Blake Hickman: Right, good morning, everyone. my name is Blake. If you're new or visiting around here, I know a lot of people here would like to get to know you. So come and find me afterwards. my wife and I had the privilege with our five sons of being at Harvest for several years and it's a joy that Matthew and Mike get to invite me back from time to time to open God's word for you for us to dive in together. And so we're gonna do that today. If you've got your Bible, turn to John chapter twelve. Mike just referenced the passage that we're gonna look at. The focal passage is verses 30 through 36. We'll walk through all 17 verses there this morning. And where we find ourselves in the text this morning, and where you all have journeyed, if you've been around Harvest for a while, most of this year walking through the Gospel of John, we're getting very near to the cross. It is coming very soon. A lot of times, if you've taken a public speaking class, if you've been around any of that. You know that there's supposed to be some elaborate intro. There should be a hook, there should be something to draw you in. No, the text is the hook today. So I'm just letting you know we're diving right into the pool. So if you came expecting to wade into the shallow waters, you missed that part. Okay, like we're we're we're diving into the depth today, and we are because this is where we are in the text. the the shallow waters are past. We're we're not waiting any longer. W A D-I-N-G. We're not waiting any longer. No, we are. We are swimming. We are out in the sea. And this is where Jesus is today in our text. The cross is in view and it is coming closer. And Jesus is laser focused. He's more focused than he's ever been before. Luke tells us in Luke chapter 9 that Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem. His focus was on Jerusalem and he could not be deterred. And this is what we are seeing today. But it's not just that Jesus is Lagar. laser focused, he is also unsettled and he is overwhelmed. The weight of what he is about to endure is heavy upon him. He doesn't just see it with his eyes. He he feels it in the depth of his soul. His divinity is the second person of the Trinity. He is a perfect peace. There is stillness, there is calmness, there's a resoluteness there. He knows what he must do and he knows why he must Do it, but his humanity, knowing fully how dark and brutal the next few days will be, his humanity is an anguish. And we may look at this, and as we go through the text today, it can cause us to ask the question how is it possible to have complete unrest and complete perfect peace at the same time? And my answer to you is I don't know that it is fully humanly possible for that to happen. But we are going to see Jesus today both acknowledge his anguish and at the same time acknowledge his hope. His hope isn't in what he was going to do, his hope is in what was coming after that. Psalm 131 is one of my favorite Psalms. It's also one of the shortest. It's just, it's three verses. They're pretty simple. But this is what David says in Psalm 131. He says, O Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. David is saying there, he's like, I'm not being arrogant, I'm not seeking power, I'm not seeking control, authority, dominion, and I'm not trying to figure out all the why questions of the mysteries of life, and I'm not trying to worry about and wrestle with why things aren't going the way that I wish that they would go and why nothing in my life seems to make sense. David says I'm not. Not doing any of those things. Not not doing that. But then next he says this, he says, but I have calmed and quieted my soul. Then he says, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. for those of you in the room that have had children, or if you have experience being around people that have children, you know that when a baby is hungry, everybody knows it. Not it's not a gentle cry. It's not a subtle cue. It's five alarm fire. Everybody in the neighborhood and possibly the county knows this child needs to eat. And then you get in a rhythm of being able to feed the child, and the child is satisfied, and the child is delighting and everything is good. And then you get to the part where it's time to transition them to more solid foods, and you have to begin to wean them. And in that weaning phase, every time that child is with its mother, it only wants food. It doesn't really want the comfort of its mother. And yet something amazing happens after the child is weaned. Every time that child goes to it mu its mother, it just wants its mother because that is its mother and it is fully delighting in being in the presence of its mother. And what David is saying here is he's like, there is a place that our souls can get to where we are delighting with the Father just because he's with the Father. We're not worried about all the mysteries of life. We're not worried about all the things that we don't have. We're not worried about why things aren't going the way that we hoped and prayed and wished that we would. We know that if we have God, then we're gonna be okay. We're gonna be okay. And David goes on, he says, O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore, and that is the key. Where are we placing our hope? Are we placing our hope in the things that we're setting our eyes on? Are we placing our hope on the things that we're setting our heart on? Are we placing the hop our hope on the things that we're setting our minds on? Or are we placing