319 around our social order or even in the church. 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:01.519 Jesus broke the conventions of the church as well. 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:06.240 You know, for the love of the lost, for the vision of seeing what's at stake, it means 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:11.119 we can break all the rules, all the human rules that sometimes we make for ourselves 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:19.599 that constrain us and that allow us just to live in tripping along conventionally. 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:23.319 And He allows us to break these. 00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:31.919 It's good that we should be shocked and that we should be surprised by Jesus. 00:18:31.919 --> 00:18:33.319 We should be like His disciples. 00:18:33.319 --> 00:18:37.240 You know, they were surprised and shocked that He was doing what He was doing. 00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:42.159 And we should look at the Gospels and we should say, yeah, no, no problem. 00:18:42.159 --> 00:18:47.519 We should be shocked and surprised by what Jesus demands of us and asks of us because 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:51.119 that's what love is like, isn't it? 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:57.559 Love, in that way, His divine love is so radical and so shocking and so different that it should 00:18:57.559 --> 00:19:07.079 make us sit up and isn't that why it's just dreadful if we preach boring sermons? 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:12.359 And if you come to church for some superific ride so you can just catch up on the sleep 00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:15.039 you've missed because that's what it's just like. 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:18.919 You know, we just sit here quietly and just pass through it. 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:22.640 We should be shocked and excited by who Jesus is and by... 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:25.800 But often we don't. 00:19:25.800 --> 00:19:28.240 And what He says is that time is short, you know. 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:31.120 That's what He's saying here, that the fields are ripe for harvest now. 00:19:31.120 --> 00:19:38.800 He's taking an illustration and saying, no, no, no, no, I'm changing that physical reality 00:19:38.800 --> 00:19:44.880 of having to wait for a harvest and wait four months and maybe just, you know, reap eternal 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:45.880 life at some point. 00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:49.560 And now is the time for it's a kind of...it's a paradox, He's saying, isn't it? 00:19:49.560 --> 00:19:52.280 He's saying, you sow now, but you're also reaping now. 00:19:52.280 --> 00:19:56.800 And it's not that...it's not enough just to say that, oh, I'm just going to be faithful 00:19:56.800 --> 00:20:01.400 and I'm doing my best and hopefully sometime, whether I'm here or not in the future, God 00:20:01.400 --> 00:20:02.400 will bring a harvest. 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:07.960 He's saying, it all comes together, we sow and we reap in His kingdom. 00:20:07.960 --> 00:20:08.960 What is it? 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:12.400 What is it in our lives that we give weight to? 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:18.640 We give weight to things that matter to us, the things that are important, don't we? 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:19.640 Genuinely. 00:20:19.640 --> 00:20:22.400 Whose will is it that matters in our lives? 00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:27.680 Because that's what...again, it's the key of this passage is that what Jesus says here, 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:30.120 my fruit and drink is to do the will of my Father. 00:20:30.120 --> 00:20:33.240 And that's a remarkable phrase. 00:20:33.240 --> 00:20:35.920 And it gets to the very heart of discipleship. 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:38.600 We're talking about discipleship this year. 00:20:38.599 --> 00:20:43.559 If you're asking about what it is to be a Christian, if you ask them what it means in 00:20:43.559 --> 00:20:49.399 your day-to-day living, how I...this is the core, this is the key, absolutely the key. 00:20:49.399 --> 00:20:53.359 It's like Jesus was giving that test in the Garden of Gethsemane. 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:58.599 He either walked away and called down a host of angels, said, get me out of here. 00:20:58.599 --> 00:21:01.799 I'm a celebrity. 00:21:01.799 --> 00:21:02.799 Get me out of here. 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:04.079 I've had enough of these people. 00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:06.519 Let the angels come and take me home. 00:21:06.519 --> 00:21:08.759 That's my will or the temptation. 00:21:08.759 --> 00:21:09.759 He says, no. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:13.720 You know, if there's any other way, Lord, is there any other way? 00:21:13.720 --> 00:21:14.720 No. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:16.440 He says, sweats drops of blood. 00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:18.160 They're so great. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:24.720 Hematodrosis, his capillaries burst in his forehead and the blood mixes with the sweat 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:25.720 because of the tension. 00:21:25.720 --> 00:21:28.119 And he says, not my will, but yours be done. 00:21:28.119 --> 00:21:29.119 That's what he says. 