Suffering For The Church
um Dear Father, just pray in this moment, Lord, as you prepare our hearts to receive your word, would you fill us with your spirit, that we may receive your word and be transformed by it. Lord, would you fill up Derek right now in this moment, you allow him to speak clearly, Lord, to be filled with the joy of your salvation and that he would share that good word with us, Lord, and that we would all be encouraged. In the power of your spirit, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Morning everybody, it's good to be here. Chinchilla. It's good to be given a Bible passage such as I've been given from Colossians because it talks about Jesus and that's all it talks about and that's even better isn't it? Because Jesus is everything to us and ah we should be such people that we never get tired. of talking about the glories of Jesus. There are lots of things in our world that kind of demand our attention or maybe even get us excited, fill our hearts and minds, grab our attention, whatever, things that we might love, which often turn into things that we might be obsessed by. But all that we need of any value comes from Jesus. And if you strip everything else away, We've got everything when we're in Him. So I'm just going to work my way through this passage and it'll be good, not because of what I've got to say is good, but because of what God's Word says is very good. It says, So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him. Rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. You know what you started in? You know what you were rooted in, where the roots go down deep into the soil? That was Jesus. Continuing that. That's where you stay. Sometimes, uh you know, over the years, if you're older, you would send lots of fads come and go in Christianity. New ideas, new emphases. Oh wow, emphasis, whatever that emphasis is. And they come. and then they go. But there is a foundation which is, as we sing sometimes, the old, old story of Jesus and his love, which if we sit and stick and remain in that, it is everything we need. Later in, because Matt stole some of my passage, I'll deal with some of the ones he's going on to in next few weeks. But later on, Paul says things like this, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. The peace of Christ, just stay with Christ. Or let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. as you teach and admonish one another. You see, the problem with the Colossians is they had started, some of the people there had replaced the teachings of Christ with the latest fad. Well, it included things about angels and spiritual powers and stuff like that. And if you're in the Christian world about 25 years ago, you would remember that was really big. There was all these talks about the hierarchies and principle powers and stuff. You remember that people? it just, okay. Just me. It was going on. There were books about it. There were courses about it. They don't seem to be around now, but at that time it was everything. This is the way you go. There are always new teachings. But actually, not everything new is of any value. sorry, Paul calls these the traditions of men. In other words, they might sound spiritual, but they don't start with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They might sound really, I don't know, shiny, interesting, something new I can sink my teeth into. They often do this too. They divide people. They divide the church. They split people up because they are the traditions of men and not in accordance with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Often the church gets waylaid into these, what do people call them? Rabbit holes. Yeah, we're going down that rabbit hole. We go down that rabbit hole for a while and then we find out, what does it lead to? Well, nothing. Probably some bones at the end of it or something. But we leave behind the central message of Jesus Christ. Him, the perfect image of God. How can we as people become discerning to know the difference between the rabbit holes and the centre. Well, actually it's by growing in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That sounds a bit boring doesn't it? You know, one of the things that marks the church which is going to be strong is that it's full of people who are teachable. That sounds, even that's like not teaching. We want some dynamic preaching, right? Maybe you need a preacher who wanders backwards and forwards like a peacock or something on the stage, yeah? And can shout a bit. Does Matt shout? I don't know, I haven't listened to him enough. He'd shout and have brilliant analogies, you know what I mean? That's what we need. What about teaching? Teaching of the gospel. Teaching of, you see, if you read 2 Peter, 2 Peter's a really interesting book, because Peter writes it just before he dies. And he says things in there like, I want to remind you of what you already know about Jesus. I want to tell you again what I've told you before. Yeah. And then he finishes. The last words of Peter, grow in knowledge, grace. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yep. Grow in the knowledge and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we want to be on about at the end of our lives. The same stuff we've been saying all along. Not new things that I can tell you how you can do even better. You can have great ability, you can have great whatever. the gospel of grace. There's nothing better. Grow in that and the deeper you go, the better your life will be. Even if your life turns out to be pretty hard and at times rotten, you'll always have what you need when you are in the gospel. And we will spend eternity going deeper into the brilliance of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is everything. So he says, later on, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish each other. So as you are teachable, do you know what? Your understanding will change. Sometimes you'll go, hang on, you know what I used to think? I was wrong. Now it sounds so simple except for when Christians get hung up on the traditions of men and someone says to them, yeah, I just wonder if you're quite right there, have a look at this passage, what do they do? They get angry. Because I'm not teachable. You understand? How could I be teachable? Why do I need to be taught when I know everything and I'm right all the time? There's an element of humility that comes with being able to be reformed by the Word of God and the teaching of the Gospel. And it is a great thing to open yourselves up to the simple teaching of Christ. So study the Bible. Study the Word of God. Look at the grace of God through Jesus Christ and see how that fits there. You see, sometimes people, when they get that super spiritual thing, they start talking about things like, God told me. We were talking the other day with young adults and when they're getting married, if a boy or a girl says, you know, God told me that I should marry you. Yeah, we said, Run, run the other direction if someone tells you that, right? Because what's it doing? I've got this secret knowledge from God. Can you argue with that secret knowledge? No, can't argue with that. Yep, there is nothing secret about the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's right there in our Bible. If we don't have to kind of make up new stuff and have these secret understandings, don't long for them. Long for the truth. that we have in him. Can you see what I'm saying? And be transformed, Paul says, by the renewing of your mind. In other words, your brain can be switched on in Christianity. It's not all feelings-y. And you understand that secret knowledge and stuff can put us in a place where we go, as people say, turn your... I've heard a preacher say, no, to get a revelation from God, you turn your mind off and you get downloads from the Holy Spirit. It's like... No, no, no, no. Actually, we have our minds turned on to the truth. Because if I switch off your mind and just get downloads, you'll be surprised at what you download. It'll be like the average AI internet search, full of rubbish. Okay? Sorry, not having to go with that. Okay. It's wonderful. Jose, in Jose's time, the people... We're chasing after idols. And you know what God said of them? My people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge. Learn. Never stop learning. If you're 93, there's still more to learn of the gospel. Because as you learn the gospel, you'll recognise the traditions of men. You'll go, this is not right. And I know why, because of this verse and this passage and the guts of the gospel. be teachable, be able to learn. It's really important, it seems like such a small point. You see the the word disciple means taught once. Taught. There's a humility in learning. See to it, verse eight, that no one takes you captive, that means you're enslaved, through hollow and deceptive philosophy. that depends on human tradition and on the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. People actually love to... you know, angels and they're doing stuff for us. Do you know what angels do? They just do what God says. Better to worship the God who tells them what to do. Do you understand? Than to worship the spiritual forces. that do not be persuaded by hollow and deceptive philosophies means kind of the love of wisdom, good ideas, new ideas. Don't get dragged away by them. There are lots out there. Don't get dragged into them. Now here's where I'm going to do what I just... I'm going to do. You don't get a choice about what you listen to. But I want... I find in Christianity in Australia... 2026 as we are, there are actually a couple of really prominent heresies kicking around. They've become really strong. probably, if it was 20 years ago I wouldn't have said these two things, but they are very strong. And the first one of these is what people call the prosperity gospel. This is thing where we say, if I become a Christian, money's gonna come my way, health good health, I'm going to be healthy all the time and mostly I will have that great Western God, do you know what the great Western God is? Ease. My life is going to be easy, without trouble. Now that sounds really, really kind of desirable doesn't it? Money, ease of life, everything wonderful for my family, anybody got that yet? Oh, come on. If you just had a bit more faith, you'll get it. It's gonna be great. Yeah? But if you study the Word of God, you might find Jesus say something like this, in this life there will be trouble. Just cross that bit out, rip out John 16. It's gonna make your life a lot easier if you want the prosperity gospel. You understand? Join in the sufferings of Christ. Says that, Paul. Rip that bit out too. It's going to make your life better. No, actually in this life there will be struggles. And if you look at the lives of the