our hope in the Lord? Because only He can provide the quietness and calmness that our souls need. And it's important for us to know that in doing this, this doesn't make all the things that we worry about go away. It doesn't make all of our fears go away. It doesn't make all of our anxieties go away. If if there are consequences that need to happen because of our action, it our actions, it may not make all of those consequences go away. We're still going to have to face them. They're still going to have to be there. But in the midst of that, we can have a calm and quiet soul. And Jesus will display this to us today in our text. Our text today is all about why Jesus came to the world. Jesus is going to reference the hour, his purpose, the time many times in this passage, and all of those things point to his death and resurrection. And Jesus is going to tell us that we need to keep our eyes open and we need to keep our eyes on him. If we ask the question, we wish to see Jesus, we're going to find that he wants us to see him. And to see what he is going to do for us, even as his darkest hour is upon him. This is a sobering text today. It it is it is weighty. Jesus is dealing with the weight of his death, but it is also very hope-filled. So I'm going to pray for us that God will give us eyes to see the beauty of this text, even while we see the heaviness of this text. So would you pray with me, Father? We thank you so much. For what you have revealed to us in your word. We thank you that your word shows us, yes, your holiness, which in our sinfulness it it causes us to fear. As we've sung this morning, the the eye of sinful man cannot see your holiness and your glory apart from you intervening in a miraculous way. And in our text this morning, you show that to us. We thank you for the Apostle John for pinning these words, for being led by the Holy Spirit to recount all that Jesus was going through for us. Has it led up to him bleeding and dying for us, so that he could rise from the dead for us, so that we can have life eternal with you. Father, I pray today that you would work through great weakness in me. I pray that you would work through great weakness in all of us here. And as this text declares to us today, I pray that we would see Jesus as glorified as he is in these verses here. Today, through the power of your spirit and through your word. And we ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. So as you have your Bible in John 12, 20 through 36, we're going to see some things in this text today. And these things lay out very easy to us. They're just very descriptive things that are going to jump up to us from the page. And our text begins actually very simply. It's not complicated. And this is our first point today. We see request. If you look there in verses twenty through twenty-two of chapter twelve, this is what John tells us. He says, Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Beth Seda in Galilee, and they asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip then went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together went and told Jesus. Now, as you guys have been walking through this together as a church, you've just had the triumphal entry. You've had people coming out to see Jesus and offering praise to him. You've had a great crowd of people that is continuing to follow him. At the end of the passage last week, you saw the Pharisees finally understand that the mission that they are on, which is to do everything they can to make sure that they put Jesus to death, that that mission is getting complicated. In verse 19 of chapter 12, they say there the whole world has now gone after Jesus. They understand that there is a crowd following him and is going to make their job very, very difficult. And now in verse 20, as we just read, we see this literally. There are some Greeks who are among this crowd, and they have a request. They want to see Jesus. Now it's important for us to understand about these Greeks that these would have been Gentiles, total and complete Gentiles. They're not proselytes. Possibly, maybe they're God fearing. Which is why they would be in the area around the Passover. But they are not converts to Judaism. They they haven't rejected what was their nationalistic cultural identity and converted to Judaism. No, they're they're still Gentiles. They're still Greeks. And they're in Jerusalem for the Passover, and possibly they've heard about Jesus, but this experience of seeing him, seeing him with their own eyes come into Jerusalem, it has left an imprint on them. And they want an audience with him. They they want time with him. They want to to speak with him. They want to find out some things. And I don't know about you, but this encourages me deeply. And I hope it will encourage you this morning because the reason is that when people have an encounter with the real Jesus, they will always want to know more. When people experience Jesus and the reality of who he is and his fullness and Their eyes are open to his beauty and his majesty and his splendor, and all that having a life with him means they're always going to be drawn into wanting more. Believer in this room today, if you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus, is this not your story? However young or old you were when you came to faith, you might have heard many things about Jesus. You might have been able to tell many stories about Jesus, but at some point, Point, God opened your eyes to see so much more than