Father, Glorify Your Name

Introduction

Good evening. Good to see everybody here tonight. We are excited to be starting our gospel meeting with Jonathan Banning. I’m excited to hear this series of sermons. Looks like statements, key statements from the Gospel of John. And so I’m looking forward to hearing what Jonathan has to say about that. I don’t even know where Jonathan and I met. I can’t even remember that anymore. we’ve been friends for quite some time now. I know that I knew Leah first, actually. I think we met his wife Leah when Katie and I were quite a bit younger and just a wonderful woman. And I just have to say I’m I’m personally really excited, not just for this weekend, but for them to come and spend some time here with us in the coming months.

So that’s going to be great. I think Jonathan and I are both excited about that time we’ll have together and able to spend time and study together to some and then talk and discuss scripture together, and I am looking forward to his preaching and his teaching as well. if you haven’t heard Jonathan preach yet, you’re in for something good this evening and throughout this week. you can also find his stuff online. I’d encourage you to do that. Jonathan’s a great preacher. I love listening to his material, and I’m excited to have him in the pull tip pulpit when he gets here as well. and in his teaching. We’ve actually spent a lot of time talking about Bible class material and kicking ideas back and forth.

I mean, you know, years ago, not in the last few months. and so I just know that Jonathan’s so capable, and he’s going to bring some great material here to Decker Prairie when he comes in May, and I’m really excited about that in the weeks ahead. for this week, though, I’m excited to open the Gospel of John and work together through the scriptures. We’re gonna have a few songs here in just a moment. Scott is going to be leading our singing, and then Aaron is going to have a prayer at the time that Scott designates, and we’ll have some things to say at the conclusion of service as well. But for now, let’s join our voices in song.

We will glorify.

We will risk up in the Listen, glorify your name, after which we’ll be led in prayer.

Let’s bow together in prayer. Our Almighty Father, we are so thankful to you for all of the blessings of creation that we have seen around us today, reminding us that you are the creator, the God of all the earth, the one who is over all, the one in whom we live and move and have our being and the source of every good and perfect gift that we enjoy. We are more thankful for the blessings of your new creation that we see around us here. The relationship that we have with one another that is possible because of our relationship with you, that you have brought us into your family into a relationship in which we can be forgiven of our sins and look forward to eternal life with you.

Father, we’re thankful for the opportunity that we have this week to delve into your word to study in depth some of the things that you have revealed to us. We pray that you would help us to prioritize this and in our lives and be encouraged by the time that we’re able to spend together in study and praise of your name.

There are those who struggle with their health because the body is frail.

To sin and others with struggling with the knowledge of sin. All of these things remind us, Father, that the world we live in is corrupted by sin, that it needs a redeemer, that we all need a redeemer. And we’re thankful to you for the plan that you have put together for our salvation and for the willingness of our Savior to come and sacrifice Himself to pay the price, be the propitiation for our sins, gives us that hope of eternal life.

We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Glory to his name. We’ll use song number 305 as an invitation song this evening after Brother Jonathan brings his lesson. Then once you’ve done that, if you would please stand while we sing called me higher.

I can just say, I can just say, love to feel your presence. I can just say, I can just say right now I am and love to feel you.

I can just say, I can just stay for all your goodness or to feel your presence. I can just stay. I can just stay right where I am and want to feel you to feel something again. I can hold on I can hold on to who I am and never let you change me from me. I can be safe. I can be safe here in your arms and never be more.

You have all me higher you have all meeting I’ll go where you will be more you have all me higher You have all me deeper I’ll go where you will be more you leave me all I can hold on I can hold on to who I am and never let you change me from the inside I can be safe I can be safe here in your arms and never be home never let these walls out you have followed me deeper, and I’ll go away, you will leave me low. You have followed me high. You have followed me deeper, and I’ll go away, you will be low. You need me low. I will be your slower. I will be yours for all my life so that your mercy.

John chapter twelve. John chapter 12, we’ll begin reading there in just one moment. John chapter twelve. Let me pick up my notes. I think that is actually the first time that’s ever happened to me. And it happened right here.