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:30.879 That's the key to his obedience. 00:21:30.879 --> 00:21:35.039 That allows him to go to cross and be the obedient son that becomes our Savior. 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:37.119 And in Christ we can say the same. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:39.960 You know what I often say? 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:41.440 I do God's will. 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:44.799 Yep, I do God's will. 00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:47.599 As long as it's my own as well. 00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:49.440 That's what I say a lot of time. 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:53.799 I'll do God's will as long as it dovetails with mine, as long as I agree. 00:21:53.799 --> 00:21:56.759 Yeah, that's not a lordship. 00:21:56.759 --> 00:21:57.759 That's servitude. 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:04.119 We're taking God and making us an all year Santa Claus. 00:22:04.119 --> 00:22:09.119 But the challenge for us is when his will is clearly different from our will. 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:13.359 And we can only know that when we know his will, when we know his word, when we know 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:21.119 what his commands are, what we know, what grace looks like and forgiveness and commitment 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:23.319 and all the different things he speaks about. 00:22:23.319 --> 00:22:28.119 And when we know our calling, genuinely that's the core of it for us when we can say, not 00:22:28.119 --> 00:22:30.239 my will, but yours be done. 00:22:30.239 --> 00:22:32.039 That's why we're called. 00:22:32.039 --> 00:22:37.079 Not because it's oppressive or because it's enslaving or because it's harsh, because 00:22:37.079 --> 00:22:41.159 we're created to follow him and created to do his will. 00:22:41.159 --> 00:22:47.559 We're called to sacrifice and follow in his will and not spectate. 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:54.359 So this gospel community, this church, it's our calling to seek as a body but also as 00:22:54.359 --> 00:22:55.359 individuals to serve him. 00:22:55.359 --> 00:23:01.799 It's our prayer and our desire as a leadership team of elders to live out our calling and 00:23:01.799 --> 00:23:06.319 to have a gospel vision and a mission that keeps Christ at the heart. 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:09.639 That's what this card is about. 00:23:09.639 --> 00:23:11.439 It may be rubbish. 00:23:11.439 --> 00:23:16.639 It's certainly incomplete and I'm sure it can be improved upon. 00:23:16.639 --> 00:23:22.159 It's absolutely imperfect but it's our philosophy of ministry and I think it's worthwhile knowing 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:26.360 a little bit of who we are and where we want to be and how we want to get there. 00:23:26.360 --> 00:23:34.360 I don't want us to be as our people, stationary, thoughtless, unappetizing, treading water. 00:23:34.360 --> 00:23:39.480 And I know that we have so much to do. 00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:43.120 In a couple of, a few weeks, as you know, and I'll maybe say more about, I'm going to 00:23:43.120 --> 00:23:48.040 Memphis to a missions conference to the church that, gathering a lot of the other churches 00:23:48.039 --> 00:23:52.200 that support us financially in our church planting and they want to hear about what's 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:54.159 happened here in St. Columbus. 00:23:54.159 --> 00:23:55.720 And you know what my title is? 00:23:55.720 --> 00:24:00.279 You know what the title of my talk is that I told them? 00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:03.399 Hanging on to God's coattails. 00:24:03.399 --> 00:24:07.119 Because that's what we've done here from the very beginning and sought to do. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:11.359 It's God's work here and we've struggled and we've failed and we've fallen off the 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:17.959 coattails and we've not done things properly all over the place but we're seeking to hang 00:24:17.959 --> 00:24:24.599 on to His coattails by knowing His vision and always learning and seeking by grace to 00:24:24.599 --> 00:24:29.039 make a difference in Edinburgh with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:31.039 So we have this vision. 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:33.240 It's not like other churches maybe. 00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:35.079 Every church is different, isn't it? 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:38.519 But we are here in the middle of Edinburgh and our vision is to be a city center church 00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:43.279 committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ and worship mission community and discipleship 00:24:43.279 --> 00:24:46.400 with a vision to plant churches in around Edinburgh. 00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:50.240 Okay, that summarizes what we are. 00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:51.240 If you can learn it, great. 00:24:51.240 --> 00:24:53.240 Do it with the next catechism. 00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:56.799 It will make you live longer when you learn to memorize things. 00:24:56.799 --> 00:24:57.799 It's great. 00:24:57.799 --> 00:24:58.799 Memorizing is great. 00:24:58.799 --> 00:25:00.720 It's tremendous and we can all do it. 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:03.400 We've all got the capacity to remember things. 