John: Jesus & the World

Pastor Fletcher continues our sermon series with a discussion of John 7:1-10. Discussion points: Christian belief in Jesus requires more than just knowing he exists, living only for the things of this world is the root of all evil in the world, a heavenly perspective helps bring the power of Jesus into your daily struggles.

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  Scripture reader: [John 7:1-10] Our scripture reading today is taken from John chapter seven verses one through 10. I will be reading the Spanish version and you can all follow along in English. When I finish reading, I will say this is the word of the Lord. And if you could please respond with me by saying, thanks be to God. Algun Timpo despues Jesus and Daba Galilea not nuns en aa Porque A loss. Pabon la porta brama Palta. Poco Tiempo para la fiesta. Jua de Los Aarna Coos ai los Hermanos de Jesus Le Theon de Baria Salir de aqui a year a paraiso bean las sores quere Lias porque Nadia que darce Acona Atua and Sere Ya Asas ESAs Cosas de mundo Teos lo certo era Su Hermanos Crean and El Pores. So Jesus Leo. But I said this qual queer tempo is Bueno Perol tempo mio A un no A yeo el mundo. Not Tere Motis Pravo. Rolos ami sin embargo. Mere porque de cicco queso sobra son Malas Sueno Cedes Ala Fiesta. Yo Voit da Via Esta fiesta porque. Mi Tiempo A no ae diho Esto Sedo and Galilea Sine embargo des Pasque Sumano, Seon la. Fiesta fuer Tambien. El No public ae Sinon CTO.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: Have any of you ever been hated by someone? This is a question that I asked to start a sermon like two years ago. And someone sitting over here very confidently raised their hand a little too quickly. In response. I had some friends that were at the service and afterwards they were like, hey, do you think that guy's? Ok? Like, is there a hit out on him? Should we be concerned about what's going on with him? Um, hate is a strong word, right? I can think of very few people in my life who have outwardly expressed hate, dislike. Sure, maybe a good bit. Uh, but hatred is a word that we don't even say in my home. You know, there's, except for, you know, the classic kid thing. Like you can't, we can't say I hate you. What about the devil? Ok. You can say you hate the devil. That's fine.

  Today we come to a passage where Jesus says that he is hated and even in today's modern society where church is not popular and Christians aren't necessarily popular. You still, like, if someone says I hate Jesus, you do think just in the back of your head, that person might be a psychopath, like it's just kind of in there a little bit, right? Often times like who hates a religious figure, such as Jesus who preaches peace and kindness. But yet Jesus comes today and he says that the world hates him. What are we to make of this? Especially given the fact that just a few chapters ago, Jesus said that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that the world might know Him.

  We're going through a series on the book of John. We're picking up at the very beginning of chapter seven, we've been, we just worked our way through chapter six, the feeding of the 5000, Jesus walking on water. And then he explains the the meaning of the feeding of the five thou 1000 by saying that I am the bread of life. And Jesus in doing so he's like one of these Instagram influencers who gains 5000 followers and then immediately says something dumb and loses them all immediately. That's kind of what happens. He has a ton of followers. He and then he explains what he meant by the bread of life. And he says, if you want to follow me, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. And they're like, that's a little weird. And then they stop following Jesus and we talked about that last week, meaning that I'm all that means that you're all in on following Christ. So you're absolutely committed to following him.

  And so today we pick up chapter seven and we're just going to start start in chapter seven at this passage. What's happening here is Jesus brothers are trying to convince him to go ahead and position himself as a famous religious teacher in Israel. And Jesus refuses. So let's look at the passage, verse one after this, Jesus went about in Galilee. Ok. After what I just explained after what, after he taught about the feeding of the 5000, he taught about the being the bread of life. And it says that Jesus went about in Galilee. So Jesus, this has the idea that he's going around and he's teaching. So we can assume here with this little phrase that there's a time jump going on here. This isn't immediately after that, but Jesus has been making his way around Galilee doing some teaching. He would not go in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. That's what it says. Verse one.