It’s good to be with you, and I appreciate all of you being here tonight. You’ve greeted me so warmly tonight. I’m so appreciative of that. I just want you to know, I really appreciate what Brent said at the beginning. He’s a lot better at that stuff than I am. I don’t know how to communicate that kind of stuff the way that Brent does. But just know I’m so thankful for you and thankful for everything. I’m hoping that this week and in the future we can be a tremendous blessing to you. But I want to make it very clear that this church is being a tremendous blessing to me and my family, and we are extremely grateful for that. So thank you so much for having me this weekend and in the future.

And may God bless our work and our time together. John chapter 12, beginning in verse 20, the Bible says this. Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast. These then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus, and Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Well, what I love about that moment in the Gospels is the reaction of Jesus is so different than the reaction you might expect. You might expect in his ministry, Jesus would respond to that and say, Well, okay, there’s some Gentiles, there’s some Greeks that want to come see me, but bring him in.

Let’s go talk to them. Or what do they seek? He might ask a question or something like that. But Jesus responds in a completely different way. He says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. What happens in this moment is Jesus is letting his disciples know that he is coming to the end of his ministry. And the hour is very short. Until his life is going to come to an end, he’s going to be crucified on that cross. And that makes what comes next especially special. Because we know in John 18, he’s going to be arrested, but we have a bunch of chapters between there. We have John 12 through 17, where Jesus is talking and communicating and sharing and teaching.

These are his famous last words. And last words are important, aren’t they? There’s a certain weight to last words. What would you say if you knew you only had one night left to live? If you had a chance to speak your mind and spend the whole night talking to people and telling them what you think, what would you say if you only had one night left to live? That’s something special, right? You know that death is coming upon you, and this is your last chance. Then those words that you speak, they’re weighty words. Important words. We have some famous examples of last words, people who knew their time of death had come, and it says a lot about a person, what they choose as their last words.

I’m not sure if this is actually true, but legend has it that the last words of Marie Antoinette were, excuse me, sir. So the story is that as she was ascending the guillotine to be beheaded, she stepped on the executioner’s foot. And so the last words she ever spoke on earth were, excuse me, sir. There was a convicted murderer named James Rogers, and he was gonna go to death and be executed by firing squad. And so they say, Do you have any last words? He says, Bring me a bulletproof vest. Richard B. Mellon was an excentric millionaire. And one of his eccentricities was that he had a 70-year game of tag with his brother that was continuously running. For their entire life they played tag with each other.

And so as he’s sitting on his deathbed, he summons his brother close to him, like he’s going to say something really important, and then he touches him and says, You’re it. And those were his last words. He left this world saying, You’re it. Then you have Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who with his final words turned to his wife and simply said, You’re wonderful. Last words mean a lot. They carry tremendous weight. Again, what would you say to those that you loved if you only had one night left to live? That’s what we have in John 12. Starting in John 12, right? We have Jesus’ famous last words. This is where he cuts away all the unnecessary stuff, trims off anything that doesn’t really need to be said, anything that is an absolutely important to say in this moment, and he takes this time to say the things that really matter for his disciples before he goes to the cross and leaves this earth.

And so I want you to appreciate that this week we’re going to be talking about those last words. And tonight we’re going to be talking about what he says in John chapter 12, beginning in verse 24. This is when Jesus knows that his hour has come. And these words are actually a little bit different than the ones we’re going to read later in the week. Later in the week, Jesus has left the crowds. He’s left the public scene, and he’s only talking to his disciples. So what we have in John chapter 12 is actually the last words he ever speaks to the lost, to the world, to everyone. And this is what he says. John 12 and verse 24. Truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.

1. Unless a Grain of Wheat Dies

But if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. So in this moment, what Jesus decides to do is he decides to give us a metaphor. He decides to paint a picture as he so often does. And he wants to make the point that his life is like a grain of wheat. And he tells his disciples, he tells the people listening to him that when a grain of wheat falls off the stock and it falls into the earth, in a sense it dies.