just the stories of the miracles. If you are in this room today and you have not trusted in Jesus alone to save you, there is a reason you are here today. Something about who Jesus is has in some way piqued your interest and curiosity enough to either be invited by someone to show up here today or on your own to seek out and find a place where you could come and learn more about him. The question, the request that these Greeks are asking of Philip, and Philip would go and consult with Andrew about this is how every person's salvation story begins. We wish to see Jesus. Not all the things about him. Not all the things we hope he can do. No, we we wish to see him and only him. When we see the real Jesus and we experience who he truly is, we will always want more of him. We will never want less. And there's a couple of encouragements here for us today that I take from this. Two, three simple verses here that don't seem to say much, but really say a lot. First is this is whether you have walked with Jesus for 40 years or whether you have walked with him for four days is let's constantly be people who look for Jesus daily. Let's do not let that be something we did once and over time we quit looking for him less and less. No, let's pray that God would give us the same desire to see him as when we first saw him, and that that desire would never diminish. Would we be looking for him every day? Would we run to the scriptures to see him? Would we look to see him working in our World, would we look to see him working in the lives of other people? Would we pray that God would give us eyes to see Jesus daily? And second, for those of us in the room who are believers and have walked with Jesus, let's be people who show Jesus to others and how we live our lives. Let's understand that God has given each one of us here, if you claim Christ and have been saved by God's grace through him. He has given you an opportunity to be a mirror of who Jesus is to a lost world that does not know him. Are we mindful of that and how we live our lives? Are we mindful of that in the conversations that we have with our children and how we live life in front of them? Are we mindful of that in our relationships with our spouses? Are we mindful of that in our relationships with our coworkers? Are we mindful of that when we're driving down I-40 and somebody cuts us off going 80 miles an hour and almost kills us? Like, are we mindful that our lives, if we say we have been saved by God's grace, We have an incredible opportunity to be able to display Jesus to people that do not know him. Would we be mindful of that? Would we consider that? And not consider that in a guilt-ridden way, but consider that in a hope-filled way. We have an opportunity to show Jesus to people who do not know him. How amazing is that? The the one thing that makes me laugh about this is these Greeks come to Philip and they ask Philip if they can see Jesus and Philip freaks out like I don't know what to do. I don't think I can answer that. I need to go talk to Andrew. And then he and Andrew talk, it's like, Yeah, we we don't we don't know what to do. Let's let's go talk to Jesus. Friend, I need to give you comfort. You don't have to do that. You can just tell people about him. And one of the easiest ways you do that is in the way that you live your life. So would we be mindful of that today? Now, unfortunately, this is our only mention of these friends. John doesn't tell us how the story ends. He doesn't tell us that they get an audience with Jesus. But we do know that they asked for him. And this leads to Jesus declaring some deep truths about his purpose for coming. And that is our second point. Our second point is we see a declaration. Follow there with me, verses twenty three down through verse thirty three. It says, And Jesus answered them the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it. Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. If any one serves me, the Father will honor him. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, An angel has spoken to him. But Jesus answered, This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out, and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. Jesus makes a declaration here, and this declaration here is packed full of With a lot of very important life-changing things that we need to make sure we understand. These Greeks come to Philip, who goes to Andrew, and they go to Jesus with the with the request. And Jesus doesn't say just sure, bring them in. No, instead he goes to something that is so far above them, and if we're honest, a little bit far above us. He says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. If you're a believer here today, you've placed your faith and trust in Jesus alone to save you. You know Jesus came to die for sinners. You know this. It's foundational truth. It's the truth, hopefully, that you're banking and living your life on. But Jesus is saying here, this request from these Gentile Greeks is the moment that is needed to set this event in motion. And a question we must ask is why? Why is it this thing that Jesus says now, now is the moment? These Gentile Greeks coming up asking to speak to me, this is the moment. And the simple answer is because Jesus came not just for Israel, Jesus came for all peoples. Came for all peoples. We're gonna see this again in verse thirty-two. This moment is when those outside of Judaism are being drawn into him in large numbers. The Jews, by and large, have been rejecting