early church, just the disciples, how many of them lived and got the prosperity gospel? They were all killed for their faith, except for John, who died in prison for his faith. Yeah. What I'm saying is those lies sink into us because as a philosophy, as an idea, we go, gee, I'd like that. They're just not true. It's a hard life actually as a Christian. It's just the best life ever. The second thing which I want to throw in is what people call the word of faith movement. Have you heard of this? could watch Joel Osteen. Have ever heard of him? Just speak it and it'll come to you. And he says things like, I am beautiful. I am young. I am healthy. And as he says it, it comes true in his life. He says, am rich. And then he says, can you put your money in the bag? And then he gets rich. Funny that, self-fulfilling prophecy. There's this belief, actually, do you know where that sort of, you know, one of the great proponents of it is the great preacher, Ophir Winfrey. She talks about the law of attraction. I'm being a little bit funny here. Sorry. Thanks for understanding my, that's good. What I give in my congregation for somebody laughs at my sarcastic jokes. It's good. And never say anything bad because then that bad will come on you. People who say our words have creative power and you even get people who are out there, farmers, talking to the clouds, rain, rain. I don't know what they do when it doesn't happen. What do they do in a drought? Where's your word of faith then? You see, it is actually a corrupt view. It's not true. We are not little gods. who just like Jesus can call things into being. Now this is a philosophy, don't get me wrong, this is big. This is preached in churches right across Queensland. Lamentation 3.37 says this, who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? What's the answer to that one? No one. You can't speak something unless God speaks it. It is not from the mouth of the Most High God, sorry, is it not from the mouth of the Most High God that both calamities and good things come? Wow, it's in God's hands after all. I bring these up, these things, just to point out that when the Colossians had heresies and strange philosophies and traditions of men, which sound good and inviting, don't think that that was just those old fuddy-duddy times. We got them today. They're coming through. How are we going to be able to tell them? To know the truth of the Gospel? To know the truth of the Word of God? Keep studying it. It's a good thing. But one thing to notice, they are always man-centered. It's about what's coming to me. I'm going to have good things. It's about the glory of man and not the glory of God. And he says they are taken captive by these things. They enslave us. They put us in a prison because they're just not true. But when you have Jesus, you have enough. Actually, when you have Jesus, you have everything you could ever want, even if you have nothing else. Jesus is all you need. Because you see, when you, He is, sorry, He is our greatest pleasure, do you know that? To know Him. He is the greatest fulfilment, to know and enjoy Jesus Christ. And when you don't think that He is enough to fulfil all your pleasures, you'll seek other pleasures. If you ever heard John Piper speak, he says that, do you know why people get locked up in porn and stuff like that. It's because they're seeking pleasure because they don't think that Jesus is enough. Do know why people chase after riches and money and possessions? Because they're seeking a pleasure because they don't think Jesus is enough. Do you know this? Jesus is enough. And when you have him and he is the greatest of pleasures, won't chase after the traditions of men anymore. Jesus is enough. Do get that? He will never let you down. Even if your life is all pain, He will be enough for you. If you get old and death looms, as it will for all of us, Jesus is more than enough. His death and resurrection will carry us through. Then Paul says in Colossians 2 verse 9, for in Christ all the fullness of the deity, that's God, lives in bodily form. And in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In Christ, all the fullness of God lives bodily. When if you saw Jesus walking around this earth in his body, you were seeing the fullness of the one true God. Jesus in the flesh. The one by whose all things were created. Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Do you want to understand more about who God is? Study the person of Jesus Christ. There you'll find more and more about who God is. They're of exactly the same nature. The same grace that's in Jesus Christ is the grace that comes from God. The same love, the same holiness that's in Jesus Christ is the same holiness as God. That's why Hebrews 1.3 says, the son... Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word. Hear that? What is Jesus like? The exact representation of God's being. If you've seen Jesus, you've seen the Father. He is the fullness of God. And By faith in Him, I'm going back now to um Colossians 2 verse 10, in Christ you have been brought to fullness. You get that fullness when you too are in Christ. You will be filled up. Have you ever had that feeling, my life's just so full, I'm full to the brim? That will come through Jesus Christ. He is our food. He is our drink. He is our water of life. He is everything. And it says, and he is the head over every power and authority. Do you know that? Jesus is the head, that whether we're talking earthly authorities, earthly powers, earthly leaders, or spiritual authorities, Jesus is in the head of both of those. You see, as far as worldly authorities go, if you listen to a lot of Christian teaching now, you'd start to think, that worldly figures and governments and leaders and so on have more lasting power than Jesus Christ. You know they don't. We don't need to look to any earthly leader. We need to look to Jesus. Do get that? Because Jesus said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. How much? How much authority does Jesus have right now? All. Which means most, right? No, it means all. Can you get that? So is there anything you face in your life that Jesus does not have authority over? Jesus' Kingdom does not need a leg up or be propped up by human leaders. His Kingdom is growing and it is powerful and it is going to keep growing and keep getting more powerful, but he is already the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We are not waiting for a time for that to happen. It's here now. Can you get that? Sometimes, and this is not having a go at any particular view, but there are a lot of views about end times, right? I don't care what view you have of the end times, as long as at the centre of it, it has this. Jesus is Lord of all. He has all authority. Because so many of those views and things, they have all these structures and this is how it's gonna happen, this is gonna happen, and Jesus seems to be on the sidelines. The whole time, through everything we face in these end times, Jesus is ruling over everything and nothing will change that. Do get that? He's Lord of all. It's a really big point. And what about his authority over the powers and authorities of the darkness of Satan and his demons? 1 John 3, says this, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. Did he do it? Did he destroy the devil's work? At the cross, did he destroy the powers of darkness? What does the devil have on you? Well, actually, in the middle of the night, he has lots on me. says, you remember when you did this? What about this? What about this? Those regrets that you have. You know, that darkness? And you go, it's true. It is true. He's done all that. I did all that. Except for one thing he'll never tell you about is what? the full forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ. The devil would love you to come into church and learn lots of laws and lots of rules and lots of religions and lots of traditions of men. He just doesn't want you to know this. Through Christ, you have been fully forgiven. He did that on the cross. So understand this, he has authority over the powers of darkness. You know what Satan's like? He's like a goat on a chain that's hammered into a lawn. Have you ever seen that? There's a nice, and he's hammering it in, hammering it in, and the goat can go this far, and there's no grass in that circle. He can go no further than he is chained by God. He has no power, lest be allowed to him. He is not in control of this universe. Jesus is at every point. Can you get that? This should be just a little bit exciting for us, I'll read it again. For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. This is our Jesus. In Him, you are also circumcised with the circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ. Now this is, I'm not gonna go into this in huge depth, but circumcision was the old covenant thing that happened, the putting away of flesh. But Jeremiah tells us in the Old Testament, it's not just about circumcision of the body, it is circumcision of the heart. You need yourself. to be put aside, the body of flesh, the sinful nature to be put aside. And that is done by who? By Jesus Christ. He has done something to us that has put our flesh aside. He is the only one who could do it, who could put to death. How did he do it? In his body on the tree, we died. Paul says, for I have been crucified with Christ. That means Paul was put to death when Jesus was. But we were too. We were put to death on that cross. Our old flesh put off. And the life we now live in the body, as with Paul, we live by faith in the Son of God. We are not our own, we are His. So, He has done something to us which has fulfilled the whole old covenant, the putting off of flesh. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by him, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised through him, through your faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. We were baptised into Christ and baptism as a symbol of going down under the water and then being raised to life, coming up like coming up out of the dirt. Romans 6, 3 4 says, baptism is a sign that God has done something for you. as I said in the Old Testament, circumcision of the body was a thing, but actually circumcision of the heart was a thing that counted, right? Same with baptism. What would be the point of getting baptised if you didn't actually have faith in Jesus Christ? It's nothing. It's worthless. True? But when you have faith in Jesus Christ, that baptism is a sign of the baptism that God has done with you through the Spirit. has put you to death with Christ and raised you up to new life. What is baptism a sign of? Verse 13, when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ, he forgave us all our sins. Now I have a terrible example which I always use about being dead in your sins. It's