  Now Galilee, it is basically the northern part of Israel and he didn't want to go down to Judea, the southern part of Israel where Jerusalem is because it says the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now, obviously, it doesn't mean every Jew was seeking to kill Jesus. But the members of the Jewish religious council, probably the members of the Sanh Hera and several of the Pharisees were seeking to kill Jew were seeking to kill Jesus. It's not that every Jew was seeking to kill Jesus. Jesus himself was a Jew. So that wouldn't make sense. But the Jewish leaders were seeking to kill Jesus at this point. And all, all that goes all the way back to chapter five. And we, if you've been with us, you would see that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and the religious leaders caught wind of it. And he, they have been like in their scopes ever since. Jesus has been in the religious leader scopes. They, they have not been a fan of Jesus since he did that verse two.

  Now, the feast of booths was at hand all of John chapter seven and chapter eight occurs during the feast of booths. So this is a large portion that we're going to be handling over a number of weeks. And this week, we're really only handling the these 1st 10 verses before what happens at the feast of booths. But I'll still explain what the feast of boots is so that you might understand a little bit better why? And his brothers are so eager to get Jesus to go down to the feast of booth. When you go to the Old Testament, Leviticus, Leviticus 23. You see a description of seven feasts that are given to the people of God. Isn't it awesome that God wrote into his rule book that you are to have seven feasts per year? That's a really awesome religion where you just get to feast pretty regularly. Not only that, but the very first feast.

  This is a side note. This isn't even connected to this. The very first feast is the Sabbath. I think that's awesome because God wrote in to the plan of flourishing for his people that they are to have a day of rest and feasting once a week, weekly feasting. It's just, that sounds great. I don't know, like if I would what I would do if I actually practiced that it would be a joyous occasion. And I think that most of us here can look at that and say that sounds nice. I wish I did that and we could probably take steps more towards this rhythm of rest and feasting that God gives us. The feast of booths is a yearly feast to remind God's people of when they spent time wandering around in the wilderness between Egypt and Israel. And so what would happen is with the feast of booth?

  It was it occurred late September, early October every year and that coincided with the time that the grape harvest was happening and the olive harvest was happening. So, you know, it's gonna be a good party when the grapes are being harvested. Ok. That's what's happening here. All the grapes are coming in from all the vineyards around Israel and they just have a, a week long party. It's a week long festival in Jerusalem. And what they would do is they would build these little we, we call them suit coats. Um, you can even see them around today, Jewish people to this day, still practice the feast of boots. If you're driving around in October and you see kind of this block square tent thing in someone's yard and, in Massachusetts and in the Boston area, a lot of times people don't have very big backyards and they don't have very big front yards either. So you just kind of have to put them wherever you can in.

  And if you're driving around some areas of Somerville, I've definitely seen some Sioux coats in Somerville. I've seen a lot of Sioux coats. I used to live in Brookline for three years and they were everywhere in Brookline. It's a higher Jewish population there. And so people are still practicing this where they would sleep outside in a tent, during that time or at least spend time in the tent outside in this little hut that they would have. And this was to commemorate the time that they spent walking through the wilderness. The, the ancient historian Josephus said that the feast of Booths was the most popular feast during the time during this time to bring people to Jerusalem. It's a big deal. A lot of people are making their way to Jerusalem for this feast. It's the most popular feast of the time. Maybe we might think about the feast of booths is to Jerusalem at this time. What Oktoberfest would be to Munich in our time, it's just people are coming out, they're ready to party and have a feast and it's a good time. It brings a lot of people from all over Israel there.

  So verse three, his brother said to him, said to Jesus, leave here and go to Judea that your disciples also may see the works you're doing for. No one works in secret. If he seeks to be openly known, if you do these things, show yourself to the world. Now, who are these brothers? These brothers are Children that Mary and Joseph had after Jesus was born. James being one of them, at least this is how we understand it. That's who they probably are. There's not a lot of details about jesus' stepbrothers or half brothers, should we say? Not really stepbrothers, half brothers, should we say? But they want Jesus to go down to Jerusalem and to reveal himself. And Jerusalem is the center of religious life for if you want to be a great religious leader, you have to make your way to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is to religious leaders and rabbis. What L A might be to an aspiring actor today, what Nashville might be to an aspiring country artist today. If you're going to make it in those fields, you have to move to those cities.