him and in the coming days will reject him fully. But even as this is happening, who Jesus is and why Jesus came is not going to be stopped. It is going to spread larger and larger and wider and wider. This is why we have so many missionary partners. Who go to far reaching places, some very dangerous places in the world with the hope of the gospel, so that every tribe and nation and tongue will be represented at the end of all things. See, Jesus didn't just die for those that were there in that tiny little part of the geography of the world. No, he did he died to save all types of people. And every single one of us in this room today needs to be extraordinarily hap happy and thankful that that happened. We see this here. This is Jesus boldly declaring and clearly clearly declaring what is happening here. Jesus needs to explain further, not just make a statement what this glorification will entail. Because this glorification does not include a coronation, it does not include a ground pronouncement, it does not include a victory march. No, it means death. And it means that there will be a death. Jesus lets them know that for the whole world to know about him, death must take place. And he uses an illustration here that if any of you are gardeners or you plant or do things, I don't, Amber and I kill things that are agricultural in na primary plant, not animals. We're good with animals, but plants we don't do too well with. But he uses an illustration here that most of us can understand, just like a seed must die to bring forth greater life, so Jesus must die to bring forth greater life, but not for him, for us. It's just like a seed when you put it into the ground, it doesn't remain that seed. No, it starts to decompose and break apart and fall apart. And it's only if it breaks apart and falls apart that new better life can burst forth that will lead to even more life beyond the one individual seed, the one individual plant from the one individual seed. And this is what Jesus is saying here. He's saying that his death will bring life to those who trust him, but not just those that are there within earshot. No fruit that will extend and will last and will grow that cannot be numbered. From the one seed that must fall and die. And he explains this further in the next two verses. He tells us something about himself, but something about each of us as well. Jesus says there that to be a part of what he is doing. Verses 25 and 26 that we will have to die as well. But it's not going to be a death like his. No, it is going to be a dying to self for each one of us. And what Jesus is wanting here is for each and every one of us to examine our lives and how we are living them. And he's wanting us to ask and wrestle with a question are the things in this life, this life, this earthly life, your day to day. Life, are they more meaningful to you than the sacrifice that He made to give you true life? And I want to be careful here because I think sometimes when we talk about this, sometimes we pivot and we start to get start to feel guilty if we're living lives that are filled with joy. And if God's been abundantly clout kind to us and blessing us with so many things, like we start to think, I I I shouldn't enjoy these things. Like God God hasn't meant me for joy, He's meant me for misery. He uses love and hate there. And if I'm loving this, then that's not right. I'm supposed to hate this. Jesus is not saying that we should live joyless. Lives in this world. I want you to understand that. He came to give us joy and joy to the full. He came that we might have abundant life in him. He's not being passive aggressive and rage-baiting like we like to be. He's not being manipulative. He's not saying, well, you know, I'm I'm dying for you, so you might not want to enjoy all those things, Blake. That's not what he's doing. It's not what he's saying here. It's not that at all. But what it is is remembering that there is nothing in this life that can ever bring me the joy that he can bring. There's nothing in this life that can bring me the joy that he can bring. If enjoyed rightly, it can bring joy. And it should bring joy if you are enjoying it rightly. But it can't bring you full joy. It can't bring you lasting joy. Think about your greatest earthly memories, the greatest things that you have experienced in this life on this earth that were God honoring and God glorifying. Think about those things. Just picture it in your brain. I can promise you, for almost everyone in this room, by the next day a circumstance in your life happened that robbed that joy, did it not? Even the best things enjoyed rightly in this world cannot bring you fullness of joy. And God doesn't do that to like a cat and a mouse dragging it around the carpet to constantly keep us off guard. No, he does that so that we will enjoy those things, but we will not enjoy those things more than we enjoy him. And he gives us those things to cause us to be able to enjoy them in that moment, knowing that that is a picture and a taste and a glimpse of what we will be able to have forever when we get to be with him. And Jesus gets at that by telling us that to serve him we will have to follow him. And to follow him we have to be willing to lay down anything that will keep us from gaining him. And this is difficult and this is not easy, and this is a challenge that every one of us face. But the reward for the devotion to Jesus, he tells us there is the honor of eternal life with him. It's not like he's asking