It goes into the ground and then the water gets on it starts to grow, and in a sense it dies. Now we know a seed is not biologically alive. If science teacher over here needs to tell me that or something, a seed is not biologically alive, but in a sense it dies, doesn’t it? Because when the process of growth begins working on that seed and the water gets in, what happens to that seed? The process of growth absolutely rips it apart, right? You put that seed in the earth, you come look at it three weeks later, and what you find is something that is vastly different than what you put in the earth. It’s not a seed anymore. The seed is dead, something else has replaced it.

And so he says, when you put a grain into the earth, it dies. The natural forces work on the seed, it bursts, it gets ripped apart, it changes, it transforms. But in its death, it’s able to bear much fruit, isn’t it? And so that seed grows into a tree, which bears apples or oranges, or it turns into grass, which Brad Walker can sell. It bears much fruit. Because it dies, it produces something good. Jesus also makes it clear what happens if that seed doesn’t go into the earth. What happens if instead of taking a seed and putting it in the dirt and pouring water on it and letting it grow into something, what happens if you just leave it on its own? What if I brought a seed with me tonight and I just stuck it right here?

And I left it would probably fall off and roll on the ground. But let’s pretend that it stayed there. So you put that seed, you leave it on the pulpit, what’s going to happen? Jesus says, look, if it remains alone, it doesn’t die. It doesn’t go through that process of growth. It doesn’t get ripped apart and transformed into something else. But if you leave it by itself and it avoids that death, it remains by itself. It doesn’t produce anything good at all. And so Jesus is explaining that his life is a lot like that. That unless he dies, his life means nothing. And that’s kind of an incredible thing to say, especially when you’re talking about Jesus. You think about the life that he’s lived, he’s done a lot of good.

He has lived a perfect human life. He has gone across this area for three different years, and he’s had the most amazing ministry that anyone would ever have. And he’s done the most amazing teaching. And he’s healed people and he’s raised people from the dead, and he’s done all of these good works. And Jesus says, look at everything I’ve done for the 30 or 33 years I’ve been alive. None of it means anything unless I die. If I don’t die, my life makes no difference at all. He says that’s true of seeds. That’s true of my life and what I’m about to do on the cross. But then what he does in the next verse is that he applies that to you and me. He says, that’s true of you too.

2. Unless You Die, Your Life Won't Make Any Difference

That unless you die, your life won’t make any difference at all. Verse 25 He who loves his wife, loves his wife, I’m sorry. He who loves his life loses it. And he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. By the way, when he talks about following him, what’s he talking about? Follow him to the cross where he’s about to go. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Jesus says, look, if you want your life to mean anything, if you want to truly follow me, then you have to do what the seed does. You have to do what I’m about to do, and you have to die.

So the question I want to ask you tonight is this are you dead? And that’s that’s pretty radical language, isn’t it? That’s uncomfortable language. It’s catastrophic language. And Jesus intends for it to be that way. He doesn’t want to soft pedal this idea, he doesn’t want to pull any punches, he doesn’t want to soften this idea at all. He wants this language to be shocking and radical and transformative and challenging. Jesus means what he says. When he says, if you want your life to mean anything, you have to die. Are you willing to die? I think this is why ultimately God chooses baptism as the mode by which we’re saved. Because he wants to emphasize this idea. If you really want to be my disciple, that means you have to die to yourself.

That means you have to bury that old man and become something else entirely. If you think about it, God could have chosen any number of ways for us to be saved. I mean, God’s the one who’s making the rules after all. God could have said, hey, in order to be saved by the blood of Jesus, I want you to hop on your left foot three times and say, Jesus. And that could be the way that you’re saved from your sins. God’s the one who makes the rules. He could have said that, but he doesn’t choose that. What he chooses instead is what? Baptism. Not sprinkling, but full immersion in water. And we go down into that water and we rise up and our sins are washed away.

And why does he choose baptism as the means by which we become saved and have our sins washed away? Because baptism symbolizes death. And he wants to make it absolutely clear to anyone who’s going to follow him, anyone who’s going to be his disciple, if you’re really going to do this, you can’t do it halfway, you can’t do it half heartedly, you can’t kind of sort of do this a little bit. If you’re going to follow me, it means you need to die. Die to yourself. And so in baptism, what happens is we take the old man, the old way we did life, and we put him to death. When I’m buried in that water and I become a Christian, my life gets ripped apart. The life that I lived, that gets torn to shreds.