  And so they're saying, hey, go make a name for yourself. It is time to openly reveal who you are. Jesus. Everybody's down there already. This is the prime time. Go down there, show them what you're all about Jesus verse five. This is crazy. It says for not even his brothers believed in him. Isn't that wild that they're saying Jesus, we want you to become more famous, Jesus. We want you to be known as religious leader in Jerusalem. But yet it says that even they don't believe in him, you can want Jesus to be famous and think that you're doing his will and think that you're trying to do the right thing all while not even believing in him now to talk about what they mean by belief. And a Christian understanding of belief isn't that you simply believe someone exists, they obviously believe Jesus exists. Ok? He's, they're talking to him, they're telling him to do something.

  But what the scriptures mean when it talks about belief, it means trust in and believe that Jesus is the messiah. So they don't understand why Jesus has come and why he is doing the things he is doing. They don't understand who he really is. They do not believe in his message. So we speak verse six, Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come but your time is always here. Jesus is saying to them, look, I'm gonna make my way down to Jerusalem but not yet. You can go anytime you want. But if I go, I know what's gonna happen, I know what happens to me down the road in Jerusalem. It is not time for me to do the things that you want me to do. His brothers want him to pursue fame, but that's not what Jesus is into. He's not about the fame life instead, he knows that he needs to stay in obscurity.

  It's a little funny the way that it's written in verse nine. It says after saying this, he remained in Galilee verse 10. but after his brothers had gone up to the feast, he also went not publicly but in private. And so what Jesus is saying isn't that he's not going to go to the feast at all. What Jesus is saying is I'm not going to go in the way that you want me to go. I'm not going to go and make a big fuss of myself. I'm going to go in private. I think we all have those friends who leave the party without saying goodbye and show up without anybody noticing. Jesus is that guy. He shows up to the party without anybody noticing. A couple days later, aside from the fact that Jesus is not concerned at all with fame, he knows that in actuality, he would not be loved in Jerusalem but hated. And that's why he says verse seven, he's not or verse six, my time has not yet come. But your time is always here.

  Verse seven, the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. What Jesus is saying is look, brothers, you might want me to be a religious celeb celebrity, but I am on a collision course with the world and if anyone who follows after me is also on a collision course with the world and that's how I wanna spend the rest of our time thinking about this. What is Jesus talking about when he says that the world hates him and that he's on this collision course with the world and that his deeds are evil.

  We're going to look at this in three basic ideas. The first one is what does Jesus mean when he says the world? The second one, what are the results of following the world? And third, what is the alternative, the meaning the results and the alternative? All right, let's dive in point number one. What does Jesus mean by the world? He says that the world hates him, but he also says that he loves the world, John 316 for God. So loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have you there. All right. Thank you. And then first John chapter two. OK. First John written by the same guy who wrote John, the book that we're reading right now. First John says, do not love the world or the things in the world. Wait, wait a second, John, you just said that God so loved the world that he was willing to give up everything. And now you're telling us not to love the world, aren't we supposed to love the things that God loves? And then he says, if anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in Him. So which is it, are we to love the world or are we to hate the world? Which one is it to be?

  It seems as though Jesus is both for the world and against the world. At the same time, when we look at the word, the world and the scriptures, it can have different nuances of meaning as we go through. But in general, what the scriptures mean is the material universe of the world, the things that are here. And you might think about it as every person in the world. In fact, in many languages, you say that like in, in French, you would say to le Monde is everybody, everyone. two meaning all le monde, meaning world, all the world. And so we can think about the world as just being all the people in the world. We also know that God created the world and he said it's good. He created humans in his own image. And there's so much beauty and goodness in the world. And so he's not denying any of those things.