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:05.240 It's just about organizing it in our heads. 00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:06.240 So that's our vision. 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:10.440 And our goal remains, I never know the difference between goals and visions and all that kind 00:25:10.440 --> 00:25:16.720 of stuff, but our goal is really these four G's that we've spoken about a lot in the past. 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:21.720 The grace, the four things that matter in our ongoing life is the grace of God, the 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:26.440 gospel of God growing together as Christians to the glory of God. 00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:30.640 These things are, you know, these are core realities for us. 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:36.200 They matter for us and it helps us to focus, helps us to remind ourselves about how important 00:25:36.200 --> 00:25:42.360 we are to each other and what our priorities should be and how we need Him daily. 00:25:42.360 --> 00:25:47.319 And I guess the point of it is really to try and maybe overcome the distractions that 00:25:47.319 --> 00:25:50.080 sometimes get into church life and our individual life. 00:25:50.080 --> 00:25:52.360 I can't be bothered with all these things. 00:25:52.360 --> 00:25:55.720 I can't be bothered with people and I can't be bothered with the way they fail me and 00:25:55.720 --> 00:26:01.480 let me down and the differences in a church and personalities and tensions and the idols 00:26:01.480 --> 00:26:03.759 that we all battle with. 00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:10.240 And yet, so it's an attempt to focus on that, our goals and our priorities. 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:14.680 Well, it's listed there in the blue box there. 00:26:14.680 --> 00:26:21.119 These are the things we try and focus we try and remember that we're a worshiping community. 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:24.640 As the church grows, you know, we can become all-consuming organizations. 00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:27.160 We don't want that to happen. 00:26:27.160 --> 00:26:30.920 We want you to have time to live out grace. 00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:37.360 We want you to have time to make the friendships that show the love of Jesus Christ in the 00:26:37.360 --> 00:26:39.840 way that He showed to the Samaritan women. 00:26:39.840 --> 00:26:43.080 We want you to take risks in the kingdom. 00:26:43.080 --> 00:26:49.800 We want you to break convention and we want what we do to help you both by what we are 00:26:49.800 --> 00:26:55.920 together and by what we teach and equip you to do in your lives. 00:26:55.920 --> 00:27:00.759 And as we seek to live that way, that becomes not just the way we live, but the way other 00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:03.000 people see we live. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:11.759 Nobody, excuse me, nobody will come to a church where people hate each other and have no time 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:15.920 for each other and have uncommitted to each other. 00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:20.960 It's just not attractive and it's not the outworking of Jesus Christ. 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:28.359 And we care because we see spiritually and we see where people are spiritually and we 00:27:28.359 --> 00:27:30.160 see their need of Jesus Christ. 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:39.040 We're disciples, we're disciples, we're learners and we're seeking to be that together. 00:27:39.040 --> 00:27:41.920 We're seeking to be it in the churches we multiply. 00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:44.480 We would love to make more churches. 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:48.160 So many need, so many needs for church, so many impossibilities. 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:53.880 And this year we want to spend time training future leaders by developing an apprenticeship 00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:56.120 program here and more so. 00:27:56.120 --> 00:27:58.960 And Thomas is responsible for that. 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:04.840 But I want us to stand with all, I stand here in all my weakness and my fear. 00:28:04.840 --> 00:28:11.680 And I want you to stand with me as I stand with Martin Luther, okay? 00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:15.559 And say, here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. 00:28:15.559 --> 00:28:16.559 Amen. 00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:17.559 That's what I want. 00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:19.079 That's what I want us to do. 00:28:19.079 --> 00:28:23.160 I want us to link together with one vision. 00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:30.360 With all our failure and fallings and failings and mistakes and learning and come together. 00:28:30.360 --> 00:28:32.519 This is where we are. 00:28:32.519 --> 00:28:33.680 This is what we believe. 00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:35.080 This is who Jesus is. 00:28:35.080 --> 00:28:37.000 This is what he did for the Samaritan women. 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:39.640 This is why we want to live like this ourselves. 00:28:39.640 --> 00:28:48.160 And so we find that our commitments are all based also around where our motivation and 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:49.519 when our strength has come from. 00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:50.519 It's nothing new. 00:28:50.519 --> 00:28:51.759 It's the Bible and prayer. 