The ambitions that I had for myself and my own glory, those get crushed. My vision for the future, everything I intended selfishly for my life to be, that gets thrown out the window. My will gets substituted for his. When I am baptized into the blood of Jesus, I die. And that’s how you live the rest of your life. This is what Paul says in Galatians 2.20. Go to Galatians 2.20 with me really quickly. And you might want to put your marker there because we’re going to come back to this passage again and again and again. But I want you to notice, I want you to notice what Paul says in Galatians 2.20. The way he describes the life of a Christian, the way he describes his life.

He says, This.

And it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, that we cannot water that down. We cannot, again, soft pedal that and pretend like that’s something less radical than what he’s saying it is. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. And I look at my life, I look at myself in the mirror, and I realize I’m it’s not me who’s living anymore. Christ is the one who’s living in my body. It’s not I who live, Christ lives in me. I don’t belong to myself anymore. I belong to him entirely and totally.

This is why in Romans chapter 12, he describes the life of a Christian as a living sacrifice. You think about Old Testament sacrifices, what they did when they offered an animal to God. Think about the way that they did that. They didn’t bring that animal and like cut off one of its legs and then stitch it up and let it go on its way with just one leg. They don’t just cut the animal, let it bleed a little bit, then heal it up. No, in the Old Testament, when you offer a sacrifice, you offer everything, right? You bring that animal, and then the priest kills it and drains it of it all of its blood, all of its life force, everything that it is drained, and then you take the rest of that animal, and what do you do with it?

You burn it up until it’s completely gone as a fragrant aroma to God. When you offer a sacrifice to God, you offer everything. And Paul says in Romans 12, you’re a living sacrifice. That’s what we give to him. We give him everything. I’ve been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Of course, that’s the ultimate challenge, isn’t it? To take my life, my whole life, and give it over to God. And I’ll tell you, the devil is constantly fighting with us to make a different choice than that. And while he may have various ways of trying to get us to do that and hold us back from serving God and serving Christ, one of the things he loves, one of the things he loves to do to Christians is to propose that we live lives where we’re only half dead.

3. Checklist Religion Leaves Us Only Half Dead

Where we offer a sacrifice to God, but only partially. We give some of our lives away, but not all of our lives away. And one of the ways he tries to get us to do that is by proposing that we engage in what’s come to be known as checklist religion. You heard of that phrase before, checklist religion. What the devil wants you to do is he wants you to look at your life as nothing more than a list of rules to keep and a list of chores to accomplish. That’s your life in Christ. Do these things, don’t do these other things. Go to church on Sunday, don’t sleep in. Talk kindly to other people, don’t cuss. Take care of your body, don’t be guilty of gluttony.

Build a good marriage, don’t be mean to your spouse. Love other people, forgive them, and don’t be bitter against them. Check. Do all of these things, complete these chores, and that’s what it means. That’s Christianity in a nutshell. What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with checklist religion? I guess that depends on who you ask, because some people say, hey, the problem with checklist religion is we don’t have nearly enough items on the list. Like, there’s that over there you need to add, and then you need to add that thing over there, and like your checklist is far too small, it needs to be much bigger, and then you have other people who say those people are crazy. The checklist is too long.

You’re adding things that God hasn’t added. Shorten it up. We don’t have that many things we need to do. And both of those people are wrong. That’s not the problem with checklist religion. It’s not that the list is too long or too short. The problem with looking at my life in Christ as a list of boxes to tick, is that no matter how long that list is, once I get done checking off all the boxes, I think the rest of my life belongs to me. And it doesn’t. It’s much like a child doing chores. You guys are lots of you guys are parents. You understand how that works, right? You tell your son, you tell your daughter, hey, I want you to do some chores today.