  In fact, the entire New Testament. In fact, the entire Bible is the story of God's great love for the world and how he sent his own son to die for us and to redeem the world from our sins. Just because Jesus says that the deeds of the world are evil. It does not mean that everything in the world is evil. There are many lovely things in the world. When I was growing up, it was common to label anything that wasn't Christian as evil. I don't know if any of you grew up in a similar type of household or a similar type of church. I can remember I beca I became a Christian at 14. I had not really gone to church a lot before that my family was, was Christian but they didn't, you know, I, I didn't make my way to church very often and becoming a Christian when I was 14. 1 of the rites of passage for a teenager coming to know Jesus is what in the early two thousands was to take your binder of C DS. Those are like little discs that have music on them. And to purge your binder of C DS of all the secular music. Did anybody experience this? Did you have the, the secular music purge as I did. I can remember it like yesterday. My friend Rob Hilb, he said, you gotta stop, you gotta stop listening to that stuff is polluting your mind. You need to throw it all away and I said, I like Matchbox 20 and I kept those CDs, I think my mom still has them. Probably she has most of my stuff.

  It's not that everything in the world is evil and that we just need to create a Christian version of it. That's not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is for the world, but it says that the world hates Jesus. He says because I testify about it that its works are evil though Jesus loves the world. He says that the works of the world are evil. Going back to John 316, we read it in full context for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoso whosoever shall believe in Him shall not pierce by have eternal life. Just a couple of verses later, John 319, it says this and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and the people loved darkness rather than the light because their works were evil for everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works be exposed. So Jesus loves the world but yet the world hates Jesus. Why? Because they love darkness rather than the light because their works are evil. This is what it means.

  And John and first John two when he says, do not love the world or the things of the world, what he's saying is you're loving earthly things more than Jesus more than God himself. You're loving the things that this world has to acknowledge. So, in that sense, it's worldview, it's, it's the world as a worldview saying that all that matters are the things that are right in front of me. I'm going to ignore the fact that eternity exists and I'm just going to live for what's right in front of me. And Jesus says that is the root of all evil in that sense that our evil desires have led us away from righteousness, living solely for the things of this world is the seed bed for evil in the world. Because it at the heart of evil, all evil, at the heart of all evil is selfishness.

  This is why CS Lewis in his book, The Great Divorce depicts hell as a place where people are merely self consumed and they continue to move farther and farther out away from one another because they're just more and more self consumed and they don't want to live close to anybody else. They just want to have all of their things and be alone because at the heart of evil is selfishness, which is this a denial of eternity and an obsession with doing what's best for me at that particular moment, for a worldly person, so to speak. Now is everything and it's so easy for us to live in this temporary life to revert back to this worldly perspective where we ignore the reality of eternity and we live for today. This is the natural condition that each of us find ourselves in with a love for the things of this world and what they have to offer.

  Friends. You don't have to be a really openly evil person that you read about on the news to have a swastika tattooed onto your forehead or something to have to be evil. You just have to live a self consumed life And that is the seed of all evil in the world. The kernels of evil and, and selfishness. They live within each of us to live your life consumed with worldly success, worldly power, money, achievement, physical beauty, affirmation, fame or anything else to set your eyes on those things is to live with worldly desires. Now, none of those things are bad in and of themselves. You can be a powerful person who glorifies the Lord.

  But to set your heart on consuming more and more of what the world has to offer is the natural state that we find ourselves in sin is not just doing the wrong thing. It is loving the wrong thing. First John two, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father but is from the world. Now get that he's describing evil. He's describing like all the evil in the world. And he said, and how does he describe it, the, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. It's not from the Father, but it's from the world and the world is passing away along with all of his desires. But who does the will of God abides forever? This is why doing the right things is never good enough to get you into heaven because it's not simply that we have done wrong things, but it's that we've loved wrong things. We've lived for the world, we've lived for temporary things, we've loved and lived for the wrong things, often times with good intentions.

  And this is why Jesus tells his brother, the world cannot hate you because they're a part of the world. He tells his brothers, the world can't hate you because they are the world. They're not believers at this time. They're not following after Jesus. Jesus gives us a very kind of simple way to think about this. He's like, either you're following me and you're putting to death, the desires of the world or you're following the world. It's, it's very binary. In that sense. You have one of these choices, you're following the ways of the world or you're following after Christ.