us to live lives of misery here and live lives of misery forever. He's asking us to live lives of right joy now and even better joy forever. This is what he offers to us. So, a question for each of us today. What are the things in my life that I am holding on to more tightly than I am holding on to Jesus? What are the things in my life that I have a death grip on that I'm clinging to so tightly to give me joy when I should be releasing my grip and giving those to Jesus so I can find and have joy in him? And if these things are sinful, friend, I tell you, it is time to put those to death. If these are habitual things, if if these are things that are causing you to slip and stumble, if these are things that you seem to think you can never gain victory over, have you ever tried to put them to death? Some of you have, and you're not gaining victory in that. Friend, rest in the victory that Jesus gives you. And pray that he gives you another day to fight. But if they are sinful, you put them to death. And if these are good things, because we all have so many good things that the Lord graciously gives to us and bestows upon us, then we give those to Jesus and we trust him with them so that we can enjoy them rightly and so much better. Think of all the good things that the Lord has poured out, that He has shown you by pouring out His kindness to you. When was the last time you stopped to thank God for those things? And for you to remind yourself that those things are his and that you know that they belong to him and that you give them to him, and that you are grateful that he allows you to enjoy them. Jesus is not asking us to live joyless lives, but he is asking us to live lives that have their full and ultimate joy in him more than anything else in life. Now look at verse 27. I want to reread that for us real quick. This is what Jesus says. He says, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour. And here is where we see Jesus even wrestling with some of the same things that we wrestle with. He tells us about himself and how in his humanity that knowing what will bring us ultimate joy is weighing heavily on him. And he wants us to know that we have a Savior who gets the struggle that we have with our own flesh. He he wants you to know that at your weakest moment he has felt that. He wants you to know that at your moment of most just sheer outright desperation that he has felt that. He is feeling physically, spiritually, and emotionally the weight of what is coming for him, and his soul is troubled. John, unlike Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he doesn't give us the agony of Gethsemane like the other gospel writers. You guys will see this as you close out the book of John. We we don't get the prayer in the garden where Jesus is sweating drops of blood, but the language here is very similar to what we see Jesus praying in the garden the night before his death. And I found great comfort in this this week. And here's why I I found comfort, because I don't know in my life if I had ever stopped to think the amount of anguish that Jesus was in every day leading up to the garden and his death. I I think in my mind, I've just always thought it's he's doing great. He he goes, he he clears out the temple. He he has Lord's Supper with the disciples. Like everything's going great. He had the triumphal entry. And then there in a moment when he's finally calm and he stops to think, the weight of it hits him. No, it was hitting him the entire time. He was considering all that was about to happen before that night. He felt the weight of all that was waiting for him all along. But look at his response. He says, What shall I say? Lord, save me from this hour? And his response is, No, this hour is the entire reason why I'm why I'm here. And then immediately, Father, glorify your name. Jesus knows he will need more strength than his human flesh will offer, and he remembers his purpose. It is for the Father to be glorified. And unlike on the cross, when Jesus would be without that comfort, here the Father speaks. And he doesn't just speak, he thunders. In verse 28 and 29, that the Father communicates audibly to the Son, and the people hear this and they're confused at this. Some hear it and think they hear thunder. Some hear it and think they hear an angel. Some hear it and they know exactly what they heard. But Jesus tells them. Hey, listen, y'all need to know he didn't say that to comfort me. He said that to comfort you. I I already know this. Just so you know, I know we're good. This is for your benefit, so that you will have comfort as you see what I'm about to go through for you. What is purposed will happen. And he tells them this is for them, and by way of that, is for us as well. And then he tells them something of the finality of what he must do. The world will be judged and the ruler of this world will be cast out, but only through him being lifted up. And John tells us that in this, Jesus was telling them about his death, about the kind of death, but not just the kind, the result of the death. And we need to understand, and you will see this in the coming weeks, Jesus would be lifted up. He would be lifted up on a tree for all there to see. He would be beaten and marred beyond recognition. He would be stripped of human dignity. He would hang up between two thieves unjustly punished. He would face insult and mocking. He would endure physical and spiritual torment, a death he did not deserve, but one that we surely did. And he would