00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:54.640 It's what we call the ordinary means of grace. 00:28:54.640 --> 00:28:58.200 Going back to food, breakfast might not be that exciting. 00:28:58.200 --> 00:29:00.799 And maybe week to week our food isn't that exciting. 00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:02.200 Well, it is in my house. 00:29:02.200 --> 00:29:03.200 It was wonderful. 00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:05.039 Every meal is just a dream. 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:09.160 But when Katrina makes it anyway. 00:29:09.160 --> 00:29:11.559 But you know what it is, we've got ordinary meals. 00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:15.519 I remember my dad used to say when he came back from Lewis Comedians, where he'd be 00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:19.559 fed like a king for four days and put on a stone and a half, he would come back and 00:29:19.559 --> 00:29:21.960 say it's back to plain Jane and no nonsense. 00:29:21.960 --> 00:29:23.799 And that's really what our ordinary meals are like, aren't they? 00:29:23.799 --> 00:29:26.839 They're just ordinary meals. 00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:33.359 And sometimes that's what we need to get back to in our spiritual lives. 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:35.119 The ordinary means of grace. 00:29:35.119 --> 00:29:36.240 The coming to church. 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:38.200 The reading of your Bible. 00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:39.519 Listening for God. 00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:45.720 Regularly praying and asking Him into the tough difficulties of your life. 00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:50.640 Reading and not alone but together. 00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:52.160 Can I just read that if I can find it? 00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:54.519 That many different bits of paper with me today. 00:29:54.519 --> 00:30:00.600 That reflection that I've quoted very often here in the church, C.S. Lewis, about prayer. 00:30:00.600 --> 00:30:02.720 I pray because I cannot help myself. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:04.720 I pray because I'm helpless. 00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:07.160 I pray because the need flows out of me all the time. 00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:08.160 Waking and sleeping. 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:09.160 It doesn't change God. 00:30:09.160 --> 00:30:11.559 It changes me. 00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:18.919 Is that how we view prayer because we see spiritually the veils being lifted from our 00:30:18.919 --> 00:30:22.039 eyes and we say, well, I can't do this. 00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:23.879 And I can't save anybody else. 00:30:23.879 --> 00:30:28.799 And it's just too great a problem and the needs are too great and the world is in such 00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:29.799 a mess. 00:30:29.799 --> 00:30:31.720 It's just too great. 00:30:31.720 --> 00:30:36.240 But prayer drives us to that place of great need because we need Him. 00:30:36.240 --> 00:30:37.240 And He doesn't. 00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:40.720 That's all He wants from us. 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:42.640 We don't need to give Him the answers. 00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:45.680 He simply wants us to recognize that He is Lord. 00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:46.680 He is sovereign. 00:30:46.680 --> 00:30:47.960 He is in control. 00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:52.680 And His plans and purposes for us are good and that we need Him every day long. 00:30:52.680 --> 00:30:56.640 The work in this congregation since 2001, and I know before that as well, but I'm only 00:30:56.640 --> 00:31:00.319 telling you, it's like Him here, has always been impossible. 00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:03.600 It's always been impossible. 00:31:03.600 --> 00:31:09.519 And the Kingdom work and the commission that He gives us in Matthew 28 has always been impossible. 00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:11.680 And this city needs salvation. 00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:14.160 This city needs Jesus Christ. 00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:20.359 We need to speak to those whom we love who are living blindly, only for food and drink, 00:31:20.359 --> 00:31:25.400 looking for satisfaction apart from God, who is their maker. 00:31:25.400 --> 00:31:26.960 We need to reach out to them. 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:30.440 So our commitments are the same, you know. 00:31:30.440 --> 00:31:32.359 Excellence, simplicity, generosity. 00:31:32.359 --> 00:31:36.000 We want to do all the things we do well. 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:37.000 Sometimes we fail. 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:39.000 Lots of times we fail. 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:42.519 But we don't want to give God just the fag ends of our lives. 00:31:42.519 --> 00:31:47.039 We want to give Him the best, even though it's voluntary. 00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:48.759 We want to give Him the best. 00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:54.240 Not after our career, after our family, after our pleasure, after our eating and drinking. 