  Point 2. What are the results of following the world? I just wanna point this out because the scripture is just so rich on what happens when we follow the ways of the world. When we put the desires of the flesh and the pride of life first in this life. What happens? There's a lot of side effects to this. And I don't mean to oversimplify any of these issues because these are often multifaceted issues that we could sit and have lots of cups of coffee. Not at the same time because then I'd be too wired. But, you know, over a period of time we could sit and talk through. But many of us are familiar with the side effects of seeking the things of the world. Because the number one and number two, side effect of seeking the things of the world and living for the things of the world are anxiety and depression. If you live for the things of the world, when the things of the world do not satisfy and you see the the banality just like the banal existence of seeking after the things of the world that can never satisfy. Yeah, it's gonna leave you anxious and depressed anxiety and depression super complex.

  And I'm not saying that all you need to do is trust in Jesus to deal with your anxiety. That would be really over simplifying it. But I'm also not saying that you don't need Jesus to help you with your anxiety. You absolutely need to think about this as not just a physical issue, as not just a mental health issue but as a spiritual issue. It is one of the things that is indicating when our love for the world has grown too much. Often times, not always, often times maybe I should put it like this. If I had, if all I had to live for were the things of this world, I would be an anxious mess because I see threats to the things that I love most in this world all the time.

  But as a Christian, I know that there's more to life than this. I have the reality of eternity to look forward to. I know that there's more to life than what I have today. And I live for his glory. And I know that I have a father who cares for me in the midst of my anxiety, in the midst of my depression. He cares for me. He loves me. He's never gonna leave me alone through those things. You see a worldly perspective leaves you feeling alone. But a godly perspective brings the power of Christ into all of your desires and struggles.

  I'm going to read a teaching from Jesus and you know, I debated whether or not I was gonna do this this morning because it's gonna take a minute. But who could say it better than Jesus, right? And I just need this to wash over. I think that we all just need to hear it this morning and I'm going to read it slowly and I just wanted to wash over you this morning because it's just such good news for us today. It's challenging in part but just beautiful and good. If you want to follow along with me, you can turn in your Bible to Matthew six, but you can also just sit and, and let it wash over you.

  Starting in verse 25 Matthew six. Hear what Jesus says. Therefore, I tell you do not be anxious about your life. What you will eat, what you drink, know about your body. What you put on is life not more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his lifespan? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow? They neither toil nor spin yet? I tell you this even Solomon and all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you have little faith. Therefore, do not be anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the gentiles? Seek after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all but seek first, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you one more time. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious about itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

  As we are people, Christians or if you're considering to become a Christian. But as Christians, we are actively trying to say, I don't live for the world or the things of the world. What do we say? Instead? We, we do what Jesus says and he says, seek first the Kingdom of God in your work, in your style and your ambitions and your marriage and your parenting and your friendships seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. I used it last week too. I'm gonna use this week. It's the CS Lewis quote where he says, aim for heaven and you'll get earth thrown in aim for earth. You'll get neither aim for heaven, you get earth thrown in seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things we added to you. Aim for earth, you get neither.

  Are you seeking first the Kingdom of God church? Let's have a renewed heart to seek first the things of God in every aspect of our life. Jesus. He did not live for the praise of the world. That's why he's not going down to Jerusalem with his brothers. He knows that if you live for the praise of the world, you'll die by the praise of the world. But instead, Jesus lived for the praise of one and his heavenly father.

  Point 3 the alternative. So we've explored the meaning of the world. What Jesus means by this and the effects of following the world. Now. What is the alternative to following the world? It's like the red pill, blue pill. Jesus offers us here. We can remain in the world in a self consumed prison of our own making, which really is a prison. I think this prison of irreligion. I don't care what the God, what God thinks. I'm gonna live for me or we can follow after Jesus. Each of us are naturally in the world. That's why Ephesians two says, and you were dead in the, in your, in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the course of this world. We all were once dead spiritually following the course of this world, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind living in the passions of our flesh.

  This is what it means to be worldly and everybody is in the same condition to follow after Jesus though means that you jump to verse four and it says that God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved. It's not what we have done, but it's what he has done. And now we follow after him verse six and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ. Jesus. Isn't that a beautiful reality that we've been lifted up? It's not merely that we've been saved from our sins, but that we've been lifted up with him.