You give them a list of chores. I want you to clean your room, clean the bathroom, clean the windows. And what do they think? Okay, once I do those three things, what? Then I can do whatever I want to do. Then the rest of the day is mine. I don’t have to do anything. I have no other responsibilities. I’ll just do whatever I want to do. As long as I get those three things done. And that’s fine with kids. I’m okay with my daughter reading for eight hours a day if she wants to. That’s good for her. But the problem is that’s not the Christian life. Because Paul says in Galatians 2.20, not check off all the boxes God has given you. He says, I have been crucified with Christ.

And it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And as long as I think that there are some parts of my life that still belong to me, I haven’t died yet.

We saw all the kids walking back and forth on campus, hanging out in hammocks, you know, just chilling and sleeping and napping for like three hours a day, which is absolutely ridiculous. It makes me mad. And we had that conversation that you probably had at some point in your life, which is, would you ever like to go back to that time in your life? Go back and be a college student again. And of course, because we’re reasonable people, we landed on absolutely not. We don’t have to worry about studying or class or mean teachers or dating or figuring out who we’re gonna marry or any of that stuff. Like we got that set, we’re really happy with where we’re at. But then we talked, if there was one thing that we really wish we could experience again, it’d be nice to have all that time, right?

We have so many obligations and deadlines to meet and things to do and duties to fulfill. It’d be nice to be a college student again where you don’t have all that stuff you gotta do. And then I thought about that for a little bit. And I realized how wrong that was.

4. Absolute Surrender: My Life Does Not Belong to Me

And the same is true for you guys. You guys are young, and it may be easy for you to think to yourself, hey, I’m just 17, I’m just 16. I they, the adults, they owe God so much more. No, you gave your life to Christ. You died, and now you owe him everything. And so whether we are 34 or 74 or 18, what we are called is we are called to absolute surrender. We have been crucified with Christ. And I think it’s fair to ask the question: what does that look like? What’s it look like to actually give my life over and be a living sacrifice? Does that mean I spend all my days reading and studying and praying and I don’t make any time for anything else?

Does that mean I come up here to the office and I bug Brent all day and have endless spiritual conversation and just never stop talking about Bible things because that’s the only thing we can talk about. Does that mean that I memorize the entire Bubba Garner sermon catalog and then move on to somebody more interesting after that? Bubba’s my buddy, so that’s okay. What does it mean? And I think what it means is recognizing that my life does not belong to me. It doesn’t mean I can’t have fun. But it means that I recognize that nothing I have in life truly belongs to me. It means that when I look at my marriage, I recognize it’s not my marriage, it’s God’s. And when I look at my kids, I say, they’re not my kids, they’re God’s.

And when I look at the money I have in the bank account, I understand that’s not my money, it’s God’s. And when I look at my house and my car and my phone and my retirement account, I don’t say that’s my stuff. No, it’s it’s all stuff that belongs to God. Dying to yourself is accepting that Galatians 2.20 hijacks every aspect of your life and never gives it back. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And one thing that I want you to appreciate that I think is really important is that kind of decision, the choice to really truly die to yourself, that’s the kind of decision that really impacts the world. That’s what Jesus says in John chapter 12, John chapter 12 and verse 24.

5. Dying to Yourself Bears Much Fruit

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. Remember, if you leave a seed all by itself, then it may not die, it may avoid the uncomfortable process of transformation, but it doesn’t accomplish anything. It doesn’t bear any fruit. It doesn’t do anything with itself. It’s a wasted life. And I want you to appreciate that the same is true of your life. That the way to truly be a light in this world, the way to truly reach lost souls is to live this kind of life. That’s the way we bear fruit. Radical, absolute surrender. And you can never be a light in this world until that’s what you’re committed to do.

I want you to understand, please understand, that the lost people in this world, they’re never going to be impressed with your checklist. And they aren’t going to be astounded by the fact that your list of moral things that you do is like five items longer than theirs. And maybe I’m wrong to say this. Maybe somebody will correct me afterwards, and that’s fine. But in my extensive 34 years of life, not once have I ever heard anyone say, I became a Christian because every Sunday morning I looked out my front window and I saw that guy in a suit driving to worship services every Sunday morning. Just coming to services, that’s not what really shines our light to the rest of the world. You know what really makes a difference?

Death. Radical, absolute surrender. You let the lost people around you see you living that kind of life. And it’s the kind of life that they just can’t help but notice and ask about and be convicted by.