die this kind of death to offer salvation to sinners like me and like you. He would be lifted up. And three days later he would be lifted up again out of the grave by conquering sin, death, and the grave. And then he would defeat the ruler of the world. He would silence the accuser by triumphing over him. And then 40 days later, he would be lifted up again to ascend to the right hand of the Father. Where now, right now, if you are in Christ, I need you to understand this. He lives to make intercession for you as your advocate, constantly reminding the Father that you belong to him. As if the Father needs reminding, he doesn't, but that's what Jesus is doing for you if you are in Christ. And he will be lifted up again finally at the end of all things to rule and to reign forever. Jesus is telling us here what must happen. But he's not just telling us about the cross, although he is, he's wanting us to catch a glimpse of what the cross provides and makes available to us. And he tells us that this is for all types of people. Doesn't matter your story, doesn't matter your background, doesn't matter all that you have dealt with, are dealing with, or will deal with. Jesus says, Here I am, look at me, look to me. He's telling us, see what he has done and see what he will do. And he's asking us to turn from anything that this life is promising us. and to find true life in him. And so a question, friend, have you done that? Here today, sitting here today, out there today, have you done this? Have you turned from all that is there and turned to him alone who can save you? Have you found the life that can only be offered to us in Jesus? Have you seen the sinless Savior dying to save your sinful soul? Have you seen the power of his resurrection, giving you resurrection life as you trust in him alone for salvation? Have you seen the power of the gospel working in you and sustaining you while you wait for his glorious appearing? I hope that you have. But if you have not, today is a great day to look and see. Today is an amazing day for you to do that. To turn your eyes from everything that is there and to look and see him. Today is a wonderful day to do that. Because as we close out these verses in verses 34 through 36, Jesus tells us that time is short, but he still shows us how to find him. Our fourth point. We see this in verse thirty-four. There's a question the crowd asks. Mike read this earlier. A question from his followers. And you need to understand that the people are there. These are his followers. These aren't people that are apart from him. These are people that have walked with him, that know him, that should have an idea of what is going on here. But they are confused, and this concept of death does not make sense to them. It it wars against everything that they have been taught, and they think they understand about who the Messiah was and who he was supposed to be. They expect victory and conquest. They don't understand all that this will require. And there will be victory and there will be a vanquishing of the foe, but death must be the way to achieve it. And we see this in Jesus' answer to them in verses 35 and 36. And as he closes out here, it seems like he's shrouding this in mystery, but he's not. He's just offering them hope. The same hope that he has, the same thing that is able to quiet his troubled soul. The same thing that will get him from the garden to the cross, the same thing that will allow him to endure the cross, be in the grave, the same thing that will allow him to rise from the grave and for forty days proclaim and teach and train his followers in the same thing that now is allowing him to be able up, ruling and reigning at the right hand of the Father. That hope. This is what he's pointing them to. We began our passage with some Gentiles wanting to see Jesus. And this passage ends with Jesus telling us to keep our eyes open and we will see him. Look at verses thirty-five and thirty-six again. It says, So Jesus said to them, The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of of light. Passage begins, we would like to see Jesus. The passage ends, Jesus saying, Open your eyes and see the light. Here I am. Not hard to find. And Jesus is telling us the same thing. We must keep looking, we must keep believing. And Jesus also tells us that time is short. And that when we wait, that this is of eternal consequence. We do not know when Jesus will come back. But we know that he will. And by God's grace, the light of the gospel still shines forth brightly today. Let's be encouraged and hopeful that it does. But let's be motivated to share more and more because it does. And while it still shines here, let's see it. with open eyes. Let's believe it with open hearts. And let's let others see it and help them believe it today. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the truth of your word. Thank you so much for Jesus dying to save sinners like all of us here. Thank you that we can only have life in Him. And in your kindness, you have made that life available to us all. For those of us who are here today, Father, who have placed our faith and trust in Jesus alone to save us, may we rejoice in that as we sing like we never have before. And Father, if there are those here who are still far from you who have never done that, would today be the day that they would open their eyes and see? And would today be the day that they would move from death to life, to life with you. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.