this, you're driving down the road and you see a dead kangaroo on the side of the road. Maybe bits hanging off it, it's been hit by a few cars and it stinks. Now just say you were to stop, actually use that word in face stuff, stop, go back to that kangaroo and say, hey kangaroo, get up, come on, you can do it. Okay, I'm being silly. Dead things don't have the power to do anything. They cannot change their situation. Is that true? When we were dead in our sins, we had no power to do anything about our situation except stink. That's all we had the ability to do. But when we were like that... Jesus did something for us. When we were at the bottom, it's not sometimes people think, it's just when we just started to really get a bit better that God accepted us. No, no, no. I tell you, when I became a Christian, I was at the bottom and drilling for deeper. There is nothing in us, which is good. Paul says, no one is righteous, not even one. No one seeks God. So how many people seek God? None. Romans five, verse six, you see it just the right time. When we were still powerless, that's dead, unable to do anything, Christ died for the good people. Oh, sorry, Christ died for the ungodly. Who did he die for? So if you are like me, and a sinner, and even as you become, after being a Christian, you're still conscious of your own sin all the time, guess what? I got good news. Jesus died for you. And if you're someone who thinks you're pretty good and you're full of yourself, well now you might be in trouble, because it doesn't say he died for those people. He died for the ungodly, those who know they're ungodly. And you can tell the ones who know they're ungodly, because they repent. They say, I'm sorry, I was wrong. Can you get that? So. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is really good news, isn't it? Yeah, okay, don't get excited. We don't want that. God does not say, get yourself together and then I'll accept you. He died for the ungodly. And if you are such a person, I'll say it again as me and I'm not making this up, that you fail again and again and you sin again and again and you wonder sometimes could I really be saved? Do you know what that's called? Salvation by works. I think that all the time. think, oh, if I just get a bit better for God then I deserve to be saved. Yeah, so I think I'm good enough to earn God's salvation. Yep. Or maybe you're someone who thinks you're pretty good and obedient to yourself and God accepts you're at that. Well that's salvation by works too, isn't it? I've learnt my way into God's good books. Truth is... Sometimes we look at our life and particularly when I say our life, I think about my mind. Do know what goes on in my mind? Because sometimes you can look at someone like me and go, actually he's probably a pretty good man, pretty godly, right? If you knew what goes on in my scum, you wouldn't say that, okay? The war that's in our minds, right? I need Christ and He's all I've got. Not just when I was born again, but as a Christian. And as I get older, there might be a truth that maybe we sin less, but the trouble is for us old people, and I if you're older, I don't mention which ones are older, you become more and more conscious of your sin as you get older. And so you might sin less, but it feels worse. And you just go, who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. He's all we've got. You see, sometimes also when we continue to sin, we think, I wonder if God's just gonna get sick of me. I wonder if I've out sinned Him this time. Guess what? He's forgiven all your sins. When He looks at you, He sees Jesus Christ. He is not over you. He actually loves you, but even better than that, do you know that He actually likes you? That's pretty good, isn't it? Because of Jesus Christ. He saved us when we were dead in our sins. Sorry, I'm going on a long time today, but anyway, that's right. You want to get your money's worth, don't you? When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of flesh, God made you alive in Christ, He forgave all our sins. All of our sins He forgave. How did He forgive them? Did He just say, look, it's not so bad. That's okay. Don't worry about it. There was never a sin that he said that with. Because if he did, he would be unholy. If he overlooked the smallest of sins, he would be unholy. He overlooks none of our sins. He bore every one on the cross. He took the wrath of God that we deserved. And think of it like this. It's a word that, and I know I've probably in this church used this example before, it's called propitiation, a bearing of wrath. And picture this is Rod. And Rod the sinner, did you know that? It's confession time, I'm doing his confession for him. And his sin deserves nothing but that pure, righteous anger of God and all of that anger of God is coming towards him and it will destroy him. God will destroy him. That's frightening, isn't it? And Jesus steps in the way and bears the wrath of God. that Rod deserves and gives to Rod perfect righteousness. That's propitiation. That's what God's done for us. And it's very good. Should be thankful for that one. Verse 14, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, He's taken it away, nailing it to the cross. He has, if you had a list of everything you had ever, every thought, every word, every true motivation, every action, just imagine that list, just imagine that book, I mean evil. Every email that you've