Let them see that. And they’ll see Christ in you. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And maybe we get to the end of this lesson, we think to ourselves, that sounds really difficult, right? I mean, we’re talking about giving up everything and living our lives entirely for Christ, and that seems kind of maybe even sad or unfair or impossible. Maybe it feels like I’m missing out. Like God’s asking me to do something that’s really hard, and everybody else is going to have a lot of fun. But I want you to see if that’s what you’re thinking. I would love to die to myself and live for Christ, but it seems like that’s such a hard, unfair, impossible thing to do.

6. Father, Glorify Your Name

I want you to see how all of this teaching is bookended in John chapter 12. After Jesus talks about how we are supposed to die to ourselves, he says this in verse 27. Now my soul has become troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

Should I ask my Father to save me from this from this hour? In other words, he’s troubled, but he understands that this is why he came to this earth, that this outcome, him dying on the cross, this was his whole purpose. This is the whole reason that he came here. And so rather than asking for God to spare him from this fate, he prays something else instead, and he says, Father, glorify your name. In other words, what he’s saying is, God, I want you to use my life and my body for your purposes and your glory. I want you to use my very existence to glorify your own name. And here’s the thing that we need to understand that this choice, the choice to say, my life is going to be a life that glorifies God.

This is the highest, most honorable, most dignified, most beautiful way to live a life. Because when my life glorifies God, then I myself am glorified. You see that in verse 23. When Jesus, when those when those Greeks come to him and his apostles give him that information, Jesus, knowing that this hour has come upon him, he says in verse 23, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I find that interesting because there’s so many different ways he could describe that moment, right? He knows what the cross is, he knows what’s about to happen to him, and what he doesn’t say is the hour has come for the Son of Man to be crucified on a cross, or the hour has come for me to suffer tremendously, or the hour has come for me to be humiliated and beaten and bruised and battered.

He could say any of those things because that’s what’s about to happen. But instead, he says, the hour is come for the Son of Man to be glorified, because he understands that’s what glory is, and that’s what beauty is. That’s what his purpose is to live his life for the purpose and for the glory of God. And sometimes we don’t understand that. Sometimes we think the best way to live a life is to do something else. But I got to tell you, if you spend your life and you think your highest purpose is worldly achievement or professional advancement, you’re going to find that to be empty and unsatisfying. If you live your whole life focused on seeking praise and approval from people in this world, you’re going to find that to be empty and unsatisfying.

If you spend your whole life devoting yourself to sexual pleasure or sexual conquest, you’re going to find that to be empty and degrading and unsatisfying. If you devote your life to making more and more money so you can enjoy more and more and more nice things, like the writer in Ecclesiastes chapter 5, you’re going to find that doesn’t nearly accomplish what you think it will. But if you take your life and you turn it over to God, that’s glory.

Conclusion

Glorified in my life. Now, maybe what you need to do to glorify his name is to take that first step in serving him. The Bible says that we can be saved by the blood of Jesus.

So that so that any who would come to him could be saved. The Bible says that if we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, if we’re willing to repent of our sins that caused him to go to the cross in the first place.

If you need to make that first step tonight, or if we can help you in any other way, please come to the front while we stand and while we sing.

Just a few announcements I wanted to remind everyone. Group three means immediately afterwards. If you forget if you’re in group three, you’re not, we’ll have the names up on the screen here in a moment. the young people are meeting afterwards at the Frasers. that’s the high school class. Is that right? The high school okay. High school only, at the Frasers. we’ve announced that Everett Heaton, the evangelist over in Florida, Craig announced about him fairly recently, but he’s just not doing well. and we knew that we knew he was not long for this earth, but it may even be a matter of days at this point. So please keep his family and that congregation in your prayers.

Then I also want to mention why Mike and Jackie aren’t here. we found out Mary Madden fell. so they were called coming to her place to check on her and found that she had fallen down and apparently her balance is really bad, so bad they even called the paramedics and they’ve been taking they took her to the hospital. she’s at let’s see, Methodist Willbrook. we were getting live updates this just a little while ago. So please keep marrying your prayers and we she’ve been doing so much better, but just pray that everything goes well with her. and then one more announcement I wanted to make too. you should have received an email regarding Philip and Lamar Shri.