  We have this eternal reality so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. To follow after Jesus means that you receive this grace, you spend time with him, you seek after him, you become like him, you learn from him. Now, next week, we're going to continue in our study of the Feast of Booths. And we're going to continue to look at a lot of things that happen. It's a really kind of dramatic. Jesus does make his way down there and it's kind of dramatic what happens. It, you might not be able to pick up from your first reading. But as you study about the Feast of Booth, I mean, if you wanna get ahead a little bit, read chapter seven, read chapter eight the next couple of weeks, it's gonna be great as we look at what Jesus does after he goes down to the feast of Booth.

  But for today, let's consider, let's consider what he's saying to us today. Let's consider what his brothers want him to do. They want Jesus to go to Jerusalem and become this celebrity and Jesus would eventually do this. What do you not? But he does have a path to Jerusalem that he would have a parade reception as he comes in. That people would be so excited about what he's doing that they would take palm branches and wave them in front of him and lay them in front of his donkey. And his glory would be on full display in Jerusalem, but not in the way that his brothers think because his glory is on full display when he is hated when he is spat upon as he is stripped of his clothing, as he is carrying his own wooden cross up a hill to be nailed to it. As he says, father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing.

  And on the cross, he bears the weight of the evil and selfishness of the world for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever should believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life on the cross. He bore the weight of our sin because of the great love with which he loved us. He took on the sin and selfishness of the world for us, the cosmic penalty that we deserve So consider with me today. Are you living for the things of the world? How's that going for you? We think if I could just get it figured out if I could just get this next step, guys, you've been there before. That's what you thought about the step you're on. If I could just do this a little more, get a little bit more from the world never satisfying but seek first, the things of the seek first, the Kingdom of God and these things will be added to you.

  Seek Jesus above all, not security, not power, not affirmation, approval, not money, not fame, not even fame for Jesus, not even Jesus as fame as his brothers were seeking. Seek Christ, seek to know Him the power of his resurrection so that you might experience the immeasurable riches of his kindness and his grace church. It is far more satisfying.

  Let's let's take some time as we consider this communion meal that we're preparing our hearts for, to think of all the places in our hearts that we haven't given Jesus total control where we've continued to live for the world and the things of the world as opposed to living, seeking the Kingdom of God. And let's give him control of those things. Let's repent of seeking the things of the world and follow after Christ just take a moment and consider Jesus. What are you calling me to today? The life of a Christian is continuing to put to death, the desires of the love of the world. You don't arrive, not this side of heaven. All of us. No, you might be sitting in a lot of shame wherever you are. So is everybody else? OK? All of us are doing the same thing. We're all seeing this magnetic draw to love the things of the world.

  And Jesus just lovingly calling us back, lovingly, calling us back. There is no shame because He is gracious and abundant in kindness. And we can go to him and be who we really are and be exposed for who we are. He already knows what's going on in your heart. And he says that I will never cast you out. All those who come to me, I will never cast out.

  Each week, we participate in a sacred meal and this meal is meant to remind us that Jesus body is broken for us and his blood is shed for us. What we're remembering and committing ourselves to is that Jesus died for our sins and that we are fully committed to following the way of Christ that we're going to seek first the kingdom of God. And let this be a reminder and an opportunity for you to reset your life and your desire to follow His way and not the way of the world. Let us prepare our hearts to respond to the word of God and, and worship Him and praise Him for all that He's done. So would you stand with me as I pray?

  Father, I pray that you'll help us to seek first you in your kingdom, that you would give us the resources necessary to feast on what you have for us to trust and who you are. And to believe that you are who you said you are. God. Give us an eternal perspective that we might understand that this life is not all that there is and help us to aim for you. God, I pray that you would lead our hearts to a renewed vigor for who Jesus is that you would fill us with the warmth of the spirit so that we might in turn comfort one another. God. The the gospel is so sweet and we pray that you would reveal yourself to us. Now we pray for anyone who is considering these things, God. There, there might be some, some people clutching on to things that they don't want to let you have. And God, I pray that you would help them to loosen that you would woo them to loosen their grip on their own life and the things of this world and help them to trust that your grip is stronger on them. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.