ever sent, every internet search you've ever done, every gossipous word, every text message, everything was kept before you in a record. It wouldn't make for good reading. It'd be a long, it'd be a long book for me. The guilt and the shine. What's he done with it? He's nailed it all to the cross. It is all gone. You see, when they were crucified, they put a sign above their head. What were they charged with? Above the two other people with Jesus that were crucified was the word thief. Above them. So if you're walking past and you go, I wonder why he's been crucified? It tells you. Could say murderer, could say something else. What did it say above Jesus? King of the Jews? It was true, wasn't it? The trouble is with that, if he was king of the Jews and he was being crucified with that and that was true, then that was a judgement on all of humanity, wasn't it? On all of us in our rebellious nature who put him there. There is no way that the Son of God should be put there. It showed our guilt, that one. So, number one on our list of, a big long list of everything we've ever done wrong is rebellion against the Son of God. Probably the worst one of the lot. But our charge sheet, every bit of it was nailed to the cross and Jesus took the punishment for every bit of it. And he endured the separation from God as he cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As he bore the wrath of God, he was condemned in our place and he bore all our sins so they are no more. So if the devil were to remind us of our sins, they are no more. Yep. If somebody else would remind us they are no more, he has taken them all. Verse 15, and having disarmed the powers and authorities he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. What is this public spectacle of the powers of darkness? Actually the word triumph there is an old Roman word. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Ben-Hur or Charlton Heston, you know he's a cool dude. And in it there is something which is called a Roman triumph. And what it was, if uh a Roman general went off to war and he won a great victory for the Roman Empire, he would be honoured by Caesar with what was called a triumph. And what they would do is, he would be in Rome and inward come all of the victorious army that had won this battle and they would march in and they would carry with them plunder, gold and silver, like the streets would be lined because that plunder they're throwing out. you know, down the main street of Chinchilla waiting for the Victorious General and they're chucking out money and they're chucking out goods, maybe a few cattle and sheep. You are getting the best of it. Yeah? And also, along with that, they would have uh all of the... spears and whatever else they'd captured and they would drag the mightiest of the opposing warriors stripped naked, chained up, dragged through the streets, humiliated, defeated. Showing they are nothing against the power of Rome. That was a Roman triumph and at last would come in the victorious general and he'd be honoured by Caesar and it's just all cheering and And yeah, some of those triumphs had so much plunder and so much fanfare that they went for a whole week. A huge party to honour. This general. Now that's not what I'm talking about. Because this is talking about Jesus disarmed the powers and authorities and he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross as the devil and all the powers of darkness had dragged naked through the streets, humiliated and finished and defeated once and for all by what he's done on the cross. And he throws out plunder to us, by the way. What's that plunder? You get a little hint of it, but in Acts 5.31, God exalted him, that's Jesus, to his own right hand, that's where the general would stand at the top next to Caesar, and his own right hand is Prince and Saviour, that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. He doesn't come in chucking out gold, we don't need that. But he gives us repentance, forgiveness of sins. Better catch that one. good thing to catch. Take that home with you. It's found in Jesus. He saved us on the cross and everything we have comes from his victory. Keep studying him all your life. He is everything you need. Jesus is everything you need. We might have a time prayer and in that, just again, give thanks to God for Jesus Christ. and for all that he's given you because he is our all in all. Let's pray. Father, we know it's true. We deserved nothing when you gave us everything. We were truly dead, hopeless and helpless in our sins and in need of you. We could do nothing about it, shoot. We were enslaved. Thank you. sending your son. Thank you that he bore your righteous wrath for our sin. And Father, thank you for the sustaining power that he goes on giving us as he is our bread of life. and for the promise that as we eat and drink from him we'll hunger nor thirst. That everything we have comes from him. Renew this um in us by your spirit today that we might go home filled with joy knowing that we're yours, that nothing can separate us from your love that's come to us through Jesus your son and that through him he will take us through to eternal life and Father I pray that by your Spirit you would give us the ability to see human traditions that pop up in our churches, that we would not take heed to them, but we would just look again and again to Jesus your Son. And I pride this in Jesus' amen.