This was sent to avoid getting into the details here, but they have requested our prayers, so please pray for Philip and Lamar as they work through this issue together and give them both our love and support, and any specific questions could be directed to the shepherds. But please join me for a moment as we pray together on their behalf specifically. Our heavenly Father, we come to you tonight. So thankful for your love and for your mercy and your compassion. We know that we all are dependent on that and that we all are in need of that. We’re so thankful that we have the sacrifice of your precious son that can redeem us and let us be reconciled to you. And that we know all of us need that so desperately.

Tonight we pray on behalf of Philip. We pray that you would cleanse him, that we would you would be with him as he deals with this specific issue and specific temptation. And please be with him. Help us to support him and help us to show our love and mercy and compassion on him as well. Be with Lamar as she works with him through this issue and be with her as she goes through the hurt that she’s gone through. And we pray that also to have your healing, and she would get love and support from each and every one of us. Father, we’re so thankful that we have this avenue that we can approach you with our requests. And we know that we only have this access because of what your son has done.

And we thank you for that. We thank you for the great plan you’ve had since the beginning so that we can come to you in this way. But Father, we pray especially you would be with Philip, Beauth Lamar, and just help each of them. Help us here at Decor Prairie. Help us here to be like more like you, more like your son, and grow in our love for one another. See things we pray in your son’s name. Amen. Just a few moments. Gabe Gibson is going to come lead us in a closing prayer. Jonathan, appreciate your words tonight. Jonathan and I, one thing I didn’t mention earlier is we share a mentor. I remember when I was training, I went to Brother Bowman and asked him about PowerPoint.

And he said, you have to learn how to preach first before you use PowerPoint. You saw that demonstrated tonight. I had no clue you had more slides until they scrolled forward to get to the songs, but that’s because you know how to preach. as I appreciate your work tonight. Didn’t even need the slides. that’s what Brother Bowman would tell you, and he’d be proud of your work tonight. I loved what Jonathan did. It’s textual, but it was practical, it’s applicable. That’s exactly the sort of thing that we need when we open the Word of God. See what’s there, but then also see how this applies to us and how we live it out in our life day today. We will be meeting a few more times this week.

So Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night at 7 30. So be making your plans to be here. I would suggest just starting to read from John 13 through John 17. Just spend some time in the Word on your own, and that’d be greatly beneficial before coming to our services in the evening. I believe we’ll be in John 13 and probably other passages at tomorrow night. But if you look at the schedule, you’ll see we’ll be making our way through John. So just begin reading, and I know that will bear fruit for you in being ready, prepared to hear what Jonathan has to say. Anything else that needs to be mentioned before close tonight? All right, Gabe, lead us in prayer and we’ll be dismissed.

Will you pray with me? Most wonderful and righteous Heavenly Father, we so dearly come before you this evening, thanking you for this day and all the incredible, wonderful blessings we’ve had. We’re so thankful for this opportunity to peacefully come here together and to be able to study your word again, and we pray that we all take the word that we’ve studied here today and we’ll turn it into something good and go out in the world and be a better actual example to the world, hopefully drawing them to you. We’re thankful for this church, and we’re thankful for the leadership of this church, and we pray that you’ll watch over them and strengthen them as they try to guide us toward you always. We’re thankful for Jonathan.

We’re thankful for this time we’re going to get to spend together with him this week. We pray that you’ll watch over and bless and strengthen him. We pray for his family as they’re coming here to join this work. We’re thankful to have them. Lord, we pray for those of this number that are facing difficult situations, regardless of what it be, whether it be health, whether it be something in their life, whatever it is, we pray that you’ll watch over them and pray they’ll be restored to a good measure of health, or good things will happen to them in their life, and we’ll be supportive of them. But most of all, Lord, we pray for the forgiveness of our sins. We pray that you’ll strengthen us and help us to overcome the things that cause us to sin and fall short of your glory.

All these things in Jesus’ name I shall humbly pray. Amen.