00:31:54.240 --> 00:31:59.519 We want Him to be Lord in all of these areas and commit all of these things to Him for 00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:02.119 faith to be the heartbeat of all of it. 00:32:02.119 --> 00:32:13.319 Say we want to be simple, leave room in your life for Him, for meditating on Him, for sharing 00:32:13.319 --> 00:32:14.759 Him with others. 00:32:14.759 --> 00:32:19.119 And one thing I really love, and I say, end with this, is generosity. 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:21.319 We speak about that here. 00:32:21.319 --> 00:32:25.639 And that's the heart of Jesus, isn't it? 00:32:25.639 --> 00:32:29.679 That's the heart of the story of the Samaritan woman, is Jesus' generosity. 00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:34.880 He was offering her something that nobody else could offer her, and offering it with 00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:41.920 love and with commitment and with risk. 00:32:41.920 --> 00:32:47.840 Grace was his heart motivation, and it was that risk that nailed him to a tree. 00:32:47.840 --> 00:32:53.279 And generosity is such a beautiful thing, and it's that heart of the gospel. 00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:55.519 Meanness is from the pit of hell. 00:32:55.519 --> 00:32:56.519 Okay? 00:32:56.519 --> 00:33:03.200 So generosity, and I'm meaning broad, in every way, in every way, it's such a beautiful thing. 00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:07.160 There are time, money, attitudes, judgments. 00:33:07.160 --> 00:33:13.119 You know, churches have been so generous to us, it's been unbelievable. 00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:18.599 Churches we've never met, churches that have never asked for anything of us, they have 00:33:18.599 --> 00:33:23.599 poured from their mission's budget to this small, insignificant church in the middle of 00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:30.759 Edinburgh, so generously it takes my breath away and leaves me speechless. 00:33:30.759 --> 00:33:37.559 And I hope that we share that generosity of spirit as we apply grace in all its applications 00:33:37.559 --> 00:33:41.839 in our lives, generous in our marriages, generous in our families, generous with our neighbors 00:33:41.839 --> 00:33:47.240 and our friends, generous with the grace that he's been given, not stingy, not keeping it 00:33:47.240 --> 00:33:48.519 to ourselves. 00:33:48.519 --> 00:33:52.319 And I hope that you're able to look at that card again and again, take it with you. 00:33:52.319 --> 00:33:56.159 Do take it, it's a bit of an awkward shape just for keeping. 00:33:56.159 --> 00:34:01.119 So the bookmarks really great to keep in your Bibles or someone else but this. 00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:05.679 My fridge magnet, it could go, a couple of stickers on, could be in your fridge, you could 00:34:05.679 --> 00:34:11.679 be there, that place where you go to eat and drink every day, and it could remind you of 00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:18.440 deeper pleasure and satisfaction that you'll find as we follow him. 00:34:18.440 --> 00:34:19.440 Let's pray. 00:34:19.440 --> 00:34:27.840 Father, God help us to live for you, help us in all our weaknesses and failures to rely 00:34:27.840 --> 00:34:28.840 on you. 00:34:28.840 --> 00:34:31.119 May Jesus be held high in this church. 00:34:31.119 --> 00:34:36.320 May many people this year come to faith in Jesus through our lives, through our witness, 00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:42.880 through our seeking to share the gospel, through the one to one Word Bible studies through. 00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:49.840 Just our friendship and our commitment, and may we learn from amazing, excuse me, amazing 00:34:49.840 --> 00:34:56.200 example of Jesus and his commitment to spiritual reality in a very physical world. 00:34:56.200 --> 00:35:00.440 It wasn't that he was an ascetic, it wasn't that he was a monk, and that he was separate. 00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:04.680 It was Lord that you were in and among people, you were eating and drinking, you were accused 00:35:04.680 --> 00:35:08.880 of being a glutton and a drunkard, which you were not. 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:15.400 But you did so because you loved people and because you wanted them to see a deeper satisfaction 00:35:15.400 --> 00:35:17.800 and a deeper need and along. 00:35:17.800 --> 00:35:23.440 May we see that, may we live it, may we embrace it this year, may this be a great year for 00:35:23.440 --> 00:35:29.000 us, for the church plants, for the gospel in Edinburgh and all the churches that are 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:33.880 serving you and in our nation, and indeed in our world, we do pray for Jesus Christ, 00:35:33.880 --> 00:35:38.280 and we pray for your kingdom to come, for your will to be done on earth as it is in 00:35:38.280 --> 00:35:39.280 heaven. 00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:40.280 So help us God. 00:35:40.280 --> 00:35:44.560 And we pray, I pray especially for any who might be here today who are not yet believers 00:35:44.560 --> 00:35:50.320 who don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord, who have not entrusted their hope for life 00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:51.920 and eternity to him. 00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:56.680 We pray that they may see today your beauty through all the words that they may see your 00:35:56.680 --> 00:36:06.040 beauty and may see that you alone can offer peace and forgiveness and the perspective 00:36:06.039 --> 00:36:09.800 of being in relationship with you that we were indeed created to be. 00:36:09.800 --> 00:36:12.800 Take away that estrangement we ask in Jesus' name. 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:38.800 Amen.